A man who allegedly committed a string of home invasions and car thefts on the Gold Coast has faced court.

Ben Andrew Goring, 24, was arrested by police last month after what they describe as a two day crime "spree".

Goring is facing 30 charges including kidnapping, armed robbery and attempted murder over the string of alleged offences.

Police claim Goring broke into several homes in Upper Coomera, Carrara and Numinbah Valley on August 27 and 28.

He is also accused of stealing a car at one of the homes at gunpoint and, in one incident, forcing a 56-year-old man to drive for him.

Goring is also facing charges related to shots being fired at two cars in separate incidents on the Pacific Motorway in the Logan area, south of Brisbane, and on the Gold Coast late in August.

Goring made a brief appearance via video-link on Thursday at the Southport Magistrates Court and has been remanded in custody.

His matter has been adjourned until November 10

Summary: A man facing 30 charges including kidnapping, attempted murder and armed robbery has faced a Queensland court.


Gregg Abbott’s office seeks special AdWords source as well as other documents and executive interviews.

Google’s GOOG government woes continue as Texas’s Antitrust Investigators are seeking information on the “manual overriding or altering of” search result rankings.

The order is similar to a subpoena, compelling a company to turn over documents and make executives available for interviews.

State investigators also want Google documents on rivals Microsoft MSFT Corp.’s Bing and Yahoo! YHOO Inc. and complaints about purchasing and placing an ad on Google, the world’s most popular Internet search engine.

Google has traditionally been super secret about its algorithms citing trade secrets as a reason from publicly disclosing any information about them. Google’s hand may be forced here however.

The request was originally made last July from assistant attorney general Kim Van Winkle to Matthew Bye, a lawyer for Google and reported in September.

Something for the conspiracy theorists to consider: Google’s algorithms change frequently so the one that they choose to provide the Texas Attorney General may not be the ones which are causing the complaints from his constituents.

A Google spokesperson told Bloomberg:

“While there’s always going to be room for improvement, we’re committed to competing fair and square, we’re continuing to work with the Texas attorney general’s office to answer their questions and understand any concerns.”

Texas is just one of Google’s government regulation concerns. The U.S. DOJ is thoroughly looking through its planned acquisition of ITA and EU regulators are investigating privacy concerns.

Summary: Gregg Abbott’s office seeks special AdWords source as well as other documents and executive interviews. Google's government woes continue as Texas's Antitrust Investigators are seeking information on the “manual overriding or altering of” search result rankings. The order is similar to a subpoena, compelling a company to turn over documents and make executives available for interviews.…


A mother of four pleaded in vain for her life as she was viciously tortured with a machete before being shot twice in the head, the Brisbane Supreme Court has heard.

A de facto couple have pleaded not guilty to Tia Landers' murder but the court heard the woman on trial had boasted to an undercover policewoman that "we carved her up".

Ms Landers' body was discovered, wrapped in a blanket, in a shallow grave at Beerburrum State Forest near the Glasshouse Mountains in July 2014 with more than 30 wounds to her body.

John Edward Harris and Linda Eileen Appleton on Monday pleaded guilty to interfering with her corpse and two counts each of deprivation of liberty.

In his opening remarks to the jury, crown prosecutor Philip McCarthy said an undercover police officer was placed in Appleton's cell soon after her arrest.

"She will tell that officer: 'We carved her up, we chopped her up, we chopped her up with a machete," he said.

Mr McCarthy said Appleton then gestured two gun shots to the head.

He said Harris told a fellow prisoner that he fired the shots that killed her and he had had an affair with Ms Landers while Appleton was previously in jail.

He said two acquaintances - Jake McKenzie and Ryan Morgan - were with Landers when she was tortured and then murdered on June 16, 2014.

They will testify how she had pleaded for her life and they were ordered to clean up the blood before being driven home.

Mr McCarthy said prior conversations between the accused couple, recorded while Appleton was incarcerated over another matter, showed her feelings towards Landers.

"That scum slut probably f***ing stole them," he alleged Appleton told Harris during a phone call, referring to jewellery she believed Ms Landers had taken.

"I'm going to bust that bitch so f***ing bad, I am going smash her f***ing skull in."

Mr McCarthy said the post-mortem examination found wounds consistent with a machete to the ankle, thigh, shoulder, scalp and two "incise wounds to her vagina", however it was two gunshot wounds to her head that caused her death.

He told the jury a handgun and silencer found at their home matched bullet fragments in Landers' body, which was seriously decomposed when found.

Lander's mother Mary wiped tears from her face as she identified photos of her daughter's jewellery late on Monday.

She said she reported her daughter missing on June 19 after she failed to turn up on June 16 with "school snacks" for her four children who were staying with Mary.

The trial is expected to run for at least two weeks.

Summary: A couple have denied the murder of Queensland mother of four at the start of their Supreme Court trial but pleaded guilty to interfering with her corpse.


Ten days before a body was found in a car boot, a dazed and confused Zhen Fang told Sydney police he'd killed someone but could not remember where and when.

"That man gave me a lot of ice" he said during the conversation which stopped at times as he appeared to read passages from a bible he was clutching.

On Wednesday, the 38-year-old was found guilty of murdering Ting Huang, whose partially decomposed remains were found on September 21, 2014, near Rockwood cemetery in Lidcombe.

The NSW Supreme Court jury rejected the submission that his culpability should be reduced to manslaughter due to his suffering a substantial impairment of the mind at the time.

A psychiatrist told the jury Fang was suffering from a drug-induced psychosis, having earlier experienced hallucinations and delusions caused by the toxic effects of methamphetamine.

Eleven days before Mr Huang's body was found, Fang told his pastor he had "done something to another person" and made a throat-slitting gesture.

The next day he went to police making admissions about having killed someone.

During his conversation he hit himself in the head, gave answers and made unintelligible comments and was in a blank, daze-like state.

His behaviour led police to arrange for him to be mentally assessed.

No drugs were found in his system and he was released, as police had no details about a body or a crime.

But 10 days later they received a parking complaint about a green Honda near Rookwood cemetery and found Mr Huang's body wrapped in a doona in the boot.

He had multiple stab wounds and high levels of methamphetamine in his body.

While Fang was found to have no drugs in his system when he saw police, an expert said ice was very quickly eliminated from the body of a living person.

He later told a psychiatrist he had used ice for about 12 months, saying that from July 2014 he knew "things were not right".

He reported having argued in August or September with Mr Huang, who came from the same Chinese province as Fang, and them taking a lot of ice.

He said he woke a few days later at home, thought he had done something wrong and went to police.

His sentencing hearing will be held on February 3.

Summary: A jury has found an ice user guilty of murdering his friend, whose body was found in car boot in Sydney


For network TV and basic cable, they are a necessary evil, to put it nicely.

Sure, if you’ve DVR’d a show, you can fast forward through the ads, an inexact science that can lead to lots of annoying button-pushing to hit the mark. And if you haven’t DVR’d, you’re basically paying to watch each hour of your favorite show with about 20 minutes of your life.

(And don’t get me started on On Demand commercials.)

But an article in Adweek points to a bit of a solution. Reporter Jason Lynch looks into a new approach taken by truTV, the Turner cable channel that used to be Court TV. All of truTV’s primetime originals — most of them comedy reality shows — now run with some 4½ fewer minutes of commercials per half hour.

That’s about 47 percent more show time per hour.

The network, whose series include “Billy on the Street,” “Impractical Jokers,” and “Rachel Dratch’s Late Night Snack,” wants to improve the viewer experience, especially for millennial audiences raised with more non-ad TV options. The execs understand that they’re competing with pay cable and streaming, which don’t have any ads during shows.

By the way, the number of breaks on truTV won’t change, just the length of time in each.

This seems like a smart, long-term way to draw increasingly impatient audiences. And since truTV began pursuing shorter ad breaks, TNT and National Geographic have also been cutting ad time on a number of their series. “Saturday Night Live,” too, has cut ads by 30 percent this season.

Summary: TruTV, TNT, and National Geographic are cutting the ad load on many of their primetime shows.


Pro-refugee protesters returned to Parliament House this morning to scale its front wall and dye its fountain red, a day after they shut down Question Time with a demonstration.

Two members of the Whistleblowers Activists and Citizens Alliance abseiled down the wall and unfurled a banner reading "Close the bloody camps now", as others dyed the complex's water feature red and waded out into the pond.

The action followed the group interrupting the House of Representative yesterday, by super-gluing their hands to the railings of the public gallery and chanting.

READ MORE: Protesters super glue hands to public gallery railings during Question Time demonstration

Organiser Phil Evans said the Question Time shut-down was justified due to the significance of human rights abuse in refugee camps.

"So we're here today because all parliamentarians are complicit in the torture, rape and abuse of refugees," he told 9NEWS today.

"We're calling for justice for refugees and that means closing the bloody camps right now.

"We know that our democracy is failing us when the continuation of human rights abuses – it keeps going on – so until our parliament starts to act like a democratic nation, then we'll continue to take action in solidarity with refugees."

Greens senator Lee Rhiannon visited the protesters and offered them chocolates as she congratulated them.

"I'm sure it will go around the world, the message," she said.

The Senator also defended the abseilers, describing them as non-violent and courageous.

Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister James McGrath labelled the protesters "grubs".

"These people are selfish, they're being sooks and quite frankly they should wake up to themselves and get a job," he told Sky News.

"They ruined the experience for so many other Australians who came to Parliament House to see their representatives working."

The protesters say Manus Island, Nauru and Christmas Island are "death camps" and have demanded that every single person in offshore detention be evacuated immediately and the camps be shut down.

After a lengthy stand-off with police and parliamentary security, the protesters removed their banner just before 10.30am AEDT and began climbing back up the building wall to meet a police deadline for their voluntary departure.

The protesters in the fountain also left and provided police with their details.

Earlier today, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he would never be convinced parliament's public galleries should be closed, despite yesterday's interruption.

"Incidents like this are regrettable and they will happen from time to time but people should not feel they are free to interfere with the parliament," he said.

Speaker Tony Smith told parliament a raft of proposed upgrade works, including new perimeter fencing and more poles for CCTV cameras, had been approved by the lower house.

He acknowledged the changes will impact the original design intent of Parliament House, but they will not change the way people enter the building or access the roof.

© Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2016

Summary: Protesters have returned to Parliament House to scale its front wall and dye its fountain red, a day after they shut down Question Time with a demonstration.


AN EDICT issued by South Sudan’s ministry of labour on September 16th caused international havoc by telling all foreigners working in the country (save diplomats and government aid agencies) to leave within a month. But the next day the foreign minister, responding to the ensuing uproar in diplomatic, humanitarian and business circles, back-pedalled by saying that foreigners could stay if no qualified local person could be found to do the job. If the original edict had been enacted, it could have spelt economic and humanitarian disaster for a fledgling country already mired in civil war, penury and administrative chaos.

Tariq Riebl, director of Oxfam GB in South Sudan, is one of many influential foreigners who immediately urged the government to change its mind, arguing that the measure, if implemented, “would massively disrupt aid programmes across the country which feed over 1m people. South Sudan is on a knife-edge and could easily tip into famine in 2015.” Oxfam alone says it reaches 300,000 vulnerable people.

The anti-foreigner move seems to have been driven by the frustration of locals who grumble that too many jobs—including in hotels, banks, services and the oil industry—are held by outsiders, especially from neighbouring Uganda and Kenya., who tend to be better-qualified, more efficient and more entrepreneurial; three-quarters of South Sudanese are thought to be illiterate. Given the reluctance of the more educated diaspora to return, few locals are capable of keeping the show on the road.

The original labour-ministry circular had stated, without qualification, that “NGOs, telecommunications companies, banks, insurance companies, oil companies, hotels and lodges must terminate the employment of all foreigners working with them.” A recent study suggests that a quarter of all paid jobs in the country are in the hands of foreigners.

Meanwhile peace negotiations between followers of the president, Salva Kiir, and the ousted vice-president, Riek Machar, who fell out bloodily last December, are getting nowhere. The civil war, fought largely along tribal lines, has slowed down in the rainy season, which generally lasts until November, but it is likely to resume in earnest when drier weather returns. In a population of 11m, around 1.3m people are thought to have been displaced and 4m are at risk of famine, says the UN. The last thing South Sudan needs at the moment is the expulsion of skilled and entrepreneurial outsiders.

Summary: What lies behind South Sudan's antipathy towards foreigners?


General Caldwell said "painstaking" tracking of Mr. Zarqawi's spiritual adviser, Sheik Abd al-Rahman, in a period of two or three weeks before the bombing, meant that Mr. Rahman was under close surveillance as he traveled to the house at Hibhib on Wednesday afternoon. But he said the Americans had no indication before the sheik arrived at the house where he was going, and knew that Mr. Zarqawi was there only when Mr. Rahman arrived.

At that point, the general said, there were no coalition ground troops positioned near the house. Similarly, he said, the United States Air Force F-16 fighter jet that dropped both bombs was one of two aircraft that were on a "routine mission" in the area, with no planning for the bombing, when they were ordered to carry out the attack immediately. One of the jets was refueling from an aerial tanker, so the mission fell "to a single bird," he said.

In Hibhib, Lt. Col. Thomas Fisher, in charge of a group of American soldiers patrolling the overall area, said he was ordered late Wednesday to get his men as quickly as possible to the site, what was described as a "time sensitive target." His earliest soldiers got there 90 minutes after the airstrike; an American commando team had already come and gone. "We didn't know it was Zarqawi," Colonel Fisher said.

General Caldwell declined to say how Mr. Rahman was being tracked, or how exactly the American command knew once he reached the house that Mr. Zarqawi was there. But from what he did say, the strong implication was that the Americans were relying on a combination of remotely piloted surveillance aircraft and electronic intercepts of the phone being used by Mr. Rahman.

The combat camera images of the attack released on Thursday showed a large white dot circling the target area at relatively low altitude before, during and after the bombing, the characteristic signature of a reconnaissance drone.

General Caldwell said that the surveillance of Mr. Rahman in the past month had shown that there was a pattern in what he did when he was preparing for meetings with Mr. Zarqawi. "We knew that he did certain things" when preparing for a meeting, the general said, "and all these things in fact happened when he arrived at the house and went inside."

The general gave no details, but accounts circulating in Baghdad in recent days, citing unnamed Iraqi officials, have said that Mr. Rahman, apparently wary of using a cellphone because of American monitoring, relied on a Thuraya hand-held satellite telephone when calling Mr. Zarqawi. One of the features of satellite phones is that a caller usually has to be outside a car or building when he makes the calls, in order for the handset to have a direct line to the satellite.

The aerial drone appeared to have provided the geographic coordinates that were crucial to the bombing, and possibly the laser beam that guided the first bomb. General Caldwell said that the first bomb dropped by the F-16 pilot was a GBU-12 laser-guided bomb, and that it was guided to the target by a laser beam that was independently directed at the house.

The second bomb, which the general identified as a GBU-38, was guided to the target by pinpoint coordinates that the pilot had to program into his weapons system, and the generals said these coordinates came from an "overhead asset," apparently the drone.

The general said that the delay between the first and second bombs was 96 seconds, the time it took for the pilot to plug in the coordinates, and that the pilot's orders were to drop both bombs. When asked who gave the final order for the attack, and whether it was given by Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top American commander in Iraq, General Caldwell paused. "Just before the bomb was dropped, General Casey was informed," he said.

The decision for an airstrike rather than a ground assault was made largely because American officers viewing images of the area were concerned that Mr. Zarqawi could escape. From the house in the palm grove, General Caldwell said, Mr. Zarqawi "had a 360-degree option" to get away.

Eventually, he said, the American military would have "an amazing story to tell" about the operation, one that involved weeks of assembling an intelligence jigsaw, some of it drawn from high-technology tracking of Mr. Rahman, some of it "good old human intelligence" gathered from Iraqis and other sources, which he did not name.

Asked if it were true that Jordanian intelligence officials had been crucial in identifying Mr. Rahman as the key to hunting down Mr. Zarqawi, as some Jordanian officials have claimed, the general was evasive. "We could not have done this without our coalition partners and the support of all our partners in the global war on terrorism," he said.

Mr. Zarqawi could hardly have picked a more secluded hideaway. The house outside Hibhib sat about 400 yards off the main road and was accessible only by a dirt road. The building lay in a grove of date palms, with the nearest house about 300 yards away. An irrigation canal ran along the property.

The American and Iraqi soldiers guarding the site on Saturday said they were not surprised that Mr. Zarqawi had chosen the area. American and Iraqi troops rarely patrol the area, in large part because it is so remote. The local residents, the adults, anyway, do not smile and do not wave, the American soldiers said.

"People in this area like Zarqawi," said Adil Abid Hussein, 33, an Iraqi soldier guarding the house.

Dexter Filkins reported from Hibhib for this article, and John F. Burns from Baghdad.

Summary: A few clues about Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's violent life revealed themselves, some of them tantalizing, most of them banal.


WASHINGTON, May 5  To anyone who doubts the stakes for the White House in this year's midterm Congressional elections, consider that Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the Democrat who would become chairman of the Judiciary Committee if his party recaptured the House, has called for an inquiry into the possible impeachment of President Bush over the war in Iraq.

President Bush walking to the Oval Office last week, trailed by Karl Rove, left, his chief strategist, and Allan B. Hubbard, his assistant for economic policy. Mr. Rove is helping lead Republican midterm election efforts.

Or listen to Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, who would run the Senate Judiciary Committee if the Democrats took the Senate. Mr. Leahy vowed in a recent interview to subpoena top administration officials, if he got the chance, to answer more questions about their secret eavesdropping program and what he considers faulty prewar intelligence.

The prospect of the administration spending its last two years being grilled by angry Democrats under the heat of partisan spotlights has added urgency to the efforts by Karl Rove and Mr. Bush's political team to hang on to the Republican majorities in Congress.

Newly shorn of the daily policymaking duties he took on after the 2004 campaign and now refocused on his role as Mr. Bush's chief strategist, Mr. Rove is facing an increasingly difficult climate for Republicans, and an increasingly assertive Democratic Party.

The ambitious second-term agenda he helped develop has faltered even with a Republican Congress. His once-grand plans for creating a broadened and permanent Republican majority have given way to a goal of clinging to control of the House and Senate.

The prospect of Democrats capturing either, however, may be one of the best weapons Mr. Rove has as he turns to what he has traditionally done best: motivating his party's conservative base to turn out on Election Day.

Heading into the election, many conservatives are disheartened by the war in Iraq, upset at what they see as a White House tolerance for bigger government and escalating federal spending, and divided over issues like immigration. The abrupt resignation on Friday of the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Porter J. Goss, promised to feed the impression of an administration that is off balance.

But White House and Republican officials, trying to turn vulnerability to advantage, say conservatives could be united and re-energized by the possibility that Democrats could put Mr. Bush and his policies on political trial by winning control of even one chamber of Congress.

Senate Republicans sent out a fund-raising letter this week seeking to use that possibility to fire up the base, warning that a Democratic majority would put fighting terrorism "on the back burner" and that "our worst fears" could be realized.

The appeal is just one indication of how hard the White House and its Republican allies are likely to fight from now through Nov. 7 and of the challenge Mr. Rove faces in what could be the last campaign he orchestrates with the party.

At stake is not just what remains of Mr. Bush's hopes of making a permanent imprint on policy, but also whether Democrats will have a platform to define his presidency for history.

With so much on the line, Mr. Rove has taken to traveling the country to form strategies with individual candidates and local parties while brainstorming with the president's political and policy teams on broad items the White House can pursue to help Republicans everywhere. He is focusing on only the major planks of Mr. Bush's agenda and not the minutiae of policy that had consumed hours of his day.

In regular West Wing breakfast sessions catered by the White House mess, Mr. Rove and the White House political director, Sara Taylor, have already been reaching out to nervous and vulnerable Republicans, three at a time, laying out an emerging three-prong attack on Democrats over national security, taxes and health care.

In meetings at the White House, aboard Air Force One and in candidates' home states, Mr. Rove is trying to rally Republicans to stand by the president and his agenda.

He has focused in particular on uniting them behind the administration's proposals to overhaul immigration, which include guest worker provisions that conservatives despise; the Iraq war, which has driven Mr. Bush's poll numbers sharply downward; and the Medicare prescription drug program, which the administration says will cost $872 billion from 2006 to 2014 and which Mr. Bush backed enthusiastically despite complaints from conservatives that it was a vast expansion of the social welfare state.

Democrats need a net gain of six seats to win control of the Senate, and 15 for the House. With the overall outcome potentially coming down to one or two races, nearly every district and state seems to be getting some attention from Mr. Rove. He enlisted the president, and called on his own, to persuade Representative Elton Gallegly of California, a 10-term veteran, to reconsider a decision to drop his planned re-election campaign because of health worries.

Summary: The prospect of Democrats winning the House or Senate is seen as a powerful tool to motivate the conservative base.


LOS ANGELES – Corey Haim was never supposed to play an actual role in the latest installment of the classic cult franchise, "The Lost Boys," but it turns out that the child star, who passed away earlier this year, has a creepy "presence" in the horror flick, which goes straight to DVD in October.

"Corey Haim would love it, he was very excited about the fact we were making (another) one. He did some interviews and said that while he couldn't be part of it, he was looking forward to seeing how his character would develop," Corey Feldman, who was joined by his original co-star and "Frog Brother" Jamison Newlander, told Fox 411's Pop Tarts at the Comic Con Convention in San Diego over the weekend. "This film is actually dedicated to Corey. When you see the film, there are scenes that pertain to his character and most people when they watch the film will believe that we shot it after he was gone."

It is unclear why Haim was excluded from the third film, but Feldman assured us that they always had solid plans for him to rejoin the cast for the yet-to-be developed fourth installment.

"We we're actually discussing what we were going to do with his character. The idea was to introduce his character in a way in the third and bring him back for the forth. So it is very sad for the loss, both personally and as part of the franchise," he continued. "It is sad, and a bit shocking when you watch the film. It is very eerie."

SLIDESHOW: Corey Haim - 1971 - 2010

On another note, Megan Fox recently tied-the-knot with longtime lover Brian Austin Green, yet that isn't discouraging Feldman from seeking out the sexy starlet - all in the name of a professional pursuit, of course.

"If I could suck anyone's blood? Megan Fox," he said. “I read a couple of weeks ago that she had stated that “Lost Boys” was one of her favorite films and would love to be part of the franchise if we were to do another one, so you never know. The possibilities are endless.”

And while "Twilight" and its cast of aesthetically attractive vampires has certainly spawned an international sensation over the last couple of years, Newlander and Feldman want you to remember that R-Patz and K-Stew are only variations on of a trend they feel that they ultimately conceived.

"We're here to reclaim our stakes. We were one of the first to start the teen vampire film, and in our new film there are a few nods to the 'Twilight' saga," Feldman added. "But at the same time we're back, we're the originals fighting vampires and we look damn good doing it."

Summary: Corey Feldman: Corey Haim's Spirit Is Present in New 'Lost Boys' Film


The mobile augmented reality space has really been heating up lately (check out our recent feature on the top 6 AR apps). Today one of the front-runners, Austrian software company Mobilizy, launched a new version of their mobile augmented reality browser Wikitude for Google’s Android platform.

For those unfamiliar with the concept, augmented reality refers to the sci-fi-like display of real time digital data superimposed on top of the world around you, typically via your mobile phone’s camera. You point the camera at an object or location and get a resulting display of information related to those things or places.

The most interesting update to Mobilizy’s mobile augmented reality offering is the relaunch and full integration of the Wikitude.me platform with the browser. Wikitude.me is a socially-aware geotagging site where you can log in with an existing Facebook, Twitter, Google or Yahoo account and add location-based information that other users will be able to access later at that same spot.

That focus on user-generated content separates Wikitude from one of its major rivals, Layar, who is betting on outside developers creating geotagged “layers” of data for its browser. There’s an API for the Wikitude browser as well, but Mobilizy seems to be far more actively promoting the idea that the best source of location and situation-specific data will be the people who actually spend time there.

Anyone can contribute freely to the corpus of information that Wikitude draws from (it also pulls in data from Wikipedia and a European recommendation site called Qype), and the Wikitude.me site was designed for simplicity and ease of use to encourage broader participation. Envisioned with a similar ethos to Wikipedia, the data inside Wikitude.me is also licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Unported, giving other users the right to share and remix it with attribution and identical licensing.

Moreover, the ability to add geotagging data is very platform-agnostic and can be done from any internet-enabled device. Each point of interest contains a title, description, category, language and URL, and gets cross-posted to @wikitude_me‘s Twitter account.

Have you used any of these augmented reality apps yet? Do you think Wikitude is on the right track with a focus on user-generated data, or will some other player with a hefty development budget (cough) come along and geotag the entire globe? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.


SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook on Friday confronted a new obstacle over what to do with one of its most vital assets — pictures.

The company promised European regulators that it would forgo using facial recognition software to automatically identify its users on the Continent, and delete a database that held millions of pictures uploaded in Europe.

The decision could have wide repercussions on how facial recognition technology — a particularly sensitive technological advance — is used globally as surveillance cameras are increasingly installed in public spaces.

“This is a big deal,’’ said Chris Hoofnagle, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who specializes in online privacy.

The agreement comes as Facebook is under pressure from Wall Street to profit from its vast trove of data, including pictures, and also from regulators worldwide over the use of personal information.

The decision in Europe applies to the ‘‘tag suggestion,’’ a Facebook feature that deploys a sophisticated facial recognition tool to automatically match pictures with names. When a Facebook user uploads a photo of friends, the ‘‘tag suggestion’’ feature can automatically pull up the names of the individuals in the image.

The company quietly and temporarily pulled the plug on ‘‘tag suggestion’’ for all Facebook users several months ago. The company said Friday it was to ‘‘make improvements to the tool’s efficiency’’ and did not say how soon it would be restored.

However, the company promised European regulators Friday that it would reinstate the feature on the Continent only with their approval.

Facebook declined to say under what circumstances the ‘‘tag suggestions’’ would be back online in the United States or elsewhere.

Facebook’s promise to the European regulators is part of an investigation into whether the company’s data collection practices comply with European privacy rules. It was made with regulators in Ireland, where the company has its European headquarters.

Summary: Facebook bowed to pressure from regulators in Europe on Friday and said it would discontinue an automated photo-tagging feature and delete a face-recognition database in which it had collected pictures of millions of Europeans. The company, the world’s largest social networking site, said it was responding to legal concerns raised about its collection of data on its European members from regulators in Ireland, where Facebook has its European headquarters.


Xenofon Kavvadias with two of the sealed terror manuals. Photograph: Martin Godwin

The government's anti-terror law watchdog has become involved in an artist's attempt to use jihadist handbooks and extremist tracts in his work.

Lord Carlile of Berriew has advised Xenofon Kavvadias after the Metropolitan police warned the Greek artist he could be arrested and prosecuted under the Terrorism Act if he mounts an exhibition featuring texts such as The Islamic Ruling on the Permissibility of Martyrdom Operations, a justification for suicide bombings used by Chechen extremists.

Kavvadias, a graduate of Central St Martins School of Art and Design who has lived in the UK for six years, sought Lord Carlile's advice when he staged his MA degree show, featuring the covers of three extremist texts secured in centimetre-thick clear plastic cases in an attempt to explore the legal boundaries of freedom of expression.

He now wants to install a bookshelf in an art gallery stocked with texts presented in court to secure terrorism convictions. They include Defence of Muslim Lands by Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, a jihadist who influenced Osama bin Laden, The Mujahideen Poisons Handbook, which details how to kill using homemade ricin and how to make poisons from tobacco and potatoes, and the Manual of Afghan Jihad (also known as the al-Qaida Manual), which explains how to plan, finance and execute terror attacks.

Courts have handed down custodial sentences for possession of these and similar documents. Last year Khalid Khaliq, a friend of two of the 7 July 2005 suicide bombers, was jailed for 16 months for possession of the al-Qaida Manual.

Kavvadias says he is a pacifist and has no sympathy with Islamist extremism, but wants "to use art to reclaim something that is lost right now: freedom of publishing and freedom of expression".

He argues that most of the texts he proposes to feature are accessible on the internet and is keen to point out that the broad wording of anti-terrorism legislation criminalises thousands of people who have no criminal intent.

The Met's director of legal services told him the police are "duty bound to investigate acts relating to the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism … this includes offences about the possession, collection or record-keeping of information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism".

However, Carlile, the government's independent reviewer of anti-terrorist legislation since 2005, has offered cautious encouragement to the project. "I am sure there is a visual arts context into which counter-terrorism legislation can be put," he advised. "The best and shortest answer to your question is that you are unlikely to be prosecuted, and if prosecuted not convicted, if you do not break sections 57 and 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000 … I am sorry that I cannot answer your question more directly than that, but I am afraid that the law is no less conceptual than fine art."

Carlile told the Guardian: "Nobody is going to give him a yes or a no on any particular item. If he shows anything that shows somebody who does not know how to make a bomb, then that would be a bad decision."

Kavvadias also placed documents in secure cases in a current exhibition at the 10 Vyner Street gallery, east London. Now he wants to have whole books on display with a reading table and public discussion. "I think having these books in a forum like that and in an art context is something essential for an open and free society," he said. "My grand project is to design a library [of banned books] for each country to create a portrait of a country's demons and fears." He said the law as it stands means thousands of people who have downloaded copies of terrorist-related tracts and handbooks, are inadvertently putting themselves at risk of prosecution, even when they don't have any criminal purpose.

Unless he can secure assurances that he will not be prosecuted under laws that proscribe recklessly inciting others to commit terrorist acts, with a maximum jail term of seven years, he will try to stage the show in the Netherlands.

Summary: Lord Carlile of Berriew advises Xenofon Kavvadias over freedom of speech project amid threat of arrest


People look at a street art graffiti by elusive British artist Banksy, as part of his month-long exhibit in New York. Photograph: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images

He is the anonymous street art vigilante who uses the nondescript walls of cities to stage million-dollar exhibitions. In many places around the world, Banksy's graffiti art, with its strong political motifs, has become a cultural symbol and a community treasure. This month he is in New York, for what is expected to be a month-long residency featuring several new projects.

However, with great artistic acclaim and value comes a surge in commercialization. Many of Banksy's murals – prized greatly by art fans but even more so by private property owners – have been displaced and auctioned. In Los Angeles in August, a Banksy Flower Girl piece was removed from a gas station and put up for auction. The starting bid was $300,000. In February, a piece entitled Slave Labour disappeared under mysterious circumstances from a North London Poundland store, only to turn up in a Miami auction later that month, with an asking price of $700,000.

And then there are the Banksy pieces that have been put at risk simply because of their public nature. In Bristol, Gorilla in a Pink Mask was painted over by a building's new owners, who thought it was just a vandal's graffiti. In New York this week, Banksy's first mural was tagged by other artists within hours – before being erased entirely.

Regarding such threats of removal or damage to public art, cities are faced with two questions: should they protect the art? And if so, how? Banksy's murals are most often public art drawn – illegally, in some cases – on private property. This raises issues of ownership and preservation. Amy Adler, professor of art law at New York University, suggests that "amendments to planning legislation are therefore a possible next step", in order to empower public authorities to preserve art in public spaces.

In Los Angeles, legal proceedings were brought when a large mural by the artist Ed Ruscha, on private land, was suddenly painted over. This was one of the few instances in which a work of public art was protected under federal visual artists rights regulations, preserving the work even if the ownership of the physical property changes.

Adler contends, however, that in Banksy's case, "for this to apply, Banksy himself would have to file for protection, which given his penchant for anonymity and illegality of his graffiti, he does not do".

When a mural has been put on a publicly owned space, local authorities have greater power to decide what to do – in some cases, they have taken on the task of preservation themselves. In 2006, Bristol city council polled residents when a Banksy image appeared on a public clinic: 97% said they wanted it to stay.

However not everybody agrees that the art should be preserved. In New York, authorities reacted less kindly to a Wall Street rat painting, critical of corporate America, and Let Them Eat Crack was ordered to be painted over. Banksy's Pulp Fiction bananas suffered the same fate after Transport for London claimed it employed "cleaners and not professional art critics".

"If we condone this then we might as well say that any kid with a spray can is producing art," Robert Davis, the chairman of Westminster Council's planning committee, said at the time. "To go and deface other people's property is graffiti. Just because he's famous doesn't give him that right."

Steven Thomas, a partner at the Irell & Manella law firm in LA, lends supports to this stance, as "the moral rights of Banksy are trumped by the fact trespass on the property took place. The building owner or local council can do as they wish".

Local governments find themselves powerless when the piece is on private property, where the retention depends on the owner. The recent removal of Slave Labour from a convenience store wall in London was a sting to the local community who regarded it as a source of pride to an otherwise degenerate area. The local Haringey Council protested that public works should not be for private enjoyment. It was eventually sold in London, though not reinstalled on the wall.

In 2011 John Webster of the University of Bristol, in Banksy's home town, suggested the addition public art to national historic registries. In the US, though, the National Register of Historic Places considers pieces of "historical interest or great artistic value", but only after at least 50 years. The UK only considers significant work after 15 years – but does protect it under a National Trust Lottery fund. Webster therefore proposes that an extension to criteria would have to be considered to incorporate protection for future generations.

Regarding the situation in the US, Phillipa Loengard, director at the Columbia Kernochan Center for Law and Arts, says: "The problem with the register is that the whole building would have to be listed resulting in more bureaucracy with developers and owners."

She cites a recently overturned ordinance by the Los Angeles city council that now allows street artists to paint murals in public.

"Cities should instead adopt something like the California Civil Code 989 which allows any community group to ask for protection by the building owner, if they fundraise for the preservation."

The legislation requires "recognized quality" and "substantial public interest" which is yet to be tested, but this could prove to be the way forward for many different communities.

Successful preservation has happened when local groups work directly with the artists and property owners to come to an agreement – something which is hard to do with a mysterious artist like Banksy.

Adler says: "The real problem we have is the rich irony of cultural preservatio. The intention of the work is social change and vandalism. By trying to preserve it, it is contrary to the ethos of the work and subversive street culture."

Summary: The artist's work is prized greatly by art fans, but even more so by private property owners and those looking to turn a profit


Yesterday morning, at about 3 1/2 o'clock, a boy left in the business office of the TIMES three pages of thin paper, upon which was written what purported to be a proclamation, signed by President LINCOLN, and countersigned by the Secretary of State. It was at once sent to the editorial rooms, and put into the hands of the night Editor. It resembled somewhat the copy usually sent from the office of the Associated Press, though its handwriting was not that which usually comes from that office -- and a perusal of the document led the editor to doubt its authenticity. On inquiry he learned that it was not inclosed in the envelope bearing the stamp of the Associated Press, or in any other, and that the boy who left it had, after throwing it upon the counter, instantly left the office. The editor then sent the manuscript to the office of the Associated Press, with an inquiry as to its origin, and received from the person in attendance the following perfectly satisfactory reply:

DEAR SIR: The "Proclamation" is "false as hell," and was not promulgated through this office. The handwriting is not familiar.

The document was accordingly denied publication in the columns of the TIMES. It appeared, however, in the columns of the World and the Journal of Commerce.

We print the pretended proclamation in another column. Its purport is to order a day of fasting and prayer in consequence of reverses sustained by our arms in Virginia and the probable triumph of the rebellion. It was probably concocted and sent to all the newspapers, at so late an hour as to preclude any close scrutiny into its authenticity, in order that it might go to Europe by the Cunard steamer Scotia, and produce its natural effect upon the foreign markets and foreign sentiment. The object will probably be thwarted, in part at least, by the fact that it was published only in two of the City journals, and those the two most conspicuous for their hostility to the Administration. Nevertheless, all possible use will be made of it by the agents and allies of secession on the other side, and it will undoubtedly produce an effect. Its appearance created a marked excitement and indignation in the City. Gold in Wall-street rose five or six per cent., but fell again as soon as the forgery was exposed. Both the World and the Journal of Commerce posted upon their bulletins a disclaimer of the document, and offered rewards for the detection of the forger.

Last evening possession was taken by the military authorities of the offices of both the papers which published the Proclamation, and their publishers and editors were put under arrest, so far as they could be found. It is understood, though not officially known, that this was done by order from Washington; that the World and Journal of Commerce will not be permitted to appear this morning, and that the persons arrested will be tried by a military tribunal on charge of having treasonably attempted to give aid and comfort to the enemy.

So far as intent enters into the essence of crime, we do not believe that the editor of either of the journals in question is in the least amenable to so grave a charge. It may be deemed necessary, however, to enforce, by some signal example, upon the conductors of the public press, the necessity of greater caution than has hitherto been exercised in matters of this kind. We are quite sure, however, that Secretary SEWARD, at least, will not exact at the hands of editors a degree of intuitive knowledge as to the authenticity of pretended official documents which even a Secretary of State does not always possess: but it is undoubtedly true, that every newspaper should have an editor who may be held responsible for whatever finds admission to its columns, and that this responsibility should be enforced.

The Associated Press has offered a reward of ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS for the discovery of the forger. We think the Government ought to join in the effort for his detection.

Summary: Yesterday morning, at about 3 o'clock, a boy left in the business office of the TIMES three pages of thin paper, upon which was written what purported to be a proclamation, signed by President LINCOLN, and countersigned ...


Boston is banding together with Braintree, Cambridge, Quincy, and Somerville to jointly promote the region’s life sciences industry, a dramatic shift from the strategy of Thomas M. Menino, who as mayor worked to lure biotechs and other cutting-edge companies from neighboring cities.

Leaders from the five municipalities are set to gather at the Museum of Science Tuesday to formally launch the effort, called the Life Sciences Corridor initiative. They say the alliance could be a springboard to other regional partnerships in economic development, housing, and transportation, ranging from subway improvements to affordable housing for life sciences workers.

“There’s a lot of talk about Boston operating as a silo, but it’s important that our sister cities are strong as well,” said Mayor Martin J. Walsh. “I don’t intend on going to Cambridge and saying to companies, ‘I want you to come to Boston.’ ”

Under Menino, the city took a Boston-first approach toward businesses seeking to relocate, expand, or establish a presence in the region. When Menino learned of opposition in Cambridge to a proposed new site for Millennium Pharmaceuticals two years ago, he quickly invited the cancer drug maker to the South Boston Waterfront. Ultimately, Cambridge approved the Millennium plans.

Last year, Menino bristled at a decision by Partners HealthCare to move its administrative staff from Boston to Somerville, bypassing a parcel in Roxbury that he favored.

Conversely, there was displeasure in Cambridge when Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. decided to move its headquarters to a new complex on the South Boston Waterfront.

While the new alliance does not explicitly forbid one municipality from soliciting businesses based in another, it appears to make it less likely.

Cambridge is already home to more than 325 of the roughly 500 life sciences companies located in the five Life Sciences Corridor communities. The city — especially Kendall Square — is often considered the industry’s national hub. While Cambridge might seem to have the most to lose if other biotech and medical technology clusters grow elsewhere, City Manager Rich Rossi said regional expansion will help everyone.

“Cambridge is doing well and will continue to do well,” Rossi said. “But I don’t think there’s room in Cambridge for every aspect of life sciences. There may be some companies where the cost of the land and buildings in other communities are more within their budgets. The less we’re fighting with each other, the better for the region.”

In recent years, representatives of Boston, Cambridge, and Quincy have jointly met with officials from out-of-state and foreign companies in the Massachusetts pavilion at trade conventions held by the Biotechnology Industry Organization. That process will be formalized, and joined by Somerville and Braintree representatives, at next month’s BIO gathering in San Diego, which will be attended by businesses from around the world. The five municipalities will also market the region together at other industry events.

Business leaders say a regional approach could help attract companies with different needs. While research firms might gravitate to locations near the academic medical labs in Cambridge or Boston, for instance, businesses looking for less expensive space, more land, or manufacturing sites could consider Braintree, Quincy, or Somerville.

“Each community has certain assets and attractions,” said Quincy’s mayor, Thomas P. Koch, whose city is home to a massive distribution center for the medical device maker Boston Scientific Corp. “We have land that might not be available in more densely populated communities.”

Those involved in the Life Sciences Corridor say it can knit together disparate communities along the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s Red Line that, historically, have not collaborated.

“The notion of the Red Line makes it a very interesting proposition because it’s not that easy to get into Kendall Square,” where many companies want to go to collaborate, said Glenn Batchelder, chairman of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council and founder of Civitas Therapeutics in Chelsea. “As you see Kendall Square get more and more developed, the challenge of transportation becomes more important.”

Alan Fein, executive vice president at the Broad Institute at MIT and Harvard and president of the Kendall Square Association, said he hopes the regional approach can help spur Red Line improvements — such as more trains and better signaling technology — and a push to develop affordable real estate for life sciences companies.

“To be a sustainable innovation district, you have to have space that companies at each stage of the development cycle can afford, from startups to very established companies to all the companies in the middle,” Fein said. “If you don’t have affordable space for the middle companies, you won’t have the startups.”

Somerville, whose life sciences companies include Bioengineering Inc., which designs bioreactors for cultivating cells used in making protein-based drugs, is eager to attract the spillover from the Kendall Square cluster, said Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone.

Curtatone called the Life Sciences Corridor “an important symbolic step” in presenting Greater Boston municipalities as a single entity.

“The region extends beyond North Station and the gas tanks on the Southeast Expressway,” he said. “If you think about the Red Line from Davis Square to Braintree, we’re all part of this great region with so much talent and creativity.”

Braintree’s mayor, Joseph C. Sullivan, whose town hosts Haemonetics Corp., a maker of blood-processing technology, expects it will gain more from regional economic development than by going solo.

“We’ve all been doing our own promotional cheerleading to the business community, but you need to work with others,” Sullivan said. “No one gets anything done alone.”

Summary: Boston is banding together with four other municipalities to jointly promote the region’s life sciences industry, marking a dramatic strategic shift from the policy of former mayor Thomas M. Menino, who aggressively sought to protect the city’s interests in biotechs and other cutting-edge companies considered crucial to the state’s economy.


The La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles are the final home of countless ancient animals that became mired in its primordial ebony goo. The more the poor animals fought to free themselves, the more hapless they became.

American Honda’s headquarters sits just 20 miles south of the tar pits, but the company has exhibited signs of stickiness in recent years, unable to recover the sense of youthful spunk it once commanded.

Indeed, the more the company has struggled to recreate its earlier success, the worse its situation has become. For every shining success like the Accord sedan and CR-V crossover, there is a slow-selling disappointment, including the second-generation Insight and CR-Z, the Acura ZDX and RL from Honda’s Acura luxury subsidiary, and some less incriminating nameplates such as the Ridgeline and Crosstour – all of which have prompted former Honda fans to wonder what became of the company that once promised to “make it simple”.

To this, Honda answers with a redesigned Fit – marketed in Asia and Europe as the Jazz – a car armed with all the quantifiable improvements that attend a big global relaunch. There’s an 11% rise in horsepower (to 130), a 7.5% increase in torque (to 114 pound-feet), 14% greater range of ratios in the new continuously variable transmission (CVT) and a 16% uptick in fuel economy. These numbers are abetted by improvements to the flipping, flopping and folding Magic Seat, now 21.7% more magical than before. Hocus pocus aside, there is in fact more rear leg and cargo room when the ingenious seat is employed.

Kudos to Honda for its unrelenting focus on delivering safety, even in this, its entry-level model. The company expects the Fit to be named a Top Pick by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), a nonprofit financed by the insurance industry, when that group smashes a new Fit into its test barricade. Additionally, the car has a rear back-up camera as standard – years ahead of US government legislation that mandates such equipment – a convex driver’s side auxiliary mirror and a passenger’s side blind spot camera to help reduce collisions.

The 2015 Fit scores 36mpg in EPA combined driving with the automatic CVT and 32mpg with the slick six-speed manual, numbers that move the car from near the bottom of the subcompact class to the top. The CVT’s 41mpg highway rating delivers the kind of efficiency that justifies choosing a smaller, rougher-riding subcompact over a bigger, more comfortable one in a way that the old car’s averages simply couldn’t.

As has been true of other recent Hondas, the CVT is fairly unobtrusive when the car is driven gently, even mimicking gear changes at times. Driven harder, though, and the engine drones as the CVT lets it rev eternally at the peak of its power band. The result is aurally displeasing, even if the computer says it is for the best.

Salvation is as simple as selecting Honda’s excellent six-speed manual transmission, with its light, quick throws and accuracy. So good is it that it reminds a driver of the fun that can be had even in a “budget” car.

Headlight illumination, a shortcoming in the previous Fit/Jazz, has been addressed, as the new car’s lights actually do their job on the low beam.

Honda boasts of improvements made to hush the usual small-car racket inside the Fit, with an array of sound-deadening mats applied throughout. The effort is successful, although the engine’s new direct fuel injection system, an inherently noisy technology, can give the impression of a farm tractor going about its chores in the distance.

Does this mean the Fit has powered free of Honda’s tar pit? For all the car’s many admirable and quantifiable virtues, it is frustrating and disappointing to find it let down by little faults that coalesce into a greater lament.

The relative quiet in the cabin serves to highlight the noisy ventilation fan, whose roar drowns out the music (and the engine) even at middle speed settings and not just at full blast.

The dashboard continues Honda’s current theme of mixing colours, shapes and materials in a seemingly random mélange that could be best summarised as cluttered. It is the same on the instrument panel, where a panoply of colours and designs vie for the driver’s attention.

Honda touts the car’s 7in infotainment display in the middle of the dash, but while it features iPad-like touch controls, the thing can be quite user-unfriendly, especially while driving. A finger swipe is not the most intuitive way to adjust volume, for example, or to toggle through radio stations. Drivers would do well to isolate such actions to the smart steering-wheel-mounted control buttons.

The system does provide good mobile device integration, with support for apps like Pandora in addition to iTunes music. When the Fit is parked, video can even be played through the HDMI cable. But these same features could have been included in a stereo with actual volume and tuning knobs a driver could easily operate while driving.

Outside, the Fit carries over its essential efficient shape, with some clear influence from the current Civic around the grille. The resulting car remains recognisably a Fit, but so similar to the original that its styling has to be considered stagnant, even in the test car’s resplendent Milano Red finish.

On balance, the Fit’s progress out of its tar pit is incremental. So many solid upgrades, undermined by less-than-intuitive infotainment controls and cluttered interior styling. This is unquestionably a better Fit, which immediately makes it one of the best subcompact hatchbacks on the market. It’s not enough to redeem an entire brand, but it is a confident step out of the oozy morass.

If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Autos, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.

Summary: The brand that once promised to âmake it simpleâ has made it hard to love its cars of late. The 2015 Fit looks to stage a course correction.


If your Starbucks barista had an arm tattoo, would it stop you from ordering your daily espresso?

Probably not, but Starbucks, at least for now, won’t allow baristas to have tattoos that are visible to customers. But the coffee giant is considering relaxing its dress code in the coming weeks in recognition that fashion tastes have changed.

Starbucks SBUX is part of a growing list companies that are grappling with reality that their workforces and customers are increasingly tattooed, pierced and at home in casual clothes. For example, PetSmart PETM recently started letting employees show off their tattoos at work while retailing giant Wal-Mart WMT will soon let its workers wear black pants instead of just khakis.

Dress codes are a delicate balancing act for retail and food-service companies, which try to project an image to customers but not be so strict as to make employees quit. For instance, shoppers in Home Depot’s massive stores can easily spot employees wearing orange aprons, which also help to reinforce the corporate color scheme.

But err into too-strict territory and it could mean an employee exodus. Turnover is already high at retail stores and restaurants, which raises recruiting costs. Research suggests that the cost of replacing workers can reach as high as 50% to 60% of their annual salary because of the extra training required and time human resources spends setting them up to get paid and start their benefits, according to a report by the Society for Human Resource Management.

Starbucks says it is considering changes to several employee-related policies, including the dress code, pay, and vacation scheduling. The policy review could result in changes in the next few weeks, a spokesman said.

“We are always actively engaged in discussions with our partners to determine how to make their experience better and more valuable,” said Zack Hutson, a Starbucks spokesman said. In the company’s corporate lingo, “partners” are employees.

Hutson said retention plays “a big part in all the work we do to create the best experience possible for our people,” and added the company’s retention rate is about half the industry average (Starbucks declined to share the specific figure).

Starbucks’ review of its dress policies closely coincides with an online petition started by a Starbucks employee intended to pressure the company into changing the dress code to allow visible tattoos. But Starbucks says it was already mulling a change to the policy before that petition appeared. Starbucks has adjusted employee policies in the past following critical news coverage. In one case, it revised how it scheduled work hours for baristas after a The New York Times article showed how a single mother struggled with the erratic hours assigned to her by automated software.

Companies have long had dress codes that have shifted with the times. Decades ago, some businesses banned facial hair, which few people consider a problem today. On the other end of the spectrum, are some contemporary retailers that don’t seem to have much of a policy beyond wearing the corporate t-shirt. On a recent day at a Walgreens in downtown San Francisco, for example, a cashier with a tattoo of a shooting star on his face, more tattoos up his arms and a red stud piercing below his mouth, quietly worked the cash register without customers paying much attention.

PetSmart’s policy to allow visible tattoos kicked in earlier this year. But the more liberal policy comes with some fine print that says the body art must be appropriate – as in not containing profanity or nudity. Peet’s Coffee & Tea, which also allows visible tattoos, also has a policy in place that the ink must not display anything offensive.

Wal-Mart said its took employee feedback into consideration when it updated its dress code, but that the change–in particular adding a required blue vest–was needed to help customers more clearly spot employees. The new dress code, which goes into effect Sept. 29 at all of the company’s large U.S. stores, lets employees wear black pants instead of just khakis.

Some employees are complaining about the new look and the financial burden they’ll have to take on to buy new clothes to adhere to the new standards. , Richard Reynoso, a Wal-Mart employee, wrote a letter to Wal-Mart’s corporate headquarters saying that he couldn’t afford to comply with the new dress code, according to the Huffington Post.

Retention wasn’t a major motivating factor behind Wal-Mart’s new dress code policy, according to a spokesman. Instead, the focus appears to be more about the customer experience, though Wal-Mart says its new vests–which return to the store after a multi-year hiatus–have been well received.

“This was really about helping the associates serve customers better and making them more identifiable in the store,” said Wal-Mart spokesman Kory Lundberg.

Summary: Starbucks, Wal-Mart and PetSmart ask themselves whether letting workers dress more casual will help with retention - or scare off customers.


10/09/2014 AT 09:20 PM EDT

As the top honoree at the Breast Cancer Research Foundation luncheon on Thursday, former

revealed her own very personal connection to the cause.

Standing at the podium in the Waldorf Astoria's grand ballroom in New York City, Walters, 85, began her speech by asking the event's host,

"There's a lot of talk about me, but I want to share this honor with Amy," she told the crowd. "When she

, she handled it in the most magnificent, wise and sensitive way."

But then Walters shared news of her own encounter with the disease.

"Some years back, more than five now, I discovered a small lump in my own breast. Under the expert care of [my doctor] I had a lumpectomy," she said.

"I haven't talked about it. There was no need to. There were other choices that were possible. This was mine. I told a few people and I'm fine. I wasn't worried because I knew that the advances made in treating breast cancer including lumpectomies were possible. Research made my treatment possible."

It wasn't Walters's first run-in with cancer. Following news of

last year, Walters revealed on

that she'd had both of her ovaries removed in response to her sister's passing from ovarian cancer.

As for breast cancer, "I can remember when it was a death sentence and it terrified me. It still frightens me," Walters told PEOPLE at the luncheon, "But now we know there is treatment."

Before taking her seat she joked to the crowd, "I'll always remember this luncheon. Partly because of seeing all of your beautiful faces, and also because my bra is too tight."

Summary: The legendary journalist says she had a lumpectomy five years ago


Hello friends and Fortune readers.

Did you know that this year marks the 75th anniversary of Batman? That fact, and many other things nerdy will be celebrated at the San Diego Comic-Con starting later this week, so be sure to check that out if you want semi-spoilers for all your favorite shows. Also nerdy: A raft of tech sector earnings due later today. Here are five things you need to know in business news today.

1. Big guns come out on tech earnings.

As earnings continue to roll in, two of the biggest tech companies in the world report today after the close of trading: Apple and Microsoft. It is an interesting time for both of them: Microsoft announced the biggest layoffs in its history last week, while Apple is busy preparing for yet another mammoth iPhone launch (more on that below!).

2. Existing home sales are out today.

We’ll find out later today how the market for selling existing homes did last month. Experts expect an increase of 2% year-over-year.

3. Apple places biggest-ever iPhone order.

Hold on to your hats, the iPhone mammoth is charging out of Cupertino later today, and it’ll stomp all over any other news. The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple has placed its biggest-ever iPhone order with its manufacturers, and that the new version of the phone will indeed come in both 4.7 and 5.5 inch versions. Start lining up outside your nearest Apple Store.

4. Is Bill Ackman hosting a live execution of Herbalife?

That’s kind of the way he’s making it seem. The hedge fund guru from Pershing Square is holding a 10 a.m. ET press conference where he promises to detail an “incredible fraud” at the nutrition products maker. He’s not shared any details yet on just what that is, so I guess we’ll have to tune in.

5. Note to companies and government agencies: Don’t let interns run your Twitter accounts.

Look, I’m not offering any judgment on someone who plays the Kim Kardashian iPhone game. Posting your status on a government Twitter account, though, probably isn’t the best idea. That’s what happened to the EPA Water account last night. The tweet was eventually deleted, but the damage was done. And this is only a C-list celebrity, so its not even like it was something worth bragging about.

Summary: Here's what you need to know about in business news today.


If any company embodies the Age of the Unicorn (the subject of Fortune’s latest cover story), it’s Slack.

The business software maker can easily serve as an example of why we’re in a tech bubble. Its namesake product is only eight months old and the company is worth $1 billion. How is that even possible? Is money even real in Silicon Valley?

But Slack just as easily serves as an example of how big an opportunity there is. Slack has grown as much as 7% each week since it launched—a pace large companies aspire to hit each year—adding thousands of new users who pay for the service. The company has 100 employees and it’s only burning $100,000 per month. Sure, it’s not even a year old. But it’s clearly going to be huge.

This is how you get to $1 billion so quickly.

After ignoring daily inquiries from venture capitalists all summer, Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield decided in September to take a week’s worth of investor meetings, “to see where things were at.” Slack had launched in February, a year after the company shut down a gaming product that never took off. The new product, a collaboration tool for desk workers, was an immediate hit. By April, Slack’s early traction was enough for it to raise $42.8 million, valuing the company at $250 million.

The news stoked the hype around Slack. Venture capitalists witnessed its rapid adoption at their portfolio companies. The emails from investors had swelled to 10 new funding offers per week. Sometimes it from was investors Butterfield knew. (He had previously co-founded the photo-sharing site Flickr, which sold to Yahoo in 2005.) Often they were from complete strangers hoping he’d take their money.

Slack didn’t need the money, but Butterfield decided to test the waters because he believed this era of easy venture capital high valuations would not last forever. “I’m one of those people who think the other shoe has yet to drop from 2008,” he says. “I lost a shitload of money in 2008, and I saw the fundraising environment tighten up. I’m aware of the cycle. It’s difficult to call a top, but it’s pretty obvious we’re far from the bottom.”

There’s another, slightly less rational reason Butterfield decided to raise more money: He wanted a $1 billion valuation. If Slack couldn’t get that, he wouldn’t raise anything. The cachet of the figure is meaningful in an intangible way, he says. It means “we’re a part of that conversation about companies worth $1 billion.”

He elaborates: “It’s definitely a psychological threshold and it helps for certain kinds of customers. When [we’re] negotiating with a Fortune 500 company on legal terms of service for some detail about what sort of deal they will get in the third year, then having the comfort of knowing we’re highly valued and financially secure, that really helps.”

A billion dollars goes a long way with big hires, too. “There is a class of employees who are more risk-averse and work at some company like Google or Facebook and they have a mortgage and kids,” he says. “It helps a lot of those kinds of people as well.”

But is the $1 billion valuation actually based on any real metrics? Were any numbers crunched, any spreadsheets analyzed, or any public comps selected? Not really. “There are fairly precise methods for putting a value on future cash flow given steady business,” Butterfield says. “We’re not in that position, obviously.” Put another way: Slack is growing too quickly for projections. At its last public announcement, 45,000 teams with 365,000 daily active users were paying to use Slack. “Every single day except holidays is a record for that day,” he says. “Every Tuesday is the best Tuesday we’ve had.”

So why not pick the big, round number that helps with customers and recruiting? Butterfield acknowledges there’s quite a bit of growth baked into Slack’s valuation. “You have to choose some numbers,” he says. “One billion is better than $800 million because it’s the psychological threshold for potential customers, employees, and the press.”

Slack had no problem getting investors to agree to the $1 billion valuation, by the way. Butterfield only wanted to raise $100 million; he ended up with $200 million in commitments and closed the round at $120 million. In the three months since raising the money, Slack has just about doubled everything—customers, revenue, users—and Butterfield expects it will repeat the feat in the next four months.

So far Slack has only spent around 1% of the money it raised, Butterfield says. He’s confident that even if the economy turns south, Slack will be fine. “We’re able to weather pretty much any storm,” he says. “You’d have to be in a meteors-hitting-the-earth scenario before Slack as a business would get into trouble.”

For more on Slack and the phenomenon of billion-dollar startups, read “The Age of Unicorns.”

Watch more of our coverage on business Unicorns from Fortune’s video team:

Summary: How can Slack, a business software company that makes a product that's less than a year old, be worth more than $1 billion?


This post is in partnership with Entrepreneur. The article below was originally published at Entrepreneur.com.

Selling a business is never an easy or simple process. However, the rewards can be great, and ultimately, life-changing, so if you do decide to sell there are six key things you need to be aware of that will help you prepare and maximize your chances of success. Getting it wrong before you start can ruin any hopes of a sale and can mean many months of your time wasted.

While I specialize in the sale of online businesses and refer to those as examples, these points still apply to business sales whether offline or online. Experienced buyers will see straight through you and the business you are selling and will quickly pass over your offering if they see any red flags.

I regularly speak to business owners who believe they have a potential gold mine and expect to command a high selling price based on perceived potential alone. This isn’t how it works. If a business is simply a concept without a proven revenue stream then there isn’t any value in the eyes of the vast majority of potential buyers.

If they were interested in developing their own business from the ground up there are numerous resources to help them get started and they would not be looking to buy something already established in the first place. Buyers want to acquire something that is already successful, not an unproven concept.

Another common misconception is that buyers are impressed with revenue figures. Sure, they can sound good, but when it comes down to it the only number that matters is the profit a business turns (see last week’s column for more on why revenue is a vanity metric). Take a look at these two scenarios:

The monthly revenue for the first site is three times more than the second business, but the actual profit is almost half. Experienced business buyers want to see profit numbers, not revenue.

If you are going to claim revenue from a specific source, you need to have verifiable proof. For example, if you are selling advertising space directly, be prepared to show invoices as well as bank statements that show matching deposits. If you are generating revenue through affiliate offers or third-party ad networks with an online business, be prepared to show deposit records and even access to your accounts online so both parties can see the accounts live. I advise clients to use TeamViewer or Skype as a practical way to verify financial claims on smaller business sales where using an accountant is not always practical or cost-effective.

The previous success of a business is largely irrelevant at the time of sale, especially if it has been struggling lately. Buyers are interested in recent performance (usually the last 12 months) and future sustainability and viability, especially if you operate in a dynamic space (such as with websites). I commonly hear sellers talk about how successful their business was in the past after a recent drop and “all it needs is a little work to get back on track”.

Unfortunately, buyers don’t see it this way. They aren’t interested in fixing and recovering your business, especially if you are expecting them to pay a premium. However, don’t be afraid to show previous years if the business has been growing steadily. Buyers love to see growing revenue and profit figures, especially if you have already made future plans for the business that seem realistic based on past performance.

The truth is going to always surface, so be upfront about everything from the beginning. Experienced investors understand that every business is going to have positives and negatives. There is no such thing as a perfect business.

If you are honest and transparent from the start there is less risk of a deal going sour because the buyer uncovered something during due diligence that wasn’t accurate or an instance where the truth was stretched. Honesty is the best policy in all business transactions and selling any business is no different.

Businesses — especially those run 100 percent online — are forever becoming more popular, with so many people looking to become independent and quit their nine-to-five jobs. Consequently, it has lead to a lot of inexperienced buyers inquiring about businesses for sale, which can be a significant time drain, unless you use a broker whose job is to handle questions and vet buyers for you. Selling yourself will lead to a lot of questions — and you need to be prepared to answer them all, regardless of how simple they may sound.

Never judge a buyer. You never know whom you are dealing with or the buying power they possess. Someone asking what appears to be a simple question could potentially be a buyer that is new to the specific industry and have deep pockets for investing. Experienced buyers will often hammer the seller with questions in an attempt to turn up inconsistencies and red flags.

Summary: This post is in partnership with Entrepreneur. The article below was originally published at Entrepreneur.com. ByThomas Smale, Entrepreneur.com Selling a business is never an easy or simple process. However, the rewards can be great, and ultimately, life-changing, so if you do decide to sell there are six key things you need to be aware of…


Fortune — In finance, there should be a three-strikes-and-you’re-out rule. If there were, credit default swaps would be headed for the graveyard.

Indeed, when JPMorgan Chase JPM announced its $2 billion and counting trading loss a month ago, there seemed to be little explanation of what exactly credit default swaps, the financial contracts the London Whale had been trading, were. Instead, many stories used this short-hand description for the financial contracts instead: the same things that caused AIG to go bust.

On Tuesday morning, Jamie Dimon will be in front of Congress again, this time to answer questions from the House Financial Services Committee. Dimon is expected to stick to the same script, literally. Save a few small changes, Dimon’s opening remarks are expected to be nearly word-for-word identical to those he delivered when he testified in front of the Senate’s banking committee last week. Like last time, there will be a lot of questions about financial regulation and whether banks should be allowed to place risky bets. But once again it’s unlikely there will be a lot of questions about credit default swaps and why they are allowed, mostly unregulated, to continue to exist.

MORE: The bank that rising amid Europe’s ashes

Credit default swaps, or CDS, are contracts that allow investors and traders to bet on whether a company, a country or a group of companies, countries or individuals will pay back their loans. In theory, CDS work like insurance contracts. Sellers promise to cover the losses of the buyer of the contract if the loan the CDS is based on isn’t repaid. In fact, CDS aren’t really used that way. CDS are rarely held until a default occurs. Instead they are traded, in theory rising and falling based on the credit worthiness of a borrower or borrowers.

Of course, just because CDS have been at the heart of a number of recent blow-ups isn’t a reason to ban them. Stocks weren’t banished after 1987, or 2000. The reason to get rid of CDS is that it doesn’t work. Reuters recently reported that trading by the London Whale, and the hedge funds that were looking to make money off of the unwinding of JPMorgan’s outsized trades, caused the price of certain CDS contracts to jump and fall, even though the actual credit worthiness of the companies the contracts were based on hadn’t changed. Bank analyst Dick Bove for Rochdale Securities says the London Whale trades show that the CDS market is manipulated. “There’s something wrong with this market,” says Bove.

MORE: How JPMorgan made its mult-billion dollar blunder

Earlier this year, CDS contracts tied to McDonald’s MCD , for instance, rose 19%, during a period when there was almost no news about the restaurant company, and certainly no reason to suspect McDonald’s would have a harder time paying back its debt. In the same time, McDonald’s stock price barely moved, down 1.1%. Markets can become out of touch with reality for some time. That’s how we get bubbles. But the problem with the CDS market is that it’s so thinly traded that the actions of one player can cause market distortions. That’s supposed to be left to the idiocy of crowds.

The best question for proponents of the CDS market is when have the contracts actually worked. The CDS contracts sold by AIG only paid out because of Uncle Sam. And you can’t even count on bailouts. When Greece was “voluntarily” bailed out by the rest of Europe, the country’s government bonds were written down by 50%. Yet, the group that governs the CDS market ruled that CDS holders couldn’t collect on the insurance they had bought. Voluntary bailouts, as if Greece had a choice, were not covered by CDS. It was just another loophole in a Swiss cheese market.

What’s more, it’s not clear any of this would change under Dodd-Frank. The new financial regulations state that most CDS trades will have to be run through a clearinghouse. But much of the other investor protections that are supposed to rid stock and bond markets of manipulation and fraud still don’t apply when it comes to CDS.

The recent four-part Frontline PBS documentary on the financial crisis starts with a long description of the CDS market and how it got started. CDS contracts were created at JPMorgan. Frontline interviewed a number of JPMorgan bankers who were there at the start. The implication was that JPMorgan, which sidestepped much of the losses of the financial crisis, knew what they were doing. But when other less responsible and intelligent bankers started getting into the market, that’s when CDS got dangerous. The fact that it’s now JPMorgan getting stung by the CDS market would serve as a fitting bookend for this chapter in financial “innovation,” and a good example of why it should be closed.

Summary: JPMorgan Chase's London Whale should finally sink the notion that the market for bond insurance works.


The Stars of Keeping Up with the Kardashians

03/06/2015 AT 09:00 AM EST

"I've been having sex 500 times a day," a weary

reveals at the opening of this new

promo, hyping the show's 10th season, which premieres later this month on E!

And Kim's bedroom issues are just the beginning of the drama.

talks about how the Kardashians and the Jenners feel "so separated" as families;

out of the house; and there seems to be a major rift – even a legal skirmish! – between Kim and

And of course, Kris is in the middle of it all, trying to manage everyone's problems.

"Can the family survive another round of internal turmoil?" E! asks, rhetorically. We'll find out Sunday, March 15, at 9/8c.

Summary: Khloé and Kourtney, and Bruce Jenner, are also working through issues in the show's 10th season


While sipping vodka sodas at a downtown bar in New York’s East Village roughly a year ago, a friend told me he prefers the beverage because it had “no calories.”

That’s wrong. Vodka, distilled from grains or potatoes, always contains calories. And making matters worse is the fact that the beverage my friend was drinking was a vanilla vodka, leading me to the next unpalatable fact: Flavored spirits pack even more calories than their unflavored sibling brands.

Diageo, the world’s largest liquor company, has led the charge to change misconceptions about what exactly can be found in alcoholic beverages.

Look at the label of an alcoholic beverage sold on liquor shelves today and you’ll see information about the beverage you are consuming is fairly limited. The U.S. Treasury’s Alcohol Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) allows labels to announce the classification of the beverage (gin, vodka, etc.), as well as the alcohol content, the brand name and a health warning statement. There isn’t much more information beyond that, and certainly no details about what’s in the liquid.

Diageo last week announced it will begin adding nutritional information — including protein, fats, calories, and carbohydrates — to labels in the U.S., following the TTB’s approval in May 2013 that the serving facts could be included, after previously not allowing alcohol companies permission to do so. Diageo, which has fought for such approval for more than a decade, said it can list information in ideal “standard sizes,” meaning it can print labels on spirits for a 1.5 fluid ounce size, comparable to a 5-fluid ounce serving of wine and a 12-fluid ounce serving for beer.

Diageo has been more vocal than most about giving more information about the nutritional content of alcoholic beverages. The company has run a website called DRINKIQ since 2006 to give consumers more information. The company plans to make changes to the labels in the coming months as brands change or update their labels. It is an arduous process, as the TTB must sign off on each individual label, for each bottle size and every single different flavor that Diageo sells.

The U.K. company wants to take this initiative global. It has aspirations to provide nutritional details to all nations it serves, though so far outside the U.S., the company can only provide limited information about alcohol content in a few markets like Australia, Thailand and Great Britain.

There’s also a broader industry effort to change labeling standards in Europe. The Brewers of Europe, a trade organization that represents more than 5,000 breweries across the continent, on Thursday announced brewers would commit to voluntarily listing ingredients and nutritional information on their brands.

“We want Europe’s consumers to know the ingredients in beer and how these beers can fit within a balanced lifestyle,” said Pierre-Olivier Bergeron, secretary general of The Brewers of Europe. Major brewers, including Anheuser-Busch InBev, Heineken, SABMiller and Carlsberg were among those that endorsed the proposal, although it will likely take some time before labels will feature such information as it is a costly endeavor for such big brands to change the labels on their packaging.

In Europe, while Diageo supports the move to add nutritional information on labels, it contends that the 100 milliliters of liquid basis “does not reflect the reality of the way drinkers consume alcohol, and is therefore misleading.” For example, the 100 milliliters basis in Europe is a third of a typical beer serving, two-thirds a typical glass of wine and three times more than a serving of a spirit. The company is fighting for more typical serving size details to spare drinkers from doing complicated math in their heads.

“To this end, Diageo will work with the EU to establish a standard alcohol unit across the 28 Member States to provide an effective way of communicating alcohol content to consumers,” Diageo said.

Summary: A broader industry effort to change labeling standards is underway.


A large labor union is seizing on merger negotiations between Boston Medical Center and Tufts Medical Center as an opportunity to increase its membership among hospital workers.

The Service Employees International Union Local 1199 is trying to organize about 1,000 Tufts workers in service, clerical, and technical jobs, from housekeepers to surgical technicians. The union already represents such workers at Boston Medical Center.

SEIU’s push to organize at Tufts comes as activists around the country prepare to rally Tuesday to urge employers to pay at least $15 an hour. In Boston, the Fight for $15 movement plans to march past universities, property managers, fast food chains, and health care providers. Tufts Medical Center is on the route.

Union organizers are using both the Fight for $15 event and merger talks to launch an organizing campaign at Tufts Medical Center. BMC and Tufts have not yet agreed to merge, but they are working to complete a deal this year.

The union sent a letter to leaders of the two hospitals, asking them to commit to supporting workers’ rights to organize

“It’s a historic moment for these two vital institutions,” said Veronica Turner, executive vice president of 1199SEIU, which includes 52,000 health care workers in Massachusetts. “Our goal is to make sure the missions of the hospitals are upheld through the merger process and that workers have a voice in the process.”

Local 1199 has members at dozens of hospitals and other health care businesses across Massachusetts. In 2009, the union reached an agreement with the former Caritas Christi Health Care -- now Steward Health Care System -- in which the hospital chain agreed not to interfere with workers’ efforts to unionize. SEIU later organized workers at several Steward hospitals, including St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center and Carney Hospital in Boston.

The union is urging Tufts to follow Steward’s example and come to a similar agreement. Tufts, so far, has not. The hospital “has a long history of working with both non-union and union employees,” Tufts vice president Brooke Hynes said in a statement.

Hynes said the hospital would include workers in shaping the new health system, should the merger go through.

Tufts’ workforce includes 1,056 union nurses who belong to the Massachusetts Nurses Association. The nurses union also represents 461 nurses at Boston Medical Center. SEIU has about 2,500 members at Boston Medical Center, including nurses.

“We have a positive, collaborative relationship with the unions who represent our workers, including SEIU, and a history of open dialogue that we expect to continue,” Jennifer Watson, chief of staff at BMC, said in a statement.

Boston and Tufts have discussed a potential merger for months, but have not signed an agreement. Leaders of the hospitals, which both serve large populations of low-income patients, say they could offer an attractive alternative to higher-cost competitors in Boston.

They have not detailed how a merger would affect their operations or workforces. Together, the hospitals employ 11,500 people.

“Like every health care organization in the current environment we would be focused on operating as efficiently as possible,” Watson said. She added that a merger would also lead to “significant growth opportunities.”

Union officials predict a merger will result in layoffs, and they are asking hospital leaders to ensure that affected workers get help for training and job searches. But neither the SEIU nor the Massachusetts Nurses Association are opposing a potential BMC-Tufts merger.

“We support the merger so long as it ensures full access to all needed services by the communities these two facilities currently serve,” said David Schildmeier, spokesman for the nurses union.

As merger talks continue, SEIU is also asking Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh to support workers’ rights.

“Creating quality jobs with good wages is a priority for the city, and therefore a top priority of any possible merger talks,” Walsh said in a statement. “A fair unionization process is central to achieving the goal of good jobs.”

Summary: A large labor union is seizing on merger negotiations between Boston Medical Center and Tufts Medical Center as an opportunity to grow its membership among hospital workers.


The kid is officially signed up.

The Cowboy? That remains a mystery.

On Friday, the 49ers signed rookie defensive lineman Arik Armstead, their first-round pick from Oregon, to a four-year contract. With Armstead’s signing, the 49ers have all 10 draft picks under contract before their three-day rookie minicamp, which begins Saturday.

Armstead, 21, could be the heir apparent to defensive tackle Justin Smith, 35, who remains undecided about returning for a 15th season. On Thursday, general manager Trent Baalke said on PFT Live Radio that he might have more clarity on Smith’s future by Friday. However, head coach Jim Tomsula said early Friday afternoon that he hadn’t met with Smith and had no plans to do so later in the day.

“I haven’t scheduled anything,” Tomsula said. “That time will come. We’re not trying to make it a saga. It’s really just honest as we’re saying it is. We’ll know here. It’s getting to the time where you’re going to have to know something. So it’s going to happen.”

If Smith doesn’t return, Armstead won’t necessarily be pressed into service. The 49ers defensive line corps includes Darnell Dockett, Glenn Dorsey and two 2013 draft picks in Tank Carradine and Quinton Dial.

Summary: Armstead signs; Smith’s future remains uncertain  The Cowboy?  On Friday, the 49ers signed rookie defensive lineman Arik Armstead, their first-round pick from Oregon, to a four-year contract.  With Armstead’s signing, the 49ers have all 10 draft picks under contract before their three-day rookie minicamp, which begins Saturday.  Armstead, 21, could be the heir apparent to defensive tackle Justin Smith, 35, who remains undecided about returning for a 15th season.  “I haven’t scheduled anything,” Tomsula said.  The 49ers defensive line corps includes Darnell Dockett, Glenn Dorsey and two 2013 draft picks in Tank Carradine and Quinton Dial.