On Thursday, Apple unveiled its plan to remake the education system, with the reformed one revolving around its tablet computer, the iPad. Apple’s senior vice president of marketing, Philip Schiller, made a statement saying “Education is deep in Apple’s DNA and iPad may be our most exciting education product yet”. 

The benefits of having iPads in schools are obvious. Firstly, it would help save the environment as it would reduce the use of paper in schools, with the iPad having a free app called iBooks Author, which lets anyone create a digital and interactive textbook. The new iTunes U will allow anyone, anywhere, at any time to take courses for free, and is available for free on Thursday. Furthermore, it enables students and teachers to read, write, plan classes and communicate with each other. 

With all the resources, including textbooks, on the iPad, students of the future would simply be able to take their iPad and lunch to school, without needing anything else. Although this idea can be criticized as it would obviously deteriorate student’s writing skills, but one could question that writing is a dated skill that will eventually be irrelevant. 

This all makes perfect sense, although the high price tag of iPad’s can easily be enough to make people question whether the plan would work, especially considering the recent government cuts and the high rates of deprived children. 

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The New York Police Department has arrested 43 feuding gang members on Thursday after they collected evidence from their Twitter and Facebook profiles. The 25 accused members of the Wave Gang and 18 accused members of rival Hoodstarz have been involved in three murders and the wounding of several others in the streets of Brooklyn. 

NYPD commissioner Raymond Kelly has stated that the gang members, aged 15 to 21, bragged about the shootings on their social media sites, showing how the American ideology of Free Speech can backfire. This will be a case particularly interesting to the SOPA protestors, who will surely use this as a positive example of how censoring the internet will have negative consequences on not only America, but the world. 

Reports state that the gang was monitored for over a year on their social networking sites, leading to their arrests. This is similar to the way some of the London Rioters were captured, as they were orchestrating the riots via Blackberry Messenger, which the police were able to hack and consequently track the user down through the signal in their Blackberry. This shows the positives of how technology used by criminals can be tracked down but it also demonstrates the chilling fact that everyone with a mobile phone which is turned on can be tracked down by the government if they so desire. 

The 43 gang members were arrested on January 17 and 18, and 35 firearms were recovered upon the arrests for the crimes dating back to 2010. They were indicted on Thursday on charges including murder, assault, reckless endangerment, robbery and weapon possession, with potential sentences ranging from a year to life in prison. 

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Edmonton Oilers star forward, Taylor Hall, was sliced by an ice skate prior to their NHL game against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday. Hall was not wearing a helmet during the warmup, something which is somewhat of a tradition in National Hockey League games, when he stepped on a puck by accident and then colliding with defenseman Ladislav Smid, and then sliding to a halt in front of teammate Corey Potter, who clipped Hall with his skate as he tried to hurdle the both of them. 

The 20-year-old required 30 stitches to close the wound which stretched from his eyebrow to his scalp, and is sporting a black eye. Despite this horrific incident, players are still saying they will continue to not wear helmets during the warmup due to the fact ever since they’ve been a little kid they’ve wanted to skate around without a helmet on in the warmup. 

This is absolutely ridiculous as surely safety comes first in a combat sport as dangerous as ice hockey. There has been calls to omit fighting from the game, saying it causes too many injuries and isn’t necessary. I would argue that it is more important to enforce people to wear helmets in warm-up before even considering banning fighting. You might think the same after seeing this picture of Hall:

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=taylor+hall+warmup&um=1&hl=en&client=safari&sa=N&rls=en&biw=1229&bih=814&tbm=isch&tbnid=0x0We8yM_xD3-M:&imgrefurl=http://prohockeytalk.nbcsports.com/2012/01/19/mom-i-look-like-frankenstein-taylor-hall-on-gruesome-head-injury-with-photo/&docid=v3rPK8BUAIixjM&imgurl=http://nbcprohockeytalk.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/taylor-hall1.jpg&w=630&h=473&ei=1YIYT5uVLM7asgaR05nIDQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=785&vpy=94&dur=543&hovh=174&hovw=232&tx=104&ty=105&sig=103242172862180375692&page=1&tbnh=133&tbnw=175&start=0&ndsp=24&ved=1t:429,r:4,s:0

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British former world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis and George Foreman were two of 350 guests as a celebration dinner Saturday night in Louisville to celebrate boxing legend Muhammad Ali’s 70th birthday. 

Lennox said: “Muhammad Ali inspired me, from when I was a young boy growing up, he motivated me to chase my dreams inside and out of the ring. I admired the fact that he was concerned about people, enough to oppose the war in Vietnam and young men going there to fight. He is a religious man and he captured my attention because he was always helpful to people”.

Foreman mentioned that “there should be a Muhammad Ali Day in America, because he will go down as one of the great American heroes.” Foreman is notorious for his epic duel with Ali during the seventies. Former US president Bill Clinton said Ali’s talent, charisma and strong principals were responsible for raising the popularity of the sport across the world. 

Ali was truly one of the greatest of all time, giving all young boys an idol and inspiring many to head to the local boxing gym and start hitting the pads. It is rare for an exceptional  athlete to also be an excellent role model outside of the sport as well. 

David Haye, who won the WBA heavyweight crown in 2009, aptly summed up his thoughts on Ali by saying: “I believe he is the world’s greatest ever athlete bar none.”

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Multi-millionaire rapper Jay-z has stated he will cease to use the word b**** after the birth of his daughter, Blue Ivy Carter. In the song he made shortly after the birth of Blue Ivy, about Blue Ivy, called Glory he rapped:

“Before I got in the game, made a change, and got rich, I didn’t think hard about using the word b***h. I rapped, I flipped it, I sold it, I lived it. Now with my daughter in this world I curse those that give it”. He also goes on to say “No man will degrade her, or call her names”. 

It’ll be hard for Jay-z to omit this word from his vocabulary as he was raised in Marcy Heights, New York, and it may come as second nature to him due to this, and it has been a constant word throughout the lyrics in his songs since he started rapping. Hopefully the incentive of protecting his new-born daughter will be enough motivation for him to refrain from using the word, and then other rappers and singers might realize it’s not necessary or cool to use it. 

Beyonce has recently spoken out about the birth, saying that “Nothing can describe the feeling” and going on to mention that former fellow Destiny’s Child star and X-factor judge Kelly Rowland cannot wait to babysit Blue Ivy. 

Speaking on how good of a father she thinks Jay-z will be she stated “ He is a very protective and loyal guy by nature. He is a very protective husband, and since we found out I was pregnant I have seen the protective father in him. He is not only an inspirational artist, he is an inspirational husband. I know the next step on his journey is going to be being an inspirational father.” 

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A 47 year old New Yorker, Marion Hedges, was critically injured by a falling shopping cart dropped by two teenagers from four stories high, resulting in a serious brain injury. The mother-of-two technically died at the scene and was lucky that Guarav Patel, a resident doctor at New York Hospital, was passing, as he was able to revive her by using CPR. She was shopping for Halloween candy for poor children at a mall with her son when the incident occurred. 

Mrs Hedges is struggling with day-to-day tasks, and has to re-learn her own name. A source was quoted as saying “She’s not the same person. Talking to her is like talking to a nine-year-old or a 90-year-old. She gets emotional and forgets things quickly. There is a short-term memory loss.”

Jeovanni Rosario and Raymond Hernandez, both 12 at the time of the near-fatal prank, have both been charged with the crime. Both suspects ratted each other out at one point whilst in custody, although they are both friends again. Reports state they were both laughing about the incident whilst in police custody, perhaps underlining how sick these two boys are. 

Twelve years old is old enough to learn the difference between right and wrong, and therefore I believe twelve years old is old enough for these two teenagers to suffer the consequences of their actions. They obviously feel little to no remorse, demonstrating their clear mental abnormality. 

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A relatively fresh new trend sure to increase in popularity in 2012 is the Apple App called instagram. Instagram is a free photo sharing applications that allows users to take photos and share them on instagram as well as other social networking sites, including facebook, twitter, tumblr and flickr. It is compatable with any iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. 

The app confines photos into a square shape, a trait apparently paying homage to both the Kodak Instamatic and Polaroid cameras. It launched in Apple’s App Store on October 2010 and by December that year it had one million registered users. By June 2011, they had reach five million and by September it had passed ten million registered users. In January 2011, hashtags were added in order to aid user and photo discovery.

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” - Leonardo Da Vinci. 

Instagram takes this quote to heart, having an extremely simple concept, yet it is so unique  and sophisticated. The user takes photos throughout their day or week, whether it is a funny sight they’re seeing or a thing of natural beauty. The photos are extremely easy to upload, and can be published on facebook and twitter at the same time, enabling all of your friends on all of your social networking sites to see them. It enables average citizens of the world to show their artistic side, with everyone being able to show the world their particular taste or style of photo.

In December 2011 Apple Inc. named Instagram “App of the Year” for 2012, which is one great accolade. I can tell you one thing I would certainly be using this application if I had an iPhone.

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Frank Ocean, born Christopher Francis Ocean, is an American singer-songwriter from New Orleans, Louisiana. He is only 24 and has released a mixtape called Nostalgia, Ultra. Frank’s style cannot be easily categorized, with his music being placed under numerous different genres, including R&B, alternative hip hop, and hip hop soul. 

He is currently signed to Odd Future Records, a record label notorious for being a bunch of young acts doing their own, unique, and most often odd thing, hence the name. Their most high profile artist is Tyler the Creator, a rapper/producer who leads the group. He is infamous for his original music and music video concepts. This uniqueness is apparent in the majority of his signings though, including Frank Ocean, as can be seen in the beginning of his Swim Good music video, where he is eating popcorn with a balaclava on, one which has no hole for his mouth. 

His mixtape, Nostalgia, Ultra, caught the attention of numerous highly successful recording artists, including Beyonce Knowles, Jay-z and Kanye West, resulting in his appearance on the latter two’s highly acclaimed album, Watch the Throne. 

Frank is destined for great things in the music industry, as is evident in his invitation to perform at Coachella 2012, and finishing second place in the BBC’s Sound of 2012 poll. He is currently working on his debut studio album, which is set to be released in the first half of 2012. 

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