We don't need tears Mr. Obama

Buck stops at you Mr. President..

As our leader and President of world's most powerful nation I expect you to act.. instead wiping tears.. everyone is sad here.. We understand that human being inside you is sad.. but as President.. we expect actions.. and concrete actions.. not just tears or simple talk..

First desired action is really simple and everyone knows about it. It is time to amend second amendment... At least contain it.. I know it is tall order but is doable.. At least we need to put some restrictions in place..

In case, we can't amend this second amendment.. then I would expect you to create deterrent for such folks. Start with Armed Policeman in the school campus. So this law enforcement official can contain such incidences.. I know it will be a hell a lot boring job for this official.. but it is not that it can't be done..

For selection of such personnel, I am totally fine with complete profiling.. As such, we can't say anything about human brain.. but for such job which involves protecting young and innocent children, I would like all the available scientific resources to be applied to profile so that these officials shouldn't become insane and become attacker themselves.

If we can't even do this due to our frail budgetary situation and fiscal cliff type of challenges.. Then, please make voucher system as a default option so that I can use my own tax dollars to educate my kids in private schools of my choice.. which hopefully may be safer or I can make them safer without have to deal with red tape.. worse come worse.. if something happens there.. I will not have regret or you to blame to..

I am sure you may also have many good ideas.. However, here key is execution of these ideas.. These type of events are becoming almost quarterly news.. It does reflect on our society and values in general. We also need to ponder and think about this aspect.. what is happening to our values and why there is such a decline..We are suppose to make progress as time goes by.. isn't it.. Is there anything missing in our education system or some other media or news organization which is causing significant increase in such heinous events..

I don't know if it is just me or others are also noticing.. I some how feel that there is significant increase in number of news / reports on extreme religious, racism, nationalism and all sorts of profiling.. I think here media needs to be more cautious and responsible.. instead of providing all kinds of data and news on such they can easily provide news or data to unite all of us.. Why can't all the news be simply based on the fact that we all belong to human race.. which needs to evolve and become better and become more and more unified rather than get divided on petty issues like small groups.. Don't know if I am making any sense or not.. but somehow I feel that we as human need to unite and look for one simple common factor that everyone belongs to human race..

http://www.mercurynews.com/nation-world/ci_22193995/tearful-obama-calls-meaningful-action-after-connecticut-shooting

Is it really a Triumphant Return or Forced Return?

Before I begin on my main topic.. I am really happy that Google map is back. I hope Apple will update iOS so that we can use Google map as default map on iPhone. I was/am totally fine with Apple maps in US. However, during my India trip, I did felt pain. As most of you know, I still enjoy and love driving in India (it is just much more thrilling to drive in India..).. So during my last trip I borrowed my Sister-in-law's car and was on my own. As I was in Delhi / Noida after a while, I did needed navigation system. Asking "paan wala" was beneath my reputation.. I had my International roaming data plan and was confident with iPhone.. However, Apple maps royally screwed me over there.. It simply didn't worked. I could only get some overview out of it but no navigation or real good help.. Chrome/Google maps on safari were mostly non functional.. So bottom line.. I am really happy to have it back..

Having said that.. I still feel that it was Apple map which forced Google to update their mapping feature.. otherwise there was no way they were going to add turn-by-turn navigation. It was literally competing with their Android's base feature. Whatever we say about Apple maps.. it did forced them to update and helped us all by making Google Maps on iOS much better then what it used to be. Moreover, in US, I really like Apple maps.. it is totally fine with me while driving... I tested it and liked much better..

It will be good lift for Google. still I feel that we will see its usage on iPhone much less than before. While you are browsing or searching in safari and you get some address.. if you click on that address it is going to open native Apple maps only.. unless you copy that address or go back to Google maps application and search it again there.. you are not going to get Google maps.. same is true with address book.. if you click on saved address it will still open Apple maps.. Unless.. Apple makes some setting updates and integrates with Google maps as it has integrated with Facebook and Twitter.. Let us see..

Bottom line.. if Google had played nicely.. we would still have them as native mapping service in iPhone. At least I think so..

TRIUMPHANT RETURN

Google Maps app back on iPhone

Service provides lift for Apple, big gain for search giant

By Brandon Bailey

bbailey@mercurynews.com 

Eager iPhone owners rushed to download Google’s new Maps app, driving it to the top of the most-popular list in the iTunes store Thursday and marking a triumphant return for one of Apple’s biggest rivals. The new app, which became available in the iTunes store Wednesday night, may be a short-term boon for Apple if its release helps soothe the many complaints that Apple has heard from iPhone users over the last six months — ever since Apple replaced an earlier Google Maps application with Apple’s own flawed mapping service on the most recent version of its signature smartphone.

But analysts said the upgraded Maps app is also a powerful tool for Google, as the Mountain View Internet giant seeks to cultivate a profitable relationship with millions of smartphone owners who have chosen Apple’s iPhone over competing devices that run on Google’s Android operating software. “Thank you, Google!” read the first of more than 12,000 mostly favorable reviews that iPhone users posted after downloading the new app Thursday. 

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

The new Google Maps app, which became available as a download Wednesday, is shown on an iPad.

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Even so, Cupertino-based Apple will undoubtedly keep working to improve its own mapping technology as it battles Google for supremacy in the mobile computing market. More than half of all smartphones used in the United States are Android devices, while slightly more than a third are iPhones, according to the research firm comScore. 

Analysts say location based services are increasingly important for both tech giants, as more people access the Internet on mobile devices. But Apple’s homegrown maps service was widely criticized for offering buggy responses and inaccurate information, in contrast with the mapping technology that Google has developed and refined over more than a decade. 

“If anything, this puts more pressure on Apple to sort out their own maps,” said Carolina Milanesi, a consumer technology analyst with Gartner. “Maps are a key part of the future of mobility. They can’t just throw in the towel now.” 

Google doesn’t charge consumers to use its Maps app. But Milanesi said data from the app provides Google with valuable insights into its users’ interests and travels. It also could help Google introduce them to other services and ultimately show them paid advertising. 

Unlike Google’s old Maps app for iPhones, the new version invites users to log in with their Google Gmail account, which would help Google exchange more information with them. While the login is optional, Milanesi said she expects many people will use it. 

Google also announced it will release a software development kit that independent app builders can use to incorporate Google’s mapping technology into other mobile services. 

Google’s old mapping service was extremely popular with independent developers who build apps for the iPhone and iPad, said Nolan Wright, co-founder of Appcelerator, a Mountain View firm that makes software used by app builders. The IDC research firm reported over the summer that 80 percent of all mobile software applications have features that are keyed to the user’s location. 

Wright cautioned that “it remains to be seen” whether developers will embrace the new Google app for Apple’s IS platform. Apple’s own maps are still the default service on iPhones and iPads, which means users must take the extra step of downloading Google Maps if they want to use it. Wright said some developers may be cautious about using Google’s maps until they see how many people use it. 

Apple also has an advantage over Google because Apple’s maps are embedded into Apple’s operating system, which means other Apple services such as Siri will use Apple maps by default, said Charles Golvin, a mobile-technology expert at Forrester. 

Golvin said that means Google’s new app still won’t provide “as fluid an experience” when compared with the Apple service, or even the old Google app, which was the default service on iPhones until it was replaced. On the other hand, Google’s new app includes popular features, such as turn-by-turn directions, that Google has long offered on Android phones but were not part of Google’s old app for iPhones. 

Apple has apologized for the flaws in its maps and replaced an executive who oversaw the project. But Golvin said “the maps problem continues to be a black eye for Apple. It remains to be seen whether Apple’s customers will return to using Apple’s maps once they address all the problems there.” 

Investors seemed to agree with Golvin’s assessment that the new iPhone app is “a win for Google.” Google’s stock rose $5.14, or 0.7 percent, to close at $702.70 Thursday. Apple’s stock fell $9.31, or 1.7 percent, to close at $529.69. 

Contact Brandon Bailey at 408-920-5022; follow him at Twitter.com/ BrandonBailey. 

Really.. $50 for cup of Elephant's poop!!!

I am sure if $50 is small change for you.. then you would definitely like great cup of Bistro.. buttttt.... really.. how can anyone drink something when they know for sure that it is coming out and is processed by Elephant's stomach and is hand picked from its shit..

However noble the purpose may be.. saving elephants from extinction.. or whatever.. I would rather donate money for their up keeping rather than drinking something coming out from their shit..

Now.. there could be lot of scientific study behind these exotic poopy coffees.. I am sure they might be better than chemically processed for the taste enhancement.. however, few concerns.. Feeding coffee beans to elephant is said to be safe and tested by zoologists.. however, it is not natural food for elephants and we don't know for sure how it is going to impact them in long term. I hope that it doesn't become that popular that economics of this exotic poop coffee makes every elephant on planet earth a coffee machine.. As long as their is small set of elephants working on this coffee gig I am fine.. but otherwise I will be really concerned about elephants in general..

Enjoy your morning Coffee!!!

PACHYDERM BARISTAS

From ‘ew’ to pricey brew

Business booms when 20 elephants do their business in Thailand

By Jocelyn Gecker

Associated Press

GOLDEN TRIANGLE, Thailand — In the lush hills of northern Thailand, a herd of 20 elephants is excreting some of the world’s most expensive coffee.

Trumpeted as earthy in flavor and smooth on the palate, the exotic new brew is made from beans eaten by Thai elephants and plucked a day later from their dung. A gut reaction inside the elephant creates what its founder calls the coffee’s unique taste.

Stomach turning or oddly alluring, this is not just one of the world’s most unusual specialty coffees. At $500 a pound, it’s also among the world’s priciest.

For now, only the wealthy or well-traveled have access to the cuppa, which is called Black Ivory Coffee. It was launched last month at a few luxury hotels in remote corners of the world — first in northern Thailand, then the Maldives and now Abu Dhabi — with the price tag of about $50 a serving.

The Associated Press traveled to the coffee’s production site in the Golden Triangle, an area historically known for producing drugs more potent than coffee, to see the jumbo baristas at work. And to sip the finished product from a dainty demitasse.

In the misty mountains where Thailand meets Laos and Myanmar, the coffee’s creator cites biology and scientific research to answer the basic question: Why elephants?

“When an elephant eats coffee, its stomach acid breaks down the protein found in coffee, which is a key factor in bitterness,” said Blake Dinkin, who has spent $300,000 developing the coffee. “You end up with a cup that’s very smooth without the bitterness of regular coffee.” 

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APICHART WEERAWONG/ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOS

Blake Dinkin, founder of Black Ivory Coffee, holds a basket of coffee beans that will be mixed with other fruits and fed to elephants at camp for the animals in Chiang Mai province, northern Thailand.

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Pimnipa Petkla, 39, sifts through elephant dung for coffee beans. A gut reaction inside the elephant creates what is called the coffee’s unique taste. It’s also got a one-of-a-kind cost: $50 a serving.

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The result is similar to civet coffee, or kopi luwak, another exorbitantly expensive variety extracted from the excrement of the weasel-like civet. But the elephants’ massive stomach provides a bonus. 

Think of the elephant as the animal kingdom’s equivalent of a slow cooker. It takes 15 to 30 hours to digest the beans, which stew together with bananas, sugar cane and other ingredients in the elephant’s vegetarian diet to infuse unique earthy and fruity flavors, said the 42-year-old Canadian, who has a background in civet coffee. 

“My theory is that a natural fermentation process takes place in the elephant’s gut,” said Dinkin. “That fermentation imparts flavors you wouldn’t get from other coffees.” 

At the jungle retreat that is home to the herd, conservationists were initially skeptical about the idea. 

“My initial thought was about caffeine — won’t the elephants get wired on it or addicted to coffee?” said John Roberts, director of elephants at the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation, a refuge for rescued elephants. It now earns 8 percent of the coffee’s total sales, which go toward the herd’s health care. “As far as we can tell there is definitely no harm to the elephants.” 

Before presenting his proposal to the foundation, Dinkin said he worked with a Canadian-based veterinarian that ran blood tests on zoo elephants showing they don’t absorb any caffeine from eating raw coffee cherries. 

“I thought it was well worth a try because we’re looking for anything that can help elephants to make a living,” said Roberts, who estimates the cost of keeping each elephant is about $1,000 a month. 

As for the coffee’s inflated price, Dinkin half-joked that elephants are highly inefficient workers. It takes 72 pounds of raw coffee cherries to produce 2 pounds of Black Ivory coffee. The majority of beans get chewed up, broken or lost in tall grass after being excreted. 

And, his artisanal process is labor-intensive. He uses pure Arabica beans hand-picked by hilltribe women from a small mountain estate. Once the elephants do their business, the wives of elephant mahouts collect the dung, break it open and pick out the coffee. After a thorough washing, the coffee cherries are processed to extract the beans, which are then brought to a gourmet roaster in Bangkok. 

Inevitably, the elephant coffee has become the butt of jokes. Dinkin shared his favorites: Crap-accino. Good to the last dropping. Elephant poop coffee. 

As far away as Hollywood, even Jay Leno has taken cracks. 

“Here’s my question,” Leno quipped recently. “Who is the first person that saw a bunch of coffee beans and a pile of elephant dung and said, ‘You know, if I ground those up and drank it, I’ll bet that would be delicious.’?” 

Jokes aside, people are drinking it. Black Ivory’s maiden batch of 150 pounds has sold out. Dinkin hopes to crank out six times that amount in 2013, catering to customers he sees as relatively affluent, open-minded and adventurous with a desire to tell a good story. 

For now, the only places to get it are a few Anantara luxury resorts, including one at the Golden Triangle beside the elephant foundation. 

At sunset one recent evening in the hotel’s hilltop bar, an American couple sampled the brew. They said it surpassed their expectations. 

“I thought it would be repulsive,” said Ryan Nelson, 31, of Tampa, Fla. “But I loved it. It was something different. There’s definitely something wild about it that I can’t put a name on.”

His wife Asleigh, a biologist and coffee lover, called it a “fantastic product for an eco-conscious consumer,” since the coffee helps fund elephant conservation. 

But how does it taste? 

“Very interesting,” she said, choosing her words carefully. “Very novel.” “I don’t think I could afford it every day on my zookeeper’s salary,” she said. “But I’m certainly enjoying it sitting here overlooking the elephants, on vacation.” 

Is it really Seismic shift in tech world?

These type of stories simply remind me of India's caste system and caste based politics. I don't know why media has to hype such irrelevant facts which are based purely on someone's origin or birth rather than how we perform in the real world.

To my best of the knowledge, in tech world or in any other business world, only one thing matters.. performance.. which is same as value for money.. It is ridiculous to say that one particular group of people are being kicked out the workforce.. how can that happen when the top of same tech world is still controlled by that same particular group?? It is pure business and in pure business, only one thing matters.. performance..

Instead of cribbing about such things, media should highlight stories which should generate interest in so called STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths) subjects during early age of child's development. The facts mentioned in the article themselves tell us where to invest if we want so called balance in tech world..

As far as hispanics and black are concerned.. what percentage of high school students actually finish these STEM subjects with flying grades. Now we can start saying that there is discrimination or drive to push out at high school level as well? Come on..

All these things should have been thought way back in 80s or 90s when we decided to off shore our so called menial or low paying jobs.. As a business strategy we decided to do high tech or high value added work in US.. Government totally encouraged off shoring of manufacturing and other low value services jobs.. However, we totally forgot about mentoring or preparing our students for these remaining high tech or high value jobs.. which needed much more intensive studies and focus on STEM subjects. So when these jobs were exponentially getting created there were hardly any engineers to fill in them.

Combined with H1b and internal US engineering focus, slowly, over a period of time, ratio of non-whites kept on decreasing.. but that doesn't mean that there is any kind of discrimination against anyone. I still see many non-asian top class engineers/developers.. It is all about interest or I should say generating kids interest into this beautiful area of high tech world.. there are lot of work going on in this area and slowly, sooner or later parents and kids will start focussing back on this area and should result in great talent seeping back into this high tech world..

There is no need to create or highlight these group based statistics.. instead of this, we need to work on root of this problem..

DOUBLE-DIGIT EMPLOYMENT GAINS

Seismic shift in tech world

Asians skilled in science andmath nowamajority in Bay Area’s workplaces

By Dan Nakaso

dnakaso@mercurynews.com 

Asian-Americans make up half of the Bay Area’s technology workforce, and their double-digit employment gains came from jobs lost among white tech workers, according to an analysis by this newspaper of Census Bureau data released Thursday.

The dramatic shift in the changing composition of the high-tech workforce represents a new generation of homegrown and imported workers drilled in science, technology, engineering and math studies. But the shift in workplace demographics — at least among tech companies — fails to reflect the gains of California’s Hispanic and Latino population, which lost ground in tech jobs along with African- Americans.

“It’s the new world — a world in which whites are not the majority,” said Jan English-Lueck, associate dean of the college Cultures Project. “Other people are being displaced.” 

The percentage of Asian tech workers grew from 39 percent in 2000 to just more than 50 percent in 2010 in Santa Clara, San Mateo, Alameda, Contra Costa and San Francisco counties combined, according to Census Bureau statistics. 

At the same time, white workers saw their more than 50 percent majority of tech jobs in 2000 fall to nearly 41 percent, according to the numbers released Thursday. 

African-American and Hispanic tech workers each saw slight decreases: Positions held by African-American tech workers fell from 2.8 percent to 2.3 percent; those held by Hispanic workers dropped from 4.6 percent to 4.2 percent. 

The Census Bureau changed the way it categorized some computer and related jobs in 2000, so the Mercury News analysis of the latest data was based on tracking the changes in categories that appeared both in 2000 and 2010. 

Yolanda Lewis, president and CEO of the Oakland- based Black Economic Council, sees trouble in the increased importation of Asian tech workers. 

Tech companies, Lewis said, “do not want to employ Americans. They import labor from overseas, pushing for H-1B visas. Check the job boards. They basically say, ‘H-1B Visa. Americans need not apply.’ For years, women, blacks and Latinos have been kept out of the tech job market. Now white men are being forced to train their replacements.” 

Lewis has organized protests against tech companies, demanding more transparency into their work forces because, she said, “You can be next in the unemployment line.” 

Several high-profile tech companies contacted by this newspaper did not respond to requests for comment. 

“Diversity actually increases the profitability of these companies,” Lewis said. “In California, the minority is now the majority. How do you market your products and services to people you don’t understand? How can your business survive? These companies still don’t get it.” 

The tech employment picture hardly represents the growing number of Hispanics and Latinos who make up 27 percent of Santa Clara County, English-Lueck said. 

But it does reflect the young and growing number of Asian-Americans “who were raised with a very strong STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) background” and are going into high tech. 

Asian-American software developers, in particular, saw huge gains all around the Bay Area: from nearly 45 percent of those workers in 2000 to more than 53 percent in Alameda County; and from nearly 50 percent to nearly 60 percent in both San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, the center of Silicon Valley. 

Ryan Shelby, a 28-yearold African-American doctoral candidate in mechanical engineering at UC Berkeley, said young African- American and Hispanic students are often raised in communities that don’t stress science and math curriculums that are likely to guide them into tech jobs. 

Shelby grew up on a farm in Letohatchee, Ala., where his love for engineering started by working on his father’s tractor. 

“I’ve been beating my head over this,” Shelby said. “There’s a lack of mentorship early on for a lot of these young students, who don’t have these facilities and teachers to expose them to math, science and technology early on.” 

So Shelby supports greater outreach to women and underrepresented minorities at UC Berkeley’s College of Engineering, which now has an associate dean of “Equity and Inclusion.” 

While 34 percent of African- American and Hispanic students start out in engineering across the country, only 13 percent leave with degrees, he said. 

Meredith Leu grew up studying STEM courses surrounded by other Asian-American students and graduated with honors from Mission San Jose High School in Fremont. 

Now, as a 19-year-old junior at SJSU studying computer science, Leu said many non-Asians don’t appreciate “the Asian culture, where there is a deep work ethic that America hasn’t really bought into yet.” 

“Do I worry about a backlash?” Leu asked in response to a question. “It’s not so much a backlash against Asians, but … there needs to be a balance. I’m just trying to find it.” Mercury News Library Director Leigh Poitinger contributed to this story. Contact Dan Nakaso at 408-271-3648. Follow him at Twitter.com/dannakaso. 




PATRICK TEHAN/STAFF 

Meredith Leu, who studied science and math at Mission San Jose High, works in the Computer Science Club in MacQuarrie Hall at San Jose State.