Justin Bieber sacked off from clubs on Super Bowl night

Justin Bieber was turned away from a string of nightclubs following the Super Bowl.
The 'Boyfriend' singer and his entourage reportedly arrived to his favourite nightspot, 1OAK in New York following the NFL finals on Sunday (02.02.14) only to be turned away at the door by owners, who claimed the troubled star is a 'hassle' and could tarnish the venue's reputation with his wild antics.
A source told the Confidenti@l column in the New York Daily News newspaper: 'While Bieber may be one of the biggest stars in the world, most clubs don't want the hassle of having him inside anymore. He is radioactive until he stops being so volatile. No one wants the bad press that follows him everywhere he goes.'
Justin - who is facing legal trouble after allegedly hitting a limousine driver in December, and was arrested for driving under the influence (DUI), driving with a suspended license and resisting arrest in Miami last month - was also said to have been turned away from 'at least four' Super Bowl parties last night.
And his lack of partying success followed on from the previous evening as he had also tried to party with Jay Z at the DirecTV bash at Pier 40 nightclub on Saturday (01.02.14) but organisers didn't want the 19-year-old star to attend.
However, the 'Baby' hitmaker didn't let the refusals deter him, as he was later seen performing his 'skateboarding stunts' for guests and fans at the Leather Laces party at the Liberty Theatre on Sunday before being spotted skateboarding through Times Square at 4am.

Liam Neeson cast in Martin Scorsese’s Silence

Liam Neeson will star in 'Silence'.
The 61-year-old actor will reunite with his 2002's 'Gangs Of New York' director Martin Scorsese for the forthcoming film, which is based on Shusaku Endo's 1966 novel of the same name, according to deadline.com.
Neeson has been cast alongside 'The Amazing Spider-Man' star Andrew Garfield and 'Inception' actor Ken Watanabe.
The script is by Jay Cocks and Scorsese and the film which is being financed by Emmett/Furla/Oasis, Corsan and A1 is set to begin production in Taiwan later this year.
'Silence' tells the story of Father Rodrigues, a 17th century Portuguese Jesuit, who is heading to Japan with a fellow priest to discover whether his mentor has left the church, but there's religious persecution in the country which forces them to travel undercover with an interpreter.
Neeson is also reportedly making a deal to reprise his role as retired CIA agent Bryan Mills in 'Taken 3', is in negotiations for drama 'Highwaymen' and will be in Universal's 'Non-Stop' as Bill Marks in the action movie which is set for release later this month.

Justin Theroux visits Philip Seymour Hoffman’s family

Cate Blanchett and Justin Theroux have visited Philip Seymour Hoffman's family. 
The actors separately paid visits to see Mimi O'Donnell, the estranged partner of the star - who was found dead at an apartment in New York yesterday (02.02.14) of an apparent drugs overdose - and their children Cooper, 10, Tallulah, seven, and Willa, five. 
Justin was a very close friend of Philip and is said to be devastated by his death.
A source told UsMagazine.com: 'Justin is totally broken up about losing Phil. He's doing his best to provide some comfort to Mimi and the kids. He can't believe this happened.'
Although they didn't make a huge public show of their friendship, Philip had been there for Justin for many years. In 2005 he turned out in support of the actor at the premiere of his movie 'The Baxter' and in 2010 Justin appointed his friend team captain at LAByrinth Theater Company's annual Celebrity Charades benefit.
Meanwhile Australian actress Cate - who worked with Philip on 'The Talented Mr. Ripley' in 1999 - came to Mimi's house brandishing toys for the children.
Mimi had reportedly thrown Philip out of the family home late last year because of his heroin use and urged him to get sober. 
A source told the New York Post newspaper: 'It was known that he was struggling to stay sober, and [Mimi] had given him some tough love and told him he needed some time away from the kids and to get straight again.'
The alarm was raised when Philip didn't turn up to collect his children on Sunday. He was found by a friend, David Bar Katz and his personal assistant, Isabella Wing-Davey.

US to push for mandatory car-to-car wireless communications

In the connected car future, vehicles will be able to communicate position data to each other. Google's self-driving cars don't rely on this technology, though.

(Credit: US Department of Transportation)

The US government will work to enable wireless communication links between cars, technology it expects will reduce accidents and, eventually, decrease fuel consumption and speed travel.

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration said Monday it's finalizing a report on the subject based on a 3,000-vehicle study of vehicle-to-vehicle communications that began in Ann Arbor, Mich., in 2012. That report should be released in the coming weeks -- and then the Department of Transportation's push for using V2V technology in cars and light trucks will get serious.

"NHTSA will then begin working on a regulatory proposal that would require V2V devices in new vehicles in a future year," the agency said. "DOT believes that the signal this announcement sends to the market will significantly enhance development of this technology and pave the way for market penetration of V2V safety applications."

V2V technology initially will assist drivers, but NHTSA is considering linking it to "active safety technologies that rely on on-board sensors." That could let a car brake or steer to avoid a collision without driver involvement.V2V communications use a variation of the 802.11 wireless network standard used by laptops and mobile phones, but instead link cars, which can share position and speed information with each other 10 times per second. That can let one car reliably detect when another in front is braking hard, for example.

The DOT will test drive acceptance of vehicle to vehicle warning technologies in six cities this year.

(Credit: DOT)

Obama proposes creation of six new tech manufacturing hubs

President Obama proposing creation of new tech hubs in the US during his State of the Union address Tuesday.

(Credit: CBS)

President Obama made a push for an expanded high-tech manufacturing base in the US during his State of the Union address Tuesday night, proposing the creation of six new high-tech manufacturing hubs in the US this year.

"We also have the chance, right now, to beat other countries in the race for the next wave of high-tech manufacturing jobs," Obama said in his annual address to the nation. Two existing hubs in Raleigh, N.C., and Youngstown, Ohio, have "connected businesses to research universities that can help America lead the world in advanced technologies," he said.

Obama did not indicate where the hubs would be located or what they would specialize in.

During his State of the Union address last year, Obama highlighted the role Youngstown plays as the epicenter of the nascent 3D-printing industry. The president described how, with the help of $30 million in federal funding and $40 million from a consortium of companies and universities, the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute was revolutionizing manufacturing.

"A once-shuttered warehouse is now a state-of-the art lab where new workers are mastering the 3D printing that has the potential to revolutionize the way we make almost everything," Obama said in last year's address. "There's no reason this can't happen in other towns."

Earlier this month, Obama unveiled a manufacturing hub in Raleigh that will connect emerging research with manufacturers to develop energy-efficient chips. Backed by $70 million in federal funding, the consortium will be led by North Carolina State University and include companies such as ABB, APEI, Avogy, Cree, Delphi, Delta Products, DfR Solutions, Gridbridge, and Hesse Mechantronic, according to Reuters.

The chipmaker plans to shut down its AppUp store, a remnant of the short-lived Netbook era.

Intel AppUp logo.

(Credit: Intel)

Intel plans to close its app store designed originally for Netbooks and later for other devices such as ultrabooks.

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The Intel AppUp Center will close March 11,according to a note posted on the site.

The site provides little further clarification as to why the store is closing, beyond saying that "by closing Intel AppUp center, Intel will be able to focus more than ever on developing the next generation of platform innovation."

An FAQ states that "some applications do require communication with the AppUp client and may not work after May 15th, 2015."

An Intel spokesperson, however, did expand a bit on the reasons for the shutdown in a brief phone interview with CNET. "The market is changing...consumer needs are changing, so we are trying to realign and focus on cloud-based services."

"Our focus [is on] APIs through Mashery and Aepona, acquisitions we made last year," said the spokesperson, referring to application programming interfaces.

Intel launched the AppUp center in January 2010 and later announced a $100 million AppUp fund for companies developing applications.

Originally, Intel said the store was aimed at Netbooks (now a defunct product category in the U.S.), but the company expected the store to migrate to PCs, smartphones, TVs, and other devices.

Facebook shares soar on solid 2013 financial results

Facebook has hit a new high on Thursday after posting better-than-expected results during the fourth quarter of 2013.

In early trading on Thursday, Facebook shares jumped to $62.28, a new 52-week high for the company's shares. As of this writing, Facebook's stock has cooled off a bit to $61.19 -- a 14 percent gain.

The strong showing this morning is largely the result of Facebook's strong performance last year. Facebook said Wednesday that it generated $7.9 billion revenue last year, up from the $5.1 billion the company tallied in 2012. Facebook also grew its profits from $53 million to $1.5 billion.

The soaring shares have, of course, helped the company's value jump significantly. As of this writing, Facebook is valued at $150 billion.