More News: Apple Diving Down The Stock Exchange While Dell Swings Upwards

By selenac

January 17, 2013

The second Monday of 2013 saw the S&P 500 as well as the Nasdaq ending much lower. This is mainly because of speculations over demand regarding Apple products. This apparently drove down shares. Investors have been busy bracing themselves to face disappointments in their earnings.

However, the interesting fact to be noted is Dell Inc?s stocks actually climbed up 13 percent. This is supposed to be a 5-month high standing at 12.29 dollars. This comes soon after the Bloomberg reports of Dell holding talks with private equity firms regarding going private.

Undoubtedly considered the tech stalwart, Apple went down by at least 3.6 percent. This stood at 501.75 dollars. This was not just the biggest weight on the S&P 500, but also on Nasdaq 100. This was followed by reports of the company having cut orders for the LCD screens and various other parts of the iPhone 5. These orders have apparently been cancelled for the first quarter of 2013 and this is a result of weak demand as well.

There?s more that?s adding to the unease of investors actually. Fact is the fourth quarter earnings are kicking into high gear in the 2nd week of the New Year itself. Ever since October 2012, the analyst estimates for the quarter have been on a steady downward slide. In fact, the growth meter of S&P 500 is now seen up by a mere 1.9 percent from a year ago. Experts are of the opinion that tech happens to be such a domain that has become an arena for private equity type of maneuvers.

Source: http://www.talonmarks.com/weblogs/more-news/2013/jan/17/apple-diving-down-the-stock-exchange-while-dell-sw/

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Reno City Council to decide on new baseball agreement

Reno, NV (KRNV & MyNews4.com)-- The Reno City Council is expected to vote on whether or not to approve the new Aces agreement Wednesday.

When the four new council members were sworn in in November they asked to revisit the revised agreement regarding baseball. Since, council members have been hashing out the details. Some council members are for the agreement and some are against.

For the past four years the Aces have called the heart of the Biggest Little City home. "People I think in northern Nevada just love baseball," Reno City Manager Andrew Clinger says. Since the Reno Aces have been around the teams won a class, league, conference, and division title not to mention added a whole new vitality to downtown Reno. "The Triple-A that we have here is one of the best in the country frankly and it's a?family activity it gives family a reason to come downtown that otherwise may not come downtown," Clinger says. It will be up to the Reno City Council to approve a?new agreement to help pay for baseball and ultimately keep it in Reno. Here's a breakdown of what the new agreement looks like: The first five years Reno will pay $850,000. About $100, 000 will come from increment taxes from the baseball district then $750,000 will come from from a fire station loan that has already been allocated into the budget. From 6 to 10 years the payment will bump to $1.1 million. Then, from 11 to 30 years it will go down to a $1 million a year. Totaling $30 million in 30 years. Here's where the city will be getting all that money, a certain portion will come from special taxes from the baseball district. The rest will come from the city's general fund which is what the city uses for basic services like Parks and Rec. and public safety and?that money according to Clinger comes primarily from sales tax and property tax. This is all if the council approves the agreement.?If they don't there's the potential for a whole series of challenges like possibly loosing the team. "What we're facing potentially is a ballpark that would be tied up in litigation that could be dark for a number of years. The possibility of us getting another Triple-A baseball team to Reno would be difficult at best," Clinger says. Not to mention how much money having the team and stadium here pours into the local economy. According to a UNR study if baseball were to leave Reno the region will lose 677 direct employees and $21.1 million. "I think it goes back to the vision of what do you want Reno to be," Clinger says. The city council meeting is Wed. at noon. News 4 will have a crew at the meeting to bring the latest updates.

Click here to read this story on www.mynews4.com

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/50640320/ns/local_news-reno_nv/

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iMore at Macworld|iWorld 2013: The arrival

Monday at 6am I woke up to the shocking sounds of marimba-as-alarm, jumped in a cab, and headed to Montreal's Trudeau International Airport so I could fly to San Francisco and Macworld|iWorld 2013. Or so I thought. Turns out mother nature had freezing rain on the menu, so the plane that was to carry me to Toronto for the first leg of my jaunt couldn't even get to Montreal. Delay the first.

By the time the plane showed up and we got underway, it was clear I wouldn't make my connection, but there was nothing I could do. Luckily, by the time I landed in Toronto, Air Canada had texted me an automagically re-booked flight. Unluckily, it meant a 6-hour layover. It was right around then that I figured out that while I'd brought 2 mophie power station duos with me, I'd forgotten the two Lightning cables to go with them... D'oh!

Martin Reisch, who'll be shooting the show for us, was luckier. He flew through Denver and everything was on time. Note to self: Don't fly through Toronto again.

70% battery power remaining, and due to the shoddy Rogers reception in Toronto's Pearson International Airport, it was going fast. I put my iPhone in airplane mode and started using my iPad mini the way I normally use my iPhone. I walked around with it, checked my flight schedule with it, played Letterpress on it -- Loren Brichter totally kicked my ass, using "XEROX" for the win -- used Twitter and iMessage to keep up to date, and keep everyone else up to date. And it worked really, really well. I"m not saying I want a 7.9-inch phone, but it once again proved the utility of a tablet smaller than 9.7 inches.

After some Starbucks and a ridiculously over priced $10 turkey sammich (seriously, Starbucks at Pearson, you think you're Heathrow now?!), I found out the airplane that was supposed to take me to San Francisco was also delayed. My 6 hour layover was going to be about 8 hours. Delay the second.

The Wi-Fi at Pearson was horrible, the 3G was horrible, and there was no power at the gates. So, I ended up seated on the floor next to an outside the men's room. And there I blogged for the next 7 hours.

Because while I was stranded in frozen Toronto, Apple was releasing iOS 6.1, ADN was releasing their File API, Facebook and Google were updating apps, and I had a bunch of other stuff to trouble shoot.

My iPhone was down to 30%, thanks to my having to make some calls and the signal quality sucking. My iPad mini was at 70%. Finally, we boarded and eventually took off. I was San Francisco bound.

We made pretty good time to the gate, and thanks to the lateness of the hour, I made great time to the hotel. Tired but more hungry than tired, I met up with Martin and we headed to Chieftain for some hardy pub grub -- just after their kitchen had closed. D'oh! Again!

Still, we got to see Moscone West decked out in its Macworld|iWorld garb, which was nice. (See the panorama up top for the inside view).

Luckily Steve Streza of Pocket fame found us and brought us over to Mel's for some late night Diner fare.

Tomorrow should be fun. We're heading up to Petaluma where I'm going to do MacBreak Weekly live with Leo Laporte and the gang. I'll blog about that later, or you can follow me on Twitter to watch it unfold in real -- sometimes comical -- time.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/xPg9TXlftzQ/story01.htm

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Welcome But Seriously... the newest blog at #SciAmBlogs

By Bora Zivkovic?| January 28, 2013 |??2

Share ?Email ?Print

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I am super-excited to announce the launch of the newest blog on our network, But Seriously? , written by my friend Brian Malow, the Science Comedian. Apart from doing science stand-up comedy, Brian is also the Curator of the SECU Daily Planet at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, has produced videos for TIME magazine, and has written and talked seriously about the role of humor in science communication. His blog will combine some of all of it ? his humor, his serious thoughts, and his videos, often interviewing interesting people in the worlds of science and science communication.

But Seriously?, launched earlier today. Go to the first post and say Hello to Brian.

About the Author: Bora Zivkovic is the Blog Editor at Scientific American, chronobiologist, biology teacher, organizer of ScienceOnline conferences and editor of Open Laboratory anthologies of best science writing on the Web. Follow on Twitter @boraz.

More??

The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.

Previous: #SciAmBlogs Friday ? Glassfrogs, Age of Miracles, bad smells, Rotifer in Motion, chemophobia, Geodesign and more.

More The Network Central

Next: #SciAmBlogs Monday ? Kenyan mesopredators, Up-Goer Five, Commenting, #scio13, Historic Meteor Procession, Public Statistics, Davos, and more.

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Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=44bec4407739403befd37c4529cbe053

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LG?s Nexus 4 Finally Returns To The U.S. Google Play Store

There are whole host of new smartphones waiting for their time to shine at Mobile World Congress (not to mention an event or two before the big show), but you're in luck if you're a domestic Android fan smitten with LG and Google's Nexus 4. The hard-to-obtain handset first reappeared in the German Google Play Store earlier today, and now those of you in the U.S. can finally purchase one again too.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/PF8CvFIVUro/

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Debris of missing USAF jet believed found in Adriatic

Alessandro Garofalo / Reuters, file

A U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter jet like the one shown flying over Aviano Air Base, Italy, is presumed to have crashed in the Adriatic Sea while on a training exercise. Aviano controllers lost contact with the plane about 8 p.m. local time Monday.

By John Newland, Staff Writer, NBC News

U.S. and Italian authorities searched the Adriatic Sea on Tuesday after a U.S. Air Force fighter jet was lost and presumed to have crashed.

Divers focused on waters where a fishing boat had found fragments believed to belong to the F-16, a Coast Guard official told Reuters.

Fragments of carbon steel and other debris were found floating in the northern Adriatic overnight, Rear Admiral Francesco Saverio Ferrara told Reuters. The U.S. Air Force said in a statement it believed the debris belonged to the wreckage of the missing aircraft, Reuters reported.

"We hope to find out more during the day so we can have a more complete picture of what happened," Ferrara said, according to Reuters.

Controllers lost contact with the F-16 at about 8 p.m. local time (2 p.m. ET) Monday, after it took off for a training exercise from Aviano Air Base, Italy, the Aviano-based 31st Fighter Wing said in a statement.

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Italian aircraft and ships were dispatched to the missing jet's last known location, and U.S. and Italian aircraft were flying over the area Tuesday, the Air Force said.

The Italian national news agency ANSA reported that a fuel slick was seen off the coast near the town of Cervia and that a fishing boat had found fragments that could have belonged to a military jet.

Weather was bad at the time the plane vanished, with sleet falling and visibility poor, the Associated Press quoted an Italian coast guard commander as saying.?

The Italian news agency LaPresse reported that the pilot sent an alarm signal to Aviano before contact was lost and that three other planes on the training mission had made it back to the base safely. ?

No information was released about the pilot, who was the plane's sole occupant.

Search-and-rescue operations are still being conducted by sea and air, Reuters reported.

"Wing leadership remains hopeful that we will safely rescue our pilot," an Air Force statement said, according to Reuters.

The Associated Press, Reuters, ANSA and LaPresse contributed to this report

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/29/16751479-debris-of-missing-us-air-force-jet-believed-found-in-adriatic?lite

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Men among prediluvian Beasts

?No subject has lately excited more curiosity and general interest among geologists and the public than the question of the Antiquity of the Human Race?[]?
Lyell 1863

The debate over the age of the earth generated an even more intriguing question: how old is humankind? Written records date back some thousands of years, but geological evidence and the fossil record show us that earth must be millions of years old. Some authors tried to reconcile this discrepancy by assuming a succession of worlds, each destroyed by a global catastrophe. Therefore the ?age or reptiles? could be very ancient, the ice age mammals more recent and the final catastrophe, creating the human world, happened probably only some thousands of years ago. This succession of worlds seemed to be in accordance both with the geological record as with the biblical chronology.
Therefore the discovery of stone tools made by humans in layers also containing fossils of extinct animals ? and therefore inhabitants of a world older than the supposed biblical deluge ? was meet with incredulity.

In 1837 the French physician Casimir Picard (1806-1841) excavated various fossil sites near his hometown of Abbeville, where he recovered stone tools and bones of antediluvian beasts. He published his discoveries in 1838-1840, just shortly before his death. Another amateur ? Jacques Boucher de Perthes (1788-1868) ? continued Picard?s work and discovered the jaw of a fossil elephant near a man-made flint-axe.
Most authors dismissed these discoveries arguing that this association was the result of taphonomic processes, as bones and tools became mixed together by agents like water, animals or even modern humans. Some authors even considered all the discovered human fossils as fakes.
The most compelling evidence to support the antiquity of man was collected in 1858 during excavations in Windmill Hill Cave near the city of Brixham (Devonshire, England) by William Pengelly (1812-1894), a self-educated archaeologist. The cave was found untouched, the entrance sealed off by debris and stalagmites, proof that no living thing had entered the cave for thousands of years. Most important, the excavations were done by geologists, following the principles of the young science of stratigraphy.

Every uncovered layer of the floor of the cave was carefully mapped and the location of the fossils (bones of elephant, lion, bear and reindeer) and stone tools registered.

In the same period similar discoveries were made in France. In 1867, during the universal exposition in Paris , ?douard Lartet (1801-1871), a French lawyer, presented stone tools found in sediments and caves of the valley of the V?z?re. The most intriguing artifacts were bones with engravings of ice age animals ? evidence that prehistoric men meet these animals.

Fig.1. Ancient rock carving, collection of the museum in Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil, valley of the V?z?re.

Finally in 1861, influenced by Charles Darwin?s explanation of the natural origin of all species on earth (including humans), eminent geologist Charles Lyell will publish ?The Geological Evidence of the Antiquity of Man?[]? and establish the ancient origin of humankind as scientific fact.

Bibliography:

COHEN, C. (1998): Charles Lyell and the evidences of the antiquity of man. In: BLUNDELL, D.J. & SCOTT, A.C. (eds) Lyell: the Past is the Key to the Present. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 143: 83-93
LYELL (1863): The Geological Evidence of the Antiquity of Man, with Remarks on Theories of the Origin of Species by variation.
PRESTWICH, J. (1860): On the occurrence of flint implements, associated with the remains of extinct mammalia, in undisturbed beds of the late geological period. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, 10: 50-59
RUDWICK, M.J.S. (2008): Worlds before Adam ? The Reconstruction of Geohistory in the Age of Reform. The University of Chicago Press: 614

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=4b4c36b346e8f64832de4410459aac73

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"Parenthood"'s Kristina: Her Breast Cancer Journey Turns a Corner ...

In the season finale, the viewer rides along with Kristina on an emotional roller coaster.? Relief after her last chemo treatment,?anxiety at her PT scan,?sadness, fear, and empathy when comforting her cancer friend Gwen, elation at the oncologist's pronouncement that she is cancer-free.? Up and down, up and down in a period of just a few days.

Kristina's reaction to her husband's Hawaiian vacation surprise might seem odd to the viewer.? But her hesitation is all too familiar to cancer patients.? Adam's optimism about her upcoming PT scan is driven by his inability to even consider that the results could be anything other than good news.? His impatience to get away with her is something that he himself says is selfish -- "I'm tired of sharing you with cancer and everybody else."? But Gwen's relapse has a great effect on Kristina.? Adam insists that she's not Gwen, but Kristina's perspective differs -- "Until I have that test we know nothing."? And she's unable to move on until she has the results.

The wordless scene where she slides into the scanner is hard to watch.? She tries to hold in the fear, but it comes out through her eyes.? Her body is tight and stiff on the narrow table.? Ironic that when you're being scanned you're told to stay still, not to take deep breaths -- so you're left to draw on your own thoughts to calm you in the dark.? You fight to turn terrifying thoughts into hopeful ones.? With eyes closed, I visualized Pac Man creatures gobbling up?the tumor and a bright light shrinking it, and I spoke in my head to my?long-deceased Dad,?and to God.?

Only one of Kristina's diagnostic tests was shown on screen, but many women undergo numerous tests -- scans, biopsies, x-rays, and blood tests.? Tunnels, radioactive injections, nauseating drinks, IV contrasts.? Even a simple blood test can be filled with trepidation, for example, when being drawn to determine if you carry a genetic mutation.

The oncologist gives Kristina the wonderful PT results but reminds her of her upcoming radiation treatments and the routine tests that she will take to make sure she's still in remission.? He cautions, "We don't use the word 'cure' for five years."? She'll take it! She's ready to go to Hawaii!

And she's ready to offer help to others.? In the closing montage she gives Gwen the cancer sweater that?Camille had given to her earlier -- the sweater that had been handed down from other survivors and that had kept her warm and comforted during her chemo sessions.? When Kristina was diagnosed, Gwen held Kristina's hand.? Now Gwen is fighting Stage 4 cancer, and Kristina holds hers.? Vital to getting through our diagnosis and treatment, and thriving beyond is the support of our "sisters" whom we know understand the terror and elation and everything in between.

If the show comes back next season, we'll see the Old Kristina with her hair grown back -- she'll look as she did before.? But she will have changed on the inside.?Notice that she is already lighter-hearted.? She bought some funky wigs and wears a pink one to Adam's office.? She's come far from the woman sent reeling by Adam's purchase of a "hooker" wig.? She's living a little more in the moment. As a result of her heightened awareness about her lack of?control over her life, her rigidity will soften.? She will better be able to discern the mountains from the molehills.? She'll greater appreciate being there for the milestones.? She will reprioritize what is really important to her.? I'm sure the New Kristina will make some changes.

At first, survivorship was a difficult concept for me to wrap my head around.? After surgery, my treatment consisted of hormonal medications, one of which I was told I would use for five years.? It was difficult to talk about the experience in the past tense.? "I had breast cancer," did not easily roll off my tongue, while I still felt physically and emotionally pummeled by the radical changes to my body and my state of mind.? It was 16 months before reconstruction was completed and even longer than that before my doctor appointments were scheduled far enough apart that I didn't feel like a cancer patient.

It was six months before I hesitantly acknowledged myself as a survivor for the first time.? In 2009, the summer after my January surgery, I was on a ferry boat in California, traveling from Larkspur to a Giants baseball game in San Francisco.? I sat on a bench back-to-back with a young woman wearing an interesting pink breast cancer cap.? I asked her about it, and she proudly told me that her mother is a survivor.? "Me too," I said.? Two small words, one huge statement.

That moment is even bigger and stranger and more meaningful now.? Because at that moment when I?declared myself a survivor?there was an actor I recognized on the ferry who stood at the?railing a few feet in front of me -- I recently found out that his mother was a survivor too?-- it was Peter Krause, who would three years later?play the role of husband of breast cancer fighter Kristina...

...And here's my last blog, written about the finale where?Kristina finds out she's cancer-free --?posted on January 28, 2013 -- the fourth anniversary of my survival!

?

I dedicate this piece to my "amiga", Ruth, whom I met when she was a two-time survivor in remission, and who began her fight for a third time over a year ago.? To Ruth, who inspires with her honesty and her bravery, and who I pray has many more survivor anniversaries.

Source: http://harrison.patch.com/blog_posts/parenthoods-kristina-her-breast-cancer-journey-turns-a-corner

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Design Work Life ? Course Horse Featured Classes: Public Speaking

Whether it comes from a?place of fear or self-doubt, or sim?ply not know?ing how to craft an engag?ing pre?sen?ta?tion, pub?lic speak?ing is a?def?i?nitely a?com?mon chal?lenge. Luckily there?s quite a?few courses out there that can help you hone your skills to get over that?hump:

• Refining Your Public Speaking and Presentation Skills:?Figure out how to be your best when the pressure?s on. The abil?ity to con?nect with oth?ers in an authen?tic way is the key to being a?great speaker???and it car?ries over into the suc?cess of your busi?ness and per?sonal life.?More info.
• Storytelling Skills: Wow Your Crowd:?The best way to make a?point or inspire action in the work?place is by telling a?com?pelling story. This class is not a?gen?eral overview about why sto?ry?telling in the work?place is impor?tant or how famous busi?nesses have used sto?ry?telling in the past. This is a?nuts and bolts, point-by-point instruc?tional on how you can go about craft?ing and deliv?er?ing sto?ries that will move your lis?ten?ers.?More info.
• Public Speaking Workshop with Video Feedback:?This three-hour work?shop is lim?ited to 8?atten?dees who will get live expert coach?ing as well as video record?ing and play?back to get clar?ity on exactly where they can strengthen their pre?sen?ta?tion skills. You will leave this work?shop hav?ing had the phys?i?cal expe?ri?ence of being in front of a?group, watch?ing your?self on video and gain valu?able insight into how you can be a?more pow?er?ful com?mu?ni?ca?tor.?More info.
• Overcome Your Public Speaking Fear:?This class is designed to con?quer your fear in pub?lic speak?ing through an exten?sive step by step activ?i?ties cov?er?ing spe?cific sit?u?a?tions such as for?mal pre?sen?ta?tion, group dis?cus?sion, and busi?ness meet?ing.?More info.

Source: http://www.designworklife.com/2013/01/28/course-horse-featured-classes-public-speaking/

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Harry's Afghan downtime: movies, candy trades

	Essential News from The Associated Press

? ?Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-01-27-Britain-Prince%20Harry/id-ec67deec94d44acca8a85280eab88f23

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North Korean leader vows strong action

FILE - In this Sunday, April 15, 2012 file image made from KRT video, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un applauds before giving his first public speech during a massive celebration marking the 100th birthday of national founder Kim Il Sung at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea. North Korea's state news agency says leader Kim Jong Un has vowed at a meeting of top security and foreign officials to take "substantial and high-profile important state measures.", Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013. (AP Photo/KRT via AP video, FILE) NORTH KOREA OUT, TV OUT

FILE - In this Sunday, April 15, 2012 file image made from KRT video, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un applauds before giving his first public speech during a massive celebration marking the 100th birthday of national founder Kim Il Sung at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea. North Korea's state news agency says leader Kim Jong Un has vowed at a meeting of top security and foreign officials to take "substantial and high-profile important state measures.", Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013. (AP Photo/KRT via AP video, FILE) NORTH KOREA OUT, TV OUT

South Korean army soldiers patrol along a barbed-wire fence in Paju, South Korea, near the demilitarized zone (DMZ) of Panmunjom, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un convened top security and foreign affairs officials and ordered them to take "substantial and high-profile important state measures," state media said Sunday, indicating that he plans to push forward with a threat to explode a nuclear device in defiance of the United Nations. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

South Korean army soldiers patrol along a barbed-wire fence at the Imjingak Pavilion in Paju, South Korea, near the demilitarized zone (DMZ) of Panmunjom, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un convened top security and foreign affairs officials and ordered them to take "substantial and high-profile important state measures," state media said Sunday, indicating that he plans to push forward with a threat to explode a nuclear device in defiance of the United Nations. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

This Jan. 4, 2013 satellite image provided by GeoEye shows North Korea's Punggye-ri nuclear test facility. This and other recent satellite photos show North Korea could be almost ready to carry out its threat to conduct a nuclear test, a U.S. research institute said Friday, Jan. 25, 2013. The images of the Punggye-ri site where nuclear tests were conducted in 2006 and 2009 reveal that over the past month roads have been kept clear of snow and that North Koreans may be sealing the tunnel into a mountainside where a nuclear device would be detonated. But it remains difficult to discern North Korea's true intentions as a test would be conducted underground. The analysis was provided to The Associated Press by 38 North, the website of U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. (AP Photo/GeoEye Satellite Image)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? North Korean leader Kim Jong Un convened top security and foreign affairs officials and ordered them to take "substantial and high-profile important state measures," state media said Sunday, indicating that he plans to push forward with a threat to explode a nuclear device in defiance of the United Nations.

The meeting of top officials led by Kim makes clear that he backs Pyongyang's defiant stance in protest of U.N. Security Council punishment for a December rocket launch. The dispatch in the official Korean Central News Agency did not say when the meeting took place.

Last week, the Security Council condemned North Korea's Dec. 12 launch of a long-range rocket as a violation of a ban against nuclear and missile activity. The council, including North Korea ally China, punished Pyongyang with more sanctions and ordered the regime to refrain from a nuclear test ? or face "significant action."

North Korea responded by rejecting the resolution and maintaining its right to launch a satellite into orbit as part of a peaceful civilian space program.

It also warned that it would keep developing rockets and testing nuclear devices to counter what it sees as U.S. hostility. A rare statement was issued Thursday by the powerful National Defense Commission, the top governing body led by Kim.

Kim's order for strong action and the recent series of strong statements indicate he intends to conduct a nuclear test in the near future to show "he is a young yet powerful leader both domestically and internationally," said Chin Hee-gwan, a North Korea expert at South Korea's Inje University.

North Korea cites a U.S. military threat in the region as a key reason behind its drive to build nuclear weapons. The two countries fought on opposite sides of the Korean War, which ended after three years in 1953 with an armistice, not a peace treaty. The U.S.-led U.N. Command mans the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas, and Washington stations more than 28,000 troops in South Korea to protect its ally.

North Korea is estimated to have enough weaponized plutonium for four to eight bombs, according to American nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker, who visited the country's nuclear complex northwest of Pyongyang in November 2010.

However, it is not known whether North Korean scientists have found a way to build nuclear warheads small enough to mount on a long-range missile.

Experts say regular tests are needed to perfect the technique, and another atomic test could take the country closer to its goal of building a warhead that can be mounted on a missile designed to strike the United States. North Korea has carried out two nuclear tests, in 2006 and 2009.

South Korean defense officials say North Korea is technically ready to conduct a nuclear test in a matter of days.

Satellite photos taken Wednesday show that over the past month, roads have been kept clear of snow and that North Koreans may have been sealing the tunnel into a mountainside where a nuclear device would be detonated.

Analysis of the images of the Punggye-ri site was provided Friday to The Associated Press by 38 North, the website of the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Kim could order a nuclear test ahead of the Feb. 16th birthday of his late father and former leader Kim Jong Il to "create a festive mood," Chin predicted. Kim Jong Il died at age 69 in December 2011.

The U.S., South Korea and other countries have warned North Korea not to go ahead with a nuclear test, saying that would only deepen the country's international isolation.

After meeting with Chinese officials Friday, U.S. envoy for North Korea Glyn Davies said a nuclear test would set back efforts to restart regional talks on the North's nuclear disarmament.

North Korea has accused the U.S. and South Korea of leading the push for the U.N. Security Council resolution.

Sunday's KCNA dispatch said the U.N. punishment indicates U.S. hostility toward North Korea has reached its highest point. North Korea also warned South Korea on Friday of "strong physical countermeasures" if Seoul takes part in the U.N. sanctions.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-01-27-NKorea-Nuclear/id-297685c11b0a4e07a862f98cbd57f548

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AT&T to pay $1.9 billion for Verizon spectrum

NEW YORK (Reuters) - AT&T Inc has inked two deals worth more than $2.68 billion this week as it accelerates its push to expand its wireless spectrum holdings to beef up capacity for high-speed services.

The No 2. U.S. mobile provider said on Friday that it agreed to buy wireless airwaves from Verizon Wireless for $1.9 billion in cash, plus spectrum licenses that it will contribute to Verizon Wireless in five markets.

The Verizon Wireless deal was announced just days after AT&T said it will pay $780 million in cash to buy Atlantic Tele-Network Inc's Alltel wireless business, which includes spectrum and 585,000 customers.

These deals follow 2012, a year in which the company forged a total of 50 spectrum deals that increased its national spectrum holdings by a third, AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson said during the company's quarterly conference call on Thursday.

The operator, which needs to catch up with Verizon Wireless in a high-speed wireless network upgrade, has been seeking smaller spectrum deals since the failure in late 2011 of its $39 billion bid to buy T-Mobile USA, a unit of Deutsche Telekom AG , due to regulatory opposition.

AT&T, Verizon Wireless and their smaller rivals are all looking to bolster their capacity so they can profit from increasing consumer demand for mobile internet services for smartphones, tablet computers and other devices.

Wells Fargo analyst Jennifer Fritzsche said that the deal was positive for both companies and gives AT&T spectrum in important markets such as Chicago, Los Angeles and Miami.

"While on the surface this appears to be a rich price, we would note that the B block licenses that AT&T is acquiring are concentrated in major metropolitan markets," Fritzsche said.

The deals announced this week follow AT&T's August agreement to buy wireless company NextWave Wireless Inc for its spectrum holdings for $50 million and $550 million of debt.

AT&T said the Verizon Wireless licenses it is buying, for airwaves in the 700 megahertz spectrum range, cover a population of 42 million in 18 U.S. states.

It said it expects to close the deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, in the second half of 2013.

Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group Plc , committed to sell a chunk of spectrum last year while it was seeking approval for its agreement to buy spectrum from cable operators.

(Reporting by Sinead Carew; Editing by Bernadette Baum, Steve Orlofsky and Phil Berlowitz)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/t-buy-verizon-spectrum-deal-including-1-9-152528386--finance.html

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Using Twitter to track the flu: Researchers find a better way to screen the tweets

Jan. 24, 2013 ? Sifting through social media messages has become a popular way to track when and where flu cases occur, but a key hurdle hampers the process: how to identify flu-infection tweets. Some tweets are posted by people who have been sick with the virus, while others come from folks who are merely talking about the illness. If you are tracking actual flu cases, such conversations about the flu in general can skew the results.

To address this problem, Johns Hopkins computer scientists and researchers in the School of Medicine have developed a new tweet-screening method that not only delivers real-time data on flu cases, but also filters out online chatter that is not linked to actual flu infections. Comparing their method, which is based on analysis of 5,000 publicly available tweets per minute, to other Twitter-based tracking tools, the Johns Hopkins researchers say their real-time results track more closely with government disease data that takes much longer to compile.

"When you look at Twitter posts, you can see people talking about being afraid of catching the flu or asking friends if they should get a flu shot or mentioning a public figure who seems to be ill," said Mark Dredze, an assistant research professor in the Department of Computer Science who uses tweets to monitor public health trends. "But posts like this don't measure how many people have actually contracted the flu. We wanted to separate hype about the flu from messages from people who truly become ill."

Dredze, who also is a research scientist at the Johns Hopkins Human Language Technology Center of Excellence, led a team that in mid-2011 released one of the first and most comprehensive studies showing that Twitter data can yield useful public health information. Since then, this strategy has become so popular that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services last summer sponsored a contest challenging researchers to design an online application that could track major disease outbreaks.

This winter, as the United States entered an unusually severe and early flu season, Twitter-based flu projections have drawn increasing attention. Many public tweets, such as, "I'm so sick this week with the flu," can indicate a rise in the flu rate. Collecting enough of these tweets can help health officials gauge the scope and severity of an epidemic.

But the reliability of many computer models can be weakened by too many tweets that point to flu-related news reports and other matters not directly linked to a flu case, according to David Broniatowski, a School of Medicine postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Emergency Medicine's Center for Advanced Modeling in the Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences. "For example," he said, "a recent spike in Twitter flu activity was caused by discussions about basketball legend Kobe Bryant's flu-like symptoms during a recent game. Mr. Bryant's health notwithstanding, such tweets do very little to help public health officials prepare our nation for the next big outbreak."

To improve their accuracy when using tweets to track the flu, the John Hopkins team developed sophisticated statistical methods based on human language processing technologies. The methods are designed to filter out the chatter. The system can distinguish, for example, between "I have the flu" and "I'm worried about getting the flu."

Another advantage of the Johns Hopkins flu projection method is that it can produce real-time results. By comparison, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which record flu-related symptoms from hospital visits, typically take two weeks to publish data on the flu's prevalence.

To check the reliability of their enhanced system, the Johns Hopkins researchers recently compared their results to CDC data for the same period. The researchers said that during November and December 2012, their system demonstrated a substantial improvement in tracking with CDC figures as compared to previous Twitter-based tracking methods. "In late December," Dredze added, "the news media picked up on the flu epidemic, causing a somewhat spurious rise in the rate produced by our Twitter system. But our new algorithm handles this effect much better than other systems, ignoring the spurious spike in tweets."

The researchers have also used their Twitter data to produce United States maps that document the stark differences between last year's mild flu season and the much higher incidence of the virus in the winter of 2012-2013.

While their new method was only recently developed, the Johns Hopkins researchers chose to release information on the flu tracking system because of the higher incidence of illness this winter. Team members hope to share the enhanced flu tracking method with leading government health agencies.

"This new work demonstrates that Twitter posts can be used to guide public health officials in their response to outbreaks of infectious diseases," Dredze said. "Our hope is that the new technology can be used track other diseases as well." Other Johns Hopkins researchers participating in the Twitter flu project are doctoral student Michael Paul and recent bachelor's degree graduate Alex Lamb, both in the Department of Computer Science.

The Johns Hopkins researchers noted that their enhanced Twitter flu analysis system looked only at public tweets in which all user names and gender information had been removed. The system was tested only on messages from the United States. The research was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health's Models of Infectious Disease Agent Study.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/9Yfrge-XpEI/130124163238.htm

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How to Keep Your Webcam Secure

The Web has been buzzing with shock and a little schadenfreude recently over TRENDnetExposed. The website provides a Google map interface for viewing live streams left unsecured by TRENDnet webcam security vulnerabilities, allowing Web users everywhere to peer through insecure webcams to see what?s on the other side.

TRENDnetExposed is supposedly providing a public service: By giving the world one-click access to the private homes of countless strangers, the creators say they hope to push webcam owners to download the necessary security patch. Whatever their true intentions, the creep factor is off the charts. As one io9 commenter noted, "Way back when this story initially broke, I had a moderately interesting time cycling through webcams . . . but it was only when I found myself looking into a vacant child?s bedroom did the reality of this invasion of privacy hit me, and immediately turned my stomach against it."

If this gaping security hole has you worried about your own webcam?s security, first check what model you have and look up whether it has any reported problems. The vulnerability in TRENDnet has existed since this time last year, when TRENDnet took three weeks to respond to the issue with updated firmware. There are now 22 models listed on the TRENDnet homepage as being vulnerable, all produced between April 2010 and February 2012. Although the company has notified all registered owners, they note that many purchasers don?t register their webcams and therefore can?t be warned.

This incident shouldn?t just be a wake-up call to TRENDnet webcam owners, though. Just because your webcam is a different brand, or even built into your computer, it doesn?t mean it?s secure.

Stephen Cobb, a certified information-systems security professional who works as a "security evangelist" for IT security company ESET, tells PM that anyone who wants to use a webcam for an online surveillance system, as many of the vulnerable TRENDnet users do, needs to pay attention to company reputation and security news.

"First, I would look for a webcam that had received great ratings and had no reports of hacking," he says, referencing the fact that TRENDnet?s security troubles have been written about online for over a year. "Then I?d follow the packaging on the device . . . Make a strong password, and, more importantly, register the camera."

That last point is crucial, Cobb says. Many people blow off registering their gadgets, but any device with an IP address will need firmware updates to fix bugs and vulnerabilities. If you don?t register, he says, the company can?t reach you and you might not know your device is at risk. That?s what happened with TRENDnet?s webcams: Even now, a year later, plenty of users haven?t downloaded the firmware patch out of either laziness or ignorance, which is why there are still so many insecure webcam feeds on TRENDnetExposed.

For a webcam that does 24-hour surveillance of your store or home, you?ll have to rely on software protection via firmware updates. But, Cobb says, if you?re not willing to stay on the lookout for news of security failures, you should cover up the cam when it might pick up something personal.

For the average webcam user, these precautions are enough; Cobb says that TRENDnet?s failure was the result of poor quality control at that company and not necessarily an across-the-board danger in using webcams. But anything with a public IP address is subject to attack, so there?s no reason to be careless.

Still, the best solution may be the simplest one: Unplug it. Your webcam can?t be hacked if it?s not plugged into your computer, so USB webcam users should always remember to disconnect when they?re done chatting. Or, if your camera has a built-in webcam, you can cover it with electrical tape when you?re not using the camera. This simple fix might look silly, but you can know for certain that no one will see you in your skivvies.

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/how-to/tips/how-to-keep-your-webcam-secure-15013998?src=rss

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