Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2011/10/31/win-a-free-custom-photo-book-from-inkubook/
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Monday, October 31, 2011
Win a Free Custom Photo Book from Inkubook
The nice folks over?at Inkubook.com have been kind enough to?give us a coupon code? for a free custom photo book that we are going to give away to one lucky gadgeteer reader.?Inkubook offers both soft and hardcovered photo books (check out our review), along with calendars, photo cards and other products. The winner can use [...]
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Headphones Deserve Monoblock Tube Amps Too [Audio]
Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/SxBBYZI_oVs/a-monoblock-tube-ampfor-headphones
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Want $50,000? Read these shredded messages
DARPA
The $50,000 DARPA Shredder Challenge calls on participants to reconstruct handwritten messages that have been shredded beyond recognition, including this one.
By Alan Boyle
DARPA's latest tech challenge is offering $50,000 for a task?worthy of secret agents: piecing together messages that have been shredded into?thousands of bits.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Pentagon think tank that previously brought you?multimillion-dollar robo-car races and a nationwide hunt for red balloons, put five ripped-up puzzles online today to kick off its Shredder Challenge. If someone wins, and I'm betting that someone will, that would be good news and bad news for the Defense Department ? and for folks like you and me.
"The goal is to identify and assess potential capabilities that could be used by our warfighters operating in war zones, but might also create vulnerabilities to sensitive information that is protected through our own shredding practices throughout the U.S. national security community," DARPA said in its contest announcement.
Here's how the contest works: Participants register via?the Shredder Challenge?website, and then download five bunches of files that are essentially screenshots of shredded-up documents, plus instructions. They'll have to figure out how to put the documents back together, either by using computer analysis or by?matching up itty-bitty pieces of printouts. Then they'll have to?send DARPA an email with scans of the completed puzzles, the answers to questions about each puzzle ... and an explanation of the reasoning process that led to the solution.
Each of the puzzles carries a point value, and an online leader board will track the scores of the?top contestants. DARPA will announce the winner and the amount of the prize awarded on Dec. 5, based on the points earned as well as the time stamps for submissions.
Hundreds sign up
"We are all pretty excited about this one," Dan Kaufman, director of the Information Innovation Office, told me in an email. So are puzzle fans:?Soon after?the competition opened, DARPA warned in a Twitter update that, "due to interest in the Shredder Challenge, there may be a delay accessing" the puzzle website. The Web traffic jam eased?once DARPA beefed up its bandwidth.
Kaufman said this afternoon that "registrations were at 240 when I last checked, and not slowing down."
When I spoke with Kaufman, he said no one had yet submitted an entry. He couldn't predict whether it would take hours or days for puzzle sleuths to submit solutions. That's what makes the exercise interesting.
Kaufman's a?veteran of 2009's Red Balloon Challenge, which asked participants to figure out the locations of 10 red balloons scattered around the country. He recalled that there was similar uncertainty about the outcome back then: "We were torn between 'It will never be solved' and 'Somebody's gotta solve this.'"
It turned out that researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab figured out the locations in just under nine hours, winning $40,000 in the process. A research paper published this week in the journal Science laid out the MIT team's winning strategy: a system of "recursive incentives" that promised payoffs for those who?discovered the balloons, as well as those who recruited the discoverers.
MIT's Alexander Pentland?and his colleagues said the recursive-reward arrangement could be used for life-and-death searches ? for example, to look for a missing child, a criminal at large or the survivors of a natural?disaster.
Good news, bad news
Kaufman told me that the winner of the Shredder Challenge may well use a method that DARPA's own researchers haven't thought of. Such?methods could be used to read documents that have been shredded by the bad guys, such as al-Qaida operatives in Afghanistan. "Currently, this process is much too slow and too labor-intensive, particularly if the documents are hand-written," Kaufman said in a news release. "We are looking to the Shredder Challenge to generate some leap-ahead thinking in this area."
Better message-demangling?methods?also could be used by?bad guys to reconstruct financial statements, credit card reports and other sensitive documents that consumers thought had been safely disposed of.
"I'm concerned about the privacy implications," my colleague at msnbc.com's Red Tape Chronicles, Bob Sullivan, told me today.
Kaufman acknowledged that the contest's outcome might make?you feel less secure about what happens to their shredded documents. But if that's the case, it's better to know that up front instead of burying your head in the sand. "I would say the 'ostrich defense' is not a good one," he told me.
Who knows? Maybe the first?thing to come out of DARPA's latest challenge will be a rush to buy shredders that grind paper into powder. What do you think? Weigh in with your comments below.
Other challenges from DARPA:
Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding me to your Google+ circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.
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Saturday, October 29, 2011
Blink-182's Mark Hoppus Recalls Roof Diving, On 'When I Was 17'
'It's a miracle that we're still here,' he says on latest episode, airing Saturday at 11 a.m. ET/PT on MTV.
By Lauren Kearney
Mark Hoppus appears on "When I Was 17"
Photo: MTV
On the next episode of "When I Was 17," Mark Hoppus, bassist for blink-182 and host of Fuse's "Hoppus on Music," sheds light on what his life was like before he was asking "What's my age again?"
Surprisingly (except not at all), he was as out of control back then as he is now, as he reveals on the episode, airing Saturday at 11 a.m. ET/PT.
"We were really smart as high-schoolers. We had a friend, his name was Dave, he had a two-story house, and in the backyard of his house was a pool. And his parents would leave for days at a time, so of course, Dave's a responsible guy, he wouldn't let anything bad happen. So we would jump off a second-story roof into the pool," admitted Hoppus, who just finished up on the Honda Civic Tour alongside My Chemical Romance. "We called it Acapulco cliff diving."
"It was definitely high enough so that if you jumped in, you had to turn your body as soon as possible so that you didn't eat your knees," he added.
While at first it started off safe — well, sort of — Acapulco cliff diving soon became more and more competitive as time went on.
"At first I think it was cannonballs and feet first, and then we'd one-up each other and by the end, people were doing flips. I definitely dove headfirst into this pool. It's a miracle that we're still here."
And a miracle it is, Mark. Because we can't imagine what life would have been like without some Blink-182.
Don't miss this week's episode of "When I Was 17," featuring Mark Hoppus, Sean Kingston and Tiffani Thiessen, at 11 a.m. Saturday on MTV.
Related Videos Related ArtistsSource: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1673368/blink-182-mark-hoppus-when-i-was-17.jhtml
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Friday, October 28, 2011
Obama taking on student loan relief Wednesday
President Barack Obama speaks at a campaign event at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011. Obama is on a three-day trip to the West Coast. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
President Barack Obama speaks at a campaign event at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011. Obama is on a three-day trip to the West Coast. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
In this Oct. 6, 2011 photo, Gan Golan, of Los Angeles, dressed as the "Master of Degrees," holds a ball and chain representing his college loan debt, during Occupy DC activities in Washington. As President Obama prepared to announce new measures Wednesday to help ease the burden of student loan debt, new figures painted a demoralizing picture of college costs for students and parents: Average in-state tuition and fees at four-year public colleges rose an additional $631 this fall, or 8.3 percent, compared with a year ago. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama is outlining a plan Wednesday to allow millions of student loan recipients to lower their payments and consolidate their loans, in hopes of easing the burden of the No. 2 source of household debt.
The move to assist struggling graduates and students could help Obama shore up re-election support among young voters, an important voting bloc in his 2008 campaign, and appeal to their parents, too. Student loan debt also is a common concern voiced by Occupy Wall Street protesters.
The loans have become particularly painful for many amid the nation's economic woes, high unemployment and soaring tuition costs. They are second only to mortgages as a portion of Americans' debt, coming in ahead of credit cards.
Obama's planned announcement in Denver comes the same day as a new report on tuition costs from the College Board. It shows average in-state tuition and fees at four-year public colleges rose $631 this fall, or 8.3 percent, compared with a year ago. Nationally, the cost of a full credit load has passed $8,000, an all-time high.
The White House said Obama will use his executive authority to provide student loan relief in two ways.
First, he will accelerate a measure passed by Congress that reduces the maximum required payment on student loans from 15 percent of discretionary income annually to 10 percent. The White House wants it to go into effect in 2012, instead of 2014. In addition, the White House says the remaining debt would be forgiven after 20 years, instead of 25. About 1.6 million borrowers could be affected.
Second, he will allow borrowers who have a loan from the Federal Family Education Loan Program and a direct loan from the government to consolidate them into one. The consolidated loan would carry an interest rate of up to a half percentage point less than before. This could affect 5.8 million borrowers.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan told reporters on a conference call that the changes could save some borrowers hundreds of dollars a month.
"These are real savings that will help these graduates get started in their careers and help them make ends meet," Duncan said.
The White House said the changes will carry no additional costs to taxpayers.
Last year, Congress passed a law that lowered the repayment cap and moved all student loans to direct lending by eliminating banks as the middlemen. Before that, borrowers could get loans directly from the government or from the Federal Family Education Loan Program; the latter were issued by private lenders but basically insured by the government. The law was passed along with the health care overhaul with the anticipation that it could save about $60 billion over a decade.
The law change was opposed by many Republicans. At a hearing Tuesday, Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., who chairs a subcommittee with oversight over higher education, said it had resulted in poorer customer service for borrowers. And Senate Republicans issued a news release with a compilation of headlines that showed thousands of workers in student lending, including those from Sallie Mae Inc., had been laid off because of the change.
Today, there are 23 million borrowers with $490 billion in loans under the Federal Family Education Loan Program. Last year, the Education Department made $102.2 billion in direct loans to 11.5 million recipients.
Increases in federal aid have helped ease the burden on students dealing with tuition increases, the White House Council of Economic Advisers said in a report Wednesday.
"Despite large increases in the published price of college over the past four years, the average student has not seen commensurate increases in the net price of college, defined as the published price minus grants, scholarships and tax benefits," the report said.
Meanwhile, the Education Department and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced a project Tuesday to simplify the financial aid award letters that colleges mail to students each spring. A common complaint is that colleges obscure the inclusion of student loans in financial aid packages to make their school appear more affordable, and the agencies hope families will more easily be able to compare the costs of colleges.
Separately, James Runcie, the Education Department's federal student aid chief operating officer, told Foxx's congressional panel that the personal financial details of as many 5,000 college students were temporarily viewable on the department's direct loan website earlier this month.
Runcie said site was shut down while the matter was resolved, and the affected students have been notified and offered credit monitoring.
___
Kimberly Hefling can be followed at http://twitter.com/khefling
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Populism is Obama's path to victory (The Week)
New York ? Critics berate the president for taking his inspiring new progressive message to the American people. But it's the critics who ought to be ashamed
The president must be doing something right. He's now getting advice (from all the wrong quarters) that he ought to stop standing up for the people, not the privileged. Of course, such arguments largely rest on pre-cast assumptions and self-serving calculations.
First out of the triangulating box was Clinton pollster Mark Penn, who wrote a remarkably data-free piece urging the president to draw back from dividing lines and retreat to formulaic centrism. In effect, Penn recommended a replay of the 1996 Clinton re-election campaign ? when, in a pre-Monica time of rising prosperity and job growth, the incumbent still couldn't manage 50 percent of the popular vote, and was left without a serious mandate for his second term. It was this same approach, cautious and at times almost contentless, that doomed Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic primaries. Voters were instead drawn to the cause and candidate of change. (She could have been that candidate, but it was too late when she finally embraced the populism Penn had disdained in the early contests.)
Fight on, Mr. President. You're renewing your voice and your vision, and America is beginning to hear you again as it did in 2008.
Now come the real Republicans to second and amplify Penn's message to Obama.
In a speech at the Heritage Foundation, the Medicare-shredding Rep.?Paul Ryan?(R-Wis.) denounced the president's "divisive message that pits one group against another" with "fear, envy, and the politics of division." Predictably, Ryan railed against "class-warfare" ? the tired phrase ritually trotted out from the right-wing's Orwellian dictionary to smear any call for economic justice and tax fairness.
Ryan knows a thing or two about class warfare. His proposed budget, supported by almost every Republican in the House, would wage war against the poor, against the education and health care of the middle class, and against the security of seniors, with Medicare voucherized and recipients forced to pay an additional $6,000 a year. The wealthy, and this is no surprise, would benefit from huge tax cuts paid for by the sacrifices of everyone else. No wonder Ryan doesn't want the president to confront this by campaigning for ideals of equity and the interests of hard-working and out-of-work Americans.
No matter who emerges from the substandard ranks of GOP presidential candidates ? the choice ranges narrowly from the inauthentic to the incredible ? is Obama supposed to forswear telling the truth on tax plans that would cosset the comfortable and slam the vast majority, even as budget cuts shred everything from college aid to workplace safety? To Republicans, drawing the contrast is class warfare. Thus they revile Occupy Wall Street ? because they're eager to roll back financial regulation and reopen the casino of unbridled Wall Street speculation.
The president increasingly seems to understand that the differences here must be stated and debated and resolved ? that here is a fundamental dividing line in our politics and 2012 is the time for Americans to decide.
Ryan is at least transparent.?New York Times columnist David Brooks, on the other hand, sounds agonized and genuinely disappointed as he mourns Obama's passage from compromising to fighting for progressive values. Of course, Brooks doesn't share those values; but as a mainstream conservative, appalled by his party's rush to the ideological edge, he's periodically hoped that Obama would hold fast to a post-partisan course. The president can hardly be faulted for not giving it a good try. He just wasn't prepared to betray core convictions ? and even if he had been, the evidence suggests that the congressional Republicans???now busily voting against measures like the payroll tax holiday (which they originally proposed) ? would have opposed Obama in any event.
Brooks argues that the president can't prevail as the candidate of "income redistribution" and "big government." But that's a straw man, a caricature of the case Obama is making. He's not offering paeans to government. He's fighting for Medicare and for the Social Security that Rick Perry calls a Ponzi scheme and Mitt Romney would privatize. Obama's not demanding income redistribution. Have we ever heard that phrase from him? He's simply asking the wealthy to pay their share.
Brooks selectively cites polling data showing that voters don't like big government or redistribution ? abstractions which obscure the findings of survey after survey that Americans overwhelmingly agree with the president when the abstract becomes the concrete. In the latest New York Times poll, a decisive majority supports higher taxes on the highest incomes ? by 65 percent to 30 percent. There is similar support for most elements of the Obama jobs bill ? for example, over 60 percent favor federal action to save the jobs of police officers, firefighters, and teachers.
This reflects a perennial paradox of our politics: Doubtful and sometimes hostile to government, people honor and fiercely defend much of what it actually does. Indeed, the GOP is on the shakiest ground ? and the president on the strongest ? on Social Security and Medicare. That was the blunt message in an NBC/WSJ poll: "Republicans might want to talk about revamping" these programs but Americans say "hands off."
Brooks contends that instead of fighting such battles, Obama should "champion a Grand Bargain strategy." When he did just that this summer during the debt-ceiling fight, the Republicans wouldn't meet the president even a quarter of the way. And he wasn't going to surrender to a bargain that would go down in history as the Unfair Deal. As John Kennedy once observed, it's impossible to reach agreement with those who insist "what's mine is mine, and what's yours is negotiable."
There's an alternative route, Brooks suggests. The president should take a Grand Bargain to the country. He should be the one in favor of "entitlement reform" ? a euphemism for cutting Medicare and Social Security. This would be both bad policy and unavailing; by its very nature, a Grand Bargain only succeeds when both sides work together as Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neil did to save Social Security in 1983.
Elections are a moment of choosing ? and some elections redefine the character of the nation and reset its direction for decades to come. And much as Brooks and many like him might prefer it, the fight can't be made, and for Obama certainly can't be won, on the pallid field of unrequited conciliation. Brooks complains that a real fight will be "viciously negative," presumably toward Mitt Romney. Why isn't Romney's record as a job-destroying take-over artist relevant? What's vicious here is how he made so much of his vast fortune. Why shouldn't he be judged by his patent lack of conviction? Conservatives are right to wonder what Romney believes in other than himself. And that's a negative he himself has created.
So fight on, Mr. President. You're renewing your voice and your vision, and America is beginning to hear you again as it did in 2008. Don't forget how FDR fought back in 1936 against the "forces of greed and privilege." Don't forget that in the late summer of 2000, Al Gore achieved a 16- to 22-point turnaround in the polls as he spoke the populism he truly felt, culminating in his acceptance address at the Democratic convention.
Brooks doesn't want you to "sound... a bit like Al Gore." I do. A populist appeal is not just your path to victory, but now, as it often was in the past, the path to a better, fairer, and more prosperous country for all Americans.
As long as you keep fighting, the critics will keep complaining. Every time they do, think of Harry Truman in 1948, written off, facing a "do-nothing Congress," assailed for class warfare, but clear in purpose and in principle. And think of what he promised as he came to the podium of a weary and worried Democratic convention: We "will win this election and make these Republicans like it???don't you forget that...The reason is the Democratic Party is the people's party, and the Republican Party is the party of special interest, and it always has been and always will be."
The Republicans didn't like it then. They won't like it now ? and neither will the triangulators and a lot of the commentators. But in Truman's words, it's your time to "fight...for the ordinary people of this land and not...the favored classes with a powerful few."
View this article on TheWeek.com
Get Obama-Clinton in 2012: How credible are the rumors?
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Thursday, October 27, 2011
Medco 3Q profit falls 4 percent on sale expenses (AP)
NEW YORK ? Medco Health Solutions Inc.'s third-quarter net income fell 4 percent because of expenses related to its pending acquisition by competitor Express Scripts Inc.
The pharmacy benefits manager also raised the low end of its full-year adjusted earnings outlook on Wednesday.
After reporting a string of major contract losses, Medco agreed to be acquired by rival Express Scripts in July for $29.1 billion, or $71.36 per share, in cash and stock. The sale would make Express Scripts the largest pharmacy benefits manager in the country by far.
The companies hope to combine in 2012, but regulators are still reviewing the sale. Congress has also turned its attention to the deal, as critics have said that it will reduce choices for patients and health plans.
Medco Chairman and CEO Dave Snow said during a conference call that Medco and Express Scripts are confident that antitrust regulators will approve the sale. He added that customers are reacting to the deal positively because it will reduce their health care costs.
Pharmacy benefits managers manage employee prescription drug benefits for their employer customers, with the goal of saving them money.
Medco reported net income of $355.4 million, or 90 cents per share, for the period ended Sept. 24. That's down from $371.5 million, or 85 cents per share, a year ago. Taking out buyout-related costs and other items, earnings were $1.07 per share.
This beat the $1.05 per share that analysts polled by FactSet expected.
Revenue climbed 4 percent to $16.98 billion from $16.32 billion, mostly because of new customers and higher prices for brand-name pharmaceuticals. But the results missed Wall Street's $17.04 billion forecast.
Specialty pharmacy revenue rose 16.7 percent to a record $3.4 billion.
In morning trading, Medco shares jumped 8 percent, or $3.74, to $50.68.
The Franklin Lakes, N.J., company says it handled 233.6 million adjusted prescriptions during the quarter, down about 1 percent from last year's quarter. Adjusted prescriptions is a measurement that counts 90-day mail-order prescriptions as three 30-day prescriptions. Express Scripts said Tuesday that its adjusted prescriptions also fell 1 percent in the third quarter.
Retail prescription volumes fell 1.2 percent to 152.2 million and mail-order prescriptions edged up 0.4 percent to 27.4 million. This includes generic mail-order prescriptions, which rose 3.5 percent to 17.7 million.
The overall generic dispensing rate climbed 2.2 percentage points to a record 73.8 percent. While generic drugs are less expensive than brand name drugs, they are more profitable.
For 2011, Medco now expects adjusted earnings of $4.08 to $4.12 per share. Its previous guidance was for earnings between $4.02 and $4.12 per share. Analysts are forecasting expect $4.08 per share on average.
The company expects its revenue will fall about $10 billion in 2012 because of lost business and introductions of new generic drugs. Starting in 2012, Medco will no longer handle the prescription drug benefits for the California Public Employees' Retirement System, MemberHealth LLC, Bravo Health, and the mail order prescription benefit of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. Also, health insurer UnitedHealth Group Inc. said it will not renew a contract that expires Dec. 31, 2012 because it will handle its own pharmacy benefits business.
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Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Stephen J. Cannell's "Wiseguy" gets NBC reboot (Reuters)
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) ? Reboots have had a pretty spotty track record on TV of late, but NBC is apparently hoping that a chestnut from the Stephen J. Cannell catalog can reverse that trend.
The network has ordered a revamp of the Cannell series "Wiseguy," purchasing a script commitment with penalty, an individual with knowledge of the deal confirmed to TheWrap.
The project will be scripted by Alex Cary, who most recently has served as a writer and co-executive producer on Showtime's "Homeland."
The original series, which ran on CBS from 1987 to 1990, starred Ken Wahl as Organized Crime Bureau undercover agent Vincent Michael "Vinnie" Terranova, who serves an 18-month prison stint in order to establish his "Wiseguy" credentials. Through his criminal connections, he infiltrates criminal organizations in an effort to destroy them from within.
News of the "Wiseguy" reboot was first reported by Deadline.
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tv/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111026/tv_nm/us_wiseguy
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Tilt, A Wedge-Shaped Multitool For The MacBook Pro
Tilt is a mishmash of notebook accessories, shoved surprisingly neatly into a sleek plastic box. This box then clips onto your MacBook Pro, and provides more functions than you’re likely to need.
The first is the most obvious. Tilt will tilt you computer slightly forward. Some say this makes for easier typing, some says that the [...]
The first is the most obvious. Tilt will tilt you computer slightly forward. Some say this makes for easier typing, some says that the [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/pwtkAOpuDtA/
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Tuesday, October 25, 2011
German lawmakers win full say on EFSF (Reuters)
BERLIN (Reuters) ? German lawmakers flexed their muscles to secure a full parliamentary vote Wednesday on euro zone crisis measures negotiated by Chancellor Angela Merkel and her euro zone peers, a move senior politicians said would give Merkel a stronger mandate.
The new vote comes just one month after Germany's Bundestag (lower of house of parliament) approved greater powers for the euro zone rescue fund, and should pass without problems, but it risks delaying Europe's response to the debt crisis at a crucial juncture.
Merkel cannot agree to changes to the 440 billion euro European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) without approval at least from the Bundestag's budget committee, as a result of a constitutional court decision last month.
However, Merkel's Christian Democrats' (CDU) floor leader Volker Kauder demanded a full debate and vote by the German Bundestag (lower house of parliament) rather than just a vote by the 41-member budget committee, which might have been quicker and less risky while still meeting new rules on consulting MPs.
"On such important questions it's good if parliament gives the chancellor broad backing for her negotiations," said Kauder regarding the vote due early Wednesday, before Merkel returns to Brussels for a second, decisive euro summit.
Major opposition parties the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens welcomed the vote, and indicated they would back proposals aimed at countering the debt crisis. But they stopped short of confirming they would vote "yes," saying they needed to see documents detailing the proposals first.
With criticism ringing in Germany's ears from the head of the Eurogroup of single currency members, Jean-Claude Juncker, about it being slow to make decisions, Merkel met the heads of the main parties to seek consensus.
Juergen Trittin, parliamentary co-leader of the opposition Greens, said Merkel had told them the haircut for Greece would be "above 50 and below 60" percent and that leveraging of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) could be above 1 trillion euros.
Merkel will address parliament before the vote and before returning to Brussels for what should be a more decisive summit on boosting the firepower of the EFSF, raising the contribution of private banks to Greece's rescue, and getting European banks to increase their own capital to prevent contagion.
Frank-Walter Steinmeier, head of the SPD parliamentary group criticized the fact that lawmakers were still waiting to see full proposals.
"We are still not able to talk of concrete texts... Therefore I am not in a position to talk conclusively or to tell you how the SPD will vote this week in parliament," he told reporters.
BATTLING MERKEL
The Chancellor's supporters praised her for getting France to drop demands to use the European Central Bank to leverage euro crisis funds, and there was broader support also for a leader often accused of dithering.
"Merkel's Battle for our Euro," was Monday's headline in the mass-circulation conservative paper Bild, saying she taught France's Nicolas Sarkozy "that the EFSF rescue fund cannot be used to print money" to solve the debt crisis.
"The chancellor must stick to her guns -- in the interests of Germany and of Europe," said the newspaper.
Her conservative bloc's chief whip, Peter Altmaier, said Sunday's summit "made headway" on all three issues, including "using the EFSF to avoid having to print money," and it should now be possible to produce the "comprehensive" crisis response that Merkel and Sarkozy have promised by the end of this month.
"The chancellor negotiated well in Brussels. She showed strong leadership," Altmaier told reporters.
"The French president says he sees things just like Angela and I see that as progress," said the conservative premier of Hesse state, Volker Bouffier. "Germany and France must take the same line as the most important two countries."
Sarkozy ceded to German insistence at Sunday's summit that the ECB should not be used to fight the crisis, which poses an especially big threat to French banks and France's triple-A sovereign debt rating.
Instead, an EU paper obtained by Reuters suggested the euro zone would take up Germany's proposal of boosting the EFSF's firepower by using it as a form of debt insurance, combined with seeking help from emerging market economies like China and Brazil via a special purpose investment vehicle (SPIV) to prop up the euro zone's secondary bond market.
Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said these two options, which had no ECB involvement, were the only two left on the table for leveraging the EFSF and would be discussed by the summit Wednesday. He said they were not mutually exclusive.
(Additional reporting by Annika Breidthardt, Gernot Heller and Oliver Denzel; Writing by Stephen Brown and Alexandra Hudson; Editing by Catherine Evans)
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Kaskade Talks 'Sweet' Skrillex Collabo, 'Lick It'
Two versions of song appear on Kaskade's double album Fire and Ice.
By Nick Philippou
Kaskade
Photo: MTV News
Kaskade is making EDM fans' dreams come true on his highly anticipated double album Fire and Ice, available exclusively on iTunes Tuesday. He teams up with budding dub-step icon Skrillex for "Lick It," a track so tasty that you might try to do just that.
We've secured a preview for your electro-fix, and it's everything you would imagine from a combination of Kaskade's progressive house vibe and Skrillex's sound-crunching bass riffs. Kaskade predicted to MTV News that "Lick It" will definitely surprise people, in a good way.
"I think most people went, 'Wait, Kaskade and Skrillex — that's two different things.' But I think that's what makes it interesting, you know?" Kaskade said. "Don't take somebody who's doing the exact same thing I'm doing, let's find people that I really enjoy, but are doing something different than I'm doing."
Kaskade enticed an impressive group of collaborators from across genres for Fire and Ice, including Skylar Gray and alt rockers Neon Trees, but when pairing up with Skrillex, Kaskade knew he was enlisting one of EDM's rising stars.
"It's crazy — Skrillex has had a massive year," Kaskade said. "I think because not that many people knew about him last year, and then all of a sudden he's just everywhere this year. It's cool that he's been able to do that. It's been a massive impact on the underground."
Skrillex's breakout stems from a rabid fanbase fueling tour demands after a steady stream of successes this year, like his remix of Benny Benassi's "Cinema" and his recent single "First of the Year." Those followed up his massive 2010 debut, "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites," which opened at #1 on the Beatport Top 100.
Kaskade told MTV News that he had so much fun doing a remix of Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites for Skrillex that he immediately knew that he wanted to do an original song with the dub-step master of Generation Next.
Now, thankful fans of both artists will get two new songs from the pair on Kaskade's double LP Fire and Ice, with one offering a club-ready and revved-up Fire version of "Lick It" and the other a more down-tempo Ice rendition of the song.
"I had already worked up a track and had something in mind, and I threw it to him and this is what we got," Kaskade said. "Skrillex sent it back to me, and I was like, 'Sweet, dude — we got that bass patch in there. Yeah!' "
Who would you like to hear Kaskade, Skrillex or both team up with and do a song for? Maybe they'll take your two cents if you leave a comment!
Related ArtistsSource: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1673030/kaskade-skrillex-collabo.jhtml
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Monday, October 24, 2011
Treasury prices slip as stock market rallies (AP)
Treasury prices fell Friday after a series of strong corporate earnings reports set off a rally in the stock market.
Treasurys fell as several big U.S. companies reported strong third-quarter results. McDonald's Corp., Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. and Harman International Industries Inc. were among the companies that beat analysts' expectations.
Traders also appeared more optimistic that European leaders would make progress at meetings this weekend and next week toward resolving the Greek debt crisis. Stock markets in Europe and the U.S. rose sharply.
Traders sold Treasurys, pushing their prices lower and their yields higher. The price of the 10-year Treasury note was down 22 cents per $100 invested in late trading. It yield rose to 2.22 percent from 2.18 percent late Thursday.
The price of the 30-year bond fell $1.03, pushing its yield up to 3.27 percent from 3.20 percent.
The yield on the two-year Treasury note rose to 0.28 percent from 0.26 percent.
The three-month T-bill paid a yield of 0.01 percent, down from 0.02 percent late Thursday. Its discount wasn't available.
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Sunday, October 23, 2011
Falling German Satellite Enters Atmosphere
Scientists were trying to establish how and where a defunct German research satellite returned to the Earth Sunday, after warning that some parts might survive re-entry and crash at up to 280 mph.
There was no immediate solid evidence to determine above which continent or country the ROSAT scientific research satellite entered the atmosphere, said Andreas Schuetz, spokesman for the German Aerospace Center.
Most parts of the minivan-sized satellite were expected to burn up, but up to 30 fragments weighing a total of 1.87 tons could crash.
Scientists were no longer able to communicate with the dead satellite and it must have traveled about 12,500 miles in the final 30 minutes before entering the atmosphere, Schuetz said.
Schuetz said it could take days to determine exactly where pieces of the satellite had fallen, but that the agency had not received any reports that it had hit any populated areas.
"We have no such information," he said Sunday.
Scientists said hours before the re-entry into the atmosphere that the satellite was not expected to hit over Europe, Africa or Australia. According to a precalculated path it could have been above Asia, possibly China, at the time of its re-entry, but Schuetz said he could not confirm that.
The 2.69-ton scientific ROSAT satellite was launched in 1990 and retired in 1999 after being used for research on black holes and neutron stars and performing the first all-sky survey of X-ray sources with an imaging telescope.
The largest single fragment of ROSAT that could hit into the earth is the telescope's heat-resistant mirror.
During its mission, the satellite orbited about 370 miles above the Earth's surface, but since its decommissioning it has lost altitude, circling at a distance of only 205 miles above ground in June for example, the agency said.
Even in the last days, the satellite still circled the planet every 90 minutes, making it hard to predict where on Earth it would eventually come down.
A dead NASA satellite fell into the southern Pacific Ocean last month, causing no damage, despite fears it would hit a populated area and cause damage or kill people.
Experts believe about two dozen metal pieces from the bus-sized satellite fell over a 500-mile span.
The German space agency puts the odds of somebody somewhere on Earth being hurt by its satellite at one in 2,000 a slightly higher level of risk than was calculated for the NASA satellite. But any one individual's odds of being struck are one in 14 trillion, given there are 7 billion people on the planet.
Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/10/22/141623516/pieces-of-german-satellite-expected-to-hit-earth?ft=1&f=1007
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Heir to Saudi throne dies in New York
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia ?? The heir to the Saudi throne, Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdel Aziz, died Saturday in the U.S. after an illness. He was 85.
The death of the crown prince ? who was the half brother of the ailing Saudi King Abdullah ? opens questions about succession.
NBC News reported that Sultan died at a hospital in New York City. He is expected to be buried Tuesday in Riyadh.
'A strong leader'
Sultan, who was the oil-rich kingdom's deputy prime minister, had been defense minister and minister of aviation for about four decades.
"With grief, King Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz mourns the death of Sultan bin Abdel Aziz Al Saud, crown prince and his brother," the palace said in a statement.
Saudi television broke its schedules early on Saturday to broadcast Koranic verses accompanied by footage of the Kaaba in Mecca, Islam's holiest site.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described the crown prince as "a strong leader and a good friend to the United States over many years, as well as a tireless champion for his country."
Sultan underwent surgery in New York in February 2009 and spent nearly a year abroad recuperating in the United States and at a palace in Agadir, Morocco. According to a leaked U.S. diplomatic cable from January 2010, Sultan had been receiving treatment for colon cancer since 2009.
Sultan oversaw a defense spending spree which made the kingdom one of the world's biggest arms buyers.
Sultan had an intestinal cyst removed in 2005 and had spent several months abroad for treatment and recreation.
Advanced weapons
While Saudi Arabia insisted he was fully cured, diplomats in Riyadh said he gradually retreated from participating in decision-making and often worked only for one or two hours a day.
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Many of his duties had been informally shifted to other princes, most notably to his son Khaled who led Saudi and Arab forces during the 1991 war to remove Saddam Hussein's Iraqi army from Kuwait. Prince Khaled, who is assistant defense minister, is also the owner of influential pan-Arab daily al-Hayat.
While defense minister, Sultan spent hundreds of billions to modernize the forces of the country where Islam was born 1400 years ago, doubling the regular armed forces to more than 100,000 men and buying advanced weapons from all over the world.
Born in Riyadh, Sultan was educated by private tutors and spoke some English. He also went to a school for princes.
He was keen to maintain close ties with the West, especially the United States, though like the rest of the royal family he distanced himself from the U.S.-led attack on Iraq in 2003.
Story: Obama: All US troops out of Iraq by end of yearThe most likely candidate for the throne after Sultan is Prince Nayef, the powerful interior minister in charge of internal security forces. After Sultan fell ill, the king gave Nayef an implicit nod in 2009 by naming him second deputy prime minister, traditionally the post of the third in line.
Anyone who rises to the throne is likely to maintain the kingdom's close alliance with the United States. But there could be internal differences. Abdullah has been seen as a reformer, making incremental changes to improve the position of women, for example, and to modernize the kingdom despite some backlash from the ultra-conservative Wahhabi clerics who give the royal family the religious legitimacy needed to rule. Nayef, for example, is often seen as closer to the clerics.
Abdullah is aged in his late 80s and underwent back surgery earlier this month but has been pictured since then in apparently good health.
Unlike in European monarchies, the line of succession does not move directly from father to eldest son, but has moved down a line of brothers born to the kingdom's founder Ibn Saud, who died in 1953.
NBC News, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44996642/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/
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Saturday, October 22, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
Exotic animal laws called into question after Ohio killings
After the shooting stopped and panic subsided, only a monkey was still at large.
The death toll was 49. The carnage included one baboon, six black bears, eight lionesses and 18 rare Bengal tigers. The owner of the private menagerie was also dead. He apparently shot himself after loosing the wild animals on a small community in rural Ohio.
"It's like Noah's ark wrecking right here in Zanesville, Ohio," said Jack Hanna, a former director of the Columbus Zoo.
PHOTOS: Dangerous exotic animals
But residents and animal activists nationwide didn't speak of this sad story in Old Testament terms. For them, it was a very modern tale of inadequate laws, a night of terror, and innocent animals killed by reluctant authorities who felt they had no other choice.
The first complaint came into the Muskingum County Sheriff's Office at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. An animal had wandered off Terry Thompson's exotic animal farm near the interstate. Then came another call ? another sighting.
Since 2004, there had been at least three dozen complaints about Thompson's animals on the loose: a giraffe grazing by a highway, a monkey in a tree. Typically, Thompson was fined $75. He'd also faced more serious charges of animal mistreatment. Recently, he had served a year in federal prison for gun possession and was ordered confined to his home for a year.
By the time deputies arrived at his 73-acre farm Tuesday evening, Thompson, 62, was dead. He had cut open pens and unlocked the farm gates. The tigers, black bears and lions were out, along with two wolves, a baboon, a monkey, three mountain lions and two grizzly bears.
Sheriff's deputies, who discovered Thompson's body in the driveway, were suddenly face to face with lions and grizzlies.
"I had deputies that had to shoot animals with their side arms," said Muskingum County Sheriff Matt Lutz.
Overnight, nearly 50 armed officers headed out in a driving rain, searching the area around the farm. Some wore night goggles to better spot animals that might be hiding among the trees. The zoo in Columbus, about 55 miles west of Zanesville, sent veterinarians with tranquilizer guns.
In one harrowing incident, Lutz said, there wasn't time to wait for a tranquilizer to take effect:
"We just had a huge tiger, an adult tiger that must've weighed 300 pounds, that was very aggressive. We got a tranquilizer in it, and this thing just went crazy."
And it was shot.
Word quickly spread that Thompson, well known to locals as a strange man with an obsession for exotic animals, had set his menagerie free. Schools in the area were closed Wednesday and parents were warned to keep a close watch on their kids.
When Terri Wolfe, who works at the county animal shelter, heard the news, she immediately called her son, who has boys ages 4 and 6 who are "very curious little guys."
"Terry Thompson's animals are on the loose!" Wolfe recalled telling him. "Make sure you keep the grandkids in!"
By Wednesday morning, 49 of Thompson's 56 animals were dead and buried on his property at the request of his distraught wife. Authorities had captured a grizzly, three leopards and two monkeys, and the animals were on their way to the Columbus Zoo for safekeeping. The monkey, which might be carrying hepatitis B, was still missing.
Almost 24 hours since that first 911 call to his office, Sheriff Lutz described his deputies as exhausted and overwhelmed.
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Marshall Fine: Movie Review: The Mighty Macs
As underdog sports movies go, The Mighty Macs has plenty of spirit - but also a slavish devotion to the template of the "last-to-first" sports-film formula.
The fact that it's based on a true story - about the tiny Immaculata College's 1972 title run for the women's NCAA basketball crown - is a guaranteed schmaltz-magnet. Anybody, after all, can write an underdog story. It's Screenwriting 101: "David, Meet Goliath!" But only real life can produce the kind of underdog story that Hollywood so relishes - the better to turn them into box-office winners.
Really - would anyone watch Rudy if it weren't a true story? No way - they'd say, "Aw, that's really formulaic." Not that they didn't say that about Rudy, but, hey, it's a true story.
So is The Mighty Macs, which chronicles Cathy Rush's (Carla Gugino) first season as basketball coach of the Immaculata Macs. Talk about underdogs: This is a Catholic college that is facing closure for lack of funds. The basketball team doesn't even have a usable gym - and so has to play all its games on the road.
Cathy is scrappy; the daughter of a coach, she played for a champion college coach and now gets the chance to coach against her former mentor. But her players are mostly hobbyists, rather than athletes or gymrats. So she - and her spunky nun buddy Sister Sunday (Marley Shelton) - cajole, browbeat and otherwise coach their young Catholic charges into playing self-sacrificing, hard-headed basketball. Guess where it takes them?
Still, they're constantly battling the backstory: Will this be the college's final year, just as the school becomes a potential basketball powerhouse (a mere 25 years before anyone starts to take women's basketball seriously)? The local archdiocese is struggling - nay, praying over - the college's future and whether the diocese would be better off selling the college for a large chunk of a developer's cash.
These are matters of interest - to someone, I'm sure, though not to me. My concern rests with the deft, always luminous Gugino, who can't seem to find the same kind of traction or offers with her movie career that she's had on stage. That's a shame; Gugino is the best thing about this movie, the one figure who seems to be three-dimensional, in spite of the script. She makes Cathy a strong, determined woman, despite the movie's occasional efforts to domesticate her by showing her turning to her rock-solid hubby (David Boreanaz) for support.
The excitement level of the sports sequences is competent, but The Mighty Macs feels overly familiar and in no sense new. It's not that the film is about a story from 40 years ago; it's that it often looks and feels like it was made 40 years ago instead.
Find more reviews, interviews and commentary on my website.
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Follow Marshall Fine on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Marshall Fine
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marshall-fine/movie-review-ithe-mighty_b_1021479.html
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Thursday, October 20, 2011
Samsung's Won-Pyo Hong: Galaxy Nexus wasn't designed just to skirt Apple patents
We believe it. These phones are designed months -- if not years -- in advance, and the actual process from concept to shipping takes a relative eternity. Furthermore, the original source (linked in More Coverage) only tied the quotes from Sammy's Shin Jong-kyun loosely to the Galaxy Nexus, and we're guessing that Samsung takes a look at all potential legal implications before shipping any product. In other words, the company's probably doing everything it can -- including paying Microsoft for every single Android device sold -- to avoid these nasty legal battles, but the Galaxy Nexus wasn't engineered just to sidestep another fight with the lawyers in Cupertino. And now you know.
Update: In response to a question from Joanna Stern regarding Samsung's rethinking of hardware and software (mainly TouchWiz) in order to lessen its chances of being sued in the future, Dr. Hong did muster a very vague affirmation that a newer build of TouchWiz will eventually surface, and that it'll almost certainly be tweaked in a way that'll cause Apple's lawyers to salivate less.
Samsung's Won-Pyo Hong: Galaxy Nexus wasn't designed just to skirt Apple patents originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Oct 2011 05:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/oC9j44f7ie4/
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Freed tigers, lions and bears cause panic in Ohio (Reuters)
ZANESVILLE, Ohio (Reuters) ? Dozens of exotic animals including tigers, lions and bears were let loose on Ohio farmland by their owner before he committed suicide, sparking a shoot-to-kill hunt in which 48 of the wild beasts, including 18 endangered Bengal tigers, were killed.
As the huge animals roamed inside and outside the 73-acre (30-hectare) farm near Zanesville in eastern Ohio, schools were shut and panicked residents were told to stay inside on Wednesday.
Authorities killed 48 of the 56 animals, some at close range, including the tigers, six black bears, two grizzlies and 17 lions, said Muskingum County Sheriff Matt Lutz.
A monkey, possibly carrying the Herpes B virus, and a gray wolf remained at large, he told an afternoon news conference.
One of the escaped big cats reached an interstate highway and was hit by a car. Authorities posted electronic warning signs, "Caution Exotic Animals" for motorists.
"We are not talking about your normal everyday house cat or dog. These are 300-pound Bengal tigers that we had to put down," Lutz said. "I gave the order ... that if animals looked like they were on their way out, they were put down."
The dead animals have been buried on the farm, he said. Survivors were taken to the Columbus Zoo, including three leopards, a grizzly and two macaque monkeys.
Owner Terry Thompson, who had been charged with animal cruelty 11 times since 2004, was found dead from an apparently self-inflicted wound when authorities went to the farm on Tuesday after reports of animals running free, Lutz said. They found gates and animal pens open, but no suicide note.
"There were animals running loose outside the fenced area," he said. Some, including primates, were captured at the farm.
Lutz said animals kept at the farm included many types of big cats such as cheetahs, mountain lions and leopards, in addition to lions and tigers.
Authorities said they had received about 35 calls about the menagerie over the years, ranging from animals running loose to animals not being treated properly, Lutz said.
"We've handled numerous complaints here, we've done numerous inspections here," he said. "So this has been a huge problem for us for a number of years."
There were complaints that Thompson left horses undernourished, then fed them to lions when they died, said Larry Hostetler, executive director of the Muskingum County Animal Shelter.
However, he met the bare minimum requirements for keeping the animals, he said.
Thompson was released last month from federal prison on a firearms conviction. Lutz said Thompson's wife, Marian, was no longer living at the farm. She will return to care for some remaining horses, he said.
DANGEROUS ANIMALS
Lutz described the freed animals found as "mature, very big and aggressive."
The sheriff said they tried to shoot some of the animals with tranquilizer guns but encountered problems.
"We just had a huge tiger, an adult tiger that must've weighed 300 pounds that was very aggressive," Lutz said. "We got a tranquilizer in it and this thing just went crazy."
Barbara Wolfe, a veterinarian, said she shot a tranquilizer dart into the tiger, but it got up and charged her from 15 feet (4.5 metres) away. A deputy shot the tiger dead.
"I've never been in fear of my life more than then," Wolfe said. She works at The Wilds, a refuge not far away from Zanesville that keeps exotic animals like rhinos and giraffes.
Lutz said he issued a shoot-to-kill order on Tuesday evening and stationed officers on Interstate 70 about a mile (1.5 km) west of the Zanesville city limits to prevent animals from crossing.
He said he also ordered the schools closed on Wednesday. "We didn't want kids standing at the bus stop" while wild animals were loose, Lutz said.
Jack Hanna, director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo, told the news conference Lutz and his deputies did the right thing.
"These are dangerous animals," Hanna said. "If you had 18 Bengal tigers running around these neighborhoods, you wouldn't have wanted to see what would have happened."
(Additional reporting by Andrew Stern, Doina Chiacu and Lauren Keiper; writing by Doina Chiacu; editing by Bill Trott and Mohammad Zargham)
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Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Could Dr. Murray be convicted and avoid jail?
Conrad Murray's defense team has yet to make its case, but things aren't looking good for the doctor so far.
Then again, they could be looking worse.
Even if Murray is found guilty of involuntary manslaughter?the only crime he's charged with?in the June 25, 2009, death of Michael Jackson, he may spend little to no time behind bars.
OK, we get that the mini-sentence thing often happens with DUIs or if your name is Lindsay Lohan. But in this case?! Wesley Snipes got three years in prison for an income-tax screwup!
MORE: Defense drops claim that Michael Jackson gave himself fatal dose of propofol
Well, maybe that's why they call California the Sunshine State. If you get locked up there, it's likely that you'll be back out in the sunshine a lot faster than if you went to jail elsewhere.
Due to chronic overcrowding, just this month the state implemented a new system called "prison realignment," in which criminals charged with what are categorized as lower-level offenses spend their sentences in county jails, rather than state prisons.
Under this new system, involuntary manslaughter (as well as vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, assault, battery, statutory rape, sexual exploitation by doctors or psychotherapists, auto theft, burglary, grand theft, forgery, counterfeiting, drug possession, etc.) would be considered lower-level.
MORE: Will Conrad Murray Testify at Michael Jackson Manslaughter Trial?
"If the person were convicted of a felony and sentenced to state prison, and if they were on good behavior, that person could spend 50 percent of their time unless there were certain conditions set forth by the judge," Los Angeles Sheriff's Department spokesman Capt. Mike Parker told E! News.
But per the new system, Murray, who's facing a maximum of four years in state prison if convicted of involuntary manslaughter, could end up being sentenced to a term in one of those bursting-at-the-seams L.A. County jails instead.
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And if he is, he could end up spending little to no time behind bars due to the overcrowding problem. Many non-violent offenders in L.A. County end up serving around one-quarter of their sentences, meaning Murray could be out in a year.
Or, he might not go in at all.
MORE: Christina Aguilera, Jamie Foxx and More Rock Michael Jackson Tribute Concert
"The decision on whether or not Murray gets house arrest is up to the sheriff; it's not up to the courts or the judge," L.A. criminal defense attorney Troy Slaten tells E! News. "So let's say, for example, he is sentenced to three years' probation and one year in county jail. The sheriff could say, 'We don't have any room for someone that is not a violent offender and so therefore we are going to have him serve six months on house arrest with electronic monitoring.'"
If Murray is sentenced to house arrest, however, there's pretty much no chance of getting out of that early, so one year would mean one year. (Or more, if that's how the chips fell.)
Story: Jackson doctor's defense will get chanceSays defense attorney Alec Rose: "I've had clients with ankle monitors on house arrest who have asked to just go to jail and get it done. Because while you're on it, your house is subject to search 24 hours a day, you cannot have any alcohol in your house and you're not allowed to have social visitors."
In addition to prison time, Murray is also facing the complete loss of his medical license. The California Medical Board has already suspended his license to practice in the state due to negligence detected in its investigation of the Jackson case.
GALLERY: Michael Jackson Manslaughter Trial
? 2011 E! Entertainment Television, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44938408/ns/today-entertainment/
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