U.S. and Cuba Move to Thaw Relations After Prisoner Exchange

The U.S. will begin efforts to normalize diplomatic relations with Cuba and will open an embassy on the island nation following the release of an American government subcontractor and a swap of intelligence assets, President Barack Obama said Wednesday. It marks the most significant change in the U.S.-Cuba relationship since the Cuban revolution. “Neither the American nor Cuban people are served by a rigid policy that’s rooted in events that took place before most of us were born,” Obama said in a televised address. “I believe we can do more to support the Cuban people and our values through engagement. After all, these 50 years have shown the isolation has not worked. It’s time for a new approach.”

Following a year of secret back-channel talks in Canada and at the Vatican, and culminating with a historic nearly hour-long call between Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro on Tuesday, the Cuban government released 65-year-old Alan Gross on Wednesday on humanitarian grounds. His release clears the way for a broad relaxation of the 53-year U.S. embargo on Cuba.

In a prisoner swap, Cuba released an unnamed U.S. intelligence asset who has been imprisoned for 20 years, while the U.S. government released the final three members of the spy ring known as the Cuban Five remaining in federal prison.A senior Administration official said the U.S. embassy would open “as soon as possible” in Havana.

Gross departed Cuba on Wednesday morning on a U.S. government plane, and arrived at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington, D.C., shortly after 11 a.m., accompanied by members of Congress and his wife who had traveled to retrieve him aboard a U.S. Air Force plane. A Cuban court convicted Gross of espionage in 2011 and sentenced him to 15 years in prison for carrying communications devices into Cuba while working as as a subcontractor for U.S. Agency for International Development setting up Internet access in local communities. According to his attorney, Gross had been in deteriorating health while in prison. Speaking at a news conference, Gross thanked Obama, said he supports the President’s policy shift and stressed he harbors no ill will toward the Cuban people.

“It pains me to see them treated so unjustly as a consequence of two governments’ mutually belligerent policies,” Gross said. “Five and a half decades of history shows us that such belligerence inhibits better judgment. Two wrongs don’t make a right. “This is a game-changer which I fully support,” Gross added. “I truly hope we can get beyond these mutually belligerent policies.”The Obama Administration is maximizing the ability of Americans to travel to Cuba within the limits of the American travel ban, the President is “doing everything in his authority to facilitate travel within the limits of the law,” an official said, adding that Obama would support congressional efforts to lift the ban. Obama also announced that his Administration is easing economic and financial restrictions on Cuba, including increasing permitted American exports, as well as raising the cap on remittances. U.S. financial institutions will also be allowed to open accounts at Cuban banks to process permitted transactions, and U.S. credit and debit cards will be permitted for use in Cuba for the first time. Obama is also directing Secretary of State John Kerry to launch an immediate review of the 1982 designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism, in consultation with intelligence agencies.

“I do not expect the changes I’m announcing today to bring about a transformation of Cuban society overnight,” Obama said.

Obama cannot unilaterally lift the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba. “I look forward to engaging Congress in an honest and serious debate about lifting the embargo,” he said. In an address that took place while Obama was speaking, Castro said he welcomes the cooling of relations between the two countries, but that differences remain that the countries need to learn to live with “in a civilized manner.Obama has twice previously relaxed restrictions on Cuba, in 2009 and 2011, opening the door for Americans to visit family members in Cuba and allowing travel for religious, educational and cultural endeavors. Authorized American travelers will now be able to import up to $400 in Cuban goods into the U.S., including $100 in tobacco and alcohol products. But senior Administration officials said there would be no immediate change to the ban on imports of Cuban cigars and other products for retail purposes.

Obama’s announcement was quickly criticized by Republicans and Democratic lawmakers who have long defended the embargo. Outgoing Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Robert Menendez (D., N.J.) blasted Obama’s decision as having “vindicated the brutal behavior of the Cuban government.”

“This asymmetrical trade will invite further belligerence toward Cuba’s opposition movement and the hardening of the government’s dictatorial hold on its people,” Menendez said. American officials contend that the U.S. policy toward Cuba was antiquated and ineffective, failing to bring down the Castro regime after more than 50 years. Obama said he respects the “passion” of those who may disagree with his decision, but said he believes now is the time for a change. “I do not believe that we can do the same thing for over five decades and expect a different result,” he said.

In coordination with the American announcements, the Cuban government will announce that it will free 53 prisoners deemed by the U.S. to be political prisoners, American officials said. Additionally, the Cuban government has told the U.S. it intends to expand Internet connectivity for its citizens. But despite objections by the Cuban government, the U.S. will continue to fund so-called democracy programming in Cuba, meant to promote human rights and support the free flow of information into the communist country.

American officials praised the role of Canada and the Vatican, particularly Pope Francis, in helping bring about the agreement. “Pope Francis personally issued an appeal in a letter that he sent to President Obama and to President Raúl Castro calling on them to resolve the case of Alan Gross and the cases of the three Cubans who have been imprisoned here in the United States, and also encouraging the United States and Cuba to pursue a closer relationship,” an official said, calling the papal letter “very rare … The Vatican then hosted the U.S. and Cuban delegations where we were able to review the commitments that we are making today.”

In a statement earlier this month marking the five-year anniversary of Gross’s arrest, Obama said that if the Castro-led Cuban government released him it would set the stage for other reconciliation efforts. “The Cuban Government’s release of Alan on humanitarian grounds would remove an impediment to more constructive relations between the United States and Cuba,” Obama said. Source: Times.com

Bobby Shmurda, Rap Artist, Is Arrested in Manhattan

Bobby Shmurda was arrested on Wednesday near Times Square as part of an investigation into street violence, shootings and drug trafficking in Brooklyn, the authorities said on Wednesday. Investigators arrested Mr. Shmurda, whose real name is Ackquille Pollard, as he sat in a car outside Quad Recording Studios, at 723 Seventh Avenue, near 48th Street, where the rapper Tupac Shakur was robbed and shot in 1994 as he walked through the lobby.

More than a dozen people have been arrested. Details of the investigation, and charges, were expected to be unsealed on Thursday in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, said Kati Cornell, a spokeswoman for the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor for New York City. The agency, along with the New York Police Department’s newly created Brooklyn South Violence Reduction Task Force, carried out a long-term investigation that “centered on shooting and narcotics trafficking,” Ms. Cornell said.

Officials said that multiple shootings had been linked to the inquiry and that several guns were recovered as the arrests of 13 people were carried out on Wednesday in the city. Two others are being extradited from out of state and other suspects are still being sought, officials said. Officials said they could not offer more specific details about the case, or the charges against the individual defendants, until Thursday.

Last month, Mr. Shmurda’s song “Hot Boy” reached No. 8 in the country, according to Billboard. Earlier this year, someone distilled a little-watched video of the song into a six-second Vine Video, which became popular online. Fans moved to the beat in a so-called Schmoney Dance. But over the same period, Mr. Shmurda, 20, was becoming increasingly entangled with law enforcement. He was arrested in June in Brooklyn, and indicted on a charge of possessing a loaded 9-millimeter Glock handgun, according to court papers. In October, officers in Brooklyn arrested him again on marijuana possession charges, the papers said. On Tuesday, Mr. Shmurda posted a note on Twitter promoting his “special performance” on Wednesday afternoon a performance he did not make. Is Arrested in Manhattan.

Source: NYTimes

Wassily Kandinsky at 148: a revolutionary Google Doodle star

The fascinating thing about Wassily Kandinsky, whose 148th birthday has got him a Google Doodle today, is how seriously and carefully he evolved from figurative painting to abstract art. Kandinsky did not become an abstract painter lightly. He reached abstraction in a strenuous, thoughtful way that gives his art huge authority.

In his early expressionist paintings villages glow in radiant colours. These landscapes pulse with wild chromatic splendour that resembles the freedom of the fauves. In fact Kandinsky’s expressive landscapes are already partly abstract, in their use of colour. This innovation, that started with the French fauves and was rapidly adopted by the German expressionists, was the first, huge step towards abstraction in 20th-century art. But the wild colours enflaming art in the early years of the century still portray a very recognisable world. Kandinsky took it a revolutionary step further by reaching a logical conclusion – what if painting were pure colour? What if it created its own imaginary world, like the world of a symphony?

Like symphonies, Kandinsky’s great abstract paintings speak directly to our senses and feelings. Their constellations of mysterious marks are like waves of sound that trigger emotions. For him, the world they pointed towards was a spiritual realm, a hidden truth.

Kandinsky and Piet Mondrian both build cathedrals of the mind in their abstract art – silent cities of spiritual calm. That mystical impulse is connected to mathematics, and in Kandinsky this means a deep consciousness of structure. If his paintings have the expressive colour of Van Gogh’s Starry Night they also have the classical clarity of Poussin.

There is a true grandeur to his concept of painting, and a sense of truth. Whatever we think about his spiritualist beliefs, the result is an art that is at once purely abstract and plainly rooted in a deep feel for the nature of things. A profound, paradoxical and rich achievement. Kandinsky intuits the cosmic complexity of modern physics. His art can be set alongside today’s images of the fabric of the universe.

Read Full Story Here 

Militant siege of Peshawar school over, at least 141 killed

Pakistani officials say the siege at an army-run school on Warsak road school is over, and authorities are now sweeping the area.At least 141 people, most of them children (132), died when Taliban gunmen attacked the school in the morning. The overwhelming majority of the victims were students at the school, which has children and teenagers in grades 1-10.Condemnations poured in from across the globe including all major political leaders and notables in the country. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Army Chief General Raheel Sharif also condemned the assault and rushed to Peshawar to show their support for the victims and the troops partaking in the operation to clear the school of terrorists. Three-day mourning was also announced by the federal government. As darkness fell on the area, officials said they had cleared the school of militants. “The operation is completed,” said Bilal Ahmad Faizi, the head of the state-run rescue organisation, speaking to reporters after leaving the school area. 

According to a tweet by DG ISPR Maj-Gen Asim Bajwa, Pakistan’s military on actionable intelligence has carried out several raids including 10 airstrikes in Khyber Agency today. US President Barack Obama condemned the deadly Taliban raid on a Pakistani school Tuesday and promised that America would stand by the country in its struggle against violent extremism. By targeting students and teachers in this heinous attack, terrorists have once again shown their depravity,” he said, after the attack on the army-run facility in Peshawar left at 130 people dead. “We stand with the people of Pakistan, and reiterate the commitment of the United States to support the government of Pakistan in its efforts to combat terrorism and extremism and to promote peace and stability in the region.” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon strongly condemned on Tuesday a Taliban attack on a Pakistani school that left at least 141 dead, most of them students.

“It is an act of horror and rank cowardice to attack defenseless children while they learn,” Ban said at the start of a UN Security Council meeting.

“The hearts of the world go out to the parents and families who have lost loved ones.”

Speaking in a solemn tone, Ban began his address to a council meeting on peacekeeping with the statement condemning what he termed the “blood-curdling attack” in Pakistan.“I condemn this heinous attack in the strongest possible terms,” he said.“No cause can justify such brutality. No grievance can excuse such horror. Schools must be safe and secure learning spaces. Getting an education is every child's right. Going to school should not be an act of bravery.”

Police sources said that at least six terrorists entered the school after scaling its walls. A heavy contingent of police and security forces have reached the spot and cordoned off the area as an operation continues. Read Full Story here

The Real Winners and Losers from Hendricks vs. Lawler 2

The main event at UFC 181 on Saturday was teed up as the Terminator 2 of 2014. Even though the original bout back in March between Johny Hendricks and Robbie Lawler—which resulted in a close decision win and the vacant welterweight title for Hendricks—was considered one of the best fights of the year, there were thoughts that the rematch could surpass it. 

After all, Hendricks, we later learned, fought with a torn biceps. And since that setback, Lawler has been on a bit of a tear, looking better than he ever had as he ripped through Jake Ellenberger and then Matt Brown while Hendricks idled on the sidelines. 

And that was only the first of the evening's two title fights. Anthony Pettis, the reigning lightweight champ, also returned from a lengthy layoff. The dynamic knockout artist came back after 16 months away to try and defend his UFC strap for the first time, and did so against Gilbert Melendez, the former Strikeforce and WEC champ who coached against Pettis on the most recent season of The Ultimate Fighter.

And this was only the beginning. Did someone say CM Punk? Oh yes. 

As always, the final stat lines only reveal so much. Here are the real winners and losers from a glitzy Saturday night in glamorous Las Vegas.

Three and Out: TCU rolls Iowa State in final College Football Playoff audition

FORT WORTH, Texas -- TCU made its closing argument for a spot in the inaugural College Football Playoff with a 55-3 win over Iowa State on Saturday. What does that mean? It means everyone will look south to Waco (where Baylor faces Kansas State) on Saturday night and east to Grapevine (where the playoff selection committee meets) on Sunday morning.

1. All TCU can do now is wait

TCU athletic director Chris Del Conte was resplendent in his purple blazer as he jogged toward the makeshift awards stand where TCU was presented with a Big 12 championship trophy. The twin of that trophy will be presented to the winner of Saturday’s Kansas State-Baylor game, because one of those teams will finish with an 8-1 conference record. “Be kind to us,” Del Conte joked upon seeing a writer.

But it doesn’t matter what writers or poll voters think about the TCU-Baylor issue. The only opinions that count belong to the members of the selection committee, and they seem to like TCU very much. Still, all the Horned Frogs can do is wait. “I don’t know what happens tomorrow, but the bottom line is we’ve done everything we can do,” TCU coach Gary Patterson said. The committee seems to have declared itself by placing TCU at No. 3 in its most recent rankings, but committee chair Jeff Long told ESPN earlier in the morning that not all pieces of teams’ résumés are in place. In other words, if Baylor beats Kansas State and wins the Big 12’s championship tiebreaker by virtue of its head-to-head win over TCU on Oct. 11, that might allow the Bears to close the gap.

However, it’s entirely possible -- and seems more likely -- that the committee would keep TCU ranked ahead of Baylor no matter what. (That part certainly would be easier for the committee and for the Horned Frogs if Kansas State beats Baylor on Saturday night.) Then it would just be a matter of how favorably the committee views the Horned Frogs relative to other contenders. Given where TCU is ranked this week, that seems like a fairly favorable view. 

The Frogs don’t seem particularly worried about placement. Asked where he would like to finish, TCU quarterback Trevone Boykin smiled. “In the top four,” he said. “I really don't care where.”

2. The Horned Frogs left little doubt on Saturday

Sure, the Frogs played one of the Big 12’s worst teams against Iowa State. But the last time they played one of the Big 12’s worst teams (Kansas), they nearly lost before escaping 34-30. This time, TCU dominated. The Frogs opened the scoring in the first quarter with a nifty 55-yard throwback pass from receiver David Porter to Boykin. TCU rolled up 721 yards of total offense and averaged 8.7 yards a play, while holding the Cyclones to just 3.2 yards a play.

3. TCU could be a Big 12 contender for years to come

Lost in the playoff discussion is this: There are no more questions about whether the Frogs can compete in the Big 12. After going 6-12 in league play over the last two years, the Frogs clinched at least a share of the conference title with this win on Saturday. While that championship will become the subject of debate if Baylor beats Kansas State -- the conference office gave TCU a trophy, but no one outside the fan base will consider the Frogs to be Big 12 champs -- there is no doubt TCU has everything it needs to be one of the league’s elite programs going forward. The Frogs are stocked with young talent, and proving their legitimacy in a Power Five conference will give them a further recruiting edge in addition to being the only Big 12 school in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. We could be debating TCU’s playoff worth often over the next few seasons, which is amazing considering the fact that TCU had to march through the mid-major hinterlands for years after the breakup of the Southwest Conference.

“One of the reasons I’ve had a lot of patience in this playoff thing is this: TCU’s been sitting outside the circle for many years. We’ve had to be patient,” Patterson said after Saturday's victory. “The two most nervous games I had were KU and today. They were like my last six or seven years in the Mountain West Conference. You knew you had to win every game, and you had to do it with style points and you had to do it all a certain way. Now we’re in a conference where everybody knows you’re good at what you do.”News Source

Sharing a Home with Family, Friends and Strangers

Several animals share their homes with uninvited guests some of which give little trouble. Other invaders, however, may destroy the nest or kill the hosts.

Basket-weave hotel is the world’s biggest nest.

A haystack-like object hanging from a tree telegraph pole is a not uncommon sight in the dry grasslands or southwest Africa. It is in fact an enormous communal nest containing up to 300 woven grass baskets all clustered under one dome-shaped, thatched roof. It is the communal home of a colony of sociable weaver birds. The entrance holes are in the “basement” each one leading to a group of nests houses a pair of weavers and their brood, while in winter, it shelters a group of adults huddled together for warmth.

Sociable weaver birds somewhat resemble their close relatives, the European sparrows. They do not migrate, and even when they are not breeding, they occupy the same nests, coming home to sleep in them each evening after feeding on seeds and insects. The work of repairing and adding to the nest is constant, and the birds live for several. So though a colony may begin with only a small cluster of nests under a communally built thatched roof, in time the home tree’s strange fruit may grow into an enormous structure twice the height of a man and four times as long as it is high.

In a land where daytime temperatures are 34’C at night communal nesting is no bad idea. Inside the nests, the temperature fluctuation is halved by the insulation of the thatched roof and the woven sides. For security’s sake most birds’ nests tend to be inconspicuous. Not so the weaver birds, which can be seen from a great distance. These birds rely on safety in numbers and on the fact that few predators are able to reach the entrances without a warning being a called by at least one colonist. A problem lies, however, in the weaver birds own enthusiasm for buildings.

Busy Termites thwarted by Troublesome Tenants

Australian termite mounds are perhaps the pinnacle of insect architecture. Made from chewed plant matter and coasted with clay, these air-conditioned towers rise to about 23 feet high, containing within them innumerable chambers and galleries. Such conspicuous structures are bound to attract creatures that prefer to let someone else do the work of home building. One of the most determined idlers in the rare golden-shouldered parrot, found only in a small area of northeast Australia. In the breeding season, the female simply tunnels some 14 inches into the slab sides of a mound, hollows out a nesting chamber, lays her eggs and sits on them. She does not even try to seal the ends of the termite tunnels she has opened up. The termites do what they can to discourage the squatter, by working all night to seal its entrance hole. But to no avail. Each morning, the parrot breaks it open again. On rare occasions, the termites manage to entomb a clutch of chicks but the more usual outcome is that they give up, seal off their own tunnels and ignore the unwanted guests.

However, parrots do not always choose their termite mounds well. Magnetic or compass termites build their tall, blade shaped towers with the flat sides on a north south line so they get the most sun in the morning and afternoon and the least at midday. Because the tower thickness is less than 3 feet, golden-shouldered parrots that try to burrow into tone can easily find themselves jabbing at the air on the other side. Thus it is not uncommon to come across rows of magnetic termite mounds looking exactly like enormous, upended slices of Swiss cheese. At worst golden-shouldered parrots are no more than a nuisance. But termites also suffer from other tenants whose habits may kill a whole colony. They’re paradise, or whit-tailed, kingfishers. In early November, these lovely birds migrate from New Guniea to a little area on Australia’s North Eastern Coast.

There, mated pairs make nests in newly built termite mounds that are around knee high. An Australian golden-shouldered parrot perches on the huge termite mound it has claimed as its winter nesting place. Some older birds will return to the same cozy nesting site, year after year, blithely undoing the termites painstaking repair work. For the birds, the rain softened termite mounds are easy to excavate. The kingfishers create two narrow entrance holes by jabbing at the mound with their beaks. Then with their feet, they dig out the entire inner chamber for their eggs. The work can take up to a month, and in its course, inflicts more damage than a young termite colony can tolerate. The termites die or abandon the nest, leaving their unfinished home to the kingfishers and their chicks. Source: Charismatic Planet

Urchins with Spiny Umbrellas

Sea-urchins are not stationary creatures, but move around on shore and seabed using their spines and sucker like tube feet. Some can climb up vertical rocks, and even bore into them. Well, Sea-urchins belong to a group of marine animals aptly named echinoderms, meaning spiny-skinned. Starfish, brittle-stars, sea-cucumbers and feather-stars are also members of this group. Many of the sea-urchins around the British coastline live both above and below the low tide mark, either singly or in groups. 

Some species, such as the common sea-urchin, green sea-urchin and edible sea-urchin, live under stones, among seaweeds or in rock pools and crannies. But the heart-urchin, or sea potato as it is commonly called, burrows in sandy shores. Although the living creatures are often hidden from view, you may often find the round, hollow and colorful shells of dead sea-urchin washed up along the strandline. 

Spiny test, the shell tests look like an external skeleton. But for the living urchin it is also an internal one, covered in a thin layer of living tissue which contains the digestive and reproductive organs. The test is made up of layers of white limy plates. As the animal grows, it adds more layers each year with layers of pigment in between. You can tell the age of a sea-urchin by counting the numbers of layers. The edible sea-urchin for example, can live for 8 years or more. The edible sea-urchin (Echinus esculentus) is found on rocks and among seaweeds along the English Channel and Western coasts, from the low tide mark to a distance. As with other sea-urchin its mouth is armed with a set of five sharp teeth operated by a structure called Aristotle’s lantern named after the Greek philosopher who first described the animal in detail, the Aristotle’s lantern may be found intact inside empty tests. The cut away contains the gut rising from the center and coiling inside. Five yellow sex organs are visible, and are edible hence its name. The test is normally 10cm (4 inches) in diameter and when empty and cleaned is a beautiful mixture of reds and purples, with small white knobs where the spines about 1.5cm long were attached. The spines which cover the test an soon break off when the animal dies not only protect the sea urchin against predators, but also help it to feed and to move about. In some species, the spines enable the animal to burrow into sand or bore into rock. 

 

On the move Sea-urchins also have a number of tube-feet interspersed among the spines, which they use chiefly for movement and also for respiration and waste disposal. The tube feet make p part of a complex structure known as the water vascular system. Sea-urchins pump fluid through their bodies to help them move about. The fluid, largely sea water is pushed through a series of tubes to the tube-feet which then extend. The sucker-like tip of a tube foot grips firmly once it touches a rock or other firm surface. The muscular wall of the foot then contracts, and the water is forced back through the canal system. As the foot shortens, the animal is pulled along. Once attached to a rock, Sea-urchins are difficult to dislodge. 

The tube-feet project through holes in the Sea-urchins test, in a characteristic pattern of five double rows running from top to bottom round the body. You can clearly see the tube-feet holes on empty, spine free tests. The Sea-urchins mouth and teeth are on the underside of its body. The edible Sea-urchins and other rocky shore species, move slowly over the rocks to graze on the vegetation especially soft young seaweeds. 

Colorful Varieties

Sea-urchins common around the British Isles vary in size from five to fifteen cm their shapes differ from rounded to heart shaped, and the colors alter dramatically from black to bright purple and to the pea green of the green Sea-urchins. The common Sea-urchins sometimes called the rock-urchin, forms groups in or among rocks between the high and low tide marks. If it cannot find a rock pool or suitable cranny, this urchin makes its own shelter against the waves, wind and sun by boring into the rock. Its teeth bore deep into the rock, while the spines widen the hole. The much larger edible Sea-urchins live down on rocky shores. It is only uncovered at spring tides, when the low water mark reaches its lowest point; but the slightly conical  empty test may be found higher up the beach. The tests are a colorful reddish brown and are often sold as souvenirs. 

 

Sea Potato

This Sea-urchin is also known as the heart-urchin because of its fragile heart shaped test. It differs from other Sea-urchins in that it lives in burrows on sandy shores near the low tide level. Like many animals in this habitat, the sea potato burrows to find somewhere to live and to exploit its food source in the sand, as well as protecting itself against the drying effects of the sun and wind, or the force of the waves. 

A group of spines on the underside near the mouth which are longer and spoon-shaped are specifically for digging down into the sand. A star-shaped depression on the surface shows where a heart-urchin has recently burrowed. Once underground it feeds with the use of special tube-feet and collects and grains from the burrow floor. Spines around the mouth then scrape off the food particles. 

Non-Mating

Like several animals, Sea-urchins do not mate but shed their eggs and sperm into the sea (groups of sea potatoes gather together to help ensure the maximum numbers of eggs are fertilized). Spawning takes place in spring and the fertilized eggs develop into minute rounded larvae, with four arms that stick out and up. The larvae float among the plankton, later settling on the seabed to transform into adults.

Note:

The green sea-urchin if often found under stones or seaweed on the parts of the shore that are covered by the tide lower shore. Green Sea-urchins (Psammechinus miliaris) greenish test up to 4cm across violet spines 15mm long. 

Source: Charismatic Planet

Percy Harvin traded to New York Jets for conditional draft pick, per report

The New York Jets have acquired receiver/returner Percy Harvin from the Seattle Seahawks for a conditional draft pick, according to Jay Glazer of FOX Sports. Harvin has been injury-prone throughout his career but has played in all five of Seattle's games this season.

For the Seahawks, this move is stunning. Seattle has designs on becoming the first team to repeat as Super Bowl champions since the 2004 New England Patriots, and it just traded one of its best playmakers for a future pick. Harvin has 133 receiving yards, ranking third on the team, but has also added 283 return and 92 rushing yards so far.

The trade ends the Harvin era in Seattle, which saw him play in a total of six regular season games and two postseason games over two years. Harvin had a big impact in the Super Bowl, scoring on a kickoff return to begin the second half.

To acquire Harvin before the 2013 season, general manager John Schneider dealt first- and seventh-round picks to the Minnesota Vikings along with a third-round selection in 2014. Schneider received a conditional pick in return from the Jets, making this move a net loss in terms of draft picks and money.

iOS 8.1 Problems Frustrating iPhone Users

While the iOS 8.1 releases brings fixes for several iOS 8 problems, it appears that the update has delivered some new problems of its own as iPhone and iPad users are struggling with assorted iOS 8.1 problems just a day after the update’s arrival. In late September, just a few weeks after iOS 8.0 came out of the beta program, Apple released iOS 8.1 beta. Apple did not attach a public iOS 8.1 release date to the beta leaving consumers wondering when the update would arrive. iPhone and iPad users had put great importance on iOS 8.1 release due to a number of iOS 8.0 issues and iOS 8.0.2 issues on board Apple’s iOS 8 update.

Last week, Apple announced a public iOS 8.1 release date, confirming the update for Monday, October 20th. Yesterday, as promised, Apple released the iOS 8.1 update for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. The update, as expected is a sizable update that not only includes support for Apple Pay but comes packed with an assortment of tweaks and changes that are meant to improve Apple’s new iOS 8 update.

As we have discovered, the iOS 8.1 update’s fixes do tackle some of the iOS 8 problems that plagued iPhone and iPad users for several weeks. The iOS 8.1 update eradicated an issue wherein the iPhone would get stuck in landscape mode and it also squashed an iOS 8 bug that caused read iMessages to be labeled as unread. We’ve taken a deep dive into the iOS 8.1 update and while our experiences have been mostly positive, it looks like the update has delivered iOS 8.1 problems to iPhone and iPad users.

iPhone and iPad users on iOS 8.1 are reporting a number of iOS 8.1 problems that appear to be affecting the overall performance of their device. Apple’s discussion forums are flooded with complaints about the new iOS 8.1 update and problems range from installation issues to Bluetooth issues to random freezes and slow down. Numerous iPhone and iPad users are complaining about assorted installation issues that have prevented them from getting the iOS 8.1 update installed on their device. These issues are different than the server issues that we encountered in the minutes after the iOS 8.1 release yesterday. iPhone and iPad users say that their installations have stopped abruptly during the process. Fortunately, there is a fix for these issues, one that we relayed yesterday.

Unfortunately, many of the iOS 8.1 issues being reported don’t have permanent cure-all fixes. iPhone 5s users are reporting random reboots after iOS 8.1. An iPhone 5 user told us that his iMessages stopped sending immediately after installing the iOS 8.1 update. We’re also hearing about Wi-Fi issues including Wi-Fi speeds seemingly being throttled on the iPhone 5s and iPhone 6 and erratic connection speeds. Those’re just the tip of the iceberg.

iOS 8.1 users also say that they aren’t able to move their mail into the trash, assorted Apple Pay problems, Bluetooth issues, Airdrop issues, problems with iOS 8.1’s hotspot feature, random stability issues in Safari, Bluetooth issues in the car, issues opening files in Mail, Spotlight suggestion problems, and a whole lot more.

Specific of those aforementioned threads contain temporary fixes, several of them do not. And while we do not have fixes for all of these issues, we do have some fixes for some of the most common iOS 8 problems found on the iPhone and iPad. These fixes apply to iOS 8.0, iOS 8.0.2 and they also should work for iPhone and iPad users that

are running the iOS 8.1 update. For now, iPhone and iPad users will need to rely on these unofficial fixes for answers to their iOS 8 problems. Apple hasn’t announced any new iOS 8 updates and it hasn’t dropped any new updates inside its beta program.

We haven’t seen any iOS 8.1.1 pickup in our analytics either which suggests that a release isn’t imminent. We’re going to continue to dig into Apple’s latest update over the next week as iOS 8.1 problems remain to emerge. Apple’s rumored to have two new iOS 8 updates up its sleeve for 2015 including an iOS 8.2 update and an iOS 8.3 update. Neither update has made an official appearance nor does it be still not clear what will be next for iPhone and iPad users running iOS 8.1.

Source! Gottabemobile.com