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Friday, November 1, 2013

In Android 4.4, Google Now is finally part of your home screen

GIF

Swipe left-to-right to get to Google Now from the KitKat launcher

When Google Now was unveiled back at Google I/O 2012, we asked how long it would be before this new predictive search app became your home screen. Now, with Android 4.4 KitKat on the Nexus 5, it seems that time has finally arrived.

Similar to HTC BlinkFeed, the stock KitKat launcher lets you swipe right from the leftmost home screen to get directly into Google Now. Of course you can still get to it the old fashioned way by swiping up from the home key, too. And it's also possible to disable the Google Now pane entirely through the new home settings menu, accessed by long-pressing on any blank space.

Google Now has taken on more and more importance within Android over the past year, to the point where it's even rumored to form a major part of Google's upcoming smartwatch. So it's no huge surprise to see it given a piece of prime Android real estate. If anything, it just underscores the idea that the future of mobile search is indeed predictive.

We've got a handful of screenshots after the break.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/OzhEahw424s/story01.htm
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Pa. residents living above mine fire free to stay

FILE - In this Jan. 26, 1983, file photo, smoke rises from the ground in Centralia, Pa., where and uncontrolled underground mine fire was burning. The attorney for the few remaining residents of the central Pennsylvania coal town that was decimated by a 50-year-old mine fire said on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013, that they have settled their lawsuit against state officials who have been trying for years to evict them. The settlement allows eight Centralia residents to stay in their homes for as long as they live and it also includes a cash payout. (AP Photo/Rusty Kennedy, File)

FILE -- This Jan. 13, 2010 file photo shows steam rising from the ground around retired Centralia Postmaster Tom Dempsey as he stands in an area that was in Centralia, Pa. The steam is caused by a fire that was still burning underground after it started in 1962 at the town dump and ignited an exposed coal vein. The underground fire eventually forced an exodus of more than 1,000 people, nearly the entire population. The attorney for the few remaining residents of the central Pennsylvania coal town that was decimated by a 50-year-old mine fire said on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013, that they have settled their lawsuit against state officials who have been trying for years to evict them. The settlement allows eight Centralia residents to stay in their homes for as long as they live and it also includes a cash payout. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, FILE)

FILE - In this Jan. 13, 2010 file photo, the empty town of Centralia, Pa., is seen from above. The attorney for the few remaining residents of the central Pennsylvania coal town that was decimated by a 50-year-old mine fire said on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013, that they have settled their lawsuit against state officials who have been trying for years to evict them. The settlement allows eight Centralia residents to stay in their homes for as long as they live and it also includes a cash payout. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 13, 2010, file photo, an old sign reading "Keep Centralia On The Map" is visible in the entrance of the closed Centralia Municipal Building in Centralia, Pa. The attorney for the few remaining residents of the central Pennsylvania coal town that was decimated by a 50-year-old mine fire said on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013, that they have settled their lawsuit against state officials who have been trying for years to evict them. The settlement allows eight Centralia residents to stay in their homes for as long as they live and it also includes a cash payout. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

FILE - In this April, 1981, file photo, U.S. Bureau of Mines' John Stockalis, right, and Dan Lewis drop a thermometer through a hole on Main Street in Centralia, Pa., to measure the heat from a shaft mine blaze that was burning under the town. The attorney for the few remaining residents of the central Pennsylvania coal town that was decimated by a 50-year-old mine fire said on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013, that they have settled their lawsuit against state officials who have been trying for years to evict them. The settlement allows eight Centralia residents to stay in their homes for as long as they live and it also includes a cash payout. (AP Photo/Paul Vathis, File)

The few remaining residents of a Pennsylvania coal town that was largely razed in the 1980s because of an underground mine fire that still burns today have gotten their wish — to be left alone, free to live out their lives there.

A lengthy battle over eminent domain culminated this week when eight residents of Centralia settled their lawsuit against state officials who had been trying to evict them from their condemned homes. The settlement, notice of which was filed in U.S. District Court, allows the residents to stay for as long as they live. It also includes a cash payout of $349,500.

"Everybody got what we wanted, and everybody's happy now," resident Tom Hynoski, 52, said Thursday.

The mine fire was ignited in 1962 and eventually spread to the vast network of mines beneath homes and businesses, threatening residents with poisonous gases and dangerous sinkholes. By the end of the 1980s, more than 1,000 people had moved and 500 structures had been demolished under a $42 million federal relocation program.

But some holdouts refused to go, even after their houses were seized in the early 1990s. They said the fire posed little danger to their part of town, accused government officials and mining companies of a plot to grab the rights to billions of dollars' worth of anthracite coal, and vowed to stay put.

After years of letting them be, state officials decided a few years ago to take possession of the homes. The homeowners fought back with a federal lawsuit.

Hynoski, who has long contended that government corruption involving the coal rights was behind the state's drive to force them out, claimed vindication.

"They bent us, but they didn't break us," he said.

State officials have long denied any such plot to grab the coal rights and say they sought possession of the properties out of public safety concerns.

Last year, a geologist with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection said the fire may have gone deeper underground but still poses a threat because it has the potential to open up new pathways for deadly gases to reach the remaining homes. But residents say that's nonsense and point out that they've lived for decades in their homes without incident.

The agreement includes $218,000 to compensate residents for the value of their homes and $131,500 to settle additional claims raised in the lawsuit, according to Steve Kratz, spokesman for the state Department of Community and Economic Development, a defendant in the suit.

The mine fire has transformed Centralia into a macabre tourist attraction. There's an intact street grid with almost nothing on it, clouds of steam waft from the cracked earth, and visitors gawk at the ruins of an abandoned highway.

But the homes that remain are neatly kept, and this week's settlement means that Centralia as a town has not yet breathed its last.

"They get to live in their property and enjoy it the rest of their life," said the plaintiffs' attorney, Don Bailey. "We did very well."

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-10-31-Centralia's%20Final%20Days-Suit/id-8f4d177ca7614257b0a165484ed67fd2
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China Says Goodbye To Its Mysterious, Illegal High-Rise Fortress

The luxurious "mountain villa" built atop a Beijing high-rise is being torn down. The $4 million penthouse was built by a Chinese health care entrepreneur named Zhang Lin on the roof of an existing apartment building earlier this year, much to the chagrin of its party-pooper occupants.

Toronto police say they have mayor's crack video

TORONTO (AP) — Calls for the resignation of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford intensified after police said they had obtained a video that appears to show him smoking a crack pipe, discovered in a massive surveillance operation of a friend who is suspected of supplying the mayor with drugs.

Police said they did not have enough evidence to file charges against the mayor, who had claimed the video didn't exist and vowed not to resign, repeating the pledge Thursday.

Voters could have the final word on the strange career of the populist mayor whose travails have captivated and embarrassed Canadians for months. Ford has promised to run for a second term next year.

"I have no reason to resign," Ford told reporters with a smile, as his office welcomed visitors to check out its Halloween decorations Thursday.

The embattled mayor, who has been the butt of jokes on U.S. late night television, said he couldn't defend himself because the affair is part of a criminal investigation involving an associate, adding: "That's all I can say right now."

Ford faced allegations in May that he had been caught on video puffing from a glass crack pipe. Two reporters with the Toronto Star said they saw the video, but it has not been released publicly. Ford maintained he does not smoke crack and that the video did not exist.

Ford was elected mayor three years ago on a wave of discontent simmering in the city's outlying suburbs. Since then he has survived an attempt to remove him from office on conflict-of-interest charges and has appeared in the news for his increasingly odd behavior.

But the pressure ramped up on Thursday with all four major dailies in the city calling on Ford to resign.

Cheri DiNovo, a member of Ontario's parliament, tweeted: "Ford video nothing to celebrate Addiction is illness. Mayor please step down and get help?"

Police Chief Bill Blair said the video, recovered after being deleted from a computer hard drive, did not provide grounds to press charges against Ford.

Blair said the video of the mayor "depicts images that are consistent with those previously reported in the press."

"As a citizen of Toronto I'm disappointed," Blair said. "This is a traumatic issue for citizens of this city and the reputation of this city."

Blair said the video will come out when Ford's associate and occasional driver, Alexander Lisi, goes to trial on drug charges. Lisi now also faces extortion charges for trying to retrieve the recording from an unidentified person. Blair did not say who owned the computer containing the video.

Blair said authorities believed the video is linked to a home in Toronto, referred to by a confidential informant as a "crack house" in court documents in Lisi's drug case.

The prosecutor in the Lisi case released documents Thursday showing they had rummaged through Ford's garbage in search of evidence of drug use. They show that they conducted a massive surveillance operation monitoring the mayor and Lisi following drug use allegations.

The documents show that friends and former staffers of Ford were concerned that Lisi was "fuelling" the Toronto mayor's alleged drug use.

The police documents, ordered released by a judge, show Ford receiving packages from Lisi on several occasions.

"Lisi approached the driver's side of the Mayor's vehicle with a small white gift bag in hand; he then walked around to the passenger side and got on board," reads one document dated July 30, 2013. "After a few minutes Lisi exited the Escalade empty handed and walked back to his Range Rover."

Another dated July 28 says Lisi "constantly used counter surveillance techniques" when he met with Ford that day.

On August 13 documents say Lisi and Ford met and "made their way into a secluded area of the adjacent woods where they were obscured from surveillance efforts and stayed for approximately one hour."

Ford recently vouched for Lisi in a separate criminal case, praising his leadership skills and hard work in a letter filed with the court. The letter was part of a report prepared by a probation officer after Lisi was convicted of threatening to kill a woman.

Ford said previously that he was shocked when Lisi was arrested earlier this month, calling him a "good guy" and saying he doesn't abandon his friends.

The documents also say that Ford met Lisi through Payman Aboodowleh, a volunteer football coach at Don Bosco Catholic Secondary School, where Ford coached the team while also serving as mayor. He told police he was "mad at Lisi because he was fuelling the mayor's drug abuse," the document says.

Ford's controversies range from the trivial to the serious: Walking face-first into a TV camera. Falling down during a photo op while pretending to play football. Being asked to leave an event for wounded war vets because he appeared intoxicated, according to the Toronto Star. Being forced to admit he was busted for marijuana possession in Florida in 1999, after repeated denials. Making rude gestures at Torontonians from his car.

"The mayor has said there wasn't a video," Toronto councilor Paula Fletcher said. "He has said there is a conspiracy against him. With Chief's Blair's press conference I think that's put to rest."

Councilor Joe Mihevc said he continues to be shocked by the "depth and revelations that are coming out."

"The mayor has to come clean and do it as soon as possible," Mihevc said. "He needs to talk honestly about his use of illicit drugs."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/toronto-police-mayors-crack-video-044355702.html
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In Theaters This Weekend: Reviews of 'Ender's Game,' 'Last Vegas' and More

Aliens are coming.

Ender's Game, directed by Gavin Hood and based on Orson Scott Card's 1985 novel, stars Asa Butterfield as Ender Wiggin who must try to save Earth from an alien invasion. The sci-fi epic also stars Harrison Ford, Hailee Steinfeld, Ben Kingsley, Viola Davis, and Abigail Breslin.

Read what The Hollywood Reporter's film critics have to say about all the films opening this weekend and find out how they are expected to perform at the box office.

PHOTOS: 'Ender's Game' Premiere Invades Hollywood With Harrison Ford, Asa Butterfield

Ender's Game

Harrison Ford, Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfeld, Viola Davis and Ben Kingsley star in Gavin Hood's adaptation of the classic 1985 sci-fi novel. Read Marc Bernardin's review here.

Free Birds

Owen Wilson, Woody Harrelson and Amy Poehler play a trio of animated turkeys determined to remove the traditional bird from the inaugural Thanksgiving menu. Read Michael Rechtshaffen's review here.

Last Vegas

Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Kline and Mary Steenburgen star in director Jon Turteltaub's comedy about amiable geezers. Read Todd McCarthy's review here.

STORY: 'Last Vegas' Premiere: Director, CBS Execs Say Elderly Comedy Is for Everyone

Dallas Buyers Club

Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner and Jared Leto star in the true story of a hedonistic Texan homophobe who bounced back in surprising ways from the gut punch of his HIV-positive diagnosis. Read David Rooney's review here.

Diana

Naomi Watts plays the doomed British princess in a biopic from Downfall director Oliver Hirschbiegel. Read Stephen Dalton's review here.

About Time

Rom-com maestro Richard Curtis mixes familiar boy-meet-girl ingredients with time-traveling magic realism, starring Domhnall Gleeson, Rachel McAdams and Bill Nighy. Read Stephen Dalton's review here.

VIDEO: Woody Harrelson Says He Was Hungover at 'Free Birds' Premiere

Big Sur

Jean-Marc Barr, Kate Bosworth, Josh Lucas and Radha Mitchell star in Michael Polish’s adaptation of the Jack Kerouac novel. Read Justin Lowe's review here.

The Broken Circle Breakdown

This intensely emotional Belgian drama flavored by American-style bluegrass music traces the sad spiral of a passionate relationship derailed by devastating loss. Read David Rooney's review here.

Casting By

Tom Donahue's documentary chronicles the evolution from studio contract players to the boom in the 1970s of creative casting, with Marion Dougherty leading the charge on that shift. Read David Rooney's review here.

VIDEO: Indie Stream: Four Years Later, Sci-Fi Mindbender 'Mr. Nobody' Gets a Release

Mr. Nobody

This big-budget English-language co-production shows that Europeans can compete in the sci-fi realm where high production values are king. Read Deborah Young's review here.

Sweet Dreams

Lisa and Rob Fruchtman's documentary recounts the efforts of a Rwandan woman to create the country's first ice cream parlor. Read Frank Scheck's review here.

Last Love

Michael Caine plays a widower who strikes up a friendship with Clemence Poesy's young French dance teacher in Sandra Nettelbeck's adaptation of a novel by Francoise Dorner. Read Boyd van Hoeij's review here.

Running from Crazy

The dark study of suicides and mental illness in the Hemingway family will air on Oprah Winfrey's OWN. Read Todd McCarthy's review here.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thr/news/~3/BaNUIE1lFsw/reviews-enders-game-last-vegas-652449
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Turning The Page On Illiteracy, Adults Go Back To Class

This is the first report of a four-part series on adult education.

The national debate around education usually focuses on children in school. But there are 30 million adults in the U.S. who have trouble with basic literacy — they struggle to read a menu, a pay stub or a bus schedule.

It also means it's difficult for them to get and hold onto the most basic jobs.

Tens of thousands of other adult learners are slowly and painstakingly trying to fill in the gaps of their rudimentary schooling. The long shadow of their unfinished education still follows them every day.

Learning Which Route To Take

Shirley Ashley, 55, never learned how to read. With classes, she is finally able to read her own bills.

Kavitha Cardoza/WAMU

Shirley Ashley, 55, never learned how to read. With classes, she is finally able to read her own bills.

Kavitha Cardoza/WAMU

Shirley Ashley flips through a folder of certificates she's received in her adult education class. She stops at one that says "Top Performer," points to the words and starts reading.

"I know this is 'top' something; that means I'm doing good," she says.

The word "performer" is still a jumble of letters because Ashley, at 55, never learned how to read. In school she was always in classes for students with learning disabilities, but Ashley says she wasn't learning anything.

"I felt as though they just passed me just to get me out of school," she says.

In the seventh grade, after one teacher told her, "Whether you learn to read or not, I still get paid," Ashley decided to drop out.

She learned how to give her mother medicine based on the colors of the bottles. To hide the fact she was illiterate, Ashley memorized Bible verses so no one at her church suspected. And she limited her travel to a familiar route.

"I couldn't read the name of the bus, but I learned that the left-hand side of the street would take me downtown and the right-hand side of the street was going to bring me back home," she says.

Ashley's inability to read has made it hard to find a job. She's also seen those closest to her take advantage of her illiteracy, especially when it came to money.

"I would have to pay them, my family members, to come over my house to do a money order," she says. "Sometimes I give them $25, sometimes I give them $30."

Ashley has attended classes at a nonprofit literacy center in Washington, D.C., on and off for about eight years. She initially tested at the kindergarten level; she's now reading at the second-grade level.

"When my gas bill come to my house I'm learning how to read where it says 'pay by July 17th.' That makes me feel awesome," she says.

Getting To The Next Level

Ashley is at the "low end" of the literacy spectrum. Jason White, another adult learner, is a little further along.

Marilyn Block tutors Jason White at a local library during a one-on-one session that is part of the Literacy Council of Montgomery County, in Maryland.

Kavitha Cardoza/WAMU

White is 35 and grew up in Louisiana. He dropped out in the 11th grade after years of sitting idle in a special education class. White found ways to cover up his reading struggles, from pretending he's forgotten his reading glasses to relying on a computer's "auto-complete" function — even when he was out with friends.

"Say if you're at dinner with five people and you can't make out or read what's on the menu, someone says they're going to have the salmon fillet, you say, 'Well, I'll have the salmon fillet,' " White says.

He works as a construction worker, and in a sense he's lucky. Adults who dropped out of school are more than twice as likely to be unemployed as high school graduates. For those who do get hired, it often means low-end jobs with no hope of advancing. In tough times, they're often the first ones laid off.

For White, not being able to read means his career has stalled. To advance, he needs a contractor's license, and he hopes he'll be able to pass the exam next month.

"I'm very handy, and we do terrific work, but I'm technically not a contractor until I pass that exam," he says. "So it's, it's a little nerve-wracking, you know?"

White has spent the past two years learning to read with a tutor. Now, he can write his own checks and has just finished reading his first novel. He marvels that he can now read street signs.

"If we're driving somewhere, I can't help but read every sign we pass," he says. "It's like a different world."

Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/10/31/241862699/turning-the-page-on-illiteracy-adults-go-back-to-class?ft=1&f=1013
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Mexico nears junk food tax, sets anti-obesity plan

Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto speaks during the unveiling of Mexico's strategy to combat diabetes and obesity in Mexico City, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

Brian Smith, president of Coca Cola Company Latin America, speaks during the unveiling of Mexico's strategy to combat diabetes and obesity in Mexico City, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto, left, speaks with Brian Smith, president of Coca Cola Company Latin America, during the unveiling of Mexico's strategy to combat diabetes and obesity in Mexico City, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico's congress approved a new tax on junk food Thursday as the government announced a campaign to fight obesity in a country with one of the world's highest rates of overweight people. The move came a little over a day after legislators agreed to put a tax on soft drinks.

President Enrique Pena Nieto announced a plan to award products that meet standards for having lower calories or higher fiber content a "seal of nutritional quality," which he said would give industry an incentive to re-formulate products. He also announced plans for educational, health-monitoring and sports programs.

Earlier in the day, Mexico's Senate approved an 8 percent tax on high-calorie foods, defined as those having more than 275 calories per 100 grams. The House of Deputies then approved the levy, which the Senate set higher than the originally proposed 5 percent.

As part of a tax overhaul that received final legislative approval Thursday, both houses already agreed to a one-peso (8-cent) per-liter tax on soft drinks, a move that was hotly opposed by major bottlers. Mexico has one of the world's highest yearly soda consumptions, with Mexicans drinking on average 163 liters (43 gallons) of soft drinks annually.

Just under one-third of adult Mexicans are obese, slightly more than the nearly 32 percent of U.S. citizens in that category, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization says. Both trail such countries as Egypt at 35 percent, Kuwait at 43 percent and the Micronesian island of Nauru at 71 percent.

"Never before has any civilization faced an epidemic that didn't involve an infectious disease," said Enrique Ruelas, president of Mexico's National Institute of Medicine. "Today, this situation is not only unprecedented, but a threat to the nation's future."

None of Mexico's major snack food companies responded to requests for comment about the proposed taxes.

Coca-Cola's Latin American Group president, Brian Smith, said the company was developing more low-calorie or no-calorie drinks, and said it was interested in keeping communities healthy.

"Our operations simply won't be sustainable if these communities aren't healthy," Smith said at the presentation of the government's announcement of the anti-obesity programs.

Consumer activist Alejandro Calvillo, leader of the Consumer Power group, noted the soft drink industry lobbied heavily in recent weeks trying to block the new taxes and called the tax vote an important step.

"It is a victory over all this lobbying," Calvillo said. "This puts Mexico in the vanguard of policy, at least on the Latin American level."

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-10-31-Mexico-Obesity/id-d35383aae638446e89d2288acb0a3f1d
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