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Facebook Inc will buy fast-growing mobile-messaging startup WhatsApp for $16 billion in cash and stock, as the world’s largest social network looks for ways to boost its popularity, especially among a younger crowd.

These prices are out of control.

The Atlantic:

A new study from the Transportation Research Initiative at the University of Michigan looks at global driving fatalities with up-to-date World Health Organization data. Around the world, deaths in fatal car crashes are 1/6th as likely as dying from a common health problem, like heart disease. In the U.S., where road crashes account for just 2 percent of deaths, individuals are 13 times more likely to die from cancer.

Here is the map of driving fatality rates per capita, with the most deadly countries (led by Namibia) in red and the safest countries (led by the Maldives) in green.

Of course Maldives is the safest – they’ve only got ten cars in the whole country. Good to see the countries I drive in most often are relatively safer for any number of reasons.

Even Google knows how creepy Google Glass is.

Civic groups and the production crew of the Korean film based on the death of a Samsung Electronics employee claimed Wednesday that Lotte Cinema abused its position as one of the nation’s leading cinema chains to block moviegoers from seeing the film.

“Another Family” is about a real-life father’s quest for truth about the leukemia death of his young daughter who had worked at one of Samsung’s semiconductor plants for four years.

The Vancouver Sun:

A new survey shows that four Canadian cities – led by Vancouver – are the highest ranking in North America for quality of life.Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal take the next three places respectively in the 2014 Mercer Quality of Living rankings.

I live here and it really is a spectacular city.

Yahoo News:

When the co-pilot on flight ET-702 from Addis Ababa to Rome locked himself in the cockpit while the pilot went to the bathroom and announced a hijacking, Italian and French fighter jets were scrambled to escort the plane through their respective airspaces.

But although the co-pilot-turned-hijacker quickly announced he wanted to land the plane in Switzerland, where he later said he aimed to seek asylum, Switzerland’s fleet of F-18s and F-5 Tigers remained on the ground, Swiss airforce spokesman Laurent Savary told AFP.

This, he explained, was because the Swiss airforce is only available during office hours. These are reported to be from 8am until noon, then 1:30 to 5pm.

If only the bad guys kept the same hours.

Sara Wachter-Boettcher:

Public speaking is tough. You’re trying not to say “um” too much or speak too fast or crash your presentation or poop your pants or do any of the million horrible things that, in those first few minutes you’re up on stage, feel way too possible.

Very funny, but so true.

I was exciting when Apple announced the first iTunes Festival in the US this morning, but I’m even more excited now. When the iTunes Festival page went live it showed an artist not mentioned in the press release: Willie Nelson.

Of course, Candy Crush’s ridiculous strength could also be King’s greatest weakness.

We’ve seen this before.

The new version of Samsung’s Gear smartwatch will run on Tizen, not Google’s Android operating system, the latest attempt by the South Korean electronics giant to develop more of its own software and services, according to three people familiar with the situation.

Samsung will unveil the updated Gear watch, and a new HTML5 version of the Tizen operating system, at an event at the Mobile World Congress later this month in Barcelona, Spain, the people said.

If true, this is the first of Samsung’s devices to use the new operating system, but it won’t be the last. Google should be very worried.

Sweet Jesus, where does CNBC coming up with these assholes. For a good analysis of what this moron said, go check out what John Moltz has to say.

BlackBerry Ltd Chief Executive John Chen fired a salvo at T-Mobile US Inc on Tuesday, calling ill-conceived a promotion run by the company that encourages customers using BlackBerry smartphones to upgrade to iPhones.

I’d be pissed off if I ran a company that made shitty products. Chen should worry about fixing that first.

Some nice examples illustrating the points.

This is a really good look at advertising and how the old school buyers are trying to deal with Amazon and Apple. Buyers are used to getting information, but neither company will share customer habits or other data with them. Welcome to the 21st Century. Guess who is sharing customer information more freely? Google.

Jim and Dan talk about the Pirates of Silicon Valley, Apple, Microsoft, the heart of innovation, Guns n Roses, and more.

Sponsored by Hover (use code SLED for 10% off your first purchase once you sign up), FreshBooks (enter AMPLIFIED in the “How Did You Hear About Us” section to support the show and to enter for your chance to win a birthday cake!), Shutterstock (use code DANSENTME214 for 25% off), and MailChimp.

This looks good, especially having apps available for both platforms.

Samsung’s Galaxy S5 will have a fingerprint sensor in the home button, just like the iPhone. Who didn’t see that coming?

Ryan Neudorf really seems to like it.

P.S. Kickass paint job on the travel trailer.

Not a good defense in my opinion.

[Via Neowin]

Donovan Hutchinson shows you how to use transforms to create a 3D object and animate it with nothing but CSS.

It’s like there’s nothing that can’t be done with CSS these days.

Just beyond description.

Saved is the tool that makes budgeting and tracking your expenses delightfully simple. Saved helps you visualize your budget and savings every single day of the year to track how much you’ll be able to spend on your loved ones, holidays, and vacations.

It’s free to download.

Fucking crazy Canadians.

Betabeat:

For those of us in the startup, Silicon Valley-makes-the-world-go-round tech industry, the name Sam Biddle incites fear (in the timid), disgust (in the short-tempered) and a chuckle (for those with a good sense of humour).

But before the 27-year old Brooklyn-based tech stroke gossip blogger wrote his first word, there was another Sam Biddle, the “real Sam Biddle”, as she jokes, who has beaten cancer and raised two children while building a global empire for nail artisans.

Anyone else have this issue? I share a fairly common name and have gotten all kinds of misdirected tweets for an NFL football commentator, a pastor in Haiti and Larry King’s wife.

I agree completely with Gruber. If you make a decision for your company, own it and explain it clearly for your customers. Don’t bullshit.

Congrats to Shawn.

Wall Street Journal:

Starbucks isn’t an Olympic sponsor and is therefore forbidden to have an official presence here. But after Mr. Glinton, a journalist for NPR, trailed the mystery cup for several hundred feet, its owner told him that he was out of luck. It came from the”Office,” she said – the Olympic broadcasting center where NBC has its own secret Starbucks.

The best line of the piece had to be from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review sports columnist Dejan Kovacevic who carries around an empty Starbucks cup and pours other coffee into it. He said, “It’s a status symbol,” he explains. “It shows I’m not some kind of lowlife.”

If you believe that, you’re still some kind of lowlife.

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