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Sunday, January 29, 2012
Kinect-Powered Windows 8 Laptops Are Definitely in the Works [Laptops]
Friday, January 27, 2012
Daily Desired: A Lego-Compatible Moleskine Journal to Devise Secret, Brick-Based Schemes [Video]
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Haiti could be in a new earthquake cycle
The magnitude-7.0 earthquake that shook Port-au-Prince, Haiti, two years ago nearly demolished the city and took both residents and geologists by surprise.
Now, a team of scientists thinks they?ve identified a centuries-long pattern of earthquakes on the island of Hispaniola, which comprises both Haiti and the Dominican Republic, that could portend earthquakes to come.
Although past seismic activity can?t be used to predict future quakes, the findings may help residents and those hoping to rebuild Port-au-Prince prepare for the next big one, said William Bakun, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif.
"People shouldn't be surprised if, in the decades to come, there are more very damaging earthquakes in the region," Bakun told OurAmazingPlanet, "and they should plan and build accordingly."
A very detailed record
Bakun and his colleagues gathered historical records ? letters, drawings, newspaper clippings and more ? from residents of Hispaniola since the time that Christopher Columbus dropped anchor at the island. From descriptions of shaking and damage, Bakun was able to estimate the intensities, magnitudes and locations of historical earthquakes.
"It was in the interests of the Spanish colonies to report all damage back to the king," Bakun explained, "because he was in the habit of supplying them funds to rebuild critical facilities, cathedrals and the like. So there are actually very detailed records of Hispaniola's earthquakes."
A critical part of the analysis was comparing people's accounts of shaking in the historical tremors to what residents reported feeling in the 2010 earthquake, Bakun said. From that, the team was able to understand how seismic waves travel through the island, which helped them estimate the sizes and locations of the historical quakes.
Seismic history repeating itself?
Hidden in the historical data, the team found a striking pattern of quakes and quiescence.
From about 1500 to 1701, the records mention no seismic activity. Then, in 1701, an estimated magnitude-6.6 earthquake struck west of Port-au-Prince. Bakun and his team pinpointed that quake to the east-west trending Enriquillo fault, the same fault thought to have ruptured in the 2010 earthquake. The accounts of shaking and damage in 1701 were also very similar to those of the 2010 quake, Bakun said.
The region was then quiet for another 50 years, until a devastating magnitude-7.5 earthquake struck the eastern end of the Enriquillo fault in October 1751, in the Dominican Republic. A month later, a magnitude-6.6 quake shook Port-au-Prince again, followed by a magnitude-7.5 earthquake on the western end of the Enriquillo fault in 1770. Finally, the fault went silent for 240 years, until the 2010 quake.
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"The entire Enriquillo fault system ruptured during these 70 years of earthquakes, then it shut off," Bakun said. "We're certainly not suggesting that things will repeat precisely as they did in the 18th century, but history tells us that we shouldn't be surprised if we have intervals ? in the 18th century it was 50 years ? of quiet before the next one really takes off.?
Most importantly, residents and engineers should rebuild Port-au-Prince with an eye toward future seismic activity, Bakun said.
"The consensus is that the quality of construction and building practices were not sufficient for the 2010 earthquake," Bakun said. "We certainly know how to build buildings that can withstand that kind of an earthquake, but the construction practices that have been in place in the region don't cut it."
The team's findings will appear in the February issue of the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America.
? 2012 OurAmazingPlanet. All rights reserved. More from OurAmazingPlanet.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46156311/ns/technology_and_science-science/
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Friday, January 20, 2012
Why should we stop online piracy?
Continue reading page |1 |2
Congressional bill names are a reliable indicator of the state of conventional wisdom in the US. That Congress is weighing bills called the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) tells us that, at a minimum, the idea of stopping online piracy is popular.
It shouldn't be. There's no evidence that the US is currently suffering from an excessive amount of online piracy, and there is ample reason to believe that a non-zero level of copyright infringement is socially beneficial. Online piracy is like fouling in basketball. You want to penalise it to prevent it from getting out of control, but any effort to actually eliminate it would be a cure much worse than the disease.
Much of the debate about SOPA and PIPA has thus far centred around the entertainment industry's absurdly inflated claims about the economic harm of copyright infringement. When making these calculations, intellectual property owners tend to assume that every unauthorised download represents a lost sale. This is clearly false. Often people copy a file illegally precisely because they're unwilling to pay the market price. Were unauthorised copying not an option, they would simply not watch the movie or listen to the album.
Dead weight bounce
Critics of industry estimates have repeatedly made this point and argued against the inflated figures used by SOPA and Protect IP boosters. But an equally large problem is the failure to consider the benefits of illegal downloading. These benefits can be a simple reduction of what economists call "dead-weight loss". Dead-weight loss exists any time the profit-maximising price of a unit of something exceeds the cost of producing an extra unit. In a highly competitive market in which many sellers are offering largely undifferentiated goods, profit margins are low and dead-weight loss is tiny. But the whole point of copyright is that the owner of the rights to, say, Breaking Bad has a monopoly on sales of new episodes of the show. At the same time, producing an extra copy of a Breaking Bad episode is nearly free. So when the powers that be decide that the profit-maximising strategy is to charge more than $100 to download all four seasons of Breaking Bad from iTunes, they're creating a situation in which lots of people who'd gain $15 or $85 worth of enjoyment from watching the show can't watch it. This is "dead-weight loss", and to the extent that copyright infringement reduces it, infringement is a boon to society.
After all, things like public libraries, used bookstores, and the widespread practice of lending books to friends all cost publishers money. But nobody (I hope) is going to introduce the Stop Used-Book Stores Now Act purely on these grounds. The public policy question is not whether the libraries are bad for publishers, but whether libraries are beneficial on balance.
Download or pizza?
By the same token, even when copyright infringement does lead to real loss of revenue to copyright owners, it's not as if the money vanishes into a black hole. Suppose Joe Downloader uses BitTorrent to get a free copy of Beggars Banquet rather than forking over $7.99 to Amazon, and then goes out to eat some pizza. In this case, the Rolling Stones's loss is the pizzeria's gain and Joe gets to listen to a classic album. It's at least not obvious that we should regard this, on balance, as harmful.
Meanwhile, the benefits of forcing copyright holders to compete with free-but-illegal downloads are considerable. I am not, personally, in the habit of infringing on copyrights (though I will cop to some book lending and the fact that my fianc?e and I, like any sensible couple, share Netflix and Hulu subscriptions) but recently have found myself firing up btjunkie.org again. Why? Because the BBC in its infinite wisdom decided to start airing season 2 of its excellent programme Sherlock in the UK without making it available at any price to Americans [including the author]. That's dumb, but until relatively recently it was a universal problem. It used to be that studios and labels didn't make their wares available to people willing to pay for them. That created an underground market for pirated TV shows and music. The pirated market, in turn, pressured the entertainment industry to create legal options such as iTunes and Hulu. The illegal competition is a valuable consumer pressure on the industry.
This is not to say that we should have no copyright law or that there should be no penalties for piracy. Used-book stores may slightly depress sales of new books, but they don't threaten to destroy the entire publishing industry. Large-scale, unimpeded, commercialised digital reproduction of other people's works really could destroy the US's creative industries. But the question to ask about the state of intellectual property policy is whether there's a problem from the consumer side. If infringement got out of hand, we might face a bleak scenario in which bands stop recording albums and no new TV shows are released.
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Thursday, January 19, 2012
Tales emerge of missing and dead in ship disaster (AP)
ROME ? An Italian dad and his 5-year-old daughter. A retired American couple treating themselves after putting four children through college. A Hungarian musician who helped crying children into lifejackets, then disappeared while trying to retrieve his beloved violin from his cabin.
As details emerged Wednesday about the missing and the dead in the grounding of the Costa Concordia, the captain was quoted as saying he tripped and fell into the water from the listing vessel and never intended to abandon his passengers.
The search for the 21 people still unaccounted for in the disaster ground to a halt after the cruise liner shifted again on its rocky perch off the Tuscan island of Giglio, making it too dangerous for divers to continue. Rough seas were forecast for the next few days.
The bad weather also postponed the start of the weekslong operation to extract the half-million gallons of fuel on board the vessel, as Italy's environment minister warned Parliament of the ecological implications if the ship sinks.
The $450 million Costa Concordia was carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew when it slammed into a reef and capsized Friday after the captain made an unauthorized diversion from his programmed route and strayed into the perilous waters.
Capt. Francesco Schettino, who was jailed after he left the ship before everyone was safely evacuated, was placed under house arrest Tuesday, facing possible charges of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his ship.
The ship's operator, Crociere Costa SpA, has accused Schettino of causing the wreck by making the unapproved detour, and the captain has acknowledged carrying out what he called a "tourist navigation" that brought the ship closer to Giglio. Costa has said such a navigational "fly by" was done last Aug. 9-10, after being approved by the company and Giglio port authorities.
However, Lloyd's List Intelligence, a leading maritime publication, said Wednesday its tracking of the ship's August route showed it actually took the Concordia slightly closer to Giglio than the course that caused Friday's disaster.
"This is not a black-and-white case," Richard Meade, editor of Lloyd's List, said in a statement.
"Our data suggests that both routes took the vessel within 200 meters (yards) of the impact point and that the authorized route was actually closer to shore."
New audio of Schettino's communications with the coast guard during the crisis emerged Wednesday, with the captain claiming he ended up in a life raft after he tripped and fell into the water.
"I did not abandon a ship with 100 people on board, the ship suddenly listed and we were thrown into the water," Schettino said, according to a transcript published Wednesday in the Corriere della Sera paper.
Initial audio of Schettino's conversations made headlines on Tuesday, showing an increasingly exasperated coast guard officer ordering Schettino back on board to direct the evacuation, and the captain resisting, saying it was too dark and the ship was tipping.
The officer's order, "Get back on board, (expletive!)" has entered the Italian lexicon, becoming a Twitter hashtag and adorning T-shirts.
Eleven people have been confirmed dead so far, and 21 are missing. Italian officials have only released 27 names so far, including two Americans, 12 Germans, six Italians, four French, and one person each from Hungary, India and Peru.
The Hungarian victim was identified Wednesday as 38-year-old Sandor Feher, who had been working as an entertainer on the stricken cruise ship. His body was found inside the wreck and identified by his mother, who had traveled to the Italian city of Grosseto, according to Hungary's foreign ministry.
Jozsef Balog, a pianist who worked with Feher on the ship, told the Blikk newspaper that Feher was wearing a lifejacket when he decided to return to his cabin to retrieve his violin. Feher was last seen on deck en route to the area where he was supposed to board a lifeboat.
According to Balog, Feher helped put lifejackets on several crying children before returning to his cabin.
Others among the missing include 5-year-old Dayana Arlotti and her father, William Arlotti, who were on the cruise with the father's girlfriend. The girl's parents separated three years ago.
The girl's mother, Susy Albertini, said she has been desperately calling police, port officials and the cruise company for days for news of her daughter and estranged husband.
"I last heard from her on Thursday," when she waved goodbye at school, Albertini, 28, told the La Voce di Romagna newspaper.
"The absurd thing is that no one can tell me anything, and what little I know is from the newspapers," she said. "Sometimes they ask absurd questions, like if my daughter knows how to swim. Do they understand she is 5 years old? What kind of question is that?"
William Arlotti, 36, had gone on the cruise with his girlfriend, Michela Marconcelli, who survived. She reported seeing Dayana, who was wearing a lifejacket, slide into the water when the boat shifted, but said someone helped retrieve her, the newspaper reported.
Marconcelli said she was pushed forward onto the life raft, and lost track of her companion and his daughter.
Other missing include retirees Jerry and Barbara Heil of White Bear Lake, Minn.
Sarah Heil, their daughter, told WBBM radio in Chicago that her parents had been looking forward to the 16-day cruise after raising four kids and sending them all off to college.
"They never had any money," she said. "So when they retired, they went traveling. And this was to be a big deal ? a 16-day trip. They were really excited about it."
The Heil children said in a blog post Wednesday that their parents were not among the passengers whose bodies were recently recovered, and they were praying that weather conditions would improve so authorities could resume search operations.
A U.S. congressional committee announced Wednesday that it will hold a hearing next month on the safety implications of the Costa Concordia accident, saying U.S. and international maritime organizations need to ensure standards are in place to protect passengers' safety on cruise ships.
Passengers have complained vocally about the chaotic evacuation and poor treatment by Costa officials once they got on land, with some saying they were provided only a single night of hotel accommodations and denied help getting to their embassies to get new passports.
Costa owner, Miami-based Carnival Corp., responded Wednesday, saying it was offering assistance and counseling to passengers and crew and was trying to take stock of lost possessions.
"Costa has also begun the process of refunding all voyage costs including both passenger cruise fares and all costs incurred while on board," Carnival said in a statement. "Our senior management teams are working together to determine additional support."
Rescue operations were suspended early Wednesday after instruments attached to the ship detected it had shifted, raising concerns for the safety of rescuers. By evening, officials still did not have enough data to assure the ship had stopped resettling and it was unclear when the search would resume.
Environment Minister Corrado Clini, who has warned of an environmental catastrophe in the waters around Giglio, a sanctuary for marine mammals, briefed Parliament on the effort to extract the half-million gallons of fuel. He said the ship risked sinking if it slips off its rocky perch.
Schettino was questioned by a judge for three hours Tuesday, then ordered held under house arrest rather than jailed ? a decision that federal prosecutors plan to challenge.
The judge, in her reasoning released Wednesday, said Schettino didn't represent a flight risk since he had stayed near the ship even after abandoning it, the ANSA news agency reported.
Schettino's lawyer, Bruno Leporatti, told reporters house arrest made sense.
"He never left the scene," the lawyer said. "There has never been a danger of flight."
Leporatti added that Schettino was upset by the accident, contrary to depictions in the Italian media that he did not appear to show regret.
"He is a deeply shaken man, not only for the loss of his ship, which for a captain is a grave thing, but above all for what happened and the loss of human life," Leporatti said.
Criminal charges including manslaughter and abandoning ship are expected to be filed by prosecutors shortly. Schettino faces a possible 12 years in prison on the abandoning ship charge alone.
_____
Barry reported from Milan.
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Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Adele joins "Titanic" in her 16-week chart reign (Reuters)
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? British singer Adele's multi-platinum selling album "21" scored its 16th week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart on Wednesday, entering an elite list of only five albums to cross the that mark in the past 20 years.
"21," which has been selling more than 100,000 copies each week for 33 weeks, joined the ranks of the soundtrack to the 1997 box-office phenomenon "Titanic," Whitney Houston's soundtrack to 1992 film, "The Bodyguard," country crooner Garth Brooks' "Ropin' The Wind" and Billy Ray Cyrus' "Some Gave All," also in 1992, all of which crossed 16 weeks at No. 1.
Recently disbanded Christian rock group David Crowder Band made the highest chart debut this week at No. 2 with new album "Give Us Rest," selling 50,000 copies.
Irish alternative rock band Snow Patrol debuted their sixth studio album, "Fallen Empires," at No. 5, following Black Keys' "El Camino" and Drake's "Take Care."
Adele also snatched the top spot on the Digital Songs chart with "Set Fire to the Rain" from last week's No. 1, Jason Mraz's "I Won't Give Up," which fell to No. 9.
This week saw low sales on the album chart, as the bottom three CDs on the Top 10 list sold less than 20,000 copies each, the first time in Nielsen SoundScan history that albums selling less than 20,000 have entered the top 10.
(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
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Jon Huntsman Quits Presidential Race, Endorses Mitt Romney
And then there were five. Jon Huntsman has become the latest casualty of the race for the Republican presidential nomination, dropping out this morning after a decent, but not overwhelming showing in the New Hampshire primary last week.
In announcing his withdrawal today, he derided the negativity permeating the GOP primary race and immediately threw his support behind Mitt Romney.
"Today, I am suspending my campaign for the presidency," the ex-Utah governor and U.S. ambassador to China said at a news conference in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
"I believe it is now time for our party to unite around a candidate best equipped to defeat Barack Obama. Despite our differences and the space between us on some of the issues, I believe that candidate is Governor Mitt Romney."
Huntsman's support for the one-time Massachusetts governor is not unexpected given Romney's frontrunner status (he won both Iowa and New Hampshire).
There are also issues on which the two men agree, and both are open about their strong Mormon faith, though relations between the two have been frosty of late.
Huntsman, who was polling behind Stephen Colbert in South Carolina, had no path forward and exited not by criticizing Romney, but the "toxic" tone of the race.
"This race has degenerated into an onslaught of negative and personal attacks not worthy of the American people and not worthy of this critical time," Huntsman said.
Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/01/jon-huntsman-quits-presidential-race-endorses-mitt-romney/
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Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Globes: Comedy vies with drama this awards season (omg!)
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) ? The Golden Globes have equally good comedy and drama masks this year. Alongside heavyweight dramas, the category for best musical or comedy at the Globes usually is more of a lark, with nominees rarely emerging with best-picture prospects for Hollywood's top prize, the Academy Awards.
Yet Sunday's musical or comedy contenders make up a strong bunch that could give their best-drama cousins at the Globes a run for their money come Oscar time.
Expected to make the most noise at the Globes ceremony, to be carried live on NBC from 8-11 p.m. EST, is the silent film "The Artist," with six nominations, including best musical or comedy, directing and writing honors for Michel Havanavicius, and acting slots for Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo.
Tied for second with five nominations each are the Deep South tale "The Help" and George Clooney's Hawaiian family story "The Descendants," both of them among best-drama contenders.
With the Oscars choosing up to 10 best-picture contenders when nominations come out Jan. 24, "The Artist" could have some other lighter fare as company there. Globe musical or comedy nominees "Midnight in Paris" and "Bridesmaids" have solid Oscar nomination prospects, along with the weighty dramas academy voters historically prefer.
Most years, the musical or comedy category is filled with nominees that have little or no chance at the Oscars, such as last year's Globe nominees "The Tourist" and "Burlesque." The last time a musical or comedy Globe winner earned the best-picture Oscar was nine years ago, when "Chicago" triumphed at both shows.
This time, the dual categories at the Globes could create an Oscar showdown between the dramatic and musical-comedy winners.
Along with "The Artist," Kristen Wiig's wedding romp "Bridesmaids" and Woody Allen's romantic fantasy "Midnight in Paris," Globe nominees for best musical or comedy are Joseph Gordon-Levitt's cancer tale "50/50" and Michelle Williams' Marilyn Monroe story "My Week with Marilyn."
Besides "The Descendants" and "The Help," best-drama contenders are Martin Scorsese's Paris adventure "Hugo," Clooney's political thriller "The Ides of March," Brad Pitt's sports tale "Moneyball" and Steven Spielberg's World War I epic "War Horse."
Presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a group of 89 entertainment reporters for overseas outlets, the Globes used to have a strong record predicting the films that would go on to win best-picture at the Oscars. But lately, a best-picture win at the Globes has not translated into victory on Oscar night.
Over the last seven years, only one Globe best-picture winner ? 2008's "Slumdog Millionaire" ? has gone on to claim the top Oscar trophy. Before that stretch, the Globes had been on an eight-year streak in which one of its two best-picture recipients also won the main prize at the Academy Awards.
Last year, "The Social Network" won best-drama at the Globes and looked like the early Oscar favorite. But momentum later swung to eventual Oscar best-picture winner "The King's Speech." The year before, "Avatar" was named best drama at the Globes, while "The Hurt Locker" took best picture at the Oscars.
The Globes have a better track record predicting who will win Oscars for acting. A year ago, all four actors who won Oscars earned Globes first ? lead players Colin Firth for "The King's Speech" and Natalie Portman for "Black Swan" and "The Fighter" supporting stars Christian Bale and Melissa Leo.
This time, "The Help" leads the acting categories with three nominations, for Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer and Jessica Chastain. Along with Clooney, Pitt and Williams, other nominees include Meryl Streep for the Margaret Thatcher story "The Iron Lady," Leonardo DiCaprio for the J. Edgar Hoover biography "J. Edgar," Christopher Plummer for the father-son tale "Beginners" and Glenn Close and Janet McTeer for the Irish drama "Albert Nobbs."
Ryan Gosling has two nominations, as dramatic actor for "The Ides of March" and actor in a musical or comedy for the romance "Crazy, Stupid, Love."
Morgan Freeman will receive the Globes' Cecil B. DeMille award for lifetime achievement at Sunday's Beverly Hilton Hotel ceremony.
Ricky Gervais, who has ruffled feathers with sharp wisecracks aimed at celebrities and also the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, returns as host of the Globes for the third-straight time.
If the caustic comedian decides to again bite the hand that feeds him, a case working its way through federal court in Los Angeles might provide some of his material: the HFPA is fighting for the right to dump longtime Globes broadcaster NBC if it can get a better deal with another network.
___
Online:
http://www.goldenglobes.org
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Syria issues amnesty for crimes during uprising
By Msnbc.com wires services
Updated at 9:35 a.m. ET:
Arab League foreign ministers will meet on Jan. 22 to discuss the findings of monitors sent to Syria to observe whether President Bashar Assad has implemented a plan to end 10 months of bloodshed, Egypt's Middle East News Agency said according to Reuters.
The Arab League monitors are due to complete on Jan. 19 a report on the situation in Syria. An Arab League committee on Syria, led by Qatar, will discuss the report on Jan. 21 but only a full meeting of the 22-member body's foreign ministers can decide whether to end, extend or beef up the mission.
Arab League chief warns of civil war in Syria
?
Published at 4:45 a.m. ET:
Reuters is reporting that Syrian President Bashar Assad has granted a general amnesty for crimes committed since the outbreak of a 10-month uprising against his rule, the state news agency SANA reported on Sunday.
SANA said the amnesty would cover "crimes committed in the context of the events that occurred from March 15, 2011, until January 15, 2012." It gave no further details.
French journalist Gilles Jacquier was among several people killed in Syria's central city of Homs on Wednesday, as the 10-month uprising against President Bashar Assad continues. NBC's Brian Williams reports.
It also applies to army deserters who fled military service if they turn themselves in before Jan. 31.
It was not clear how many prisoners would be affected by Sunday's pardon.
Since the outbreak of the uprising against Assad's rule in March, Assad has freed 3,952 prisoners, according to SANA.
The opposition claims there are thousands more in Syrian prisons.
Also on Sunday, U.N. Secretary General demanded Sunday that Assad stop killing his own people, and said the "old order" of one-man rule and family dynasties is over in the Middle East.
In a keynote address at a conference on democracy in the Arab world, Ban Ki-moon said the revolutions of the Arab Spring show that people will no longer accept tyranny.
"Today, I say again to President (Bashar) Assad of Syria: Stop the violence. Stop killing your people," Ban said during the conference in Beirut.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
More from msnbc.com and NBC News:
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China denounces U.S. sanctions on company dealing with (Reuters)
BEIJING (Reuters) ? China criticized U.S. sanctions on a Chinese company selling refined petroleum products to Iran, calling Washington's punishment an unreasonable step beyond international sanctions on Tehran's nuclear program.
Thursday, the Obama administration invoked U.S. law to sanction China's state-run Zhuhai Zhenrong Corp, which it said was Iran's largest supplier of refined petroleum products.
"Imposing sanctions on a Chinese company based on a domestic (U.S.) law is totally unreasonable, and does not conform to the spirit or content of U.N. Security Council resolutions about the Iran nuclear issue," the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said in a statement issued on the ministry's website (www.mfa.gov.cn) late Saturday.
"China expresses its strong dissatisfaction and adamant opposition," said Liu.
The Obama administration said its sanctions against the Chinese company and two other firms are part of a broadening effort to target Iran's energy sector and press Tehran to curb its nuclear ambitions, which Western governments say appear aimed at developing the means to make atomic weapons.
Iran says its nuclear activities are legitimate and entirely for peaceful ends.
The U.S. sanctions threat is a worry for China, the biggest buyer of Iranian oil, followed by India and Japan. Only Saudi Arabia and Angola sell more crude than Iran to China.
As a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, China can veto resolutions mandating sanctions. But Beijing has voted for them, while working to ensure its energy ties are not threatened.
China has, however, also long criticized the United States and EU for imposing separate, unilateral sanctions on Iran and said they should take no steps reaching beyond the U.N. resolutions.
"Like many other countries, China and Iran maintain normal energy and trade and economic cooperation," said the foreign ministry spokesman Liu.
Analysts have said the U.S. move was largely symbolic, given that China's Zhuhai Zhenrong was unlikely to have much U.S. business, but that it sent a warning to Beijing and its state-run oil giants such as China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), China Petroleum and Chemical Corp (Sinopec Corp) and China National Offshore Oil Corp..
These companies have invested billions of dollars in the U.S. energy sector, and are much more exposed to the impact of potential sanctions.
(Reporting by Chris Buckley, Editing by Jonathan Thatcher)
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Monday, January 16, 2012
10 Tiny Bits Of Automotive News ? January 16, 2012 | Car Loves
1. The Detroit Auto Show is in full swing and many new models have been announced or teased. There is a high level of excitement at the show despite the uncertainty of the economy and the auto business.
2. The 2012 Nissan Pathfinder concept will be built and will rely on unibody construction.
3. At the Detroit auto show the Hyundai Elantra was named 2012 North American Car of the Year and the Range Rover Evoque was named 2012 Truck of the Year.
4. Ford debuted the 2013 Fusion at the Detroit Auto Show and it?s absolutely stunning. It has a European, pretty, low-slung look. It almost looks as if Ian Callum designed it. Expect big things from this car.
5. In other news: No longer a tease, Dodge showed off the new Dart at the Detroit Auto Show. But did you get a load of that Ford Fusion?
6. Ford says SYNC is a success. Ford says the connectivity software has found its way into four million cars since its introduction in 2007. With European and Asian buyers getting SYNC for the first time this year, and North American offerings like the Fusion and Flex getting it as standard equipment, Ford expects to add nine million more users by 2015.
7. Car Advice reports that VW sold 8.16 million units in 2011, marking the first time it has eclipsed eight million global sales.. Toyota finished 2011 with 7.9 million sales, in part because of production disruptions resulting from the March earthquake in Japan.
8. BMW says it is expanding its operations in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The company has announced it will invest $990 million into the facility over the next three years to allow the plant to produce up to 350,000 vehicles each year.
9. Chevy announced a special edition 2013 Corvette 427 Convertible, complete with hardware borrowed from the mighty Corvette Z06. Under the hood, a 427-cubic-inch LS7 V8 produces 505 horsepower and 470 pound-feet of torque, making this the most powerful Corvette Convertible ever produced. There will also be a 60th Anniversary package available with or without the 427 package.
10. Fiat announced pricing on the 2012 500 Abarth. MSRP starts at $22,000, *not including destination charges. The base car costs just $15,500. Abarth buyers get Fiat?s turbocharged 1.4-liter MultiAir engine producing 160 horsepower and 170 pound-feet of torque. This makes the Fiat the most powerful in weight to horsepower ratio of its competition including the GTI, Mini Cooper S and Veloster Turbo.
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Source: http://carloves.com/2012/01/16/10-tiny-bits-of-automotive-news-january-16-2012/
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Actress Heather Locklear in hospital after 911 call (omg!)
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "Melrose Place" actress Heather Locklear was taken to the hospital on Thursday after emergency services were called to her home near Los Angeles, police said.
The Sheriff's department in Ventura County, west of Los Angeles said that emergency services responded to a 911 call from Locklear's home and "determined that she needed to be transported to the hospital for further medical attention."
Representatives of the actress did not return calls for comment but celebrity websites TMZ and RadarOnline said Locklear may have mixed prescription drugs and alcohol.
Locklear, who also appeared in the TV comedy "Spin City" has a history of depression, spending time in rehab in 2008.
The actress was married to rock star Tommy Lee and later Richie Sambora in the 1990s. In 2007 she began dating fellow "Melrose Place" actor Jack Wagner but their engagement was called off two months ago.
(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Tim Gaynor and Eric Walsh)
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Sunday, January 15, 2012
Electron's negativity cut in half by supercomputer
Friday, January 13, 2012
While physicists at the Large Hadron Collider smash together thousands of protons and other particles to see what matter is made of, they're never going to hurl electrons at each other. No matter how high the energy, the little negative particles won't break apart. But that doesn't mean they are indestructible.
Using several massive supercomputers, a team of physicists has split a simulated electron perfectly in half. The results, which were published in the Jan. 13 issue of Science, are another example of how tabletop experiments on ultra-cold atoms and other condensed-matter materials can provide clues about the behavior of fundamental particles.
In the simulations, Duke University physicist Matthew Hastings and his colleagues, Sergei Isakov of the University of Zurich and Roger Melko of the University of Waterloo in Canada, developed a virtual crystal. Under extremely low temperatures in the computer model, the crystal turned into a quantum fluid, an exotic state of matter where electrons begin to condense.
Many different types of materials, from superconductors to superfluids, can form as electrons condense and are chilled close to absolute zero, about ?459 degrees Fahrenheit. That's approximately the temperature at which particles simply stop moving. It's also the temperature region where individual particles, such as electrons, can overcome their repulsion for each other and cooperate.
The cooperating particles' behavior eventually becomes indistinguishable from the actions of an individual. Hastings says the phenomenon is a lot like what happens with sound. A sound is made of sound waves. Each sound wave seems to be indivisible and to act a lot like a fundamental particle. But a sound wave is actually the collective motion of many atoms, he says.
Under ultra-cold conditions, electrons take on the same type of appearance. Their collective motion is just like the movement of an individual particle. But, unlike sound waves, cooperating electrons and other particles, called collective excitations or quasiparticles, can "do things that you wouldn't think possible," Hastings says.
The quasiparticles formed in this simulation show what happens if a fundamental particle were busted up, so an electron can't be physically smashed into anything smaller, but it can be broken up metaphorically, Hastings says.
He and his colleagues divided one up by placing a virtual particle with the fundamental charge of an electron into their simulated quantum fluid. Under the conditions, the particle fractured into two pieces, each of which took on one-half of the original's negative charge.
As the physicists continued to observe the new sub-particles and change the constraints of the simulated environment, they were also able to measure several universal numbers that characterize the motions of the electron fragments. The results provide scientists with information to look for signatures of electron pieces in other simulations, experiments and theoretical studies.
Successfully simulating an electron split also suggests that physicists don't necessarily have to smash matter open to see what's inside; instead, there could be other ways to coax a particle to reveal itself.
###
Duke University: http://www.duke.edu
Thanks to Duke University for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116716/Electron_s_negativity_cut_in_half_by_supercomputer
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Lebanese held amid terror threat in Bangkok (AP)
BANGKOK ? Thai police were questioning a Lebanese man with alleged links to Hezbollah militants as the U.S. Embassy and Israel warned Friday of a "real and credible" terrorist threat against Americans and Israelis in Bangkok.
The warning comes during heightened tension over U.S. and Israeli responses to the prospect that Iran is going forward with developing nuclear weapons. Lebanon-based Hezbollah, which has been accused of carrying out terrorist attacks in the Middle East since the 1980s, is avowedly anti-Israel and widely considered to act as a proxy for Iran.
Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung said Thai authorities received a tip-off before New Year's of a planned attack, which was said to target Israelis.
"At first we were told the Palestinians were behind it but it turned out to be the Hezbollah," he told The Associated Press. He did not say who provided the tip-off.
He said police detained on Thursday a Lebanese suspect with alleged links to Hezbollah.
Thai authorities had been "following two Lebanese men and called in one of them ... for questioning," Chalerm said. "Technically the two men have not committed any crimes under the Thai law, so we could only use the immigration law to keep this one suspect in custody," he said. He was not clear on what happened to the second suspect.
Chalerm spoke hours after the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok sent an "emergency message" to American citizens earlier Friday warning of a possible terrorist attack.
The message said that "foreign terrorists may be currently looking to conduct attacks against tourist areas in Bangkok in the near future." It urged Americans to "keep a low profile" in public and to exercise caution in areas where Western tourists gather.
The statement gave no other details.
Ambassador Kristie Kenney told the AP the threat was "real and very credible." She didn't give any other information.
It was the first U.S. warning of a foreign terror attack in Bangkok in recent memory.
In Israel, the prime minister's counterterrorism office also warned of "a clear and present possibility that a terror attack is planned against Israeli travelers in Bangkok."
It recommended that Israelis refrain from visiting Bangkok, not congregate at sites known to be associated with Israelis in Bangkok and not accept objects from strangers. Thailand is a popular destination for young Israeli backpackers.
Chalerm said the danger has passed.
"I want to confirm and I am confident that we have the situation under control. And I can guarantee ... no terrorist attacks will be allowed to take place. If they have disagreement, (they should) go fight somewhere else."
Thai Defense Minister Yuthasak Sasiprapa also gave an account of the alleged plot, saying preliminary intelligence suggested that an attack would be carried out between Jan 13 and Jan 15. He told reporters that keeping track of the suspects had been difficult, and if they had not been found by 6 p.m. Friday, there would have been "an escalation of security measures." He did not explain further what that entailed.
Yuthasak said Thai authorities had not released news of the alleged plot because it would hurt the tourist industry and cause panic. He said intelligence reports said the planned attacks might be related to the U.S. activities concerning Iran.
Iran sees possible U.S. complicity in a series of assassinations of its nuclear experts ? the latest Wednesday, when scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan was killed by a bomb attached to his car by a passing bicyclist.
Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim militant group, is the most potent military force in Lebanon, far stronger than even the national army. It is backed mainly by Iran and Syria.
Thailand has rarely been a target for foreign terrorists, although a domestic Muslim insurgency in the country's south has involved bombings of civilian targets.
In 1994, an attempt to bomb the Israeli Embassy in Bangkok was abandoned when the driver of a truck, packed with a massive car bomb, fled after a minor traffic accident. Several Iranians were arrested in connection with the attempt, but all were eventually released.
There have been several reported plots against the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok in the past two decades, but no attacks.
___
Associated Press writer Ian Deitch in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
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Saturday, January 14, 2012
Good day, bad day: January 13, 2012 (The Week)
New York ? While high schoolers break a toilet-paper record, North Korea punishes citizens who failed to break down over Kim Jong-il's death ? and more winners and losers of today's news cycle
GOOD DAY FOR:
Creative communication
A South-African fast food chain reaches out to the visually impaired by creating "braille burgers." The chefs painstakingly placed individual sesame seeds on burger buns to spell out "100% Pure Beef Burgers Made For You." [The Daily What]
SEE ALSO: The 'post-apocalyptic' condo that can withstand a nuclear attack
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Practical math
A group of Massachusetts high school students breaks the world toilet-paper-folding record by completing 13 folds with 8,192 layers. Requiring mathematical formulas, this is apparently much harder than it sounds. [Huffington Post]
Penny pinching TSA agents
A report says the TSA makes $400,000 a year by collecting the coins passengers leave behind when emptying their pockets for the security scanners. [The Atlantic Wire]
SEE ALSO: Good day, bad day: January 6, 2012
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BAD DAY FOR:
Business as usual
The U.S. economy loses $800 million to $900 million every time Friday the 13th rolls around, as superstitious people are afraid to do things like fly. This year, the day occurs three times. [Daily Finance]
SEE ALSO: Higher education, higher costs
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Politically incorrect humor
With the launch of its new "Blonde" roast, Starbucks issues a company-wide ban on blonde jokes. Witticisms mocking the fair-haired will earn employees a written reprimand. [Newser]
Stoicism
North Korea's regime is reportedly punishing citizens who did not cry over the death of Kim Jong-il by sending them to labor camps. [Daily Mail]
SEE ALSO: Good day, bad day: January 10, 2012
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View this article on TheWeek.com
Get Rahm Emanuel: Obama's main man
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Chinese carriers won't pay EU carbon charge: group
Chinese airlines will not pay a charge on carbon emissions imposed by the European Union from January 1, a national aviation industry group said Thursday.
The cap-and-trade scheme, which has angered the US and Chinese governments and airlines worldwide, came into force on Sunday after the European Union's highest court rejected a challenge brought by US carriers last month.
"China, of course, will not cooperate with the European Union on the ETS (emissions trading scheme)," said Chai Haibo, deputy secretary-general of the China Air Transport Association, which represents the country's airlines.
"The CATA, on behalf of Chinese airlines, is strongly against the EU's improper practice of unilaterally forcing international airlines into its ETS," Chai said from Beijing, where the group is based.
He said the Chinese government was considering "counter-measures" against the European Union, but gave no details.
Airlines that refuse to comply could be fined with the possibility of being denied the right to land in the 27-nation EU in extreme cases, according to the Europeans.
Beijing has said repeatedly that it opposes the new legislation, and on Thursday foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei urged the EU authorities to "resolve this issue in a pragmatic and prudent manner."
State media has previously warned the EU scheme "infringes on national sovereignty, violates international aviation treaties and will lead to a trade war" in the sector.
The EU launched the ETS in 2005 in a bid to reduce carbon emissions of power stations and industrial plants.
It decided to include airlines, responsible for three percent of global emissions, in the system in the absence of a global agreement to cap aviation emissions.
Under the EU scheme, airlines will have to pay for 15 percent of the polluting rights accorded to them in 2012, the figure then rising to 18 percent between 2013 and 2020.
China has said it fears its aviation sector will have to pay an additional 800 million yuan ($125 million) a year on flights originating or landing in Europe, and that the cost could be almost four times higher by 2020.
The tax would affect all of China's major airlines -- including Air China, China Eastern and China Southern, the CATA previously told AFP.
China reportedly blocked an order by Hong Kong Airlines for billions of euros' worth of Airbus aircraft earlier this year in retaliation for the EU move, underscoring the potential for a significant trade row.
The Airlines for America association grudgingly indicated that its members would abide by the EU law, but "under protest" while pursuing legal options.
Chai said that Chinese airlines will not pass any additional costs to passengers for now, since they are not participating in the scheme.
"We're not cooperating with them (EU countries), how could we charge customers such fees?" he said.
China Southern Airlines, one of the nation's biggest airlines, declined to comment Thursday.
Source: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Chinese_carriers_wont_pay_EU_carbon_charge_group_999.html
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Friday, January 13, 2012
Here's What a Year in Fatal Car Crashes Looks Like [Factoid]
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'The Firm' star Josh Lucas is engaged
Josh Lucas nabbed the lead on NBC?s new drama, ?The Firm,? and the actor recently revealed he?s set to take on yet another big role in his personal life ? that of a husband!
The 40-year-old star confirmed the happy news to Jay Leno during an appearance on ?The Tonight Show with Jay Leno? on Friday.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Celebrity Wedding Photos!
Josh kept most of the engagement details private ? including the name of his now-fianc?e ? but explained how he came to realize she was ?the one.?
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More Entertainment stories
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Tim Gunn: 'Loony' to do 'Runway 9' and 'All Stars'
There was no making it work when it came to the workroom mentor participating in ?Project Runway All-Stars.
- Cohen: Taylor didn't cry at 'RHOBH' reunion
- Wahlberg: Being a dad is the most important role
- Jennifer Hudson loses weight, gains self-esteem
- Network chief warns future of 'Fringe' is in doubt
-
Tim Gunn: 'Loony' to do 'Runway 9' and 'All Stars'
While filming a low-budget film in Big Sur, Calif., the actor and his ladylove ended up staying in a run-down trailer (reportedly hailed as an ?eco-retreat? by its owner), located on a hill requiring a 20-minute dirt road hike to reach it.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: The Bling Is The Thing! Hottest Celebrity Engagement Rings
Following a long day of filming, Josh hiked up the hill in the wee hours of the morning, sans flashlight, and encountered a mountain lion ? a danger his now-fianc?e had warned him about (to no avail) the day before.
Story: Source: Drew Barrymore is engagedWhen he got back to his girlfriend, Josh said he realized he?d found his match in love.
John Grisham gives a positive brief on new series "The Firm"
?I decided in that moment, truly in that moment, that this woman was the woman for me,? he told Jay, of when he returned to the trailer following the close-call with the beast.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Big Screen Gentlemen: Hollywood?s Leading Men
As previously reported on AccessHollywood.com, Josh is not the only star getting ready to take the plunge ? Drew Barrymore recently became engaged to Will Kopelman, while Justin Timberlake is rumored to have popped the question to longtime girlfriend Jessica Biel.
Story: Timberlake's grandma: Yes, he is engaged?The Firm,? which also stars Juliette Lewis, has its two-hour premiere on Sunday at 9 PM EST/PST on NBC, before moving to its regular timeslot ? Thursdays at 10 PM.
TODAY.com is powered by msnbc.com, which is a joint venture between Microsoft and NBC Universal.
Copyright 2012 by NBC. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45925618/ns/today-entertainment/
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Thursday, January 12, 2012
Daily Tip: How to set a custom mail signature on your iPhone
New to iPhone and wondering how to change your signature to something a little more custom and personal than “Sent from my iPhone?” Luckily, it’s easy to do and it
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/K5pkTxr9Bvk/story01.htm
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7 charged with corruption over shale gas in Poland (AP)
WARSAW, Poland ? Seven people, including government officials, have been charged with corruption during the granting of licenses for shale gas exploration in Poland, a spokesman for prosecutors said Wednesday.
Waldemar Tyl of the Warsaw Appeals Prosecutor's Office, who announced the charges, said bribes of tens of thousands of zlotys (dollars) were handed over in the second half of 2011 alone.
The Internal Security Agency said three Environment Ministry officials, an employee of the state Geology Institute and three representatives of companies involved in shale gas exploration were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of involvement in bribery.
Polish media said one of those arrested headed the ministry in charge of granting licenses.
Poland, which is trying to limit its dependence on gas and oil imports from Russia, is believed to have sizable shale gas deposits. It has granted more than 100 licenses for shale gas exploration to international companies including Exxon Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Petrolinvest.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk said his government is determined to take strong action against corruption, especially in cases concerning important state interests and large amounts of money.
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Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Watching Canada geese
Driving past Kershaw Park I noticed hundreds of Canada Geese near the shore with another large v-formation flock on the way in for a landing. This is a great time to spend a few minutes observing these very large geese. When we have open water at this time of year flocks of Canada Geese will land here at the North end of the lake for rest, food and sometimes a nice bath.
Although their loud honking call can be annoying and they make a mess if they come up on the shore, they are still amazing to watch. They glide across the water seemingly effortlessly and are almost comical when they turn upside down to reach for food. Sometimes they reach their necks up to the sky and flap their wings?that?s when you see how great their wingspan is. It?s also fun to watch them use the lake as their own ?little? bird bath.
Basic information:
The Canada Goose has a black head and neck, a white ?chin strap? and a brown back. They have a 4-5? wingspan and can weigh up to 20 pounds. They are primarily herbivores but also eat small fish and insects.
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Source: http://www.mpnnow.com/blogs/x2079018039/Watching-Canada-geese
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Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Romeo Crennel To Become Kansas City Chiefs Permanent Coach Thanks To Strong Finish
? January 7, 2012 - 4:31 pm
The Kansas City Chiefs interviewed former Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Jack Del Rio this week. The club was likely just doing its due diligence as interim coach Romeo Crennel appears penciled in take over that role full-time.
The Chiefs will anoint Crennel as their permanent head coach according to ESPN?s Adam Schefter.
Crennel took over the team after Todd Haley was terminated with three weeks remaining in the season.
The Chiefs went 2-1 during that span, including a win over the then undefeated Green Bay Packers.
The team also interviewed Packers offensive coordinator Joe Philbin.
Follow me on Twitter: @FNNChuck
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Monday, January 9, 2012
LINDA DEUTSCH ? the best in the business! ? Gretawire
LINDA DEUTSCH ? the best in the business!
Jan 8 2012 - 6:18 PM ET
Every time you see an AP story with Linda Deutsch?s by line, I assure you that you are getting JUST THE FACTS.? ?Congratulations to Linda for 45 years at AP.
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CLICK HERE for the story
Source: http://gretawire.foxnewsinsider.com/2012/01/08/linda-deutsch-the-best-in-the-business/
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