Putin is sending a message to the world with his shock announcement

When Russia's entire government resigned on Wednesday, even long-term Kremlin observers were taken by surprise.

Earlier in the day, Vladimir Putin had announced his plan to push through reforms that would make his successor as president less powerful, by redistributing power in such a way that the Russian parliament and office of prime minister will have greater clout.
He thanked the resigning members of the government for their service, but said that "not everything worked out."
In the last two years, Putin's approval ratings have taken a dip, partly a result of unpopular pension reforms and a stagnating economy. 2019 was also riddled with street protests over municipal elections as Russia's fragmented opposition expressed discontent with what they see as a president and the ruling elite that have overstayed their power.
However, as the exact details of this mass resignation -- led by current prime minister and former president Dmitry Medvedev -- unfurled, it was clear that this was no protest at Putin's proposed reforms.

In his statement on the government's resignation, Medvedev indicated that it was doing so in order to make life easier for Putin.

Toyota Is Building The City OF The Future In Japan To Test It’s New Products

Autonomous cars, service robots, smartphones, mood detectors, robotic surgeries, and what not but wait, Toyota has something bigger in the show tonight, an entire city of the future, named ‘Woven City’. An area of 175-acre has been allocated for the site at the base of Mt. Fuji in Japan for the said project. Toyota calls out all researchers, scientists and tech enthusiasts to use this platform for experimentation and testing their projects.

Sounds amazing, doesn’t it? An entire area with nothing being manually operated but robots as service providers, robotic teachers, autonomous food makers, traffic being controlled by sensors, self-driving cars or maybe customized helicopters. Popping your dream bubble, for now, this is what has been proposed by the company.

“Imagine a fully controlled site that will allow researchers, engineers, and scientists to freely test technologies,” says Akio Toyota, president of the automaker. “This will be a truly unique opportunity to create an entire community or city from the ground up.”

So, it is just a dream project? Well, Toyota hasn’t announced the date of completion or any cost analysis. But, prior experience shows that the firm has come up with each of their words. Getting a deeper insight into the plan, three sectors have been assigned for research for domains including high and low-speed autonomous vehicles or personal mobility. Breaking more of the suspense, people from diverse technological backgrounds would be practically living in the Woven city at the beginning.

people should be extremely grateful and happy' as Iran stands down after attack

Hours after Iran launched a ballistic missile attack on Iraqi bases housing U.S. soldiers in retaliation for the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, President Trump on Wednesday sought to assure Americans that the United States was not on the brink of another war in the Middle East. “The American people should be extremely grateful and happy no Americans were harmed,” Trump said in a statement from the White House’s Grand Foyer, flanked by members of his national security team. “We suffered no casualties, all of our soldiers are safe and only minimal damage was sustained at our military bases.”

 “Iran appears to be standing down,” the president continued, “which is a good thing for all parties concerned and a very good thing for the world.” Trump reiterated his long-held complaint that the United States does more than its allies in securing Middle East peace. “Today I’m going to ask NATO to be much more involved in the Middle East process,” he said. Trump also criticized the 2015 Iran nuclear deal brokered by former President Barack Obama, from which Trump withdrew in 2018. “Instead of saying thank you to the United States, they chanted ‘death to America,’” the president said. “In fact, they chanted ‘death to America’ the day the agreement was signed.

3 Cybersecurity Tips For The New Year

The new year is almost upon us, and with it comes resolutions and desires to improve ourselves and our lives in various ways. Many people will resolve to lose some weight, spend more time with family, make more money and countless other lofty goals.

While these are admirable aspirations, there is one that can help save you and your family a lot of time, effort and money, and that is: focusing more on cybersecurity. Whether you want to ensure the privacy of your personal assets and information or you are looking for ways to improve your business security, there are always steps that can help you be safer in 2020.

Cybersecurity will only become more important in the next decade

Although nothing can provide complete and total security in the modern digital world, below are a few tips that can greatly improve your chances of protecting your information online and greatly decrease the likelihood of hackers, cybercriminals and identity thieves gaining access to it.

Is Salt Bad For You?

We like debunking widely spread myths. We also like confirming things people believe to be myths. With some topics however, the answer lies somewhere in between. Where does salt lie? Many food products are “sodium free” and advertised as healthier. Is there any truth to this? Is salt really that bad for you? Let’s find out.

What Is Salt?
Salt is a mineral that is mostly composed of sodium chloride. It is widely regarded as one of the oldest food seasonings humans have used and has also been used for other purposes through early human history. In addition to giving more flavor to food, it has been used in food preservation, religious rituals and even as currency. Some of the oldest mines discovered by archeologists have been salt mines. The oldest in China, dating all the way back to 6000 BC.

So Is Salt Bad For You?
The problem with myths, is that they tend to speak in absolutes. The media and news channels use sensationalist journalism to catch a viewers attention and do a shoddy job on reporting the actual facts. This is the case with salt.

is salt good for you?While there is some evidence to support the claim that large amounts of salt can negatively effect a persons health (anything in excess is bad for a persons health), there have been studies that show too little salt intake is much, much worse.

What Are The Colors You See When You Shut Your Eyes?

Sometimes, when you shut your eyes tightly or are in a pitch black room, your eyes decide it’s time for a light show. Random, psychedelic-like patterns and flashes of color will dance around your field of vision like it’s 1969. While you can appreciate the entertainment, in the back of your mind you wonder what is causing the phenomena.

Are these flashes and patterns of light and colors indicative of a health problem? Are they something that can be treated or cured? Or are they completely normal? Today we’re going to crash the party in your eyes and find out what’s going on.

Light Need Not Apply
One common misconception about a human’s vision is that our eyes require light (photons) to be stimulated. Even in the absence of photons, the neurons in our visual system are always active. The thalamus (part of the brain responsible for relaying sensory signals), your visual cortex, and your retina are in an “always on” state – even while you sleep. The neurons in these visual systems are continuously relaying signals and information.

This continuous activity is sometimes referred to as background activity. It’s this background activity that is responsible for your trippy visuals and interesting patterns in the absence of light. The technical term for this phenomena is a “Phosphene“.

Artificial gills for humans could become a reality

Breathing underwater, without the help of voluminous equipment, seems as unrealistic as flying overseas must have before the first non-stop transatlantic flight.
Designer Jun Kamei's interest in the designs found in nature has led him to create Amphibio, a 3D-printed accessory that works as a gill and may one day provide humans with an alternative way to breathe underwater.

Royal College of Art graduate Kamei, in partnership with RCA-IIS Tokyo Design Lab, was inspired to create a lightweight underwater respiratory device because of predicted rises in sea levels.
"I was looking at how the future of our urban environment will change with global warming, and got deeply interested by figures of water level rise," said Kamei.

Samsung Unveils A New Ball Shaped Personal Assistant

At the 2020 CES at Las Vegas, Samsung unveiled its latest gadget, a tennis ball-shaped robot, Ballie. Nah, you are getting it wrong, it isn’t meant for the sports complex, but right inside your house as a personal assistant! Ballie has been equipped with an in-built camera and a hi-fi machine learning technology that knows how to keep its master happy. Whether you need an exercise partner to keep your crunches count right, or someone to guard your pet dog when you’re not around, Ballie can do it all.


Samsung’s latest personal assistant bot – Ballie
Samsung’s prime focus for the year 2020 rotates around artificial intelligence and the 5G experience and Ballie have been incorporated with both. It can turn the lights on or can keep a check on your room’s temperature for your sound sleep. Annoyed with your morning alarm, it can even turn it off for you. Ballie can work just the way you want to as it has a mobile user interface for you to customize your bot.

Parents of Madonna's new 'boyfriend' give consent to relationship despite 36-year age gap

The parents of Madonna’s reported new 25-year-old boyfriend have spoken out about the relationship, saying “love doesn’t have an age range when you’re consenting adults”.

The 61-year-old singer and dancer Ahlamalik Williams were spotted embracing on a balcony in Miami last week. However, there has been no confirmation that the pair are an item.

But this now appears to be the case after Williams’ parents have gone public to give their consent.
Drue and Laurie Williams, who say they are fans of Madonna’s music, have no issue with the couple’s 36-year age gap.

Speaking of meeting the Queen of Pop, Mr Williams, 59, told The Mirror: “She told us she is so much in love with him and that we didn’t have anything to worry about as she was going to take care of him.

“We know there’s a huge age gap between the two – 36 years. Madonna is two years older than me.

“I asked him how he feels about her and he says he has never been happier.”

13 people shot at house party in Chicago

A shooting at a house party early Sunday on Chicago's South Side wounded 13 people, four of them critically, Chicago police said.

The shooting stemmed from a dispute at a house party that was “given in memorial of a subject slain in April,” Chief of Patrol Fred Waller said. He said shots were first fired just after 12:30 a.m.

The victims range in age between 16 and 48 and suffered “different and various gunshot wounds to their bodies.”

Two people are being questioned, Waller said. One of them was arrested with a weapon, he said, while the other was wounded. Waller said police recovered a revolver.

Waller described three different shooting scenes at the residential location in the city's Englewood neighborhood. The shooting started inside, and then more shots were fired as people began spilling out of the house. He said shots were also fired at a third place in the vicinity.

He described the shooting as an “isolated incident.”

Boy, 14, Sought in Killing of Barnard Student

Nine days after a Barnard student was killed during a mugging in a park, New York City police Friday were carrying out an extensive manhunt for a 14-year-old boy who detectives believed may have been the one who stabbed her with a knife.

“We are working tirelessly,” the New York Police Department’s chief of detectives, Rodney Harrison, said at a news conference. “We are looking for one more individual and the investigation is still ongoing.”

The police said the 14-year-old had been identified by another boy involved in the robbery as the one who delivered fatal stab blows to Tessa Majors, an 18-year-old freshman at Barnard College.

Majors, a musician and aspiring journalist who had moved to New York this year for college, was passing through Morningside Park on the way home when she was attacked by at least three young teenagers, police said. Her killing stunned the city and evoked a bygone era when violent robberies and murders were commonplace.

On Friday night, in an unusual move, police distributed a photo of the wanted teenager on social media and asked the public for help in finding him. Minutes later, an official police Twitter account said the teenager was wanted in connection with the stabbing in Morningside Park.

Tech trends 2020: New spacecraft and bendy screens

If your ambition is to fly into space - and you've got plenty of spare cash - then 2020 could be an exciting year.

If space travel is not really your thing, but you would like a much bigger screen on your mobile phone, then 2020 might also have some tech for you.

But if you think there are already too many phones out there and the technology industry needs to be less wasteful, well some tech companies might catch up with your thinking.

Here's a little taster of what might be coming in the next twelve months.

Crewed space missions
2020 is going to be a "pivotal year" for space travel, according to Guy Norris, a senior editor at Aviation Week & Space Technology.

Since Nasa retired the Space Shuttle in 2011, the US has relied on Russian spacecraft to transport astronauts to the International Space Station.

That could all change in 2020 when, if all goes to plan, two US-built spacecraft should start carrying crew.

Boeing's CST-100 Starliner, which can carry up to seven astronauts into orbit, is due for its first test flight today before the first manned flight, likely to be in 2020.

Meanwhile the SpaceX Dragon capsule will go through some final tests in early 2020, and if they all go well then it too would be ready for a crewed mission.

Claudine Auger: French actress known for James Bond role dies aged 78

French actress Claudine Auger, best known for her role alongside Sean Connery in the 1965 James Bond film Thunderball, has died at the age of 78.

She died on Wednesday in Paris following a long period of illness, her agency Time Art said.

Auger started out as a model, representing France and coming first runner-up in Miss World in 1958.

But she quickly developed a talent for acting, and landed roles including one in the 1962 film The Iron Mask.

A few years later in 1965, she shot to global stardom as Domino in Thunderball, the fourth film in the Bond franchise.

She was the first female co-star to the James Bond character, known as a "Bond girl", to be from France.

It was later revealed that the production team had rewritten the character for Auger. Domino was initially supposed to be Italian, but she became French.

A$AP Rocky has finally come out to address his alleged sex tape leak.

A$AP Rocky has finally come out to address his alleged sex tape leak.
On Thursday, December 19, an explicit video allegedly showing the Harlem rapper having sex with a white woman surfaced on Pornhub. The face of the man in the tape wasn't visible, but fans linked the man to A$AP Rocky because of the similarities between the tattoos of the man in the video.
Last night, the rapper took to his Twitter account to address the sex tape leak, saying he doesn’t know that man in the video.

He wrote: “MY PENIS AND I WOKE UP 2 THE ALARMING DISTURBANCE OF A VIDEO CLIP 2DAY,” he tweeted. “

AS HIS DEFENSE ATTORNEY WE’RE PREPARED 2 DENY ANY SLOW STROKES OR LACK OF KILLIN THE PUSSY .A LONG LIST OF SATISFIED WOMEN CAN ATTEST TOO. BUT THE REAL PUNCHLINE IS SEEING PPL WHO NEVER F**KED HIM RATE HIM.”

An impeached Trump tries looking ahead, but uncertainty threatens Senate vindication

After being impeached, President Donald Trump is hoping to move quickly to a vigorous defense in the Senate and is distressed the trial he hopes will vindicate him might be delayed.

"What are they doing?" Trump asked a top Republican ally, Sen. Lindsey Graham, upon learning Thursday morning that House Democrats may withhold sending articles of impeachment to the Senate until they feel assured there will be a fair trial.
"I said, 'Mr. President, I don't know,'" Graham told reporters before traveling to the White House to discuss the matter further with Trump.
The uncertainty threw a wrench into long-laid plans by the White House to mount an effort at exoneration once the impeachment proceedings move across Capitol Hill to the upper chamber. Trump and his aides have long eyed a Senate trial as the venue for eventual vindication in the saga, viewing the Republican-led chamber as a lock to acquit the President.
One possible avenue for Trump is looking back, to Barack Obama, with a suggestion -- supported possibly with Justice Department legal opinions -- that the former president should have been impeached for blocking congressional Republicans from fully investigating the "Fast and Furious" gun-running scandal.

Trump was spending the day at the White House, with two holiday receptions listed on his public calendar. He returned to a frigid Washington late Wednesday after a bitter and disjointed "Merry Christmas" rally in Michigan where he learned of the impeachment vote from a placard held aloft by a campaign aide.