Thursday, January 31, 2013

Growthology: Video Streaming Quality and Viewer Behavior

Startups and businesses that offer video on their website or
on a mobile platform face a fickle audience. If videos don?t load or are
frequently interrupted with buffering, viewers are more likely to abandon the
video and not return to the site. These are the finding of study by S. Shunmuga
Krishnan and Ramesh K. Sitaraman, ?Video Stream Quality Impacts Viewer
Behavior: Inferring Causality Using Quasi-Experimental Designs,? who analyzed 23 million video views from 6.7 million unique viewers (paper
available here).

I am not terribly surprised by the results. We might intuitively expect video failing to stream smoothly or quickly would lead to viewers giving up on watching the video. But the authors importantly establish a causal link and offer some nuanced findings that I think are informative. My high-level takeaway is that as internet speeds increase, consumers become more impatient and expect better quality from video providers. Here are some selected highlights from the paper:

  • If a video fails to start up within two seconds, viewers start to abandon the video, and the drop off is steep. However, abandonment varies by internet speed. Viewers with faster internet connections have less patience and abandon sooner. Mobile connections give a lot more slack.
Untitled
  • Longer videos get more slack to startup (lesser abandonment rate from delays in starting up) than shorter clips.
  • Viewers who dealt with rebuffering interruptions and delays viewed the videos for less time.
  • Viewers who have difficulties are less likely to return to the site, and this is persistent for at least a week.

Failbreak

Knowing this is important because abandonment rate, how long videos are viewed, and return viewers are all factors for generating revenue.

?

Source: http://www.growthology.org/growthology/2013/01/video-streaming-quality-and-viewer-behavior.html

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Texas City: Marathon on track to take over BP refinery on Friday

by T. J. Aulds/ The Daily News

khou.com

Posted on January 28, 2013 at 10:48 AM

TEXAS CITY ? This likely marks the final week that the 475,000-barrel-per-day refinery at 2401 Fifth Ave. South will operate under the BP name. Marathon Petroleum, which purchased the nation?s fourth largest refinery as part of a $2.5 billion deal, is scheduled to take over the 1,200-acre refinery on Friday.

The two companies are expected to finalize the sale of the refinery this week.

Once the deal is closed, Marathon will own two refineries in Texas City ? its existing 80,000-barrel-per-day refinery and BP?s 475,000-barrel-per-day facility.

The new acquisition will be called Marathon Galveston Bay Refinery.

Marathon?s take over ends 14 years of BP?s ownership of the refinery, which it acquired in a merger with Amoco Oil in 1998.

Ray Brooks, who will be the manager of Marathon?s new acquisition, set up his management team; many already are top managers at the Texas City refinery.

Click here to read more at the Galveston County Daily News.

Source: http://www.khou.com/news/neighborhood-news/Texas-City--Marathon-on-track-to-take-over-BP-refinery-on-Friday-188680021.html

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Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Twitter?prunes Vine's hashtags, censors naughty terms

19 hrs.

According to the folks at Twitter, an innocent "human error" was to blame when a pornographic video was featured as an "Editor's Pick" on Vine, but this incident?? combined with a?lack of privacy and abuse prevention controls?? makes it seem as if there's a bit of a porn problem on the new?video-sharing service.

The sudden censorship of certain hashtags further solidifies that belief.

The Verge's Nathan Ingraham was among the first to point out that it appears that the searches for certain naughty hashtags ??such as #porn, #sex, #booty?and similar ??are bringing up no results, even though there are certainly posts with those hashtags.?

I tested this claim by creating a post and tagging it #nsfw. Nothing prevented me from creating this post?? which was entirely innocent, don't worry?? but neither tapping on the hyperlinked hashtag nor searching for #nsfw brought it (or any other posts) into view. Instead, I was shown a frowning emoticon and told that Vine couldn't load any posts. (In the case of searches, the frowning emoticon informed me that no tags matching that term?exist.)?

We have reached out to Twitter to inquire about the missing search results and to see if some sort of cleanup is occurring behind the scenes.?"We're in the process of changing how users find and view sensitive content," a spokesperson explained. "We're experimenting with a number of approaches and will continue to iterate."

Want more tech news?or interesting?links? You'll get plenty of both if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on?Twitter, subscribing to her?Facebook?posts,?or circling her?on?Google+.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/twitter-cleans-vines-hashtags-censors-porn-sex-other-naughty-terms-1B8167746

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Our Favorite SSD Is Your No-Brainer-Upgrade Deal of the Day

Switching out an old-school spinning disk to a modern SSD is by far the best hardware upgrade you can do. Shopping for a good SSD price might seem simple —"you just divide the storage space by the price" — but there's actually a lot of nuance to getting the right SSaa reputation for reliability. For the vast majority of intrepid upgraders, Samsung's 840 line is the obvious pick. Maximum PC's Josh Noren wrote about the Samsung 840 Pro back in September: More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/106rsDgZncA/our-favorite-ssd-is-your-no+brainer+upgrade-deal-of-the-day

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Next generation solar cells: Trapping sunlight with microbeads

Jan. 29, 2013 ? In five to seven years, solar cells will have become much cheaper and only one-twentieth as thick as current solar cells. The trick is to deceive the sunlight with microbeads.

Nanoscientists are currently developing the next generation of solar cells, which will be twenty times thinner than current solar cells.

Over 90 per cent of the current electricity generated by solar panels is made by silicon plates that are 200 micrometres thick. Several billion of these are produced every year. The problem is the large consumption of silicon: five grams per watt.

200 Alta power stations: This year, between five and ten billion solar panel units will be produced worldwide. This is the equivalent of 30 GW, or the capacity of 200 Alta power stations.

Though silicon is one of the most common elements on earth, pure silicon does not exist in nature. Silicon binds readily to other elements. In order for solar cells to function, the silicon plate must consist of at minimum 99,9999 per cent silicon. You read that right: if the solar cell consists of more than one millionth other materials, it does not work.

Today, pure silicon is created in smelters at 2,000 degrees Celsius. This requires a lot of energy. Factories supply silicon in bricks the size of a piece of firewood. They are then cut into slices thin enough for solar panels. Only half become solar cells. The rest turns into sawdust.

"About 100,000 tonnes of silicon are consumed every year. However, there is obviously something fundamentally wrong when half of the silicon must be thrown away during the manufacturing process," says Erik Marstein. He is the Head of the Norwegian Research Centre for Solar Cell Technology, the Head of Research for the solar cell unit at the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) at Kjeller outside of Oslo, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Oslo (UiO), Norway.

The price of solar cells is falling steadily. Today, solar panels cost a half Euro for every watt. Only four years ago, the price was two Euros per watt.

"It is difficult to make money producing solar cells at current prices. To make money, solar cells must be manufactured much more cheaply."

Super-thin solar cells in 2020

Together with Professor Aasmund Sudb? in the Department of Physics, Erik Marstein is at the forefront of the development of the next generation of solar cells. They can come on the market in five to seven years.

"The most obvious way ahead is to make very thin solar cell slices, without increasing costs."

This general rule applies to all types of solar cells: the more electrons sunlight pushes out, the more electricity. And the more energy in the electrons, the higher the voltage.

"The thinner the solar cells become, the easier it is to extract the electricity. In principle, there will therefore be a higher voltage and more electricity in thinner cells. We are now developing solar cells that are at least as good as the current ones, but that can be made with just one twentieth of the silicon. This means that the consumption of silicon can be reduced by 95 per cent," says Erik Marstein to the research magazine Apollon at University of Oslo.

However, there is a big but! The thinner the plates, the less sunlight is trapped. This has to do with the wavelengths of light. Blue light has a much shorter wavelength than red light. Blue light can be trapped by plates that are only a few micrometres thick. In order to trap the red light, the silicon plate must be almost one millimetre thick. For infrared light, the plate must be even thicker.

When the solar cell plate is to be as thin as 20 micrometres, too much of the light will go straight through.

The thickness of current solar cells is doubled by a mirror. By reflecting the light, the passage of the light through the plate is doubled.

A 20 micrometre think solar cell with a mirror will in theory be 40 micrometres thick. However, that is not enough. Furthermore, the current mirrors are far from perfect: they only reflect 70 to 80 per cent of the light.

The magic

"This is where the magic comes in. We are trying every possible wonderful trick with light. Our trick is to deceive the sunlight into staying longer in the solar cell"

"We are trying every possible wonderful trick with light."

This extends the duration of the sunlight's passage within the solar cell," explains Erik Marstein. This is called light harvesting.

His research group is now making a back sheet peppered with periodic structures, to be able to decide exactly where the light should go. They have managed to force the light to move sideways.

"We can increase the apparent thickness 25 times by forcing the light up and down all the time. We have calculated what this back sheet must look like and are currently studying which structures work."

One of the options is to cover the entire back sheet with Uglestad microbeads, which is one of the greatest Norwegian inventions of the previous century. Uglestad microbeads are very small plastic spheres. Each sphere is exactly the same size.

"We can force the Uglestad microbeads to lie close together on the silicon surface, in an almost perfect periodic pattern. Laboratory trials have shown that the microbeads can be used as a mask." Doctoral Research Fellow Jostein Thorstensen shows that lasers are well-suited to etch indentations around the microbeads.

"We are now investigating whether this and other methods can be scaled up for industrial production. We have great faith in this, and are currently in discussions with multiple industrial partners, but we cannot yet say who."

Asymmetrical tricks

To trap even more light in the solar cell, Jo Gjessing has completed a doctorate on how to make asymmetrical micro indentations on the back of the silicon slice.

"Cylinders, cones and hemispheres are symmetrical shapes. We have proposed a number of structures that break the symmetry. Our calculations show that asymmetrical microindentations can trap even more of the sunlight," says his supervisor, Erik Marstein.

In practice, this means that 20 micrometre solar cells with symmetrical micro indentations are as effective as 16 micrometre plates with asymmetrical indentations. This means that silicone consumption can be reduced by another 20 per cent.

"Our main goal has been to get the same amount of electricity from thinner cells. We will be very satisfied even if our new solar cells are 30 micrometres," notes Professor Aasmund Sudb?.

The new solar cells are produced in different ways, for instance by splitting the thin silicone foil or growing thin silicon films. And the extra bonus? Silicon wastage is minimal.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Oslo.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/matter_energy/electricity/~3/OtKo-l8Ywv4/130129075615.htm

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Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Fossilized conduits suggest water flowed beneath Martian surface

Jan. 29, 2013 ? Ridges in impact craters on Mars appear to be fossils of cracks in the Martian surface, formed by minerals deposited by flowing water. Water flowing beneath the surface suggests life may once have been possible on Mars.

Networks of narrow ridges found in impact craters on Mars appear to be the fossilized remnants of underground cracks through which water once flowed, according to a new analysis by researchers from Brown University.

The study, in press in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, bolsters the idea that the subsurface environment on Mars once had an active hydrology and could be a good place to search for evidence of past life. The research was conducted by Lee Saper, a recent Brown graduate, with Jack Mustard, professor of geological sciences.

The ridges, many of them hundreds of meters in length and a few meters wide, had been noted in previous research, but how they had formed was not known. Saper and Mustard thought they might once have been faults and fractures that formed underground when impact events rattled the planet's crust. Water, if present in the subsurface, would have circulated through the cracks, slowly filling them in with mineral deposits, which would have been harder than the surrounding rocks. As those surrounding rocks eroded away over millions of years, the seams of mineral-hardened material would remain in place, forming the ridges seen today.

To test their hypothesis, Saper and Mustard mapped over 4,000 ridges in two crater-pocked regions on Mars, Nili Fossae and Nilosyrtis. Using high-resolution images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the researchers noted the orientations of the ridges and composition of the surrounding rocks.

The orientation data is consistent with the idea that the ridges started out as fractures formed by impact events. A competing hypothesis suggests that these structures may have been sheets of volcanic magma intruding into the surrounding rock, but that doesn't appear to be the case. At Nili Fossae, the orientations are similar to the alignments of large faults related to a mega-scale impact. At Nilosyrtis, where the impact events were smaller in scale, the ridge orientations are associated with each of the small craters in which they were found. "This suggests that fracture formation resulted from the energy of localized impact events and are not associated with regional-scale volcanism," Saper said.

Importantly, Saper and Mustard also found that the ridges exist exclusively in areas where the surrounding rock is rich in iron-magnesium clay, a mineral considered to be a telltale sign that water had once been present in the rocks.

"The association with these hydrated materials suggests there was a water source available," Saper said. "That water would have flowed along the path of least resistance, which in this case would have been these fracture conduits."

As that water flowed, dissolved minerals would have been slowly deposited in the conduits, in much the same way mineral deposits can build up and eventually clog drain pipes. That mineralized material would have been more resistant to erosion than the surrounding rock. And indeed, Saper and Mustard found that these ridges were only found in areas that were heavily eroded, consistent with the notion that these are ancient structures revealed as the weaker surrounding rocks were slowly peeled away by wind.

Taken together, the results suggest the ancient Martian subsurface had flowing water and may have been a habitable environment.

"This gives us a point of observation to say there was enough fracturing and fluid flow in the crust to sustain at least a regionally viable subsurface hydrology," Saper said. "The overarching theme of NASA's planetary exploration has been to follow the water. So if in fact these fractures that turned into these ridges were flowing with hydrothermal fluid, they could have been a viable biosphere."

Saper hopes that the Curiosity rover, currently making its way across its Gale Crater landing site, might be able to shed more light on these types of structures.

"In the site at Gale Crater, there are thought to be mineralized fractures that the rover will go up and touch," Saper said. "These are very small and may not be exactly the same kind of feature we studied, but we'll have the opportunity to crush them up and do chemical analysis on them. That could either bolster our hypothesis or tell us we need to explore other possibilities."

The research was supported by a grant from NASA's Rhode Island Space Grant Consortium and through a NASA subcontract with the Applied Physics Lab at Johns Hopkins University.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Brown University.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. Lee Saper, John F. Mustard. Extensive linear ridge networks in Nili Fossae and Nilosyrtis, Mars: Implications for fluid flow in the ancient crust. Geophysical Research Letters, 2013 DOI: 10.1002/grl.50106

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/S8LpqS3XZBI/130129121941.htm

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Facebook's Now Hiding Public Pages From Google's Prying Eyes

As The Register learned, in part of an ongoing effort to turn Facebook into its own, closed little ecosystem, Zuck's empire has closed off public events to, well, the public. Account-holding stalkers only, please. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/h-OPWYn92Nw/facebooks-now-hiding-public-pages-from-googles-prying-eyes

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High Efficiency Video Coding standard H.265 is approved - Software ...

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has agreed on the specifications for the successor to the ?PrimeTime Emmy award winning? ITU-T H.264 / MPEG-4 AVC codec. The new H.265 codec, sometimes known informally as High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), will deliver video on a par with its predecessor at half the bit rate.

The new video format is expected to bring high quality streaming; even to slower, less capacious and more congested networks. It could be a boon to smartphone users with a data cap and also enable very high quality streaming over broadband. Using the new H.265 codec content providers will be able to provide 4K streams using the same bandwidth as 1080p video streaming uses today.

The previous H.264 codec is widely supported by computers, smart connected devices and audio/visual hardware. The new HEVC H.265 codec should become the new standard and will ?provide a flexible, reliable and robust solution, future-proofed to support the next decade of video. The new standard is designed to take account of advancing screen resolutions and is expected to be phased in as high-end products and services outgrow the limits of current network and display technology,? according to the ITU press release.

What?s not to like about a new codec which makes things faster to steam/download with the potential for better quality? I suffer from rural broadband with a data cap right now so HEVC could improve things for me in internet streaming/downloading terms. Also I hope my Humax Foxsat HDR FreeSat+ box will get upgraded firmware to make use of the new codec.

Source: http://hexus.net/tech/news/software/51013-high-efficiency-video-coding-standard-h265-approved/

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Monday, January 28, 2013

Latinos At The SAG Awards: Sof?a Vergara, Javier Bardem And Other Stars Shine On The Red Carpet (PHOTOS)

  • Sofia Vergara

    Colombian actress Sofia Vergara arrives at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday Jan. 27, 2013. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP)

  • Sofia Vergara

    Colombian actress Sofia Vergara arrives at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday Jan. 27, 2013. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

  • Sofia Vergara

    Colombian actress Sofia Vergara arrives at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday Jan. 27, 2013. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

  • Modern Family

    The cast of "Modern Family" poses backstage with the award for ensemble in a comedy series at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday Jan. 27, 2013. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

  • Sof?a Vergara

    Ty Burrell, left, greets Sof?a Vergara at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. (Photo by John Shearer/Invision/AP)

  • Sofia Vergara, Julie Bowen, Sarah Hyland

    Actresses Sofia Vergara, left, Julie Bowen, center, and Sarah Hyland pose backstage with the award for outstanding ensemble in a comedy series for ?Modern Family? at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday Jan. 27, 2013. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP)

  • Ariel Winter, Sofia Vergara

    Actresses Ariel Winter, left, and Sofia Vergara pose backstage with the award for outstanding ensemble in a comedy series for ?Modern Family? at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday Jan. 27, 2013. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP)

  • Sofia Vergara

    Colombian actress Sofia Vergara poses backstage with the award for outstanding ensemble in a comedy series for ?Modern Family? at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday Jan. 27, 2013. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP)

  • Sof?a Vergara

    Colombian actress Sof?a Vergara poses backstage with the award for ensemble in a comedy series at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday Jan. 27, 2013. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

  • Modern Family Cast

    The cast of "Modern Family" poses backstage with the award for ensemble in a comedy series at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

  • Naya Rivera

    Actress Naya Rivera, of Puerto Rican descent, arrives at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP)

  • Naya Rivera

    Naya Rivera arrives at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

  • Naya Rivera

    Actress Naya Rivera, of Puerto Rican descent, arrives at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

  • Nolan Gould, Rico Rodriguez

    Actors Nolan Gould, left, and Rico Rodriguez pose backstage with the award for outstanding ensemble in a comedy series for ?Modern Family? at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday Jan. 27, 2013. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP)

  • Raini Rodriguez, Rico Rodriguez

    Actors Raini Rodriguez, left, and Rico Rodriguez arrive at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday Jan. 27, 2013. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP)

  • Javier Bardem

    Actor Javier Bardem arrives at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday Jan. 27, 2013. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

  • Javier Bardem

    Actor Javier Bardem arrives at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

  • Alexis Bledel

    Argentinean and Mexican actress Alexis Bledel arrives at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday Jan. 27, 2013. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

  • Vincent Kartheiser, Alexis Bledel

    Vincent Kartheiser, left, and Argentinean and Mexican star Alexis Bledel arrive at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

  • Alexis Bledel

    Actors Vincent Kartheiser and Alexis Bledel arrive at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards held at The Shrine Auditorium on January 27, 2013 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

  • Morena Baccarin

    Brazilian actress Morena Baccarin arrives at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday Jan. 27, 2013. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

  • Morena Baccarin

    Morena Baccarin arrives at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday Jan. 27, 2013. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

  • Morena Baccarin

    Actors Zuleikha Robinson (L) and Morena Baccarin attend the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards cocktail reception at The Shrine Auditorium on January 27, 2013 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Mark Davis/Getty Images)

  • Rocsi Diaz

    Television personality Rocsi Diaz arrives at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards held at The Shrine Auditorium on January 27, 2013 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

  • Rocsi Diaz

    Television personality Rocsi Diaz arrives at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards held at The Shrine Auditorium on January 27, 2013 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

  • Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/28/latinos-sag-awards_n_2564521.html

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    US economy gets lift from housing, other tailwinds

    WASHINGTON (AP) ? The U.S. economy is a study in contrasts.

    The housing, banking and auto industries are surging back to health and that has helped push the stock market to a five-year peak. Higher prices for homes and stocks tend to make people feel wealthier and spend more.

    Yet unemployment remains high and hiring modest. The end of a Social Security tax cut is shrinking already flat pay. Federal budget fights have put businesses and consumers on edge.

    Balanced between those tailwinds and headwinds, the economy is struggling to accelerate. By the end of this year, though, many analysts think the tailwinds will succeed in boosting growth and fueling a more robust economy in 2014.

    "There is some underlying momentum," says Paul Edelstein, U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight. "It's not as strong as we would like, but it's there and it's building."

    Uncertainty about government spending cuts could be defused by summer, and any spending cuts that do take effect will likely be phased in over several years. Also, for the first time since the recession ended 3? years ago, several key areas of the economy are simultaneously driving growth, which means the strength is more broadly based:

    ? HOUSING

    The nation has finally worked off the excesses of the housing bubble. Once there were too many homes for sale; now, there are too few to meet demand. That is pushing up home prices, construction and hiring ? trends that could accelerate U.S. economic growth in 2013 by a full percentage point, economists say.

    Home prices rose 7.4 percent in the 12 months that ended in November, according to CoreLogic. It was the largest 12-month gain in six years.

    Housing starts will reach 970,000 this year, according to Patrick Newport, an economist at IHS, a 24 percent jump from 2012. That's far above the 554,000 homes started in 2009 after the housing bust, though still below the roughly 1.5 million associated with a healthy market.

    Construction companies will add 140,000 jobs this year, Newport forecasts, up from a scant 18,000 last year.

    ? AUTOS

    Struggling consumers put off car purchases for years. Now, pent-up demand is being released: Sales reached a 5-year high of 14.5 million last year. Analysts expect sales to reach 15.5 million this year, though still short of the recent peak of around 17 million in 2005.

    Production and hiring at automakers and their suppliers are increasing as a result. The auto industry added 52,000 jobs last year, the third annual gain after a decade of declines.

    ? BANKING

    The financial crisis hammered banks and choked off loans to businesses and consumers. But lending has been rebounding.

    Mortgage and auto loans are rising. Commercial and industrial loans rose 2.2 percent in the July-September quarter from the same period a year earlier. Bank profits reached their highest level in six years that same quarter, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Bank of America boosted the value of its mortgage loans 33 percent in the October-December quarter compared with a year earlier.

    ? STOCK MARKET

    The Standard and Poor's 500 stock index has more than doubled from its low in 2009 and is just 4 percent shy of its record high set in 2007.

    The S&P index has jumped 5.4 percent this month in response to healthy news on housing and corporate profits. The sidestepping of the fiscal cliff at the start of the year helped, too. Higher stock prices are boosting Americans' wealth, providing more fuel for spending and growth.

    Stocks are getting a lift from Main Street investors for a change. In a reverse from their behavior for most of the past five years, small investors are buying more stocks instead of selling them. Investors put nearly $13 billion into U.S. stock mutual funds in the first two weeks of 2013, according to the Investment Company Institute, a trade group for funds.

    In another sign of rising confidence, investors are shifting out of ultra-safe investments such as U.S. Treasurys. The interest rate, or yield, on the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond topped 2 percent on Monday for the first time since April. Bond yields rise when their prices fall.

    ___

    In the short term, the economy's headwinds are still restraining growth. They include:

    ? BUDGET FIGHTS

    The heaviest millstone weighing down the economy is the rift between President Barack Obama and Republicans over taxes and spending.

    Further talks are expected this spring as several deadlines arrive: Across-the-board spending cuts are set to kick in March 1. Financing to run the government will expire by March 27, raising the threat of a government shutdown. And the federal borrowing cap must be raised by May 18 or the government could default on its debt.

    Haziness around future tax and budget policy may already be restraining growth. A report from the Federal Reserve last week suggested that some employers delayed hiring late last year because of uncertainty over the fiscal cliff.

    ? SLUGGISH HIRING

    Job gains have held steady for the past two years at about 150,000 a month. That's only about enough to slowly reduce the unemployment rate, now at 7.8 percent.

    Even in sectors that are recovering, many companies aren't yet adding jobs. Some are even cutting, especially in financial services. Bank of America, for example, has shed about 15,000 jobs in the past year.

    In a robust recovery, monthly job gains are usually 250,000 or more. That's what it would take to rapidly reduce unemployment and force employers to raise pay to attract workers.

    ? FEW PAY RAISES

    For now, high unemployment is limiting pay. When employers have lots of job applicants to choose from, they have little incentive to give raises.

    Hourly wages rose just 2.1 percent last year, only slightly above consumer inflation, which was 1.7 percent. Consumer spending, which drives about 70 percent of the economy, can't improve much until pay or job growth accelerates. Americans still are still reluctant to run up credit card debt to pay for extra consumption.

    A temporary Social Security tax cut expired this year, reducing Americans' take-home pay. It will cost a typical household making $50,000 a year about $1,000. A household with two high-paid workers will lose up to $4,500. The drop in pay could slow consumer spending.

    The Social Security tax cut, in place for two years, was allowed to expire in the deal reached between the White House and Congress to avoid the fiscal cliff.

    ___

    Most economists expect the higher Social Security tax to bite hardest in the first three months of the year. But after Americans adjust to the sudden cut, its impact should lessen over time.

    If federal budget issues can be resolved, the economy could start to accelerate. Analysts forecast only modest growth this year of about 2 percent. But they think growth will strengthen as the year goes on.

    JPMorgan Chase, for example, forecasts that the economy will grow at an anemic annual rate of just 1 percent in the January-March quarter. But as the drag from higher taxes fades and the debt ceiling is resolved, growth could pick up to a decent 3 percent pace by the October-December quarter.

    Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial, expects housing and other tailwinds to accelerate growth this year ? as long as budget "shenanigans" don't dampen consumer and business confidence as they did in 2011.

    "Could we get 3.5 percent growth by the end of this year?" she asks. "If we can get over this budget stuff, absolutely."

    __

    Follow Chris Rugaber on Twitter at https://Twitter.com/ChrisRugaber

    Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-economy-gets-lift-housing-other-tailwinds-193658007--finance.html

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    James Holmes seeks delay in hearing on Fox News report

    By Vignesh Ramachandran, Staff Writer, NBC News

    Attorneys for Aurora, Colo., movie theater shooting suspect James Holmes have filed a motion to postpone a hearing pertaining to a Fox News reporter and her sources.

    The defense's court?documents filed on Friday?ask to move a Feb. 4 hearing in which Fox News reporter Jana Winter was expected to testify. On Jan. 18, a judge ordered Winter to testify about her source who allegedly gave her information about the contents of Holmes' notebook sent to his psychiatrist, The Associated Press reported.

    Homes has been charged for allegedly killing 12 and injuring 58 others at an Aurora movie theater on July 20. His defense team claims information about the notebook Winter published in a July 25 article on FoxNews.com?compromises Holmes' right to a fair trial, the AP reported.

    In her account, Winter's source describes the notebook as having details about how Holmes was going to kill people and including images of "gun-wielding stick figures blowing away other stick figures."

    In Friday's court filing, Holmes' attorneys request that the hearing be moved to April 1, citing "a complex and difficult process" in obtaining an out-of-state subpoena.


    "...Based on current attempts to communicate with Fox News, Jana Winter's employer, the defense anticipates ongoing resistance in efforts to compel Ms. Winter's attendance and testimony," the filing stated.

    Just two days before the Fox News article was published, Arapahoe County, Colo., District Judge William Sylvester had issued a gag order on those involved with the case to avoid prejudice against Holmes, according to the AP. The leaked notebook contents could be a violation of that gag order.

    Though journalists under Colorado law are protected by reporter's privilege, under certain circumstances they can be ordered to reveal their sources. In this case, the judge will decide if the interests of Holmes' defense outweigh the interests of the journalist, the AP reported.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    Recent related?coverage:

    Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/28/16740633-aurora-shooting-suspect-james-holmes-attorneys-want-to-postpone-hearing-with-fox-news-reporter?lite

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    Sunday, January 27, 2013

    French, Malians secure Timbuktu in rebel-held north

    BAMAKO/SEVARE, Mali (Reuters) - French and Malian troops were on Sunday restoring government control over the fabled Saharan trading town of Timbuktu, the latest gain in a fast-moving French-led offensive against al Qaeda-allied fighters occupying northern Mali.

    The Islamist militant rebels have pulled back northwards to avoid relentless French air strikes that have destroyed their bases, vehicles and weapons, allowing French and Malian troops to advance rapidly with air support and armored vehicles.

    A Malian military source told Reuters the French and Malian forces reached "the gates of Timbuktu" late on Saturday without meeting resistance from the Islamist insurgents who had held the town since last year.

    The advancing troops were working on securing the town, a UNESCO World Heritage site and labyrinth of ancient mosques and monuments and mud-brick homes, ready to flush out any Islamist fighters who might still be hiding among the population.

    "Timbuktu is delicate, you can't just go in like that," the source, who asked not to be named, said.

    On Saturday, the French-Malian offensive recaptured Gao, which along with Timbuktu was one of three major northern towns occupied last year by Tuareg and Islamist rebels who included fighters from al Qaeda's North Africa wing AQIM.

    The third town, Kidal, remains in rebel hands.

    The United States and Europe are backing the U.N.-mandated Mali operation as a counterstrike against the threat of radical Islamist jihadists using the West African state's inhospitable Sahara desert as a launching pad for international attacks.

    One Timbuktu resident now outside the town said a friend inside had sent him SMS messages saying he had seen government troops on the streets, but gave no more details.

    Fighters from the Islamist alliance in north Mali, which groups AQIM with Malian Islamist group Ansar Dine and AQIM splinter MUJWA, had destroyed ancient shrines sacred to moderate Sufi Moslems in Timbuktu, provoking international outrage.

    They had also imposed severe sharia, Islamic law, including amputations for thieves and stoning of adulterers.

    GAO MAYOR BACK IN OFFICE

    Malian government control was restored in Gao on Saturday, after French special forces backed by warplanes and helicopters seized the town's airport and a key bridge. Around a dozen "terrorists" were killed in the assault, while French forces suffered no losses or injuries, France's defense ministry said.

    The Islamists seemed to be pulling back further north into the trackless desert wastes and mountain fastnesses of the Sahara, from where some military experts fear they could carry on a hit-and-run guerrilla war against the government.

    Officials said the mayor of Gao, Sadou Diallo, who had taken refuge in Bamako during the Islamist occupation, had been reinstalled at the head of the local administration while French, Malian, Chadian and Nigerien troops secured the town and the surrounding area.

    As the French and Malian troops push into northern Mali, African troops from a continental intervention force expected to number 7,700 are being flown into the country, despite delays due to logistical problems and the lack of airlift capacity.

    The robust military action by France over the past two weeks in its former Sahel colony has left African leaders embarrassed about the continent's inability to quickly field its own force to restore the territorial integrity of an African state.

    At an African Union summit in Addis Ababa, outgoing AU chairman Thomas Boni Yayi, president of Benin, criticized Africa's slow response to the Isla mist insurgency in Mali, and welcomed international support for the French-led operation.

    "How could it be that when faced with a danger that threatens its very foundations, Africa, although it had the means to defend itself, continued to wait," Yayi told African leaders on Sunday after handing over the AU chair to Ethiopia.

    TWO-PRONGED OFFENSIVE

    France sent warplanes and 2,500 troops to Mali, formerly French Sudan, after its government appealed to Paris for help when Isla mist rebel columns early in January launched an offensive towards the southern capital Bamako. The rebels seized several towns, since recaptured by the French.

    Around 1,900 African troops, including Chadian, have been deployed to Mali so far as part of the planned U.S.-based African intervention force, known as AFISMA.

    Bur kina Fatso, Benin, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, Niger and Chad are providing troops while Burundi and other African nations have pledged to contribute.

    While the French and Malians thrust northeast in a two-pronged offensive through Goa and Timbuktu, Chadian and local forces in neighboring Niger are preparing a flanking thrust against the Isla mists coming up from the south.

    Washington and European governments, while providing airlift and intelligence support to the anti-militant offensive in Mali, are not planning to send in any combat troops.

    The AU is expected to seek hundreds of millions of dollars in logistical support and funding for the AFISMA force at a conference of donors for the Mali operation to be held in Addis Ababa on January 29.

    (Reporting by Tiemoko Diallo in Bamako, Richard Valdmanis in Sevare, Mali, Joe Bavier in Abidjan, Richard Lough and Aaron Maasho in Addis Ababa; Writing by Pascal Fletcher; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

    Source: http://news.yahoo.com/french-malian-forces-capture-gao-rebel-stronghold-004512113.html

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    Time to open up to trade, EU tells Argentina, Brazil

    SANTIAGO (Reuters) - EU leaders told Argentina and Brazil on Saturday to open up their markets and push ahead on a free-trade deal that would be a major prize for Europe as it tries to emerge from three years of economic crisis.

    Treading carefully in a region whose fortunes are markedly better than Europe's, German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Buenos Aires and Brasilia not to revert to the kind of protectionism of the 1930s that deepened the Great Depression.

    Five years after the global financial crisis and with the euro zone in its second recession since 2009, the European Union needs Latin America's buoyant economies. But it is frustrated by Brazil and Argentina's policies to protect local markets.

    At a two-day summit in Santiago, Merkel led EU leaders' efforts to win a breakthrough on the long-stalled negotiations for with the South American trade bloc Mercosur that is made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Venezuela and Uruguay.

    "We need to have open markets in terms of free trade and not protectionism," Merkel told a meeting of business leaders. "History has taught us that in the '20s and '30s," she said, flanked by the pro-free trade presidents of Mexico and Chile.

    Negotiations on a trade pact with the South American trade bloc Mercosur began in the 1990s and were relaunched in 2010.

    They have yet to make real progress due to disputes over European farm subsidies and moves by Brazil and Argentina to shield local industry from cheaper, foreign-made imports.

    In the meantime, Brussels has signed free-trade deals with a number of Latin American countries, including Mexico, Peru and Chile, revealing a split between the free-trade advocates on the Pacific side and the more closed economies, such as Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela, on the other side of the continent.

    Merkel said she would discuss the issue with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and Argentina's Cristina Fernandez on Saturday at a time of growing impatience in Brussels, which has one of the world's most ambitious free-trade agendas.

    "It is time to reach a deal with Mercosur," Jose Manuel Barroso, the head of the European Commission, said in his speech to loud applause from business leaders.

    According to a draft of the summit's final statement seen by Reuters, EU and Latin American leaders will indeed commit on Sunday to more open trade and to avoid protectionist policies.

    Europe wants to retain its influence in a region it conquered 500 years ago and where it remains the biggest foreign investor as China steps up its investment in mining and energy.

    'LATIN AMERICA'S DECADE'

    After decades of hyperinflation and financial crises, Latin America's economic fortunes are now better than Europe's.

    Latin America's economic output is expected to grow almost 4 percent this year, as the 17-nation euro zone will probably contract.

    Latin America's per capita gross domestic product could double by 2030, according to the InterAmerican Development Bank, meaning Europe will have more potential buyers of its cars, luxury goods, banking services and pharmaceuticals.

    Gathered at a luxury hotel in a part of the Chilean capital dotted with newly-built glass skyscrapers, the mood was certainly celebratory, with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos declaring it was "Latin America's decade."

    But tense relations with Argentina and Brazil represent a new hurdle to a Mercosur deal, one that Germany as Europe's top exporter is especially keen to see resolved.

    Argentina's fiery, left-leaning Fernandez, slapped sweeping controls on imports in February 2012 in a bid to prop up the trade surplus and keep industry competitive as labor costs soar.

    Fernandez met Brazil's Rousseff on Saturday in Santiago and called for Mercosur to establish a committee to "discuss and re-elaborate new proposals and a new offer to present in the last quarter of the year to the EU."

    It was not immediately clear if this signaled a breakthrough or a move to buy time.

    According to Global Trade Alert, an independent body monitoring commerce, Argentina is the world's worst offender when it comes to protectionist measures because the policies affect so many industries and sectors all over the world.

    Neighboring Brazil - Latin America's largest economy - has also raised import barriers on goods from European steel to powdered milk. In the first 10 months of 2012, Brazil opened 47 trade defense cases, more than double the number in all of 2011.

    EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht acknowledged that the 27-member European Union could do more to reduce its trade barriers in a region that guards its agricultural sector from U.S. and Latin American imports it regards as unsafe or a threat to its local products ranging from Parma ham to Bordeaux wine.

    But he said it was time for Argentina and Brazil to act. "We need to bring the negotiations with the Mercosur countries to a conclusion," De Gucht said. "It is no secret that Europe would like to have made more progress in these talks by now."

    (Additional reporting by Helen Popper, Alejandro Lifschitz and Anthony Esposito; Editing by Vicki Allen)

    Source: http://news.yahoo.com/time-open-trade-eu-tells-argentina-brazil-202750614--finance.html

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    Spam hits five-year low

    1 day

    A new report from Kaspersky Lab indicates that the amount of spam in the world continues to decline, although it's nowhere near disappearing. It's also being replaced with other, more substantial threats.

    Spam levels dropped throughout 2012, and by the end of the year it was steadily below 70 percent of all email detected. In the heyday of spam, it consistently made up around 85 percent, according to Kaspersky's numbers.

    A number of factors have contributed to this. People and email providers have instituted more effective spam filters, for one thing, and a major security hole that allowed people to spoof an email's sender was closed this year.

    The reduced effectiveness of spam emails means spammers have to send more to get any hits. Kaspersky calculates that it cost spammers $150 for every million emails sent ? cheap indeed, but the success rate is so low that legal, normal advertising on Google and Facebook actually end up beinga better deal.

    Of course, not every spammer is just aiming for cheap advertising. There are plenty?selling illegal services or products, or looking to hijack your computer with malicious attachments or phishing attempts. Since legal advertisement isn't an option, they're doubling down on spam. For that reason, Kaspersky suggests spam reduction in 2013 will be "negligible at best."

    The full, detailed report, with many more details about the origins and types of 2012's spam, can be read here.

    Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBCNews Digital. His personal website is?coldewey.cc.

    Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/spam-hits-five-year-low-its-still-two-thirds-all-1C8125282

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    Saturday, January 26, 2013

    UK court identifies Barclays staff named in rate probe

    LONDON (Reuters) - A number of Barclays current and past executives are on a shortlist of individuals named in regulatory documents referring to the bank's attempted rigging of global benchmark interest rates, court documents released on Friday showed.

    The list includes the head of Barclays' investment bank, Rich Ricci, who has led a reputation-based review of all of Barclays' investment banking activities following the scandal, which saw the bank fined $453 million by United States and British authorities.

    The list also includes finance director Chris Lucas, former Chief Executive Bob Diamond, former chief operating officer Jerry del Missier, and former compliance head Stephen Morse.

    A British judge ordered the bank to reveal their identities during a preliminary hearing for a test case on the mis-selling of interest rate swaps brought by a residential care home operator.

    A longer list of 104 individuals who were named in court papers was released on Thursday after the judge denied their request for anonymity. The shorter list of 25, released on Friday, names those specifically referred to in regulatory documents referring to Libor manipulation.

    Twenty-four of the 25 had requested anonymity - the exception being former Barclays trader Jay Merchant, who went on to become head of swaps trading at UBS before leaving his position last August amid federal scrutiny of his activities while at Barclays.

    None of those named is necessarily implicated in any wrongdoing.

    Guardian Care Homes alleges Barclays mis-sold interest rate hedging products based on Libor (London interbank offered rate) in a case that is shining a light on those involved in the bank's interest rate-setting process.

    (Editing by David Cowell)

    Source: http://news.yahoo.com/uk-court-identifies-barclays-staff-named-rate-probe-133925057--sector.html

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    DNA and quantum dots: All that glitters is not gold

    Jan. 25, 2013 ? A team of researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has shown that by bringing gold nanoparticles close to the dots and using a DNA template to control the distances, the intensity of a quantum dot's fluorescence can be predictably increased or decreased. This breakthrough opens a potential path to using quantum dots as a component in better photodetectors, chemical sensors and nanoscale lasers.

    Anyone who has tried to tune a radio knows that moving their hands toward or away from the antenna can improve or ruin the reception. Although the reasons are well understood, controlling this strange effect is difficult, even with hundred-year-old radio technology. Similarly, nanotechnology researchers have been frustrated trying to control the light emitted from quantum dots, which brighten or dim with the proximity of other particles.

    The NIST team developed ways to accurately and precisely place different kinds of nanoparticles near each other and to measure the behavior of the resulting nanoscale constructs. Because nanoparticle-based inventions may require multiple types of particles to work together, it is crucial to have reliable methods to assemble them and to understand how they interact.

    The researchers looked at two types of nanoparticles, quantum dots, which glow with fluorescent light when illuminated, and gold nanoparticles, which have long been known to enhance the intensity of light around them. The two could work together to make nanoscale sensors built using rectangles of woven DNA strands, formed using a technique called "DNA origami."

    These DNA rectangles can be engineered to capture different types of nanoparticles at specific locations with a precision of about one nanometer. Tiny changes in the distance between a quantum dot and a gold nanoparticle near one another on the rectangle cause the quantum dot to glow more or less brightly as it moves away from or toward the gold. Because these small movements can be easily detected by tracking the changes in the quantum dot's brightness, they can be used to reveal, for example, the presence of a particular chemical that is selectively attached to the DNA rectangle. However, getting it to work properly is complicated, says NIST's Alex Liddle.

    "A quantum dot is highly sensitive to the distance between it and the gold, as well as the size, number and arrangement of the gold particles," says Liddle, a scientist with the NIST Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology. "These factors can boost its fluorescence, mask it or change how long its glow lasts. We wanted a way to measure these effects, which had never been done before."

    Liddle and his colleagues made several groups of DNA rectangles, each with a different configuration of quantum dots and gold particles in a solution. Using a laser as a spotlight, the team was able to follow the movement of individual DNA rectangles in the liquid, and also could detect changes in the fluorescent lifetime of the quantum dots when they were close to gold particles of different sizes. They also showed that they could exactly predict the lifetime of the fluorescence of the quantum dot depending on the size of the nearby gold nanoparticles.

    While their tracking technique was time consuming, Liddle says that the strength of their results will enable them to engineer the dots to have a specific desired lifetime. Moreover, the success of their tracking method could lead to better measurement methods.

    "Our main goals for the future," he concludes, "are to build better nanoscale sensors using this approach and to develop the metrology necessary to measure their performance."

    Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

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    Story Source:

    The above story is reprinted from materials provided by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

    Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


    Journal Reference:

    1. Seung Hyeon Ko, Kan Du, J. Alexander Liddle. Quantum-Dot Fluorescence Lifetime Engineering with DNA Origami Constructs. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2013; 52 (4): 1193 DOI: 10.1002/anie.201206253

    Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

    Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

    Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/matter_energy/physics/~3/oScopSBsOhM/130125111356.htm

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    Friday, January 25, 2013

    RIM releases BES 10 for BlackBerry 10 and rival phones, offers free 60-day trial

    RIM BlackBerry EnterpriseBlackBerry

    Research In Motion (RIMM) is gearing up for the impending release of its first BlackBerry 10 devices and the company has now released new mobile device management software to help its customers keep a handle on their shiny new BB10 phones?and rival devices. The new BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10, now available for download, aims to be a one-size-fits all MDM platform that?s capable of managing BlackBerry, iOS and Android devices.

    [More from BGR: Apple reports Q1 results: $13.1 billion profit beats estimates, iPhone sales and Q2 guidance miss big]

    RIM says key features of the new service include the integration of BlackBerry Balance functionality to help keep work and personal applications and data separate; BlackBerry World for Work, a new iteration of the company?s traditional app store that gives companies the ability to more easily manage workers? apps; and an ?intuitive enterprise enrollment process for employees that offers a self-service console, and centralized control of assignable profiles for email, SCEP, Wi-Fi, VPN and proxy servers.?

    [More from BGR: As data gets cheaper for Verizon to transmit, customers are paying more]

    RIM is offering customers a free 60-day trial of the new MDM service.

    This article was originally published on BGR.com

    Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rim-releases-bes-10-blackberry-10-rival-phones-035824206.html

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    How can the Republican Party regroup? Join the discussion

    Party leaders are gathered in Charlotte, N.C., this week for the winter meeting of the Republican National Committee. Join Yahoo! News political reporter Chris Moody and GOP strategist John Feehery for a conversation about the future of the Republican Party.

    Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/republicans-regroup-join-yahoo-news-discuss-next-gop-154555092--election.html

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    Quantum communication: Each photon counts

    Jan. 25, 2013 ? Ultrafast, efficient, and reliable single-photon detectors are among the most sought-after components in photonics and quantum communication, which have not yet reached maturity for practical application. Physicist Dr. Wolfram Pernice of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), in cooperation with colleagues at Yale University, Boston University, and Moscow State Pedagogical University, achieved the decisive breakthrough by integrating single-photon detectors with nanophotonic chips. The detector combines near-unity detection efficiency with high timing resolution and has a very low error rate.

    The results have been published by Nature Communications.

    Without reliable detection of single photons, it is impossible to make real use of the latest advances in optical data transmission or quantum computation; it is like having no analog-digital converter in a conventional computer to determine whether the applied voltage stands for 0 or 1. Although a number of different single-photon detector models have been developed over the past few years, thus far, none have provided satisfactory performance.

    Several new ideas and advanced developments went into the prototype developed within the "Integrated Quantum Photonics" project at the DFG Center of Functional Nanostructures (CFN). The new single-photon detector, tested in the telecommunications wavelength range, achieves a previously unattained detection efficiency of 91%.

    The detector was realized by fabricating superconducting nanowires directly on top of a nanophotonic waveguide. This geometry can be compared to a tube that conducts light, around which a wire in a superconducting state is wound and, as such, has no electric resistivity. The nanometer-sized wire made of niobium nitride absorbs photons that propagate along the waveguide. When a photon is absorbed, superconductivity is lost, which is detected as an electric signal. The longer the tube, the higher is the detection probability. The lengths involved are in the micrometer range.

    A special feature of the detector is its direct installation on the chip, which allows for it to be replicated at random. The single-photon detectors built thus far were stand-alone units, which were connected to chips with optical fibers. Arrangements of that type suffer from photons being lost in the fiber connection or being absorbed in other ways. These loss channels do not exist in the detector that is now fully embedded in a silicon photonic circuit. In addition to high detection efficiency, this gives rise to a remarkably low dark count rate. Dark counts arise when a photon is detected erroneously: for instance, because of a spontaneous emission, an alpha particle, or a spurious field. The new design also provides ultrashort timing jitter of 18 picoseconds, which is 18 times 10-12 seconds.

    The novel solution also makes it possible to integrate several hundreds of these detectors on a single chip. This is a basic precondition for future use in optical quantum computers.

    The detector demonstrated in this study was designed to work at wavelengths in the Telekom bandwidth. The same detector architecture can also be used for wavelengths in the range of visible light. This would allow the principle to be employed in analyses of all structures that emit little light, i.e., photons, such as single molecules or bacteria. ?

    Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

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    Story Source:

    The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

    Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


    Journal Reference:

    1. W.H.P. Pernice, C. Schuck, O. Minaeva, M. Li, G.N. Goltsman, A.V. Sergienko, H.X. Tang. High-speed and high-efficiency travelling wave single-photon detectors embedded in nanophotonic circuits. Nature Communications, 2012; 3: 1325 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2307

    Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

    Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

    Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/matter_energy/electricity/~3/ow-KbzYPjFA/130125104056.htm

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    Wednesday, January 23, 2013

    John Feffer: Human Rights in Bulgaria

    Bulgarian politician Ahmed Dogan was in the news this weekend after surviving a dramatic assault at a party conference in Sofia. Dogan is the controversial leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), an organization established in 1990 that has largely championed the rights of ethnic Turks and Muslims living in Bulgaria. Dogan was going to announce during this speech that he was stepping down as the head of the party.

    It was not a clear-cut assassination attempt. The assailant, Oktai Enimehmedov, used a gas pistol, usually a non-lethal weapon though it could do considerable damage at point-blank range. But the pistol was loaded only with pepper spray and noisemakers. Enimehmedov, who is an ethnic Turk himself, was immediately set upon by members of the audience and security personnel, who punched and kicked him. The video of the dramatic scrum has gone viral.

    It's not entirely clear why Enimehmedov engaged in this half-attack on Dogan. He may simply have disliked the MRF leader and wanted the media limelight. This being Bulgaria, however, conspiracy theories abound. The most popular seems to be that Dogan orchestrated the whole affair, though this scenario makes little sense.

    Ahmed Dogan is no stranger to controversy. He has long been criticized for his autocratic style and the many years he was on the payroll of the state security services prior to 1989. And the MRF has witnessed various fissures, most recently when former deputy chairman Kassim Dal broke with Dogan and later established his own party.

    Despite these controversies, the MRF has achieved considerable successes, both as a political party and as a movement to advance the ethnic Turkish and Muslim community in Bulgaria. I spoke recently with Krassimir Kanev of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee. He has worked on human rights issues in Bulgaria for more than two decades and helped write one of the first reports on the situation of ethnic Turks in Bulgaria in the 1980s.

    "Overall, I think that the Movement for Rights and Freedoms was quite positive in Bulgaria," he told me. "They were able to both protect the human rights of the ethnic Turks, as well as to advance their welfare in the regions where they live -- especially when the Movement was in government, which was for much of the past decade."

    "There were, however, also some negative developments," he continued. "They created a political ghetto for the Turkish minority. If you're an ethnic Turk, the expectation is that you vote for the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, and there has been little incentive for the other parties to work among the Turkish minority. Although some parties made some moves in that regard, it was mostly the MRF that focused on the issue."

    In addition to the rights of ethnic Turks, we talked about a current court case against 13 imams accused of promoting violence, the declining status of human rights NGOs in Bulgaria, and why Roma in Bulgaria have not replicated the success of the MRF. Below this interview, to provide a point of comparison, I have appended excerpts from an earlier discussion we had in 2007 about identity questions.

    The Interview

    When you look at the level of prejudice in society over the last 22 years, do you think the Movement or any other efforts have succeeded in reducing the overall level of prejudice specifically toward ethnic Turks?

    Oh, yes, I think so. The very fact that ethnic Turks became visible in society reduced a lot of prejudice. The research also indicates that this has happened. There's still a lot of prejudice, but certainly not at the level that we had in 1992-93. The fact that we now have government ministers who are ethnic Turks is quite significant. This was unthinkable in the 1990s. When the Movement for Rights and Freedoms was involved in the government in the 1990s, it had to propose a Bulgarian as a government minister because at that time it would have been unacceptable to have a Turkish government minister.

    Someone told me that an important cultural indication of the change is the popularity of Turkish soap operas here.

    Indeed, yes. But that was a recent thing. I think that they too contributed to better acceptance of ethnic Turks.

    When I talked to people in 1990, there were some people who really thought that ethnic Turks would be a fifth column for Turkey to re-colonize Bulgaria. But I don't have the sense that those suspicions still exist.

    They do exist, but at a much lower level.

    For the rest of the interview, click here.

    ?

    Follow John Feffer on Twitter: www.twitter.com/johnfeffer

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    Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-feffer/human-rights-in-bulgaria_b_2531605.html

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    USA. Falvey sponsors Seattle Boat Show wine tasting - BYM News

    Falvey Yacht Insurance will host an opening night wine tasting event at the Seattle Boat Show on January 25.? Falvey, a Rhode Island-based market leader in yacht and charter insurance, is also a title show sponsor.

    Running January 25-February 3, Seattle's Boat Show is the largest on the West Coast.? This year's theme is It's a Boat Thing, with hundreds of exhibitors and over 1,000 recreational watercraft indoors and out.? More than 200 free boating and fishing seminars are also scheduled.

    The Falvey-hosted opening night event from 5-9 p.m., dubbed Uncorked, promises an evening of fine wine and entertainment.? Attendees can sample award-winning Washington vintages at nine tasting stations on the show floor, with winery representatives on hand to answer questions.

    "This opening night wine tasting is a first in the show's 66-year history and will be a fun way to wrap up the first day," said Shawn Kucharski, Falvey Yacht Insurance president.? Packages for Uncorked are available at www.SeattleBoat.com or at the show's box office.

    Falvey Yacht Insurance specializes in yacht and charter coverage, offering tailored solutions, global coverage and personalized local service.? The company is part of Falvey Insurance Group, which includes Falvey Cargo Underwriting, an 18-year global provider of cargo and service solutions for the technology and life science industries.

    Last Updated ( Tuesday, 22 January 2013 )

    Source: http://www.bymnews.com/news/newsDetails.php?id=114310

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