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This picture taken on March 21, 2013 shows two young woman typing on their smartphones at a shopping mall in Bangkok. NICOLAS ASFOURIAFP/Getty Images

Facebook is still up and running in Thailand despite being given a Tuesday deadline to block content deemed insulting to the monarchy by the countrys ruling junta.

Telecom authorities threatened to shut down the social media site if it did not comply with a request to censor 131 items viewed as violating the kingdoms draconian lse-majest law , Reuters reports.

The legislation is ostensibly meant to protect the royal family from being defamed, but in practice is often used to suppress dissent. Violations are punishable with up to 15 years in prison, and complaints can be made by anyone, against anyone, with no statute of limitations.

More than 100 people have been arrested on lse-majest charges since Thailands military seized power in a 2014 coup, according to rights groups.

Read More: The Draconian Legal Weapon Being Used to Silence Thai Dissent

Facebook does sometimes remove content at the request of governments if it is found to be in violation of local laws, as outlined in the companys community standards guidelines.

The junta has shut down the social networking site in the past; users were outraged by a temporary shutdown shortly after the military seized power. It has also recently tightened its already strong grip on the Internet, blocking thousands of websites and passing new cyber-security laws that legal experts say are susceptible to abuse.

[ Reuters ]

Continued here:
The Deadline for Facebook to Censor 'Insulting' Content in Thailand Has Passed - TIME

Certain stealthy spacetime curiosities might be less hidden than thought, potentially exposing themselves to observers in some curved universes.

These oddities, known as singularities, are points in space where the standard laws of physics break down. Found at the centers of black holes, singularities are generally expected to be hidden from view, shielding the universe from their problematic properties. Now, scientists report in the May 5 Physical Review Letters that a singularity could be revealed in a hypothetical, saddle-shaped universe.

Previously, scientists found that singularities might not be concealed in hypothetical universes with more than three spatial dimensions. The new result marks the first time the possibility of such a naked singularity has been demonstrated in a three-dimensional universe. Thats extremely important, says physicist Gary Horowitz of the University of California, Santa Barbara. Horowitz, who was not involved with the new study, has conducted previous research that implied that a naked singularity could probably appear in such saddle-shaped universes.

In Einsteins theory of gravity, the general theory of relativity, spacetime itself can be curved (SN: 10/17/15, p. 16). Massive objects such as stars bend the fabric of space, causing planets to orbit around them. A singularity occurs when the warping is so extreme that the equations of general relativity become nonsensical as occurs in the center of a black hole. But black holes singularities are hidden by an event horizon, which encompasses a region around the singularity from which light cant escape. The cosmic censorship conjecture, put forth in 1969 by mathematician and physicist Roger Penrose, proposes that all singularities will be similarly cloaked.

According to general relativity, hypothetical universes can take on various shapes. The known universe is nearly flat on large scales, meaning that the rules of standard textbook geometry apply and light travels in a straight line. But in universes that are curved, those rules go out the window. To demonstrate the violation of cosmic censorship, the researchers started with a curved geometry known as anti-de Sitter space, which is warped such that a light beam sent out into space will eventually return to the spot it came from. The researchers deformed the boundaries of this curved spacetime and observed that a region formed in which the curvature increased over time to arbitrarily large values, producing a naked singularity.

I was very surprised, says physicist Jorge Santos of the University of Cambridge, a coauthor of the study. I always thought that gravity would somehow find a way to maintain cosmic censorship.

Scientists have previously shown that cosmic censorship could be violated if a universes conditions were precisely arranged to conspire to produce a naked singularity. But the researchers new result is more general. There's nothing finely tuned or unnatural about their starting point, says physicist Ruth Gregory of Durham University in England. That, she says, is really interesting.

But, Horowitz notes, there is a caveat. Because the violation occurs in a curved universe, not a flat one, the result is not yet a completely convincing counterexample to the original idea.

Despite the reliance on a curved universe, the result does have broader implications. Thats because gravity in anti-de Sitter space is thought to have connections to other theories. The physics of gravity in anti-de Sitter space seems to parallel that of some types of particle physics theories, set in fewer dimensions. So cosmic censorship violation in this realm could have consequences for seemingly unrelated ideas.

Read more:
Naked singularity might evade cosmic censor - Science News

Fox News host Sean Hannityurged the White House on Monday night to restructure its daily briefings to limit the medias ability to ask questions.

On the same day The Washington Post reported that Trump leaked highly classified information to Russian officials in the Oval Office, Hannity said:

First, the White House press team should regularly develop a list of the top and most important 15, 20, 25 issues of the day. Next, the media, well, they should be able to submit questions about these issues in writing, give the White House time to respond with clarity and specificity, and if Sean Spicer then wants to take a couple of questions from the briefing room podium, thats fine. But only on those specific topics.

He said Spicer could follow up on other questions ... in writing.

You, the American people, would be better served, Hannity claimed.

See his latest comments above.

View post:
Outraged Sean Hannity Wants White House To Seize More Control Over Media - HuffPost

Taskplay is a free open source program for Microsoft Windows devices that enables you to control media playback from the Windows Taskbar.

Windows users have one, and often several, options when it comes to controlling media playback on their devices.

All media players ship with controls that let you pause, stop or skip media, and most support hotkeys as well. Some players support global hotkeys, and others media keys on the computer keyboard.

If you happen to dislike all of those options, and prefer an option to control playback from the Windows Taskbar, then Taskplay may be the right program for you.

The first question that you may have may be about the why. Why would someone want to control media playback from the taskbar?

Apart from personal preference, the main thing that Taskplay offers is consistency. The media playback controls are always in the same location, and not shown somewhere in the program window of the media player.

This requires however that Taskplay's media icons support the media player. A quick test on a Windows PC showed that most music players are supported while most video players are not.

AIMP, Foobar, Groove, and MediaMonkey worked fine, and so did Windows Media Player. The popular video players VLC Media Player and SMPlayer on the other hand could not be controlled using Taskplay's media icons in the taskbar.

The program works as you'd expect it to. A click on the play button toggles between pause and play, and the back and forward buttons do exactly what they are supposed to do.

Since the media controls are displayed in the system tray area, this gives you quick access to the volume controls as well.

Taskplay ships with a single setting right now only. It is not enabled by default, and will start the player with Windows when enabled. May be an option if you make use of it regularly on your system.

The major downside right now is support for media players, and a minor one is that you cannot control the media buttons using global hotkeys. This would be quite the hand feature for programs who don't support global hotkeys.

Plenty of third-party programs exist that add media playback controls to Windows. We have reviewed the following in the past:

Media Keyboard to add support for hotkeys to players that don't support media keyboard keys.

Media Player Hotkeys to set up your own media player shortcuts.

SKeys, which can map media functions among other things to keys.

WMP Keys which adds global hotkeys to Windows Media Player

Taskplay is an easy to use program that adds another media playback control option to Windows. Most Windows users may not have a use for it, but some may think it interesting enough to give it a try.

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Taskplay

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Taskplay: media controls for the Windows Taskbar - Ghacks Technology News

(L-R) Stephen Galvin, Kelly Bolderson and Patrick Gore

The managing director and majority shareholder of Glamorgan Telecom has led a full management buyout of the Cardiff business backed with equity from Finance Wales, which has taken a 15 per cent stake. The deal has also provided an exit for founding director Neal Pughe.

As well as taking an equity stake in the business, Finance Wales has also provided debt finance of 1m to support the growth of the business which is led by Kelly Bolderson.

The buyout brings the company, which has been trading since 1993, under the full control of the current board.

Under Bolderson's leadership, the company is implementing an expansion strategy that aims to lift revenue past 5m by the end of 2018.

To reach this target Glamorgan Telecom has grown its sales team by 40 per cent, developed an enhanced range of products and services and expanded into new geographical regions.

"The completion of the management buyout is hugely important for Glamorgan Telecom, this really is the beginning of a new and exciting journey for the business and we thank Finance Wales for their help and support during this process," said Bolderson.

"With a full buyout in place, the management team has full control to guide Glamorgan Telecom into an exciting new chapter.

"We have seen significant positive change within our business over the last few years, and with the investment from Finance Wales we can continue with our expansion plans and ensure Glamorgan Telecom continues to be one of the leading telephony solution providers in the region."

Stephen Galvin and Navid Falatoori structured the investment for Finance Wales and Patrick Gore from Hollis Gore Associates also played a role in structuring the agreement, together with Mick Tinning from Hugh James Solicitors.

Galvin said: "The company is by far the longest serving player in its field and its enduring brand is recognised in the market as a safe and respected partner to work with.

"With ongoing plans for growth, the business has exciting times ahead."

The deal between Glamorgan Telecom and Finance Wales marks the latest investment from the Wales Management Succession Fund, a Welsh Government-backed 25m fund supporting business succession for growing Welsh companies.

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Management takes full control of Glamorgan Telecom - Insider Media