Arsene Wenger must stick or twist with Ozil

Arsenal were not expected to beat Bayern Munich. But circumstances can twist perspective, and as such regrets are had. Mesut Ozil might have a few. Over recent weeks the scrutiny on his performances has intensified, as if it were not already in sharp focus after becoming the club's record signing. It appears, as demonstrated by his timid penalty versus Bayern Munich (so rarely does that stop-start technique seem to work), that he is suffering from a crisis in confidence.

The infamous Arsenal tale of Andrei Arshavin's career, which initially blossomed then withered into the shadows, has been re-whispered, yet that is surely a lazy and hasty comparison to make. Ozil, aged 25 and

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How Facebook Can Supercharge WhatsApp

Just because WhatsApp will “operate independently” doesn’t mean Facebook won’t put its 6,000-employee muscle behind its new acquisition. We’ve heard a lot about how WhatsApp will save Facebook from losing the international messaging war, but sources close to the parent company tell me it actually did a lot to help Instagram. Here are the ways you can expect it to do the same for WhatsApp.

Engineering

Instagram CTO Mike Krieger apparently wasn’t sleeping much in months before his company was bought by Facebook. In two years, Instagram had grown to 27 million registered iOS users before launching on Android where it picked up 1 million more in the first 24 hours.

Krieger was known to spend late nights fighting server fires to keep Instagram from going down like the Hindenburg. With just a dozen total employees, he didn’t have much help.

 After the acquisition, Krieger could suddenly call on Facebook’s massive, world-class engineering team for help or guidance. When I saw him a few months after the deal, he’d regained his youthful glow and looked like he’d been sleeping more. Now imagine what life’s been like for WhatsApp co-founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton. I’m gonna go on a hunch and say “stressed”. 

Over the past few months their service grew to serve 450 million users with just 32 engineers, each one supporting 14 million people. In Forbes’ profile of Koum, Parmy Olson writes that during his often-missed kickboxing class “Every few minutes Koum sits down for a break, slipping the gloves off and checking for messages from Acton about WhatsApp’s servers.” Well lucky for them, the cavalry has arrived.

WhatsApp will be able to draw on Facebook’s engineering know-how and team if their code breaks or servers stumble. That could help prevent outages and make WhatsApp work even faster, even if it doesn’t get slapped with a Facebook logo or any other design changes.

Recruiting

At over 6,000 employees and rapidly growing, Facebook knows a lot about recruiting. It’s far from perfect, considering Facebook rejected Koum and Acton when the two applied to work there around 2008, and it’s seen some brain drain since the IPO. Still, the company has feelers out around the world looking for top talent.Facebook can now pitch potential recruits a spot at WhatsApp. Sure, the upside potential is diminished now it’s already been acquired, but Facebook’s HR team can tempt people with the chance to work on an app serving almost a half a billion people.

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The Story Behind This Iconic and Viral Ukraine Protest Photo

The protests in Ukraine have taken a deadlier turn this week, and one image in particular has captured the Internet's attention: that of a blood-drenched father and son walking past a Ukrainian officer in riot gear.

Taken by a Reuters freelancer named Vlad Sodel, the photo highlights not only the devastation and violence in Kiev, but also how civilian and government forces have been pitted against each other.

Since the photo was posted online on Tuesday, it has gone viral on Reddit and Twitter, and has gone on to be used at news outlets such as the Atlantic, Business Insider and the New York Daily News to represent the horrors of "Bloody Tuesday."

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Nigerian gay activists protest at Nigerian embassy, London

PRO gay activists under the umbrella body of LGBTI (Members of the Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transsexuals and Inter-sex) in the Diaspora held a peaceful rally yesterday February 20th outside the Nigerian High Commission, London, to protest the Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act signed into law by President Jonathan.

The coordinator of the protest Davis Mac-Iyalla said he knows a few Nigerian leaders who are gays and lesbians "I know at least seven in both the Senate and House of Reps. They are in the minority and it will be wrong of me to mention their names, but they are there"

Some of the homosexual men even kissed in front of the embassy during the protest. 

More pics after the cut...

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Kris Jenner unhappy as Kanye takes over Kim Kardashian's career

According to Radaronline Kris Jenner isn't happy That Kanye has taken over Kim's affairs. They report:

Kanye is now totally in charge of Kim’s career and his non-stop wheeling and dealing is leaving Kris out of control, Kanye has managed to get Kim to cut her magazine and media appearances by a shocking level and that’s going directly against Kris’ plan to seize every publicity opportunity offered to her daughters.‘Kanye has ordered Kim to run out the clock on several of her fashion endorsement projects, including the lucrative deal with Sears which she shares with her sisters.His goal is to get people to respect Kim and take her seriously — it’s basically the same kind of thing he did when he was launching his rap career after being known primarily as a producer.’He’s alienating Kris and that’s going to be a long-term problem for him that won’t go away.

The insider claims that Kanye was instrumental in helping Kim announce her latest project – a range of ‘super affordable’ baby clothes, named Kardashian Kids, to be launched in March.

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