Tag Archives: David Smith

Zazel Performed First Human Cannonball On April 10, 1877 In London

April 10, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

On April 10, 1877, a 14-year-old acrobat performed the first human cannonball ever in London.

According to the Sun, Rossa Matilda Richter, better known by her stage name, Zazel, was successfully launched from a spring-loaded gun in front of a live audience at the Royal Aquarium, achieving 6.1 meters in distance. She would later go on to perform in P.T. Barnum’s circus.

Since then, the stunt has been attempted to varying degrees of success by countless individuals. According to Guinness, the world record for the longest flight by a human cannonball was set by American daredevil David Smith, Jr., who catapulted 59.05 meters in Milan in 2011.

Former BBC driver charged with sex offenses

April 3, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

British police say they have charged a former BBC driver with sexual offenses following an investigation triggered by sex crime allegations against late entertainer Jimmy Savile.

Scotland Yard said Wednesday that 66-year-old David Smith is accused of five offenses including indecent assault and sex with a boy under 16 years old. The alleged offenses took place in the 1980s.

Smith is the first person to be charged under Operation Yewtree, a national police investigation launched after revelations that Savile targeted hundreds of young victims over five decades. The entertainer died in 2011 at age 84.

The BBC says it employed Smith, but it is not clear whether he knew Savile or whether the alleged offenses were related to his work for the broadcaster.

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Accenture Acquires ChangeTrack Research to Bring Predictive Analytics to the Management of Complex C

April 2, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

Filed under: Investing

Accenture Acquires ChangeTrack Research to Bring Predictive Analytics to the Management of Complex Change Programs

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)– To help its clients better measure and monitor the progress of their change programs, Accenture (NYS: ACN) has acquired ChangeTrack Research Pty Ltd, a provider of analytics-based tools and services for change management. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Among ChangeTrack Research’s solutions is ChangeTracking®, a patented analytics tool based on 10 years of research and advanced mathematical algorithms, that has defined successful pathways for change management. ChangeTracking® collects data on people and processes associated with a change program, benchmarks progress and uses predictive analytics to identify where corrective action is needed. The acquisition complements Accenture’s suite of methods, tools and capabilities to help its clients achieve the goals of their most significant organizational transformations.

“Organizations often struggle to implement change programs on time and on budget as markets evolve at an accelerating pace,” said David Smith, senior managing director – Accenture Talent & Organization. “ChangeTrack Research’s insight-driven tools will enhance our ability to help our clients manage change with greater precision and more predictable results.”

“This acquisition brings together the powerful combination of ChangeTrack Research’s analytical approaches to managing change with Accenture’s deep expertise delivering large-scale transformation programs for global clients,” said Warren Parry, CEO—ChangeTrack Research.

ChangeTrack Research is headquartered in Sydney, Australia.

About Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with approximately 261,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$27.9 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2012. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

About ChangeTrack Research

ChangeTrack Research is a provider of analytics-based tools and services to track and measure enterprise-wide transformational change programs. Based on 10 years of research and advanced mathematical algorithms, the company’s ChangeTracking® is a patented analytical tool that has defined successful pathways for change from a database of over 600,000 change journeys. ChangeTracking enables leaders of global organizations to see whether change programs are on track and take the corrective …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Video Gaming

Sony EU fined £250k for 2011 PSN Hack

January 24, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has been fined £250,000 for 2011’s PlayStation Network breach by the UK Information Commissioners Office.

ICO is an independent authority tasked with looking after the information rights of the public. David Smith, deputy commisioner and director of Data Protection at ICO said that Sony “let everybody down”, and that it was “the most serious breach we have had reported to us.” ICO‘s report “found that the attack could have been prevented if the software had been up-to-date, while technical developments also meant passwords were not secure.”

The PSN was hacked occurred between 17-19 April, with Sony forced to shut down the service on April 20. The outage lasted for 24 days in total, with personal information being taken from the 77 million accounts.

Source: FULL ARTICLE at IGN Video Games

News, Politics, Government

NASA Uses Lasers To Send The Mona Lisa To The Moon

January 19, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By Alex Knapp, Forbes Staff NASA scientists successful beamed an image of the Mona Lisa to the Moon using lasers. After centuries, we finally know why Mona Lisa is smiling the way she does in da Vinci’s famous painting. It’s because she’s the first woman to make it to the Moon. Scientists at NASA decided to test their ability to communicate via laser to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) by sending an image of the famous painting. NASA already uses lasers to keep track of the LRO‘s location, and were able to piggyback the Mona Lisa on top of the same tracking communication. This marks the longest one-way communication via laser, as the light made its way across the 240,000 miles between the Earth and Moon. “This is the first time anyone has achieved one-way laser communication at planetary distances,” said lead scientist David Smith in a press release. “In the near future, this type of simple laser communication might serve as a backup for the radio communication that satellites use. In the more distant future, it may allow communication at higher data rates than present radio links can provide.” Having demonstrated the success of the transmission, NASA will considering using laser communications with its next major Lunar mission. “This pathfinding achievement sets the stage for the Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration (LLCD), a high data rate laser-communication demonstrations that will be a central feature of NASA‘s next moon mission, the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE),” says Goddard’s Richard Vondrak in the release. I’m guessing that this is something that da Vinci would have been thrilled to see if he were still around. NASA has a video of the experiment, which you can see here:
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

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