Showing posts with label Belgium. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Belgium. Show all posts

Saturday, July 05, 2014

Neymar Injury



This was a knee to backbone deliberate premeditated attack. This was an immediate red card. This was criminal behavior.














Neymar Airlifted From Brazil's Training Camp
When the plane arrived in Rio early Saturday, teammates came one by one to embrace him as he sat in a wheelchair waiting to be taken into the ambulance...... The 22-year-old Neymar broke his third vertebra after being kneed in the back by Colombian player Juan Camillo Zuniga in the 86th minute at the Arena Castelao....... Doctors said he will not need surgery but is expected to be sidelined for at least four weeks. The player is wearing a strap to help keep his back immobilized........ Seeking its sixth world title, Brazil will play Germany in Tuesday's semifinal in Belo Horizonte. The final is next Sunday, with the third-place game a day earlier......Neymar was carried off the field in tears on a stretcher and "screamed in pain in the dressing room" before being taken to a hospital for tests, the Brazilian confederation said in a statement......Neymar had been one of the standout players of the World Cup, scoring four goals in the team's first three games.....Fans watching the Argentina vs. Belgium quarterfinal in Brasilia on Wednesday at times chanted "Neymar, Neymar."

Zuniga apologizes to Neymar for tackle
Colombia defender Camilo Zuniga has sent a letter of apology to Neymar, saying he is “deeply sorry and sad” for causing the injury that knocked the Brazil striker out of the World Cup......In a statement distributed Saturday by the Colombia team, Zuniga says “although I feel the situation was normal in a game, there was no bad intention, malice or negligence on my part.”
Neymar injury robs Brazil and the World Cup of its star attraction
Ronaldo spoke as he once played, speeding to his target. “It was a very violent, unlawful tackle,’’ Ronaldo said. “We all have to fight for football to have more fair play. We have to demand that sanctions to be given to violent players. I am in favour of very severe sanctions to those who don’t want to play football and just want to do such violent tackles. It was an evil tackle.’’ ........ The way that Zuniga leapt into Neymar, the speed, force and angle of the knee would suggest this was no normal sporting collision. As well as calling on Fifa to punish Zuniga, Ronaldo argued that the incident accelerated the arrival of video technology. “I’m in favour,’’ Ronaldo said. “We have goal-line technology brought in for this World Cup and it’s not been a hindrance.” ......Yet that was for issues of fact, of whether the ball has crossed the line. Establishing intent such as Zuniga’s was more difficult. “This debate about technology in football has to grow. We should use technology on behalf of football.” On protecting the stars. ...... Agreement came from Cannavaro, who gave a defender’s insight into the situation. The man who led Italy to 2006 World Cup glory was a defender of great stealth and timing, who used intelligence rather than belligerence in challenging for the ball. “I didn’t like that high knee,’’ Cannavaro said of Zuniga. “When Neymar had the ball, there was no possibility of his [Zuniga] getting the ball like this. Neymar is not transparent. It was a foul with intention to cause harm. It will be very hard for Fifa to accept such a challenge because it is very evident foul. Everybody who has ever played the game knows that.’’ ...... Ronaldo texted his stricken compatriot. “I sent Neymar a message, conveying my support and solidarity. I told him the whole country is proud of him and the team will win the World Cup and dedicate it to him. ...... “No German fan or player is happy with Neymar being injured. We want the spirit of fair play and that wasn’t there [by Zuniga]. But Brazil don’t just have 11 players. They have a very good squad. I think Dante will play instead of Thiago Silva and he’s used to pressure because he plays for Bayern Munich where there’s a constant obligation to perform. Thiago Silva is easily replaceable. To replace Neymar is just not possible. It could be Willian who is used to pressure, having played for Shakhtar and now for Chelsea.’’....... Ronaldo responded, issuing a rallying cry: “We are fearful and sad about out loss but if the German team believe they are going to come against weak, demoralised team because of the loss of Neymar, the Germans will be making an enormous mistake. Brazil are never made up of just one player. Pele got hurt in the 1962 World Cup [against Czechoslovakia] and Brazil still won. We’ve lost a very important figure, our main reference, but perhaps Fred may step up and become a more important player for Brazil......... “I believe we will win [against Germany] because I believe so much in our national team.”


Wednesday, January 02, 2013

Data Centers And Light Phones

World map depicting Asia Esperanto: Mondmapo b...
World map depicting Asia Esperanto: Mondmapo bildiganta Azion Español: Ubicación de Asia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
If the data centers are pervasive enough and powerful enough, your phone can be light as light. The two extreme ends feed on each other. Larry Ellison is right. There is no cloud. What we refer to as cloud is really these data centers. I am surprised Google lags so far behind in Asia. And I am guessing it lags even further behind in Africa and Latin America. Come on, Google, you can do better than this.

New Google Asia servers expected to bring 30% speed boost when they go live later this year
the new servers could provide up to a 30 percent improvement in the speed of Google services in Asia .... Google already operates seven data centers in the US and facilities in Finland, Belgium and Ireland, but the lack of an Asia center has likely inhibited the company’s potential for growth in the region
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Wednesday, November 16, 2011

The Spotify CTO Talk

Gaga performing on The Monster Ball Tour in Bu...Image via WikipediaSpotify USA, 76 9th Ave., Suite 1110, 11th Floor, New York, NY
Wednesday, November 16, 2011, 6:30 PM

Have you been wondering where Spotify's going both technically and as a tech organization? How do we get the music tracks to play so quickly? What's up with Spotify's data analytics and the data processing stack? What are Spotify's general architectural principles?

Come and hear about the 'big picture' of Spotify from the guys running the show. It's not often that they're all in town from Stockholm!

Speakers:

Oskar Staal - Chief Technology Officer
Mikael Krantz - Chief Architect
Henrik Landren - Head of Analytics
Wouter de Bie - Team Lead, Analytics Infrastructure

Agenda

6:30pm Mix and Mingle
7:00pm Presentations
8:00pm Q&A


GigaOm: Pandora: Spotify is our friend, not a competitor
Vimeo: Spotify – the story
The Register: Spotify looks for local spin guru: They really must be launching downunder
ZDNet: Spotify tops the charts for multi-platform support
TechNewsDaily: Spotify Hands-on: Worth the Hype?
Global Post: Swedish tech has its ABBA moment
Time: Today in Least Necessary Purchases: ‘Spotify For Dummies’
TechCrunch: Spotify Lands Major Studio Deals, Prepares To Launch Movie Service
Forbes: Facebook To Launch Music Service With Spotify
AllThingsD: Spotify’s U.S. Score So Far: 1.4 Million Users, 175,000 Paying Customers
Mashable: Spotify Eyes European Expansion [REPORT]
The Next Web: Spotify Opens for Business in Belgium and Switzerland
Mashable: Spotify Comes to Facebook [PICS]
LifeHacker: Spotify Is the Best Desktop Music Player We’ve Ever Used
New York Times: Spotify Loss Widens Despite Higher Revenue Its subscriptions, which cost about $10 to $15 a month, brought in $71 million, and the company also had $28 million in advertising. But its losses for the year totaled $42 million, up from $26 million 2009...... pays labels each time a listener streams a particular song. That system brings in lower royalties per song than downloads, but with a large enough listener base could in theory bring in substantial amounts ..... The company was believed to have more than 10 million total users.
TechCrunch: Welcome To Belgium, Spotify. (And To Austria And Switzerland)
Reuters: Spotify now has 250,000 paying U.S. users: sources
Forbes: Spotify Tries To Soothe Angry Users Over Facebook Conditions
AllThingsD: When Will Spotify Finally Come to the U.S.?
CNN: What's this Spotify thing all about?
ReadWriteWeb: Here's What Spotify's New Facebook Integration Looks Like
BusinessWeek: Record Sales Rise as Lady Gaga, Adele Find a Future With Spotify Music lovers are doing something they haven’t done in years: They’re buying more albums...... The number of albums sold this year has increased for the first time since 2004 .... Industry wide, sales of record albums, which include digital downloads, compact discs, some vinyl LPs and cassettes, are up 3 percent ...... Consumers who over the last several years rejected album prices of $14 to $15, and purchased singles instead, are now coming back to albums at lower prices. ..... “There is a significant market for the download of a total album for $9.99” ...... Levy and other industry executives see the pricing strategy as an investment. By making it easier for customers to buy albums they hope to gain market share and generate more interest in the music, eventually allowing them to profit from sources such as digital music platforms, merchandise, and concerts. ...... Adele’s “21,” for example, has so far sold 4.3 million copies in the U.S. this year, more than any other artist. ...... “An album like Adele’s is a concept album, enjoyed when the songs are not disaggregated,” Donio said. “She is doing well selling individual songs, but in cases like hers, the album is a work of art.” ...... Single track sales are up 10 percent to 1.055 billion so far for the year ..... When Lady Gaga released her second album, “Born This Way,” in May, Amazon.com held a one-day 99 cents sale that was so popular it overwhelmed the company’s Web servers. ....... Consumers also discover music through the growing popularity of services such as Rdio and Spotify. Though consumers can get music for free from these platforms, the services engage consumers and encourage them to make purchases, making them less likely to take part in illegal downloading ...... The Spotify service, Parks said, is helping to turn one- time music pirates into paying consumers. ....... “What Spotify has done is re-energized the base of music lovers,” Parks said in an interview. “Data shows that in all of the markets where Spotify operates, digital music sales have grown. We’re generating a lot of revenue for the industry from a generation that wasn’t buying music.”
NPR: How Spotify Works: Pay The Majors, Use P2P Technology
LA Times: Spotify's plan: get users hooked, then ask them to pay for music
Spotify - Wikipedia
Chicago Tribune: Spotify killed the radio star?
GigaOm: Indie labels stage another Spotify walkout