Why Mombasa Is Tourist Magnet and Kampala Is Not

At a risk of sounding like one given to resurrecting tried and tired clichés, I will say this: culture is everything.And also culture shapes our perception and informs our investment decisions. A child, who is brought up in a culture and tradition of not respecting other people's property, would not have manners to return a dropped wallet to the rightful owner.

For such a person, stealing is a cultural issue. It is done with pride and ease to the gratification of his peers. Moral decadence becomes a way of life.Therefore, I am often not surprised when street urchins gorge out our side mirrors. That is the life they have known.When some of the victims of the Namungoona inferno chose to steal fuel other than deter the thieves from someone else's property, for me it clearly illustrated that stealing had become a cultural matter that brought a lot of pride to some families in Uganda.

President Museveni also once intimated to the president of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, that Uganda is full of iPhone headset. Last week, I was in Kenya's coastal area. While in Mombasa, I had a cultural shock which made me change my perception about some parts of Kenya. It also gave me a clue as to why Mombasa is more attractive to tourists than other areas of Kenya.

Granted, Mombasa has some of the best beaches and a well-developed hotel industry. But that is not the reason in my view why tourists flock there. It is culture. The Mombasa people abhor thieves.While in Nairobi one is worried about being attacked on the street with knife wielders, losing the wallet or having your drink spiced with drugs, especially if you patronise dingy bars, in Mombasa when your wallet drops and it has the identification papers, it will be returned to the owner with all its contents intact.

Why? The reasons are partly linked to the puritan culture of Muslims. Muslims are not raised to own wealth fraudulently. That is mali ya haramu or biashara ya haramu (forbidden wealth or forbidden business).

They believe that one must work for his wealth and in doing so he must not infringe on the rights of others. In fact, those who possess wealth are urged to lend money interest-free (bila riba) to their brethren, and when the borrowers prosper, then they are supposed to pass on the profits to the needy so as to uplift their lives as well.

Filming the Ballarat edition of the show commenced yesterday at Craig’s Hotel, where preliminary takes of the contestants entering the hotel could be seen by pedestrians.Curious passers-by stopped to take photos and catch a clear view of the remaining contestants, some taking to Twitter to spoil the surprise.

MasterChef Australia executive producer Margie Bashfield said the rich history of Ballarat was in line with the theme of the episode’s challenge.“When Masterchef moved from Sydney to Melbourne one of the things we wanted to do – which we weren’t able to do in Sydney – was get out of the city and into the regional areas of the state,” Ms Bashfield said.

“The beauty of being based in Melbourne is that there are numerous incredible regional areas all about an hour from our base at the Royal Melbourne Showgrounds.“I had heard Craig’s Hotel being spoken about on Melbourne radio and thought we needed to check it out. “We came up and looked at a couple of locations and Craig’s Hotel was perfect. “It had all the necessary requirements for filming and it is a magnificent building with its own great history.”

Celebrity judges Matt Preston, George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan will be in town today for filming.With clear, free eyes Bloodsworth has since campaigned against capital punishment and is now head of advocacy for Witness to Innocence, a coalition of exonerated death-row inmates who campaign against capital punishment.

Bloodsworth's most recent success was his leading role in the movement to end the death penalty in Maryland, the state that once tried to kill him. Governor Martin O'Malley signed the law abolishing that state's death penalty on May 2 this year.

Bloodsworth's ordeal began in 1984 when a neighbour saw on TV an identikit sketch of the suspect in the particularly savage rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl near Baltimore. The neighbour thought it looked like Bloodsworth and called the police.

Another eyewitness later incorrectly placed him with the victim. Despite his clean criminal record he was soon convicted and sentenced to death.''I was accused of the most brutal murder in Maryland history,'' Bloodsworth, now 52, told an audience during the Maryland campaign earlier this year. ''It took the jury 2? hours to send me to the gas chamber.''While on death row he read about a conviction secured by the use of DNA, a science the public had barely heard of in the early 1990s, and with the help of his lawyers and supporters he had his case thrown out.

The Puerto Rican-born fruit picker was convicted of murdering a beauty school owner in 1983 largely on the evidence of two suspect witnesses, one of whom was a paid informant who negotiated a deal in exchange for his testimony.

Melendez was on death row for 16 years before a defence lawyer found transcripts - not presented to the jury - of another man, Vernon James, confessing to the crime.Other defence lawyers soon found another 20 witnesses who heard James, who has since died, either discussing or confessing to the custom keychain, reported The Florida Bar News in 2009.

In December 2001, an appeals court judge granted a new trial and criticised the prosecutor for withholding evidence from the defence and jury about James' incriminating statements.Were the Timely Justice Act in place earlier, ''I would be dead today,'' Melendez says.About three years ago, Melendez was attending an anti-capital punishment conference in Pennsylvania when he locked eyes with the man who was to have executed him, Ron McAndrew, the former warden of Florida State Prison.

Ideas for keeping your data safe from spying

Phone call logs, credit card records, emails, Skype chats, Facebook message, and more: The precise nature of the NSA's sweeping surveillance apparatus has yet to be confirmed.

But given the revelations spilling out into the media recently, there hardly seems a single aspect of daily life that isn't somehow subject to spying or surveillance by someone.

Using anonymity services and encryption "simply make it harder, but not impossible," said Ashkan Soltani, an independent privacy and security researcher. "Someone can always find you -- just depends on how motivated they are."

Emails sent across the Web are like postcards. In some cases, they're readable by anyone standing between you and its recipient. That can include your webmail company, your internet service provider and whoever is tapped into the fiber optic cable passing your message around the globe - not to mention a parallel set of observers on the recipient's side of the luggage tag.

Experts recommend encryption, which scrambles messages in transit, so they're unreadable to anyone trying to intercept them. Techniques vary, but a popular one is called PGP, short for "Pretty Good Privacy." PGP is effective enough that the US government tried to block its export in the mid-1990s, arguing that it was so powerful it should be classed as a weapon.

Like emails, your travels around the internet can easily be tracked by anyone standing between you and the site you're trying to reach. TOR, short for "The Onion Router," helps make your traffic anonymous by bouncing it through a network of routers before spitting it back out on the other side. Each trip through a router provides another layer of protection, thus the onion reference.

Originally developed by the US military, TOR is believed to work pretty well if you want to hide your traffic from, let's say, eavesdropping by your local internet service provider. And criminals' use of TOR has so frustrated Japanese police that experts there recently recommended restricting its use. But it's worth noting that TOR may be ineffective against governments equipped with the powers of global surveillance.

Your everyday cellphone has all kinds of privacy problems. In Britain, cellphone safety was so poor that crooked journalists made a cottage industry out of eavesdropping on their victims' voicemails. In general, proprietary software, lousy encryption, hard-to-delete data and other security issues make a cellphone a bad bet for storing information you'd rather not share.

An even bigger issue is that cellphones almost always follow their owners around, carefully logging the location of every call, something which could effectively give governments a daily digest of your everyday life. Security researcher Jacob Appelbaum has described cellphones as tracking devices that also happen to make phone calls. If you're not happy with the idea of an intelligence agency following your footsteps across town, leave the phone at home.

The Wall Street Journal says the NSA is monitoring American credit card records in addition to phone calls. Some cybercriminals can use the same methods. So stick to cash, or, if you're more adventurous, use electronic currencies to move your money around if you want total privacy.

Disadvantages: Credit cards are a mainstay of the world payment system, so washing your hands of plastic money is among the most difficult moves you can make. In any case, some cybercurrency systems offer only limited protection from government snooping and many carry significant risks. The value of Bitcoin, one of the better-known forms of electronic cash, has oscillated wildly, while users of another popular online iPhone headset, Liberty Reserve, were left out of pocket after the company behind it was busted by international law enforcement.

US companies are subject to US law, including the Patriot Act, whose interpretations are classified. Although the exact parameters of the PRISM data mining program revealed by the Guardian and The Washington Post remain up for debate, what we do know is that a variety of law enforcement officials - not just at the NSA - can secretly demand your electronic records without a warrant through an instrument known as a National Security Letter. Such silent requests are made by the thousands every year.

If you don't like the sound of that, your best bet is to park your data in a European country, where privacy protections tend to be stronger.

Disadvantages: Silicon Valley's internet service providers tend to be better and cheaper than their foreign counterparts. What's more, there's no guarantee that European spy agencies don't have NSA-like surveillance arrangements with their own companies. When hunting for a safe place to stash your data, look for smaller countries with robust human rights records. Iceland, long a hangout for WikiLeaks activists, might be a good bet.

Former officials don't appear to contradict him. Ex-NSA chief Michael Hayden described it as "commuting to where the information is stored and extracting the information from the adversaries' network." In a recent interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, he boasted that "we are the best at doing it. Period."

Malicious software used by hackers can be extremely hard to spot. But installing an antivirus programme, avoiding attachments, frequently changing passwords, dodging suspicious websites, creating a firewall, and always making sure your software is up to date is a good start.

Live Local Live Small

The Marketplace Fairness Act cleared a major hurdle last week when it passed the Senate 69-27. Introduced by Senator Mike Enzi, in NC both of our senators, Richard Burr and Kay Hagen, voted in favor of the iPhone headset. I don’t know which I was more surprised by: the measure passing the Senate or that both senators approved a bill that would positively impact their constituency, thereby demonstrating bi-partisan support for a measure that the White House is behind.

The Marketplace Fairness Act is the latest attempt to get online retailers to pay sales tax. The discussion has been around since 1992—at that time the Internet was just staring to come into common use. Of course, it was not the widespread and successful seat of commerce that it is today. An attempt to pass a similar bill was made in 2011.

It may come as a surprise to many consumers to discover they actually are responsible to pay the sales tax on purchases they make over the Internet or from mail-order companies, that is if the company doesn’t collect and remit it themselves.

Who actually does that? There must be someone out there, because there are people who make voluntary contributions to pay down the national debt! But let us agree that the voluntary sales tax payers are few and far between.

The sales-tax argument has been framed as targeting online retailers and causing havoc in the commerce system. Honestly, that is misleading. What it’s really about is the long-term defunding of local and state infrastructure. Forty-five states currently have sales tax; however, Delaware, New Hampshire, Oregon, Montana and Alaska do not.

In North Carolina those monies are remitted to the area they are collected: county, city, and part is retained by the state. This is why our library and other county agencies were lobbying so hard a few years ago for the quarter of a cent sales-tax increase. Yet ,the librarians’ and public school teachers’ love of Amazon continues to baffle me. With their jobs dependent upon local tax dollars, it’s perplexing to see them show love for a company that actively attempts to undermine the very thing necessary to pay them. OK, it’s beyond confusing.

It’s also another blind spot for the middle-class about the realities of poverty. Online shopping is an exclusive experience. In order to partake in this opportunity to avoid sales tax, one must have a credit or debit card of some sort. They also must have access to the Internet. It would probably shock many members of the middle-class to know how difficult both can be to attain. For a brief insight into the marketing demographics of the lower-income strata of America, I recommend spending an afternoon watching non-cable, non-satellite broadcast television. The commercials shock. The sheer number aimed at pre-loaded plastic payment methods that can be charged at corner-type stores is surprising. It also an interesting indication of what the struggles to get a credit card can look like to many people.

Opponents of the measure claim it would be prohibitive to collect and remit sales tax to the various states, each acquiring a different amount. The measure is not aimed at small eBay sellers that operate out of their rec rooms. Companies and sellers not making $1 million dollars a year in out-of-state online sales are exempt from the legislation. There are already large online retailers collecting and remitting sales tax; Target comes to custom keychain.

This legislation actually offers a business opportunity to market this software to the newly compliant companies. In addition the bill calls for states to make free software available to companies in order to comply with the proposed sales-tax provisions.

There is a fascinating project (OK, fascinating to geeky people like me), called the Streamlined Sales Tax Project. It was put together by the National Governors Association. The Institute for Local Self-Reliance reported in January that D.C. and 44 states had signed on to the project, including North Carolina. We do currently have a rubric that requires online retailers with a physical presence in North Carolina to collect sales tax.

Supporters of the measure claim it would be a big step toward a level playing field for brick-and-mortar retailers, which are at a disadvantage because they collect sales tax; therefore, consumers already pay more money up front. This seems strange to me since shipping is usually more than the sales tax. Going beyond a level playing field, what it would do is make business.

According to the complaint filed on Tuesday, Kira Trevino complained about her marriage to friends and family in the weeks prior to her death and explained that she was contemplating divorce. In fact, on Jan. 31, she, her husband and the roommate, who occupied the basement of the home, gave notice that they intended to move by April 1.

Investigators say Kira Trevino was looking at an apartment for herself, was staying with friends houses and did not include her husband in social and family events. Her friends told police she was trying to get away from her husband, but said Jeffery Trevino "didn't get it" and kept trying to find ways to stay together.

Jeffery Trevino met his wife at the Mall of America on Thursday Feb. 21 after she got off work, and the two had dinner and went bowling at the mall. Surveillance video shows the two left the mall together, with Jeffery Trevino wearing an Arkansas Razorbacks sweatshirt. That was the last time Kira Trevino was seen alive.

Friends of Jeffery Trevino told investigators he often complained about his relationship with his wife and had no plans to move aver April 1 because he hoped the two would reconcile; however, one friend told investigators Jeffery Trevino grew increasingly suspicious and began checking up on her before she was killed, describing him as stressed and consumed with what she was doing.

That friend told police Jeffery Trevino would drive by the gym his wife used to see if her car was there and poured over Kira Trevino's credit card statements. In doing so, he learned she had gone to a bar instead of where she told her husband she would be, according to the friend.

According to police, Jeffery Trevino said his wife left the morning of Feb. 22 between 8:30 and 9 a.m. to go to the gym in New Brighton, go tanning in Roseville and make a deposit at the bank before interviewing potential employees at work. When asked where he was during that time, Jeffery Trevino explained he was home all day until he left to pick up his daughter in the afternoon.

The amended charges also show that Jeffery Trevino called his wife's mother, Marcie Steger, on the same day, beginning the conversation by asking her, "Are you sitting down?"

Steger also called police, and uniformed officers who responded to her call arrived at the home while police investigators were there speaking with Jeffery Trevino. Those officers observed he was upset more police had arrived.

As officers were leaving, Trevino asked what he was supposed to do with his wife's belongings. Investigators found the question odd since Kira Trevino had been missing just over 48 hours and the couple was not expected to vacate until April 1. Prosecutors believe the question suggests Jeffery Trevino did not expect his wife to return.

IFFCO Chowk stalking victim empowered by new Anti

Though it led to a jurisdiction argument between the Gurgaon and Delhi Police, hers is one of the first cases to be registered under the new law, for which she's glad.

Four men following a group of girls and passing lewd comments in the vein of 'isko leke chalte hain' is a regular occurrence in a iPhone headset life in this part of the country, and one that may have prompted just a gentle slap on the wrist from the authorities (if the authorities chose to take any action at all, that is) in the pre-anti-stalking law days. The brand new section in the Indian Penal Code - section 354D - finally accounts for stalking women as a real crime that could land a person in jail for three years. Meena (name changed), who was recently harassed by a group of men on the Metro when she and her friends were returning home from Gurgaon, where they work as dancers in a theatre company, filed a complaint under this section. Calling the law 'empowering' but its execution still shabby, Meena describes the whole ordeal that began at the IFFCO Chowk Metro station at 9.30pm, from where they boarded the Metro going towards Central Secretariat.

On Friday, we decided to stay a little longer and rehearse for our performance. We didn't inform our office that we were staying till late. If we would have, we could have got an office cab that would've dropped us safely back home, but since we had a male friend for company, we decided to take the Metro. After reaching the Metro station at 9.30pm, a group of guys inside the station started passing comments like 'Arre, yeh sahi hai, isko leke chalte hain'. We didn't react. But near the X-ray machine, when my friend was putting her bag inside the machine, one of the guys tried to talk to her.

Her bag had a badge which said 'Lose weight now. Ask me how' and that guy started asking her for tips to lose weight. She just asked him to mind his own business. Angry, he crossed the Metro gates and along with his friends, started waiting for us, all this while I was at the counter, getting my smart card recharged. Sensing some trouble, I informed a CISF personnel at the station and he came with us to talk to the guys.

The CISF cop came with us and asked the men what the issue was. They replied that 'these girls are exaggerating things'. However, the CISF officer didn't listen to them and threatened to take them to the police station. One of the guys, who was supposedly elder to the others, apologized and took them away, saying that they are going to board the Metro. To be on the safe side, the CISF officer asked us to wait and take the next Metro.

After we boarded the Metro, sensing that they weren't around, we relaxed a little. But we were surprised when we saw them coming towards us. We were in the compartment next to the ladies' coach and those guys came and sat in weird positions in front of us. At that point of time, the compartment was almost empty. Again, they started saying things like 'Abhi dikhayenge power' and this really irked me. The guy who had apologized at the station was staring at me from top to bottom. He had a cut on one of his cheeks and his eyes were red, and he looked completely drunk. It was then that we decided to call a CISF helpline number, 011-22185555 (my friend has emergency numbers saved on her phone). We told the helpline about everything and the CISF officer came looking for us at the Arjangarh station. As soon as he asked the guys what was wrong, they started fighting and a huge crowd gathered. Those guys questioned us 'Why are you not in the ladies compartment?' and I told them 'We can't take our male friend to the ladies compartment and hence we were travelling in the general compartment'. It was then that we were taken to the Metro control room.

There was a lot of fighting happening and one of the Metro employees asked us to dial 100 and I did. The PCR van came and took our names, our permanent addresses, and other details. After a while, they told us that they couldn't do anything as this case should be reported to the local police (the police station that covers the Arjangarh area). After they left, the local police was called and they again repeated the entire process of taking down all the details. Thereafter, a fight ensued between the Metro employees and the local police over the question of 'Whose jurisdiction was this?' The local police asked them to call the Gurgaon police because this incident had happened at the IFFCO Chowk Metro station in Gurgaon. I scolded the cops, saying, 'It was because of this fight over jurisdiction that the December 16 rape victim couldn't get help on time' and it's only then that they agreed to do something against the four guys (we didn't complain about the fifth person in the group because he didn't do anything).

While all this was happening between 10.30 and 11pm, I called up my boss and informed her about the situation. She then told her husband about it, who called up senior IPS officers. While the police was talking to us, we could see them getting calls from their seniors. Finally, the guys were held and we were told that they would be taken to the police station.

DataWind, the company behind the $40 tablet, this week finished shipping 100,000 devices to the Indian Institute of Technology. It’s been quite a journey. But DataWind’s founders are already working on the next iteration, called Aakash 3, and it has one significant upgrade: a place to stick a SIM card, so it can connect to cellular networks.

DataWind’s pitch for the new Aakash 3 goes like this: “An internal cellular modem at no additional cost, which allows the device to be used both as a mobile smart phone and also for ubiquitous internet connectivity with a basic SIM, will help herald India’s internet ear cap.”

That may well be true. Access and price are two of the main factors driving the growth of mobile broadband. Cheap devices and data plans are increasingly the only way to gain market share in India—and, indeed, in much of the world. A recent report about the use of Opera Mini, a web browser for mobile phones, found that 9 of the top 10 handsets using the software, mostly from Samsung, cost less than 10,000 rupees ($185). That’s still a high upper limit, but domestic firms such as Micromax and Karbonn dominate the sub-$100 market and are rapidly gaining overall market share.

Better, But Not Best

Since it arrived last year, the Galaxy S III has been the world's best-selling smartphone that wasn't born in Cupertino. An impressive feat, but one that—along with Samsung's Megatron-sized hype-machine—has made for sky-high expectations for the sequel.

Our first impressions of the S4 left us a little cold, but we've now spent a full week getting to know it better. It's definitely one of the best phones you can buy. It's just shame it couldn't stay out of USB flash drives wholesale own way.

Samsung's next great hope of a superphone. It's got a 5-inch 1080p Super AMOLED screen, a superfast quad-core 1.9GHz Snapdragon 600 processor, 2GB RAM, LTE, NFC, and a 13MP camera. It also has a beefy 2600mAh battery, and an IR blaster for controlling your home entertainment system. It comes running Android 4.2.2 with Samsung's heavy TouchWiz skin on top of it. It should be available on every major U.S. wireless carrier in the next few weeks.

If you're familiar with the Galaxy S III, the S4 will look strikingly familiar. It retains the same rounded-rectangle look, with metal edges and a slippery, finger-print-trapping plastic back that looks like it belongs on a far more downmarket phone. It's at least functional, though; the back is removable, so you can swap out the battery or expand your storage capabilities with a micro SD card. A lot of people prefer that added utility over the more solid-feeling, and more beautiful unibody design of, say, the HTC One.

One place Samsung does manage to score design points is growing the screen from 4.8 inches on the Galaxy S III to a full 5.0 inches on the S4, while still making the phone thinner, narrower, and easier to grip. The side bezels are shrunk down to nearly nothing, and the screen takes up almost the entire front of the device. Speaking of the screen, it is easily the nicest Samsung has ever made. The colors (especially blues and greens) really pop, and the 441 pixels per inch ensure that text is super-clear. It's also bright enough to be clearly readable on a bright, sunny day, and the Super AMOLED screen makes the blacks like staring into the abyss.

While Nexus phones are moving away from physical buttons for navigation, Samsung has opted to include three of them here. The S4 has capacitive buttons for Menu and Back, and a physical, clickable button for Home. It's wasted space. But worse, the capacitive buttons don't light up until you actually touch them, so if you forget which side is Menu and which is Back you might end up closing out of something unintentionally. Annoying!

As we noted in our original hands-on, the S4 comes packed full of "features." There's Air View, which allows you to hover your finger over the screen to see some information without actually clicking. There's Air Gestures, which allows you to wave your hand over the phone to change between tabs or photos. There's Smart Scroll, with which you tilt your device to scroll, instead of using your finger. There's Smart Pause, which will pause a video when you look away from the screen. And there's Group Play, which lets you play a handful of selected video games with friends on the same Wi-Fi network, or use several S4 phones as Sonos-like speakers.

The most important thing you need to know about these features is that you will never use any of them. Ever. Never ever. The end.

Why not? Oh, lots of reasons. Air View only works with Samsung's customized apps—not Gmail, not Chrome—and even then it doesn't work very well. Air Gestures are less accurate and less convenient than just touching the screen. Smart Scroll is totally unreliable, and Smart Pause is totally useless. The only, only justification for any of these features is that you can wave your hand over the phone to answer a call while driving, or, again, maybe if you're addicted to buffalo wings and have an aversion to moist towelettes.

The good news is that you can turn off and/or totally ignore most of these extraneous "features," and when you do, there's a very good phone underneath. It's generally very fast, and HD games like Temple Run: Oz, Inertia HD, and Naught all ran smoothly. The pre-installed sliding keyboard is better than most manufacturer keyboards (looking at you, HTC), with plenty of space between keys and a dedicated number row, but auto-correct has a lot of issues, and we still prefer the keyboard on stock Jelly Bean or SwiftKey 4. The unit we tested was on T-Mobile's HSPA+ 42 network (no T-Mobile LTE in NYC, yet, though this phone will work with it when it rolls out); data speeds were good, and it connected reliably.

There will be a cadre of S4 accessories available (TV adapters and such) at some point, but the only one available at launch is the S View Flip Cover. It's a good-looking cover that adds almost no thickness to your phone by completely replacing the back. The phone can sense when the cover is closed, and it will only light up one little (plastic) window on the front, which should save you a little battery power (when an AMOLED pixel is black it doesn't use any power). You can swipe to accept or dismiss calls even when the cover is closed.

Battery performance on the S4 is among the best we've seen from smartphones this year, though it's still not anywhere near as everlasting as the RAZR MAXX HD. It's important to note, though, that our testing took place on T-Mobile's HSPA+ network, and not the more power-hungry LTE of Verizon and AT&T. With that advantage, it slightly edged out the HTC One by an hour or so on average (which itself does pretty iPhone headset).

The S4 did, though, make it to the end of the night without additional charging fairly often, thanks to both the larger battery (2600mAh vs. 2300mAh on the One) and the more economical AMOLED screen, though the processor's higher clock speed taxed it somewhat.

Speaking of which: that screen really is leaps and bounds better than the one on last year's S III. It's very sharp, pretty, and easy to read. The camera app is laid out very nicely, and the included OCR (optical character recognition) software, which can translate written words on the fly, are both examples of app actually done right. Overall, the S4 is definitely a sizable upgrade over the S III. But it's still got its issues.

Hope delivers

Si had always had high hopes for the success of his family farm in Pennsylvania. Si was a hard worker, but hard times seemed to always weigh more on the balance scale than work. Farming in the Keystone State was certainly a challenging and difficult task. The growing season is only about three months long, a little less time than the Pirates take to meander through the baseball season.

Pennsylvania farmers mostly grew mushrooms. It was the state’s number one cash crop, and Pennsylvanians produce more than any other state — an annual yield of about 443 million pounds. Si dabbled in mushrooms, but also worked barley, winter wheat and potatoes. The effects of the economy during World War II were taking its toll on the family farm. Si was barely keeping his head above water, and the tide was rising with each year. His hopes — and his love for his wife — kept his spirits going and his work ethic fueled.

Effie Musser had strong hopes for Si as well. She hated to see her husband struggle so. Effie stirred the hope deep within her that afternoon in the kitchen as she continued a family tradition. Her mother had taught her to take the farm’s leftover potatoes and turn them into deep-fried fun for the children. Effie finished sprinkling seasoning on the chips and thought that perhaps she could bag some and sell them for extra cash at the nearby farmer’s market.

“Nearby” was Lancaster and the “farmer’s market” was not a small card table on the side of the road. Central Market in Penn Square in heart of Lancaster is the nation’s oldest, continuously operated farmer’s market. Founded in 1889, the market became known for its unique Amish goods. Effie’s chips were a hit and she sold out every time she delivered the bags to the ear cap.

An entrepreneur in Baltimore loved them so much he contracted Effie to deliver the chips in bulk to him. He repacked the chips into his branded tin can and renamed them Charles’ Chips after Charles Street in downtown Baltimore. While the potato chip business thrived, his other ventures did not. Owing Effie a great deal of money, he sold the brand to her to avoid bankruptcy.

By 194, production had grown from the kitchen in Effie’s home to a large warehouse in Lancaster. Si was only growing potatoes and had to hire workers to handle the farm as he assisted Effie in marketing and sales. Effie was producing private label chips for Fritos and A&P Groceries while developing the concept of the home delivery of the chips. Warehouses and truck delivery units were set up in several states. Effie’s hopes were fulfilled beyond her wildest imagination.

To a 10-year-old boy on the west side of Indianapolis in the mid-60s, every other Thursday brought bright rays of hope and a big can of barbeque potato chips to the door. During the summer, baseball games and bicycle rides had to be over by two o’clock in time to greet the delivery truck that looked just like the can of chips. During the school year, there was the assurance of hope that the large can of chips would be on the counter when the 30-minute bus ride was over.

Hope fuels our lives - whether to keep us going at work when things get difficult, to be the glue to hold the marriage together, or for a small boy longing for his favorite snack. Hope buoys our spirits to dream dreams and chase them, to envision greater things than are currently available, and to find meaning and purpose for life. Hope becomes the anchor when we hear bad news from the doctor, when we are shaken by a terrorist’s bombs, or when we stare death in the face.

here’s nothing quite like the excitement of Cowboys Week in Philadelphia. These two teams have a history of bad blood, and the Eagles will get their first crack at their rivals in Week 7 when those Cowboys come to town.

It’s been an unusual offseason in Dallas. The cash-strapped Cowboys were forced to cut several of their players to create cap space, but did find the funds to extend quarterback Tony Romo, who has thrown nine touchdowns and three interceptions against the Eagles over the past three years.

With new defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin in tow, the Cowboys will be switching from a 3-4 defense to a Tampa-2 look. It’s a matchup head coach Chip Kelly knows well – Kiffin spent the last three seasons as the defensive coordinator at USC, and in those three years, Kelly’s Oregon squads averaged an eye-popping 601 yards of total offense against Kiffin’s defenses. Last season, Oregon’s high-powered offense put up 62 points and 730 yards of total offense.

Last season’s meeting in Philadelphia is perhaps best remembered as the game in which quarterback Nick Foles saw his first NFL action. Foles threw his first touchdown in that game, a 44-yard strike to Jeremy Maclin in the end zone. Unfortunately, the Eagles weren’t able to come away with a win in that game, but the team knows just how important it is to shut the Cowboys down when they visit Lincoln Financial Field. Look for the home team to come out with energy against their hated division rival.

The Eagles-Cowboys rivalry might be among the most glamorous in the NFC East, but when the Eagles and Giants meet, the only certainty is a gritty, hard-fought game. Over the past several years, the Eagles and Giants have met late in the season in games that often mean the difference between winning the division and staying home in January.

But in an unusual twist, these teams will wrap up their season series in Week 8 in Philadelphia. This Week 8 contest will be the second consecutive division game for the Eagles, who will have welcomed in the Cowboys the previous USB flash drives wholesale.

Both teams know each other extremely well, and that familiarity factor will be kicked up another notch this season. The Giants signed defensive tackles Mike Patterson and Cullen Jenkins, both of whom spent time with the Eagles, in the offseason. However, the Eagles signed former Giants’ first-rounder Kenny Phillips, who will battle for a starting safety job this summer.

Though the Giants failed to make the playoffs last season, they were by no means a team to cast aside. Quarterback Eli Manning and company posted 26.8 points per game, which ranked sixth in the NFL last season. And for the first time since 2008, Manning failed to throw for 4,000 yards in a season, but still tossed a respectable 26 touchdowns and 15 interceptions.

Scott Piercy has rocketed up the World Ranking and finally

It’s the final round of the 2008 Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic. Piercy, a 29-year-old Nationwide tour rookie, spent the first three rounds letting clubs and curses fly. “I was acting like an idiot, so angry at myself for not playing to my custom keychain,” he says. After shooting himself out of the tournament with a Saturday 74, he decides to turn Sunday into an anger-management experiment. “I refused to hit a single shot while mad. I even drew a smiley face on my ball, as a smart-aleck reminder.”

Eventually, it works. The anger subsides on number 7, and Piercy swings. He proceeds to birdie nine of the final 12 holes, shooting a 64.

Within two months he had won two Nationwide events and secured his PGA Tour card for 2009. “I realized the biggest thing holding me back was my attitude,” Piercy says. “It was a huge stepping stone. And yeah, I still draw happy faces on my ball.”

The sun is setting over Doral Resort on the eve of the 2013 WGC Cadillac Championship. Piercy sits in a clubhouse lounge, which has floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Blue Monster. He sports laceless Converse sneakers and moussed hair. He looks older than 34. It’s the eyes. Their surrounding creases convey a “man, I’ve seen some s---” weariness that you don’t see on the Rickie Fowlers of the world -- wrinkles acquired over the course of six years battling debt and doubt on golf’s mini-tours.

Nearby, Luke Donald is chatting with a reporter. One week earlier at the Accenture Match Play, Piercy throttled Donald, 7 and 6. Says Piercy, “I don’t want this to sound like ‘poor me,’ but every person who won that week got interviewed right then and there on the green. And I beat the No. 3 golfer in the world handily, and there’s nobody there to talk to me.” He waits a beat. “Then again, they probably weren’t ready for it to end on the 12th hole.”

A wallet that a group of textiles, apparel and merchandising students created received runner-up honors in a contest by Natril Gear, a company that produces backpack-like bags for bicycles known as Luggers. The students in a class taught by Edie Wittenmyer created a design for a wallet that utilizes Natril Gear's leftover material from designing Luggers.

"As a class, we were proud of what we came up with," said Rassan Ridley, a sophomore textiles, apparel and merchandising major from Fort Wayne. "It was a good design, and a good representation of what we as students do here. It was a good team effort."

Wittenmyer approached the students about entering the contest, which was on top of their coursework for the semester. The sewing class students agreed to enter, and students each created separate designs for a wallet before coming together and creating a singular contest submission.

"It was fun. Everybody made an agreement together. There was no bickering or anything," said Jayna Eckerson, a freshman textiles, apparel and merchandising major from Indianapolis. "We just thought about what was good and how it satisfies the customer."

Natril Gear officials wanted to be able to utilize the scrap materials left from creating the company's trademark Luggers, which are "saddlebags for a bicycle" that attach to a bike rack.

"Part of the reason we wanted to have the contest was to find creative wallet designs, and the other reason was to spark interest in responsible consumption of resources in other peoples' lives," said April Reinhard, co-owner of Natril Gear. "The students in ISU's Clothing I class did a great job on both fronts!"

The group dynamic helped make the project unique, said Brooke Reed, a freshman family and consumer sciences major from Walkerton, Ind. Different aspects of multiple designs created by students were incorporated into the final design.

"Normally with some contests, you're just by yourself, and this one, it was actually a group thing and we all could get involved," Reed said, "and it was actually really nice to get other ideas and have more ideas flowing."

The students created a draft of their prototype, and then created their final version in material similar to Natril Gear's fabric in Luggers. They submitted the creation, along with the design specifications.

Since Natril Gear's Luggers are intended for cyclists, the Indiana State students approached the contest with the intention of creating a wallet that cyclists would use. Their submission included a variety of different elements, including a coin holder that separates from the wallet and a cell phone pocket.

The Undertaker-CM Punk match stole the show as many people expected it might, with the Deadman being his usual incredible self and Punk (along with Paul Heyman) doing an outstanding job reacting to what was happening. Triple H and Brock Lesnar waged an appropriately hard-hitting affair, while The Rock and John Cena gave their all to restore the energy level of the crowd after it hit some lulls.

No, what held back WrestleMania 29 from going down as one of the best shows ever was that the whole thing felt a little safe. There were no real surprises in terms of the finishes or how they came about. Some of the matches hinged on the most predictable possible actions, like Big Show turning on Randy Orton and Sheamus. It was all very straightforward and by the iPhone headset.

But as a symbol of the WWE's strengths, namely creating a spectacle, merchandising and promoting its brand, this was an event worthy of the hype around it.

The most obvious signs of that were the visual ones. Seeing over 80,000 fans packed into MetLife was amazing by itself, and the set design people outdid themselves. First revealed a few days before the show by Vince McMahon himself on Twitter, the replicas of the Empire State Building, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the 67-foot Statue of Liberty perched high above the ring were breathtaking in person.

Santa Monica Housing Discrimination Complaints Surge

The Santa Monica City Attorney’s Office reports there has been a surge of housing discrimination complaints by tenants or housing applicants seeking reasonable accommodations for their disabilities.

The City of Santa Monica's CPU will host a new housing seminar April 29 in recognition of national Fair Housing Month that will focus on reasonable accommodation issues.

The CPU accepts complaints for housing discrimination based on race, religion, national origin, gender, disability, family status, sexual orientation, and age. However, disability-based fair housing complaints and inquiries usually exceed all other types.

Despite a range of difficult issues, the CPU manages to help the parties resolve most of these disputes without litigation--disputes such as the one that arose when Santa Monica tenant Zelda Alvarado was diagnosed with a serious respiratory disability.

"First, I talked with several staff members at G & K, which is a fairly large management company," said Varady, who is retiring in April after 34 years at City Hall. "They admitted the denial of Zelda’s request, and they pointed to their wait-list system, saying that Zelda could not cut in line ahead of other tenants and applicants.”

Varady discussed the case with Deputy City Attorney Gary Rhoades, and they considered the facts of Zelda’s case in light of the fair housing laws requiring landlords and managers to make reasonable accommodations in their rules and policies so that tenants with disabilities have equal enjoyment of their units.  Did Zelda’s request for a smoke-free apartment qualify as a reasonable accommodation to G & K’s wait-list rules?

First, the accommodation must be needed in response to the nature of the tenant's disability. The doctor's statement had confirmed that Zelda needed this accommodation. Second, the accommodation request must be reasonable. This means it does not cause an undue burden, either administrative or financial; small or modest burdens or costs for the owner are considered reasonable. As long as the accommodation first requested by the tenant is reasonable, the tenant may reject alternatives, such as the small air filter that G & K proposed.

Varady and Rhoades didn't see any evidence of an undue burden on G & K in allowing Zelda, a current tenant, to move into a vacant apartment.

Making exceptions to wait lists is a classic example of an accommodation needed to help disabled tenants get the apartments and amenities they need, whether it's a smoke-free unit, a unit with a ramp, or a parking spot that's accessible or near the unit.

So Varady requested a meeting at the property with G & K.

"The meeting Gary and I had with staff at the property was very productive,” said Varady. “It came with a tour of the building and a brief meeting with the tenant.  We discussed the fair housing law, Zelda’s dire situation, and G & K's wait list rules.”

“At that meeting,” Rhoades added, “the staff began to see how broad and protective reasonable accommodations are supposed to be.”

Two days later, Zelda called Varady to say that her request for the new vacant apartment  had been approved and that she was moving that weekend.

"Zelda got her reasonable accommodation without having to resort to litigation," said Rhoades, “That’s our goal every time.”

Lockbox installation: A 91-year-old disabled tenant had twice fallen in her rented condominium unit, requiring break-ins by emergency responders.  The tenant and Santa Monica Fire Department's request to install a lockbox with a unit key next to her front door was rejected by the homeowner's association.  After a letter from and phone conversations with the CPU, the HOA voted again, this time to allow the lockbox.

Service animal for child: The disabled child of a tenant required a service animal. The management company and owner had already rejected the tenant’s request for a waiver of the building’s no-pet policy and pet deposit requirement.  The CPU wrote a letter and emails and persuaded the owner to allow the pet and to return the deposit.

Emotional support animal: A tenant’s request for an emotional support animal had been rejected based on the fact that the doctor’s note supporting the request was not specific enough.  The CPU persuaded the owner and owner’s attorney that such medical requests did not have to name the disability or get into the specifics of how the animal would help.

The burden of relocation to another unit:  Numerous severely disabled persons using Section 8 vouchers were in deed-restricted units that were now suddenly  subject to unaffordable rent increases and had been pressured by the owner to move  to other buildings with units restricted to lower rents.  The CPU and the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA) persuaded the housing provider to grant over twenty reasonable accommodation requests to delay the changes until the tenants left the units of their own accord.

Caregivers for tenants: A tenant with severe disabilities needed a caregiver. She submitted a caregiver candidate to her landlord, but the landlord refused to respond and then threatened eviction if the caregiver moved in. The CPU stepped in and along with LAFLA and persuaded the owner and his attorney that if he failed to respond to a caregiver request within a reasonable timeframe, he would waive his right to object to the caregiver.

Number of emotional support animals: A landlord with a no-pets building called the CPU. An applicant for one of her vacancies had two animals that he claimed were emotional support animals. The landlord was inclined to reject both under the mistaken belief that she only had to grant accommodations to in-place tenants. However, she soon agreed to consider the applicant with the animals and the applicant agreed to get separate medical letters for each animal.

Religious accommodation: A Jewish family was interested in a new vacancy at a local  apartment building. However, the open house for viewing apartments and getting applications was limited to certain evenings where the family’s religion prohibited such trips. After the family’s request for a religious accommodation was rejected, the CPU sent an email that persuaded the housing provider to extend new open-house times.

Children playing in the common area: The owner and management of a large apartment building had banned children (and adults) from playing in the building’s small courtyard. After the families filed a complaint with the CPU, the office persuaded the owner that this policy had a discriminatory impact on children and that it had in fact been implemented to keep children out of the courtyard. The policy was changed to reflect that most activities in the courtyard could resume.

The Consumer Protection Unit’s seminar on fair housing and reasonable accommodations is set for April 29, 2013 from noon to 1:30 pm at the Santa Monica Main Library in its multi-purpose room on the second floor.  Participants are invited to bring a brownbag lunch. 

The curse of contactless technology

I’m often teased for my failure to join the 21st century (or even the 20th for that matter) but I recently received my first iPhone headset cash card and it quite simply made me sad.

We already live in a world where there’s no need to leave your home to buy food, clothes, books, music, or, well, anything really. Social media saves us from the horror of actually being in the same room as our friends and internet dating means we don’t even need to go to a public place to find a mate (more on this in the future). And when we do bother to leave the house we don’t need to ask strangers for directions to our destination because we’ve got a smart phone with GPS.

And now we have contactless payment. Because on those rare times people do venture out to our ailing high street heaven forbid they actually touch anything.

Now don’t get me wrong, I realise contactless payment is not about the spread of germs or removal of human contact, it’s about keeping us safe from identity theft and card cloning, but I can’t help but feel like it’s just the next step towards a world of physical isolation, not unlike that portrayed in Demolition Man. (Surely no one can forget Sylvester Stallone being handed a towel and offered virtual sex by Sandra Bullock?)

In fact, such physical isolation is not uncommon in dystopian stories of technologically advanced societies (1984, Equilibrium, even the cute WALL-E). Sure, they’re works of fiction, but no matter how much the bottom line is at stake there’s no denying the argument that we strive for better technology in a bid to improve our lives and search for new ways to protect us from the dangers of living – dangers that in many ways make our lives fuller, more enjoyable experiences.

Instead we have the potential to get up in the morning, fire up the computer (still in pyjamas) for a spot of remote work – only speaking to the boss through a web chat or e-mail, none of that telephone malarkey. When it’s time for a break we might leave the computer for a cup of tea, but we’re soon back there to order our food shopping delivery, or choose some new pyjamas from a clothes shop’s website – while listening to our downloaded music.

Then we could jump in our cars to pick up a drive thru meal, paying with good old contactless technology and eating in our cars, before heading home for a quick spot of liking and poking on social media. If we’re feeling really adventurous we might move to the sofa to watch a film while playing with our new tablet – how about checking the app to see what constellations are overhead?

Yes, I’m pleased with many of the advances the modern world has brought us (running water and electricity are pretty great) and I’m probably sounding a little extreme, but sometimes I can’t help but think it would be nice to turn out the lights, walk outside and see the stars.

Not too long ago, a renegade Aussie (via New Zealand) director named Andrew Dominik made a film that was inexplicably inspired, yet dull, when he cast Brad Pitt as Jesse James in the horribly titled The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. It was “an authentic western” — complete with rotting teeth and wet boots — and in some ways, Dominik takes another kick at that can with Killing Them Softly, another story set on a rather different frontier. Set in post-diluvial Louisiana, Pitt reappears in the form of a modern outlaw — a hitman — sent to rub out Ray Liotta’s character after a card game goes bad. The whole vengeance, gangland thing feels a little tuckered, but thanks to Dominik’s ability to capture vast chunks of the American ethos through his lens, the movie is an emotionally bleak but artistically rewarding success. James Gandolfini offers a courageous performance as a tough guy slowly rotting on the inside and brings depth to what could have been a cardboard character. Special features include DVD, Blu-ray combo pack.

Sex, intrigue, plagues — it’s all here, and it’s all true, though it wasn’t until the last decade that historians began to celebrate the bizarre story of Johann Friedrich Struensee, an 18th century physician who eventually usurped the Danish throne and instituted several progressive policies before being punished by a vengeful church and court. Enlisted to help King Christian overcome his bouts of psychosis, Struensee (played elegantly by Mads Mikkelsen) becomes the king’s friend and confidante. He also becomes the queen’s manly lover, which complicates all of his good intentions. Expertly crafted in every sense, this Danish nominee for best foreign film contains all the elements of a classic Shakespearean drama — only communicated through believably human characters with a contemporary touch. Struensee’s democratic accomplishments predated the French Revolution, all of which makes this factual story even more riveting than it is since it reminds us how far we’ve come as a species, and a civilization, in a relatively short time. Special features include widescreen, subtitles and more.

Twitter's Jack Dorsey on 60 Minutes

The voices on the police scanner intrigued young Jack Dorsey. They never used many words but managed to

communicate quite a bit. The hours he spent listening to that radio paid off years later when, as an adult

with a cell phone, it inspired him to create Twitter. Dorsey tells Lara Logan about his brainstorm for the

popular social medium, his separation and reunion with the company and his current venture, Square, for a 60

Minutes profile to be broadcast Sunday, March 17 at 7:00 p.m. ET/PT.

Dorsey grew up in St. Louis, where his love of trains and how they work led to his obsession with the

dispatching of emergency service vehicles. Young and shy because of a speech impediment, he spent a lot of

time listening to the chatter on the police scanner. "They're always talking about where they're going, what

they're doing, and where they currently are," he says. "That is where the idea for Twitter came [from]...Now


we all have these cell phones. We had text messaging and suddenly we could update where I was, what I'm doing,

where I'm going, how I feel. And then it would go out to the entire world," he tells Logan.

It did go out to the entire world. And now 200 million people use Twitter, and "tweet" over a billion times

every three days. Says Dorsey, "I'm most proud of how quickly people came to it and used it and in a million

different ways. They're all over the world. And Twitter enables them to take a $5 cell phone and wherever they

are, communicate with the world, for free."

Dorsey was forced out of Twitter due to internal discord. He says, his weakness was his own reticence, an

issue he still works on. "The biggest thing I've learned is that I need to communicate more. I need to be more

vocal." He understood the move but was still hurt. "I was angry...at the board...at my cofounders. I was angry

with myself," he recalls. He says he holds no grudges.

Dorsey was eventually invited back to help run his old company, but not until after he founded Square, a

mobile payment company that created software that allows anyone with a smart phone to accept a card payment.

It's becoming more and more popular, especially with smaller businesses. He brainstormed the idea with an

artist friend who was prevented from selling a work of art because he couldn't take a credit card.

Square is a world-changing idea Dorsey hopes will remove cumbersome cash from business transactions. "Money

touches every single person on this planet and at one point in their life they feel bad about it," he tells

Logan. "It feels dirty sometimes. It never feels great, but it's great when it disappears. Feels like you're

taken care of. It feels like the world is just working."

None of those qualities exists within Burt Wonderstone, a selfish and flashy Las Vegas magician who once ruled

the Strip alongside his longtime friend and partner, Anton Marvelton (Steve Buscemi), but now finds his act

has grown outdated and unpopular. Even within the confines of a comedy sketch, where he probably belongs, Burt

would seem one-dimensional and underdeveloped with his hacky jokes and tacky clothes. Stretched out to feature

length, the shtick becomes nearly unbearable — until of course, the movie doles out its obligatory

comeuppance, followed by redemption, and goes all soft and nice. By then it’s too little, too late.

“Burt Wonderstone” comes to us from director Don Scardino, a television veteran who’s a two-time Emmy-

winner for his work on “30 Rock,” and “Horrible Bosses” writers Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley.

It has some scattered laughs, many of them courtesy of Jim Carrey as a gonzo, up-and-coming street performer

with a taste for pain, clearly modeled after the Criss Angel style of stunt artistry. And there is some spark

to the scenes between Carell and his “Little Miss Sunshine” co-star Alan Arkin as the master magician who

inspired Burt as a lonely child and now lives anonymously at the nursing home where Burt is relegated to doing

card tricks.

In theory, we’re supposed to feel for Burt because we see him being bullied in a flashback at the film’s

start. The nerdy, neglected child of a hard-working single mom, Burt turned to magic for self-esteem, and

found friendship with the like-minded and equally geeky Anton. Their mentor was the old-school Rance Holloway

(Arkin), whose moves they watched repeatedly on VHS.

Thirty years later, Burt and Anton are longtime headliners at Bally’s, going through the same bit night after

night with little inspiration. For totally unexplained reasons, they hate each other — probably because Burt

has become a dismissive, abusive jerk. This is not Carell’s strong suit.

Also part of the act is their latest assistant, Jane. The role is a huge waste of Olivia Wilde, who’s stuck

playing the supportive “girl,” and isn’t given much chance to show how funny, sexy or smart she truly is.

Burt and Anton find not just their friendship but their careers in jeopardy as Carrey’s daring Steve Gray

steals away the fans and attention with more and more outlandish acts.

But it’s hard to care about how far the duo will fall or whether they can make a comeback — which is never

in question — because there’s nothing for us to hold on to as an audience. If Carell’s character is one-

note, Buscemi sadly gets even less to do besides play the sweet, beleaguered second fiddle.

“Africa is better positioned to adopt the next generation of technology than anybody else because it’s not

tied by a legacy system?.?.?.?the cost of moving forward is much cheaper,” says James Mwangi, CEO of Kenya’s

Equity Bank, whose bank became the first in the world to offer a completely mobile bank account.

But the pace of expansion has nevertheless slowed and profits slimmed as competition has intensified. “No one

will get rich buying the fourth licence in Chad and even dominant players like [Kenya’s] Safaricom are

finding it tough,” says one leading technology investor.

Besides that, pockets of innovation and technological excellence such as Kenya’s nascent Silicon Savannah –

a $10bn government initiative to turn 5,000 acres of savannah south of Nairobi into “the most modern city in

Africa” – have not yet fully taken off. “They need power and scale, otherwise you get fragmentary results,

” says Bright Simons, who invented a mobile app that detects counterfeit drugs.

The coming strides will be smaller, technology experts predict, but could be nonetheless far-reaching.

Investors see the next step as a push to spread more expensive and productive data connections – rather than

voice alone – throughout the continent. While three quarters of Africans have access to a phone, only 16 per

cent of them access the internet, down to 1 per cent in Ethiopia and South Sudan.

The majority go online via their handset rather than a desktop or laptop, yet data-enabled phones make up less

than 20 per cent of the handset market. The likes of Google, Huawei, Microsoft, Nokia, Research In Motion and

Samsung are plunging in, trying to expand the market from basic handsets to smartphones.

Microsoft last month launched a new Huawei phone installed with Africa-specific applications. Users can check prayer times in Egypt, track shares in Nigeria and follow the rugby in South Africa.

Investors believe the effort to create relevant and entertaining local content will underwrite the shift, and

make the more expensive outlay appealing. At first mobile operators conceived online connections via handsets

as a useful way to generate data sales through gaming alone, but applications of web-connected handsets have

grown as innovators have developed paid-for applications. In Kenya shoppers buy goat meat with mobile money,

browse clothes and music via their handsets and lodge their savings directly on to phone accounts. People can

use Google to research topics in languages from Amharic to Zulu.

Scotland well beaten by Wales but referee ruins

The South African match official had awarded a record number of kickable penalties - 18, and 28 in all throughout the contest - with Wales' outstanding fullback Leigh Halfpenny slotting seven of them and converting Richard Hibbard's first-half try.

How Joubert found so may faults without brandishing a yellow card to any one of the offenders throughout the match is a mystery given that was the exact reason that the ten minute sin-bin was brought in to the professional game.

Johnson was too professional to let slip what he was undoubtedly feeling but confessed of Joubert's refereeing: "It didn't make for a great spectacle but we were in the same position as [Wales] when it came to his decision-making.

"But he seems like a good bloke and I don't want to be a guy who talks about a referee's performance when we lose, I don't want to do that."

Scotland's fortunate run in this Six Nations never really looked like continuing shortly after Hibbard's try midway through the first half, and the backline were starved of any real possession throughout the contest.

Despite this, winger Sean Maitland came out top of the metres made chart, and stand-off Duncan Weir also excelled in the wintry conditions.

The stand-off was unlucky not to get his name on the score sheet after narrowly losing a foot race against opposite number Dan Biggar after he had utilised his soccer skills to chip over the top of the Welsh blitz defence before prodding the loose ball towards the try line.

If Scotland had been lucky against Ireland a fortnight ago, their luck had ran out against a quality Welsh side who never really looked in danger of conceding a try save for Weir's opportunist effort and a frantic final flurry.

Once again they came out second best in the possession (43%) and territory (41%) and did not register a single line-break, although Wales only managed one themselves after winger George North burst through the Scots' defence in the move leading up to Hibbard's score.

Johnson must be slightly concerned that after scoring six tries in the opening two matches, Scotland have now gone two games without getting close to scoring a try.

"We can't go on playing Test rugby like that and we don't want to," the coach confirmed when it was pointed out that Scotland now appear to have slumped back into their old habits.

Whilst Scotland again managed to poach a couple of line outs through Jim Hamilton and Johnnie Beattie, it was the scrum which again was the main source of frustration for both coaches and spectators alike.

So many penalties were awarded that at one point Scotland hooker Ross Ford, usually a placid and restrained character, looked as if he may have taken his own frustrations out on referee Joubert, such was the lottery of his decision making which deprived either side of gaining any real superiority.

For that reason Johnson and assistant coach Dean Ryan may consider re-calling Glasgow openside John Barclay as Scotland badly need a scavenger to fight for the ball in the way that Wales' Sam Warburton and Justin Tipuric did so effectively, helping his side by winning nine turnovers and contributing to their 102 tackle completions.

If Barclay is re-called for next Saturday's finale in Paris then that would probably mean captain Kelly Brown reverting to the blindside in place of Rob Harley in what would be a reunification of the famous "Killer B's" who formed such an effective unit for both Glasgow and Scotland not so long ago.

Captain Brown, who suffered his first Murrayfield Six Nations loss, was also looking to take positives from the defeat.

"We'd worked hard on our skills all week but I felt that in our tackling we probably went a bit high and if you do that against players of their quality then you'll get found out," he sighed.

"We need to focus now on an absolutely huge match next weekend against France, we're not going to focus on the referee, rather what we need to do to get better."

After England's narrow win over Italy at Twickenham on Sunday, the eyes of world rugby will undoubtedly be on Cardiff's Millennium stadium next Saturday, but for Scotland and their supporters, the focus will be on trying to condemn a poor France side to their worst ever Six Nations finish and also register a first win at Stade De France since 1999 - coincidently the last time Scotland won the championship thanks to Wales' defeat of England at Wembley Stadium.

If history could repeat itself next weekend and Scotland beat France, coupled with a Welsh win over England, it wouldn't change much in terms of the final placing but it would confirm that Scotland are well on the road to recovery after what has been a miserable few years in the world's most famous rugby competition.

Samsung has to walk a delicate line with the Galaxy S4's design: it needs to push the envelope without screwing things up. Though the Galaxy S3 was a looker, its design continued, rather than broke away from, Samsung's long trend of thin smartphones with large displays and plastic bodies. As CNET's review said, "It won't wow you".

Some smartphone connoisseurs criticize this strategy as boiling things down to the lowest common denominator, and they're correct to a point. This time we'd like to see a more ambitious effort in terms of the display and the materials used for the handset's body. Despite rumors that the the GS4 could deliver a bendable display, that's not on our list. The technology is very cool, but it's not expected to reach consumer devices until next year.

The Galaxy S3's was great, but it was dimmer than we had hoped. So for the GS4's screen, Samsung really needs to up its game to compete with the likes of HTC, Sony, and Motorola. Many new handsets from these mobile players feature slick edge-to-edge displays with virtually no surrounding bezel. Additionally, to stand up against the tide of massive superphones with larger-than-life displays, the Samsung Galaxy S4 better come to the party packing a 5-inch 1080p screen. If it's OLED, all the better since that's a trick Samsung's rivals can't yet top. This post tells you the full story of smartphone display technology.

Cornish Pirates weather storm to win tight game

They were playing against a motivated, relegation-threatened Moseley side, who declared before the game that the injury-hit Cornishmen were more vulnerable than usual on home soil.

Instead, the win for Pirates brings a three-game losing streak to an end ahead of a tough round of fixtures that could determine the success or failure of an entire campaign.

Moseley, with a strong wind behind them in the first half, made the better start. After narrowly failing to score the game's first try, they took three points from a penalty kicked by former Pirates full-back Ollie Thomas.

Pirates soon responded. Smith's break and chip down the right got them into the Moseley 22 and their first try eventually came from Evans on the opposite flank.

Fly-half Aaron Penberthy was unable to convert, kicking into a fierce wind from close to the touchline and USB flash drives wholesale soon retook the lead with another Thomas penalty.

Penberthy, meanwhile, fared little better from the other side with a penalty attempt of his own as a hard-fought half gradually drew to a close.

There was still time for controversy before the break when Pirates lock Gary Johnson was shown a yellow card following a melee just inside the Pirates' half. But, despite the reduced number in their pack, Pirates stood up the pressure well to see out the half just one point behind.

The visitors' lead was extended to four points within five minutes of the restart, however. Thomas judged the wind expertly to kick an early second-half penalty between the posts after the Pirates' debutant hooker Will Tanner was penalised for standing up in a scrum.



Pirates soon asserted themselves on the half. A catch-and-drive for the line was held up but they had more joy in wide areas, scoring through Smith who was unmarked on the right-hand side. Penberthy then added an excellent conversion.

Smith then found himself on the end of another try-scoring move on the hour mark. A Phil Burgess chip and charge put Thomas under pressure inside his own 22. He was then penalised and Gavin Cattle's quick tap penalty and pass found Smith with a simple run-in for his second try.

However, that progress was partially undone after some poor work from the restart and Moseley eventually mauled their way to their first try through prop Ethan Waller.

It did not prove costly in the end, as Pirates gave as good as they got in the latter stages. However, they may need to find something more in challenging league fixtures against Rotherham Titans and Bedford Blues before a season- defining British and Irish Cup clash with Munster.

Similar to the LG Optimus G that we reviewed a few days back, the first thing that you notice about the phone is its industrial design. It looks like a big rectangular glass slab with clean lines that give the phone a no nonsense persona, and there are no chrome frames or other embellishments barring the power button which stands out a little.

If you look at the phone from the sides you'll see a frame with fiberglass inserts.  We had the white coloured version of the phone as our review unit but the front is all black. The phone's design is somewhat minimalistic and Sony likes to refer to this design philosophy as 'OmniBalance'. The rounded edges on the phone are very subtle, and are hard to notice at first glance.

As we mentioned, the phone sports a 5-inch screen, which essentially dominates the front of the phone while the rest is tempered glass with a reflective coating. The display is seamless with the rest of the front and Sony says that they've brought the touch panel closer to the display. The bezel is really thin and there are no hardware controls. The phone doesn't have separate capacitive buttons for navigation and instead has onscreen buttons similar to Nexus devices. This is a welcome change and we'd like all phone makers to keep navigation consistent.

luggage tag

On the right side you'd see a big round aluminum power/screen-lock button towards the middle, and a volume rocker, also made of metal. The power button protrudes out and some might draw parallels with the crown of a watch, but we feel that it could have been done in a more subtle manner. But the positioning of this button makes one hand operation a breeze, and we're glad Sony didn't place it on the top. A flap (which doesn't feature a marking/label) hides a plastic SIM card tray that has to be pulled with the help of a fingernail by the user. To be honest, it took us a while to figure out how the mechanism worked as most phones offer a pin-hole SIM tray eject mechanism. The phone supports micro-SIMs. A small speaker grill is also located on the right side, towards the bottom.

The left side houses a microSD card slot and a Micro-USB port, with the company choosing to not mark the latter's flap. This side also has two contacts for docking the phone.

The top features a 3.5mm headphone jack, and is also covered with a flap. We felt that the plastic that held together the flaps were a little flimsy and we fear that with rough use one might end up breaking one or more of them.

The bottom doesn't have any ports but it does have a lanyard hole in case you'd like to put one around.

Overall, we feel that the Xperia Z has been designed tastefully and is looker for sure, especially considering the fact that it's designed to be water and dust proof. Usually, rugged phones are anything but aesthetically appealing.