Review: Samsung Gear Fit is a stylish hybrid of smart watch and activity tracker

One of the three new second-generation Samsung smart watches, the Gear Fit ($200) is a creative and stylish departure from the original Galaxy Gear. It's just as much an activity monitor as it is a smart watch, and it has a markedly new look—slimmer, sleeker, and lighter at .8 ounces than even even the relatively petite Pebble Watch (1.4 ounces).

It’s also, well, pretty. The vivid, slightly curved AMOLED 1.84-inch color display pops against the black watchband. You can change the background color, design, and watch face to suit your mood, or your outfit, and you can buy additional swappable watchbands in orange, red, blue, green, or gray, too. This attention to aesthetics is likely a nod to women (and plenty of men, for that matter) who think of smart watches as bulky and ugly.

Chicago girl, 14, guns down rival in Facebook dispute over boy: police

Endia Martin, also 14, was fatally struck in the back Monday in broad daylight after her social media dispute with a former friend spilled out into the street. The gun had been stolen from a car earlier this month and reportedly jammed as the alleged murderer tried to open fire on her rival.

Shwe Pathein Umbrellas

 Pathein Umbrellas which are long time and still famous hand made products  in Burma  and  Southeast!

         Many kinds of umbrellas are produced in many countries, but Myanmar Traditional Umbrellas are specific and distinctive among them, because of interesting natural raw materials and workmanship. As the location of production in Pathein, these umbrellas are well known and called Pathein Umbrellas (Pathein Htee).      Pathein Umbrellas have been produced since over one century of service period. Firstly those are known for fashion, for monks and for giving presents, but we have shown other useful facilities in home decorations, gardens, beaches, hotels, motels and restaurants with various designs and colours.

Daw Aung  San Kyi  with Pathein Umbrella

New tower block that looks like a PENIS attracting tourists before it's even completed

The designer of the new People's Daily tower in Beijing claims that when the building is fully 'erected' it will no longer have such a phallic look

A Chinese building that has a distinct phallic design is attracting tourists despite the fact it hasn't yet been completed.

Motorola to announce a new smartphone on May 13, is it the Moto E?

Motorola will host a press event in London on May 13, and it looks like it has a new smartphone to showcase then. The invite to the event, which was revealed a few hours ago, reads: "Connect more people to the world's information and each other, and they can do great things. Introducing the next smartphone from Motorola to make these connections happen. Made to last. Priced for all." 

Donald Sterling also receives lifetime ban from Nevada's Bunny Ranch brothel

Dennis Hof has also banned the LA Clippers owner from entering any of his six other brothels in the state.


CARSON CITY, Nev., April 30 (UPI) -- Donald Sterling can’t watch his players on the court in California -- and now he can't play in Nevada.

A day after he was banned from the NBA for life and fined $2.5 million, Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling also got the boot from the infamous Bunny Ranch brothel outside Carson City, Nevada.

The owner of the legal brothel, Dennis Hof, also announced that Sterling is banned from entering any of his six other brothels in the state.

"A lot of NBA players come here to party," Hof told the Huffington Post. "Out of respect to them, we have banned Sterling from coming here."

Hof issued the ban on behalf of his employees as well.

Short sex is pretty normal, it turns out

(NEWSER) – It's not exactly the most romantic statistic: Almost half of all men finish sex within two minutes, reports the New Republic by way of Dr. Harry Fisch's new book, The New Naked: The Ultimate Sex Education for Grown-Ups.

What's So Bad About E-Cigarettes?

The Food and Drug Administration says it plans to regulate e-cigarettes, along with cigars and other tobacco products. Health advocates say it’s about time, but many “vapers” who use e-cigarettes say regulation will damage a product that’s a far safer substitute for cigarettes.

“The FDA has over stepped their boundaries,” supporters wrote in an online petition posted this week. “DoNot, allow the FDA to take control of a life saving product (sic).”

Overnight sit-in at embassy as families demand answers

BEIJING: Some Chinese family members of MH370 passengers camped outside the Malaysian Embassy here overnight for close to 18 hours, re­­fusing to budge until an official received a statement from them.

The group was fuming over what they claimed was no-show by em­­bassy representatives at meetings.

“We’ve been here for more than two hours but no representatives from the Malaysian Government have come out to explain,” the families’ committee bristled on its Weibo account at about 3am yesterday.

“Is this the kind of attitude a go­­vernment should be having?”

A day earlier, the next-of-kin had refused to leave the Lido Hotel ballroom here, where daily briefings at 3pm were held, unless a Malaysian Embassy official showed up.

They said that embassy officials had not been present to answer their questions for three days.

MAS senior vice-president Jaffar Derus Ahmad informed the families that the embassy was willing to send two officers – deputy chief of mission Bala Chandran Tharman and second secretary Beh Ching Chye – to the briefings.

The families, however, rejected Beh. They claimed he was “unfriendly and rude at an earlier briefing”.

At about 11.45pm on Thursday, many of the incensed family members headed for the embassy and sat in front of its premises. Police cordoned off the area.

Around noon the next day, the families appealed for food from individuals or organisations via Weibo.

The group later left the embassy at about 5.30pm after second secretary Al-Fadil Adam accepted their statement.

A post on their Weibo account said they needed responses to their queries, including the serial number of the missing jetliner’s black box.

Providence police: Man uses potato as weapon in robberies

Providence police said a man carrying a potatotried to rob two businesses Monday.

"He said, 'I need the money, money.' I said, 'Take it easy. I give you the money. Don't worry,'" Anna Jung said.

Jung said she was robbed at her family's dry cleaning business by a man wielding a potato.

"He said, 'Don't call 911.' I said, 'OK. Take it easy,'" Jung said.

The only thing in the register was a counterfeit $20 bill.

The man wasn't happy with the amount, but he eventually left, taking the potato with him.

"I heard it on the news and I say, it was ridiculous, man," said Linda Hopkins of Providence. "That's it."

The Jungs have owned their business for 26 years and fear the robbery will scare customers away.

"My customers getting nervous. They don't want to come to a dangerous place. So, we worry about that," Jung's husband said.

Providence police said the dry cleaner wasn't the man's first target.

Workers at a Shell station on Branch Avenue said he tried to hold them up about 30 minutes earlier. They scared him away with a bat, but there was a struggle before the bandit fled.

Witnesses described the robber as a fair skinned man about 5 feet 7 inches tall. He was wearing ablack mask and a dark sweatshirt with a T-shirt underneath.

Even though the robber didn't get away with anything of value, Providence police are still looking for him. Investigators are looking at surveillance video.

Providence police asked anyone with information about the robberies to call them at 401-272-3121

Florida man arrested for driving down Interstate 95 while masturbating

ST. LUCIE WEST, Fla., April 24 (UPI) -- Florida Highway Patrol troopers arrested a man who was allegedly driving down Interstate 95 while masturbating in the nude after a semi-truck driver called 911 to report him.

Cory Evans was pulled over after the driver reported that he “slowed when the semi-truck slowed and sped up when the semi-truck accelerated” while masturbating. The driver continued talking to dispatchers while he followed Evans, TC Palm reported.

"The victim stated that the driver seemed to be enticing him and harassing him," the arrest report states. "The victim stated that the suspect continued masturbating with the interior dome light on so he could be easily seen.”

Two 10-year-olds caught selling grandparents' pot at Colorado school

(Reuters) - Two 10-year-old boys in Colorado were caught selling and swapping marijuana that they pilfered from their grandparents' supplies of legally purchased pot in separate incidents at the same school, a district official said on Wednesday.John Gates, director of safety and security for Weld County School District 6, said a fourth-grade boy at Monfort Elementary in Greeley brought a small amount of marijuana to school on Monday and sold it to three other classmates.

"He made $11 on the deal," Gates said.

The following day, one of the other students who purchased the weed brought a marijuana-infused edible product to school and gave it to the boy who made the original sale, Gates said.

That boy nibbled on the edible, but suffered no ill-effects, Gates said, adding that another student observed the incident and reported it to school authorities.

Ultimately, the district disciplined four fourth-grade students, three boys and one girl, in connection with the two incidents, Gates said, but he declined to specify the nature of the punishment.

Voters in Colorado approved the possession and use of small amounts of cannabis by adults for recreational purposes in 2012, and the first state-licensed retail pot stores opened in the state in January.

Gates said the both boys caught bringing marijuana to school had taken the cannabis from their respective grandparents, who had purchased the pot products legally from state-sanctioned shops.

The principal of the school, Jennifer Sheldon, sent a letter home to parents informing them of the incidents, noting that "disciplinary action is underway" for the involved students.

"We urge all parents, grandparents and anyone who cares for children to treat marijuana as you would prescription drugs, alcohol, or even firearms," the letter said. "This drug is potentially lethal to children and should always be kept under lock and key, away from young people."

Sergeant Joe Tymkowich, spokesman for the Greeley Police Department, said no criminal investigation was underway, either for the students or their grandparents.

Under Colorado law, children age 10 or younger cannot be held criminally responsible for their actions, he said, and police determined there was no criminal intent by the adults.

"By the time the school even became aware of it, all the evidence was gone anyway," he said.

(Reporting by Keith Coffman; Editing by Steve Gorman and Lisa Shumaker)

Burmese Art Crafts Reflect a Rich Culture

Burmese’s relative isolation and deeply traditional culture have contributed to a thriving arts and crafts industry.

Pirates raid Japanese oil tanker off Malaysia, kidnap three crew

(Reuters) - Armed pirates raided a Japanese oil tanker off the coast of Malaysia and abducted three crew members, Malaysian maritime police said on Wednesday, underscoring increasing threats to shipping in one of the world's busiest waterways.The incident in the Malacca Strait, a route for about a quarter of the world's seaborne oil trade, has fuelled fears piracy could be on the rise in the area and drive up ship insurance premiums.Six pirates in a speedboat boarded the Naninwa Maru 1 at 1.00 a.m. local time on Wednesday off the coast of west Malaysia, Maritime Police Commander Abdul Aziz Yusof told Reuters.The pirates pumped out more than half the 5 million liters of diesel carried by the tanker into two waiting vessels and made off with three crew members, he added. Domestic media said the abducted men were Indonesians.The Japanese tanker, headed for Myanmar from Singapore, had Indonesian, Thai, Myanmar and Indian crew members.Regional security officials have previously told Reuters that armed gangs prowling the Malacca Strait may be part of a syndicate that can either have links to the crew on board the hijacking target or inside knowledge about the ship and cargo.Such intelligence led hijacks has involved seizing tankers so that gasoil cargoes can be transferred and solid on the black market, the officials, who declined to be identified because they are not authorized to speak to the media, have said.Attacks by gangs armed with guns and knives on shipping in the Malacca Strait have ranged from 12 to 20 incidents a year over the last three years, says the Singapore headquarters of the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP).Most of these incidents have involved the theft of ship's stores, cash and assaults on the crew.That compares with a peak of 220 recorded attacks in 2000, according to the Kuala Lumpur-based International Maritime Bureau, which tracks pirate activity.

(Reporting by Al Zaquan Amer Hamzah; Writing by Niluksi Koswanage; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Kansas man charged with first-degree murder wants to cover up 'murder' tattoo before trial

GREAT BEND, Kan., April 23 (UPI) -- A Kansas man who is about to go on trial for first-degree murder thinks that the “murder” tattoo he has on his neck might influence a jury, so he is hoping to have it covered up before he appears in court.

“Mr. [Jeffrey] Chapman has secured a licensed tattoo artist from Hays who is willing to go to the jail,” according to a motion filed by defense attorney Kurt Kerns. “Mr. Chapman’s tattoos are not relevant to any material facts and Mr. Chapman asks for the court to exclude any mention of his tattoos at trial and further to be allowed to cover them up in an appropriate manner. The fact that he has ‘Murder’ tattooed across his neck is irrelevant to the State’s case and extremely prejudicial to Mr. Chapman if introduced at trial or observed by the jury.”

Even though Chapman has lined up a professional tattoo artist to remove or cover up the ink on his neck, Sheriff Brian Bellendir is standing in the way.

Bellendir pointed out that Kansas Administrative Code 69-15-14 states “tattoo artists shall not practice at any location other than a licensed facility” and is also against transporting Chapman to an official tattoo parlor, the Great Bend Tribune reported.

Chapman is charged in the November 2011 death of Damon Galliart. The trial is scheduled to begin on Monday and is expected to last two weeks.

The prosecution has not objected to Chapman attempting to cover the tattoo.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2014/04/23/Kansas-man-charged-with-first-degree-murder-wants-to-cover-up-murder-tattoo-before-trial/9371398261012/#ixzz2ziiLCfVz

New Renders Show Off 'iPhone 6s' and 'iPhone 6c' Concepts

Following a concept that showed off a possible look at the iPhone 6 based on recent leaked info, French website Nowhereelse.fr [Google Translate] and graphic designer Martin Hajek have once again teamed up to showcase renders for an "iPhone 6s" and "iPhone 6c", which are based off of Apple's current iPhones and alleged iPhone 6 design drawings posted by Japanese magazine MacFan. 

Loose leopard fleeing rooftop in India bites man

Home video taken from an adjacent rooftop shows the animal pushing through the broken tiled roof of a home in Ballarpur, Maharashtra, and chasing several men in its way. As the cat jumped to another rooftop, it took a bite out of the buttocks of a man trying to escape it, Sky News reported Another villager on the scene was attacked as people tried to corner the leopard, but no serious injuries were reported.The cat darted around, looking for a way out, and finally jumped down to street level, where it found refuge in a bathroom. The video zooms in on the leopard’s eyes, which seem to show fear as it cowers in a dark corner.India's Forestry Department eventually caught the animal and plans to release it into the wild.Illegal deforestation has imperiled the habitats of many animals in India, forcing them to wander around searching for food.Over-development of forest land has also become a threat to many wild animals in the country.

New relative of the 'penis snake' discovered in Myanmar

Scientists have discovered a new species of limbless amphibians, known as caecilians, in Myanmar. Dubbing the species, the colorful ichthyophis (Ichthyophis multicolor), the researchers describe the new amphibian in a recent paper published in Zootaxa. The world's most famous caecilian is the so-called penis snake (Atretochoana eiselti) which was rediscovered in Brazil in 2011. Caecilians are a bizarre order of amphibians that superficially resemble snakes or earthworms, even bearing rings on their bodies that are earthworm-like. Many caecilians spend their lives under the soil, making them little-studied by researchers, yet they are widely diverse: over 10 separate families have been identified across the tropics. The caecilian genus Ichthyophis, to which the new species belongs, is the most diverse in the world. "Although multiple species and specimens of Ichthyophis have been documented from Thailand and from Northeast India, including some recently described species, there are only a few old literature records of any caecilians from Myanmar and the caecilian fauna of that country must be considered essentially unexplored and unknown," write the authors in the paper. The scientists, headed by Mark Wilkinson, described the new species based on 14 specimens collected in 2000 from southern Myanmar in the Ayeyarwady Region. Although the species looks most similarly to an Indian caecilian, Ichthyophis tricolor, it differs in having more rings and a differently shaped skull. Moreover, molecular studies show the new species is more closely related to Southeast Asian species than an Indian ones, which may change how scientists view the spread of caecilians. 


Preserved specimen of the colorful ichthyophis. Photo by: Harry Taylor (The Natural History Museum, London) from Wilkinson et al.    

             The researchers write that currently there is not enough data on the new species to determine if the colorful ichthyophis is threatened with extinction. "We suggest that, as with the majority of nominal caecilian species, Ichthyophis multicolor be categorized as Data Deficient in the IUCN Red List given that we know very little about its geographic range or environmental requirements and tolerances. That specimens were found in areas of human disturbance gives some hope that they are not immediately threatened, but this depends foremost on a reasonable range size." In addition the researchers believe there are likely many more caecilians that remain undiscovered on the continent. "About one quarter of the currently recognized species of Ichthyophis have been described in the last 15 years from localities throughout South and Southeast Asia, suggesting that species discovery in this group is far from complete," the authors write. 

Currently, there are around 200 described caecilian species worldwide. The largest of them all is Brazil's penis snake. 

Read more at http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0417-hance-colorful-ichthyophis.html#Bs6WUXICVgZwzmU6.99

Burma’s Economic Revival Leaves China Struggling to Compete

China’s investment in Burma “plummeted” in 2013 to only US$20 million or 5 percent of the value invested in 2012, Chinese media reported.And last year’s figure was a mere 1 percent of the value of Chinese investment in Burma in the peak year of 2010, said China Radio International.The rules of the game in [Burma] have changed. In 2011, a civilian government came to power. China’s plummeting investment coincides with the announcement of the 2012 foreign investment law,” the radio said quoting theChina Business News newspaper.“As for ranking of foreign investors, China lost the leading position for the first time in four years and dropped to around 10th,” the paper reported.“The sharp contrast of China’s dropping investment in [Burma] and the rising total volume of FDI (foreign direct investment) is due to the failure of the Chinese companies to change their own game and catch up with developments [in Burma],” the radio station said in its report.It said there was a degree of inevitability about China losing its No.1 investor status with the ending of Western sanctions and a changing economic culture in Burma.“Chinese companies need to understand the situation, change their mindset, put themselves inMyanmar’s position, use their own advantages so as to re-enter the Myanmar market with competitiveness.”

Myanmar Public Holidays

Below are listed Public Holidays for the January 2014-December 2015 period.

Public holiday note: 

Buddhist festivals are declared according to local astronomical observations and it is not possible to forecast the date of their occurrence exactly.

2014

January

04

Independence Day

Start date:

4 January 2014

February

12

Union Day

Start date:

12 February 2014

March

02

Peasants' Day

Start date:

2 March 2014

March

16

Full Moon of Tabaung

Start date:

16 March 2014

March

27

Armed Forces Day

Start date:

27 March 2014

April

13

Maha Thingyan (Water Festival)

Start date:

13 April 2014

End date:

16 April 2014

April

17

Myanmar New Year

Start date:

17 April 2014

May

01

May Day

Start date:

1 May 2014

May

06

Full Moon of Kason (Buddha's Birthday)

Start date:

6 May 2014

July

12

Full Moon of Waso (Beginning of Buddhist Lent)

Start date:

12 July 2014

July

19

Martyrs' Day

Start date:

19 July 2014

October

09

Full Moon of Thadingyut (End of Buddhist Lent)

Start date:

9 October 2014

November

22

Full Moon Day of Tazaungmone

Start date:

22 November 2014

December

08

National Day

Start date:

8 December 2014

December

25

Christmas Day

Start date:

25 December 2014

2015

January

04

Independence Day

Start date:

4 January 2015

February

12

Union Day

Start date:

12 February 2015

March

02

Peasants' Day

Start date:

2 March 2015

March

05

Full Moon of Tabaung

Start date:

5 March 2015

March

27

Armed Forces Day

Start date:

27 March 2015

April

13

Maha Thingyan (Water Festival)

Start date:

13 April 2015

End date:

16 April 2015

April

17

Myanmar New Year

Start date:

17 April 2015

May

01

May Day

Start date:

1 May 2015

June

01

Full Moon of Kason (Buddha's Birthday)

Start date:

1 June 2015

July

01

Full Moon of Waso (Beginning of Buddhist Lent)

Start date:

1 July 2015

July

19

Martyrs' Day

Start date:

19 July 2015

October

27

Full Moon of Thadingyut (End of Buddhist Lent)

Start date:

27 October 2015

November

26

Full Moon Day of Tazaungmone

Start date:

26 November 2015

December

08

National Day

Start date:

8 December 2015

December

25

Christmas Day

Start date:

25 December 2015