7 million iPhones and iPads have been jailbroken in just four days

The Evad3rs Jailbreak Team on Monday released their evasi0n jailbreak tool for Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices running iOS 6.0 or iOS 6.1. Jay Freeman, the man behind the jailbroken app store known as Cydia, announced that nearly seven million iOS devices have been freed from Apple’s walled garden in only four days, Forbes reported. The astonishing number makes evasi0n the fastest-adopted jailbreaking solution of all time. As of Thursday night, numbers from Freeman’s alternative app store revealed that 5.15 million iPhones, 1.35 million iPads, and 400,000 iPod touches were jailbroken with evasi0n. Jailbreaking an Apple device is similar to rooting an Android smartphone or tablet, and allows greater customization and opens the door to features such as wireless tethering.

[More from BGR: Apple could release both the iPhone 5S and a five-inch ‘iPhone 6′ this year]

This article was originally published on BGR.com

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Tiger Woods & Lindsey Vonn Are 'Spending More Time' Together: Source

Buzz

By Steve Helling

02/09/2013 at 06:00 PM EST

Tiger Woods and Lindsey Vonn

Mick Tsikas/Reuters/Landov; Luis Guerra/Ramey

It was quite the gesture.

After Lindsey Vonn suffered a devastating injury during the Alpine World Championships in Austria, she got a bit of help from Tiger Woods. Walking on crutches, Vonn – who tore two ligaments in her right knee and fractured her shin when she crashed on Tuesday ­– boarded Woods's private jet to return home.

Is it a sign that the rumored relationship between Woods and Vonn is heating up?

"Tiger and Lindsey have been friends for a while, and nothing started out romantically at all," a source tells PEOPLE. "But they really have a lot in common and got closer and closer. He still refers to her as 'my very good friend,' but he's been spending more and more time talking to her – and talking about her."

Last month, Vonn's reps kept mum about the rumored relationship, telling PEOPLE that her "focus is solely on competing and on defending her titles and thus she will not participate in any speculation surrounding her personal life at this time."

But the source close to Woods tells PEOPLE that Woods, 37, and Vonn. 28, talk and text frequently.

"Tiger really does want a woman who he can have good conversations with," he says. "He wants shared interests and outlooks. He is finding that with [Lindsey]."

Woods made international headlines in 2009 when he was linked to dozens of women while still married to his ex-wife, Elin Nordegren.

Since then, he has dated sporadically, but struggled to find someone who wanted a relationship for the right reasons.

"She's not freaked out by his past, and that's really appealing to him," says the source. "He really does deserve to be happy. He has been flogging himself for three years, and it's good to see him moving forward."

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After early start, worst of flu season may be over

NEW YORK (AP) — The worst of the flu season appears to be over.

The number of states reporting intense or widespread illnesses dropped again last week, and in a few states there was very little flu going around, U.S. health officials said Friday.

The season started earlier than normal, first in the Southeast and then spreading. But now, by some measures, flu activity has been ebbing for at least four weeks in much of the country. Flu and pneumonia deaths also dropped the last two weeks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

"It's likely that the worst of the current flu season is over," CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said.

But flu is hard to predict, he and others stressed, and there have been spikes late in the season in the past.

For now, states like Georgia and New York — where doctor's offices were jammed a few weeks ago — are reporting low flu activity. The hot spots are now the West Coast and the Southwest.

Among the places that have seen a drop: Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Allentown, Pa., which put up a tent outside its emergency room last month to help deal with the steady stream of patients. There were about 100 patients each day back then. Now it's down to 25 and the hospital may pack up its tent next week, said Terry Burger, director of infection control and prevention for the hospital.

"There's no question that we're seeing a decline," she said.

In early December, CDC officials announced flu season had arrived, a month earlier than usual. They were worried, saying it had been nine years since a winter flu season started like this one. That was 2003-04 — one of the deadliest seasons in the past 35 years, with more than 48,000 deaths.

Like this year, the major flu strain was one that tends to make people sicker, especially the elderly, who are most vulnerable to flu and its complications

But back then, that year's flu vaccine wasn't made to protect against that bug, and fewer people got flu shots. The vaccine is reformulated almost every year, and the CDC has said this year's vaccine is a good match to the types that are circulating. A preliminary CDC study showed it is about 60 percent effective, which is close to the average.

So far, the season has been labeled moderately severe.

Like others, Lehigh Valley's Burger was cautious about making predictions. "I'm not certain we're completely out of the woods," with more wintry weather ahead and people likely to be packed indoors where flu can spread around, she said.

The government does not keep a running tally of flu-related deaths in adults, but has received reports of 59 deaths in children. The most — nine — were in Texas, where flu activity was still high last week. Roughly 100 children die in an average flu season, the CDC says

On average, about 24,000 Americans die each flu season, according to the CDC.

According to the CDC report, the number of states with intense activity is down to 19, from 24 the previous week, and flu is widespread in 38 states, down from 42.

Flu is now minimal in Florida, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

___

Online:

CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/

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Stocks end higher for sixth straight week, tech leads

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Nasdaq composite stock index closed at a 12-year high and the S&P 500 index at a five-year high, boosted by gains in technology shares and stronger overseas trade figures.

The S&P 500 also posted a sixth straight week of gains for the first time since August.

The technology sector led the day's gains, with the S&P 500 technology index <.splrct> up 1.0 percent. Gains in professional network platform LinkedIn Corp and AOL Inc after they reported quarterly results helped the sector.

Shares of LinkedIn jumped 21.3 percent to $150.48 after the social networking site announced strong quarterly profits and gave a bullish forecast for the year.

AOL Inc shares rose 7.4 percent to $33.72 after the online company reported higher quarterly profit, boosted by a 13 percent rise in advertising sales.

Data showed Chinese exports grew more than expected, a positive sign for the global economy. The U.S. trade deficit narrowed in December, suggesting the U.S. economy likely grew in the fourth quarter instead of contracting slightly as originally reported by the U.S. government.

"That may have sent a ray of optimism," said Fred Dickson, chief market strategist at D.A. Davidson & Co in Lake Oswego, Oregon.

Trading volume on Friday was below average for the week as a blizzard swept into the northeastern United States.

The U.S. stock market has posted strong gains since the start of the year, with the S&P 500 up 6.4 percent since December 31. The advance has slowed in recent days, with fourth-quarter earnings winding down and few incentives to continue the rally on the horizon.

"I think we're in the middle of a trading range and I'd put plus or minus 5.0 percent around it. Fundamental factors are best described as neutral," Dickson said.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> ended up 48.92 points, or 0.35 percent, at 13,992.97. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was up 8.54 points, or 0.57 percent, at 1,517.93. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 28.74 points, or 0.91 percent, at 3,193.87, its highest closing level since November 2000.

For the week, the Dow was down 0.1 percent, the S&P 500 was up 0.3 percent and the Nasdaq up 0.5 percent.

Shares of Dell closed at $13.63, up 0.7 percent, after briefly trading above a buyout offering price of $13.65 during the session.

Dell's largest independent shareholder, Southeastern Asset Management, said it plans to oppose the buyout of the personal computer maker, setting up a battle for founder Michael Dell.

Signs of economic strength overseas buoyed sentiment on Wall Street. Chinese exports grew more than expected in January, while imports climbed 28.8 percent, highlighting robust domestic demand. German data showed a 2012 surplus that was the nation's second highest in more than 60 years, an indication of the underlying strength of Europe's biggest economy.

Separately, U.S. economic data showed the trade deficit shrank in December to $38.5 billion, its narrowest in nearly three years, indicating the economy did much better in the fourth quarter than initially estimated.

Earnings have mostly come in stronger than expected since the start of the reporting period. Fourth-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies now are estimated up 5.2 percent versus a year ago, according to Thomson Reuters data. That contrasts with a 1.9 percent growth forecast at the start of the earnings season.

Molina Healthcare Inc surged 10.4 percent to $31.88 as the biggest boost to the index after posting fourth-quarter earnings.

The CBOE Volatility index <.vix>, Wall Street's so-called fear gauge, was down 3.6 percent at 13.02. The gauge, a key measure of market expectations of short-term volatility, generally moves inversely to the S&P 500.

"I'm watching the 14 level closely" on the CBOE Volatility index, said Bryan Sapp, senior trading analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research. "The break below it at the beginning of the year signaled the sharp rally in January, and a rally back above it could be a sign to exercise some caution."

Volume was roughly 5.6 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and the NYSE MKT, compared with the 2012 average daily closing volume of about 6.45 billion.

Advancers outpaced decliners on the NYSE by nearly 2 to 1 and on the Nasdaq by almost 5 to 3.

(Additional reporting by Angela Moon; Editing by Bernadette Baum, Nick Zieminski, Kenneth Barry and Andrew Hay)

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A Faceless Teenage Refugee Who Helped Ignite Syria’s War

Bryan Denton for The New York Times

A boy from Dara’a, Syria, now living in Jordan, who was part of a group whose arrest and torture helped start Syria’s uprising.

AMMAN, Jordan — In a listless border town, the teenager goes unnoticed, one of the hundreds of thousands of refugees who have fled the Syrian civil war, dashing across villages and farms to land in Jordan, just five miles from home.

But this young man carries a burden — maybe an honor, too — that almost no one else shares.

He knows that he and his friends helped start it all. They ignited an uprising.

It began simply enough, inspired not so much by political activism as by teenage rebellion against authority, and boredom. He watched his cousin spray-paint the wall of a school in the city of Dara’a with a short, impish challenge to President Bashar al-Assad, a trained ophthalmologist, about the spreading national revolts.

“It’s your turn, doctor,” the cousin wrote.

The opening episodes of the Arab uprisings are growing more distant, the memory of them clouded by fears about what the revolutions have wrought. In Egypt’s chaos, activists talk of a second revolution, and in Tunisia a political assassination this week has imperiled one of the region’s more hopeful transitions. Then there is Syria, where tens of thousands of people have been killed, hundreds of thousands have fled the country and the idea of the nation itself is disappearing amid cycles of sectarian bloodshed.

That war’s brutality has made it difficult to recall, let alone celebrate, the uprisings’ beginnings. After the graffiti, the teenager and his friends were arrested and tortured, setting off demonstrations that, looking back, were the first days of the civil war. Two years later, the boys remain mostly unknown, none celebrated like Mohamed Bouazizi, the fruit seller whose self-immolation started the Arab uprisings, or Khaled Said, the young man whose beating death at the hands of the Egyptian police helped start a movement for change.

Some of the boys from Dara’a are refugees, like the teenager in Jordan, now 17, who agreed, along with his father, to speak as long as his name was not revealed. They said they were protecting relatives left behind in Syria, but their reluctance also came from shame: the boy’s father had given him up to the police, to spare a second son, and the teenager informed on three of his friends to try to avoid the torture he suffered anyway.

Given all that has happened, to his family and his country, the teenager said he had no regrets. “Why should I? It’s good that it happened,” he said during a meeting arranged by other refugees from Dara’a. Speaking of Mr. Assad, he said, “We found out who he really is.”

It began with the graffiti.

The government, nervous as leaders were being toppled around the Arab world, reacted furiously to the slight, arresting the teenager and more than a dozen other boys and then torturing them for weeks.

The boy’s relatives, neighbors and hundreds of others in the city gathered for protests demanding the release of the boys. Security forces opened fire on the crowds. They calculated that zero tolerance would head off an escalation. They were wrong.

The details of the teenager’s story could not be independently corroborated, but its outlines matched accounts by a few of the other boys from Dara’a who have spoken about that period. Three former residents of the city, including two who lived in the same neighborhood as the teenager and his family, confirmed that he was among the boys arrested in March 2011.

Recounting those days, the teenager said he passed a sleepless night after his cousin’s acts of defiance. It was not just the graffiti: the cousin had set fire to a new police kiosk the same day in another act of lashing out. The teenager and his friends did not talk much about politics, but the language of dissent was everywhere on satellite television. Small protests had begun to flare in Damascus. “It was the right time,” the teenager said.

The next morning, he noticed intelligence agents at a school and had little doubt about why they were there. “We knew what we did,” he said.

Over the next few days, the police, the military and the military police roamed the city “day and night,” storming the homes of suspects. The teenager said he went into hiding. “I thought it would pass,” he said. But it did not.

Kareem Fahim reported from Amman, and Hwaida Saad from Beirut, Lebanon. Ranya Kadri contributed reporting from Amman.

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Minka Kelly: 'I'm Not Worthy' of Acting with Oprah

By Jennifer Cress

02/08/2013 at 07:40 PM EST

Minka Kelly as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Pacific Coast News

It's intimidating enough to play Jackie O, but Minka Kelly felt even more pressure to perform when she found out who was joining the cast of her latest film, The Butler.

"I'm not worthy. I feel so lucky and grateful. I was like, 'What am I doing here?!' " Kelly tells PEOPLE of starring alongside Robin Williams, Forest Whitaker, John Cusack, Vanessa Redgrave, Jane Fonda and more in the upcoming film, which tells the story of a butler who served eight presidents.

The movie also features another major star: the one and only Oprah Winfrey. "I didn't get to meet Oprah because our shooting schedules were different, but she's a pretty loved lady," Kelly says. "I have yet to hear a bad thing about her!"

Kelly found that the most difficult part of playing Jackie Kennedy was nailing the former first lady's distinct accent. "I think she spoke in a way she thought she should speak, so getting that down was hard. There's a musicality and rhythm to the way she speaks," Kelly explains. "I went to sleep listening to her."

Another tough task? Slipping into the retro costumes. "My body is so different from her because I have curves, so fitting into those vintage clothes was actually really hard," she shares. "Also it was hot – and there was a lot of wool!"

Jennifer Graylock / Getty

But Kelly had no issue slipping into the stunning Oscar de la Renta gown (left) she strutted down the runway in at the Red Dress Collection fashion show in N.Y.C. on Wednesday night. The actress walked for the second year in a row in honor of The Heart Truth campaign, which encourages women to monitor their heart health.

For the month of February, Diet Coke will donate $1 for every person who uploads a heart-inspired photo to Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #showyourheart. Visit to dietcoke.com/showyourheart for more information.

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After early start, worst of flu season may be over

NEW YORK (AP) — The worst of the flu season appears to be over.

The number of states reporting intense or widespread illnesses dropped again last week, and in a few states there was very little flu going around, U.S. health officials said Friday.

The season started earlier than normal, first in the Southeast and then spreading. But now, by some measures, flu activity has been ebbing for at least four weeks in much of the country. Flu and pneumonia deaths also dropped the last two weeks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

"It's likely that the worst of the current flu season is over," CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said.

But flu is hard to predict, he and others stressed, and there have been spikes late in the season in the past.

For now, states like Georgia and New York — where doctor's offices were jammed a few weeks ago — are reporting low flu activity. The hot spots are now the West Coast and the Southwest.

Among the places that have seen a drop: Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Allentown, Pa., which put up a tent outside its emergency room last month to help deal with the steady stream of patients. There were about 100 patients each day back then. Now it's down to 25 and the hospital may pack up its tent next week, said Terry Burger, director of infection control and prevention for the hospital.

"There's no question that we're seeing a decline," she said.

In early December, CDC officials announced flu season had arrived, a month earlier than usual. They were worried, saying it had been nine years since a winter flu season started like this one. That was 2003-04 — one of the deadliest seasons in the past 35 years, with more than 48,000 deaths.

Like this year, the major flu strain was one that tends to make people sicker, especially the elderly, who are most vulnerable to flu and its complications

But back then, that year's flu vaccine wasn't made to protect against that bug, and fewer people got flu shots. The vaccine is reformulated almost every year, and the CDC has said this year's vaccine is a good match to the types that are circulating. A preliminary CDC study showed it is about 60 percent effective, which is close to the average.

So far, the season has been labeled moderately severe.

Like others, Lehigh Valley's Burger was cautious about making predictions. "I'm not certain we're completely out of the woods," with more wintry weather ahead and people likely to be packed indoors where flu can spread around, she said.

The government does not keep a running tally of flu-related deaths in adults, but has received reports of 59 deaths in children. The most — nine — were in Texas, where flu activity was still high last week. Roughly 100 children die in an average flu season, the CDC says

On average, about 24,000 Americans die each flu season, according to the CDC.

According to the CDC report, the number of states with intense activity is down to 19, from 24 the previous week, and flu is widespread in 38 states, down from 42.

Flu is now minimal in Florida, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

___

Online:

CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/

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Asian shares inch higher on solid China trade data

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares edged up on Friday after China's trade data for January handily beat forecasts to underscore a recovery trend, but prices were capped by investors seeking to book profits before next week's Chinese new year holidays.

The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> edged up 0.2 percent, wiping earlier losses when bearish sentiment was carried over from overnight after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi noted risks still facing the euro zone economy. The pan-Asian index rose to a 18-month high on Monday.

China said its exports grew 25.0 percent in January from a year ago, the strongest showing since April 2011 and well ahead of market expectations for a 17 percent rise, while imports also beat forecasts, surging 28.8 percent on the year.

"China's economic conditions are improving and the trade data confirms the continuation of a recovery trend. Not just the trade data but retail, production and investment flows clearly show that the economy bottomed out in the third quarter last year," said Hirokazu Yuihama, a senior strategist at Daiwa Securities in Tokyo.

U.S. stocks edged lower while disappointing results from French drugmaker Sanofi sent European shares down to 2013 closing lows.

Australian shares rose 0.5 percent while South Korean shares <.ks11> climbed 0.6 percent, on track to reverse six losing sessions as investors bought up auto shares after recent declines.

Japan's Nikkei stock average <.n225> fell 1.4 percent as investors took profits from the index's surge to a its highest level since October 2008 on Wednesday. <.t/>

"Asian markets are undergoing a pre-holiday adjustment, keeping prices top-heavy, with many opting to book profits. Prices have gained sharply over the past months, so a correction is healthy. But the upward trend in Asian equities markets remains intact," Daiwa's Yuihama said.

EURO STEADIES

The euro was off its two-week lows hit the previous session as investors took Draghi's comments as signalling concerns about the euro and Europe's growth outlook, boosting the dollar <.dxy> to a one-month high against a basket of key currencies.

The euro edged up 0.1 percent to $1.3410, after slumping to a two-week low of $1.33705 on Thursday, but still below a 14-1/2-month high against of $1.3711 hit last week.

The ECB kept interest rates at a record low 0.75 percent at its policy meeting on Thursday. Draghi said the ECB will monitor the economic impact of a strengthening euro, feeding expectations the currency's climb could open the door to an interest rate cut.

While Draghi said the exchange rate was not a policy target but is important for growth and price stability, he also noted the euro's appreciation was a sign of returning confidence in the currency.

Spain sold more debt than planned on Thursday, auctioning over 18 percent of its full-year medium- and long-term funding target. The strong demand indicated easing worries about Madrid's financing ability despite political uncertainty over a corruption scandal.

The yen remained near lows against the dollar and the euro.

Data showed on Friday Japan logged a current account deficit for a second straight month in December, resulting in its smallest annual surplus on record in 2012, with evidence of deteriorating trade balances supporting the yen's weakening trend.

"Japan will remain a nation of current account surpluses but the surplus will not be as high as it used to be," said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute in Tokyo.

The dollar eased 0.1 percent to 93.53 yen after reaching 94.075 yen, its highest since May 2010 on Wednesday. The euro inched up 0.1 percent to 125.43 yen, having hit its strongest since April 2010 of 127.71 yen on Wednesday.

"Currencies are increasingly becoming part of the policy debate...In the case of the EUR, we believe that the bullish 'overshooting' trend will remain intact as ECB policy continues to promote an asset market friendly environment," Morgan Stanley said in a note.

Morgan Stanley added that the anticipation of the Bank of Japan taking bolder easing steps is set to keep the weak yen trend going, supporting global risk appetite.

U.S. crude futures and Brent were both up 0.2 percent to $96.01 a barrel and $117.48 respectively.

London copper added 0.5 percent to $8,241 a tonne.

(Editing by Eric Meijer)

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At Brooklyn College, Pro-Palestine Speakers Attract Protests Outside

Uli Seit for The New York Times

Demonstrators gathered outside Brooklyn College on Thursday night to protest a lecture held by two pro-Palestinian speakers.

Tensions were evident everywhere as two pro-Palestinian speakers arrived Thursday night at Brooklyn College. Protesters began gathering across the street from the student center, where the college-sponsored talk was scheduled, more than an hour before the event was to start. And police officers were stationed at the entrance to the building, searching bags and checking attendees’ names and identifications against an approved list.

Controversy had grown over the past week at the Midwood college, where nearly a fifth of the undergraduate population is Jewish, over the event organized by a student group, Students for Justice in Palestine. The college’s political science department agreed to co-sponsor the speakers along with more than two dozen other groups.

Jewish leaders on and off campus had criticized the college and its president, Karen L. Gould, for sponsoring the talk, which they said helped legitimize the B.D.S. movement, which refers to Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. Its goal is to pressure Israel to restore disputed territories and grant equal rights to Palestinians.

Throughout the week, the right to academic freedom served as the backbone to arguments in favor of the college’s sponsorship of the event.

And inside the student center, a crowd of hundreds — faculty and community members, as well as students — clapped as a speaker thanked those who supported the event, which drew so much attention a waiting list was required.

“Your being here this evening confirms your right to form and communicate an autonomous judgment to determine why you think something is true or not. And you should be free to do this without coercion and fear,” said the speaker, Judith Butler, a philosopher teaching at Columbia University.

Ms. Butler called the attendees’ participation in the discussion their right to education and free speech.

The other speaker, Omar Barghouti, a commentator and activist, began his lecture by calling on the group to celebrate their victory against “racist, hate-mongering, bullying attempts to shut down this event.”

Invoking the South African anti-apartheid movement, he went on to compare the Palestinian struggle to that of colonially oppressed people throughout history and to urge listeners to fight the racism he said was rising within Israel — similar, he said, to the anti-Semitism in Europe in the 1930s. He garnered a standing ovation.

Ms. Butler spoke more directly to the criticisms they had faced, pointing out that many Jews — including herself — opposed Israel’s policies. B.D.S. could only be seen as anti-Semitic if Israel represented all Jewish people, she said. “Honestly, what can really be said about the Jewish people as a whole?”

With a wry smile, she noted the crowd outside the building. Some Jews are, she acknowledged, “as you can hear, unconditional supporters of Israel.”

The sound of chanting was faintly audible in the room as she paused.

Outside, about 150 protesters waved signs and chanted behind a police barricade. They ranged from a few who came in solidarity with the speakers to staunch supporters of Israel.

David Haies, 33, a social worker from Brooklyn, came to protest the speech and said the experience was so invigorating he didn’t need to zip his jacket in the freezing cold. “Jews should be able to live wherever they want to live,” he said. “This feels good.”

Mr. Barghouti is no stranger to protests. He has been one of the most public faces of the B.D.S. movement, traveling from campus to campus to spread his message in the United States. Over the past few years, he has spoken at Rutgers, New York University and Harvard. In the three days before arriving at Brooklyn College, he appeared at the University of California, Irvine, the University of Pennsylvania and Yale.

At several of those campuses, Mr. Barghouti’s arrival was preceded by complaints from Jewish leaders and students. But most of his previous appearances were not sponsored by the university, and few attracted the kind of controversy that Brooklyn College’s event did.

The college president, Ms. Gould, has said she does not personally agree with B.D.S.’s views, but felt the speakers had a right to talk on campus. This week, she announced that the college would host future events featuring other views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

But pro-Israel elected officials and alumni continued to clamor for the event’s cancellation or, like the lawyer Alan Dershowitz, for the university to withdraw its sponsorship.

Mr. Barghouti signaled on Thursday that he was prepared to continue battling at Brooklyn College and beyond.

Referring to Mr. Dershowitz as “a certain Harvard professor,” he told the audience, “I think we ought to send him a box of chocolates.”

Nate Schweber contributed reporting.

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Is It OK to Use Kickstarter to Make Money?

Three weeks early and $ 359,630 short, Björk’s Kickstarter project to make an Android version of the Icelandic superstar’s iOS-only educational Biophilia app has been canceled because few people wanted to give charity to a rich person. Kickstarter doesn’t bill itself as crowd-sourced philanthropy, rather describing itself as a “funding platform for creative projects.” But since the beginning, the spirit of the site has involved patronizing a ”creator [who] couldn’t get money through traditional channels,” as Rob Walker explained in a 2011 New York Times Magazine profile of the then-new company. So, the people took it as an abuse of the system when a famous person like Björk, who has enough money to buy herself a penthouse in Brooklyn Heights goes on there soliciting nearly $ 600,000. But it’s not like Björk is the first established rich person to go on there asking for money. Legendary video game designer Tim Schafer, for example, got $ 3.3 million to make his next game, and established designers have also had luck, too.

RELATED: With Multimillion Dollar Pebble Watch, Kickerstarter Really Grows Up

But, this time, something was different. The people have no sympathy for the failure of a millionaire. “A moment’s silence for multimillionaire Björk who couldn’t convince the public to fund her latest whim,” tweeted one particularly upset Mancunian DJ, echoing the sentiments of others who don’t approve of a “super high status persons using Kickstarter.” Even before she stepped away from the ambitious project, people questioned the move, with tweets like “something tells me @bjork probably has the resources to fund porting her paid music app without crowdfunding” and “struggling up-and-coming artist Björk launches a Kickstarterproject? Seriously?” All of a sudden it’s not OK for rich people to make money on Kickstarter again. What changed?

RELATED: What the Future of Our Crowd-Funded Products Will Look Like

The crowd-funding platform has combined elements of philanthropy and commerce, but these days one side can be emphasized more than other. In Jenna Wortham’s profile of the company in 2009, The New York Times described Kickstarter as a place where “Patrons Support Artists on the Web.” Two years later,  Wired‘s Carly Adler described it as a sort of a public research and development unit, calling it “a lab for daring prototypes and ingenious products.”  

RELATED: ‘Fifty Shades’ Outpaces Potter; Authors’ Drunk Texts Imagined

Kickstarter co-Founder Yancey Strickler explained how the service lived between those two poles to Walker. “Money demands answers,” he said. “People want to put money into things that they think will be successful, and to be successful you have to participate in the market, and the market has very specific rules.” At times, the market rewarded good ideas, like the multimillion dollar Pebble smartwatch. But it didn’t take too long for people to realize that money begets more money. Soon, bigger players with better PR and marketing came to the platform and succeeded, as Technology Review‘s David Zax laments: 

What I love about Kickstarter is that any scrappy entrepreneur with an idea can go out there and get funding for his back-of-napkin vision. When you look at the two most successful Kickstarter campaigns to date (here, the runner-up), they involve established or semi-established companies whose promotional videos wear their production value on their sleeve. These aren’t rogue designers, tinkerers, or DIY “makers.” And this isn’t, in a meaningful sense, a kick-start–it’s a 90-yard punt.

Kickstarter entered most people’s consciousness around this time, when it focused more on commercial success. The funding of huge projects like Pebble and that Tim Schafer project led to a saturation of crap on the site from people just trying to get rich quick. And it made some especially mad because it felt like people hitting friends up for money, not a deserved artist seeking philanthropy. The site has turned into more of an online panhandling forum, as Ryan Tate writing for Gawker explained last year, than the people’s republic of crowd-funding for the greater good. 

RELATED: Everything to Know About the Dan Harmon, Charlie Kaufman Kickstarter

Perhaps this huge Björk failure is the manifestation of those feelings. She should have succeeded, with her well produced Kickstarter video touting a project tied to an album with both commercial and critical success. It shouldn’t have mattered that Björk has a ton of her own money, she played by the market rules Strickler talked about. But, it didn’t work out like that. Perhaps that’s because her project, which mixed philanthropy with art, reminded people that the site was once for “starving artist” types, not for rich people to use as PR for their charities.  

Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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