Sunday, March 31, 2013

APNewsBreak: Gas trade group seeks fracking probe

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) ? A formal complaint filed with New York's lobbying board asks it to investigate whether Artists Against Fracking, a group formed by Yoko Ono and son Sean Lennon, is violating the state's lobbying law.

The complaint obtained by The Associated Press was made by the Independent Oil & Gas Association to the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics.

The energy trade group based its request for an investigation on an AP report that found that Artists Against Fracking and its advocates didn't register as lobbyists. Registration requires several disclosures about spending and activities.

A spokesman for Artists Against Fracking says the group's activities are protected because they were made during a public comment period. He also says celebrities involved in the group are protected because they are longtime activists, not lobbyists.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/apnewsbreak-gas-trade-group-seeks-fracking-probe-172054771.html

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Tuesday, March 26, 2013

The Dialer Home Screen

The Dialer Home ScreenReader Ryan Thistle made his home screen a little easier to use with big, tiled icons in a layout similar to the dialer on a phone. Here's how he put it together.

Each button is actually a folder containing all apps in that category (like games, settings, social networks, and so on). He has no other home screens or dock, and uses widgets on his lock screen to get things like the weather and the calendar instead of putting widgets on the home screen.

To get this look, Ryan used:

Do you have an awesome, tweaked-into-oblivion home or lock screen of your own that you'd like to share? Go ahead and post it on the #homescreenshowcase forum with a description of how you made it and it may be the next featured home screen.

The Dialer Home Screen | #homescreenshowcase

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/Uut9q51welE/the-dialer-home-screen

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Dermot Mulroney cast in 'Careful What You Wish For'

Mar 26 (Reuters) - Leading money winners on the 2013 PGATour on Monday (U.S. unless stated): 1. Tiger Woods $3,787,600 2. Brandt Snedeker $2,859,920 3. Matt Kuchar $2,154,500 4. Steve Stricker $1,820,000 5. Phil Mickelson $1,650,260 6. Hunter Mahan $1,553,965 7. John Merrick $1,343,514 8. Dustin Johnson $1,330,507 9. Russell Henley $1,313,280 10. Kevin Streelman $1,310,343 11. Keegan Bradley $1,274,593 12. Charles Howell III $1,256,373 13. Michael Thompson $1,254,669 14. Brian Gay $1,171,721 15. Justin Rose $1,155,550 16. Jason Day $1,115,565 17. Chris Kirk $1,097,053 18. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/dermot-mulroney-cast-careful-wish-214753579.html

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I'm new to everything!

Hello everyone!

My name is M8Z2, pronounced just like it's spelled. I'm completely new to EVERYTHING - this website, role-playing, character creation, etc etc. I've been interested in it for years and I guess I have never really had the courage to put myself out there like that. To be honest, I still don't. I'm a bit shy and I don't really know how all of this 'works'.

I'd love to meet new people and hear from them their advice and what they have to think about the world in general! Thanks!

~M8Z2

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/707JLMvzrkw/viewtopic.php

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Monday, March 25, 2013

Pew Research Center founder: Numbers prove it ... GOP is increasingly estranged from America

Interesting Washington Post opinion piece from Andrew Cohut, co-founder of the Pew Research Center and former president. He was also a former president of Gallup.

Some excerpts from the column:

"In my decades of polling, I recall only one moment when a party had been driven as far from the center as the Republican Party has been today.

The outsize influence of hard-line elements in the party base is doing to the GOP what supporters of Gene McCarthy and George McGovern did to the Democratic Party in the late 1960s and early 1970s ? radicalizing its image and standing in the way of its revitalization."

The Republican Party?s ratings now stand at a 20-year low, with just 33 percent of the public holding a favorable view of the party and 58 percent judging it unfavorably, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey. Although the Democrats are better regarded (47 percent favorable and 46 percent unfavorable), the GOP?s problems are its own, not a mirror image of renewed Democratic strength.

Race has loomed larger in voting behavior in the Obama era than at any point in the recent past. The 2010 election was the high mark of ?white flight? from the Democratic Party, as National Journal?s Ron Brownstein called it ? the GOP won a record 60 percent of white votes, up from 51 percent four years earlier.

The party?s base is increasingly dominated by a highly energized bloc of voters with extremely conservative positions on nearly all issues: the size and role of government, foreign policy, social issues, and moral concerns. They stand with the tea party on taxes and spending and with Christian conservatives on key social questions, such as abortion rights and same-sex marriage.

These staunch conservatives, who emerged with great force in the Obama era, represent 45 percent of the Republican base. According to our 2011 survey, they are demographically and politically distinct from the national electorate. Ninety-two percent are white. They tend to be male, married, Protestant, well off and at least 50 years old.

To the conservative base, Obama, as an African American in the White House, may be a symbol of how America has changed. Unease with him sets conservative Republicans apart from other voting blocs ? including moderate Republicans, who have hardly been fans of the president. For example, a fall 2011 national survey found 63 percent of conservative Republicans reporting that Obama made them angry, compared with 29 percent of the public overall and 40 percent of moderate Republicans.

I see little reason to believe that the staunch conservative bloc will wither away or splinter; it will remain a dominant force in the GOP and on the national stage. At the same time, however, I see no indication that its ideas about policy, governance and social issues will gain new adherents. They are far beyond the mainstream.

Any Republican efforts at reinvention face this dilemma: While staunch conservatives help keep GOP lawmakers in office, they also help keep the party out of the White House. Quite simply, the Republican Party has to appeal to a broader cross section of the electorate to succeed in presidential elections.

This became apparent last fall. Voters generally agreed with the GOP that a smaller government is preferable to a larger, activist one, and therefore they disapproved of Obamacare. However, exit polls showed popular support for legalizing same-sex marriage and giving illegal immigrants opportunities for citizenship.

This combination of conservative and liberal views is typical. To win, both parties must appeal to the mixed values of the electorate. But it will be very hard for the Republican Party, given the power of the staunch conservatives in its ranks."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-numbers-prove-it-the-republican-party...

Source: http://current.com/community/94082659_pew-research-center-founder-numbers-prove-it-gop-is-increasingly-estranged-from-america.htm?xid=RSSfeed

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Insurance check finally in the mail

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://www.azcentral.com/business/call12foraction/articles/20130321call-12-for-action-insurance-check-finally-mail.html

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Sunday, March 24, 2013

Health Information: The Developments Of The Hearing Aid

The hearing aid is an amazing invention because it really helps people and gives them a new lease on life. In some cases, it is almost as if they have a second chance with new beginnings because not being able to hear is a tragedy. This is why you need to take good care of your ears from day one.

People usually start to battle with their hearing after a certain age and this is when they struggle to hear conversations. They also have to turn the radio and the television up. This only makes things worse. It can be frustrating for them and their family. Loved ones always have to repeat sentences and this can be annoying.

If you are exposed to loud noises or sounds, then you should take extra precaution. You need to invest in a good set of ear plugs. Find some with a good reputation which will provide you with some protection.

In the past you could actually see the contraction sticking outside of the ear. It was big and clumsy and it was often an intrusion. This became so much of a problem that people just didn't want to wear them and this was a problem for them and their family members who found it annoying to repeat sentences day constantly.

Those who play in bands should also wear ear plugs which are specifically designed for noises where you can hear yourself play. In this way you will still be able to maintain the rhythm, whilst keeping the dangerous noises out that are going to cause you long term damage. The same goes for those who play in orchestras.

To make sure that your ears are in good shape, you have to look after them, just like you look after your teeth. Not many go for a check up to make sure that their ears are in good working order, but it is something that one should do. This will save a lot of pain in years to come. You may need wax to be syringed out.

It is not only the older generation who suffer with this, but young children often have problems. This is usually because they have some sort of defect. It could be that they had a disease or their mother had meningitis and they were born with a defect. This is where one needs to be providing the best equipment to avoid any sort of self conscious behavior. This can easily happen with kids when it comes to adapting to something new like this, but it should be your job to make them feel as if this is not a problem.

Make sure you wear ear plugs if you are exposed to loud noises. This includes those who play in bands and orchestras. It is also those who spend a lot of time in the water because water builds up over time and this can lead to swimmer's ear which is often incurable. It is people who neglect the use of protection when they were younger who often need to invest in a hearing aid later on in life.

Source: http://healthlifeinfo.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-developments-of-hearing-aid.html

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Cyprus racing to complete alternative rescue plan

Cyprus lawmakers vote on key bills aimed at securing a broader bailout package from international creditors in parliament in capital Nicosia, Cyprus, late Friday, March 22, 2013. Cyprus lawmakers have approved three key bills aiming to raise enough money to qualify the country for a broader bailout package and help it avoid financial ruin. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Cyprus lawmakers vote on key bills aimed at securing a broader bailout package from international creditors in parliament in capital Nicosia, Cyprus, late Friday, March 22, 2013. Cyprus lawmakers have approved three key bills aiming to raise enough money to qualify the country for a broader bailout package and help it avoid financial ruin. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Cyprus lawmakers vote on key bills aimed at securing a broader bailout package from international creditors in parliament in capital Nicosia, Cyprus, late Friday, March 22, 2013. Cyprus lawmakers have approved three key bills aiming to raise enough money to qualify the country for a broader bailout package and help it avoid financial ruin. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

A protestor rips an European Union flag during a rally outside of the parliament in capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Friday, March 22, 2013. Cypriot authorities were putting the final touches Friday to a plan they hope will convince international lenders to provide the money the country urgently needed to avoid bankruptcy within days. ?The next few hours will determine the future of this country,? said government spokesman Christos Stylianides. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

People buy goods from a vegetable market, in central Nicosia, on Saturday, March 23, 2013. Politicians in Cyprus were racing Saturday to complete an alternative plan raising funds necessary for the country to qualify for and international bailout, with a potential bankruptcy just three days away. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) ? Politicians in Cyprus were racing Saturday to complete an alternative plan raising funds necessary for the country to qualify for an international bailout, with a potential bankruptcy just three days away.

Finance Minister Michalis Sarris said "significant progress" had been made, and that new legislation raising funds could be completed and submitted to Parliament as early as Saturday evening, although the timing was not certain.

Cyprus has been told it must raise 5.8 billion euros ($7.5 billion) in order to secure 10 billion euros in rescue loans from other European countries that use the single currency, and from the International Monetary Fund. The country's lawmakers soundly rejected an unpopular initial plan that would have seized up to 10 percent of people's bank accounts, and is now seeking a way to raise the desperately needed money.

Time is running out fast. The European Central Bank has said it will stop providing emergency funding to Cyprus' banks after Monday if no new plan is in place. Without ECB's support, Cypriot banks would collapse on Tuesday, pushing the country toward bankruptcy and a potential exit from the 17-nation eurozone.

Banks have been shut all week while the plan is put into place, and are not due to reopen until next Tuesday.

Representatives of the IMF, ECB and European Commission ? collectively known as the troika ? met with Sarris and other officials in the Finance Ministry throughout the morning, negotiating several new laws, including a crucial bill that would impose some form of a tax on bank deposits.

The details were still being worked out, but officials have said that the tax could apply to deposits in the country's top two lenders, which were most exposed to bad Greek debt, or even all banks.

Troika consent is essential as they will determine whether the plan that the Cypriots come up with would meet the requirements for the bailout before it is presented to the eurozone finance ministers for final approval.

A eurogroup meeting of the finance ministers is expected to be held in Brussels over the weekend, and Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades was also to fly there, potentially as early as Saturday.

"Significant progress has been made toward an agreement at least with the troika which will report to the Eurogroup," Sarris told reporters after the initial morning meeting at his ministry.

"Two or three issues need further work, issues on banks, there are different calculations," Sarris said. "There is the contribution of experts from the private sector."

The experts would hold consultations amongst themselves and officials would resume negotiations with the troika again later Saturday afternoon.

"We have a number of experts that are working from the private sector, at the Central Bank, at the Ministry of Finance trying to iron out these details so that when we do reach an agreement there will be no room for different understanding or misrepresentation."

Nicosia made a significant step towards cementing a new plan Friday night, when its lawmakers approved nine bills, including three crucial ones that will restructure ailing banks, restrict financial transactions in emergencies and set up a "solidarity fund" that will act as the vehicle for raising funds from investments and contributions.

The bank restructuring will include the country's troubled second largest lender, Laiki, which suffered heavy losses after being exposed to toxic Greek debt.

The restructuring of Laiki and the sale of the toxic-asset laden Greek branches of Cypriot banks is expected to cut the amount the country needs to raise to about 3 billion euros instead of 5.8 billion euros, officials have said.

Other banks may also be included in the restructuring, such as the country's largest lender, Bank of Cyprus, which was also exposed to Greek debt.

"We have to be clear to protect the financial system and for banks to open Tuesday with a clear picture," Sarris said.

____

Elena Becatoros in Nicosia contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-03-23-Cyprus-Financial%20Crisis/id-992287e760c34be19c2f6818f78b8e18

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Saturday, March 23, 2013

Jennifer Capriati Charged With Battery, Stalking

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/03/jennifer-capriati-charged-with-battery-stalking/

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Alterations in brain activity in children at risk of schizophrenia predate onset of symptoms

Mar. 22, 2013 ? Research from the University of North Carolina has shown that children at risk of developing schizophrenia have brains that function differently than those not at risk.

Brain scans of children who have parents or siblings with the illness reveal a neural circuitry that is hyperactivated or stressed by tasks that peers with no family history of the illness seem to handle with ease.

Because these differences in brain functioning appear before neuropsychiatric symptoms such as trouble focusing, paranoid beliefs, or hallucinations, the scientists believe that the finding could point to early warning signs or "vulnerability markers" for schizophrenia.

"The downside is saying that anyone with a first degree relative with schizophrenia is doomed. Instead, we want to use our findings to identify those individuals with differences in brain function that indicate they are particularly vulnerable, so we can intervene to minimize that risk," said senior study author Aysenil Belger, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry at the UNC School of Medicine.

The UNC study, published online on March 6, 2013, in the journal Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, is one of the first to look for alterations in brain activity associated with mental illness in individuals as young as nine years of age.

Individuals who have a first degree family member with schizophrenia have an 8-fold to 12-fold increased risk of developing the disease. However, there is no way of knowing for certain who will become schizophrenic until symptoms arise and a diagnosis is reached. Some of the earliest signs of schizophrenia are a decline in verbal memory, IQ, and other mental functions, which researchers believe stem from an inefficiency in cortical processing -- the brain's waning ability to tackle complex tasks.

In this study, Belger and her colleagues sought to identify what if any functional changes occur in the brains of adolescents at high risk of developing schizophrenia. She performed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) on 42 children and adolescents ages 9 to 18, half of which had relatives with schizophrenia and half of which did not. Study participants each spent an hour and a half playing a game where they had to identify a specific image -- a simple circle -- out of a lineup of emotionally evocative images, such as cute or scary animals. At the same time, the MRI machine scanned for changes in brain activity associated with each target detection task.

Belger found that the circuitry involved in emotion and higher order decision making was hyperactivated in individuals with a family history of schizophrenia, suggesting that the task was stressing out these areas of the brain in the study subjects.

"This finding shows that these regions are not activating normally," she says. "We think that this hyperactivation eventually damages these specific areas in the brain to the point that they become hypoactivated in patients, meaning that when the brain is asked to go into high gear it no longer can."

Belger is currently exploring what kind of role stress plays in the changing mental capacity of adolescents at high risk of developing schizophrenia. Though only a fraction of these individuals will be diagnosed with schizophrenia, Belger thinks it is important to pinpoint the most vulnerable people early to explore interventions that may stave off the mental illness.

"It may be as simple as understanding that people are different in how they cope with stress," says Belger. "Teaching strategies to handle stress could make these individuals less vulnerable to not just schizophrenia but also other neuropsychiatric disorders."

The research was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Study co-authors from UNC include Sarah Hart, PhD, postdoctoral fellow; Joshua Bizzell, MS, lab engineer; Carolyn Bellion, study coordinator; and Diana Perkins, MD, MPH, professor of psychiatry.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of North Carolina Health Care.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Sarah J. Hart, Joshua Bizzell, Mary Agnes McMahon, Hongbin Gu, Diana O. Perkins, Aysenil Belger. Altered fronto?limbic activity in children and adolescents with familial high risk for schizophrenia. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 2013; 212 (1): 19 DOI: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2012.12.003

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

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/WAazjPj3YsI/130322174343.htm

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'The Croods' Look To Dethrone 'Oz' At Box Office

Analysts predict that the cavemen-themed kid flick will take the top spot this weekend.
By Ryan J. Downey


"The Croods"
Photo: DreamWorks

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1704150/the-croods-oz-great-powerful.jhtml

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Tunisian rapper gets jail term for calling police dogs in song

TUNIS (Reuters) - A Tunisian court has sentenced a rap singer to two years in jail in absentia for insulting the police in a case likely to fuel debate over free speech under the Islamist-led government.

The singer, known as Weld el 15, is on the run. Two of his associates, singers Mohamed Hedi Belgueyed and Sabrine Klibi, were in court when they received suspended sentences of six months each, a Justice Ministry source said on Friday.

Belgueyed and Klibi were arrested earlier this month for a music video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6owW_Jv5ng4) in which lyrics sung by Weld el 15 describe police as dogs and accuse them of using violence unjustifiably.

The two men asked the judge to pardon them before the sentences were handed down at Thursday's court proceedings.

"I was only using the language of the police. They have harassed me verbally and physically. As an artist, the only way I could answer them is through art. I gave them a violent art," Weld el 15 said in a video posted on Facebook.

Secular groups say freedom of creativity and expression are threatened under a coalition led by Tunisia's moderate Islamist Ennahda party, a charge the government denies.

In particular, they accuse authorities of failing to prevent attacks by militant Islamist Salafis on cultural institutions and individuals. Salafis disrupted several concerts and plays last year, saying they violated Islamic principles.

They also ransacked the U.S. embassy in September during worldwide Muslim protests over an Internet video.

(Reporting By Tarek Amara)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tunisian-rapper-gets-jail-term-calling-police-dogs-120327837.html

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Georges St-Pierre?s camp says he beat Nick Diaz with an injured Achilles tendon

The UFC gave a backstage look at Georges St-Pierre's win over Nick Diaz at UFC 158, complete with an adorable shot at the end of GSP high-fiving a young fan who was dressed like the champ from head to toe.

According the GSP's trainer, Firas Zahabi, it's a fight the UFC welterweight champion went through with despite an injury. Zahabi said GSP injured his Achilles tendon during training for the fight, and it may have worsened during the bout.

"I was worried it would tear during the fight," Zahabi told MMAFighting.com. "We had to cut his last sparring [session] short due to his injury. He had a week to rest it and then the fight."

Does finding out that GSP was injured changed your opinion of his performance? Speak up in the comments, on Facebook or on Twitter.

Other popular content on Yahoo! Sports:
? Friends Junior dos Santos and 'Big Foot' Silva ready to fight if UFC title is at stake
? Timothy Bradley managed to change public opinion with thrilling fight tactic
? Photo gallery: Best action from the NCAA tournament
? Flurry of offseason departures not new to Ravens

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/georges-st-pierre-camp-says-beat-nick-diaz-132833374--mma.html

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NKorea suspected in cyberattack despite China link

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? Investigators have traced a coordinated cyberattack that paralyzed tens of thousands of computers at six South Korean banks and media companies to a Chinese Internet Protocol address, but it was still unclear who orchestrated the attack, authorities in Seoul said Thursday.

The discovery did not erase suspicions that North Korea was to blame. An IP address can provide an important clue as to the location of an Internet-connected computer but can easily be manipulated by hackers operating anywhere in the world. The investigation into Wednesday's attack could take weeks.

By Thursday, only one of the six targets, Shinhan Bank, was back online and operating regularly. It could be next week before the other companies have fully recovered.

North Korea has threatened Seoul and Washington in recent days over U.N. sanctions imposed for its Feb. 12 nuclear test, and over ongoing U.S.-South Korean military drills. It also threatened revenge after blaming Seoul and Washington for an Internet shutdown that disrupted its own network last week.

North Korea "will never remain a passive onlooker to the enemies' cyberattacks," state media said last week in a commentary. "The U.S. and its allies should be held wholly accountable for the ensuing consequences."

Wednesday's cyberattack did not affect South Korea's government, military or infrastructure, and there were no initial reports that customers' bank records were compromised. But it disabled scores of cash machines across the country, disrupting commerce in this tech-savvy, Internet-dependent country, and renewed questions about South Korea's Internet security and vulnerability to hackers.

The attack disabled some 32,000 computers at broadcasters YTN, MBC and KBS, as well as three banks. Many of the computers were still down Thursday, but the broadcasters said their programming was never affected, and all ATMs were back online except for those at 16 branches belonging to Nonghyup Bank.

The attack may also have extended to the United States. The website of the U.S.-based Committee for Human Rights in North Korea also was hacked, with reports on satellite imagery of North Korean prison camps and policy recommendations to the U.S. government deleted from the site, according to executive director Greg Scarlatoiu.

The initial findings from South Korean investigators were based on results from an investigation into one target, Nonghyup Bank. The investigation is continuing into the shutdown at the five other firms.

A malicious code that spread through the Nonghyup server was traced to an IP address in China, said Cho Kyeong-sik, a spokesman for the state-run Korea Communications Commission. Regulators said all six attacks appeared to come from "a single organization."

The Chinese IP address identified by the South Korean communications regulator belongs to an Internet services company, Beijing Teletron Telecom Engineering Co., according to the website tracking and verification service Whois. A woman who answered the telephone number listed on Beijing Teletron's website denied the company was involved in Wednesday's cyber-hack. She refused to identify herself or provide further information.

Beijing Teletron operates fiber-optic networks and provides Internet services. It is the seventh-largest host of IP addresses in China. A subsidiary of the Shanghai-listed Dr. Peng Telecom and Media Group, Beijing Teletron's clients include government agencies and state media: the Foreign Ministry, the State Council Information Office and People's Daily, the Communist Party's flagship newspaper.

Wednesday's cyberattack does not fit the mold of previous attacks blamed on China. Chinese hacking, either from Beijing's cyber-warfare command or freelance hackers, tends to be aimed at collecting intelligence and intellectual property ? not simply at disrupting commerce.

China is home to a sizable North Korean community, both North Koreans working in the neighboring nation and Chinese citizens of ethnic ancestry who consider North Korea their motherland.

If the attack was in fact carried out by North Korea, it may be a warning to South Korea that Pyongyang is capable of breaching its computer networks with relative ease. Seoul's National Intelligence Services believes Pyongyang was behind six cyberattacks between 2009 and 2012.

South Korean investigators say they have no proof that North Korea was behind the attack. However, the outage took place as Pyongyang warned Seoul against holding joint military drills with the U.S. that it considers rehearsals for an invasion.

North Korea also has threatened retaliation for U.N. sanctions imposed for the nuclear test and for its launch of a long-range rocket in December. Pyongyang blames Seoul and Washington for leading the push to punish the North.

On Thursday, in a vein of typical bellicose rhetoric, North Korea's military threatened to attack American naval bases in Japan and an air base in Guam, where nuclear-capable B-52 bombers took off earlier this week to join the drills in South Korea.

The Korean Peninsula has remained in a technical state of war, divided by a heavily militarized border, since the foes signed a truce in 1953. Over the past decade, the two Koreas have engaged in deadly naval skirmishes in Yellow Sea waters that both countries claim. And, increasingly, their warfare has extended into cyberspace.

In 2011, computer security software maker McAfee Inc. said North Korea or its sympathizers likely were responsible for a cyberattack against South Korean government and banking websites that year. The analysis also said North Korea appeared to be linked to a massive computer-based attack in 2009 that brought down U.S. government Internet sites. Pyongyang denied involvement.

Previous hacking attacks on commercial ventures have compromised the personal data of millions of customers. Past malware attacks also disabled access to government websites and destroyed files on personal computers.

Last year, North Korea threatened to attack several South Korean news outlets, including KBS and MBC, for reports critical of Pyongyang's activities.

In recent days, North Korea's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea ? a government agency that often targets South Koreans in its push to draw attention to reunification ? warned Seoul's "reptile media" that the North was prepared to conduct a "sophisticated strike" if its negative coverage continued.

"If it plays out that this was a state-sponsored attack, that's pretty bald-faced and definitely an escalation in the tensions between the two countries," said James Barnett, former chief of public safety and homeland security for the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.

An ominous question is which other businesses, in South Korea or elsewhere, may also be in the sights of the attacker, said Barnett, who heads the cybersecurity practice at Washington law firm Venable.

"This needs to be a wake-up call," he said. "This can happen anywhere."

Timothy Junio, a cybersecurity fellow at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation, said South Korea has worked to protect itself.

"Part of why this wasn't more consequential is probably because South Korea took the first major incident seriously and deployed a bunch of organizational and technical innovations to reduce response time during future North Korea attacks," he said.

South Korea also created a National Cybersecurity Center and Cyber Command modeled after the U.S. Cyber Command. Junio said South Korea's anti-virus firms also play a large role in stopping hacking attacks.

___

Associated Press writers Youkyung Lee and Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, Matthew Pennington in Washington, Charles Hutzler in Beijing and Martha Mendoza in San Jose, California, contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nkorea-suspected-cyberattack-despite-china-084238085.html

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Friday, March 22, 2013

How the data center has evolved to support the modern cloud






cloud-rows-dreamstime

There?s little argument among IT and data center professionals that over that past few years, there have been some serious technological movements in the industry. This doesn?t only mean data centers. More computers, devices, and the strong push behind IT consumerization have forced many professionals to rethink their designs and optimize to this evolving environment.

When cloud computing came to the forefront of the technological discussion, data center operators quickly realized that they would have to adapt or be replaced by some other provider who is more agile.

The changes have come in all forms, both in the data center itself and how data flows outside of its walls. The bottom line is this: If cloud computing has a home, without a doubt, it?s within the data center.

There are several technologies that have helped not only with data center growth, but with the expansion of the cloud environment. Although there are many platforms, tools and solutions which help facilitate data center usability in conjunction with the cloud ? the ones below outline just how far we?ve come from a technological perspective.

  • High-density computing. Switches, servers, storage devices, and racks are all now being designed to reduce the hardware footprint while still supporting more users. Let?s put this in perspective. A single Cisco UCS Chassis is capable of 160Gbps. From there, a single B200M3 blade can hold two Xeon 8-core processors (16 processing cores) and 768GB of RAM. Each blade can also support 2TB of storage and up to 32GB for flash memory. Now, if you place 8 of these blades into a single UCS Chassis, you can have 128 processing cores, over 6TB of RAM, and 16TB of storage. This means a lot of users, a lot of workload and plenty of room for expansion. This holds true for logical storage segmentation and better usage around other computing devices.
  • Data center efficiency. To help support larger amounts of users and a greater cloud environment, data center environments had to restructure some of their efficiency practices. Whether through a better analysis of their cooling capacity factors (CCF) or a better understanding around power utilization, modern technologies are allowing the data center to operate more optimally. Remember, with high-density computing we are potentially reducing the amount of hardware, but the hardware replacing older machines may require more cooling and energy. Data centers are now focusing on lowering their PUE and are looking for ways to cool and power their environments more optimally. As cloud continues to grow, there will be more emphasis on placing larger workloads with the data center environment.
  • Virtualization. Virtualization has helped reduce the amount of hardware within a data center. However, we?re not just discussing server virtualization any longer. New types of technologies have taken efficiency and data center distribution to a whole new level. Aside from server virtualization, IT professionals are now working with:?Storage virtualization, user virtualization (hardware abstraction), network virtualization, storage virtualization, and security virtualization. All of these technologies strive to lessen the administrative burden while increasing efficiency, resiliency and improving business continuity.

More appliances can be placed at various points within the data center to help control data flow and further secure an environment.

  • WAN technologies. The Wide Area Network has helped the data center evolve in the sense that it brings facilities ?close together.? Fewer hops and more connections are becoming available to enterprise data center environments where administrators are able to leverage new types of solutions to create an even more agile infrastructure. Having the capability to dedicate massive amounts of private bandwidth between regional data centers has proven to be a huge factor. Data center resiliency, recovery and manageability have become a little bit easier because of these new types of WAN services. Furthermore, site-to-site replication of data and massive systems is now happening at a much faster pace. Even now, big data has new types of developments to help large data center quantify and effectively distribute enormous data sets. Projects like the Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) are helping data center realize that open-source technologies are powerful engines for data distribution and management.
  • Distributed data center management. This is, arguably, one of the biggest pieces of evidence in how well the data center has evolved to help support the modern cloud. Original data center infrastructure management (DCIM) solutions usually focused on singular data centers without too much visibility into other sites. Now, DCIM has evolved to help support a truly global data center environment. In fact, new terms are being used to help describe this new type of data center platform. Some have called it ?data center virtualization? or the abstraction of the hardware layer within the data center itself. This means managing and fully optimizing processes running within the data center and then replicating it to other sites. In some other cases, a new type of management solution is starting to take form: The Data Center Operating System. The goal is to create a global computing and data center cluster which is capable of providing business intelligence, real-time visibility and control of the data center environment from a single pane of glass.

The conversation has shifted from central data points to a truly distributed data center world. Now, our information is heavily replicated over the WAN and stored in numerous different data center points. Remember, much of this technology is still new, being developed, and is only now beginning to have some standardization. This means that best practices and thorough planning should never be avoided. Even large organizations sometimes find themselves in cloud conundrums. For example, all those that experienced the recent Microsoft Azure?or Amazon AWS?outages are definitely thinking of how to make their environment more resilient.

The use of the Internet as well as various types of WAN services is only going to continue to grow. Now, there are even cloud API models?which are striving to unify cloud environments and allow for improved cloud communication. More devices are requesting access to the cloud and some of these are no longer just your common tablet or smartphone. Soon, homes, entire business, cars, and other daily-use objects will be communicating with the cloud. All of this information has to be stored, processed and controlled. This is where the data center steps in and continues to help the cloud grow.

About Bill Kleyman

Bill Kleyman is a veteran, enthusiastic technologist with experience in data center design, management and deployment. His architecture work includes virtualization and cloud deployments as well as business network design and implementation. Currently, Bill works as a cloud and virtualization architect at MTM Technologies, a Stamford, CT based consulting firm.

Source: http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2013/03/21/how-the-data-center-has-evolved-to-support-the-cloud/

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SKorea misidentifies China as cyberattack origin

A South Korean police officer from Digital Forensic Investigation walks inside the Cyber Terror Response Center at National Police Agency in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, March 22, 2013. South Korea said Friday it was preparing for the possibility of more cyberattacks as a new team of investigators tried to determine if North Korea was behind a synchronized shutdown of tens of thousands of computers at six South Korean banks and media companies.(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A South Korean police officer from Digital Forensic Investigation walks inside the Cyber Terror Response Center at National Police Agency in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, March 22, 2013. South Korea said Friday it was preparing for the possibility of more cyberattacks as a new team of investigators tried to determine if North Korea was behind a synchronized shutdown of tens of thousands of computers at six South Korean banks and media companies.(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A South Korean police officer from Digital Forensic Investigation comes out from the Cyber Terror Response Center at National Police Agency in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, March 22, 2013. South Korea said Friday it was preparing for the possibility of more cyberattacks as a new team of investigators tried to determine if North Korea was behind a synchronized shutdown of tens of thousands of computers at six South Korean banks and media companies.(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A South Korean police officer from Digital Forensic Investigation walks inside the Cyber Terror Response Center at National Police Agency in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, March 22, 2013. South Korea said Friday it was preparing for the possibility of more cyberattacks as a new team of investigators tried to determine if North Korea was behind a synchronized shutdown of tens of thousands of computers at six South Korean banks and media companies.(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

In this photo released by Korean Broadcasting System, KBS employees try to recover a computer server a day after a cyberattack caused computer networks at the company to crash, in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, March 21, 2013. Investigators have traced a coordinated cyberattack that paralyzed tens of thousands of computers at six South Korean banks and media companies to a Chinese Internet Protocol address, but it was not yet clear who orchestrated the attack, authorities in Seoul said Thursday. The discovery did not erase suspicions that North Korea was to blame. IP addresses are unique to each computer connected to the Internet, but they can easily be manipulated by hackers operating anywhere in the world. (AP Photo/KBS)

(AP) ? South Korean investigators said Friday they had mistakenly identified a Chinese Internet address as the source of a cyberattack that paralyzed tens of thousands of computers at banks and broadcasters earlier this week. But they said they still believe the attack originated from abroad.

The error by South Korean regulators raises questions about their ability to track down the source of an attack that hit 32,000 computers at six companies Wednesday and exposed South Korea's Internet security and vulnerability to hackers.

South Korean investigators said Thursday that a malicious code that spread through the server of one target, Nonghyup Bank, was traced to an Internet Protocol address in China. Even then it was clear that the attack could have originated somewhere else, because such data can easily be manipulated by hackers. Experts suspect North Korea was behind the attack.

The state-run Korea Communications Commission said Friday that the IP address actually belonged to a computer at the bank. The IP address was used only for the company's internal network and was identical to a public Chinese address.

"We were careless in our efforts to double-check and triple-check," KCC official Lee Seung-won told reporters. "We will now make announcements only if our evidence is certain."

Commission officials said an analysis of malware and servers indicates the attack was likely orchestrated from abroad. They didn't elaborate.

Yonhap news agency, in an analysis Friday, called the blunder "ridiculous" and said the announcement is certain to undermine the government's credibility.

Experts in Seoul suspect North Korea in the attack on broadcasters YTN, MBC and KBS, as well as Nonghyup and two other banks. Seoul alleges six cyberattacks by North Korea on South Korean targets since 2009. But the investigation will take weeks, and officials say they have no proof yet of Pyongyang's involvement.

South Korean officials say that Wednesday's attacks appeared to come from "a single organization" but they have yet to assign blame. North Korea hasn't yet mentioned the shutdown.

South Korea has set up a team of computer security experts from the government, military and private sector since to identify the hackers and is preparing to deal with more possible attacks, presidential spokesman Yoon Chang-jung told reporters earlier Friday. He didn't elaborate on the possibility of more attacks.

Determining who's behind a digital attack is often difficult. But North Korea is a leading suspect for several reasons.

It has unleashed a torrent of threats against Seoul and Washington since punishing U.N. sanctions were imposed for Pyongyang's Feb. 12 nuclear test. It calls ongoing routine U.S.-South Korean military drills a threat to its existence. Pyongyang also threatened revenge after blaming Seoul and Washington for a separate Internet shutdown that disrupted its own network last week.

The cyberattack did not affect South Korea's government, military or infrastructure, and there were no initial reports that customers' bank records were compromised. But it disabled cash machines and disrupted commerce in this tech-savvy, Internet-dependent country.

All three of the banks that were hit were back online and operating regularly Friday. It could be next week before the broadcasters' systems have fully recovered, though they said their programming was never affected.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-22-SKorea-Computer%20Crash/id-561c1349a02d49f28857f280ef441230

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How to enable two-step verification for your Apple ID

How to enable two-step verification for your iCloud account

Most people use their Apple ID account not only to house their iCloud contacts, photos, calendars, and other data, but to purchase content from iTunes and the App Store. That means that anyone who gets ahold of your account or manages to change your password could have access to your personal information and credit card information.

If you want to increase the security of your Apple ID, you can use two-step verification to add an extra layer of protection. By using two-step verification you'll need to reset your password with an already verified device or with a recovery key that's generated just for you.

Note: In order to enable two-step verification, you must have a current password that meets Apple's minimum standards of 8 characters complete with at least 1 number and 1 capital letter. If you have to change your current password in order to meet this standard, you'll have a short waiting period before you can enable two-step verification.

Here's how to set it up:

  1. Open the Manage Your Apple ID page in another browser window - Link here
  2. Now click on Manage your Apple ID.
  3. Enter your login information in order to log in. If you've enabled login security questions, answer those in order to continue.
  4. Once you're logged in, choose the Password and Security option in the left hand navigation bar.
  5. The first option will now be for two-step verification. Click on the blue link labeled Get started...
  6. You'll now see an explanation of what two-step verification is and what it does. Click on Continue after you've read everything on the screen. You'll have a few more prompts explaining what two-security does and does not do as well as some warnings about if you forget your password. Read them all and continue on through.
  7. Once you get to the first step, you'll see a list of the devices that currently have access to your iCloud account. Tap on the Verify option next to the device that you'd like to verify.
  8. Check your device for a four digit verification code.
  9. Enter this number in your computer and you'll notice that device is now verified. Repeat this process for any and all devices in your account that you'd like to verify. You may also had a number for SMS recovery as well.
  10. Now you will be given a recovery key that you'll need to save in a safe place in case you ever forgot your password and didn't have a verified device to reset it from. We'd suggest printing it out and saving it somewhere secure. You will need it for the next step so please remember to save it before continuing.
  11. You'll now be asked to confirm the recovery key from the previous step to ensure that you've printed it or written it down.
  12. Finally, agree to the terms and conditions of two-step verification by reading and checking the box confirming that you agree.
  13. Lastly, click the Enable two-step verification button.
  14. You'll now receive a confirmation screen that two-step verification has been enabled.
  15. You can also confirm this by checking the Privacy and Security page and double checking that it shows two-step verification is enabled.

That's it. Two-step verification is now set up and your iCloud account will no longer ask for secret questions but require you to reset passwords from a trusted device in the future.



Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/julfQHJ2CBU/story01.htm

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Police probe Texas link to Colorado prison chief killing

DENVER (Reuters) - Police investigating the slaying of Colorado's prisons chief, who was shot in what authorities said may have been a targeted killing, were looking into possible links between his death and a high-speed car chase and shootout in Texas on Thursday.

Tom Clements, who was appointed two years ago as executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections, was shot on Tuesday night at his home in a secluded wooded area near the town of Monument, 45 miles south of Denver.

The killing prompted Colorado authorities to heighten security for state officials, including stepped-up patrols at the governor's mansion, the state capitol and other state facilities, State Patrol spokesman Trooper Josh Lewis said.

Colorado authorities have said the death may be linked to Clements' high-profile position and were investigating ties to a Texas car chase, but they gave few other details.

"The El Paso County Sheriff's Office is cooperating with the FBI and local authorities in Texas to determine if an earlier incident involving a high-speed chase is connected to the death investigation of Tom Clements," the Sheriff's Office said in a statement.

A Texas NBC affiliate reported that the driver of the car had shot and wounded a sheriff's deputy at a traffic stop and fired on other officers before a chase ensued. His car later crashed and he was shot by officers, the station reported, quoting police.

Wise County Sheriff David Walker told a news conference the driver was brain dead after the shooting, and authorities said Colorado was sending investigators to follow up. The Dallas Morning News reported that the car involved in the chase had Colorado plates.

Clements, 58, spent 31 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections, where he became the No. 2 official.

Police have said the killing did not appear to be linked to any break-in or robbery attempt, and did not appear to be a random act of violence.

Authorities had said they were looking for a "boxy" two-door sedan seen idling near the house about 15 minutes before the first 911 call. The same car was reported a short time later traveling from the scene with a lone, unidentified occupant, they said.

Police were also looking for a woman, between ages 35 and 50, who may have been speed-walking on Clements' street about the time of the shooting and was considered a potential witness.

(Reporting by Keith Coffman; Editing by Cynthia Johnston, Greg McCune, Leslie Adler, Steve Orlofsky and Phil Berlowitz)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/police-probe-texas-colorado-prison-chiefs-killing-213513202.html

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Quantum computers coming soon? Metamaterials used to observe giant photonic spin Hall effect

Mar. 21, 2013 ? Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have once again demonstrated the incredible capabilities of metamaterials -- artificial nanoconstructs whose optical properties arise from their physical structure rather than their chemical composition. Engineering a unique two-dimensional sheet of gold nanoantennas, the researchers were able to obtain the strongest signal yet of the photonic spin Hall effect, an optical phenomenon of quantum mechanics that could play a prominent role in the future of computing.

"With metamaterial, we were able to greatly enhance a naturally weak effect to the point where it was directly observable with simple detection techniques," said Xiang Zhang, a faculty scientist with Berkeley Lab's Materials Sciences Division who led this research. "We also demonstrated that metamaterials not only allow us to control the propagation of light but also allows control of circular polarization. This could have profound consequences for information encoding and processing."

The spin Hall effect, named in honor of physicist Edwin Hall, describes the curved path that spinning electrons follow as they move through a semiconductor. The curved movement arises from the interaction between the physical motion of the electron and its spin -- a quantized angular momentum that gives rise to magnetic moment. Think of a baseball pitcher putting spin on a ball to make it curve to the left or right.

"Light moving through a metal also displays the spin Hall effect but the photonic spin Hall effect is very weak because the spin angular momentum of photons and spin-orbit interactions are very small," says Xiaobo Yin, a member of Zhang's research group and the lead author of the Science paper. "In the past, people have managed to observe the photonic spin Hall effect by generating the process over and over again to obtain an accumulative signal, or by using highly sophisticated quantum measurements. Our metamaterial makes the photonic spin Hall effect observable even with a simple camera."

Metamaterials have garnered a lot of attention in recent years because their unique structure affords electromagnetic properties unattainable in nature. For example, a metamaterial can have a negative index of refraction, the ability to bend light backwards, unlike all materials found in nature, which bend light forward. Zhang, who holds the Ernest S. Kuh Endowed Chair Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California (UC) Berkeley, where he also directs the National Science Foundation's Nano-scale Science and Engineering Center, has been at the forefront of metamaterials research. For this study, he and his group fashioned metamaterial surfaces about 30 nanometers thick (a human hair by comparison is between 50,000 and 100,000 nanometers thick). These metasurfaces were constructed from V-shaped gold nanoantennas whose geometry could be configured by adjusting the length and orientation of the arms of the Vs.

"We chose eight different antenna configurations with optimized geometry parameters to generate a linear phase gradient along the x direction," says Yin. "This enabled us to control the propagation of the light and introduce strong photon spin-orbit interactions through rapid changes in direction. The photonic spin Hall effect depends on the curvature of the light's trajectory, so the sharper the change in propagation direction, the stronger the effect."

Since the entire metasurface sample measured only 0.3 millimeters, a 50-millimeter lens was used to project the transmission of the light through the metamaterial onto a charge-coupled device (CCD) camera for imaging. From the CCD images, the researchers determined that both the control of light propagation and the giant photonic spin Hall effect were the direct results of the designed meta-material. This finding opens up a wealth of possibilities for new technologies.

"The controllable spin-orbit interaction and momentum transfer between spin and orbital angular momentum allows us to manipulate the information encoded on the polarization of light, much like the 0 and 1 of today's electronic devices," Yin says. "But photonic devices could encode more information and provide greater information security than conventional electronic devices."

Yin says the ability to control left and right circular polarization of light in metamaterial surfaces should allow for the formation of optical elements, like highly coveted "flat lenses," or the management of light polarization without using wave plates.

"Metamaterials provide us with tremendous design freedom that will allow us to modulate the strength of the photonic spin Hall effect at different spatial locations," Yin says. "We knew the photonic spin Hall effect existed in nature but it was so hard to detect. Now, with the right metamaterials we can not only enhance this effect we can harness it for our own purposes."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. X. Yin, Z. Ye, J. Rho, Y. Wang, X. Zhang. Photonic Spin Hall Effect at Metasurfaces. Science, 2013; 339 (6126): 1405 DOI: 10.1126/science.1231758

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/5swIk_-rtcw/130321151921.htm

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Net Entertainment launches Muse: Wild ... - Innovate Gaming

  • Online | 21st March, 2013 | Ta?Xbiex, MT | Muse: Wild Inspiration? ? Demo
  • Net EntertainmentNet Entertainment, leading provider of high-quality online casino games, announces the launch of its latest video slot, Muse: Wild Inspiration?.

    Inspired by Ancient Greece, this new offering sees three muses lead players from a seaside village in the main game all the way up to the giant Mount Olympus in Free Spins. The three goddess characters represent art, music and literature and each has its own Wild feature.

    Muse: Wild Inspiration?It is a 5-reel, 3-row game with 25 fixed bet lines, which features one Wild Inspiration symbol that includes three different Wild features; an Expanding Wild, Sticky Wild and x2 Wild. Players are able to experience rich and colourful animations with Wilds to boost excitement on the reels that are substituted for the highest win combination possible on a select bet line.

    Simon Hammon, Net Entertainment Chief Product Officer, said, ?Muse: Wild Inspiration is a really fresh offering from Net Entertainment and a fine example of how we are really driving the online casino market forward. There are a number of innovative features and we?re sure our players will love being transported back to Ancient Greece.?

    NetEnt Muse: Wild Inspiration?:

    About Net Entertainment
    Founded in 1996 by one of Scandinavia?s leading off-line casino operators, Net Entertainment was one of the pioneers in online gaming.

    The company does not have any casino operation of its own, nor any interests in such operations. This means that there are no conflicts of interest between Net Entertainment and its customers. Net Entertainment is a publicly traded company listed at Nasdaq OMX Stockholm Mid Cap.

    More Information
    Website: NetEnt.com
    Wiki: Wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_Entertainment
    Linkedin: Linkedin.com/company/Net-Entertainment
    Twitter: @NetEntOfficial
    Facebook: Facebook.com/NetEntOfficial
    YouTube: YouTube.com/NetEntOfficial

    Source: http://www.innovategaming.com/netent-musewildinspiration

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    Five things MMA fans should watch for at the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships

    You've likely heard your friends and family talk about a big tournament that starts today. Surely, they were talking about the NCAA Divsion I wrestling tournament, which is happening this weekend in beautiful Des Moines, Iowa. Fighters such as Randy Couture, Phil Davis, Chael Sonnen, Josh Koscheck, Johny Hendricks, Tyron Woodley, Urijah Faber and many, many more UFC stars made their name on the mats first. Fight fans can watch wrestling all weekend on the ESPN family of networks, and here is what to watch for:

    History could be made: Kyle Dake from Cornell is a three-time national champion, and he won each championship in a different weight class. If Dake wins again this year, he will be the first four-time champion with every title at a different weight class. But to win, he will have to get through Penn State's David Taylor, the returning champ at 165 lbs.

    A change in the way the finals will air: Traditionally, Saturday night's finals start at 125 lbs. and work up to the heavyweight match as the "main event." This year, with so much interest in a potential Dake-Taylor match-up, the bouts will start at 174 lbs., and snake their way through the weight classes to end up at 165 lbs.

    You aren't seeing double in Ohio State singlets: The Buckeyes have two no. 1 seeds in brothers Hunter and Logan Stieber. At 133, Logan is looking to repeat his 2012 NCAA championship. Younger brother Hunter took sixth last season, but earned the top seed with a record of 31-0.

    Mizzou's big and little threat: The Tigers made history this year by beating Iowa for the first time in history, and they want to keep up their winning ways. Alan Waters is the no. 1 seed at 125 lbs., the smallest weight at the tournament, and Dom Bradley is no. 1 at heavyweight, giving Missouri bookend threats for national titles.

    Penn State looking for three-peat: With stars like Taylor and Ed Ruth returning, Penn State is looking for their third straight national team title. They walked in ranked first, but will face challenges from Iowa powered by three-time national champ Matt McDonough, Oklahoma State with Jordan Oliver, Minnesota, Missouri, and Cornell, a school who has perfected the art of peaking at the right time.

    Click here for more information on when and where you can tune in. If you have questions while watching, tweet me here as I'll be at the Wells Fargo watching the action.

    Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/five-things-mma-fans-watch-ncaa-division-wrestling-160849715--mma.html

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    Sunday, March 10, 2013

    1 dead, 5 rescued from CA racing sailboat accident

    (AP) ? A sailor died and five others were rescued after abandoning a racing boat that lost its steering capability and drifted to an island off Southern California, where it was broken apart by crashing waves.

    The Coast Guard says the crew issued a mayday call Friday night after the 30-foot sailboat's rudder failed and the craft began drifting toward the rocky shore of San Clemente Island.

    Petty Officer Connie Gawrelli says the crew declined assistance from the Coast Guard and requested a tow boat. However, rough seas kept that boat from getting to them.

    An organizer of the Islands Race says the crew encountered more bad luck when attempts to deploy a life raft and anchor the boat failed.

    Gawrelli said the accident occurred amid 8-foot swells and strong winds.

    Associated Press

    Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-03-09-US-Sailboat-Race-Death/id-e082dd46e83240dd86394bcb6a13c9e7

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    Bees get a buzz from caffeine

    Friday, March 8, 2013

    Scientists have today shown that caffeine improves a honeybee's memory and could help the plant recruit more bees to spread its pollen.

    Publishing in Science the researchers show that in tests honeybees feeding on a sugar solution containing caffeine, which occurs naturally in the nectar of coffee and citrus flowers, were three times more likely to remember a flower's scent than those feeding on just sugar.

    Study leader Dr Geraldine Wright, Reader in Neuroethology at Newcastle University, UK, explained that the effect of caffeine benefits both the honeybee and the plant: "Remembering floral traits is difficult for bees to perform at a fast pace as they fly from flower to flower and we have found that caffeine helps the bee remember where the flowers are.

    "In turn, bees that have fed on caffeine-laced nectar are laden with coffee pollen and these bees search for other coffee plants to find more nectar, leading to better pollination.

    "So, caffeine in nectar is likely to improve the bee's foraging prowess while providing the plant with a more faithful pollinator."

    In the study, researchers found that the nectar of Citrus and Coffea species often contained low doses of caffeine. They included 'robusta' coffee species mainly used to produce freeze-dried coffee and 'arabica' used for espresso and filter coffee. Grapefruit, lemons, pomelo and oranges were also sampled and all contained caffeine.

    Co-author Professor Phil Stevenson from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the University of Greenwich's Natural Resources Institute, UK, said: "Caffeine is a defence chemical in plants and tastes bitter to many insects including bees so we were surprised to find it in the nectar. However, it occurs at a dose that's too low for the bees to taste but high enough to affect bee behaviour."

    The effect of caffeine on the bees' long-term memory was profound with three times as many bees remembering the floral scent 24 hours later and twice as many bees remembering the scent after three days.

    Typically, the nectar in the flower of a coffee plant contains almost as much caffeine as a cup of instant coffee. Just as black coffee has a strong bitter taste to us, high concentrations of caffeine are repellent to honeybees.

    Dr Wright added: "This work helps us understand the basic mechanisms of how caffeine affects our brains. What we see in bees could explain why people prefer to drink coffee when studying."

    Dr Julie Mustard, a contributor to the study from Arizona State University, explains further: "Although human and honeybee brains obviously have lots of differences, when you look at the level of cells, proteins and genes, human and bee brains function very similarly. Thus, we can use the honeybee to investigate how caffeine affects our own brains and behaviours."

    This project was funded in part by the Insect Pollinators Initiative which supports projects aimed at researching the causes and consequences of threats to insect pollinators and to inform the development of appropriate mitigation strategies.

    Population declines among bees have serious consequences for natural ecosystems and agriculture since bees are essential pollinators for many crops and wild flowering species. If declines are allowed to continue there is a risk to our natural biodiversity and on some crop production.

    Professor Stevenson said: "Understanding how bees choose to forage and return to some flowers over others will help inform how landscapes could be better managed. Understanding a honeybee's habits and preferences could help find ways to reinvigorate the species to protect our farming industry and countryside."

    ###

    Newcastle University: http://www.ncl.ac.uk

    Thanks to Newcastle 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.

    This press release has been viewed 26 time(s).

    Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127210/Bees_get_a_buzz_from_caffeine

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