Early in December, North Carolina chicken farmer J. Craig Watts blew the whistle on the poultry industry, revealing what it looks like inside the chicken breeding houses for Perdue Farms, the third largest poultry producer in the US. In the process, Watts revealed how meaningless terms like “natural,” “humanely raised,” “organic,” and “cage-free” are.

In a recent AMA on Reddit, Watts was asked this pointed question: “They’re just chickens,” user Warlizard asked. “What does it matter how they’re raised when we’re going to eat them anyways."

Here’s what Watts had to say:

Well, it does matter. If you’ve been paying attention to the news. There’s a lot of issues with food born illness with poultry. These chickens come loaded with salmonella, e coli and staff [sic]. Even if you don’t care about welfare, they’re getting sick because of the ways they’re raised. And that everyone should care about … How you treat your animals reveals your true character.

In the AMA, Watts responded to accusations that his farm, which Compassion in World Farming depicted in a video, does not represent the majority of poultry farms.

"To that, I say check my record,” Watts said. "Check how I performed in the tournament system [how Perdue judges their farmers] … Or call Perdue and ask them. For the flock filmed in the video, I was THE top producer. Obviously they didn’t see anything wrong with what I was doing. I’ve never been on any disciplinary program in 22 years. This was my first welfare audit in 22 years."

Many farmers would love to speak out against the industry but are worried about their job security, according to Watts.

“I would say 80% would want to speak out. That’s conservative. I don’t know one farmer who is happy. And I know a lot. If there is one, I would love to talk them. I could use a little good news,” Watts wrote.

By the end of the AMA, many Redditors wondered how to improve the current poultry system. Watts says it all comes down to poultry companies becoming more transparent and farmers gaining more control over their farms. Watts went on to explain that in order to improve the welfare of chickens, producers must stop using chickens that are “genetically bred” to grow at absurd rates.

Change won’t come from governments or farmers by themselves, which have little incentive to reform, according to Watts.

“The only way is for the public to make [sic] apply the pressure,” wrote Watts.

SEE ALSO: Perdue Farmer Reveals How Bad Life Is For His 'Humanely Raised' Chickens

Join the conversation about this story »

Suppose you traveled back in time and stopped your grandparents from ever meeting.

This would create a paradox since you never would have been born if your grandparents never met. You've prevented your later birth, so you shouldn't exist anymore.

This is called the "Grandfather Paradox," and it's an infamous one among physicists.

Even though Einstein's famous theory of general relativity actually allows for time travel, the Grandfather Paradox gets in the way. According to Einstein, a gravitational field with enough force (like the one generated by a black hole) could bend space-time enough to fold it back on itself.

This bending could create a path through space-time that returns to its original starting position, but at an earlier moment in time. It's essentially a time-travel loop. Physicists call it a closed time-like curve, or CTC.

CTCs frustrate physicists because they come with all kinds of paradoxes, like the Grandfather Paradox. If you entered a CTC, traveled back in time and stopped your grandparents from meeting, you would never come back out of that CTC. The principles of cause and effect collapse.

Einstein's predicted CTCs are part of our conventional understanding of physics, but could never allow for time travel without a paradox.

Enter quantum mechanics.

While Einstein's general relativity describes the macro world, like planets and galaxies, quantum mechanics describes the micro world of things like atoms and particles. The two sets of laws do not get along well, and physicists are still working on reconciling them.

The math behind quantum mechanics suggests that time travel through a CTC is not only possible, but could be done without creating any paradoxes. So while a person (a macro object) can't time travel without creating a paradox, something much smaller, like a single particle (a micro object), could.

Back in the 1990s, theoretical physicist David Deutsch was the first person to realize this, and he figured out a way to get around the paradox.

In the world of quantum mechanics, the rules are a lot more fuzzy than conventional physics. If a quantum particle, like a photon or an electron, entered one of these time travel loops, it would have to emerge on the other side as that same identical particle. But when a quantum particle enters a CTC, there's no set outcome, only a spread of probabilities that the particle will emerge or not. So a particle that enters a CTC with a 50% chance of coming back out will only fail to make it back out of the CTC half the time. It's a crazy solution, but that 50/50 chance is good enough to solve the paradox according to the laws of quantum mechanics.

No one has discovered a CTC or successfully built one, so time travel is still not possible. But physicists at the University of Queensland in Australia have built a system that can mimic how a quantum particle would behave if it passed through a CTC and interacted with a younger version of its self. They've effectively built a time machine simulator.

The team of physicists simulated a particle traveling through a CTC by firing pairs of entangled light particles through a circuit. Entangled particles are created from the same parent particle, so they are identical to each other and any force that acts on one immediately affects the other. The entangled particles passed through a circuit and hit a polarized beam splitter that broke them apart so they could interact with each other. Think of it has you meeting the younger version of yourself right at the entrance to a time travel loop.

The physicists encoded the polarization of each particle pair they tested before sending it through the time machine simulator, so the polarization of any particles that emerged could be measured and compared to the original to make sure it was in fact the same particle.

So what happened when the simulated past and present versions of the particle met each other? The interaction was paradox-free, and the quantum particles came out of the mock time machine in exactly the same way they entered it.

Time travel isn't possible yet, but this simulation means it could be. The experiment also fit both the laws of general relativity and quantum mechanics, demonstrating that the two bodies of law could actually be compatible.

SEE ALSO: Scientists Come Up Empty-Handed After Online Search For Time Travelers From The Future

Join the conversation about this story »

There are more than a million iPhone apps out there, so it can be hard to find the ones truly worth using.

But we can tell you this: most of the best apps are completely free.

Whether you just bought a new iPhone or you're simply looking for something new, here are some essential free apps you should download today. 

Evernote is a digital notebook that helps you remember everything.

Evernote allows you to create your own digital collection of notes, photos, web pages, audio clips, and more. And, once you add something to your notebook, Evernote indexes it so that you can search for it through the app or on your desktop. It's a great productivity tool — our own Nicholas Carlson even used it to write a 93,000-word book about Yahoo. 

If you're a music, podcast, or audio book junkie, SoundCloud is a must.

SoundCloud isn't just another music service — it allows you to discover new songs, podcasts, and any other type of audio. The Explore tab shows you which podcasts and tracks are currently trending. If you want one single app for listening to podcasts, books, and music, this is it. 

Pandora gives you free personalized radio stations.

Pandora allows you to build personalized radio stations based on your favorite artists or music genres. You can stream music on your phone for free, unlike Spotify which requires a $9.99 monthly subscription. You can sign up for the ad-free version, Pandora One, for $4.99 per month. And, if you hear a song you like, you can buy it directly from within the app. 

In just about every survey of the best place to work, Google ranks at the top. Its epic list of perks, great pay, stock price, moonshot projects all make it so.

When reporting its fourth quarter earnings on Thursday, (which missed EPS and revenue expectations a bit), CFO Patrick Pichette emphasized that the company was looking for growth in all areas.

Although it grew its workforce by over 5,800 people over the year, an analyst on the quarterly conference call asked why it wasn't hiring at an even faster rate:

Carlos Kirjner of Bernstein Research (who famously set a $1,000 target for Google's stock in 2013) asked:

You hired 2,000 people this quarter versus 1,700 in the same quarter last year, which is a 22% increase, but Google management talks a lot opportunities in front of the business. If that's the case, why aren't you hiring more people? Can you tell us the specific constraints that you put on yourself that prevents you from hiring 3,000 people this quarter instead of 2,000?

Short answer: Google can't find that many people that meets its tough requirements, particularly leaders. And, even if it did, it doesn't want to dilute the culture by adding too many at once.

Long answer:

Google's big hiring quarter tends to be the third quarter, not the fourth, Pichette says, because that's when it gets an influx of college grads. "So we actually decelerated from the third quarter as well. We just have a very high bar for hiring. If you can pass the bar, we hire you," he says.

But there's more to it than that. "We also have capacity constraints on leadership," Pichette explained. "There's a natural kind of number that you kind of can absorb within the culture of Google. It's really important not to lose that culture. There's no sense bringing in 5,000 people that we couldn't bring into the teams and really make them 'perform-ant.'"

So, he says Google has a plan for hiring, a target number of people that it hires for each business in the company.

"And from there, the next hurdle is really, can we find these people? And making sure we keep a balance of bringing in [new hires] at a reasonable pace so we can absorb them into the culture. It’s actually a really complex puzzle. It's never perfect but we're managing it the best we can,” he says.

What that really means is that getting a job offer from Google takes two things: exceptionalism and timing.

Here's what Google said about its headcount in its last two fourth-quarter earnings reports:

From 2014: On a worldwide basis, we employed 53,600 full-time employees as of December 31, 2014, compared to 51,564 full-time employees as of September 30, 2014.

From 2013: On a worldwide basis, we employed 47,756 full-time employees (43,862 in Google and 3,894 in Motorola Mobile) as of December 31, 2013, compared to 46,421 full-time employees (42,162 in Google and 4,259 in Motorola Mobile) as of September 30, 2013.

SEE ALSO: Google Employee Explains Why Working At Google Is So Great

Join the conversation about this story »

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain kicked protesters out of his budget hearing Thursday, calling them "low-life scum."

The upheaval came after members of an anti-war group calling itself Code Pink approached the witness table, where former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger, Madeleine Albright and George P. Shultz were testifying.

The protesters carried signs calling Kissinger, 91, a war criminal.

"Get out of here, you low-life scum," McCain said.

Capitol Police removed the protesters from the room. The hearing was the third in a series in which the Arizona Republican has called luminaries from the foreign policy world to share their experiences with the panel.

Produced by Jason Gains. Video courtesy of Associated Press.

Follow BI Video:On Facebook

Join the conversation about this story »

In the past year, Amazon has beefed up its hiring by 31% to 154,100 employees, when you factor in both full-time and part-time workers (not contract or seasonal workers).

Of course, Amazon has a famously huge workforce in its warehouse fulfillment centers.

But lately, it's been turning to robots instead of humans for help there.

The company employs more 15,000 robots. In its earnings report it said: 

Amazon unveiled its 8th generation fulfillment center which utilizes robotics, vision systems, and almost 20 years worth of software and mechanical innovations to fulfill customer orders. During the holiday season, the fulfillment network included more than 15,000 robots in 10 fulfillment centers across the U.S.

These are from the robotics company, Kiva Systems, Amazon bought for $775 million in 2012.

Amazon's headcount again exceeded Microsoft, one of the other huge employers in Seattle. Amazon became a bigger employer in late 2013. But just for kicks we looked it up. After the layoffs, Microsoft is at nearly 123,000 employees, although it doesn't have the kind of part-time warehouse staff that Amazon uses.

And as far as robots, it doesn't look as if Microsoft employs many of them, either. It shut down its robotics group, a unit developing robotic tech, in September as part of its restructuring. 

And although Bill Gates believes that robots are going to be a game-changing tech in every home like the PC was, he is also concerned at how many jobs will soon be lost to robots, too.

Here's what Amazon's latest Kiva robot factory workers look like in action:

 And here's the full video of the Kiva bots in action:

SEE ALSO: Bill Gates: People Don't Realize How Many Jobs Will Soon Be Replaced By Software Bots

Join the conversation about this story »

On Google's fourth-quarter earnings call today, a couple of analysts asked about the recent deal between Mozilla and Yahoo, which ousted Google from the default search box in the Firefox browser and replaced it with Yahoo Search instead.

Google doesn't seem very worried about it.

On the earnings call, CFO Patrick Pichette didn't comment on the specifics of the deal, but then followed up by saying:

Our users, they love Google, they'll continue to find Google. So that's what we're really focused on....The way to win in the long-term is to make wonderful products. When you make wonderful products that are magical, people will find them.

Later, in response to another question about Google's distribution deal with Apple for the iOS version of Safari, Pichette went into more detail:

Google has a lot of partnerships. It's an anchor of our strategy because it actually gives us distribution, distribution is good, and so we always look for more partnerships....But also at the end of the day there's a second piece of the strategy, which is, as I said earlier, building amazing products. Because if you build amazing products, people will want to distribute your products. That is why we have Amit [Singhal] and the whole search team that actually do this amazing job through the Knowledge Graph and all the other elements of search, and no matter the device, no matter the location, no matter the time of day, if we give you the answer you were looking for in 10 clicks less than it took before, even faster and better all the time, that's what wins.

Reading between the lines, he's saying that even if Google loses all its distribution partnerships, users will return to it anyway because it just gives better results. And Google will keep investing to make sure that's true.

There's some evidence to back this up. After the Yahoo-Mozilla deal, Google's share of paid clicks from Firefox fell from 61% to 49%. But within two weeks, it was back up to 53%.

In other words, a lot of Firefox users tried Yahoo Search, didn't like it as much, and went back to Google.

Join the conversation about this story »

Tech giants like Apple, Microsoft, and Google have tons of cash, but there's a catch: most of it is offshore.

That means they can either spend their cash abroad or bring it home and hand over up to 35% to Uncle Sam, according to Bloomberg.

Companies can defer paying taxes on revenue earned abroad, so there's not much incentive to bring it back to the states.

But Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Rand Paul (R-KY) announced a plan on Thursday that could have Silicon Valley grinning ear-to-ear.

The "Invest In Transportation Act," would create a repatriation tax holiday allowing companies to pay just 6.5% on cash they bring home — a huge discount.

The tax holiday would go towards the Highway Trust Fund, which pays for state and local infrastructure projects across the country.

The bill, which hasn't been introduced yet, stipulates that repatriated cash would have to go towards initiatives like R&D, public-private partnerships, and acquisitions. None of it could be used for executive compensation increases or stock buybacks.

The Boxer-Paul plan stems from Congress' opposition to raising the gas tax, which has traditionally gone towards the Highway Trust Fund.

Fuel-efficient cars and ballooning infrastructure costs have run the Highway Trust Fund dry. It will run out of money in May without Congressional action.

Though tech companies would love it, the idea of a tax holiday has already faced skepticism from Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Chair of the Senate Finance Committee.

“Tax holiday proposals designed to pay for the transportation bill sound great until you look at the details," Hatch said in a statement to The Hill.

This wouldn't be the first time Congress passed a repatriation tax holiday — in 2004, companies were able to bring overseas cash home and suffer only a 5.25% rate. However, a study by a congressional subcommittee found that the 15 companies who brought the most money home cut jobs and spent slightly less on R&D from 2004 through 2007.

SEE ALSO: 15 Mind-Blowing Facts About Apple's Latest Quarter

Join the conversation about this story »

Since the early days of the internet, entrepreneurs have dreamed of moving grocery shopping online. It's finally starting to happen. 

We've created these slides to preview our report on how e-commerce is finally beginning to carve up the groceries market, the biggest untapped e-commerce opportunity. Americans spend $600 billion a year on groceries, the largest retail category by far. Less than 1% of those sales occur online. Same-day delivery services, specialty grocers, and meal-preparation businesses will drive fast growth in online groceries — much faster rate than offline.  

BI Intelligence is a research and analysis service focused on e-commerce, mobile computing, digital media, and payments. Only subscribers can download the full report on e-commerce groceries as well as the individual charts and datasets in Excel, along with the PowerPoint version of this deck. Please sign up for a trial membership here.

Earlier today, I read Steve Kovach's post on Microsoft's new Outlook email app for iOS. 

To put it mildly, he was a fan, raving about the app's sync capabilities and ease of use. He even went so far as to say that he deleted his Gmail app after just five minutes of using Microsoft's new little slice of app heaven.

I was skeptical. Generally, the thoughts that come to mind when I find out Microsoft is making a new product can mostly be summed up in "disappointed" and "shrug" emojis.

Rarely, however, do I see Steve Kovach so revved up himself about such a product — so I decided to give it a shot.

Close the book. I'm calling this one for Microsoft ... by a landslide.

This app is so good. I too have made the admittedly simple decision to send my iOS Gmail app spiraling back into the App Store whence it came.

Here's why the Outlook app crushes Gmail:

It's WAY WAY faster.

My Gmail app for iOS has gotten ridiculously slow over the past year. Not to mention very buggy. It takes forever to open (oh, those mesmerizing circles endlessly folding over each other), and often takes what seem like eons to switch between accounts, enter settings, and to do just about anything else.

Why bother? Because with the Gmail app you have an app native to its provider. That gives you easy archive access and none of those IMAP sync problems you often get with built in email clients like Apple's own Mail app.

Forget all of this nonsense in the Outlook app. This thing is fast as can be. Switching between accounts, selecting messages, moving them — this is all incredibly fast and easy.

Here's what the Inbox looks like:

The speed may be reason alone to shift, but there are plenty more.

For example, it integrates your Gmail calendar perfectly. In fact it may be the slickest way to manage your calendar on iOS altogether.

If you want to attach a file to an email, Outlook boasts seamless compatibility with Google Drive, OneDrive and Dropbox.

Similar to the popular Mailbox app for iOS, you can swipe messages left or right to perform certain actions on messages and get them out of your hair momentarily. Swipe right to archive, and swipe left to schedule. And once you do swipe left, you have some options:

I also find that I enjoy the back-to-basics preview window view for messages. The Gmail app has this but it's not as intuitive, as you can swipe it away and return to your inbox list. That sounds good, but the app is so slow and inefficient that it's just confusing in the end. This simpler approach just makes for a better experience.

There's also a tab on the bottom called "People" which is simple but makes so much sense! Gmail can't compete with this. You click it, and there are your contacts, with recent selections first. A simple concept, but one that's ignored in other apps.

In the end, it's really the speed and load efficiency that tips the scale to Outlook, but the comparison is not even close.

If you've been frustrated with using the Gmail app on iPhone, Microsoft has your solution, download it now.

SEE ALSO: The 10 Things We're Most Excited To See From Microsoft This Year

Join the conversation about this story »

You don't need a multi-million dollar budget to make a hit movie.

That's the lesson from "Tangerine," a film at this year's Sundance Film Festival shot entirely with an iPhone 5S.

The movie follows Sin-Dee, a transgender prostitute who teams up with her friend Alexandra on a journey through Los Angeles after she realizes her pimp boyfriend was unfaithful to her while she was in jail.

Director Sean Baker used an iPhone, a lens adapter from Moondog Labs, an $8 app called Filmic Pro, and some external audio equipment to shoot "Tangerine,"according to No Film School.

Shooting a feature-film with a smartphone is empowering. It's unclear why Baker chose an iPhone 5S instead of a 6 or 6 Plus, but we look forward to more movies like this one.

You can find more info on "Tangerine" screenings here.

SEE ALSO: Here's What The iPhone 7 Might Look Like

Join the conversation about this story »

Washington (AFP) - A combative US President Barack Obama unveiled plans to increase government spending, in defiance of his Republican opponents controlling Congress.

Rolling out budget proposals for the coming year that would increase spending by $74 billion above an agreed cap, Obama challenged newly empowered Republicans to back measures designed to help the middle class.

Visiting Philadelphia to address Democratic lawmakers, Obama made a plea to end what the White House has dubbed "manufactured crises and mindless austerity" prompted by automated budget cuts, the so-called sequester.

The limits came into effect in 2013 after Democrats and Republicans were unable to reach a deal on cutting the deficit. If fully enacted they would cut spending by around $1 trillion by 2021.

Obama's plan would increase spending by $74 billion -- about seven percent above the level set by the cap -- with extra cash split roughly equally between defense and non-defense spending.

Some $530 billion would be spent on "non-defense discretionary" spending, an increase of $37 billion over the cap, and $561 billion would be used for defense spending, $38 billion over the cap.

Obama's full budget will be released on Monday but, with his Republican opponents in control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, it is likely to face stiff opposition.

But Obama did not appear ready to shirk from the fight Thursday, mocking Republican lawmakers for changing their rhetoric ahead of a 2016 general election.

Obama even took a shot at Mitt Romney, the Republican he beat in 2012 and who looks likely to run again.

"We have a former presidential candidate on the other side who suddenly is just deeply concerned about poverty, that's great! Let's go, let's do something about it."

- Pushback -

But beyond the political grandstanding Obama will have an uphill struggle to pass his plans.

"I don't think there's going to be a lot of support for going back on the commitments we made to reduce spending," Republican Senator John Thune told AFP Thursday.

"It's going to be very hard to feature a scenario where Republicans on Capitol Hill are going to go along with some of the president's recommendations to increase spending."

Republicans have been split on the cuts, with divisions emerging between those who want to dramatically slash all government and those who are staunchly supportive of military spending.

"Republicans are concerned about the impact of the sequester on the military budget," Thune acknowledged.

"The military is an area where there probably is bipartisan agreement that we've got to do better."

Still, the White House recognized that its proposals were just a starting point.

"There is a Republican majority in Congress they will have a chance to put forward their own ideas," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.

"This is the beginning of a negotiation, but it is important. Budgets are important because they are a way that we can codify our values and our priorities."

Obama has also proposed closing tax loopholes, using the money to help fund infrastructure spending and research into antibiotic resistant bacteria and precision medicine.

Republicans are likely to paint that as a tax increase, something many have vowed to oppose.

Obama also outlined proposals mentioned in his recent State of the Union address, namely guaranteeing paid sick leave and making community college free for some students.

Join the conversation about this story »

Tiger Woods started his 2015 season Thursday at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. 

It wasn't pretty. He shot a +2, 73, his worst ever season-opening round. That puts him tied at 104, out of a field 132. 

The reason Woods posted an ugly number is that he struggled to hit fairways, struggled to hit greens, and his short game was shockingly bad. His lag putting was pretty good though!

After his round, Golf Channel zeroed in on his short game, which was abysmal. Woods, at his peak, had an incredible touch around the greens. But now, he's got the "yips," said Aaron Oberholser on Golf Channel. "It's flat-out the disease," said Oberholser.

Brandel Chamblee, the lead analyst for Golf Channel, didn't mince words about Woods' problems:

The issues around the greens, this is an issue that I've never really seen anybody fully recover from. And those that came to his defense at Isleworth [where he last played] talked about the difficult turf conditions. These are some of the most friendly turf conditions that the players will face all year long and Tiger Woods was as bad, not as I've ever seen him, not as bad as I've ever seen another tour pro, the worst I've ever seen a tour pro around the greens and it is a long way from there to playing competitive golf again. 

Why is Woods struggling with his short game? He blames his most recent swing change. 

Late last year, Woods changed his coach yet again, and is going back to the future with his swing. He's trying to recreate his swing from when he was younger. This new old swing is more shallow than his previous swing, and so he says he's having trouble adjusting.

"I'm just having a hard time finding the bottom," said Woods after his round. "Because of my old pattern, I was so steep on it, I have a new grind on my wedge and it's sometimes hard to trust and this is a similar grind to what I used to use in the early 2000s, but it's a different grind. But some of the shots were into the grain with tight, tight pins and either I would flop it or I would bump it, and I chose to bump it."

That quote is, frankly, mostly nonsense. Woods is the greatest golfer in history with one of the best short games ever. Five years ago, he would be able to get the ball close with just about any wedge, regardless of its grind. But, golf is a mental game, and if Woods needs to tell himself this stuff, then so be it.

Woods missed almost all of 2014 with a back injury, so it's unrealistic to expect him to be contending in his first tournament. 

The short game is a real concern, but other parts of his game showed some promise. He was +5 after 12 holes, but managed to shoot -3 to close it out. His driving improved toward the end of the round, which made things easier. (He drove the green of the 340-yard par 4 17th hole.)

He goes out early on Friday and will have to post a good score to make the cut. He needs to make the cut because Woods needs as many tournament rounds as possible to get comfortable with his new swing. If he's sitting at home Saturday and Sunday, that does him no good.

Join the conversation about this story »

Sydney (AFP) - Australia's football body reeled from shock revelations about a movement to oust it from the Asian confederation on Friday as the Socceroos prepared to play the Asian Cup final.

The head of Australian football said he was "extremely surprised" after Asia's soccer chief said some countries want Australia out and advised them to raise the issue formally.

Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, president of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), told the Arabic-language Al Ittihad newspaper there was discontent about Australia in the Gulf region and more widely.

"Yes, it is true there are indications that there is a desire among West Asian federations to kick Australia out," the Bahraini royal was quoted as saying.

"But I also know that the Arabs are not the only ones who are not convinced of the usefulness of the continuation of Australia in Asia."

Shaikh Salman also referred to Australia's presence as an "experiment". An AFC spokesman declined to comment on the report, which comes as the Socceroos prepare to play Saturday's Asian Cup final against South Korea in Sydney.

Australia joined the AFC in 2006 and its teams have enjoyed success, qualifying for two straight World Cups and two Asian Cup finals, and winning the Champions League club showpiece last year.

Australia also won the Women's Asian Cup in 2010. Victory on Saturday would make Australia the first country to hold both the Asian Cup and the Champions League titles.

But their presence also appears to have caused disquiet with other nations missing out on a World Cup spot and other honours. 

As examples, Western Sydney Wanderers beat Saudi Arabia's Al Hilal in the Champions League final, and the Socceroos ousted UAE in the Asian Cup semi-finals.

- 'Experiment' -

The issue could come to a head at the AFC Congress expected in Kuala Lumpur in May, when Shaikh Salman will seek re-election. He was first elected in 2013 by a landslide.

"This decision (Australia joining the AFC) was made years ago, before my arrival to the presidency of the AFC," Shaikh Salman was quoted as saying. 

"At that time there were no conditions talking about the AFC Congress's assessment of the experiment to see whether Australia will stay in Asia or not."

He added: "There are other Asian associations in different regions of the continent that see the need of disengagement between us and Australia.

"Therefore we can't just monitor the feedbacks or statements, but the movement and the decision should be from within the AFC Congress, because it's the authority that can make the decision of reconsidering Australia joining Asia or any other decision."

Football Federation Australia chief executive David Gallop expressed surprise over the comments, which come at the end of an Asian Cup described within the AFC as the best yet.

"We were extremely surprised to hear of these press reports from west Asia," Gallop told Fairfax newspapers. 

"We are newcomers to AFC but our commitment to participate in competitions, membership of important AFC committees and general sharing of ideas and programs increases every year.

"We celebrate the diversity of the Asian region and this tournament has shown our contribution can go beyond football to create and foster social and political bridges between key trading partners in the region."

Star forward Tim Cahill also defended Australia's contribution, with the Asian Cup's total attendance set to touch 650,000 over 32 games in five cities. 

"Politically for us I think we've brought a lot (to Asia)," Cahill told reporters. "If you look at all the nations that's come to Australia and every stadium that we've filled together. 

"The multi-culturalism that we have in this country and the way we've embraced football I feel is very important for the growth of the game.

"But I feel that being Australian and being who we are will always help to grow the game any country we play regardless of AFC or Europe or wherever it may be."

Join the conversation about this story »

Hand modeling is big business. The models are featured in multi-million dollar ad campaigns, and their mitts are insured for large figures. They can see their hands on massive billboards and in TV commercials.

Alex Holder, part of the creative team of Oli+Alex, says he has always been intrigued by the people attached to these famous hands. "I’m an Advertising Creative, and after spending lots of time on sets with hand and feet models, I became fascinated with this strange industry.  How did they become hand models? Were they ‘spotted’? Do they become affected by the job?" he says.

So, along with his creative partner Oli Kellett, the two set out to meet, interview, and photograph some of the world's hand models. The models' stories surprised them.

"Nina is a hand supermodel and is Kate Moss’s hand double — she moisturizes her hands about 30 times a day," said Holder. "One of the models had to be taken off the books for a year as they had a wart."

Oli+Alex shared more of the hand models' interviews with us, along with their portraits. You can see more cool stuff on their site.

Guilia: "I stand in for little boys hands, so if you see someone playing with a Power Ranger model on TV, it’s probably me."

Adnan: "I’m the only double-jointed, Middle Eastern hand model on my agency's books."

Nina: "I never thought I’d become a hand supermodel and that [my hands] would be insured for a seven-figure sum."

Scottsdale (United States) (AFP) - Tiger Woods admitted it had been "a grind" after he labored to a 73 in the opening round of the Phoenix Open, his first full-field tournament of the season.

Ryan Palmer fired a seven-under 64 Thursday to lead the PGA Tour event at TPC Scottsdale, which is just down the road from where the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots will meet in Sunday's NFL Super Bowl spectacle.

But there was nothing spectacular about the form of former world number one Woods, who suffered a bad start and was left tied for 104th as play was suspended by darkness with nine players still on the course.

"Physically I am fine," said Woods, after starting his round with two bogeys, par, then double bogey. 

"Mentally I am tired from the grind of trying to piece together a round. It takes lot of energy to be able to fight back like that."

Major champions Keegan Bradley and Bubba Watson share second place at six-under. They were joined by Daniel Berger, who was through 16 holes of round one. Berger will complete his first round Friday morning.

Former Masters winner Zach Johnson carded a five-under 66. He was in fifth with Martin Laird, Robert Streb and Ben Martin.

Woods spent months recuperating from an ongoing back problem before taking part last month at the Hero World Challenge, his charity invitational event, in southern Florida. He shared last in a field of 18.

Woods is playing for the first time in an official event since last year's PGA Championship. He had back surgery last March.

Woods, a 14-time major winner, said he expects to have some off days while he adapts to changes in his swing that he hopes will eventually lead him back to his brilliant best.

"It is going to take a little time to get the feel of where my hands need to be during my swing and shaping shots," he said. "I have been through it before.

"It is a frustrating thing. I need to get into some competitive rounds and then I can start trusting it."

With Woods, the story is typically about his quest to match the career record of 18 major titles won by Jack Nicklaus. 

This was the first tournament for Woods since turning 39 and no player has won more than three majors beyond his 39th birthday.

Woods was coming to Phoenix, known for a loud and boisterous crowd, for the first time since 2001, when a fan tossed an orange onto the green while he was putting and another who heckled him was later found to have a gun.

Phil Mickelson, a three-time winner of this event, also started slowly as he was three-over par through six holes, but he carded five birdies over the final 11 holes for a two-under 69. He is in a large group tied for 29th.

Join the conversation about this story »

Riyadh (AFP) - Saudi Arabia's new King Salman  further cemented his hold on power, with a sweeping shakeup that saw two sons of the late King Abdullah fired, and the heads of intelligence and other key agencies replaced alongside a cabinet shuffle.

Top officials from the Ports Authority, the National Anti-Corruption Commission and the conservative Islamic kingdom's religious police were among those let go. 

The new appointments came a week after Salman acceded to the throne following the death of Abdullah, aged about 90.

Salman also reached out directly to his subjects on Thursday. One of his more than 30 decrees ordered "two months' basic salary to all Saudi government civil and military employees," the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said.

Students and pensioners got similar bonuses.

"Dear people: You deserve more and whatever I do will not be able to give you what you deserve," the king said later on his official Twitter account.

He asked his citizens to "not forget me in your prayers".

SPA said Salman "issued a royal order today, relieving Prince Khalid bin Bandar bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud, Chief of General Intelligence, of his post." 

General Khalid bin Ali bin Abdullah al-Humaidan became the new intelligence chief, holding cabinet rank.

The change comes after authorities in the kingdom last year blamed suspects linked to the Islamic State extremist group for shooting and wounding a Dane, and for gunning down minority Shiites.

A separate decree said Prince Bandar bin Sultan, a nephew of Abdullah, was removed from his posts as Secretary General of the National Security Council and adviser to the king.

Prince Bandar was the kingdom's ambassador to the United States for 22 years until 2005 before moving to Saudi Arabia's Security Council.

Two sons of the late monarch were also fired: Prince Mishaal, governor of the Mecca region, and Prince Turki, who governed the capital Riyadh, according to the decrees broadcast on Saudi television.

- Super-ministry -

Another of Abdullah's sons, Prince Miteb, retained his position as minister in charge of the National Guard, a parallel army of around 200,000 men.

Salman, 79, a half-brother of Abdullah, named a 31-member cabinet whose new faces include the ministers for culture and information, social affairs, civil service, and communications and information technology, among others.

Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi, Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, and Finance Minister Ibrahim al-Assaf stayed in the cabinet of the world's leading oil exporter.

A 50 percent fall in global oil prices since last June has left Saudi Arabia projecting its first budget deficit since 2011, but government spending is set to continue.

Salman merged the ministries of higher education and education, naming Azzam bin Mohammed al-Dakheel to head the super-ministry.

Saudi Arabia is trying to improve its basic education system and has built more universities as it seeks to diversify its oil-dependent economy.

Another decree replaced the chief of the country's stock market regulator, ahead of a mid-year target for opening the Arab world's largest bourse to foreign investors.

Hours after Abdullah died on January 23 Salman appointed his son, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as defence minister.

Powerful Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef became second in line to the throne, while Deputy Crown Prince Moqren, 69, was elevated to king-in-waiting.

Moqren would reign as the last son of the kingdom's founder, Abdul Aziz bin Saud, leaving bin Nayef as the first of the "second generation," or grandsons of Abdul Aziz.

In March 2014, King Abdullah named Moqren to the new position of deputy crown prince with the aim of smoothing succession hurdles.

The appointment of Prince Mohammed bin Nayef helps to solidify control by the new king's Sudayri branch of the royal family.

Their influence had waned under King Abdullah.

Regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Islam and home to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

Along with other countries in the Gulf, Saudi Arabia has joined a US-led air campaign against the Islamic State group that has seized parts of Syria and neighbouring Iraq.

Join the conversation about this story »

Los Angeles (AFP) - Notorious rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight was involved in a hit-and-run in Los Angeles that left one man dead and another person in the hospital, US media reported.

The co-founder of Death Row Records ran over two bystanders as he tried to flee a fight on a film set in the city of Compton in southern Los Angeles, Knight's attorney James Blatt told Entertainment Weekly.

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Ryan Rouzan told AFP there was a fatal traffic collision at 2:55 pm (2255 GMT), leaving one man dead and another person in the hospital. 

Rouzan could not immediately confirm reports Knight was involved.

Celebrity news website TMZ reported that witnesses said Knight was involved in a film shoot featuring rappers Ice Cube and Dr. Dre.

Ice Cube posted a picture on his Instagram account earlier Thursday saying that he was filming a commercial in Compton.

A fight broke out between Knight and two men, TMZ said, and Knight was trying to drive away as the incident occurred.

Knight co-founded Death Row Records along with hip-hop music king Dr. Dre in the early 1990s. 

The label helped launch stars such as Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur before it collapsed in 1996 when Knight was jailed for parole violations.

Knight was jailed after he violated a 1992 probation order by beating up a gang rival in the desert gambling city of Las Vegas.

He landed up in jail again, this time for 10 months, in 2003 after allegedly getting into a fight outside a Hollywood nightclub.

Knight was last year shot six times at a music awards party.

Join the conversation about this story »

Phoenix (AFP) - Tom Brady and the scandal-tainted New England Patriots will aim to strike a blow for the old order in Super Bowl 49 on Sunday as they face a formidable Seattle Seahawks team bidding to forge a dynasty.  

After a build-up dominated by the "deflategate" saga, the Patriots are determined to puncture the dreams of a Seahawks outfit chasing back-to-back Super Bowls for only the eighth time in history.

The last team to accomplish the feat were the Patriots, whose 2004-05 titles capped a glorious run of three wins in four seasons.

Brady piloted the Patriots to all of those victories, and now vies to join his boyhood idol Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw as starting quarterbacks with four Super Bowl rings.

But the game at University of Phoenix Stadium in suburban Glendale could just as easily see a passing of the torch, from old-guard Brady to rising star Russell Wilson.

The 26-year-old Seahawks signal-caller is now 10-0 in his career when he goes head-to-head against quarterbacks who have won a Super Bowl.

That includes the Seahawks' crushing victory over Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos in last year's title game.

Seattle have made some changes since then but they still boast an elite defense, led by their ferocious corps of defensive backs -- the Legion of Boom.

- Best defense ever? -

The Seahawks are the first team since the 1969-71 Minnesota Vikings to lead the NFL in scoring defense for three straight seasons -- lending credence to defensive end Michael Bennett's claim that Seattle now boasts the best defense "ever to play football."

A Super Bowl repeat would go a long way to further backing up the claim that the Seahawks "D" has surpassed Pittsburgh's famed "Steel Curtain" or the imposing squads of the 1980s Bears and 2000 Ravens.

"I am too young to be thinking about legacy right now," said Seattle safety Earl Thomas, "but sometimes you don't have to say anything because your work speaks for itself. We definitely have that on the table."

Brady is gearing up for the challenge.

"There is nothing easy about what they do," Brady said of the Seahawks defense. "They're very disciplined. They're very smart. They're very well-coached.

"You've got to run good routes, you've got to make good throws, you've got to throw it through tight windows.

"They've got a lot of eyes on the quarterback, so you've got to be conscious of those things. But you still have to be able to play aggressively and play with confidence."

- Dominance and controversy -

Brady and the Patriots, who suffered Super Bowl disappointment in 2008 and 2012, could yet secure their status as the league's dominant team for more than a decade -- despite the whiff of scandal carried by the 2007 "Spygate" illegal videotaping affair and the "Deflategate" controversy over improperly inflated footballs that followed them to Phoenix.

The Patriots, from coach Bill Belichick on down, have tried to set the matter aside this week and focus on the task in hand.

Brady's options have expanded this season with the return of a healthy Rob Gronkowski at tight end and the addition in November of productive running back LeGarrette Blount.

New England's defense this season has been bolstered by the return of safety Patrick Chung and the addition former Pro Bowl cornerbacks Darrelle Revis and Brandon Browner.

In addition to contending with the resourceful Wilson -- adept at throwing on the run and capable of significant gains on the ground, the Pats defense will have to find a way to slow down Marshawn Lynch, set career highs with 13 rushing and four receiving touchdowns to lead the league with 17 total TDs.

The contest promises to be a classic, and that's just what the NFL would like to see as they try to finish a season full of low notes on a high.

The disastrous handling of the Ravens' Ray Rice and his domestic violence case shone a spotlight on the league's failure to deal effectively with the issue among its players.

But come Sunday, when more than 100 million Americans are expected to tune into the game, it will be a celebratory spectacle that they see.

"When you think of dynasty at the beginning, you think of the Patriots back in the day," said Seahawks linebacker O'Brien Schofield. "They really set that standard of a winning tradition."

It's a standard Schofield is confident the Seahawks can meet.

"With the players that we have, there are so many guys that are playing at a high level, and they're so young. I think that when you find a great equation to win and all you're doing each year is just trying to get better yourself, to me, that's the true definition of a dynasty."

Join the conversation about this story »

Jishai Evers, a designer based in Amsterdam and Tel Aviv, spent three days going through six seasons of ABC's hit show "Shark Tank." He analyzed the results of 432 pitches to find out how the Sharks spent their money.

"I think the main takeaway is the fact that the bigger the team is, the higher your chances are to get an investment," Evers tells Business Insider.

Moreover, he was surprised to find that the Sharks have been equal opportunity investors. "White men are actually less likely to successfully pitch the Sharks, and minorities and women perform better than average."

Evers was also excited to find that women performed better than men as both single entrepreneurs and in teams. "I think Silicon Valley investors can learn a thing or two from the Sharks!" he says.

Evers created the below infographic from his data, which he originally published on his data visuals site dadaviz.

SEE ALSO: The 'Shark Tank' investors agree that this is the worst pitch they've seen on the show

Join the conversation about this story »