Vatican launches first cricket club
Sydney: The Vatican has launched its first cricket club aimed at forging ties with teams of other faiths.
The cricket club is the latest initiative of the Vatican”s culture ministry to use sports to engage in dialogue with the contemporary world.
According to news.com.au, Australia’s ambassador to the Holy See, John McCarthy, was the brainchild behind the initiative. Mccarthy said he hopes the St. Peter”s Cricket Club will field a team to play the Church of England at Lord’s sometime next fall.
He said the aim is to boost interfaith dialogue, given cricket”s immense popularity in largely non-Catholic India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
He added that the initiative also is aimed at educating Italy, the Vatican and even Pope Francis that ‘there is some sport other than football!’ Rome’s Capannelle Cricket Club is letting the Vatican use its pitch, and McCarthy said anonymous private sponsors were prepared to fund equipment, organisational and other related costs, the report added. (ANI)
6 in 10 Americans favor legalizing marijuana
Washington: Six in ten (58 percent) Americans have said they favor legalizing marijuana, according to a new Gallup poll.
The survey showed that views of Americans on marijuana legalization have changed dramatically since 1969, when only 12 percent of those surveyed favored legalizing the drug, the Washington Times reports.
Washington state and Colorado became the first states to legalize marijuana for recreational adult use in November 2012.
Nearly four in ten Americans have admitted to smoking pot and to the successful efforts to legalize marijuana in several states, the report added.
Gallup likened the changing attitudes on the drug to the increased support for gay marriage, which has also reached majority support in last two years. (ANI)
Soon, balloon to edge of space for a $75,000 price tag
Washington: Arizona”s World View Company is developing a space capsule, which will be propelled into the sky by giant helium balloons, for 75 thousand dollars price tag.
World View, an offshoot of privately owned Paragon Space Development Corporation, has designed the space balloon in less than a third of the 250,000 dollar cost of flying on Virgin Galactic”s suborbital SpaceShipTwo, Fox News reports.
Passengers will be able to soar to an altitude of about 100,000 feet, the report adds.
Although far short of SpaceShipTwo”s intended 68-mile high peak, the World View ride will give an incredible experience of seeing both Earth and the blackness of space.
World View is expected to begin selling tickets within the next few months.
The Arizona firm decided to unveil the project early because of a forthcoming, public determination by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that Paragon’s six-passenger, two-pilot vehicle qualifies as a spacecraft.
Company officials said the whole purpose of the ride is to have a view of space, as compared to Paragon’s ride, which will give fatal decompression to passengers at high altitude. (ANI)
Microsoft testing ‘Google Glass-like’ eyewear
Washington: Microsoft is reportedly testing a device similar to that of Google’s much-anticipated Glass, in a bid to join the bandwagon of the wearable computing industry.
The software giant is set to be testing eyewear prototypes that could potentially compete with Google Glass.
Sources have revealed that Microsoft has asked several component makers in Asia to supply cameras and other key components for eyewear prototypes, Wall Street Journal reports.
However, the source cautioned that the device might never reach mass production adding that the company is determined to take the lead in hardware manufacturing to make sure it doesn’t miss out on the opportunities in the wearable gadget market.
With rivals like Google, Sony and Apple launching their own smart gadgets, it is speculated to be a tough move if Microsoft decides to enter the smartwear market with its OS and Nokia acquisition failing to make a hit amongst customers and investors alike. (ANI)
WhatsApp glitch brings back dead from grave
London: WhatsApp users have reportedly discovered a flaw in the messaging service, as a result of which, even those who have apparently left this world, appear ‘active’ in the virtual world.
The apparent flaw was discovered when a subscriber noticed a friend’s account appeared active, two years after he died.
It was later revealed that the confusion arose because the mobile phone operator had reassigned the late person’s number to someone else, metro.co.uk reports.
As WhatsApp users are identified only through their phone number, instead of any user name, the incidence has highlighted a security gap which could lead to people sending messages to wrong recipients.
A WhatsApp employee has advised that in order to avoid such confusion, one must delete the old mobile phone number from their address book.
Meanwhile, an online security expert Graham Cluley said that it is clearly distressing for the friends and family of someone who has passed away to suddenly see them apparently ‘alive and active’ on WhatsApp adding that it would be better if the app required password or email address for user registration.
WhatsApp was founded in 2009, and now boasts of more than 350million users worldwide which is 120million more than Twitter, however, it has been distressed by security concerns, the report added. (ANI)
Hawaii surfer escapes shark attack by punching it in eye
London: A Hawaii surfer reportedly survived a tiger shark attack, by grabbing the fish’s fin and repeatedly punching it in the face.
Former boxer Jeff Horton, was sitting on his surfboard with his legs dangling into the water when he spotted a dark shape approaching, near Kilauea in Hawaii, Sky News reported.
The 25-year-old pulled his left leg out of the water but the shark got a mouth full of surfboard.
He was knocked off his board and rolled onto the shark following which he grabbed a fin and punched it several times. Horton told the publication that he finally got one nice punch into the eye, and when his knuckle jammed into the shark’s eye, it spat out his surfboard and swam away. (ANI)