Friday, 28 August 2015
Giant panda cub a boy, fathered by Smithsonian National Zoo's resident male Tian Tian
The US National Zoo's surviving giant panda cub is a boy and was fathered by the zoo's male giant panda, the zoo has said.
The cub was born on Saturday to panda mother Mei Xiang, who is a top tourist draw in the US capital.
A fraternal twin died on Wednesday of pneumonia likely caused by inhaling food, the zoo said.
The surviving cub is healthy, putting on weight and crying when Mei Xiang tries to leave its den.
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| Our giant panda cub is male & sired by Tian Tian! |
The twins' birth captured international attention, since giant pandas are among the world's most endangered species.
Mei Xiang was artificially inseminated in April using sperm from giant male panda Tian Tian, and also from Hui Hui, a panda in China.
But Tian Tian was identified as the successful father using gene sequencing.
It weighed 157 grams early on Friday, a 16 per cent gain in about 42 hours, officials said.
origina post found herhttp://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-23/giant-panda-gives-birth-at-washington-national-zoo/6717956
Ashley Madison founder steps down
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| Noel Biderman (m) has left Ashley Madison's parent company Avid Life Media with immediate effect. |
A statement released by the firm said his departure was "in the best interest of the company".
The senior management team will take over leadership until a new chief executive is appointed, it added.
Details of more than 33m accounts were stolen from the website, which offers people the chance to have an affair.
"We are actively adjusting to the attack on our business and members' privacy by criminals. We will continue to provide access to our unique platforms for our worldwide members," the firm's statement said.
"We are actively co-operating with international law enforcement in an effort to bring those responsible for the theft of proprietary member and business information to justice."
Canadian parent company Avid Life Media, which owns the site, has offered a reward of C$500,000 (£240,000) for information about the Ashley Madison hackers
origina post found herhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/34090372
Are these England's most beautiful pubs?
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They may not have a historical pedigree stretching back centuries, but 20 pubs across England built between World War One and World War Two have just been deemed important enough to be granted listed status.
In his 1946 essay Moon Under Water, writer George Orwell described his ideal fictional pub.
He wrote that it would be "uncompromisingly Victorian" - offering "no glass-topped tables or other modern miseries... no sham roof-beams, inglenooks or plastic panels masquerading as oak".
The latest list of pubs to be granted listed status may not have been to Orwell's taste. Certainly, there's a decent sprinkling of mock Tudor beams.
Built in 1935, The Daylight Inn at Petts Wood in south-east London was named after a local resident - William Willett - who campaigned for daylight saving.
The mock Tudor look was very popular at the time - adorning the exteriors of three-bed bay-windowed semis and parades of shops.
When this next photograph was taken The Daylight Inn was only a few years old.
At least 5,000 pubs were built in England during the inter-war years.
This is the lounge bar at The Berkeley Hotel, Scunthorpe.
The pub actually opened just after the start of World War Two, in 1940.
Historic England, which recommended that the government list these pubs, describes The Berkeley as a fine example of a "roadhouse" inn - with a large car park to attract passing customers.
The 1920s and 30s saw the growth of the "improved" pub movement.
Breweries were eager to widen their customer bases, and cut the perceived links that many establishments had with drunkenness and debauchery - a hangover from the Victorian era.
When it was rebuilt in 1929 - in addition to the curved wooden bar pictured below - the Duke William in Stoke-on-Trent featured ladies toilets for the first time.
Improved pubs were generally built on a bigger scale - and often tried to offer activities beyond drinking.
At Alum Rock in Birmingham, the Brookhill Tavern had a large garden to try to attract families.
The Mitchells and Butlers Brewery - which was built it in 1927 - was at the forefront of the improved pub movement in the Midlands.
Staying in Birmingham, and with mock Tudor in spades, the Black Horse was built in 1929 by Davenports Brewery.
Situated on the busy A38 south of the city centre, it has a grand black and white frontage.
Davenports tried to offer customers a real sense of occasion and escapism.
It was already listed, but has now been upgraded from Grade II to Grade II*.
The White Hart at Grays in Essex was built in 1938 by Charringtons Brewery - one of the most prolific improved pub builders of the time.
Inside the White Hart there is an impressive oak bar which stretches through five rooms.
The next image below shows The Wheatsheaf, at Sutton Leach near St Helens on Merseyside.
On day the pub opened in 1938 - according to local Frank Baumber - a big crowd of people had gathered to collect a promised pint of free beer.
But they were met by campaigners warning them against entering the "house of the devil".
In Norwich, the Gatehouse - pictured below - was built in 1934 in the Arts and Crafts style.
There is a chequered pattern on its curved wall - made of flints alternating with pressed concrete blocks.
The building has changed little over the years - the chequered pattern is still there today.
Inside the Gatehouse, the bar has the feeling of a small-scale baronial hall.
Many pubs in the inter-war years were designed in what became known as Brewer's Tudor-style - intended to evoke romantic notions of "merrie England".
This wood-panelled inglenook fireplace is in the bar of the Biggin Hall Hotel in Coventry.
At Brixton in south London, The Duke of Edinburgh was built in 1936 by the Truman Brewery.
Compared with the mock Tudor style, it has a relatively plain, red brick facade.
North of the Thames in Hoxton, the fairly plain 1935 exterior of The Stag's Head belies the beautiful surviving features inside.
With it's curving roof, The Rose and Crown at Stoke Newington in London was built in 1930.
It is one of only a few pubs to still have a special ceiling made of Vitrolite - an opaque pigmented glass used to try to defy the notion that pubs were dingy.
Just a mile or so away, The Royal Oak has the famous Columbia Road Flower Market on its doorstep - and it too has a Vitrolite ceiling.
Built in 1923, it was used as a backdrop in BBC TV comedy series, Goodnight Sweetheart - and played a starring role in the British gangster film, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.
The Golden Heart at Spitalfields in east London was built in 1936 - just down the road from Truman's Black Eagle Brewery on Brick Lane.
Emblazoned with a rare Truman's neon-lit sign, the pub became associated with the artistic vibrancy of the area in the 1980s and 90s.
It was the chosen local of artists such as Tracey Emin and Sarah Lucas.
All the pubs featured have been listed at Grade II - except the Black Horse, Birmingham, which has been upgraded from Grade II to Grade II*.
There are now 93 listed pubs in England built during the inter-war years.
origina post found herhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34072662
Facebook has a billion users in a single day, says Mark Zuckerberg
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| Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook in 2004 |
For the first time over a billion people used Facebook on a single day, according to company founder Mark Zuckerberg.
The "milestone" was reached on Monday, when "1 in 7 people on Earth used Facebook to connect with their friends and family", he said in a post.
Facebook has nearly 1.5 billion users who log in at least once a month, but this was the most in a single day.
The company gained its billionth user in October 2012.
It was founded in 2004 by Mr Zuckerberg while he was a Harvard student.
In his post on Thursday, he predicted that Facebook's reach would continue to grow.
"This was the first time we reached this milestone, and it's just the beginning of connecting the whole world," Mr Zuckerberg wrote.
In July, Facebook claimed that over half of the world's online users visited the site at least once a month.
It was only back in October 2012 when Facebook first announced it had one billion users using the site at least once a month - and now, just under three years later, the site has managed to pull in that many in a single day.
The question is how can it continue to grow? Surely it will plateau at some point, right? Yes - but we're a long way off that.
I've just come back from Facebook's headquarters in California to discuss some of the projects in the pipeline. On the wall, a map of the world highlighted countries with lots of Facebook users.
Sure, the US, Europe and India are almost at peak Facebook. But there are huge gaps - Africa, much of Asia, some of Latin America. That's where Facebook is focused on now.
origina post found her
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