DAINIK UPDATE

Facebook's efforts to transition to mobile have met with uneven success in some international markets, according to internal numbers obtained by TechCrunch.

While 53 percent of mobile users in Sweden are on Facebook, only 27 percent of mobile users in Germany access the social network on their handsets, according to metrics included in a "The Annual" report sent to partners and obtained by TechCrunch's Josh Constine. The playfully illustrated report, Constine reports, gives a never-before-broadcast look into which countries are driving the company's growth into mobile.

Competition from local social network StudiVZ has apparently stymied Facebook's growth in Germany, where the US company has captured only 43 percent of Internet users in total. However, the country does have 25 million monthly active users compared with Sweden's 4.9 million (57 percent).

Golf is a precision club and ball sport in which competing players (or golfers) use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course using the fewest number of strokes. Golf is defined, in the rules of golf, as "playing a ball with a club from the teeing ground into the hole by a stroke or successive strokes in accordance with the Rules."

It is one of the few ball games that do not require a standardized playing area. Instead, the game is played on a golf course, in general consisting of an arranged progression of either 9 or 18 "holes." Each hole on the course must contain a "tee box" to start from, and a "putting green" containing the actual hole. There are various other standardized forms of terrain in between, such as the fairway, rough, and hazards, but each hole on a course, and indeed among virtually all courses, is unique in its specific layout and arrangement.

Golf competition is generally played for the lowest number of strokes by an individual, known simply as stroke play, or the lowest score on the most individual holes during a complete round by an individual or team, known as match play. Stroke play is the most commonly seen format at virtually all levels of play, although variations of match play, such as "skins" games, are also seen in televised events. Other forms of scoring also exist.

While the modern game of golf originated in 15th-century Scotland, the game's ancient origins are unclear and much debated. Some historians^[3] trace the sport back to the Roman game ofpaganica, in which participants used a bent stick to hit a stuffed leather ball. One theory asserts that paganica spread throughout Europe as the Romans conquered most of the continent, during the first century BC, and eventually evolved into the modern game.^[4] Others cite chuiwan ("chui" means striking and "wan" means small ball) as the progenitor, a Chinese game played between the eighth and 14th centuries. A Ming Dynasty scroll dating back to 1368 entitled "The Autumn Banquet" shows a member of the Chinese Imperial court swinging what appears to be a golf club at a small ball with the aim of sinking it into a hole. The game is thought to have been introduced into Europe during the Middle Ages. Another early game that resembled modern golf was known as cambuca in England and chambot in France. This game was, in turn, exported to the Low Countries, Germany, and England (where it was called pall-mall, pronounced “pell mell”).^{[citation needed]} Some observers,^[who?] however, believe that golf descended from the Persian game, chaugán. In addition, kolven (a game involving a ball and curved bats) was played annually in Loenen, Netherlands, beginning in 1297, to commemorate the capture of the assassin of Floris V, a year earlier.

Elephant racing, though unusual as a sporting event, is held in many parts of the world but mostly in Asia. The earliest known such racing event as a tradition is reported from Vietnam. In the 20th century this became a major event (though it generated protests) in Germany in 1920, and an organized International Elephant Race in Nepal from tourism interests in 1982.

Elephant racing, which is a more complex form of racing among animals is now a rage in Afghanistan also. A straight and long trunk is an important factor in the race for the elephants to cross the finish line. The races take a longer time than those involving horses but the animals are clearly visible to every spectator.

In Nepal, the race started as an International Elephant Race in December 2005. The Tharu people of Nepal, who are professional tamers of wild elephants, ride the race elephants. A particular feature of this race is that riders of racing elephants are chosen by lottery and not by choice and this makes the riding difficult for the jockeys who train on their favourite particular elephants. The winning elephant is awarded a trophy. The racing track is of 900 feet (270 m) in length. Heats or elimination rounds, with six elephants in each heat, are involved before the final race is held. A video film documented by Reuters has recorded that the elephants move fast on the chosen straight route, which is flanked by spectators. The Chitwan reserve is a venue for such races, and also for elephant polo and pageants, which are also part of this tourist oriented race. Champakali is the name of the race elephant which won the race in successive years. On this occasion, a soccer match between baby elephants is also an attraction.

That's what Alex Hawkinson, chief executive of SmartThings, envisions. His startup makes a family of Internet-connected devices for the home. SmartThings also runs a platform service that helps people remotely control all of the other disparate devices made by different companies that are beginning to make their way into people's homes -- things like "smart" locks, lights, thermostats, and electrical plugs.

	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	4s	6s	Ct	St
Tests	88	147	16	6753	278*	51.54	12338	54.73	18	33	773	47	154	3
ODIs	159	153	25	6331	146	49.46	6746	93.84	16	36	572	109	134	3
T20Is	51	48	8	867	79*	21.67	715	121.25	0	4	67	26	47	6
First-class	114	192	21	8640	278*	50.52	15255	56.63	21	47			205	4
List A	191	184	28	7668	146	49.15			19	45			160	3
Twenty20	144	132	28	3060	105*	29.42	2302	132.92	1	17	241	108	103	15

	Mat	Inns	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	4w	5w	10
Tests	88	5	204	104	2	2/49	2/49	52.00	3.05	102.0	0	0	0
ODIs	159	1	12	22	0	-	-	-	11.00	-	0	0	0
T20Is	51	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
First-class	114		234	138	2	2/49		69.00	3.53	117.0	0	0	0
List A	191		12	22	0	-	-	-	11.00	-	0	0	0
Twenty20	144	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

West Indies 157 for 8 (Sammy 43*, McClenaghan 5-58)New Zealand 156 (Brendon McCullum 51, Nathan McCullum 47, Bravo 4-44):-

West Indies' search for their first win of the New Zealand tour ended at Eden Park in Auckland as the visitors edged past the home side in a low-scoring thriller to take lead in the five-match ODI series.Mitchell McClenaghan's maiden five-wicket haul in ODIs led New Zealand's fightback after they had been bowled out for 156, but Darren Sammy smashed an unbeaten 27-ball 43 to take West Indies over the line.

Here's some unsolicited advice to technology companies drawing up their plans for 2014: Dare to be stupid.

We saw plenty of that this year. Samsung Electronics raced to launch its Galaxy Gearsmartwatch, and it was widely lambasted. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos talked up the idea of flying drones delivering our Blu-Ray discs and books, which got quickly written off as a publicity stunt. There's even a denigrating term for someone walking around wearing Google Glass: Glasshole.

In fact, the tech world could use a little more stupid and crazy. All too often companies settle on incremental improvement, banking on evolution rather than the revolution. Blame complacency, the need to meet quarterly deadlines, or just the fear of failure but what's clear is that companies tend to stay stagnant too long.

Apple announced Sunday it has reached an agreement with China Mobile to offer the iPhone on the world's largest wireless carrier next month, confirming long-standing rumors.

The iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C will be available on China Mobile starting January 17, but pricing was not revealed. Terms of the deal were not released.