Netflix Continues To Crush Cable TV

Netflix is a train that can't be stopped, and it's starting to flatten cable.

Forty percent of all U.S. households with TV and/or broadband Internet use a subscription video on-demand service like Netflix, Amazon Prime or Hulu Plus, according to new data released by Nielsen on Wednesday. This is up from 36 percent of households that reported having on-demand subscription video over the same period of time in 2013. Among the households subscribing to these services, 36 percent have Netflix, 13 percent have Amazon Prime and 6.5 percent have Hulu Plus, Nielsen reports.

As the number of homes with streaming video subscriptions rises, an increasing number of American homes are Internet-only, subscribing to broadband Internet and not TV.

The number of U.S. households that have broadband Internet but don’t subscribe to TVgrew to more than 10.5 million in the third quarter of 2014, up 16 percent over the same period in 2012, research firm SNL Kagan told The Huffington Post earlier this year.

By comparison, there are 95.2 million people in the U.S. who subscribe to the top 13 pay-TV providers, according to Leichtman Research Group. The number of video subscriptions to the top nine cable companies fell around 1.2 million over the course of 2014.

TV ratings are also falling as streaming subscriptions climb, and there's probably a connection.

Around 40 percent of the decline in TV ratings during the third and fourth quarters of 2014 is due to people are spending more time watching streaming TV online, sources who attended a talk by the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau last week told the Wall Street Journal. The “biggest contributor to the drop is SVOD [streaming video on demand],” Jon Steinlauf, president of national ad sales and marketing for media company Scripps, told WSJ.

Since streaming is potentially eating into TV viewership, TV networks are getting into the streaming game. CBS has a streaming servicefor a subscription of $5.99 a month; NBC is working on one; Showtime will release a streaming service "in the not-too-distant future,” CBS CEO Les Moonves said at the Deutsche Bank Securities 2015 Media, Internet & Telecom Conference on Wednesday.

HBO's new streaming service, HBO Now,premieres on Apple devices in April. This will be the first time HBO will be available for those without a cable subscription.

8 Common Cat-Feeding Mistakes to Avoid

As pets go, cats are pretty user-friendly: Give them a clean litter box, a sunny windowsill and a scratching post and they’re (mostly) happy. But feeding a feline can be a bit more complicated. Cat owners often make mistakes that can put a kitty’s health at risk, according to Bruce Kornreich, D.V.M., associate director for education and outreach at Cornell University'sFeline Health Center. Here are the big ones:

1. Overfeeding. Most cats need just 250 to 300 calories per day. Give your mouser two daily meals instead of leaving a bowl of food out. Either canned or dry food (or a combination) is fine, Kornreich says, as long as the overall diet is nutritionally balanced. Offer treats only occasionally.

2. Letting your cat get fat. According to the American Animal Hospital Association, up to 59 percent of cats (and dogs) are overweight. But if you’re like many pet owners, you may not realize yours is. A chubby kitty can have trouble cleaning herself and may be at risk for problems ranging from diabetes to skin disorders. Your vet will check her weight at her annual check-up. If Tabby tips the scale, the vet can help you develop a feeding plan to lighten her load. Exercise will help too — at least 15 minutes of play each day with a feathered toy, laser pointer or whatever she loves to chase.

3. Offering milk and tuna. We think cats love them, but their bodies don’t. Cats are lactose intolerant, making dairy a bad idea. Canned tuna presents even more concerns, including high mercury content. Plus, it's not a nutritionally complete food source, and if your kitty gets hooked on it, she may refuse to eat the food that is. An occasional morsel is fine as a treat, but leave it at that.

4. Forgetting to freshen the water bowl. Cats are less likely to lap up water that’s been sitting around or has something in it. Without proper hydration, they can develop urinary problems such as crystals, stones and blockages. Make it a habit to wash and refill the water bowl when you feed your kitty breakfast. 

5. Letting dry food go bad. Dry food is convenient, but when it sits around it can lose some of its nutrients and can even go bad. Store kitty kibble in an airtight container away from light. Dump it once it’s past the expiration date.

6. Ignoring signs of food allergies. Cats can develop sensitivities to proteins, carbohydrates and even fillers in food. If your cat seems uncomfortable and is scratching herself raw, especially around the head and neck, see your vet. She may suggest trying a new protein source (duck! venison!). If that doesn’t help, you may need to see a veterinary dermatologist.

7. Serving raw foods. These can expose cats to parasites and bacteria, Kornreich says. Even commercial raw pet foods are more likely to contain bacteria like salmonella and listeria than other types of pet food. If you're set on a raw diet, check out the FDA's advice for safe handling of raw pet food. If you want to feed your cat home-cooked meals, talk with your vet — or ideally, a veterinary nutritionist — to make sure the meals offer the nutrition your pet needs.

8. Making your cat go vegan. Cute as he is, Mittens is a carnivore. Meat provides nutrients that are vital for cats, including vitamins A and B12, taurine and arachidonic acid. If you insist on a meat-free diet for your little tiger, it's crucial to work with your vet to make sure he's getting the nutrients he needs from food and/or supplements. Even commercial vegetarian and vegan cat foods are often nutritionally deficient. 

Burger King admits it has been selling beef burgers and Whoppers containing horsemeat

Burger King has tonight admitted that it has been selling burgers and Whoppers containing horsemeat despite two weeks of denials.

The fast food chain, which has more than 500 UK outlets, had earlier given a series of ‘absolute assurances’ that its products were not involved.

However, new tests have revealed these guarantees were incorrect in a revelation that threatens to destroy the trust of customers.

It also raises serious questions about whether the food company, which sells around one million burgers a week in the UK, has any good idea about what goes into its products.

The contaminated burgers were made by the Irish-based processing company, Silvercrest, which is part the ABP Foods Group.

The same company also made tainted burgers for Tesco, Asda and the Co-op, among others.

Burger King has faced allegations of orchestrating a cover-up of its links to the horsemeat scandal in order to give it time to find an alternative supplier.

It is currently shipping in tens of thousands of burgers from suppliers in Germany and Italy in order to meet demand at its UK outlets.

It is known that the management at Silvercrest has been using a series of non-approved ingredients in their burgers for a range of household name brands.

These included meat off-cuts, including horse, that were imported in large frozen blocks from Poland.

The contamination has been going on since at least last May and potentially for up to one year, according to evidence presented to MPs earlier this week.

Tonight Burger King abandoned its earlier denials, saying: ‘Four samples recently taken from the Silvercrest plant have shown the presence of very small trace levels of equine DNA.

Within the last 36 hours, we have established that Silvercrest used a small percentage of beef imported from a non-approved supplier in Poland.

‘They promised to deliver 100per cent British & Irish beef patties and have not done so. This is a clear violation of our specifications, and we have terminated our relationship with them. 

‘Through our investigation, we have confirmed that this non-approved Polish supplier is the same company identified by the Irish Department of Agriculture as the source of Silvercrest’s contamination issue.’

'We are deeply troubled by the findings of our investigation and apologise to our guests, who trust us to source only the highest quality 100per cent beef burgers.'

- Burger King vice president

The contamination scandal was first triggered two weeks ago, with the Food Safety Authority of Ireland revealed it had found horse meat in burgers sold in Ireland and the UK.

When the news first emerged, Burger King said it had been given an ‘absolute assurance’ by its supplier that its products were not involved.

Yesterday, Burger King vice president, Diego Beamonte, said: ‘We are deeply troubled by the findings of our investigation and apologise to our guests, who trust us to source only the highest quality 100per cent beef burgers.

‘Our supplier has failed us and in turn we have failed you. We are committed to ensuring that this does not happen again.’

He added: ‘We will dedicate ourselves to determining what lessons can be learned and what additional measures, including DNA testing and enhanced traceability controls, can be taken to ensure that we continue to provide you with the quality products you expect from us.’

Jeanette Longfield, of the campaigning food and health group, Sustain, has condemned Burger King’s handling of the problem.

Dalepak also makes burgers for Waitrose and Sainsbury’s, which both insist that their burgers are clear of contamination.

The processing company is a subsidiary of the Irish company, ABP Food Group, which also owns a second burger manufacturing business, which is Silvercrest, in southern Ireland.

Aldi said a sample of its frozen Oakhurst Beefburgers showed up positive for 0.1per cent horse DNA, while its Oakhurst Beef Quarter Pounders were 0.1per cent equine and 0.1per cent pork.

The company withdrew all of its frozen burgers from UK stores when the scandal first erupted two weeks ago as a precaution.

A spokesman said: ‘Customers are our absolute priority. This is why we immediately withdrew these products until such a time that we could verify that there was no risk to our customers.

‘We are deeply angry and feel let down by our supplier and we are pursuing more tests until we are certain that we understand how the production line was contaminated.

‘Aldi requires rigorous verification and quality control procedures and we cannot allow our quality commitment to our customers to be compromised.

‘We will continue to maintain active scrutiny across our supply lines, and we assure our customers their health and safety is our number one priority.’

12 Cancer Symptoms That Most People Ignore

Unexplained Weight Loss

While most people would be ecstatic to discover that they have lost weight, it should be a red flag. Losing ten pounds in a month without changing your diet or exercise routine should cause you to contact your doctor. Unexplained weight loss could also be related to your thyroid, but either way a doctor should run tests.

Blood In the Wrong Place

Blood in the stool or urine can be signs of cancer. Most people may assume that the blood in their stool is from a hemorrhoid, but it could be related to colon cancer.

Having blood in your urine outside of your menstruation could be a sign of kidney or bladder cancer.

Skin Changes

Many popular magazines warn people to check for abnormal moles, but there are other skin changes that can signal early cancer.

Pigmentation changes are one sign to consider. If you develop severe scaling or bleeding on your skin, then this could also be a sign of cancer.

Unusual Bleeding

Abnormal bleeding can be a sign of endometrial cancer or could be bleeding from the gastrointestinal tract, which is a sign of colorectal cancer.

Difficulty Swallowing

Don't just assume that your difficulty swallowing is just a nuisance. Having difficulty swallowing can be a sure sign of gastrointestinal cancer. A doctor will need to do chest X-rays and take a closer look at your family medical history to know for sure.

Bloating

Don't be so quick to write off your constant bloating as normal. While people do struggle with bloating during their time of the month, it can also be a sign of ovarian cancer. This is especially true if it comes with abdominal or pelvic pain. If you become full quicker than you used to without eating a lot of food, then you should contact your doctor.

Mouth Changes

If you begin to notice white patches inside your mouth or on your tongue, it is time to see a doctor. This is a precancerous sign that can progress to oral cancer if not treated. These white patches are more common in smokers, so be sure to check your mouth frequently if you do smoke.

Changing Lymph Nodes

Your lymph nodes are located on your neck and in your armpits. It is best to check them occasionally for any swelling or changes. If you notice enlarged lymph nodes, be sure to watch them and contact your doctor if they get bigger or if the swelling lasts longer than a month.

Fatigue

Fatigue is a very common usymptom that most people have experienced in their life. However, leukemia and stomach cancer show themselves early as fatigue.

If you are struggling with constant tiredness, it is best to talk with your doctor to find a solution. While cancer is unlikely to be the cause, your fatigue could be a sign of a different health issue.

Persistent Cough

Nagging coughs are common during cold season, but if you develop a cough outside of being sick or have a cough that lasts more than three or four weeks, then talk with your doctor. A doctor can rule out cancer by checking your throat and lungs.

Indigestion

Most people will experience some degree of indigestion after a heavy meal or while pregnant. Frequent indigestion while following a healthy diet could be a sign of esophagus, stomach, or throat cancer.

Ask your doctor to check it out. If it is not cancer, then your doctor can treat your indigestion to prevent future damage.

Fevers and Infections

If you consider yourself a healthy gal and you find that you're getting sick or feverish frequently, this could be an early sign of leukemia. Keep an eye out for flu-like symptoms that come frequently and are hard to get rid of.

Say Goodbye to Privacy

You’re probably about to lose something precious. Something you can’t see. Something you can’t touch, taste, or smell and probably don’t think about regularly. And yet when it’s gone, which I believe it will be soon, you may spend the rest of your life longing for it.

What you’re about to lose is your privacy.

Actually, it’s worse than that. You aren’t just going to lose your privacy, you’re going to have to watch the very concept of privacy be rewritten under your nose. That’s because while the Internet of Things (IoT) is going to add a lot to our lives, it’s probably going to take our privacy in payment, whether you want it to or not.

We shouldn’t be surprised that the IoT will change things, nor that the full impact is difficult to predict. Big changes brought on by technology are something we’ve seen plenty of times before. When the steam engine was first introduced in the 1800’s, no one could have foreseen the impact it would have on the way we think about everything from transportation, city design, even need for a standard “time” across the country.

Other changes have followed, driven by new technology – the internal combustion engine, flight, the integrated circuit, the Internet. All of these technological changes forced us to redefine how we think about our lives, what technology means to us. Over the years, these changes have created, and killed, entire industries. At each step, the impact of our technology arrived faster, and was more deeply felt.

Yet the Internet of Things won’t just change some particular aspects of our lives; it won’t affect say commerce, or industry, or politics. It will affect, shape, even redefine them all. At once. And, if the past is anything to go by, the changes will happen even more quickly than ever before.

Why? What makes the IoT so unique in the long history of technological change?

1. It is the aggregation of a large number of already disruptive technologies, and it combines the disruptive elements of those technologies in new ways, magnifying their effects. Smart tech, the Internet, social identity, big data, cloud, mobility, all these are affected by, and contribute to, the emerging IoT. It’s like putting gun powder, dynamite, nitroglycerine, and a bunch of road flares into a box and shaking them up. Something’s going to happen, and happen fast.

2. The IoT is pervasive in a way that nothing else has been, except possibly pottery and agriculture, and those two technologies *defined* human existence. The IoT will be *everywhere* which means that when the changes occur (and they will) those changes will impact everything, and everyone – there’s no ‘offline’ no ‘standby’ for the IoT. No one will be able to escape its impact, because you won’t *use* the IoT, you’ll live inside it – all day, every day.

3. As a society we’re addicted to tech in a way that no generation ever has been before and we already have the mindset – the Pavlovian response – to readily embrace this next generation of technology that IoT represents in an unquestioning manner. We rely on it for everything and we’ve been trained to expect technology to answer our every need, because no matter what the question – there’s an app for that. Yet, the most profound effect of all the ways in which the IoT changes our lives is that it will blur, to the point of invisibility, the concept of privacy. When we live in a world in which there are countless sensors and smart objects around us, all the time; when the clothes we wear, even things inside our bodies, are smart and connected, then the concept of “private” becomes far more ephemeral. What’s private? From whom? When?

As more and more information is gathered about us, constantly, so the concept of being offline, of being unavailable, or simply being alone, will recede. And as it goes, so will our control over the information gathered about us. Big data, especially, is going to make it hard to keep anything private – as more and more things gather increasing contextual information about our behavior, so the capability to analyze and predict, to seek out the identity of the people behind every action, will open very public windows into all our lives.

We may well be living in the last era of privacy – and standing on the brink of a post-privacy society. It’s not easy to imagine what that will be like. Perhaps in the end it will force us to face the deeper truths about human nature, that we are all much the same. Perhaps it will be an Orwellian nightmare in which governments spy on us constantly. Most probably, it will be a little of both.

The good news, however, is that we almost certainly won’t have to wait long to find out.

RadioShack files for bankruptcy, plans deal with Sprint

 A diminished RadioShack will live on, but its future may lie with Sprint.

Struggling consumer electronics chain RadioShack, founded nearly a century ago, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection late Thursday. It plans to sell 1,500 to 2,400 stores to its largest shareholder, investment firmStandard General, and has filed a motion to proceed with closing the remainder of its 4,000 U.S. stores.

Wireless carrier Sprint Corp. has a deal with Standard General to open mini-shops in as many as 1,750 of the RadioShack stores Standard General is buying. Sprint would take up about one-third of the retail space in each RadioShack store, and Sprint employees would sell mobile devices and Sprint plans.

And Sprint would be the primary brand on those RadioShack storefronts and marketing materials.

Sprint, which is based in Overland Park, Kansas, has more than 1,100 company-owned retail stores, which would more than double if the transaction is approved. It is expected to be finalized in the coming months. But other parties could bid for RadioShack's stores in the bankruptcy process.

Fort Worth, Texas-based RadioShack is also in talks about selling all of its remaining overseas assets.

RadioShack Corp. introduced one of the first mass-market personal computers and used to be the go-to stop for consumers' home electronics needs. But it struggled as shoppers increasingly moved online and growth in its wireless business slowed. It has suffered years of losses.

Google is developing a wristband to detect cancer cells and using HUMAN SKIN to do it

Google is making a wristband that detects cancer cells, and using human skin to do it.

Scientists in the life sciences division of Google X laboratories are working on a proactive, preventative approach to one of the world's deadliest diseases, according to The Independent.

The wristband would work in tandem with a pill that would send nanoparticles through the body to latch on to markers of different conditions and diseases including cancer, Andrew Conrad, head of Google Life Sciences, told The Atlantic.

'We have (the nanoparticles) circulate around your whole body looking for those cells and we collect them using a magnet and basically ask them what they saw,' Conrad said. 

The nanoparticles would cause the cancer cells to light up, allowing the wristband to record whether there are dangerous cells in the body, Conrad explained. 

The system relies on light emitted from the cells as a result of the nanoparticles, so scientists must understand how light passes through skin, according to the Independent. 

So Google started making skin.

To assist with their research, the scientists have made molds of human arms using both synthetic and real human skin from donors.

While using skin in the research, scientists have to account for people of different ethnicity, resulting in different skin pigmentation, and thickness of skin, The Atlantic reports. 

As the wearable is still in the early stages of development, Google X is working to determine what defines a 'healthy' person.

They are monitoring 175 healthy volunteers to frequently collect physiological information.

Conrad admitted that people may find it 'weird' having particles constantly tracking the cells in their body.

'It’s way weirder to have cancer cells floating through your body that are constantly trying to kill you,' Conrad continued. 

Conrad told the Atlantic that the Google X team is trying to change medicine from being episodic and reactive to being proactive and preventive.  

'We're making good progress but the journey is long and hard, he said. 'So I think we will get there and I hope it's years, not decades.'