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August going to be a huge month in bitcoin history. Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency on the internet, is currently at a crossroads. Before August 1, the powerful users who “mine” the currency with souped-up PCs will have to choose whether or not to apply BIP 91, a set of software code to the bitcoin’s bedrock, known as the blockchain — a chronological public ledger that documents every transaction of the digital currency. While the miners currently seem to be in favor of the update, the controversial decision on how to update the cryptocurrency’s technology has driven a rift between several groups of users, leading many to speculate that at some point, the technology will “fork.” But  the concept of a fork  is complicated, and involves everything from the specific technology applied to bitcoin to the foundational philosophy behind the cryptocurrency. Here are five things you need to know about a possible bitcoin fork. 1. What is a bitcoin fork? In financial terms, a for...

A fork could change the equation for thousands of bitcoin users. The biggest, newest fear for bitcoin investors and users is a fork. In financial terms, a fork isn’t for eating — it represents a split in the currency that could significantly destabilize the cryptocurrency’s value by splitting it into two completely different currencies — “bitcoin classic” and “bitcoin current.” Right now, bitcoin’s price has been rising, but come August 1, there’s a small chance its future could change forever. So when will Bitcoin fork, and what does that mean for the future of the currency? The answer is a bit complicated. To understand it, here’s a rundown of the central problem facing bitcoin and the various ways its software-savvy community is trying to fix it. The problem Bitcoin has one central problem — it’s slow as heck. The world’s leading cryptocurrency is crippled by its meager ability to facilitate a mere seven transactions per second. As more and more people buy in and adopt the cry...

Bitcoin Press Launch: Hubcoin gets on a mission to unite altcoin programmers by producing different devices for them and also helping the whole crypto-community with financial investments and also promotions.July 25, 2017, Minsk, Belarus– Belarus-based blockchain company Hubcoin prefers to report that 300,000 (10%) of the complete pre-mined HUB symbols was dispersed between all other altcoin programmers, that consented to receive them. The decision corresponds with the ongoing  HubCoin ICO, running from July 17, 2017, till July 31, 2017. During the ICO, the platform has made continuing to be 3,000,000 CENTER tokens readily available for purchase to the investors.The Hubcoin platform thinks that the recent experiments with reasonable coins have actually revealed wonderful success and also yet leaves a great deal of unrealized protocol. Complying with other premine distribution tasks like NEM as well as Auroracoin, Hubcoin has determined to designate 10% of all its premined HUB tok...

Media captionRiley Dosh wanted to defend her country and the rights of those who disagree with her The White House has not yet decided how it will implement the president's ban on transgender people serving in the US military. Mr Trump's surprise Twitter announcement on Wednesday has been met with criticism from rights groups. Spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the administration would work alongside the Pentagon to decide how to proceed. It is not yet clear how the announcement will affect current transgender service personnel. Why was the ban introduced? "The United States government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the US military," Donald Trump tweeted. "Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail." Asked at a press briefing if troops on battlefields would be immediat...

Chelsea beat Tottenham in the FA Cup semi-finals and gained seven points more than them in the Premier League last season Chelsea manager Antonio Conte has questioned Tottenham's ambition, suggesting they have lower expectations than their Premier League title rivals. Spurs chairman Daniel Levy this week defended a lack of signings and  railed against "unsustainable" spending. They were runners up to Chelsea in the Premier League last term,  faltered in the Champions League group stages, and again in the  Europa League last 32. "If [Spurs] don't win the title, it's not a tragedy," said Conte. "If they don't arrive in the Champions League, it's not a tragedy. If they go out in the first round of the Champions League, it's not a tragedy. If they go out after the first game that they play in the Europa League, it's not a tragedy. "Maybe for Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United and - I don't know - Liverpo...

Danilo (left) can play in both full-back roles as well as in midfield Manager Pep Guardiola said £52m signing Benjamin Mendy will be missing for "two or three weeks" after Manchester City beat Real Madrid 4-1 in Los Angeles. Mendy, who joined from Monaco, was not involved and will miss the start of the season with a muscle problem. "We don't want to take a risk because he is so explosive," said Guardiola. A crowd of 93,000 saw City earn their first win of pre-season with goals by Nicolas Otamendi, Raheem Sterling, John Stones and 17-year-old Brahim Diaz. In Mendy's absence, Danilo made his debut at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the 26-year-old Brazilian starting at left-back against his former club, having signed for £26.5m. "Today we saw how good he can play," Guardiola said. "He is a competitor. Him and Kyle helped organise our back four. They communicated with each other. We are very pleased about that side." City have spent i...

The Amazon Singapore website announcing deliveries in Singapore is seen in this illustration photo July 27, 2017. An employee works at Amazon's Prime Now fulfillment centre in Singapore July 27, 2017. Amazon.com Inc launched its two-hour delivery service in Singapore on Thursday, marking the e-commerce giant's biggest push into Southeast Asia and its first head-on battle with Chinese rival, Alibaba Group Holding. While Amazon already delivered to Singapore, higher-end services had not been available, including Prime subscriptions which provide access to the company's video-streaming service. The Prime Now Singapore app promises to deliver everything from Tiger Balm ointment to eggs, hammer drills and Pampers nappies within two hours. In Asia, Amazon has largely sidestepped China and focused on India, where it is the number-two player behind local rival Flipkart. But its arrival in Singapore, a tiny but wealthy city state of just over 5 million people, has been hotly a...

Google has a tendency to create multiple products that end up competing with each other, to some degree. Android and Chrome OS, Google's handful of messaging clients, the list goes on. But two of Google's subscription services, YouTube Red and Google Play Music, will soon merge into one offering. The merge was confirmed during a panel session at the New Music Seminar conference in New York, by YouTube's head of music, Lyor Cohen. He explained that Google needs to merge the services to help bring in new subscribers, saying "The important thing is combining YouTube Red and Google Play Music, and having one offering." Google later provided a statement to  The Verge , which stated that the company is still evaluating options and would notify users before any changes. Google's music ecosystem is a bit complicated, but I'm not sure if a merge would solve that. Google Play Music is a more typical music streaming service, while YouTube Music focuses on music vi...

FILE PHOTO: A gender-neutral bathroom is seen at the University of California, Irvine in Irvine, California, U.S. FILE PHOTO: A gender-neutral bathroom is seen at the University of California, Irvine in Irvine, California, U.S., September 30, 2014.      The Republican-controlled Texas Senate gave preliminary approval on Tuesday to a bill that restricts bathroom access for transgender people, endorsing a piece of legislation denounced by civil liberties advocates as discriminatory. Final Senate adoption of the bill was possible later on Tuesday or Wednesday. The measure would then be sent to the state House of Representatives, where passage during a 30-day special legislative session that ends in mid-August is less certain despite a Republican majority in that body as well. The preliminary vote in the Senate was 21-10, with one Democrat crossing the aisle to vote with the Republican majority in favor of the measure, Senate Bill 3. Enactment in Texas, the most-...

FU.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry speaks to reporters during a briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S.  U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry optimistically discussed expanding American coal exports to Ukraine and other energy matters during a lengthy phone call this month with a Russian prankster who Perry thought was Ukraine's prime minister. Perry actually was talking with comedians known in Russia for targeting celebrities and politicians with audacious stunts, Energy Department spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes said in a written statement. Pranksters Vladimir Krasnov and Alexei Stolyarov are sometimes called the "Jerky Boys of Russia," after an American duo who put out recordings of their prank phone calls in the 1990s. They have made faux calls to British singer Elton John, who thought he was speaking to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and others. "These individuals are known for pranking high-level officials and celebrities, particularly those who are suppor...

If you’re in the mood to  enjoy some pineapple  and want to  purchase it whole and slice it yourself , there are a few things to keep in mind when choosing a pineapple. The most important thing is to select one that’s ripe: Once a pineapple has been picked, it will no longer ripen, so it’s important to choose one that’s been plucked at its peak.   Below, a few of our suggestions for selecting a ripe pineapple. 1) For the most part, disregard color. The color of a pineapple’s shell doesn’t tell you much about ripeness. Not all ripe pineapples are yellow—a green pineapple can be ripe, too. Look for a bit of yellow, which should be present at the eyes at the base of the fruit, but a green tint elsewhere is not a bad thing. The leaves should be a vibrant shade of green. 2) Instead, give it a squeeze… The body of a pineapple should never be soft (that’s a bad sign). Rather, it should be firm, although it should yield slightly to a squeeze.   3...

HMD is set to roll out a new Nokia branded phone. It’s not just another Android smartphone but it’s the brand’s first ever premium flagship smartphone. This new mobile device will be announced officially on August 16 in London. Press invites are now out, following the recent leak about the handset. The upcoming Nokia 8 is expected to feature Carl Zeiss optics. We’re not surprised about this because the two have previously partnered already. We’re just curious how the camera technology will play well with the new Android phone. Nothing has been confirmed yet but here are the Nokia 8 specs and features we know so far: a 5.3-inch display screen, 2560 x 1440 pixel resolution, 13MP rear camera with Carl Zeiss optics, Snapdragon 835 processor as we  noted  earlier, 64GB onboard storage, 4GB or 6GB RAM, and dual SIM support. We’ve seen the  blue version  last week while a  copper colored Nokia 8  appeared yesterday. A silver version is also expected to be intr...

Image captionSome 4,000 hectares (15.4 sq miles) of land have burned along the Mediterranean coast Wildfires in south-eastern France have forced the evacuation of 10,000 people overnight, officials say. Hundreds of firefighters have been deployed to battle the fires near Bormes-les-Mimoses, in the country's Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. France earlier asked its EU neighbours for more help fighting the fires. Some 4,000 hectares (15.4 sq miles) of land have burned along the Mediterranean coast, in the mountainous interior and on the island of Corsica. "The evacuations, at least 10,000, followed the progression of the fire," a fire official was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency. "It's an area that doubles or triples its population in summer," the official added. One of the worst fires is raging in an area near the popular resort of Saint-Tropez. In Corsica, hundreds of homes have been evacuated. Overall, more than 4,000 firefighters a...

file photo, a man watches a TV news program showing a file image of a missile launch conducted by North Korea, at the Seoul Railway Station  The Defense Intelligence Agency now estimates that North Korea could have an ICBM with a nuclear warhead capable of hitting the U.S. mainland by next year, The Washington Post  reported  Tuesday. The estimate by the DIA significantly shortened the timeframe for when North Korea could develop the technology for miniaturizing a nuclear warhead to fit atop an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) and survive re-entry into the atmosphere. Previous estimates said that North Korea was at least three years away from having the capability. The new confidential assessment by the DIA followed  the July 4 missile test  that North Korea claimed was an ICBM. U.S. Pacific Command initially said the missile appeared to be of intermediate range but later concluded that it had the range of an ICBM capable of hitting Alaska. The DI...

Chinese troops march during the military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two, in Beijing, China, September 3, 2015.Reuters Buried in the Himalayas in the Siliguri Corridor, also known as the Chicken's neck, Chinese and Indian military forces sit on the respective sides of their vague borders and entrench themselves for what could become a shooting war between nuclear powers. Both Beijing and New Delhi see the conflict as a shoving match for dominance in the Himalayas, an age-old struggle between the two states that most recently went hot in 1962, before either state had perfected nuclear bombs. But now a Chinese construction project aiming to build a road that can support 40 ton vehicle traffic threatens a critical passage in India and risks alienating New Delhi from its ally, Bhutan. As China asserts sovereignty over the disputed border zone with the building project, Indian troops have entrenched themselves, according to  a dispatch from the South...