Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/301836324?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Saturday, April 27, 2013
Stability and Security: Relics of the Past?
DETROIT?Nicole Current is a third-generation member of the United Auto Workers who grew up in a middle-class neighborhood on Detroit?s west side. Her grandfather migrated to Michigan from the South for the promise of a good factory job and spent his life working in Henry Ford?s crown jewel, the River Rouge auto plant. Current, now 39, was 22 when she started working at American Axle & Manufacturing, a General Motors supplier. ?We were working seven days a week, 10 or 11 hours a day,? Current recalls. ?So many people were buying trucks that we couldn?t make front and rear axles fast enough to get them to the [automaking] plants.?
That was then. When gas prices started to skyrocket, Americans didn?t buy as many trucks. Current lost her job in early 2012, along with everyone else at her plant on the Detroit-Hamtramck border. A strike four years earlier left workers with a $10-an-hour wage cut. ?Many of our workers were also receiving public assistance after that,? Current says, ?because the wage was so low.? When management pressed for more concessions, the union balked. So American Axle simply shut the plant down.
Like many autoworkers, Current had every reason to think that a full-time factory job would pay enough for her to maintain a middle-class life. At the peak of her career, with a union-guaranteed wage and plenty of overtime work, she made roughly $70,000 a year.
After the plant closed, Current lost her home in foreclosure, and she now pays $560 a month for her own health care?a stretch, she says, when unemployment provides just $362 weekly, an amount that is due to be cut further because of the federal budget sequestration. Her 15-year-old son lives outside Washington with her ex-husband, a former electrical engineer for Ford who found that a civilian engineering job with the Navy was more stable than dealing with the automakers? constant restructuring.
Sitting in her union hall, Local 22, on a nearly deserted stretch of Michigan Avenue?the banner in front boasts, ?We Built This City??Current is more worried about her former coworkers than about herself. ?I knew I was bright enough that I could go reinvent myself and work somewhere else,? she says. Current is hoping to go back to school and find a program in workplace safety. But having been a union rep at the plant, ?I get calls from workers talking about committing suicide or losing their house,? she says. ?As a union, we?re not an employment agency, but you feel like you?re trying to carry the weight of the world to help people.?
About the only bit of luck Current has had is that housing in Detroit is worth next to nothing. After losing her home in the nearby suburb of Eastpointe, she bought a larger, nicer house on the east side of Detroit, a coup she savors. ?Things don?t stay bad forever,? she says.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stability-security-relics-past-202006025--politics.html
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Stocks stall on tepid US economic growth
NEW YORK (AP) ? The stock market stalled Friday after the U.S. economy didn't grow as much as hoped and earnings from a handful of big companies failed to rev up investors.
The economy grew at a 2.5 percent annual rate in the first three months of the year, the government said. That was below the 3.1 percent forecast by economists.
The shortfall reinforced the perception that the economy is grinding, rather than charging, ahead. Investors have also been troubled by reports in the last month of weaker hiring, slower manufacturing and a drop in factory orders. Many economists see growth slowing to an annual rate of around 2 percent a year for the rest of the year.
U.S. government bonds, where investors seek safety, rose after the report.
"There are some concerns as we head into the summer," said JJ Kinahan, chief derivatives strategist for TD Ameritrade. "In the last three weeks, we've seen numbers that weren't exactly what you'd love to see."
Corporate earnings this week have also contained worrisome signs. Many companies missed revenue forecasts from financial analysts, even as they reported higher quarterly profits. For example, Goodyear Tire slipped 3.3 percent to $12.51 Friday after revenue fell short of analysts' estimates, hurt by lower global tire sales.
Of the companies that have reported earnings so far, 70 percent have exceeded Wall Street's expectations, compared with a 10-year average of 62 percent, according to S&P Capital IQ. But 43 percent have missed revenue estimates. Just over half of the companies in the S&P 500 have reported quarterly results.
The S&P 500 index dropped 2.92 points, or 0.2 percent, to close at 1,582.24.
The Dow rose 11.75 points, or 0.1 percent, to 14,712.55. The index got a big lift from Chevron. Profit for the U.S. oil company beat expectations of financial analysts in the first quarter, pushing shares up 1.3 percent to $120.04.
Three stocks fell for every two that rose on the New York Stock Exchange.
Both indexes were up for the week and remain slightly below their all-time highs reached April 11. The Dow index rose 1.1 percent this week while the S&P gained 1.7 percent.
The market has been bolstered by the Federal Reserve's easy money policy. The disappointing growth figure for the economy will ensure that the Fed sticks with its stimulus policy, providing support for stocks, said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital.
"The economic data that we've been getting points to no early exit for the Fed's stimulus," Cardillo said.
The Nasdaq composite fell 10.72 points to 3,279.26, a decline of 0.3 percent. The index is 2.3 percent higher this week.
The tech-heavy index has lagged the Dow and the S&P 500 this year, but it led the way higher this week, boosted by Microsoft. The software giant, which makes up 5.3 percent of the Nasdaq, recorded its biggest weekly gain since January of last year ? up 6.8 percent. It reported earnings April 19 that beat Wall Street expectations. The company also began an aggressive push into the computer tablet market.
Apple, the largest stock in the Nasdaq, also had a good week. The stock rose 6.8 percent to $417.20, its best weekly gain since November, despite posting a decline in quarterly profit Tuesday. Apple accounts for 7.6 percent of the Nasdaq composite.
Among other big names investors focused on:
Amazon.com fell 7 percent to $254.81 after the company warned of a possible loss in the current quarter. The online retailer also reported lower income for the first quarter as it continued to spend heavily on rights to digital content.
Expedia fell 10 percent to $58.56 after the online travel company reported a quarterly loss.
Homebuilder D.R. Horton surged 8.7 percent to $26.66 after its income nearly tripled thanks to a continuing recovery the housing market. The results handily beat the forecasts of financial analysts who follow the company.
J.C. Penney jumped 12 percent to $17 after the billionaire financier George Soros disclosed that he had taken a 7.9 percent stake in the struggling company.
In government bond trading, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note slipped to its lowest rate of the year, 1.67 percent, from 1.71 percent the day before. The yield has fallen from 2.06 percent six weeks ago as traders move money into lower-risk investments.
The dollar weakened against the euro.
The European currency bought $1.3029 at the end of day, compared with $1.3002 the day before. The ISE dollar index, which measures the U.S. currency against a group of other world currencies including the Japanese yen and the euro, dropped 0.3 percent, to 82.48.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stocks-stall-tepid-us-economic-growth-195845422.html
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Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Obama to attend memorial service for victims of Texas explosion
The Obamas were already scheduled to be in Dallas for the opening of former President George W. Bush?s presidential library Thursday morning. White House press secretary Jay Carney said Monday the first couple will fly to West after the library opening to meet with victims of last week?s explosion, which killed 14 people and injured more than 200.
The announcement came as investigators continued to probe the cause of the fire and subsequent explosion at the West Fertilizer Co. Kelly Kistner, an assistant state fire marshal, said at a briefing on Sunday that more than 70 state and federal officials were combing through the site looking for clues into what sparked the blaze. The blast, he said, left behind a massive crater on the site where the plant once stood.
On Monday, nearly 800 public school students displaced by the blast returned to class?some in makeshift classrooms set up in neighboring towns. West's middle school and high school were heavily damaged in the last week's explosion, and school officials have not said when the damaged schools might reopen.
At the same time, hundreds of displaced residents continued to return to their homes to assess damage in the aftermath of the explosion. The city has roped off a five-block area of town around the plant site, where dozens of homes, a nursing home and an apartment building were leveled in the explosion. While some residents living in an area farther away from the plant have been allowed to stay in their homes if they choose, power remains out in that part of the city.
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Study Defines Link Between Rare Liver Disease and IBD
A major genetic study has defined the nature of the relationship between a rare liver disease called primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The effort is the largest to study PSC to date.
Prior to the project, experts weren't sure whether PSC was a complication of IBD. The study found that while 70 percent of patients suffering from it also have IBD, PSC is a unique disease, according to ScienceDaily.
PSC researchers hailed from 13 countries in Europe and North America. Their discovery paves the way for developing treatments to target pathways potentially involved in causing the liver disease.
PSC is an autoimmune disorder that causes inflammatory swelling, scarring, and damage to bile ducts, PubMed Health reports. ScienceDaily says the illness affects only about 1 in 10,000 individuals, can lead to liver failure, and is the most common reason for liver transplants.
A specific cause has eluded researchers for years. The Mayo Clinic says that while PSC can develop at any age, it typically occurs between 25 and 45 and is more common in men than in women. Even among patients with IBD, however, it's rare.
The two major types of IBD are Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. According to the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America, IBD affects around 1.4 million Americans. The cause or causes of both illnesses remain unknown.
The PSC study collected a huge number of DNA samples. Scientists noted nine new genetic PSC-associated regions. They also took a closer look at three regions of the genome already linked to the liver illness. They realized it was a distinct disease when they found that just six of the 12 regions were also associated with IBD.
Use of a genotyping chip allowed scientists to see genetic differences between PSC and IBD, as well as similarities. They predict that as they collect more DNA, they will be able to pinpoint targets likely to respond to therapy.
Additional research showed 33 more genetic regions linked to other autoimmune illnesses. Those conditions included celiac disease, type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and sarcoidosis, in addition to Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Defining genetic relationships between PSC and those conditions could eventually lead to testing drugs known to be effective for those illnesses as therapies for the liver ailment.
I had not heard of PSC until I recently underwent tests to check out my gallbladder. After the radiologist's report noted some unusual liver findings, the possibility of primary sclerosing cholangitis came up.
The illness is a potential culprit due in part to the fact that I have Crohn's disease. While PSC is a sobering illness, the discovery that this rare liver disease is a distinct illness rather than a complication of IBD is somehow heartening as I search for the precise cause of my discomfort.
Vonda J. Sines has published thousands of print and online health and medical articles. She specializes in diseases and other conditions that affect the quality of life.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/study-defines-between-rare-liver-disease-ibd-151300553.html
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Sea disputes, NKorea in spotlight at ASEAN summit
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei (AP) ? Worried that long-seething rifts could escalate over the South China Sea, Southeast Asian leaders are expected this week to press China to agree to start negotiations on a new pact aimed at thwarting a major clash in one of the world's busiest waterways.
Concern over North Korea's latest threats is also expected to gain attention over economic issues in the annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, being held Wednesday and Thursday in Brunei's capital of Bandar Seri Begawan.
The 10-nation bloc is scrambling to beat a deadline to transform the strikingly diverse region of 600 million people into a European Union-like community by the end of 2015.
About 77 percent of the work to turn the bustling region into a single market and production base, first laid out in a 2007 blueprint, have been done, according to a draft statement to be issued after the summit. The document did not detail what still needed to be done.
The statement, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press on Monday, would reaffirm the ASEAN leaders' commitment to ensure the peaceful resolution of South China Sea conflicts in accordance with international law "without resorting to the threat or use of force."
They would call for "the early adoption of a code of conduct in the South China Sea," referring to a legally binding pact ASEAN would like to forge with China to replace a 2002 nonaggression accord that has failed to stop territorial skirmishes.
China, Taiwan and ASEAN members Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam have overlapping claims across the South China Sea, which Beijing claims in its entirety. The Philippines and Vietnam in particular have been at odds with China over the region in recent years, with diplomatic squabbles erupting over oil and gas exploration and fishing rights.
A tense standoff last year between Chinese and Filipino ships over the fishing-rich Scarborough Shoal is unresolved.
The Philippine vessels withdrew, but China has refused to pull out its three surveillance ships and remove a rope blocking Filipino fishermen from a Scarborough lagoon.
In January, the Philippines challenged China's massive territorial claims before an arbitration tribunal under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in a daring legal step that China has ignored. The tribunal has to appoint three more of five arbiters by Thursday, then start looking into the complaint if it decides it has jurisdiction.
A pre-summit meeting by ASEAN foreign ministers in Brunei two weeks ago was dominated by concerns over the territorial disputes and ended with a call for an early conclusion of a nonaggression pact with China, Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said.
But Chinese officials have not clearly indicated when they would be ready to discuss the proposed accord.
The territorial issue has threatened ASEAN's unity. Cambodia, a China ally, refused to have the issue mentioned in a post-ministerial statement when it hosted the meetings last year. That drew protests from Vietnam and the Philippines, and ASEAN ended up not issuing an after-conference communique for the first time in the bloc's 45-year history.
China has steadfastly refused to bring the disputes to the international arena, preferring to negotiate one on one with each rival claimant. It has also warned Washington not to intervene in the disputes.
ASEAN, founded in 1967 as a bulwark against communism in the Cold War era, has often been caught in the crosscurrents of major conflicts. Currently, the bloc is walking a tightrope between a rising China and an America that is reasserting its status as an Asia-Pacific power.
Both wield tremendous influence on ASEAN, which has become a battleground for political and security clout and export markets.
Defense forces from all of ASEAN, along with eight other countries that include the United States and China, would hold for the first time three-day disaster response drills in Brunei in June to foster confidence among the multinational troops, the draft summit statement said.
Brunei's publicity-shy leader, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, has led the tedious legwork to avoid any major hitch in the ASEAN summits his tiny but oil-rich kingdom hosts this year.
He has separately met with President Barack Obama and Chinese leader Xi Jinping ahead of this week's summit. Last week, Bolkiah flew to Manila, partly to discuss the summit agenda with Philippine President Benigno Aquino III.
When his gleaming Royal Brunei Air plane taxied to a red-carpet welcome at Manila's airport, Philippine officials saw Bolkiah, who also heads his country's defense forces, at the pilot's seat.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sea-disputes-nkorea-spotlight-asean-summit-045423143.html
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Monday, April 22, 2013
Honor among (credit card) thieves?
Apr. 22, 2013 ? A Michigan State University criminologist dug into the seamy underbelly of online credit card theft and uncovered a surprisingly sophisticated network of crooks that is unique in the cybercrime domain.
The thieves, Thomas Holt found, run an online marketplace for stolen credit data similar to eBay or Amazon where reputations drive sales. Thieves sell data and money laundering services, advertised via web forums, and send and receive payments electronically or through an intermediary. They even provide feedback on transactions to help weed out sellers who cannot be trusted to deliver the illegal goods.
Holt's study, funded by the National Institute of Justice, is published in the research journal Global Crime.
"These aren't just 15-year-olds stealing credit card info online and using it to buy pornography," said Holt, associate professor of criminal justice. "These are thieves who come to trust one another. There's a layer of sophistication here that can't be understated, that's very different than what we think about with other forms of crime."
First, credit card information is stolen from an individual or group. Tactics can include hacking into the database of a bank, retailer or other service provider; sending emails to consumers masquerading as a bank to acquire sensitive details such as usernames and passwords (called phishing); and skimming. Examples of skimming include attaching a hard-to-spot device on an ATM machine or a crooked waiter who wears an electronic belt that can capture a card's details.
The thief then advertises his haul in an online forum, with details such as card type, country of origin and asking price. Holt said a Visa Classic card, for example, might go for $5 to $20 per card, with a price discount for buying large amounts of data.
The winning buyer finalizes the deal online and sends the money through an electronic payment service. If the seller isn't known or trusted, a middleman, called a guarantor, is used to assure the data is good before payment is sent -- minus a fee.
For the buyers, there is any number of illicit service providers to then help them make purchases in a way that doesn't raise suspicion or to pull money directly from the accounts -- minus a fee.
All of this is done in a rather democratic fashion -- unlike, say, the hierarchical structure of the mafia, said Holt, who monitored two English-language and two Russian-language forums for the study.
Some policymakers have called for flooding the online forums with bogus comments in an attempt to build mistrust and bring them down. But Holt said this strategy won't necessarily work for organized forums with managers who can monitor and remove comments as in the forums he sampled.
A better strategy, he said, might be for law enforcement authorities to infiltrate the sophisticated networks with a long-term undercover operation. It's a challenge, but one that might be more effective than other strategies called for by researchers.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Michigan State University.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Thomas J. Holt. Exploring the social organisation and structure of stolen data markets. Global Crime, 2013; : 1 DOI: 10.1080/17440572.2013.787925
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/5O3UUeCXaoM/130422111244.htm
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Shoot Stable Smartphone Video with a Mason Jar
There are a few different ways to mount your smartphone to a tripod, but they won't do you any good if you don't own a tripod in the first place. If you need some stable video in a pinch, just reach for a mason jar and some elastic bands.
Trevor at Five Gallon Ideas shares this janky-but-useful setup. He suggests tying two elastic hair ties to opposite ends of a thick rubber band. You can stretch the hair ties around the top and bottom of a mason jar, and then use the rubber band to hold the phone in place. Once it's secure, just set the jar down and hit record. Unfortunately, this solution won't let you easily adjust the angle of the phone up or down, but you could wedge a piece of cork or some folded up paper between the screen and the jar to tilt the camera slightly.
Of course, if you do have a tripod handy, you might be better off using a car mount or binder clip to attach your phone for some more filming flexibility.
iPhone Tripod | Five Gallon Ideas
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Thursday, April 11, 2013
Google's Android target of new antitrust complaint
BRUSSELS (AP) ? A group of companies led by Microsoft have called on European authorities to launch an antitrust investigation into Google's dominance of Internet usage on mobile devices.
The complaint comes from the "FairSearch" initiative of 17 companies, including Microsoft Corp., Nokia Corp., and Oracle Corp. The group claims that Google is acting unfairly by requiring device makers using its free Android operating system to bundle an entire suite of Google's services to ensure they can include just one or two "must-have" apps, such as Google Maps and YouTube.
"Google is using its Android mobile operating system as a Trojan horse to deceive partners, monopolize the mobile marketplace and control consumer data," said Thomas Vinje, the group's Brussels-based lawyer.
Google does allow smartphone and tablet makers to sculpt Android to serve their own needs. In some instances, that has led to Android modifications that exclude Google's services. For instance, Amazon.com Inc. has largely locked out Google from its popular line of Kindle Fire tablets. There also have been periodic instances of Android smartphones with either Microsoft's Bing or Yahoo rather than Google as the built-in search engine.
Android operating systems are installed on about 70 percent of new smartphones, according to analyst estimates, handing Google the largest market share worldwide. Makers of Android devices include Samsung Electronics Co. and HTC Corp. Android is followed by Apple's iOS system, which powers the iPhone and the iPad. Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry, Microsoft's Windows and others trail far behind.
"Google's predatory distribution of Android at below-cost makes it difficult for other providers of operating systems to recoup investments in competing with Google's dominant mobile platform," FairSearch said in a statement.
The European Commission, the 27-nation bloc's executive arm and antitrust authority, must decide at some point whether to take up the case or drop it. A spokesman confirmed the complaint had been received.
Google Inc., which is based in Mountain View, California, did not address the complaint's charges in detail. "We continue to work cooperatively with the European Commission," Google spokesman Al Verney said.
The U.S. company is already under investigation by Brussels for practices related to its dominance of the online search and advertising markets.
That complaint, launched in 2010, alleges that Google unfairly favors its own services in its Internet search results, which enjoy a near-monopoly in Europe. Google has proposed a list of remedies to address the Commission's concerns to achieve a settlement. The Commission is currently examining the proposed changes.
"We have received some proposals by Google and we will soon launch a market test" of the proposed remedies, said Antoine Colombani, a spokesman for EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia. He declined to speculate on when the investigation would be concluded.
The EU Commission has often taken a harder line with U.S. tech companies than its American counterparts, the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department.
Google settled a similar antitrust complaint on its search business with the FTC in January without making any major concessions on how it runs its search engine, the world's most influential gateway to digital information and commerce.
Microsoft, which has been a leading player in the complaints against Google, has had its own protracted run-ins with the EU Commission. The Redmond, Washington, company has paid 2.2 billion euros in various fines since investigations began in 1998.
The FairSearch complaint was announced on the same day that Microsoft launched the latest phase of its U.S. ad campaign. That campaign depicts Google as a duplicitous company more interested in increasing profits and power than protecting people's privacy and providing unbiased search results.
Google's new privacy rules, meanwhile, are also attracting the scrutiny of European authorities. Several data privacy regulators have launched an investigation, alleging the company is creating a data goldmine at the expense of unwitting users.
Last year, the company merged 60 separate privacy policies from around the world into one universal document. The European authorities complain that the new policy doesn't allow users to figure out which information is kept, how it is combined by Google services or how long the company retains it.
The policy allows Google to combine data collected as one person uses multiple Google's services, from Gmail to YouTube, giving the company a powerful tool for targeting users with advertising based on their interests and search history. Advertising is the main way the company makes its money.
___
Toby Sterling in Amsterdam and Michael Liedtke in San Francisco contributed reporting.
___
Follow Juergen Baetz on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/jbaetz
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/googles-android-target-antitrust-complaint-124420401--finance.html
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Sea lion boogies down, overturns theory (+video)
Ronan, a California sea lion with a knack for keeping a beat, challenges theories about the nature of rhythmic ability.?
One of our resident sea lions, Ronan, is the first non-human mammal shown able to find and keep the beat with musical stimuli. This challenges earlier evidence from humans and parrots suggesting that complex vocal mimicry is a necessary precondition for flexible rhythmic entrainment.If you're like most people, the last time you threw a dance party you invited only humans, cockatoos, parrots, and parakeets.?
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Which makes perfect sense, because the only animals capable of keeping a beat, as far as anyone knew, were mimicking birds and (some) humans.
But new research suggests that for your next interspecies soir?e, you might need to fill a kiddie pool and stock your fridge with herring, because it turns out that sea lions may also show a sense of rhythm.?
Researchers at the Pinniped Cognition & Sensory Systems Laboratory at the University of California, Santa Cruz's Long Marine Laboratory, trained Ronan, a 4-year-old California sea lion, to bob her head in time with music. It is the first time a nonhuman mammal has been observed keeping a beat.
Before Ronan danced her way onto the scene, animal behaviorists were beginning to agree that keeping a beat ? "rhythmic entrainment" in science-speak ? was in some way a byproduct of neural adaptations that allow vocal mimicry. Inspired by popular YouTube videos of Snowball, a sulfur-crested cockatoo getting down to the Backstreet Boys' "Everybody" and Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust," researchers conducted an extensive search of the video database to find that every example of beat keeping, as far as they could tell, was done either by mimicking birds or humans. (It's mostly humans, actually. And most aren't very good.) ?
But Ronan changes all that. "The idea was that beat keeping is a fortuitous side effect of adaptations for vocal mimicry, which requires matching incoming auditory signals with outgoing vocal behavior," said lead researcher Peter Cook, in a university press release.
"It's understandable why that theory was attractive. But the fact is our sea lion has gotten really good at keeping the beat. Our finding represents a cautionary note for an idea that was really starting to take hold in the field of comparative psychology."
Now Ronan has a viral video of her own. Watch as she grooves to Earth, Wind & Fire's 1979 hit, "Boogie Wonderland," and then, later in the video, the Backstreet Boys' 1997 song, "Everybody." The researchers also trained Ronan to bob her head to Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Down on the Corner."?
Ronan, notes Mr. Cook in the press release, actually stays on the beat better than birds who have been trained to do so. And he suspects that brain structures for keeping a beat might be widespread throughout the animal kingdom.?
"Human musical ability may in fact have foundations that are shared with animals," Cook said. "People have assumed that animals lack these abilities. In some cases, people just hadn't looked."
Exactly what those brain structures are, however, is still anybody's guess. The paper says that Ronan's behavior is consistent with "some sort of neural oscillation mechanism with a preferred endogenous rate being driven by an external rhythm."?
If that's the case, and if these mechanisms are present in humans as well, then Cook and his team may have helped figure out what, in the most literal sense, makes us tick. ?
The research appears in the current issue of the American Psychological Association's Journal of Comparative Psychology. ?
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Video: Herbalife Shares Reopen For Trading
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Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/video/cnbc/51479101/
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Google Play Music spreads to Australia, New Zealand and five European nations
Google has been on something of a tear spreading its Google Play media services around the world; don't look now, but it's picking up the pace. The search giant is expanding Google Play Music today to cover Australia, Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Portugal. That small deluge of new countries can now shop for their favorite tunes as well as store up to 20,000 of them online for streaming, either on the web or on Android devices. Large swaths of the world remain uncovered by the service -- ahem, Canada -- but we'll still welcome a big step toward cloud music for everyone.
[Thanks, Chris]
Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Mobile, Google
Source: Google Play (Google+)
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/xbLGgXZc1YY/
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Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Instashare review: Transfer files between your iPhone, iPad, and Mac instantly
Instashare lets you quickly and easily transfer video files, music files, PDF presentations, and more between iPhone, iPad, and Mac over local Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth. There's no pairing or fancy setup needed. As long as two or more devices are running Instashare in the same area, you're good to go.
When you launch Instashare you're taken through a quick tutorial of how to use it. Afterwards, you're ready to start transferring files. Instashare supports both WiFi and Bluetooth transfers. That means if both of your devices have Bluetooth functionality, you don't even have to be connected to the internet in order to share files wirelessly. To share an app from Instashare for iPhone and iPad, just find the file you'd like to share via your camera roll (photo or video) and hold down and drag. You'll be automatically taken to the transfer screen where you can drop it to whatever device you'd like.
There are certain apps such as document and media apps that have share buttons. You should also see a send to Instashare option which will automatically launch the file sharing option and let you choose a device you want to share it with. The Mac version of Instashare is a free download from the Instashare website. It will basically sit in your task bar where you can drag files directly to it. While Instashare does support all file types, I have noticed that larger files sometimes time out during transfer and I'm not sure why this is. I experienced it frequently when trying to transfer audio or video files from iPhone to Mac.
Once you've received files from another device with Instashare you can view them natively inside Instashare or choose to save them or share them wherever you'd like. If you have any third party apps installed that support those specific file types, Instashare will also give you the option to open them directly within that app. For example, if you're viewing share options for a photo and have photo editing apps installed, you'll see an option to open them directly within that app.
The good
- Bluetooth support means you don't even have to be connected to the internet to share files
- You can easily add and remove trusted devices within settings whenever you'd like
- Supports any file type, not just photos or videos
The bad
- Seems to have trouble transferring larger files resulting in time outs or errors
- When sending multiple files at once, they show up in one bulk upload that you have to scroll through
- Sometimes devices that are within the network or paired don't show up correctly
The bottom line
Many people have wished for OS X AirDrop to come to Mac. It hasn't yet. Meanwhile, Instashare is shaping up to be a great way to share all kinds of files between iPhone, iPad, and Mac but it isn't quite there yet. The amount of errors, timeouts, and strange UI bugs I experienced would keep me from using it as a dedicated file sharing service. For the time being, an option like Droplr that also offers link shortening services is probably a better one.
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/wiK6ZxMaqe8/story01.htm
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Microsoft leak details plans for two-step authentication process
Smoke goes up. Lights fade. The crowd roars. It's 2003, and the Dave Matthews Band is about to perform what would go on to become the theme song for security processes the world over a decade later. Weird visualizations aside, it sure seems as if two-step authentication has become all the rage these days. With Google implementing the process in 2011, both Apple and Dropbox have followed, and Evernote has made clear that it's going to join the fray as soon as feasible. Now, leaked imagery is demonstrating that Microsoft might not be far behind, with a two-step verification process evidently planned for its online services.
As you'd expect, the process should work pretty simply once it's instituted -- you'll need to enable two-step on your account, and then use an app on your mobile device to retrieve randomized keys when logging into a computer that's not on your trusted device list. Notably, the process isn't expected to work with linked accounts, and while a Windows Phone app appears to already be floating about, there's no word on whether Android, BlackBerry or iOS users will receive the same courtesy. Till then, keep your passwords guarded. And, of course, watch the video embedded after the break.
Filed under: Software, Microsoft
Source: LiveSide, Windows Phone Store
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/09/microsoft-leak-details-plans-for-two-step-authentication-process/
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Monday, April 8, 2013
Despite threats, risks temper Korea war tensions
FILE - In this Feb. 7, 2013 file photo, an unidentified U.S. Marine from 3-Marine Expeditionary Force 1st Battalion from Kaneho Bay, Hawaii, aims his gun during a joint military winter exercise with their South Korean counterparts in Pyeongchang, east of Seoul, South Korea. As tensions rise on the Korean Peninsula, one thing remains certain: All sides have good reason to avoid an all-out war. The last one, six decades ago, killed an estimated 4 million people. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)
FILE - In this Feb. 7, 2013 file photo, an unidentified U.S. Marine from 3-Marine Expeditionary Force 1st Battalion from Kaneho Bay, Hawaii, aims his gun during a joint military winter exercise with their South Korean counterparts in Pyeongchang, east of Seoul, South Korea. As tensions rise on the Korean Peninsula, one thing remains certain: All sides have good reason to avoid an all-out war. The last one, six decades ago, killed an estimated 4 million people. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)
A North Korean man walks past propaganda posters in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Tuesday, March 26, 2013, that threaten punishment to the "U.S. imperialists and their allies." The U.S. recently tightened sanctions against North Korea after Pyongyang tested a nuclear device in February in defiance of international bans against atomic activity. (AP Photo/Kim Kwang Hyon)
FILE - In this April 4, 2013 file photo, soldiers of the U.S. Army 23rd chemical battalion carry a U.S. and South Korean flag during a ceremony to recognize the battalion's official return to the 2nd Infantry Division based in South Korea at Camp Stanley in Uijeongbu, north of Seoul. As tensions rise on the Korean Peninsula, one thing remains certain: All sides have good reason to avoid an all-out war. The last one, six decades ago, killed an estimated 4 million people. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)
FILE - In this April 5, 2013 file photo, South Korean army reservists salute while denouncing North Korea for their escalating threat of war, during their Foundation Day ceremony at a gymnasium in Seoul, South Korea. As tensions rise on the Korean Peninsula, one thing remains certain: All sides have good reason to avoid an all-out war. The last one, six decades ago, killed an estimated 4 million people. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)
TOKYO (AP) ? As tensions rise on the Korean Peninsula, one thing remains certain: All sides have good reason to avoid an all-out war. The last one, six decades ago, killed an estimated 4 million people.
A war would be suicidal for North Korea, which cannot expect to defeat the United States and successfully overrun South Korea. War would be horrific for the other side as well. South Korea could suffer staggering casualties. The U.S. would face a destabilized major ally, possible but unlikely nuclear or chemical weapons attacks on its forward-positioned bases, and dramatically increased tensions with North Korea's neighbor and Korean War ally, China.
Here's a look at the precarious balance of power that has kept the Korean Peninsula so close to conflict since the three-year war ended in 1953, and some of the strategic calculus behind why, despite the shrill rhetoric and seemingly reckless saber-rattling, leaders on both sides of the Demilitarized Zone have carefully avoided going back over the brink.
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THE SEA OF FIRE
Even without nuclear weapons, North Korea has an ace in the hole. Most experts believe its claims to have enough conventional firepower from its artillery units to devastate the greater Seoul area, South Korea's bustling capital of 24 million. Such an attack would cause severe casualties ? often estimated in the hundreds of thousands ? in a very short period of time.
Many of these artillery batteries are already in place, dug in and very effectively camouflaged, which means that U.S. and South Korean forces cannot count on being able to take them out before they strike. Experts believe about 60 percent of North Korea's military assets are positioned relatively close to the Demilitarized Zone separating the countries.
North Korea's most threatening weapons are its 170 mm Koksan artillery guns, which are 14 meters long and can shoot conventional mortar ammunition 40 kilometers (25 miles). That's not quite enough to reach Seoul, which is 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the DMZ. But if they use rocket-assisted projectiles, the range increases to about 60 kilometers (37 miles). Chemical weapons fired from these guns could cause even greater mayhem.
North Korea experts Victor Cha and David Kang posted on the website of Foreign Policy magazine late last month that the North can fire 500,000 rounds of artillery on Seoul in the first hour of a conflict.
Even so, not everyone believes North Korea could make good on its "sea of fire" threats. Security expert Roger Cavazos, a former U.S. Army officer, wrote in a report for the Nautilus Institute last year that, among other things, North Korea's big guns have a high rate of firing duds, pose more of a threat to Seoul's less populated outer suburbs, and would be vulnerable to counterattack as soon as they start firing and reveal their location.
"North Korea occasionally threatens to "turn Seoul into a Sea of Fire," he wrote. "But can North Korea really do this? ... The short answer is they can't; but they can kill many tens of thousands of people, start a larger war and cause a tremendous amount of damage before ultimately losing their regime."
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FIRST STRIKES, PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKES
This is what both sides say concerns them the most.
North Korea says it is developing nuclear weapons and long-range missiles as a deterrent to keep the United States or South Korea from attacking it first. The reasoning is that Washington will not launch a pre-emptive strike if North Korea has a good chance of getting off an immediate ? and devastating ? response of its own.
Along with its artillery aimed at Seoul and other targets in South Korea, North Korea is developing the capacity to deploy missiles that are mobile, thus easier to move or hide. North Korea already has Rodong missiles that have ? on paper at least ? a range of about 1,300 kilometers (800 miles), enough to reach several U.S. military bases in Japan. Along with 28,000 troops in South Korea, the U.S. has 50,000 troops based in Japan.
North Korea is not believed to be capable of making a nuclear weapon small enough to fit on a long-range missile capable of hitting the United States. But physicist David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, believes it may be capable of mounting nuclear warheads on Rodongs. In any case, Pyongyang is continuing to pursue advancements, apparently out of the belief that it needs nuclear-tipped missiles capable of reaching the U.S. to have a credible deterrent.
The United States rejects the North's claim that such a deterrent is necessary, saying it does not intend to launch pre-emptive strikes against North Korea. At the same time, Washington has made it clear that it could.
During ongoing Foal Eagle military maneuvers in South Korea, two U.S. B-2 strategic stealth bombers, flying from their base in Missouri, conducted a mock bombing run on a South Korean range. The B-2 is capable of carrying nuclear weapons, precision bombs that could take out specific targets such as North Korean government buildings, and massive conventional bombs designed to penetrate deep into the ground to destroy North Korean tunnels and dug-in military positions. One big problem, however, is determining where the targets are.
Amid heightened tensions over North Korea's nuclear weapons program in 1994, President Bill Clinton reportedly considered a pre-emptive strike, but decided the risks were too high.
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CHINA'S DILEMMA
Without China, North Korea wouldn't exist. The Chinese fought alongside the North Koreans in the Korean War and have propped up Pyongyang with economic aid ever since.
Beijing has grown frustrated with Pyongyang, especially over its nuclear program. China and the U.S. worked together in drafting a U.N. resolution punishing the North for its Feb. 12 nuclear test.
But China still has valid reasons not to want the regime to suddenly collapse.
War in Korea would likely spark a massive exodus of North Korean civilians along its porous 1,300-kilometer (800-mile) border, which in turn could lead to a humanitarian crisis or unrest that the Chinese government would have to deal with. The fall of North Korea could pave the way for the United States to establish military bases closer to Chinese territory, or the creation of a unified Korea over which Beijing might have less influence.
China, the world's second-largest economy, also has significant trade with South Korea and the United States. Turmoil on the Korean Peninsula would harm the economies of all three countries.
Patrick Cronin, an Asia expert at the Center for a New American Security and a senior State Department official during the George W. Bush administration, said Beijing is helping set up back-channel negotiations with North Korea to ease the tensions. But he warned that the U.S. isn't likely to win China over as a reliable partner against North Korea beyond the current flare-up.
"There are limits to how far China and the U.S. have coincidental interests with regard to North Korea," he said.
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Bad weather behind asparagus price hike - The Local
The endless winter has left Germany in a bad mood, and now the asparagus lovers among them have another thing to complain about after it emerged the cold weather will raise their price and delay the season.
Meteorologists warned that a ?perfect sunny and warm spring day? might not be in the cards for next week but ?an improvement is in sight.?
This should be welcome news for the country?s farmers ? especially those preparing for the upcoming asparagus crop, an annual even in Germany when white asparagus fills shops in April for several weeks.
The delicacy is often served with boiled potatoes and butter and is an annual sign of spring.
But this year consumers can expect the sought-after-vegetable to arrive a bit later and be more expensive than last year, according to Joachim Rukwied, president of the German Farmers Association.
?In principle we are three to four weeks later with our spring work and vegetation,? he said, blaming the delay on the freezing temperatures.
When it comes to asparagus, farmers are having to spend a lot more on keeping the crop warm - and the delicacy will carry a corresponding price tag, he said. He did not specify how much more expensive it might be and added that it is unclear if other field crops will also be more expensive.
The Local/DAPD/mw
Source: http://www.thelocal.de/national/20130406-48963.html
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Kerry struggles to get Turkey to mend Israel ties
ISTANBUL (AP) ? U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry struggled Sunday to convince Turkey's leaders they should promptly restore full diplomatic ties with Israel, two American allies counted on by President Barack Obama to help calm the turbulent Middle East.
But Turkey demanded that Israel first end all commercial restrictions against the Palestinians before the once-close partners could end their estrangement, which stems from an Israeli raid in 2010 on a flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip. Eight Turks and a Turkish-American died.
Obama revived the rapprochement during a visit to Israel last month, and Kerry aimed to firm that up in Istanbul, the first stop in a 10-day trip.
The stakes are high, given that the U.S. sees Turkey and Israel as anchors of stability in a region riven by Syria's civil war, Arab Spring political upheavals and the potential threat posed by Iran's nuclear program.
"We would like to see this relationship that is important to stability in the Middle East and critical to the peace process ... get back on track in its full measure," Kerry told reporters at a news conference with Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.
Kerry said that meant promises of "compensation be fulfilled, ambassadors be returned and that full relationship be embraced."
He also met with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and then went to Israel.
Obama, before leaving Israel two weeks ago, arranged a telephone conversation between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Erdogan. Netanyahu apologized for the flotilla incident; compensation talks are expected to begin this week.
But Davutoglu suggested that full normalization of ties would probably take some time.
"There is an offense that has been committed and there needs to be accountability," Davutoglu said.
He signaled that Turkey would pursue a "careful" advance toward a complete restoration of relations, with compensation and an end to Israeli trade restrictions on the Gaza Strip as the stumbling blocks.
"All of the embargoes should be eliminated once and for all," he said through an interpreter.
Fixing the relationship long has been a goal of the Obama administration, and the U.S. desperately wants significant progress by the time Erdogan visits the White House in mid-May.
The Turks have reveled somewhat in what they view as a diplomatic victory, with billboards in Ankara celebrating Netanyahu's apology and praising Erdogan for bringing pride to his country.
Perhaps seeking to add to his leverage, Erdogan indicated shortly after the call that he was in no hurry to finalize the deal and pledged to visit the Hamas-controlled Palestinian territory soon.
From a U.S. strategic sense, cooperation between the American allies has only become more important as Syria's 2-year conflict has grown ever deadlier.
More than 70,000 people have died in the war, according to the United Nations, but the U.S. fears it could get even worse, by spilling into neighboring countries or through the use of chemical weapons.
Both potential scenarios have led to intense contingency planning among Washington and its regional partners, including Israel and Turkey.
Kerry, who noted his twice-weekly telephone chats with Davutoglu, spoke of shared U.S. and Turkish efforts to support Syria's opposition coalition.
The opposition has suffered from poor coordination between its political leadership and the military factions leading the fight against the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, and from intense infighting among those who seek to guide the amorphous movement's overall strategy.
Turkey has gone further than the U.S. in its assistance, accepting some 180,000 Syrians as refugees and sending advanced weaponry to rebels fighting to overthrow Assad.
The U.S. is only providing nonlethal aid to the rebels in the form of meals, medical kits and training.
Kerry praised Turkey for its generosity toward refugees and commitment to keeping its borders open, an issue of growing U.S. concern as the outflow of Syrians stretches the capacities of neighboring countries to accommodate them.
"The United States and Turkey will continue cooperating toward the shared goal of a peaceful transition in Syria," he said.
After arriving in Israel for his trip there in two weeks, Kerry went directly to the West Bank city of Ramallah, where he met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
He planned to see Netanyahu and other senior Israeli and Palestinian officials Monday and Tuesday as part of a fresh American bid to unlock the long-stalled Middle East peace process.
Conversations in Israel will also cover shared U.S. and Israeli concerns over Iran's nuclear program.
Representatives from the U.S. and other world powers met the Islamic republic in Kazakhstan for another round of negotiations, but no breakthrough was announced on a proposed deal that would see international penalties eased on Iran if Tehran convinces the world that it is not trying to develop nuclear weapons.
Kerry said the "door is still open" for a negotiated agreement, but that the onus was on the Iranians.
"If you have a peaceful program for nuclear power, as a number of nations do, it's not hard to prove that," he said. "They have chosen not to live up to the international requirements and standards with respect to verification of their program."
The other stops on his trip are Britain, South Korea, China and Japan. He returns to Washington on April 15.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kerry-struggles-turkey-mend-israel-ties-182253810--politics.html
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Saturday, April 6, 2013
Military court charges soldier with murder in Fort Knox shooting
(Reuters) - A U.S. soldier was charged in military court with murder and aggravated assault for the shooting death of a civilian employee at the Fort Knox military base in Kentucky, the Army said on Friday.
Sergeant Marquinta Jacobs, 36, was taken into custody in Tennessee on Thursday, a day after the shooting in a parking lot forced a temporary lock down at the base near Louisville.
A federal magistrate judge ordered Jacobs transferred to military custody on Friday and dismissed an initial federal complaint accusing the sergeant of murder.
According to a Federal Bureau of Investigation affidavit that was attached to the federal complaint, Jacobs argued with the victim, then shot him several times.
Jacobs is charged with killing Lloyd Gilbert, 51, who had worked for the U.S. Army Human Resources Command at Fort Knox since 2004 and had previously served as a human resources specialist in the Army.
Army officials have said the shooting was not an act of random violence, but they have not disclosed a motive.
Jacobs will be held pending a military investigation similar to a civilian grand jury that will determine whether to proceed to a court martial, the Army said.
Jacobs enlisted in June 2004 and has been assigned to Fort Knox since October 2009, the Army said.
He fled in a pickup truck, which he left at his house near the base, then rode off on a motorcycle that was found more than 100 miles away at his mother's house in Portland, Tennessee, the affidavit said. He was taken into custody in Portland.
The shooting on Wednesday evening at Fort Knox, home to more than 40,000 U.S. military personnel, family members and civilian employees, came less than two weeks after a U.S. Marine shot dead two colleagues at a Virginia base.
(Reporting by David Bailey in Minneapolis and Tim Ghianni in Nashville; Editing by Toni Reinhold)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-military-court-charges-soldier-murder-fort-knox-213506015.html
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Apple to change behavior of VPN On Demand for iOS
Apple will be changing how VPN On Demand for iOS works due to a lawsuit by VirnetX. iOS devices running 6.1 or later that have VPN On Demand set to ?Always? will now behave as though they were set to ?Establish if needed?. The device will only use a VPN On Demand connection when it is necessary. This change will be made with an update at some point this month.
Apple says that they plan to address the functionality lost by this change with alternatives that will come in a future software update. If you currently use VPN On Demand, Apple suggests that you prepare for the change by creating a new VPN profile set to ?Establish if needed? that is otherwise identical to your current profile in order to see how this change will impact you.
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/uq79YJFJ7Us/story01.htm
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