Google needs to pay Apple a small fortune to remain the default search engine on iOS

Pink in my eyes!

Golden Light, Fading © Alex James Photos 2017
(Near Folsom Lake, California)

... in chilly January of this year, I found the lake and the surrounding area drenched in a delightful fog .... it lifted slowly and uncovered the water's reflections, but left a forgiving haze on the horizon as the final light of the day, broke through ...

www.alexjamesphotos.com


#WBTPA +BTP Daily Highlights the Best Photo +BTP Editors' Choice (Top Photo page) +PRO Winners #BTPLandscapePro – +BTP Landscape Pro . owned by +Nancy Dempsey ,curated by +Nancy Dempsey #LandscapePhotography +Landscape Photography curated by +Margaret Tompkins +Eric Drumm +Chandler L. Walker +Krzysztof Felczak +Jeff Beddow +H Peter Ji #landscape #folsom #alexjamesphotos #wherelumixgoes #nature #california

unfolding

#hqspmacro +HQSP Macro​
#btpmacropro +BTP Macro Pro​

Leopard (Panthera pardus)
Kruger Park, South Africa

#animals #leopard #cats

Lunch break
#pakistan #punjab #street #streetphotography

Sunlight

Haweswater: Summer 2017, No. 2

The 2nd image from my Haweswater Summer 2017 collection https://goo.gl/dc44ye

I had some gorgeous light when I shot this, and the valley was so incredibly lush!

#landscape #lakedistrict

Autumn is coming

European bluberry (Vaccinium myrtillus)

Svartskog, Norway

Although it’s only end of August and the autumn seems far away, some plant species are dressed in their best autumn colors already. For some reason individual plants here and there start their autumn colors much earlier than their neighboring plants of the same species, and this one stood like a beacon of colors in a sea of green plants of various, species making it stand out.

I find the autumn hues of the blueberry plant some of the most intense and diverse, and every year I study their many intricate color patterns. Some autumns every single plant is as intensely colored as the next and the forest floor is on fire for a few days before it is over and only the naked green branches are left.

Judging by the incredible colors of this specimen, this autumn might be one of those where the forest floor will be flooded with hues of red, yellow and orange.
The days ahead will tell, and I will be watching!

Image Copyright © 2017 +Morten Ross
Image Capture Date: 18 August 2017 15:21
Altitude: 38 meters

#leaves #plants #autumn #svartskog #norway

#hqspmacro +HQSP Macro
#BTPMacroPro +BTP Macro Pro
#BTPMacroPro – +BTP Macro Pro , owned by +Nancy Dempsey , curated by +Kenny Jones

One big get for Nintendo was the immensely fun and super popular Rocket League. The game has been on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, for quite some time and has legions of fans. IGN recently interviewed Psyonix vice president Jeremy Dunham about the…

FOR THOSE LIVING IN THE US, DON'T FORGET THE SOLAR ECLIPSE TOMORROW GUYS -- The First Total Eclipse in Nearly a Century Will Sweep Across the US on Monday, August 21, casting a shadow over millions of people from coast to coast. While the darkest shadow will be visible along a 70-mile-wide path from Oregon to South Carolina, a partial view of the eclipse will be visible as far north as Canada and as far south as Brazil.

#SolarEclipse #astronomy #science

Duo 16.

Will Conor McGregor or Floyd Mayweather Jr. get knocked out? Fight gets approved use of 8-oz gloves: http://ow.ly/INU330evRV9

Kobe Bryant vs Kevin Durant. How does his career (so far) stack up to the legend's first 10 seasons as a starter from 1999-2008?

I've been seeing comparisons on Twitter and wanted to analyze it myself. This post isn't me trying to say ones better than the other. I just wanted to see where he stands as a PLAYER to a universally ranked top 10 GOAT. It'll be a good indicator to see if he's on his way there. I'll compare using stats and notable awards often used in debates. I don't want to hear how playing with Shaq hurt his numbers when he won 3 early rings with him when we all know how valuable those are when discussing his greatness.

Basic Stats

Kobe Bryant - 27.7 / 5.6 / 5.2 / 1.7 / 0.6 on 45.6 / 33.9 / 84.2 shooting, 39.7 mpg, 716 games played.
Kevin Durant - 27.2 / 7.2 / 3.8 / 1.2 / *1 on 48.8 / 37.9 / 88.2 shooting, 37.4 mpg, 703 games played

Even though their positions are different, they're still perimeter scorers. They both won in what you'd expect them to due to their size and position. Where they separate is Kevin Durant's guard-like skills. He wins all-around shooting and Kobe takes scoring.

Advance Stats (Per 100 Possessions )

Kobe Bryant - 36.3 / 7.7 / 6.8 / 2.2 / 0.8 on 55.8% TS, PER 24.3
Kevin Durant - 36.9 / 9.7 / 5.1 / 1.6 / 1.4 on 60.8% TS, PER 25.2

Best season

Kobe Bryant - 35.4 / 5.3 / 4.5 / 1.8 / 0.4 on 45 / 34.7 / 85 shooting
Kevin Durant - 32 / 7.4 / 5.5 / 1.3 / 0.7 on 50.3 / 39.1 / 87.3 shooting

Best season (Per 100 Possessions)

Kobe Bryant - 45.6 / 6.8 / 5.8 / 2.4 / 0.5 on 55.9% TS, PER 28
Kevin Durant - 41.8 / 9.6 / 7.2 / 1.7 / 1 on 63.5% TS, PER 29.8

Playoffs Stats

Kobe Bryant - 26.6 / 5.6 / 5.1 / 1.5 / 0.7 on 44.8 / 33.1 / 80.1 shooting, 42.4 mpg, 132 games played
Kevin Durant - 28.8 / 8 / 3.8 / 1 / 1.2 on 46.8 / 34.4 / 85.3 shooting, 41 mpg, 106 games played & started

Advanced Playoff Stats (Per 100 Possessions)

Kobe Bryant - 33.2 / 6.9 / 6.4 / 1.9 / 0.9 on 53.6% TS, PER 21.8
Kevin Durant - 36.1 / 10.1 / 4.8 / 1.3 / 1.5 on 58.8% TS, PER 24.1

Average PER of regular season, single best season & playoffs

1. Kevin Durant - 26.4
2. Kobe Bryant - 24.7

Finals series ranked according to Game Score

2017 Durant vs CLE - 30.3 (35.2 / 8.2 / 5.4 / 1 / 1.6 on 69.8% TS)

2012 Durant vs MIA - 20.7 (30.6 / 6 / 2.2 / 1.4 / 1 on 65% TS)

2002 Kobe vs NJN - 20.3 (26.8 / 5.8 / 5.3 / 1.5 / 0.8 on 62.3% TS)

2001 Kobe vs PHI - 17.2 (24.6 / 7.8 / 4.8 / 1.4 / 1.4 on 50.1% TS)

2000 Kobe vs IND - 9.7 (15.6 / 4.6 / 4.2 / 1 / 1.4 on 41.1% TS)

Average Finals Game Score

1. Kevin Durant - 25.5
2. Kobe Bryant - 15.7

His score is 18.75 without the 2000 series. I know he was hurt, but if I don't include it, then it's like not counting his 1st ring.

Notable accolades won

MVPs

Kobe Bryant - 1
Kevin Durant - 1

Championships

Kobe Bryant - 3
Kevin Durant - 1

Finals MVP

Kobe Bryant - 0
Kevin Durant - 1

Scoring Leader

Kobe - 2x
Kevin Durant - 4x

All-NBA Team (Total)

Kobe Bryant - 10 (6x First-Team)
Kevin Durant - 7 (5x First-Team)

NBA All-Defense Team (Total)

Kobe Bryant - 8 (6x First-Team)
Kevin Durant - 0

I asked the community if KD could make the top 10 GOAT if things work out with GS - https://plus.google.com/114649433706032813933/posts/KZso2v2wCJC

NAACP Calls for Boycott If Kaepernick Remains Unsigned - The NAACP chapter in Atlanta is calling for all football fans to boycott NFL games by not watching those contests until a team signs Kaepernick. NAACP calls for boycott if Kaepernick remains unsigned Two prominent organizations showed support for quarterback Colin Kaepernick and his inability to catch on with an NFL team. The NAACP chapter in Atlanta is calling for all football fans to boycott NFL games by not watching those contests ...

Snaps from the Cultural Revolution: "At a time marked by forced confessions known as self-criticism, one young photographer, Wang Qiuhang, turned his camera on himself, subversively celebrating the self rather than suppressing it."

A neuroscience researcher at UCLA explains the simple things brain studies say can make you happy. https://goo.gl/G3Q4eg

Your Diabetes Symptoms Will Disappear In Just 5 Days! All You Need Is Two Ingredients And This Simple Recipe

As time passes, the high blood sugar levels can lead to numerous diseases, like for example heart disease, kidney disease, and blindness. This excess of sugar in the bloodstream can also harden or narrow your arteries and damage the tiny blood vessels in your kidneys and eyes.

#diabetes #health #recipe #explore #medicine #homeremedies #treatment #healthcare #remedy #symptoms #naturalremedies #healthbenefits #cure #disease

Yellow for my eyes!
London August 19th 2017

So Many Ways To See The World -- Glendo, Wyoming
“When people think there's only one right place to stand, they say foolish things like 'You're doing it wrong.' All you have to do is go to the other side and look again at how many ways there are to see the world.”
-- Laurel Corona, The Mapmaker's Daughter

The corona of spikes around a thistle bud, taken near the banks of the Platte River in eastern Wyoming...

For +Sunday Buds / #SundayBuds curated by +Steve Gill, and #hqspmacro for +HQSP Macro, and #Macro4All by +Bill Urwin, +Thomas Kirchen, +Walter Soestbergen (+Macro4All ), and #macromaniacs for +MacroManiacs and +Sandra Deichmann...

This time last year, @[Colin Kaepernick] ignited a national debate when he refused to stand for the national anthem. Today, he's without an NFL job. http://nbcbay.com/s4pamYZ
Why do you think the quarterback still doesn't have a home in the NFL?

New polls show Trump’s popularity collapsing in key states - New Polls Show Trump’s Popularity Down In Key States Donald Trump’s popularity has dropped in three key states that helped him with the 2016 presidential election, following violence in Charlottesville, three new polls show. Surveys from NBC News/Marist show more than half of voters in Michiga...

How Earth was formed | #Geology #GeologyPage

The results of experiments to show how zinc (Zn) relates to sulphur (S) under the conditions present at the time of the formation of the Earth more than 4 billion years ago, indicate that there is a substantial quantity of Zn in the Earth’s core, whereas previously there had been thought to be none.

Read more : http://www.geologypage.com/2017/08/experiments-cast-doubt-theory-earth-formed.html

This Stealth Warship Runs On Linux and Doesn't Need Humans to Defend Itself

In the ongoing fight between Macs and PCs, it's hard to deny that Linux has the biggest actual firepower (not to mention controls the most super computers too). Case in point: the USS Zumwalt, the most advanced surface ship in existence, which weighs in at over 10,000 tons and features 80 missile silos (its Tomahawk missiles can cover a distance of 1,550 miles), as well as a main gun that fires rocket-assisted, GPS-guided rounds (which can hit within 30 inches of a target roughly 72 miles away). What's really interesting, though, is its ability to detect, analyze, and respond to potential threats, all without the need for human intervention at all. This is where Linux comes in.

Equipped with a top-of-the-line server farm running on Linus Torvalds' adaptable operating system, the Zumwalt is essentially a huge, floating drone—left to its own devices, its impressive computer power allows it to act autonomously during missions in order to function with ease as everything, from lights to electrics and emergency responses, are all completely controlled by the warship's powerful computer brain.

See http://www.outerplaces.com/science/item/16624-zumwaltz-navy-stealth-ship-linux-server-farm

Google’s Inbox app is a fantastic way to keep track of your emails, but it does lack quite a few core features from Google’s standard Gmail application. Now, Google is quietly adding a new view to Inbox for Android which lets users see all of their email…

The Everyday Genius of Your Artistic Voice, Part 5: "Art & Business" is now live on my blog! http://karenhutton.com/artbiz1. It's a good Sunday (or Monday!) read.

The road to successfully creating even a part-time business out of something you love has many steps, curves and choices to it. And THIS topic has proven to be juicy enough to warrant TWO episodes within my 8-part series on Artistic Voice, and how to successfully weave into real life.

I recorded this one with the fabulous +Lauri Novak... and she's got some super down-to-earth, practical ideas to share!

We chat about the utter and complete relevance of making decisions from the point of view of what you love and what you know to be true for yourself. Sure that seems only sensible - but how many times does popular opinion, someone ELSE'S opinion - or your own naysayin' critical inner voice alter you thought you'd like to do?

We're NOT business coaches, nor do we play one on TV! 😜
In these two episodes, we simply share what's working in our own lives - and in the creative lives of others we've observed. "Artistic Voice" - by whatever name you call it - can mean the difference between creating a business and life of sheer joy and, well, pretty much anything less. And why settle for anything less?

It's a conversation worth having.
I hope you'll join in and share your thoughts too, either here or over on the blog!

http://karenhutton.com/artbiz1
----------------------------------

This photo is one of Lauri's from the blog. Her architectural work is gaining more attention by the day. You'll why this genre has really clicked for her... from the inside out. Small wonder they've been noticed! Next level of success, here she comes!

Obi-Wan Kenobi

Art by Jo Torres (goo.gl/RxiY5y)
______

More Jedi art: lightsabr.net/tag/jedi

#StarWars #ObiWanKenobi #Jedi

#Linux

Binge-watching the Ninth Doctor

Had a chance of late to plow through the too-short Series 1 of the New Who, with Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor. Damn, that's some fine entertainment, and I'm sorry he didn't feel he could stick around for longer. #nb

Happy Birthday, Jean-Loup Chrétien (20 August 1938), Soyuz T6, Soyuz TM-7 & STS-86, first French citizen & first western European in space.

Today is the one-year anniversary of one of the best fights in @ufc history.
@TheNotoriousMMA @NateDiaz209
#UFC
http://bit.ly/2ih23SA

Opinion: Are solar eclipses proof of God? 🗞 +Fox News

Opinion: Are solar eclipses proof of God?
On Monday, August 21, 2017 - something will happen in the U.S. that should startle — or at least perplex — anyone who gives it any thought. I am referring to the full solar eclipse you may already be anticipating. To be clear, thinking about what is about to happen has little to do with the sheer visceral experience of being amazed by it, as we must be. Before thinking about it, we should perhaps first simply goggle at it, at the monumental majesty of these monstrously large heavenly orbs, both of which we typically take mostly for granted.

Is it not remarkable that these ever-present objects — though separated by nearly one hundred million miles — should once in a very great while perform this curiously perfect dance? But to what end?
But what might make us start to think a bit about this event is that this celestial pas de deux is being performed only for us. Anywhere but here on this planet on Monday, the view of these two objects is nothing special. It is only what we see from our terrestrial vantage point that is special. It's almost as though what we will marvel at was artfully arranged specifically for our benefit. Which brings us to the curious and startling part of the story.

About fifteen years ago an odd idea popped into my head. Google was just a gurgling infant. But I happened to have a sturdy Brittanica nearby and I pulled out a dusty volume and quickly discovered the diameter of the sun. It is precisely 864,576 miles. The diameter of the moon was listed at 2,159 miles. I then looked up the distance from Earth to the sun, which varies slightly, but is generally given as 93 million miles. And then I found the distance from Earth to the moon. That varies slightly too, so the average is given as 239,000 miles.

Armed with these four figures, I did some simple math. I divided the sun's diameter (864,576) by the moon's (2,159) and got 400.452. If my strange hunch was correct, dividing the distance from the Earth to the sun (93,000,000) by the distance from the Earth to the moon (239,000) should give me something similar. It certainly did. My calculations yielded 389.121. And there it was. I stared at the numbers, amazed. Was the correlation in these ratios mere coincidence?

Of course what this all meant was simply that these immemorially ancient and vast objects, though as different in size as a single BB and a super gigantic beach ball — one that was over six feet in diameter — would from our perspective here on Earth seem almost precisely the same size. So if they ever just happened to align in the sky, they would match up perfectly. Not almost perfectly. But perfectly, and bizarrely so.
What might be the odds of this just happening randomly? Almost all the planets in our solar system have no moons or many moons (Jupiter has 60) of incredibly varying sizes. So this sort of thing doesn't happen anywhere else in our solar system. But our planet has just one moon that happens to be just the right size and just the right distance from Earth.
I found the precision necessary for all of this unbelievable. The more I thought about it, the more I knew that there was no way this could be a mere coincidence. It seemed almost planned. In fact, it seemed utterly planned, as all things of such precision must be.

To bring this closer to home, imagine holding a BB twelve inches from our face and then asking a friend to carry the six-foot diameter beach ball as far down the beach as necessary — until it appeared precisely the same size from our perspective as the tiny BB. Keep in mind our beach ball is six-feet in diameter while a normal large beach ball is less than two feet in diameter. Our friend would have to hike 400 feet before the giant beach ball and the tiny BB matched up in size. That's about the distance from home plate to the centerfield fence in most major league baseball stadiums.

So can the sun's and moon's diameters — and distances from Earth — be merely coincidentally matched up this perfectly? Everything about it makes that seem ridiculous. But of course you can decide for yourself.

Three thousand years ago a man in Israel wrote: "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands." That man didn't have a telescope or a Brittanica, but he saw something many of us today still do not see. He saw a God behind it all. It may be true that seeing a Grand Designer behind these breath-taking events requires what we call a leap of faith; but it may also be true that seeing mere coincidence behind them requires an even greater leap of faith. In my mind, much greater. But on Monday, you may be the judge.

Eric Metaxas is the author of several bestselling books, including "Bonhoeffer" and "Amazing Grace." His latest book is "If You Can Keep It: The Forgotten Promise of American Liberty" (Viking, June 14, 2016).

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
©2017 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved.

Steve Bannon uses Breitbart to launch his first vicious attack on Donald Trump’s White House

Cornerback Dexter McDougle is slimmer, faster, and ready to finally live up to his potential with the New York Jets. His focus and determination have been key in his recent surge #NewYorkJets #DexterMcDougle

An Insightful Look Into How Symbolism Is Used to Represent the Various Houses of Game of Thrones

Protesters Demand Donald Trump Be Removed From WWE Hall of Fame
https://www.mixtapes.tv/?p=35679