Full presentation from the Clicks and Mortar presentation on the 17th January 2013. Jon Ellard of Urban Elements on how to create a successful online business
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BEIRUT (AP) -- An international monitoring group on Wednesday warned that excessive secrecy in Mideast security agencies leaves countries like Egypt, Libya and Tunisia open to corruption even after the overthrow of authoritarian regimes.
Continued secrecy and lack of civilian oversight in defense ministries and armed forces in the Middle East and North Africa expose them to corrupt practices, the Britain-based Transparency International said in a report on the Mideast and North Africa region released in Beirut.
Of the 19 countries surveyed, only a few disclose their defense budgets, the group said. None of the countries makes public the size of its military or the troops' salaries.
In Syria, for example, the group notes that defense policy was under tight control of the ruling Assad family even before the civil war there. And countries in transition, such as Egypt, Libya Tunisia and Yemen, lack any accountability, legislative oversight and credible "whistleblowing" systems through which concerned officers or defense officials can report suspected corruption.
It's a clear indication that replacing authoritarian leaders with elected ones is not enough to eradicate corruption, Mark Pyman, the director of the Transparency's Defense and Security Program, told The Associated Press in an interview.
"Corruptive structures have been allowed to develop and mature within defense institutions and armed forces over 20 or 30 years, and a regime change will not make them go away," Pyman told the AP. "The new administrations need to work actively to ensure that those elements of state become properly accountable in defense and security issues."
There are no signs that Egypt's elected leaders are working to open defense institutions to public oversight, Pyman said, and secrecy and lack of accountability prevail in the aftermath of the political turmoil that has been engulfing the country since President Hosni Mubarak was toppled in a popular uprising two years ago.
In Egypt and in other countries that have experienced decades of authoritarian rule, including Libya, Yemen, Algeria and Syria, the military owns a large portion of commercial economic outlets. Little or nothing is known about their profits.
The absence of independent legislatures in these countries contributes to high political corruption risk, the group said, adding that it has evidence that suggests organized crime has penetrated the defense sectors in at least some of the countries.
Countries that are ranked slightly higher by the watchdog are Iraq, Iran, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Morocco. Even so, their risk of corruption is still significant given that they don't publicly disclose the percentage of the national budget that is spent on secret items. All these countries show limited activity to counter corruption and enforce existing controls in the political part of the defense sector, the report said, concluding that the risk of improper purchases taking place in these nations remains high.
____
On the web: http://www.transparency.org/
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/report-corruption-suspected-mideast-defense-172603892.html
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Still settling into Windows 8? Well, it appears that Microsoft's preparing for a sea change, codenamed "Blue," that will alter how it approaches cross-platform updates. According to ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley, an inside source at Redmond has indicated the company's desire to house all Windows Phone, Windows Services, Windows 8 and Windows RT updates under the Blue umbrella, though that won't necessarily indicate simultaneous releases. Far from it, actually, as the current plan is simply to schedule these updates on a yearly basis. Foley also goes on to note that for Win8, MS could ditch RTM releases altogether, in favor of feeding updates direct to the Windows Store and mentions that Windows 9 is still on track. What's not yet known is precisely what features this Blue crush of updates will entail. We'll keep you updated should this rumor prove to hold its water.
Filed under: Cellphones, Desktops, Laptops, Tablets, Software, Microsoft
Source: ZDNet
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/07/microsoft-cross-platform-updates-codenamed-Blue/
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BERLIN (AP) ? Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, went beyond what was expected and indicated that he and his fellow policymakers are keeping a close watch on the recent strength of the euro ? and the effect it is having on Europe's faltering recovery.
Though Draghi said Thursday that the recent appreciation of Europe's single currency was a sign of confidence following its debt crisis-related traumas over the past few years, he indicated that it could prompt a policy response.
"However, the exchange rate is not a policy target but it is important for growth and price stability," he said in a press briefing after the bank kept its main interest rate unchanged at the record low of 0.75 percent.
"We will want to see if the appreciation will alter our assessment as far as price stability is concerned," he added. "We will closely monitor money market developments."
Though the euro has clearly benefited from the region's easing debt crisis, analysts also say a more aggressive Japanese economic policy designed to revitalize the country has indirectly pushed up the value of the single European currency. This rising exchange rate has major impacts for the economy of the 17 European Union countries that use the euro. It could raise the price of exports, unappetizing news for many hard-pressed businesses across the recessionary eurozone. That prospect of lower activity could weigh on prices ? as would the lower import costs that the high euro could engender.
If inflation, which Draghi said is expected to fall below 2 percent in the months to come, drops by more than anticipated, then it could pave the way for interest rate reductions.
The scale of the comments surprised traders who thought he would bat away any comments regarding the euro in a manner similar to his predecessor, Jean-Claude Trichet.
The euro took a nosedive after those remarks, trading a full euro cent lower at $1.3450.
His remarks on the euro came after a cautiously upbeat assessment of the prospects of the eurozone economy.
As well as predicting that inflation will likely fall below the target in the coming months, Draghi said economic growth would likely resume thanks to low borrowing rates, an improvement in financial market conditions and a pick-up in global demand.
Draghi said risks to inflation are "broadly balanced" but that the risks to growth are "to the downside."
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Feb. 5, 2013 ?
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Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/1WHl3L8XHvw/130205173621.htm
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Moral aspects of subprime lending back in the news; diamond company sues to stop rival from claiming title to world?s brightest diamonds; USA Today reports that civilian CEOs are attending ethical leadership courses taught by military
NEW YORK and WASHINGTON
Business ethics were the focus of several stories last week. Among the coverage:
Sources: Wall Street Journal, Feb. 1 ? Thomson Reuters, Jan. 24 ? USA Today, Jan. 29.
For more information, see: Related Newsline story, Jan. 28 ? Related Newsline story, Jan. 22 ? Related Newsline story, Jan. 22 ? Related Newsline story, Jan. 14 ? Related Newsline story, Jan. 14.
User content does not reflect the views of the Institute for Global Ethics or its affiliates. IGE neither guarantees the truthfulness, accuracy, or reliability of any user content, nor endorses any opinions expressed therein.
Our goal is to provide substantive commentary for a general readership; lively debate and opposing opinions are welcome. While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic, non-proselytizing, and not abusive, moderating decisions are subjective. We will make them as carefully and consistently as we can.
Source: http://www.globalethics.org/newsline/2013/02/04/business-finance-2/
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>>> this was a big story earlier today involving one of the best-known names in sports, and if you've watched the past few winter olympics you know lindsey vonn . we've seen her on the slopes, we've seen her in profiles and commercials and today we saw her in a frightening accident while skiing in foggy conditions at the world championships in austria. tonight, the extent of her injuries is now clear. we get our report from nbc's chris jansing .
>> so many traps in this course with the conditions.
>> reporter: it was the kind of jump lindsey vonn has made a thousand times before. but today, a horrific crash.
>> over the top ! and she is down heavily. lindsey vonn --
>> reporter: you can hear the painful screams, and see the shocked reaction on the faces of her fans and competitors.
>> to watch her lie there, of course, as a ski racer and as a commentator, it was horrifying.
>> reporter: medical teams treated vonn for 12 minutes before she was airlifted to the hospital where tests showed two torn ligaments and a bone fracture with the olympics one year away.
>> so we're looking at a window that's really the clock's ticking for her.
>> exactly. some people are back skiing in six months. skiing in the olympics , it's going to be tough.
>> reporter: vonn is out for the rest of the season, but the u.s. ski team believes she will make a comeback in time for the winter games in sochi, russia. she took gold and bronze in vancouver and is a four-time world cup champion. the most successful american skier in history.
>> action.
>> reporter: a favorite with sponsors, tabloids love her, too. her unconfirmed romance with tiger woods and her revelation that she's battled depression.
>> hi, dad!
>> reporter: but since she was 3 years old she's been happiest on the slopes. telling brian williams in 2010 that this is what she was born to do.
>> i've given my entire life for the sport.
>> reporter: there have been other heart-stopping falls. she came back from a terrible crash in torino two days later. but this time won't be easy.
>> lindsey vonn is so tough, works so hard, if anyone can come back from this in time for the olympics , it's lindsey vonn .
>> reporter: the heart of a champion , with a track record of beating the odds. chris jansing , nbc news, new york.
Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/50711409/
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Burpple, the social discovery app that seeks to connect food lovers from around the world, just released their Android app in public beta. Their iOS app was launched in December 2011.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/8XneyhdO2pg/
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LONDON (Reuters) - The parliament voted heavily in favour of legalising gay marriage on Tuesday, but Prime Minister David Cameron's authority in his own party took a blow as his Conservatives split in two over the measure he had championed.
In the first of several votes required for its passage, the lower house of parliament backed the legislation by 400-175, but more than half of Cameron's 303 lawmakers voted against or abstained, signalling deep unease with it and his leadership.
During a debate that lasted more than six hours, many Conservative MPs denounced the legislation, saying it was morally wrong, not a public priority, and unnecessarily divisive, threatening a corrosive legacy of bitterness.
Conservative lawmaker Gerald Howarth told parliament that the government had no mandate to push through a "massive social and cultural change".
"This is not evolution, it's revolution," added Edward Leigh, another Conservative member of parliament, saying marriage was "by its nature a heterosexual union".
Although the vote went Cameron's way, many analysts believe he will now have to address a deep seam of discontent running through his party.
He made a last minute televised statement ahead of the vote, arguing gay marriage would make society stronger.
"I'm a big believer in marriage. It helps people to commit to each other, and I think that's why gay people should be able to get married too," he said.
He later hailed the result of the vote as "a step forward for our country".
Cameron is trying to perform a tricky balancing act: to reconcile his desire to show his party is progressive, with the views of many in it who are uncomfortable with such a reform.
Amid talk of a possible leadership challenge to Cameron, many Conservative lawmakers say the prime minister is sacrificing core party values on the altar of populism.
"He hasn't got a lot of political capital left in the bank," Stewart Jackson, a Conservative MP who opposes the gay marriage bill, told Reuters before the vote. "He has to deliver some authentic Conservative policies very soon."
Such talk is rife among some Conservative lawmakers and follows a spate of articles in the British press in which a handful of MPs raised the possibility of ousting Cameron, a prospect most commentators regard as far-fetched before the next election in 2015.
GRIEVANCES AGAINST CAMERON
Conservative MPs' grievances are many: that Cameron is "arrogant", that he is too fond of the European Union, that the party's policies have been diluted by its coalition partner after Cameron failed to win the last election outright, and a nagging fear that he will not win the next one.
The gay marriage initiative has infuriated rank-and-file party activists and a protest letter signed by 25 past and present chairmen of local Conservative associations warned that members were starting to resign over the issue.
Justin Welby, the newly elected Archbishop of Canterbury and head of the world's 80 million Anglicans, used his first comments after being confirmed on Monday to reiterate his won opposition to gay marriage.
Faced with strong opposition from the Anglican and Catholic churches, the law would not force them to conduct gay marriages, but critics say gay people may launch legal challenges.
A YouGov poll for the Sunday Times on Sunday showed 55 percent favoured legalising gay marriage, while 36 percent opposed it. However, the same poll showed the issue was not one that concerned most voters.
The new law proposes legalising same-sex marriage in 2014. It would also allow civil partners to convert their partnerships into marriages.
Gay marriage supporters say that while existing civil partnerships for same-sex couples afford the same legal rights as marriage, the distinction implies they are inferior.
In a sometimes emotional debate on Tuesday, several gay MPs from different parties took to their feet to commend the bill, describing the prejudice they had suffered growing up.
"Millions will be watching us today," said Nick Herbert, a gay Conservative MP. "Not just gay people but people who want to live in an equal society."
The vote was warmly welcomed by Cameron's junior coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats, and by the opposition Labour party, while gay rights group Stonewall called the result "a truly historic step forward".
Tuesday's vote in the House of Commons was "free", meaning MPs were able to vote according to their conscience, rather than under party orders.
The bill is still many stages away from becoming law, and some of its opponents called on Cameron after the vote to consider amending it to appease their concerns, promising they would try to frustrate its progress through parliament.
WARNING OF DIVISIONS
Peter Kellner, president of pollster YouGov, said he felt the parliamentary rebellion would hurt the Conservative party.
"For Cameron, gay marriage is part of his attempt to persuade the voters that his party belongs to modern, 21st century Britain," he wrote on the pollster's site.
"But the divisions that the gay marriages bill has unleashed ... threaten to send an altogether different message: that the Tories are divided, out of touch and prone to quarrel over issues of little concern to most voters."
With the next election still two-and-a-half years distant, there is a risk that internal party splits over issues like gay marriage could fester and turn what for now is only talk of a possible leadership challenge into the real thing.
"David Cameron has split the Conservative Party in half on gay marriage and failed to win a majority of Tory MPs. Labour win," Jackson, the Conservative MP, wrote after the vote.
(Editing by Giles Elgood and Will Waterman)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cameron-faces-gay-marriage-revolt-plots-swirl-000207525.html
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According to public health minister Anna Soubry, officials have been in talks with the drinks industry about the possible inclusion of calorie content on labels.
Ministers are hoping that displaying the calorie content in beers, wines and spirits could encourage those who are watching their weight to drink less.
Most manufacturers already include information on units of alcohol on labels in a voluntary agreement with the Government.
A recent study by the Drink Aware Trust has linked the large amount of calories in alcoholic drinks to people being overweight and obese.
At around 250 calories per pint, lager is as fattening as a slice of pizza, while two large glasses of wine contain around 400 calories ? the same amount as a beefburger.
Half of those polled by Drink Aware knew how many calories there are in a cheeseburger but just one in three knew the correct number in a glass of wine.
?We?re continuing to work with the drinks industry to take forward the plans we set out in the alcohol strategy on labelling of alcoholic drinks,? said Soubry.
?By the end of this year, 80% of all alcoholic drinks on shop shelves will include clear labelling on units and health messages.
The Skinnygirl wine range
?Through the Responsibility Deal we will continue to discuss how to give consumers more information on alcoholic drinks, including calorie labelling,? she added.
Retailers including Asda, Sainsbury?s and Tesco are working with the Department of Health on how to display calorie counts on alcohol.
The Co-Op already includes calorie information on its own brand beer, wine, cider and spirits.
A number of new low and lower alcohol wine launches, such as Skinnygirl wine from US reality TV star Bethenny Frankel, have flagged up their low calorie credentials in their marketing material.
Meanwhile, London-based mixologist Joe McCanta recently told db?s sister title, The Spirits Business, that??skinny? cocktails were set to trend in the capital this year.
There is a chance the European Commission could suggest mandatory calorie information on alcoholic drinks when it reviews the issue within two years.
Voluntary Government ?responsibility deals? have got fast food companies, including McDonalds and KFC, to provide calorie information on their menus.
Soubry?s comments come as the Home Office prepares to make a decision on whether to introduce minimum pricing of 45p per unit of alcohol in the UK.
Source: http://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2013/02/calorie-labels-for-beer-wine-and-spirits-considered/
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BEIRUT (Reuters) - President Bashar al-Assad accused Israel on Sunday of trying to destabilize Syria by attacking a military research base outside Damascus last week, and said Syria was able to confront "current threats ...and aggression", state media said.
Assad made the remarks in a meeting with Saeed Jalili, Iran's national security council secretary, in the Syrian capital. It was his first reported response to the attack.
State news agency SANA quoted Jalili as reaffirming Tehran's "full support for the Syrian people ... facing the Zionist aggression, and its continued coordination to confront the conspiracies and foreign projects".
The Syrian president, Shi'ite Iran's closest Arab ally, is battling a 22-month-old uprising in which 60,000 people have been killed. Assad says the rebels are Islamist terrorists funded and armed by Turkey and Sunni Muslim Gulf Arab states.
Neighboring Israel has said it might have to intervene to prevent Syrian chemical or advanced weapons falling into the hands of militant groups, including Lebanon's Hezbollah which fought a 34-day war with Israel in 2006.
Diplomats, Syrian rebels and security sources said Israeli jets bombed a convoy near the Lebanese border on Wednesday, apparently hitting weapons destined for Hezbollah. Syria said the target was a military research center northwest of Damascus.
(Reporting by Dominic Evans)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/assad-says-syria-confront-threats-israel-attack-114717868.html
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Feb. 4, 2013 ? Nitric oxide, a gaseous molecule produced in the brain, can damage neurons. When the brain produces too much nitric oxide, it contributes to the severity and progression of stroke and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's. Researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute recently discovered that nitric oxide not only damages neurons, it also shuts down the brain's repair mechanisms.
Their study was published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of February 4.
"In this study, we've uncovered new clues as to how natural chemical reactions in the brain can contribute to brain damage -- loss of memory and cognitive function -- in a number of diseases," said Stuart A. Lipton, M.D., Ph.D., director of Sanford-Burnham's Del E. Webb Neuroscience, Aging, and Stem Cell Research Center and a clinical neurologist.
Lipton led the study, along with Sanford-Burnham's Tomohiro Nakamura, Ph.D., who added that these new molecular clues are important because "we might be able to develop a new strategy for treating stroke and other disorders if we can find a way to reverse nitric oxide's effect on a particular enzyme in nerve cells."
Nitric oxide inhibits the neuroprotective ERK1/2 signaling pathway
Learning and memory are in part controlled by NMDA-type glutamate receptors in the brain. These receptors are linked to pores in the nerve cell membrane that regulate the flow of calcium and sodium in and out of the nerve cells. When these NMDA receptors get over-activated, they trigger the production of nitric oxide. In turn, nitric oxide attaches to other proteins via a reaction called S-nitrosylation, which was first discovered by Lipton and colleagues. When those S-nitrosylated proteins are involved in cell survival and lifespan, nitric oxide can cause brain cells to die prematurely -- a hallmark of neurodegenerative disease.
In their latest study, Lipton, Nakamura and colleagues used cultured neurons as well as a living mouse model of stroke to explore nitric oxide's relationship with proteins that help repair neuronal damage. They found that nitric oxide reacts with the enzyme SHP-2 to inhibit a protective cascade of molecular events known as the ERK1/2 signaling pathway. Thus, nitric oxide not only damages neurons, it also blocks the brain's ability to self-repair.
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NEW ORLEANS (AP) ? Even before Journey and Rascal Flatts got on stage together for CMT's Crossroads concert Super Bowl weekend, they were already in perfect harmony.
In an interview the day before the show, the bands joked around together, finished each other's sentences, hoped for a San Francisco 49ers victory, and talked about an as-yet unannounced plan to perform some dates together this summer.
"It has been fun," Rascal Flatts' Jay DeMarcus said Friday, a day before the band's Saturday concert. "We've got mutual respect for each other and also love all the music equally. So, when you get a bunch of creative people in a room that love what each other is about and what they do, it's very easy to get along."
Although CMT Crossroads is known for pairing acts of different strokes, the union between Rascal Flatts and Journey started more organically than most. They performed together on the CMT Awards last summer in Nashville.
"Last time we were in Nashville too, (Flatts guitarist) Joe Don (Rooney) came down here and he came on stage with us and ripped it up, so we've been sort of talking ever since then," Journey founder Neal Schon said. "It's like a natural progression."
So when someone proposed a Crossroads concert, Journey keyboardist Jonathan Cain said, "There's only one band that comes to my mind, and it is Rascal Flatts. Gary (LeVox) can really get it, and that's the biggest part of it, is like, can you reproduce the sound? Plus, I love their songs."
The bands belted out each other's hits Saturday night; their rendition of "Don't Stop Believin'" could be heard on the streets of downtown New Orleans.
"It's really just a dream come true," said LeVox, Rascal Flatts' lead singer. "You really have to pinch yourself because you can't believe that you're singing 'Don't Stop Believin" and all of the amazing Journey songs that have just been a piece of American music."
The group said it plans to do some shows together for the summer.
___
Online:
http://www.journey.com
http://www.rascalflatts.com.
___
Follow Nekesa Mumbi Moody on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/nekesamumbi
.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/journey-rascal-flatts-team-cmt-crossroads-183344645.html
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BEIRUT (AP) ? Syria's official news agency says a former member of parliament and three members of his family have been killed in a rebel-held area the near the northern city of Aleppo.
SANA said Sunday that "terrorists" fired at Ibrahim Azzouz's car in Sheik Said neighborhood near the city's airport, killing him along with his wife and their two daughters.
Rebels captured the strategic Sheik Said neighborhood, southeast of Aleppo on Saturday. It was a significant blow to regime forces because the area includes the road the army has used to supply troops.
The Syrian government refers to rebels as "terrorists."
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Dan Barbarisi of the Wall Street Journal has a must-read interview with Mark Teixeira, who has come to terms with the idea that he won?t be the same player in his mid-30s as he was in his 20s. In another moment of candor, he also said that he feels there?s nothing that he can do to justify the massive eight-year, $180 million contract he signed with the Yankees in December of 2008.
?I have no problem with anybody in New York, any fan, saying you?re overpaid. Because I am,? Teixeira said. ?We all are.?
?Agents are probably going to hate me for saying it,? he continued. ?You?re not very valuable when you?re making $20 million. When you?re Mike Trout, making the minimum, you are crazy valuable. My first six years, before I was a free agent, I was very valuable. But there?s nothing you can do that can justify a $20 million contract.?
It?s a pretty logical take, as players in their pre-arbitration and arbitration years can deliver far more value because they are less expensive and are only entering their primes. Meanwhile, players in free agency get paid as if they?ll continue to maintain their peak production, even though many will be past their prime by the end of a long-term deal. That?s why we have seen many teams buy out arbitration years and a year or two of free agency as part of extensions, taking on some risk on the chance they?ll end up with a team-friendly contract.
Fans will appreciate the general sentiment from Teixiera, as it appeals to the notion that our priorities are out of whack, but let?s not fool ourselves and think the system will suddenly change. Players will continue to ask for more as long as these ridiculous television deals put more money in owners? pockets. And they absolutely should. I?m sure the issue doesn?t keep Teixeira up at night, but it?s a refreshing take.
There?s a whole lot more in the piece, but this is really great work by Barbarisi, who points out that expectations for players in their mid-to-late 30s might still be skewed a bit by what we saw during the steroid era.
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FILE - In this Dec. 3, 2009 file photo, Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. Sullivan is retiring after 30 years on the job the Secret Service announced Friday, Feb. 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari, File)
FILE - In this Dec. 3, 2009 file photo, Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. Sullivan is retiring after 30 years on the job the Secret Service announced Friday, Feb. 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan announced his retirement Friday, bringing to a close a turbulent period for the law enforcement agency that included a South American prostitution scandal and a pair of White House gate-crashers.
In nearly seven years as director, Sullivan had to answer serious questions from lawmakers on two occasions about his employees' actions on the job and off.
Last May, in testimony before Congress, Sullivan apologized for the conduct of Secret Service employees caught in a prostitution scandal in Colombia. Thirteen agents and officers were implicated after an agent argued with a prostitute over payment in a hotel hallway in Cartagena, Colombia.
The employees were in the Caribbean resort city in advance of President Barack Obama's arrival for a South American summit in April. After a night of heavy partying in some of Cartagena's bars and clubs, the employees brought women, including prostitutes, back to their hotel. Eight of those Secret Service employees were forced out of the agency, three were cleared of serious misconduct and at least two were fighting to get their jobs back.
The incident prompted Sullivan to issue a new code of conduct that barred employees from drinking within 10 hours of the start of a shift and from bringing foreigners to their hotel rooms
In 2009, Sullivan had to answer questions about how a pair of aspiring socialites talked their way into a state dinner at the White House. That the pair made into the highly secured event was not only a violation of protocol but raised questions about how easily an unauthorized person could gain close access to the president and vice president.
"In this case, I fully acknowledge the proper procedures were not followed and human error occurred in the execution of our duties," Sullivan told lawmakers after the incident.
Sullivan struck a similar tone in May when he apologized to lawmakers for the behavior of the Secret Service employees in Colombia, insisting that the incident was not indicative of a larger culture problem at the agency.
Sullivan's retirement is effective Feb. 22. His replacement has not been announced.
In an internal message Sullivan sent to employees Friday, he said he was "extremely proud to have had the opportunity to work with the men and women of the Secret Service and represent an agency so deserving of its reputation as one of the finest law enforcement agencies in the world."
Sullivan joined the Secret Service in 1983 after three years as a special agent in the Inspector General's Office at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He was appointed director in 2006.
Despite the scandals and questions from lawmakers, he maintained support from Obama, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and numerous lawmakers.
"I want to thank Mark Sullivan for nearly 30 years of service to our nation at the United States Secret Service, a tenure that saw the agency protect five first families including my own," Obama said in a statement. "And since 2006, as director, Mark has led the agency with incredible dedication and integrity."
Napolitano thanked Sullivan for his service. "His commitment to keeping our country and its top officials safe is unparalleled and his devotion to the mission of the Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security has been unwavering," she said in a statement.
In three decades with the Secret Service, Sullivan's career took him to Detroit, Columbus, Ohio, and ultimately Washington, where he served on the security detail for President George H.W. Bush.
Sullivan, who is from a large Irish Catholic family, has been married to his wife, Laurie, for more than 20 years, and they have three daughters. He loves hockey and played in an adult league until a few years ago.
"If you were casting someone for the role of director of the Secret Service, he looks the part," Sullivan's former boss in the service's Detroit division, James Huse, told the AP last year. "He's a tall, handsome Irishman, with grey hair and the demeanor of a born leader."
___
Associated Press reporters Eileen Sullivan and Josh Lederman contributed to this report.
__
Follow Alicia A. Caldwell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/acaldwellap
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Kodak has had many scary moments in its recent history, not the least of which was wondering whether or not it could sell digital imaging patents to help escape bankruptcy. It's putting some of that trauma to rest now that it has officially closed the recently approved sale. The $527 million deal shares 1,100 patents with a complex web of companies, including Apple and Google, operating under alliances led by Intellectual Ventures and RPX. The buyers intend to use the patents as defenses against imaging-related lawsuits, and they've agreed to settle any remaining legal entanglements with Kodak in the process. Kodak still stands to gain the most from the deal, however: the cash helps repay a large chunk of a key loan, and it reassures the potential financiers that the company needs to leave bankruptcy by mid-2013. We still won't get back the Kodak we once knew, but the name will at least soldier on.
Filed under: Cameras, Apple, Google
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/W4D6LfhnRYI/
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Published: 01 February, 2013, 11:48
The rocket booster Zenit-3SL on the launch platform Odyssey in the Pacific (Image from yuzhnoye.com)
A Ukrainian-made Zenith-3SL rocket carrying a US-made Intelsat-27 satellite has crashed into the ocean seconds after being launched from a platform in the Pacific Ocean. Ground control lost contact with the rocket.
"); $(".tail_text").show(500); return false; }Sea Launch, the company overseeing the launch, wrote in an official statement on their website that, "approximately 40 seconds after liftoff of the launch of the Intelsat 27 spacecraft, all telemetry was lost indicating a loss of mission."
The spacecraft, built by Boeing Satellite Systems, was launched on a Zenit-3SL launch vehicle on the ocean-based Odyssey launch platform at the Earth?s equator.
Preliminary reports suggested the rocket?s engines stopped automatically because its trajectory was incorrect.
?The first stage of the rocket was supposed to detach two-and-a-half minutes into the flight, but did not. A search operation is underway for the downed rocket.
The rocket?s flight was controlled remotely by a vessel six kilometers from the platform.
The Zenith rocket is joint project between Russian and Ukrainian space companies. The first two stages of the launch vehicle were designed and built in Ukraine, and the third stage is Russian-made.
The Intelsat-27 satellite, made by Boeing, was designed to transmit communication signals over the US and Europe.
The Odyssey floating platform is owned by the Sea Launch corporation. Previous launches at the platform have been successful. In April 2012, a similar Zenith-3SL rocket sent the Eutelsat W5A satellite into space.
Source: http://rt.com/news/satellite-rocket-pacific-ocean-222/
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama has begun to reshape his Cabinet at the start of his second term, elevating several longtime advisers to key positions.
More changes are still to come, as officials step down after long tenures through stressful periods at top jobs.
Obama has faced criticism for his choices, in part because of past policy decisions and statements some of them have made, but also because he has so far named four white men to a Cabinet once lauded for its diversity.
Following is a list of some Cabinet members who the White House has confirmed are staying on, and some positions that are vacant or may soon become vacant.
NOMINATIONS
State - John Kerry, the unsuccessful 2004 Democratic presidential nominee and chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was confirmed by the Senate to replace Hillary Clinton.
Treasury - Jack Lew, Obama's chief of staff and a two-time White House budget director, would take the top economic job at a time when the White House faces another round of tough negotiations on deficit issues with Congress. He would replace Timothy Geithner.
Defense - Chuck Hagel is a former Republican U.S. senator and a decorated war veteran who fought in Vietnam. Hagel faces a tough confirmation battle because of past controversial comments about Israel and gays. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is retiring.
CIA director - John Brennan was Obama's counterterrorism adviser and has worked for the Central Intelligence Agency as officer, analyst and administrator. He would replace David Petraeus, who resigned in November over an extramarital affair.
Chief of Staff - Obama tapped longtime foreign policy adviser Denis McDonough for the job.
STAYING PUT, FOR NOW
Justice - Attorney General Eric Holder, who is part of an Obama task force looking at how to reduce gun violence, will stay on. There had been widespread speculation he would not serve more than four years, a rare long term for an attorney general.
Homeland Security - Secretary Janet Napolitano had been expected to take over the Justice file if Holder left. Now that the White House has said Holder will stay, Napolitano is expected to remain in her current job.
Agriculture - Secretary Tom Vilsack, who has spearheaded talks with Congress about cuts to farm subsidies, will stay on for Obama's second term.
Health and Human Services - Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will remain in her job.
Veterans Affairs - Secretary Eric Shinseki, a former U.S. Army chief of staff, will stay on.
Education - Secretary Arne Duncan will stay in his job.
COMMERCE - VACANT
Secretary John Bryson resigned in June for health reasons. Rebecca Blank, an economist, has been acting secretary since then.
Possible replacements:
- U.S. Export-Import Bank President Fred Hochberg
- Elizabeth Littlefield, president of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation
- Xerox Chief Executive Ursula Burns
- Steve Case - co-founder of America Online
- Daniel Doctoroff - chief executive of the financial news service Bloomberg, and a former deputy mayor of New York City
- Jeff Zients - acting director of Obama's budget office and a former management consultant
LABOR - SOON VACANT
Secretary Hilda Solis, the first Latina to head a major U.S. federal agency, announced plans to resign.
Colorado Lieutenant Governor Joe Garcia, a Hispanic former president of Colorado State University-Pueblo who would bring racial diversity and a Western flair to Obama's team, is a leading candidate for the job.
Other potential candidates:
- Patricia Smith, Solicitor of Labor, and former New York State Commissioner of Labor
- Betty Sutton, an Ohio congresswoman who was unseated in the November elections
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY - SOON VACANT
Lisa Jackson, a chemical engineer and the first black administrator of the agency, plans to leave. Jackson battled Republican lawmakers and industry groups who accused the agency of overreaching as it cracked down on carbon emissions and mercury pollution.
Gina McCarthy, currently the assistant administrator for the EPA Office of Air and Radiation, is a leading candidate. She is well-known on Capitol Hill, and once worked for Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential candidate, when he was Massachusetts governor.
The announcement could still be a couple weeks away. Bob Perciasepe, Jackson's deputy and the EPA's acting administrator, is still in the mix, a source said.
TRANSPORTATION - VACANT
Secretary Ray LaHood plans to resign. The Republican and former Illinois congressman brought a bipartisan element to the Democratic president's team.
Possible replacements:
- Christine Gregoire - a former Washington state governor, Gregoire has been mentioned as a potential candidate for several positions in Obama's Cabinet.
- Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a Hispanic American who is a rising star in the Democratic Party.
- Former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm
- Former Federal Aviation Administration head Jane Garvey
- National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Debbie Hersman
ENERGY - SOON VACANT
Steven Chu said he will leave the department, likely sometime in March. His successor will play a role advancing Obama's push to curb climate change.
INTERIOR - SOON VACANT
U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who helped lead the government's response to the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history, said he will leave by the end of March.
OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET - VACANT
The top job at the OMB has been vacant for a year since Jack Lew moved into the chief of staff role.
Candidates:
- Sylvia Matthews Burwell - runs the Wal-Mart Foundation and is considered a top contender for the job. Burwell worked in the Clinton administration.
- Jeff Zients - deputy budget director since 2009, could officially take the top job
- Douglas Elmendorf - director of the Congressional Budget Office who has worked at the Federal Reserve, the Council of Economic Advisers and the Treasury Department
UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE - SOON VACANT
USTR Ronald Kirk, who helped restart talks on a regional free-trade agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, said he plans to leave this month.
Possible replacements:
- U.S. Export-Import Bank President Fred Hochberg
- Commerce Under Secretary for International Affairs Francisco Sanchez
- Demetrios Marantis - a deputy U.S. trade representative and former chief international trade counsel for Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus
- Michael Punke - U.S. ambassador to the World Trade Organization, who also previously worked for Baucus before joining the Clinton White House as director for international economic affairs
- Lael Brainard - Treasury undersecretary for international affairs, who has been heavily involved in trade and currency talks with China as well as broader global economic discussions
- Michael Froman - now chief White House international economic affairs adviser, who attended Harvard Law School with Obama - although a source familiar with his thinking said he was more likely to remain in his current role.
(Reporting By Jeff Mason, Mark Felsenthal, Roberta Rampton, Doug Palmer, Margaret Chadbourn, Deborah Charles, David Ingram, Ayesha Rascoe and Timothy Gardner. Editing by Christopher Wilson and Philip Barbara)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/factbox-obamas-second-term-cabinet-takes-shape-000704281--finance.html
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See more in our gallery: "3D printer reveals mathematical beauty ? and surprise"
ARCHIMEDES was at the cutting-edge of Ancient Greek technology but he might have increased his ability to engage with ordinary folk had he access to a 3D printer.
One of the polymath's favourite proofs was showing mathematically that a sphere that fits exactly inside a cylinder fills two thirds of its volume. A representation of this was displayed on his tomb.
Now, to mark the 2300th anniversary of his birth, Elizabeth Slavkovsky and Oliver Knill of Harvard University have used a 3D printer to create an object of the precise dimensions needed to demonstrate the insight visually.
They printed a slightly different version of the proof - a hollow hemisphere supported above a cylinder which contains a cone that takes up one third of the cylinder's volume (pictured below). Fill the hemisphere with water and it drains into the cylinder, filling it exactly to the brim. Using a hemisphere means you can see the water drain, making it easy to grasp what Archimedes proved (arxiv.org/abs/1301.5027).
The pair reckon that 3D printers - which make it easy to create objects based on equations - could transform mathematics education. Slavkovsky has helped students print personalised mathematical objects. "It gave them a tangible thing to consider," she says.
This article appeared in print under the headline "3D-printed proof of Archimedes"
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The tragic shooting of an innocent and promising Chicago teenager must reinforce attention on the best ways to curb urban gang violence. One key approach: police-clergy coalitions.
A boy watches a basketball tournament for reputed gang members and associates at a church on Chicago's South Side last year. The 12-week basketball league is aimed at cooling gang hostilities.
AP Photo
EnlargeWhen she was in a Chicago elementary school, Hadiya Pendleton took part in a video against gang violence. ?So many children are out there in gangs,? she said in the 54-second clip. ?And it is your job as students to say no to gangs and yes to a great future.?
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Last Tuesday in a city park, Hadiya was randomly killed in what police say was a mistaken, gang-related shooting. Just days before, Hadiya had performed with her high school band at President Obama?s inauguration.
Coming only weeks after the shooting of 20 children in Newtown, Conn., this tragic killing of another innocent child has thrown a fresh national spotlight on the fact that an average of 16 kids under the age of 24 are murdered every day in the United States, mostly by guns and many in gang violence. And most are urban blacks or Hispanics.
The problem is particularly acute in Chicago, where gangs are larger and more organized than in most other cities. And despite various innovative anti-gang and anti-gun programs, city officials appear even more frustrated after Hadiya?s death. This January was the city?s most violent January since 2002.
Mr. Obama, too, has been frustrated with national efforts to reduce urban violence. Despite government programs to improve the quality of life, he said last June, ?all this matters little if these young people can?t walk the streets of their neighborhood safely; if we can?t send our kids to school without worrying they might get shot.?
Urban leaders, he added, must ?push through all the doubt and the cynicism and the weariness.?
This frustration in Chicago and elsewhere comes in part from seeing cities that have been able to demonstrate success in reducing gun and gang violence. But transferring these approaches to different communities isn?t always easy.
The US Justice Department is now working with state and local officials to apply the best ideas. One of the most popular techniques is to identity the small percentage of gang members who are instigators of violence and then change their behavior, either by using peer pressure or offering them positive alternatives to gang life, often with the help of an ex-gang member mentor.
But even that approach can be shortlived if gang-infested communities don?t have one key actor: local clergy.
In the 1990s, Boston pioneered the approach of having black church leaders cooperate with police to patrol streets, work with delinquent youth, and enlist congregations in crime fighting. In weekly meetings with police, for example, clergy can learn about current hot spots in gang tension and then pass on that information in church meetings.
After adding this moral and spiritual component to battling gangs, crime fell 60 percent in Boston in the ?90s.
?Black and Latino churches have been critical to creating peaceful urban communities, speaking better than any other institution in the voice of both righteousness and forgiveness, both of which are critical to the struggle,? says David Kennedy, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York and a leader on solving urban violence.
More cities are now enlisting faith-based institutions in tackling violence. But each police-clergy coalition will need to find the unique community dynamics needed to make their effort succeed.
As Obama told urban leaders last year, ?We have to understand that when a child opens fire on another child, there?s a hole in that child?s heart that government alone can?t fill. It?s up to us, as parents and as neighbors and as teachers and as mentors, to make sure our young people don?t have that void inside them. It?s up to us to spend more time with them, to pay more attention to them, to show them more love so that they learn to love themselves, so that they learn to love one another, so that they grow up knowing what it is to walk a mile in somebody else?s shoes and to view the world through somebody else?s eyes.?
Or as Hadiya said in that video:
?Say ... yes to a great future.?
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MIDLAND CITY, Ala. (AP) ? More than three days after he allegedly shot a school bus driver dead, grabbed a kindergartner and slipped into an underground bunker, Jimmy Lee Dykes was showing no signs of turning himself over to police.
Speaking into a 4-inch-wide ventilation pipe leading to the bunker, hostage negotiators tried again Thursday to talk the 65-year-old retired truck driver into freeing the 5-year-old boy. One local official said the child had been crying for his parents.
Dykes is accused of pulling the boy from a school bus Tuesday and killing the driver who tried to protect the 21 youngsters aboard. The gunman and the boy were holed up in a small room on his property that authorities likened to a tornado shelter, something common to this area of the South.
"The three past days have not been easy on anybody," Dale County Sheriff Wally Olson said at a news briefing late Thursday. He said authorities were communicating with the suspect, and their primary goal was to get the boy home safely.
"There's no reason to believe the child has been harmed," he added.
There were signs that the standoff could continue for some time.
James Arrington, police chief of the neighboring town of Pinckard, said the shelter was about 4 feet underground, with about 6-by-8 feet of floor space and a PVC pipe that negotiators were speaking through.
A state legislator said the shelter has electricity, food and TV. The police chief said the captor has been sleeping and told negotiators that he has spent long periods in the shelter before.
"He will have to give up sooner or later because (authorities) are not leaving," Arrington said. "It's pretty small, but he's been known to stay in there eight days."
Midland City Mayor Virgil Skipper said he has been briefed by law enforcement agents and has visited with the boy's parents.
"He's crying for his parents," he said. "They are holding up good. They are praying and asking all of us to pray with them."
Republican Rep. Steve Clouse, who represents the Midland City area, said he visited the boy's mother Thursday and that she is "hanging on by a thread."
"Everybody is praying with her for the boy," he said.
Clouse said the mother told him that the boy has Asperger's syndrome, an autism-like disorder, as well as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. Police have been delivering medication to him through the pipe, he added.
The normally quiet red clay road leading to the bunker was teeming Friday with more than a dozen police cars and trucks, a fire truck, a helicopter, officers from multiple agencies and news media near Midland City, population 2,300.
Police vehicles have come and gone steadily for hours from the command post.
The latest group, a team in military-style uniforms toting weapons, got out of a big van in the pre-dawn chill Friday and moved into a staging area as a light flickered on and off. One of them appeared to be a dog handler.
During the night, temperatures dipped into the low 40s, and police and other emergency workers wore heavy coats outside a small church being used as a command post. Neighbors said Dykes had a small heater in the bunker.
Overhead, a small aircraft with blinking lights flew wide circles high above the man's property Friday. An ambulance remained parked alongside the dirt road.
Dykes was known around the neighborhood as a menacing figure who neighbors said once beat a dog to death with a lead pipe, threatened to shoot children for setting foot on his property and patrolled his yard at night with a flashlight and a firearm.
The chief confirmed that Dykes held anti-government views, as described by multiple neighbors: "He's against the government ? starting with Obama on down."
"He doesn't like law enforcement or the government telling him what to do," he said. "He's just a loner."
Authorities say the gunman boarded a stopped school bus Tuesday afternoon and demanded two boys between 6 and 8 years old. When the driver tried to block his way, the gunman shot him several times and took the 5-year-old boy off the bus.
The bus driver, Charles Albert Poland Jr., 66, was hailed by locals as a hero who gave his life to protect the pupils on his bus.
No motive has been discussed by investigators, but the police chief said the FBI had evidence suggesting it could be considered a hate crime. Federal authorities have not released any details about the standoff or the investigation. The mayor said he hasn't seen anything tying together Dykes' anti-government views and the allegations against him.
Dykes had been scheduled to appear in court Wednesday to answer charges he shot at his neighbors in a dispute last month over a speed bump. Neighbor Claudia Davis said he yelled and fired shots at her, her son and her baby grandson over damage Dykes claimed their pickup truck did to a makeshift speed bump in the dirt road. No one was hurt.
The son, James Davis Jr., believes Tuesday's shooting was connected to the court date. "I believe he thought I was going to be in court and he was going to get more charges than the menacing, which he deserved, and he had a bunch of stuff to hide and that's why he did it."
Neighbors described a number of other run-ins with Dykes in the time since he moved to this small rural town near the Georgia and Florida borders, a region known for peanut farming.
A neighbor directly across the street, Brock Parrish, said Dykes usually wore overalls and glasses and his posture was hunched-over. He said Dykes usually drove a run-down "creeper" van with some of the windows covered in aluminum foil.
Parrish often saw him digging in his yard, as if he was preparing a spot to lay down a driveway or a building foundation. He lived in a small camping trailer on the site. He patrolled his lawn at night, walking from corner to corner with a flashlight and an assault rifle.
Court records showed Dykes was arrested in Florida in 1995 for improper exhibition of a weapon, but the misdemeanor was dismissed. The circumstances of the arrest were not detailed in his criminal record. He was also arrested for marijuana possession in 2000.
___
Associated Press writers Phillip Rawls in Midland City, Bob Johnson in Montgomery, Ala., and AP researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/negotiators-talking-ala-captor-pipe-181459029.html
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