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Thursday, March 7, 2013
Venezuelans pour into Plaza Bolivar to honor Ch?vez's socialist revolution
As news of the death of President Hugo Ch?vez spread, Venezuelans rushed to downtown Caracas, many wearing red in honor of their socialist?commandante.
Supporters of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez react to the announcement of his death in Caracas, March 5, 2013. Chavez has died after a two-year battle with cancer, ending the socialist leader's 14-year rule of the South American country, Vice President Nicolas Maduro said in a televised speech on Tuesday.
Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters
EnlargeCaracas, Venezuela; and Boston
Plaza Bolivar in downtown Caracas quickly filled with Venezuelans tonight, mourning the death of their president and commandante, Hugo Ch?vez. Many rushed directly from work to the spot named after Simon Bolivar, the liberator of South America and?Ch?vez?s hero. The late president's signature red dotted the crowds. ?As car horns blasted, thousands waved campaign posters and cradled photos of the man who led a socialist revolution that has left both Venezuela and communities across Latin America markedly changed.
Skip to next paragraph Whitney EulichLatin America Editor
Whitney Eulich is the Monitor's Latin America editor, overseeing regional coverage for CSMonitor.com and the weekly magazine. She also curates the Latin America Monitor Blog.
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A chant rose from among the crowd: ?The people united will never be defeated.?
Chavez stood at the helm of Venezuela for the past 14 years, winning his most recent reelection in October. Soon thereafter he announced that his cancer, which he had been battling for at least a year and a half, had returned. He flew to Cuba in December for treatment and surgery, and was not seen publicly again. Vice President Nicolas Maduro announced his passing on national TV this afternoon.
State television shared Twitter messages from people around the globe encouraging peace and expressing condolences to the Venezuelan people. Teary statements from neighboring leaders were aired, including words from Bolivia?s President Evo Morales.? ?Chavez will always be with us,? he said.
"It hurts, but we must stand united in this process of liberation, not only of Venezuela but of the whole region..." Mr. Morales said. "Chavez is now more alive than ever."
Chavez was a champion for the world?s underdogs and his country?s poor, missions bolstered by Venezuela?s vast petro-wealth. He created the Bolivarian Alliance, a bloc of leftist Latin American countries, to counter the might of international institutions like the World Bank, and poured his country?s oil wealth into neighboring nations like Bolivia, Cuba, and Nicaragua.
?Remember this is the first time within historical memory that a leftist revolution has had a big wad of dough to back it up,? says Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs.
But countries that have not always been closely allied with Ch?vez spoke out tonight as well. The Guardian reports:
Colombian President Jose Manuel Santos praised President Chavez's contribution to the peace process with the FARC [rebels] in Colombia. Chavez cherished the Bolivarian dream of regional unity, Santos said. He conveyed his condolences to Chavez's daughters.
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Tehran?s war on freakishly big rats
A young man holds up a dead rat in Tehran. (REUTERS)Tehran has a rodent problem. A big one. Rats not only easily outnumber the city's residents (an estimated 25 million versus 12 million, respectively), they're monstrously large. According to NPR, these vermin can weigh up to 11 pounds?more than some cats.
The city has always had a problem with rats; every spring, the water from snow melting off the Alborz mountains flushes the rats out of their underground lairs. Way back in 2000, NPR noted, the BBC reported that poisoning the rats, which makes them thirsty and forces them underground as they search for water, didn't work. If anything, it seemed to make the rats stronger.
An environmental adviser to the city council, Ismail Kahram, told the website Qudsonline.ir, "They are bigger now and look different. These are changes that normally take millions of years of evolution."
So now, in addition to chemicals, officials have deployed sniper teams equipped with infrared lights for nighttime hunting. So far, the teams have succeeded in taking down only some 2,000 of them.
"It's become a 24/7 war," Hadi Heydarzadeh, the head of Tehran municipality's environmental agency, said last month. "We use chemical poisons to kill the rats during the day and the snipers at night."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/tehran-war-rats-unusual-sizes-161336517.html
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Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Video: Town puts police officer in every school
>>> in the wake of the tragic school shooting in newtown, connecticut , administrators across the country are looking for ways to improve safety. one town has figured out how to put a police officer in a school and it doesn't cost them anything extra. katy tur is in simpsonville, south carolina , to explain this story. good morning to you.
>> reporter: good morning, savannah. a lot of new measures were put into place, including a new lockdown system. it's how they've managed to have a local police officer here every single day without any cost to the taxpayer that they're hoping could be a model to the country.
>> you're awesome.
>> you guys are awesome.
>> you are!
>> reporter: call him a local celebrity , big guy on campus sending a big message.
>> he's protecting the school and keeping us safe.
>> what's up, guys?
>> reporter: a full-time police officer , just iin chandler doesn't just patrol the halls on occasion. he is here every day. earlier this year he came up with the idea to do his office work here instead of the police station .
>> all i needed from the school was a desk and wi-fi.
>> they have desks at the school.
>> exactly. so we said it's a no brainer.
>> reporter: in the weeks after the tragedy at sandy hook elementary in connecticut , schools across the country re-evaluated their safety procedures. here in simpsonville, south carolina , the proposal to have an officer, like chandler, on site struck everyone as a perfect solution .
>> when we got down to the brass tax of it, it didn't cost a dime.
>> it didn't cost anything?
>> no.
>> feel safer i never thought that actually have an officer at elementary would be that valuable. now that he's here, i don't want him to leave.
>> reporter: schools in jordan, minnesota, are doing the same, calling it a proactive solution.
>> we're hoping this is a deterrent and that it will help build community and will help kids understand that police officers are helpful and are there to help us.
>> we love our officer.
>> reporter: administrators talk to parents and teachers about the concern over having an armed police officer walking the halls. so far, the reaction, though, has been positive.
>> he's here for their safety. he has made us feel safe, especially what happens over in connecticut .
>> i would rather be here and not be needed than be needed and not be here.
>> reporter: a small solution, easing big anxiety.
>> this is clearly not a job for you. you're just doing this because you're having fun here.
>> well, if you don't have fun in what you do, what's the point in doing it?
>> reporter: now, having an armed police officer is working here in south carolina . in upstate new york , armed police resource officer accidentally discharged his gun in a school hallway. nobody was around or injured in that situation but a lot of people are wondering why he needed to be there in the first place. guys?
>> katy tur with what's working in one town. we asked you to weigh in. do you want to see police officers in your community schools ? right now 69% of you said yes. 31%, no. it's been an interesting idea. not without controversy, but it's a simple solution.
>> if it doesn't cost communities anything extra, i think it's going to be something that spreads throughout the rest of
Source: http://www.today.com/video/today/51064492/
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Will ships sail through the North Pole by 2050?
Melting Arctic ice will create new sea routes, a new study says, including the potential for light ice-breakers to reach the North Pole. New Arctic shipping routes would still be seasonal rather than year-around. ??
A pair of German merchant ships are seen as they traverse the fabled Northeast Passage in 2009. Melting ice in the Arctic will open more shipping routes by mid-century but make land travel over the Arctic ice sheet much rarer, a new study finds.
Beluga Shipping/AP/File
EnlargeThe quickest way to get goods from Asia to the U.S. East Coast in 2050 might well be straight across the Arctic, where a warming climate is expected to open new sea routes through what is now impenetrable ice, a study reported on Monday.
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Most shipping traffic between these two centers currently goes through the Suez or Panama canals, and that is likely to continue even as melting Arctic sea ice makes the far north more accessible.
But increasingly warm temperatures also could make the Northwest Passage north of Canada an economically viable shipping route. Now, it is passable only at the end of most summers. It could also open up a route directly over the North Pole by mid-century, according to research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Plus.
The Northern Sea Route, which mostly hugs Russia's northern coastline and is now a primary Arctic shipping route, would continue to be viable, according to research by Laurence Smith, a geography professor at the University of California-Los Angeles.
The transit across the Arctic would remain highly seasonal, limited to parts of September when the ice has shrunk and thinned to its lowest level.
Last September, the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center reported Arctic sea ice melted to its lowest recorded level. The Arctic is one of the fastest-warming places on Earth because of the so-called albeido effect, where sun-reflecting light-colored ice is frequently replaced by sun-absorbing dark-colored water. The more ice melts, the warmer things get.
Both the Northern Sea Route and the Northwest Passage would be accessible to ordinary ships in addition to light ice-breakers by 2050, Smith said in a telephone interview.
NORTHWEST PASSAGE
"Last year, nearly 50 ships went through the Northern Sea Route, but this work shows that there will be other technically feasible options which will be available," he said.
The across-the-pole route, which had never before been considered, would be available only to light ice-breakers capable of plowing through ice 3.9 feet (1.2 metres) thick.
Melting ice could make these Arctic routes more viable, Smith said.
For example, right now it makes no sense for any ship traveling between eastern North America and Asia to go via the Northwest Passage. The islands in the Canadian archipelago slow navigation, and the ice lingers there in a way that it doesn't along the Northern Sea Route. Even though the Northern Sea Route is a greater distance, it takes less time.
However, by 2050, using projections of global warming and Arctic ice loss, Smith said the Northwest Passage will be sufficiently navigable to make the trip from the North American east coast to the Bering Strait in 15 days, compared to 23 days for the Northern Sea Route, about a 30 percent time savings.
This is never likely to be a year-round proposition, since winter sea ice will always recur, Smith said. And as Arctic shipping lanes open up, land transportation in the far north is expected to suffer, as winter ice roads deteriorate. These ice roads are the only economically viable way to do heavy construction and remove ore in the far north, he said.
"The distances are vast, the landscape is boggy and wet and covered with lakes," Smith said. "We've done modeling of this as well and what you see is a shutdown of human access on land and an increase of human access in the ocean."
Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/-EpqCo6YkOM/Will-ships-sail-through-the-North-Pole-by-2050
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Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Renesas announces big.LITTLE mobile processor with next-gen PowerVR Series6 graphics
If Samsung likes an open playing field, it'll not be best pleased by this latest announcement from Japanese chip maker Renesas. Uncannily named the "APE6", it directly copies the same big.LITTLE design of ARM cores found in Sammy's Exynos Octa. The are four Cortex-A15s paired with the same number of Cortex-A7s, allowing a phone or tablet to switch between the two quad-core configurations depending on its workload. Interestingly, whereas the Exynos Octa's GPU has been rumored to contain a last-gen PowerVR Series5 GPU similar to that found in the iPad and PS Vita, the APE6 will come with a more future proof Series6 "Rogue" design. We've already spent some time with this GPU and it'll be a good day when we can finally try it out in a finished device and stack it up against a rival bearing Samsung internals.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile
Source: Imagination Technologies
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/S5f851jRNxI/
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Long-Lost Continent Found under the Indian Ocean
The beaches of Mauritius contain fragments of a type of rock typical of ancient continental crust ? rock which could have been brought to the surface by volcanic eruptions. Image: http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/7.9116.1361551494!/image/HIRES%2042-32415022%20reduced.jpg
The drowned remnants of an ancient microcontinent may lie scattered beneath the waters between Madagascar and India, a new study suggests.
Evidence for the long-lost land comes from Mauritius, a volcanic island about 900 kilometers east of Madagascar. The oldest basalts on the island date to about 8.9 million years ago, says Bj?rn Jamtveit, a geologist at the University of Oslo. Yet grain-by-grain analyses of beach sand that Jamtveit and his colleagues collected at two sites on the Mauritian coast revealed around 20 zircons ? tiny crystals of zirconium silicate that are exceedingly resistant to erosion or chemical change ? that were far older.
The zircons had crystallized within granites or other igneous rocks at least 660 million years ago, says Jamtveit. One of these zircons was at least 1.97 billion years old.
Jamtveit and his colleagues suggest that rocks containing the wayfaring zircons originated in ancient fragments of continental crust located beneath Mauritius. They propose that geologically recent volcanic eruptions brought shards of the crust to Earth?s surface, where the zircons eroded from their parent rocks to pepper the island?s sands. The team's work is published today in Nature Geoscience.
Crustal remains
The paper also suggests that not just one but many fragments of continental crust lie beneath the floor of the Indian Ocean. Analyses of Earth?s gravitational field reveal several broad areas where sea-floor crust is much thicker than normal ? at least 25 to 30 kilometers thick, rather than the normal 5 to 10 kilometers.
Those crustal anomalies may be the remains of a landmass that the team has dubbed Mauritia, which they suggest split from Madagascar when tectonic rifting and sea-floor spreading sent the Indian subcontinent surging northeast millions of years ago. Subsequent stretching and thinning of the region?s crust sank the fragments of Mauritia, which together had comprised an island or archipelago about three times the size of Crete, the researchers estimate.
The team chose to collect sand, rather than pulverize local rocks, to ensure that zircons inadvertently trapped in rock-crushing equipment from previous studies did not contaminate their fresh samples. The nearest known outcrop of continental crust that could have produced the Mauritian zircons is on Madagascar, far across a deep sea, Jamtveit notes. Furthermore, the zircons came from Mauritian sites so remote that it is unlikely that humans carried them there.
?There?s no obvious local source for these zircons,? says Conall Mac Niocaill, a geologist at the University of Oxford, UK, who was not involved in the research.
Also, it does not seem as if the zircons rode to Mauritius on the wind, says Robert Duncan, a marine geologist at Oregon State University in Corvallis. ?There?s a remote possibility that they were wind blown, but they?re probably too large to have done so,? he adds.
Other ocean basins worldwide may well host similarly submerged remains of ?ghost continents?, Mac Niocaill notes in an accompanying News & Views article. Only detailed surveys of the ocean floor, including geochemical analyses of their rocks, will reveal whether the splintered and now submerged Mauritia has any long-lost cousins, he suggests.
This article is reproduced with permission from the magazine Nature. The article was first published on February 24, 2013.
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=d703f9d15796695859aed6ba5f188a87
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Monday, February 25, 2013
LA cardinal: I'm a 'scapegoat' for sex-abuse crisis
There still isn't a frontrunner to succeed Pope Benedict, and some are asking that California Cardinal Roger Mahony ? who was criticized for his role in shielding abusive priests -- skip the conclave. New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who is also attending the conclave, was recently deposed regarding his role in dealing with abusive priests in Wisconsin. NBC's Anne Thompson reports.
By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News
Los Angeles' retired Cardinal Roger Mahony, who was rebuked last month for his handling of the sex-abuse crisis, suggests he was "scapegoated" in a blog post ahead of two important dates: his Saturday deposition in a lawsuit alleging that?the church hierarchy protected a priest accused of molesting children?and his trip to Rome to help pick the next pope.
The high-profile "prince of the church" is at the center of an outcry over several scandal-tainted cardinals being allowed to help choose who will succeed Pope Benedict XVI at next month's conclave at the Vatican.
Ireland's Sean Brady, Belgium's Godfried Danneels and Philadelphia's Justin Rigali have all been pilloried in the Italian press over allegations they failed to protect children from pedophiles -- but it's Mahony who has drawn the most ire.
A group called Catholics United started a petition against his attendance at the conclave. And an Italian consumer group requested Rome prosecutors open a criminal investigation into Mahony if he travels to the Vatican, the news agency ANSA reported Friday.
Improbable as that is, it underscores the outrage in some quarters that cardinals whose reputations have been battered by cover-up allegations will have an equal say in who will next lead the world's 1.3 billion Catholics.
NBC News' Vatican expert, George Weigel, said he could not recall similar calls for abstention at other conclaves, but he noted that voting is an obligation under church law and that other "less-than-admirable" figures have attended for more than a millennium.
"If people are looking for a perfect, sinless electorate to choose religious leadership, they should look somewhere else," Weigel said.
Mahony, who retired as head of the L.A. Archdiocese last year, was stripped of his remaining diocesan duties last month over his handling of priest sex abuse cases.?He has repeatedly apologized for past mistakes but isn't bowing to pressure to skip the historic moment. No criminal charges have been filed against him.
He's raising eyebrows and hackles, however, with a series of blog posts about the rebuke.
In one this week, Mahony said he had tried to live out "the acceptance of being scapegoated, pointing out the necessary connection between humiliation and redemption."
Vincenzo Pinto / AFP - Getty Images
After Pope Benedict XVI steps down next week, the cardinals will pick his successor. Some say not everyone deserves a vote.
"This scandal is putting us, the clergy and the church, where we belong -- with the excluded ones," he added. "Jesus was painted with the same brush as the two thieves crucified with him."
The Surviviors Network of those Abused by Priests slammed the language.
"It's hurtful and disingenuous for Mahony to claim he's been scapegoated," said director David Clohessy. "He's been a bishop for almost 40 years and the sole?head of America's largest archdiocese for more than a quarter century. Few, if any, U.S. Catholic prelates have been more powerful than Mahony. So for him to somehow pretend to be a powerless pawn is pathetic."
Fueling the latest round of criticism of Mahony is last month's release of reams of confidential personnel files that, according to Reuters, showed Mahony and an aide, Thomas Curry, worked to send priests accused of abuse out of California to shield them from law enforcement scrutiny in the 1980s.
In a letter to the archdiocese about the documents and his dismissal, Mahony said that he had worked hard since 1989 to toughen guidelines for handling abuse and apologized for missteps before that.
"I have stated time and time again that I made mistakes, especially in the mid-1980s," he wrote. "I apologized for those mistakes, and committed myself to make certain that the Archdiocese was safe for everyone."
The document release -- part of a $660 million settlement with abuse victims struck in 2007-- has set the stage for this weekend's deposition by Mahony in a lawsuit by a 35-year-old man who says he was molested by a priest in the late 1980s.
The suit alleges that church officials effectively let the Rev. Nicholas Aguilar Rivera escape to Mexico after child sex-abuse complaints were made, the Associated Press reported. He remains a fugitive.
One 1988 memo made public last month revealed a top Mahony lieutenant confided that he told Rivera ?it was likely the accusations would be reported to the police and that he was in a good deal of danger."
The plaintiff?s lawyer, Anthony De Marco, will have four hours to question Mahony about Rivera and 25 other priests, attempting to show a pattern of cover-up so he can try to collect punitive damages on behalf of his client.
Then, within days, Mahony will fly to Rome to join 116 other cardinals under the age of 80 who will meet twice a day in the Sistine Chapel to elect the next pontiff.
"Mahony?s bad luck is all of these documents were released right before the pope resigned and this is why people are going after him instead of other people," said Father Thomas Reese, author of "Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church."
He said there was virtually no chance Mahony would be pressured to stay away.
"The last one turned away from a conclave was in the time of the Napoleon," he said.
"If Mahony can't go, then there's a whole list of other cardinals who maybe can't go, and if you say these guys can't attend for this reason, then what about other reasons."
Even after sidelining him, the L.A. Archdiocese backed Mahony's voyage to Rome. In a statement, it portrayed Catholics United as a fringe group and its petition as pointless.
"Cardinal Mahony will travel to Rome to fulfill his sacred duty under church law to vote for the next pope,? it said.
Cardinal Roger Mahony was stripped of duties last month. NBC's Brian Williams reports.
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Sunday, February 24, 2013
Report of gunman on MIT campus "unfounded": police
BOSTON (Reuters) - Police searched a building at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Saturday before concluding that a report that a gunman was on campus wearing body armor was "unfounded."
MIT had issued a "shelter in place" warning on Saturday and said that multiple law enforcement agencies, including Cambridge Police, had responded to the report.
The Cambridge Police Department said on its website that it had searched the building with "negative results" and then concluded there was no threat to public safety.
"Scene is clear. Call unfounded," the department said.
(Reporting by Ross Kerber and David Bailey; Editing by Vicki Allen and David Brunnstrom)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mit-orders-lockdown-report-gunman-campus-150739941.html
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Pope Benedict XVI shutting down @Pontifex Twitter account
The current Pope, 85-year-old Pope Benedict XVI, dropped a bombshell when he announced on February 10 that he was stepping down from his papal position ? the last time a Pope stepped down was back in 1415 and in most cases a Pope assumes his position until death. Despite his conservative religious stance, the Pope was the first to embrace the digital age by opening up a Twitter account. What?s to come of @Pontifex now that he?s no longer the Pope? Vatican Radio announced that his Twitter account would be shut down.
The 1.5 million users that are following the Pope will be following one less person by 8 PM Vatican Time (CET) time on February 28, which coincides with the official exit from his position. Vatican Radio says that he?ll send out a final tweet before then.
The Pope is following eight other accounts ? the Pope?s Twitter account in different languages including Italian, French, Arabic, and six others (including English of course). These accounts, which have a combined total of 1.3 million followers, will be also shut down.
?It seems unimaginable that one could continue to use a communication tool so popular and powerful during the ?sede vacante? period,? Vatican Radio said.
The Pope opened his Twitter account, which means ?Pope? and ?bridge builder,? in December. The lifespan of the account is coming to an end after just two months and at the time of this writing has just 36 tweets. Since the account was maintained by his papal aids over at the Vatican, and signed off by him, there may be no one to maintain the account anyway unless Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger (Benedict XVI?s birth name) decides to take up the @Pontifex Twitter account on his own.
The reason for the Pope?s resignation is left up for debate, and there are plenty of speculating in the media, the next Pope who is to succeed Benedict XVI, hasn?t been appointed yet. The Vatican Cardinals will be voting for the next Pope starting between 15 and 20 days once he resigns from his post on the 28th. We have to wonder if the next Pope would be interested in opening up a Twitter account for himself. And since the current account isn?t personalized, but rather ?refers to the person of the pope,? there?s no reason why it couldn?t be assumed by whoever assumes the position.
According to Italian news agency ANSA, The Vatican says that every moment from of Benedict XVI?s last day will be recorded. Currently, there?s no indication that moments from his last day will be tweeted.
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Source: http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/pope-benedict-xvi-shutting-down-pontifex-twitter-account/
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Saturday, February 23, 2013
Panama Canal expansion impact on ports discussed at California Senate panel session
While it's too early to know how global trade routes will be affected by the Panama Canal expansion scheduled for competition by 2015, California ports and state leaders should prepare for increased competition, business and labor experts told a state Senate panel on Friday.
Widening the canal will allow even larger ships leaving Asia to sail directly to the East Coast without stopping in California. Because of concerns that the project could negatively affect the state's economy, Sen. Curren D. Price, Jr. convened a hearing of the Senate Committee on Business, Professions and Economic Development at Los Angeles City Hall.
"What if the biggest of the ships go through the Panama Canal?" the Los Angeles Democrat asked. "What does that mean for us? We need to hear what we are up against, who might be impacted and what we can do on the state level to be prepared."
The panelists generally commended Price for considering the issue, and said California must ensure the state's ports remain competitive - especially the San Pedro Bay complex of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the nation's two busiest ports. But they cautioned the global shipping industry is complex, with many different factors affecting what goods are shipped where.
Panelists said containers most likely to be shipped through the new Panama Canal would be filled with so-called discretionary cargo - material bound for U.S. markets outside the Southwest. For now, much of
that cargo flows through the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and then onto rail cars traveling eastward. In the future, it is possible some of that cargo could flow through the canal and then be unloaded from ships in eastern ports like Houston, Texas and Savannah, Ga.But just because retailers can ship goods directly to a port like Houston does not necessarily mean they will, said Jock O'Connell, an international trade economist based in Sacramento. Issues like cost - no one knows how much the Panama Canal will charge companies to go through the new locks - and weather play into the analysis. The fall, typically a busy time for cargo imports, also is hurricane season in the Caribbean, making it possibly not the mostly reliable place to ship materials.
"This is an incredibly complex matter," O'Connell said. "We can anticipate some diversion but the true extent of it? It's still up in the air. What we are dealing with here is not a straightforward equation."
Ferdinando Guerra, associate economist at the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., told the committee the state also must prepare for increased competition from ports in Canada and Mexico, in addition to East Coast ports.
"Our seaports have been facing multiple threats for the past decade and this will only get worse," Guerra said. "This is a very complex issue that involves many critical related factors that will ultimately determine how much of our market share is lost. It's not a matter of if. It's a question of how much market share we will lose."
O'Connell said one option is not to focus so much on market share but instead to try to stimulate more imports and exports.
"As long as trade continues to grow, there is an opportunity for increasing and retaining levels of business while losing market share," O'Connell said. "Simply losing market share is not the end of the world."
T.L. Garrett of the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association said California legislators could help the state hold onto its competitive advantage by thinking critically before enacting any new regulation at the ports. He said it would also be helpful if California reformed the process for obtaining approval for projects under the California Environmental Quality Act to make it more efficient.
Garrett also said it might be a good time to let the state's residents know how important the ports are to California's economy. According to materials distributed at the hearing, 40 percent of total containerized cargo entering the United States arrives at California ports. The ports generate roughly $7 billion in state and local taxes annually, committee data shows.
"We need to promote trade," Garrett said. "We need to bring attention to it. We need to let the citizens of this country know how important trade is to their daily lives."
brian.sumers@dailybreeze.com
Follow Brian Sumers on Twitter at http://twitter.com/briansumers
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Georgian president's top ally faces charges
TBILISI, Georgia -- Georgian investigators on Saturday filed criminal charges against a top ally of the president, whose supporters condemned the move as politically motivated.
Pro-Western President Mikhail Saakashvili's United National Movement lost October's elections to the Georgian Dream coalition led by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, who became prime minister. Since then, the two men have been locked in a tug-of-war, with authorities launching criminal investigations against Saakashvili's closest lieutenants.
Tbilisi Mayor Gigi Ugulava became the latest target of an official probe Saturday, when the Finance Ministry's investigative arm charged him with theft and money laundering. Ugulava and other leading members of Saakashvili's party have rejected the charges as politically driven.
Several hundred supporters gathered outside to express support for Ugulava. Speaking at the rally, Vano Merabishvili, the secretary general of Saakashvili's party, accused Ivanishvili of initiating the case against Ugulava in order to tighten control over the country.
Interior Minister Irakly Garibashvili denied that the probe was politically motivated.
Ugulava refused to testify on charges focusing on the takeover of the independent Imedi television and the payment of city wages to activists of Saakashvili's party on false employment contracts. He may face punishment of more than 10 years in prison on each of those counts if convicted.
"We must do everything to preserve the independence of our motherland, and force the new government to act accordingly," Ugulava told supporters after meeting with investigators. "The United National Movement is a strong opposition force, which will continue to tell the government the truth in the interests of the nation."
Saakashvili has accused Ivanishvili, who made his fortune in Russia, of trying to take Georgia back into Moscow's fold. Ivanishvili has pledged to improve relations with Moscow, which were ruptured in a 2008 Russian-Georgian war, but he has rejected Saakashvili's claims that he intends to bring the country into the Russian orbit and reaffirmed the nation's course to integrate more closely into the West.
Ivanishvili's party won the election on a pledge to investigate official abuses under Saakashvili, and is under pressure from the public to follow through. Saakashvili's term ends in October.
Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/23/3249439/georgian-presidents-top-ally-faces.html
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Tech Stocks: Techs sink with Apple, Facebook; Google up
By Benjamin Pimentel, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) ? Technology stocks took another hit Thursday morning following a harsh selloff in the previous session, as large-cap players like Facebook, Oracle and Intel came under selling pressure.
Apple CEO Tim Cook, left, and hedge-fund manager David Einhorn.Apple /quotes/zigman/68270/quotes/nls/aapl AAPL -0.93% ?was also down, slipping about 0.4% to $447.05 ahead of a planned conference call by hedge-fund giant David Einhorn, who is pressing the company to consider issuing a special preferred stock grant. Einhorn plans to host a conference call at 2 p.m. ET.
In an interview with AllThingsD, Einhorn said his proposal offers a ?win-win? for both Apple and its shareholders. ?We have a solution that allows shareholders to see that value and Apple to keep that cash,? he added. See: Einhorn on 'win-win' proposal to Apple
Apple?s retreat set the tone for a downbeat trading session, which saw the Nasdaq Composite Index /quotes/zigman/12633936 COMP -1.16% ?give up 0.6% to stand at 3,147. The Morgan Stanley High-Tech Index /quotes/zigman/6015481 MSH -1.40% ?and Philadelphia Semiconductor Index /quotes/zigman/1468249 SOX -1.97% ?both fell more than 1% in early trades.
The tech sector retreat followed Wednesday?s broader market selloff sparked by investor concern over the Federal Open Market Committee?s January meeting minutes that revealed differences over monetary policy. See: Market Snapshot.
Among large-cap tech names, Oracle /quotes/zigman/76584/quotes/nls/orcl ORCL -1.80% ?, SAP /quotes/zigman/126928/quotes/nls/sap SAP -1.92% ?, Intel /quotes/zigman/20392/quotes/nls/intc INTC -2.29% ?, Cisco /quotes/zigman/20039/quotes/nls/csco CSCO -1.30% ?and Microsoft /quotes/zigman/20493/quotes/nls/msft MSFT -1.36% ?were all trading down more than 1%. Facebook /quotes/zigman/9962609/quotes/nls/fb FB -3.56% ?was off more than 3% to $27.58.
Also in the red were shares of Hewlett-Packard /quotes/zigman/229301/quotes/nls/hpq HPQ +0.24% ?which were down a fraction at $16.64 ahead of the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company?s fiscal first-quarter report. See: H-P seen posting earnings drop.
Sony shows features of PS4
Sony is reinventing the PlayStation video game console, demonstrating faster, graphics-rich hardware with new Internet-based features; Ford adds 450 new jobs to its Cleveland plant; Congress proposes a high-tech ID in immigration talks.
Shares of VeriFone /quotes/zigman/365296/quotes/nls/pay PAY -39.75% ?were also in full retreat mode, plummeting 38% to $19.80 after the company drastically cut its estimates for its fiscal first quarter.
On the upside, shares of Google Inc. /quotes/zigman/93888/quotes/nls/goog GOOG +0.24% ?were up more than 0.8% at $801.59. The Internet powerhouse?s stock hit an all-high recently, rising above $800 for the first time in its history.
And the stock will probably go higher, Bernstein Research analyst Carlos Kirjner argues in a note raising the price target to $1,000. ?We believe mass adoption of smart phones, tablets and the mobile Web is a large value creation opportunity for Google,? Kirjner wrote.
Groupon /quotes/zigman/7212269/quotes/nls/grpn GRPN +4.29% ?also traded up 6% on a Piper Jaffray upgrade. Shares of Home Away /quotes/zigman/5675710/quotes/nls/away AWAY +9.82% ?also rallied more than 13% after the online home vacation and rental marketplace company posted upbeat results.
/quotes/zigman/68270/quotes/nls/aapl
US : U.S.: Nasdaq
Volume: 8.88M
Feb. 21, 2013 12:55p
Market Cap$421.50 billion
/quotes/zigman/12633936 US : U.S.: Nasdaq
Volume: 0.00
Feb. 21, 2013 12:55p
/quotes/zigman/6015481 US : NYSE Glb Ind
Volume: 0.00
Feb. 21, 2013 12:55p
/quotes/zigman/1468249 US : PHLX Ind Cur
Volume: 0.00
Feb. 21, 2013 12:40p
/quotes/zigman/76584/quotes/nls/orcl US : U.S.: Nasdaq
Volume: 9.62M
Feb. 21, 2013 12:54p
Market Cap$165.72 billion
Rev. per Employee$323,739
/quotes/zigman/126928/quotes/nls/sap US : U.S.: NYSE
Volume: 795,256
Feb. 21, 2013 12:55p
Rev. per Employee$375,766
/quotes/zigman/20392/quotes/nls/intc US : U.S.: Nasdaq
Volume: 35.25M
Feb. 21, 2013 12:55p
Market Cap$102.53 billion
Rev. per Employee$532,877
/quotes/zigman/20039/quotes/nls/csco US : U.S.: Nasdaq
Volume: 18.57M
Feb. 21, 2013 12:54p
Market Cap$112.53 billion
Rev. per Employee$709,074
/quotes/zigman/20493/quotes/nls/msft US : U.S.: Nasdaq
Volume: 27.69M
Feb. 21, 2013 12:55p
Market Cap$233.45 billion
Rev. per Employee$774,085
/quotes/zigman/9962609/quotes/nls/fb US : U.S.: Nasdaq
Volume: 30.96M
Feb. 21, 2013 12:55p
/quotes/zigman/229301/quotes/nls/hpq US : U.S.: NYSE
Volume: 8.40M
Feb. 21, 2013 12:55p
Rev. per Employee$361,465
/quotes/zigman/365296/quotes/nls/pay US : U.S.: NYSE
Volume: 22.71M
Feb. 21, 2013 12:55p
Rev. per Employee$374,919
/quotes/zigman/93888/quotes/nls/goog US : U.S.: Nasdaq
Volume: 2.25M
Feb. 21, 2013 12:54p
Market Cap$262.41 billion
Rev. per Employee$927,536
/quotes/zigman/7212269/quotes/nls/grpn US : U.S.: Nasdaq
Volume: 11.83M
Feb. 21, 2013 12:54p
Rev. per Employee$190,771
/quotes/zigman/5675710/quotes/nls/away US : U.S.: Nasdaq
Volume: 2.75M
Feb. 21, 2013 12:55p
Benjamin Pimentel is a MarketWatch reporter based in San Francisco. Follow him on Twitter @BenPimentel.
Source: http://feeds.marketwatch.com/~r/marketwatch/software/~3/nNMj66uDToI/story.asp
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How to Build a Website - A to Z Guide for Beginners
We have traveled far ahead of our past generations and have reached an age of information revolution. Today, the whole world revolves not around the Sun but around information and entertainment associated with it.
World Wide Web or WWW is at the base of this information revolution. Though its age, if mapped against other inventions, is quite negligible but the overall impact is equal to the cumulative value of all other greatest inventions including the wheel.
No one can imagine how we would be living now without internet. Many of us may not even ready to think about life-with-out-internet. Affordability, ease and flexibility are the driving factors for WWW to spread its tentacles in almost all phases of life.
Further innovations have led the geeks and common people as well to embrace the state-of-the-art technology called HTML and stamp their presence in the World Wide Web.
This little handbook is prepared by keeping the beginners that wish to know about website building and its management in nutshell.
What is Website?
A layman?s definition for website could be like ?a pool of information or entertainment that is accessible round the clock?.
In geek?s lingo website is ?a pool of software scripts, add-ons, plug-ins that run in cohesion and offer various services to the target customers.?
Either ways, website provides information on almost everything that can be accessed with click of a mouse 24/7. Another greatest advantage that a website provides is the ?reach?.
Think of a name and make it your Domain
History teaches us that the erstwhile kings were ruling over a piece of land called as kingdom or dominion. Similarly, if you wish to be a webmaster and wants to rule over a piece of internet space, you must come up with a name for your kingdom. Web technology calls your kingdom as ?Domain?. Coin a name that is simple and easy remember. Difficult names would never make it.
Chose exact Domain Extension
Once the domain name is ready it must be married with a perfect partner called as ?domain extension?. This extension is not a tile that could be wagged at free will but the essence of your website?s concept. Some of the popular extensions are .com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, .edu. Each extension is an abbreviation of a meaningful word. .com stands for Commercial, .org means Organization, and .edu means Education. If your website is meant to do a certain business, you can opt for .com or .net but cannot take up .edu extension.
If you are a patriot and wish to emphasize the country that you belong to, internet services offers you to register country-wise extensions too. Extensions like .us, .uk, .au, indicate the USA, United Kingdom and Australia respectively. You can try out more precise extensions like www.yourdomain.co.us wherein .co stands for Company.
Web Hosting Services
Now you are ready with your dominion (with suitable extension) and now is the time for you to get into some technicalities of internet. Web hosting is the critical and vital back-end service which keeps your domain available 24/7.
Choosing Hosting Plan
There are many hosting service providers out there and a newbie would get caught in a dilemma as to how to choose the right hosting plan. But it is not that difficult as it appears. Take the help of internet search, read reviews and opinions written by the users just like you and then compare the rates.
Set the Home
Now you have done with the homework and it is the time to go public. ?Face is the index of mind?. Let us not forget this adage even in this modern age of internet. Web designing is the phase during which the construction of your dominion begins. Web designing and development is similar to the brick-and-mortar work while building a house. Please note that web designing and development is different from web hosting service.
Designing involves the creation of homepage, About Us, Services page and other such things where there is a need to attract the customers? attention. A good homepage has got better penetration into the market.
Web development is the technical part comprising of writing various program scripts, creation of database etc. It is a complete back-end operation that runs on a server hired from web hosting company.
Using Site Builder
This section is for those who do not wish or unable to employ web designing and development professionals yet wish to go online with a website.
Of late, most of the web hosting companies from whom you book domain and server space, are offering in-built software called Site Builder. This site builder software comes with preinstalled templates for almost all categories like businesses, leisure, sports, spirituality etc. With the help of Site builder you can quickly build the website. All you need to do is to pick & choose the options available and do some mix and match kind of stuff.
Stunning templates with predefined menu buttons, content publishing tools, ecommerce add-ons etc. make the site builder an irresistible package. You can tune the options to suit to your need and include social book markings, multimedia files etc.
A word of caution for you here. There is no doubt that site builder saves money for a newbie like you but most of the features of a site builders work with on that hosting account only. If you try to move your website to another server hosted by a different hosting company, you may not be able to move the entire website. You need to thoroughly check this out before building a site.
Also what happened in many cases, at the beginning of your business you may not have too much fund available in hand to invest, but you need a website or blog to create the online presence of your business. Free website builder can help you in this point of time. Currently there are several popular free online website builders available from which you can choose. Just go to Google or Wikipedia and search for ?Free Website Builder? and you will get a very big list of websites. Before choosing any of them go through the list of features they are offering and choose which one fits mostly with your business and personal needs.
Website Security
Now you are on your way to begin a campaign in that wild, wild world wide web. But as any campaign has got its own hurdles to cross, there are certain threats that you must keep in mind.
Hacking and spamming are the two prevalent methods that can take life out of your website. Hackers can suck out the critical business information or personal information of your members/ users.
You need to protect your website from these miscreants and to achieve this you must take help from the hosting company and also from the developers who scripted the software programs for your website. As a webmaster who are responsible to ensure the safety and security of your website and hence the precaution must start from you only.
Get Them All
You have now created a formidable domain that is well equipped and heavily protected. You have the attractions and protections too. Now the next assignment is to get the visitors knocking at your homepage. To do this all you need is dedication and devotion.
Content rules the internet. Keep this as thumb rule. Fill your website with useful, entertaining and unique content. Add pictures and/or videos where needed. Do not cluster the web pages with too many unwanted colors, images and videos. Too many flashy and pop-up items detest the visitors.
Search Engine Optimization is one important aspect that must be followed in true letter and spirit while developing the content. By using proper keywords, search phrases and catchy titles, you are going to be there on top of web searches. Once you are on top, you need nothing to pull the visitors to your website.
Other Ways to Become Popular
Once having filled the website with unique content with regular updates, go all out and share the links with social networking sites, blog rolls, aggregators etc. Also get into link building by partnering with already popular websites.
Be Available at Call
As an owner of a website, be it personal or business, you must be available to your visitors/customers. More often than not potential customers do write to your mail asking for more information. Timely response to such queries work for you in many ways. A quick and prompt response creates an aura around you and builds a formidable reputation as well.
Last Few Words
Success is something that comes from sincere and dedicated hard work of yours and rest of the guides, suggestions, and handbooks are for information or insight only.
Trust that this little guide is of some help to you as a beginner and wish you all the success!
Source: http://www.rswebsols.com/tutorials/web-design/how-to-build-website-guide-for-beginners
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Friday, February 22, 2013
Microsoft and Apple continue to grow datacenter investment
Apple gets the lion?s share of notice, but Microsoft continues to invest in datacenter expansion, as evidenced by a recent vote by the Laramie (Wyoming) County Commission to apply for a $2.3 million grant from the Wyoming Business Council, for the Microsoft data center project currently being built in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Microsoft is building a $92 million datacenter and has discussed the possibility of investing another $66 million in the project, which was announced less than a year ago. The facility has already received two grants from the state with a potential value of $10 million. If approved, the latest grant would be the third one approved for the datacenter, and would be targeted at offsetting utility costs.
For Apple, construction is proceeding apace on their new facility in Oregon, where the local power administration recently completed work to expand the electrical substation near the datacenter in Pineville. While the plans call for two 338,000 square foot buildings, what locals have noticed is a monolithic black wall being erected, clearly part of the facility, as seen in the photo below from the Oregonian, which will conceal the view of construction from interested eyes, though thta's unlikely to be the primary reason for its existence..
?
In keeping with their historical policies, neither Microsoft nor Apple has announced exact dates for when these facilities will be in service.
Source: http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-and-apple-continue-to-grow-datacenter-investment-7000011622/
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Thursday, February 21, 2013
It's the week to watch waxing gibbous moon
?
Starry Night Software
Some sights to look for on the gibbous moon, which dominates the evening sky this week.
By Geoff Gaherty
Space.com
Full moons tend to get most of the stargazing attention, but there's plenty to see now on Earth's nearest neighbor in its "waxing gibbous" phase.
The sun's shifting light will throw different parts of?the moon?into relief over the next few days, yielding interesting views of lunar craters and other landforms.?
Here's a brief guide of what to look for, after a bit of background on moon phases.
A moon phase primer
In its monthly trip around the Earth, the moon?passes four very distinct landmarks or phases: new moon, first quarter, full moon and third (or last quarter), before returning to new moon again. These mark 0 degrees, 90 degrees, 180 degrees and 270 degrees, respectively, as measured from the position of the sun.?[The Moon's Phases and Cycle (Infographic)]
All four phases are exact instants in a particular month. This cycle, they fall on the following days: new moon, Feb. 10; first quarter, Feb. 17, full moon, Feb. 25; and last quarter, March 4.
In between these four instantaneous phases, the moon is said to be in four transitional phases, which each last slightly more than a week. "Waxing crescent" comes after new moon, "waxing gibbous" follows first quarter, "waning gibbous" comes after full moon and waning crescent follows last quarter.
A "waxing" moon is getting larger while a "waning" moon is shrinking. Most people are familiar with a "crescent" shape, but the word "gibbous" is not normally in most people's vocabulary. It is from a Middle English word for "hump-backed" but can also refer to a pregnant belly.
Of course, the moon doesn't really change shape. The moon's phases are caused by the changing angle from which the sun illuminates it as the moon makes its way around the Earth.
What to look for
The current phase of the moon is waxing gibbous. The sun is shining at an angle from behind the Earth. We are past first quarter so more than half the moon is in sunlight, but the sun's light doesn't quite reach the far left of the moon. As always, the most interesting area to observe is close to the "terminator" ? the dividing line between day and night on the moon.
Depending on which night you look at the moon, different areas will be shown in high relief by the light of the rising sun.
On the northern half of the moon, look for the curving arc of the Mare Crisium, along with the smaller arc of the Sinus Iridum. These features were named in the 17th century, before astronomers knew that the moon was a dry and airless world. The names translate from the Latin as the "Sea of Crises" and "Bay of Rainbows," respectively.
Just north of the Mare Crisiumis the distinctive oval crater Plato, whose smooth dark floor is broken only by a few tiny craterlets. This crater is 68 miles (109 kilometers) in diameter, and is a perfect example of a crater whose floor filled withlava shortly after impact. Since then, a handful of impacts have created small pits in the smooth floor, visible only in fairly large telescopes under perfectly steady viewing conditions, an excellent test for the optical quality of a telescope. [Telescopes for Beginners: A Buyer's Guide]
Toward the southwest limb of the moon, look for the large crater Gassendi, named for 17th century French astronomer Pierre Gassendi. Sixty miles (101 km) in diameter, Gassendi's floor is full of many interesting features: a slightly off-center mountain, several large craters, a system of rilles (shallow grooves) and a strange cluster of conjoined domes (gentle swellings).
Near the lunar south pole is one of the youngest craters on the moon, named for Tycho Brahe, the famous Danish observer of the 16th century, whose observations were used by Johannes Kepler to determine the laws that govern the motion of the planets.
Tycho is 63 miles (102 km) in diameter. Its young age is betrayed by the bright ground it exposed and then sent out in long circumlunar rays in all directions.
Another bright young crater is Aristarchus in the northwest quadrant. Aristarchus lived in the 3rd century BCE and had ideas way ahead of his time, notably that the Earth revolved around the sun rather than the other way around. Although fairly small, at 25 miles (40 km) in diameter, Aristarchus' brightness makes it an easy crater to spot.
The names we use today for craters on the moon were mainly applied by Giovanni Riccioli in the 17th century.
Riccioli used names from ancient Greece, Rome and medieval Europe near the center of the moon and placed the modern (for his day) astronomers around the limb of the moon. Nowadays, modern scientists, all deceased, are placed anywhere on the moon. The only craters named for living people are a handful that bear the monikers of Apollo astronauts.
This article was provided to Space.com by Starry Night Education, the leader in space science curriculum solutions. Follow Starry Night on Twitter @StarryNightEdu.?Follow Space.com on Twitter?@Spacedotcom. We're also on?Facebook? and?Google+.?
Copyright 2013 Space.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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