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Monday, February 2, 2026
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Ladbrokes Profits Fall Despite the World Cup

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Bookmaker Ladbrokes has reported a fall in its profit, though it delivered a very good football world cup performance.

In the first half of the year which ended on 30th of June the pre-tax profit decreased to 49.7% to $27.7 million. Whereas, the company stated that in this quarter its chief goal was to make betterments in the operational department, which evidently implies that their fiscal performance would be affected.

 

The chief executive, Richard Glynn stated that the company has gained significant improvement and  is much stronger than the previous years. Currently they have products, platforms, audience and the brand to deliver.

Almost 250 FTSE gambling group wasted the first half of the year in recreation since they wanted to speed up their online business before the start of  football tournaments in Brazil. 50 shops were shuttered down due to this reason, in the entire U.S.

Last year Ladbrokes had  made a merge with Playtech, which is a software developer company. Therefore, the company has to swop all its games to a another system. Though the organization, confessed that this union has put forth a greater disturbance than the prognostications of the company owner.

On the whole the operating revenue, reduced to a third with $56.8 million for six months to the 6th of August. As per the reports the profit went almost half to $27.7 million. Even though the company performed as it was expected to do so, but still the shares of the company fall badly.

Google celebrate the Perseid meteor shower

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The recent Perseid meteor shower was celebrated by Google by developing an interactive Doodle for the popular website. Google has a thing for special events like birthdays and celebrations. The virtual display includes pictures of meteors streaking across multiple outdoor scenes.

For those of who who are unaware, the Perseid meteor shower takes place once a year, each August. The show will peak on the evening of 12th August this year, although, according to NASA, the appearance of the supermoon will tamper with the show. Annual meteor showers occur when the Earth, during its orbit around the Sun, passes a trail of debris left by a comet. The Perseid meteor shower is a consequence of the orbit of the Comet Swift-Tutle around the Sun. This comet orbits the Sun every 133 years.

The Perseid meteor shower can be the most breathtaking of all annual displays. The shower appears to emanate from the constellation of Perseus, which is how it gets its name.
Sophia Diao designed the display for the meteor shower this year. It isn’t their first, but its supposed to be their most advanced.

Motorola to announce big news, soon

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The Verge, reports that Motorola has sent invites to a launch, where it shall reveal to Smartphones, the moto 360 smartphone and possibly a headset. The invite itself reveals a headset icon, a Moto 360 smartwatch icon and two smartphone icons one indicated by the “G” and the other by the “X”.

The Moto X is the company’s flagship handset while the Moto G is a mid-range Motorola handset, both of these phones came out last year. So it is a possibility, in fact perhaps even a probability, that we may see replacements of both these phones announced at this event. It seems rather far fetched to think that the company will bring these phones to South Africa though. Since the last Motorola handsets in the country were the RAZR and the RAZR Maxx, and this was back in 2011/2012.

Blackphone hacked at DefCon conference

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At the recent DefCon hacking conference @TeamAndIRC hacked the Blackphone, claimed to be a super secure alternative to standard smartphones. Blackphone is a joint venture between Silent Circle and Geeksphone who created the phone with the primary concern of personal data protection. Rather than having a unique OS, this phone has the Blackphone’s Private OS which is built on top of Android technology which is relatively infamous for being easy to breach. The hack comes not long after Blackphone sparred with Blackberry after the latter called the secure device “unacceptable.” DefCon took place in Las Vegas, from 7 to 10th August, 2014.

Government urges Market Basket to resolve leadership issue

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Gov. Deval Patrick pushed Market Basket’s board of directors on Friday to quickly resolve the question of leadership. He explained, that he wasn’t taking any sides but by any standards the distraction caused by the recent change in CEO has to curtailed and is getting out of hand.
The previous CEO Arthur T. Demoulas was fired by a board from his cousin and rival, Arthur S. Demoulas. Since then literally thousands of workers have been rallying to pressure management to reinstate the previous CEO or accept his offer to buy the New England chain.

 

He said that he is not expressing any view of who the CEO should be, but the failure of the company to resolve the matter is genuinely hurting its brand and business, not to mention the many innocent and powerless workers whose livelihood depends on the company.
He offered any sort of help he, or members of his senior staff could offer to resolve the issue. He asked the board to consider the broader implications and impact of their decision and resolve it soon so that economic peace could be restored.

Market Basket’s new CEO denied on Thursday, that the company was laying off workers and co-CEO Felicia Thornton said in a statement that store directors are to let their associates know they are not laid off. Attorney General in Massachusetts and New Hampshire reported that they have been getting calls from worried Market Basket workers. Massachusetts Attorney General Marta Coakley said on Thursday that after receiving 100 calls in 24 hours she had opened a hot-line for worried Market Basket workers. She expects more in the following days.

Structurally pure carbon nanotubes synthesized

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For more than two decades carbon nanotubes have captured the minds of researchers because of their fascinating mechanical, thermal and electronic properties. These tubes could help create much smaller electronic and electro-optical components with much more efficiency and faster switching times. The prospect of these future advancements, the practical utility of such structures as well as their fundamental academic value has made them the paragon of nano-materials.

 

Single wall carbon nano-fibers are considered quantum structures with a diameter of around one nanometre. Extremely minor structural changes like a difference in the alignment of their atomic lettuce can result in surprisingly varying characteristics. One SWCNT may be metallic while the other may turn out to be a semi-conductor, so in order to increase workability and applicability the SWCNTs need to be structurally uniform and that is where the interest of the intensive research lies. What is more interesting is the fact that the synthesis concepts were formulated about 15 years ago but only now surface physicists at Empa and chemists at the Max Planck Institute have replicated and implemented one of the ideas in a laboratory.

The Empa team was working under the direction of Roman Fasel, Head of “nanotech@surfaces” Laboratory at Empa and Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Berne, has been investigating “how molecules can be transformed or joined together to form complex nano-structures on a surface” for example through the bottoms-up synthesis they were able to make carbon nano-tubes shrunk in to a ball. According to Fasel, “ The great challenge was to find the suitable starting molecule that would also actually ‘germinate’ on a flat surface from the correct seed.” Finally a hydrocarbon with no less than 150 atoms was synthesized.

Initially, the flat starting molecule must be transformed into a three dimensional object, the germling. The germ which is a small dome like entity is folded out of the flat molecule. This end cap forms the lid of of the growing SWCNT. Furthermore, more carbon atoms are attached which originate from the catalytic decomposition of ethylene on the hot platinum surface. They position themselves in the edge between the platinum surface and the end cap raising the cap higher and higher and the nano tube grows upwards slowly.

This proves that by using these “germs” it is possible to redefine the growth and consequently the structure of long SWCNTs. The next step is to gain an even better understanding of the way in which SWCNTs grow on a surface.

European Spacecraft and Comet Together After 10 Years

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The European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft reached at its final destination after a long expedition of four billion miles. The fire began at 10 am GMT and continued till six minutes. It decreases the speed of Rosetta and compelled it to move with the velocity of a human being.

In the next few months, it is expected that Rosetta and its comet will leap towards the sun.  Rosetta is the epithet applied to it because of a Rosetta stone, whereas C-G is a term coined for both the Rosetta and its comet. In November, a small 220-pound lander is to exit the spacecraft, set down on the comet and harpoon it to the surface. It would be the first time in the history that a spacecraft would smoothly land on a comet. According to Mathew Taylor, project scientist of the mission, it will go down and get the faultless matter from the surface of the comet. At the moment, the comet and its shadowing is 330 miles away from the sun. The travelling speed of the comet is reported as 35000 miles per hour. The basic thing is that its meeting point would be right at the position of the comet for the whole next year.

Comets comprise of ice, dust and rock  which are basically the remnants from the creation of the solar system. Researchers are expecting to get some significant evidences regarding the formation of  the solar system.

Despite efforts Ebola vaccine will take until 2015

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Officials say, that it is incredibly difficult to develop a vaccine for the Ebola virus before 2015. In the meantime though, the FDA has authorized the use of an unapproved Ebola virus test under a special emergency use provision.

The Zaire strain of Ebola, for which the unapproved test has been authorized has infected at least 1711 people and killed 932 in West Africa. FDA spokesperson Stephanie Yao said that the test is designed for use in specific individuals like the Department of Defense personnel and respondents who may be at a huge risk of infection in the case of an outbreak.

Initial symptoms include flu-like signs, vomiting, muscle aches, weariness and a fever. However as the virus multiplies it damages the cells that line the blood vessels and results in patients bleeding and can cause organ failure. Experts have confirmed that in the latest Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the disease has managed to kill roughly 55% of those infected.
FDA is reported to have said that it is working with other government agencies to speed up the development of potential Ebola treatments.

The experimental vaccine that is the most promising at the moment is the one designed by the Vaccine Research Center, an arm of the National Institutes of Health. Dr Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease says that they have tested the drug on monkeys and the results are quite promising. Clinical trials are expected to begin in September, during that time the researchers are trying to assess if the vaccine will be safe for humans and whether it will trigger a protective response from the immune system. Human test subjects unlike the animal subjects, will not be actually infected with the virus to determine the effectiveness of the drug. The Department of Defense is also working with a company called Newlink to come up with a vaccine for the Ebola virus while Biocryst is working to develop an antiviral drug to treat Ebola with NIH support.

US competes with China and Europe for Africa

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It was announced on Tuesday by Barack Obama that the US Government, World Bank and businesses will invest a total of $33 billion in Africa’s economy. Obama explained that the US will finance $7 billion in business exports and investments in Africa.

These pledges were the most important part of Obama’s three day US – Africa Leaders Summit which brought 50 African heads of state to Washington.

In another speech on Tuesday, Obama referred to a “new Africa that’s emerging,” he talked about the emerging middle class and Africa’s fastest growing telecommunications market and the world’s youngest population.

During the summit Obama repeatedly urged that America and Africa have to work together. He said/ “ I want Africans buying more American products and I want Americans buying more African products.”

Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric points out that America sort of gave Africa away to Europe and China and that now it is wide open for America. The business forum basically aimed to make up for ground lost to China, which became Africa’s top trading partner in 2009. Europe and China have had similar summits in recent years because of their particular interest in Africa’s natural resources. Obama, however, pitched the United States as a different kind of partner, suggesting that America aimed at giving back to Africa and helping solve its problems as well.

General Electric announced that it will pump $2 billion in Africa by 2018 while IBM confirmed that it had struck a deal to handle information technology for Fidelity Bank of Ghana for $100 million.

Whitaker suggests that the summit really provides an opportunity for Obama to “solidify his legacy on Africa” something Whitaker suggests Obama wasn’t able to do in his first term.

A Celestial Traveler Closes on Mars

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ASA Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission take off  from Cape Canaveral Air Force station located in Florida.  It will reach the planet till 8 p.m MDT sept 21 2014. This missionary began last year in 18 Novemeber and scientists  are expecting this mission to cease in a year’s time.

According to Bruce Jakosky, principal investigator on the mission, presently the spacecraft is functioning perfectly and they are not facing any sort of troubles. Furthermore, he said that they want 1.5 months, to develop themselves, before the entry of the spaceship on the planet.

 

Scientists would be capable to present a report long after the entrance of  MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission). In that report they will provide some insight about the atmosphere of the higher partion of the planet and how the spaceship reacted with the sun and solar wind. This minor experiment will tell them how much gas spaceship utilized during this time period.

The primary purpose of this research is to figure out where the water and carbon dioxide went since it was present in the atmosphere earlier. Therefore, they constructed this instrument with a remote sensing package designed by LASP which will find out the characteristics of the Martian upper atmosphere and ionsphere.

On this journey MAVEN will come into contact with a celestial interloper. The interloper is known as comet Siding Spring and it was invented in Australia in January 2013

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