SHAFAQNA

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – It's weird out there and getting weirder: A California court just ruled that screwing around with your phone's map app while driving ought to be as illegal as texting or using the device without a handsfree solution. I'll get back to that in a moment, but let's talk briefly about the stuff we do while driving. Some years ago I bought my first car-based GPS, an entry-level Garmin you clipped into one of these…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) IN HIS 1991 book "Los Angeles: Capital of the Third World," David Rieff writes of the trembling racial sensibilities of the city's rich whites: So sensitive were liberal Angelenos to the possibility of appearing xenophobic that they almost invariably used the term "undocumented worker" rather than "illegal alien," which made contravention of the immigration law sound like some trivial problem of paperwork rather than, for better or worse, a breach of the laws of the…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has died, following a stroke. She was 87. Shortly after her death was announced on Monday morning, tributes began pouring in from world leaders. "As our first woman prime minister, Margaret Thatcher succeeded against all the odds, and the real thing about Margaret Thatcher is that she didn't just lead our country, she saved our country," said UK Prime Minister David Cameron, head of the Conservative Party. US President Barack…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Have you ever wondered just how powerful Cyclops’ (of the X-Men fame) optic blasts can be when he unleashes them without his ruby quartz glasses? I guess depending on the writer, the power behind his optic blasts vary, but the idea of firing lasers from a vessel has more or less remained within the realm of science fiction for a long time, at least not until now. It seems that US Navy ships are…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – If you are a fan of Canon’s mid-ranged series of DSLR cameras, such as the EOS 50D and 60D, you might be wondering if an EOS 70D is in the works. According to the rumors, such a device is in the works but its official announcement has yet to be determined. In any case according to the folks at Canon Rumors, they have been tipped off by one of their sources that come 23rd…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Early results of a trial for a new personalized ovarian cancer vaccine offers hope for the large number of patients who relapse after treatment, Medical News Today reported. Three-quarters of trial patients who received the new two-step immunotherapy appeared to respond to the treatment – one patient achieved complete remission, said researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Lead study author Lana Kandalaft, a research assistant professor of Obstetrics…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – As part of a program called BabyTime, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles recently deployed iPads in its neonatal intensive care unit to enable mothers to see their newborns and interact with hospital staff when they can't do so in person. Infants are typically placed in the NICU when they are born prematurely or have other complications that require specialized care and supervision. In some circumstances, the condition of the mother might preclude her…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- After a boom year in self-publishing the headlines are getting a little predictable. Most feature a doughty author who quickly builds demand for her work and is rewarded with a large contract from the traditional industry. But in our rush to admire, there's a risk we overlook the wider cultural significance of what is going on. As publishers from all over the world prepare for next week's London book fair, here are 10 changes that…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – In a preliminary decision issued last week, an International Trade Commission (ITC) judge has said that Samsung infringed a key portion of an Apple patent by including a text-selection feature in its smartphones and tablets, Reuters reports. The full commission will now decide whether they will uphold or overturn the judge’s decision. In the same decision which was issued on March 26 but kept confidential until yesterday, ITC judge said that Samsung did not…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Messaging app WhatsApp is in the negotiating phase over prices with Google in what could be Google’s next billion dollar acquisition, according to an inside source. While the deal started four or five weeks ago, we’ve been told that WhatsApp is “playing hardball” and jockeying for a higher acquisition price, which currently is “close to” $1 billion right now. We’ve suspected for some time now that a messaging app would be the next billion…