south hanson: March 2013

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Cyprus details heavy losses for major bank customers

By Karolina Tagaris

NICOSIA (Reuters) - Major depositors in Cyprus's biggest bank will lose around 60 percent of savings over 100,000 euros, its central bank confirmed on Saturday, sharpening the terms of a bailout that has shaken European banks but saved the island from bankruptcy.

Initial signs that big depositors in Bank of Cyprus would take a hit of 30 to 40 percent - the first time the euro zone has made bank customers contribute to a bailout - had already unnerved investors in European lenders this week.

But the official decree published on Saturday confirmed a Reuters report a day earlier that the bank would give depositors shares worth just 37.5 percent of savings over 100,000 euros. The rest of such holdings might never be paid back.

The toughening of the terms sends a clear signal that the bailout means the end of Cyprus as a hub for offshore finance and could accelerate economic decline on the island and bring steeper job losses.

Banks reopened to relative calm on Thursday after the imposition of the first capital controls the euro has seen since it was launched a decade ago.

The streets of Nicosia were filled with crowds relaxing in its cafes and bars on Saturday, but popular anger was not hard to find.

"Europe shouldn't have allowed this disaster to happen here. Cyprus was paradise and they've turned it into hell," said Tryfonas Neokleous, owner of a clothes shop on a cobbled street in the center of the city.

He said he didn't except business to pick up even now that the banks were open again after an almost two-week shutdown.

"I don't expect anything and I don't hope for anything anymore. People are going to spend their money on food and everything else they've been deprived of the last 15 days."

There are no signs for now that bank customers in other struggling euro zone countries like Greece, Italy or Spain taking fright at the precedent set by the bailout.

"Cyprus is and will remain a special one-off case," German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told German mass-selling daily Bild. "Savings accounts in Europe are safe."

European officials have worked hard this week to stress that the island's bailout was a unique case - after a suggestion by Eurogroup chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem that the rescue would serve as a model for future crises rattled European financial markets.

"Together in the Eurogroup we decided to have the owners and creditors take part in the costs of the rescue - in other words those who helped cause the crisis," said Schaeuble, one of the architects of the euro zone's response to a debt crisis now in its fourth year.

"Cyprus's economy will now go through a long and painful period of adjustment. But then it will pay back the loan."

ANGRY

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades said on Friday that the 10-billion euro ($13 billion) bailout had contained the risk of national bankruptcy and would prevent it from leaving the euro.

Cypriots, however, are angry at the price attached to the rescue - the winding down of the island's second-largest bank, Cyprus Popular Bank, also known as Laiki, and an unprecedented raid on deposits over 100,000 euros.

"We're numb. People are numb. But their hidden hope is that something good will happen eventually," said Pantelis Panayotou, 70, a jeweler whose stands in his shop are half empty.

The island has seen none of the angry street violence that frequently erupts in Greece but peaceful protests by students and bank workers have become an almost daily occurrence. At least 2,000 students protested outside parliament this week.

Etyk, a bank workers' union, called a rally outside parliament for Thursday to protest against potential job cuts and a hit on their pension funds.

Under the terms of Saturday's decree, the assets of Laiki will be transferred to Bank of Cyprus. At Bank of Cyprus, about 22.5 percent of deposits over 100,000 euros will attract no interest. The remaining 40 percent will continue to attract interest, but will not be repaid unless the bank does well.

Those with deposits under 100,000 euros will continue to be protected under the state's deposit guarantee.

The imposition of the capital controls has led economists to warn that a second-class "Cyprus euro" could emerge, with funds trapped on the island less valuable than euros that can be freely spent abroad.

Among other things Cypriots and foreigners are allowed to take only up to 1,000 euros in cash when they leave the island.

Anastasiades said the restrictions - unprecedented in the currency bloc since euro coins and banknotes entered circulation in 2002 - would be gradually lifted. He gave no time frame but the central bank said the measures would be reviewed daily. ($1 = 0.7788 euros)

(Additional reporting by Erik Kirschbaum in Berlin; Writing by Patrick Graham; Editing by Jon Boyle)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/big-depositors-cyprus-lose-far-more-feared-012924300--business.html

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As interest in kosher food surges, chefs take it gourmet

The market for kosher products is surging ? driven by growing interest among non-Jews ? and with it interest in making kosher cooking more upscale.?

By Christa Case Bryant,?Staff writer / March 25, 2013

Chef Yochanan Lambiase, who in 2004 established the world's first kosher culinary institute, explains what to look for in a fish at a shop in Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda market.

Christa Case Bryant / The Christian Science Monitor

Enlarge

The press of humanity at Jerusalem?s Machane Yehuda market just might cause the uninitiated visitor to do a face-plant in a heap of eggplants.

Skip to next paragraph Christa Case Bryant

Jerusalem bureau chief

Christa Case Bryant is The Christian Science Monitor's Jerusalem bureau chief, providing coverage on Israel and the Palestinian territories as well as regional issues.

Cash shortage stretches to sea bed

29 March 2013 Last updated at 20:00 ET

By Roger Harrabin Environment analyst

The government has admitted moving slowly to protect wildlife in the seas because of the cost.

Environment Minister Richard Benyon said that in the current financial squeeze he could not designate as many areas for protection as he would like.

He said he was hoping to confirm the designation of the current tranche of 31 Marine Protected Zones under a consultation that ends on Sunday.

Environmentalists have accused the government of dragging its feet.

This is because 127 zones were originally nominated for protection after a compromise deal agreed with other users of the sea.

Jolyon Chesworth from the Wildlife Trusts said: "We are disappointed at the rate of progress. The government has an international obligation to protect wildlife in the seas.

Continue reading the main story

?Start Quote

I want to do as many zones as we can for as little as we can?

End Quote Richard Benyon Environment minister

"The marine environment is not as obvious to people as it is when they see wildlife walking through a woodland or downland but it's just as important and equally worthy of protection.

"The 127 zones were only nominated after very long discussions with anglers, sailors and the fishing industry. We are now being asked to compromise on a compromise."

But Mr Benyon told the BBC that with cuts to the Defra budget, the cost of making scientific assessments and then developing rules for the use of different areas could not be dismissed.

"We are constrained by a hugely expensive process at a time when we have little money in government", he said.

"I want to do as many zones as we can for as little as we can. People have waited many years for this; we will designate the first tranche in September and will announce the next lot for consultation then."

Environmentalists are worried that the UK might slither back from its international commitment to create an ecologically coherent network of sites.

They are angry that several key sites have been left out of the first tranche on the grounds that insufficient evidence was supplied to justify them.

Sailors' fears

Mr Chesworth said that in his south of England region there was a cast-iron case for designating, among others, Bembridge Levels on the Isle of Wight - home of the stalked jellyfish and Poole Harbour - a key breeding ground for sea horses.

But both of these zones have been contested by sailors who fear that new rules will prevent them anchoring on sensitive sites. One boat owner on the Isle of Wight told Mr Benyon that the designations were "bonkers".

Boaters are the mainstay of the local economy and have lived in harmony with wildlife for decades, he said.

John Pockett from the Royal Yachting Association told the BBC: "We fear we won't be able to anchor our yachts; we fear we won't be able to train our next Ben Ainslie (the Olympian) because we won't be able to anchor marker boats."

Sailors are not the only ones protesting. In some areas fishing crews object to MPZs, even though they are supposed to provide a breeding ground for fish stocks to recover.

Conservationists warn that recently revealed chalk arches off the North Norfolk coast could be destroyed by one careless pass of a trawl net.

A further complication is the fact that UK jurisdiction ends six nautical miles from the shore, even though its responsibility for wildlife stretches further.

"It would be terrible to stop our own fishermen from exploiting a sensitive areas then allow boats of other nationalities to come in", Mr Benyon said. "We are trying to negotiate this with Brussels."

The proposals stem from the 2009 UK Marine Bill. If all the sites had been approved, just over a quarter of English waters would end up under some kind of protection. Currently, the total is way under 1%.

Globally just 0.6% of the world's oceans have been protected, compared to almost 13% of our planet's land area.

Marine author Callum Roberts told the BBC: "There's no way you'll have an effective network of marine-protected areas the way we are going. It's undermining trust."

But public sector cutbacks are a reality. And the government insists that the state of the economy will inevitably be felt on the sea bed, like everywhere else.

Follow Roger on Twitter

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21967189#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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Saturday, March 30, 2013

DNA: How to unravel the tangle

Mar. 29, 2013 ? A chromosome is rarely found in the shape we are used to seeing in biology books, that is to say the typical double rod shape (the X pattern, to put it simply). It is usually "diluted" in the nucleus and creates a bundle that under the microscope appears as a messy tangle. In the last few years such chaos, however, has been "measured" and scientists have unveiled their secret: the genes in the tangle are actually arranged in regions that may perform a functional role.

A research coordinated by the scientists at SISSA of Trieste has now developed and studied a numeric model of the chromosome that supports the experimental data and provides a hypothesis on the bundle's function.

A chromosome spends most of its life "diluted" in the nuclear cytoplasm. To the untrained eye it may look like a randomly entangled thread, yet biologists claim the opposite: although a chaotic component does exist in the bundle, experimental measurements have identified regions that tend to contain specific genes. Thanks to such measurements, researchers have obtained maps of the chromosome in its diluted form, the one in which the DNA transcription processes occur.

Cristian Micheletti, a physicist of SISSA, the International School for Advanced Studies of Trieste, has coordinated an international research team -- in which Marco Di Stefano and Angelo Rosa stand out -- that has devised an ingenious method which, on one hand, has allowed to verify the already known experimental measures and, on the other, to find data in support of a theory which explains why the DNA bundle is arranged in regions. "Employing the vast amount of publicly available data on gene expression, we have identified families of genes co-regulated within a chromosome" explains Micheletti. The co-regulated genes codify "in accord," but how such synchronization occurs is a mystery, since often the genes are located very far from one another on the DNA filament. "Two main hypotheses may be considered: either 'messengers' exist that travel back and forth from one gene to the other and coordinate the activity, or the DNA filament folding up inside the tangle brings the genes belonging to the same family physically close."

On the basis of the second assumption Micheletti and his colleagues have used the computer to induce the DNA numeric model to bring the co-regulated genes closer. "The outcome of the simulation has provided a map of chromosome arrangement that is very close to the one obtained through experimentation," explains Micheletti. "Besides, the model has successfully brought closer the genes belonging to the same family, as we had asked for, in 80% of cases, that is without too much effort, which corroborates the validity of the hypothesis and the effectiveness of the simulation."

The article was chosen by PLoS Computational Biology journal as the cover story for the March issue.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Sissa Medialab, via AlphaGalileo.

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

Journal Reference:

Marco Di Stefano, Angelo Rosa, Vincenzo Belcastro, Diego di Bernardo, Cristian Micheletti. Colocalization of Coregulated Genes: A Steered Molecular Dynamics Study of Human Chromosome 19. PLoS Computational Biology, 2013; 9 (3): e1003019 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003019

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/health_medicine/genes/~3/5bCOx0FC-Ns/130329124420.htm

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Climate Change Endgame In Sight? (Powerlineblog)

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Pirate perch probably use chemical camouflage to fool prey

Mar. 28, 2013 ? It?s a nocturnal aquatic predator that will eat anything that fits in its large mouth.

Dark and sleek, it hides beneath the water waiting for prey. A Texas Tech University researcher says the target will never know what hit them because they probably can?t smell the voracious pirate perch.

After careful investigations, William Resetarits Jr., a professor of biology at Texas Tech, and Christopher A. Binckley, an assistant professor in the Department of Biology at Arcadia University, found that animals normally attuned to predators from their smell didn?t seem to detect the pirate perch. It could be the first animal discovered that is capable of generalized chemical camouflage that works against a wide variety of prey.

The team published their findings in the peer-reviewed journal The American Naturalist.

Thankfully, at five-and-a-half inches long, only insects, invertebrates, amphibians and other small fish need worry about the danger hiding near the bottom among the roots and plantlife, Resetarits said.

?We use the term ?camouflage,? because it is readily understandable,? he said. ?What we really are dealing with is some form of ?chemical deception.? The actual mechanism may be camouflage that makes an organism difficult to detect, mimicry that makes an organism difficult to correctly identify, or cloaking where the organism simply does not produce a signal detectable to the receiver.?

Resetarits said pirate perch aren?t really perch at all, but related to the Amblyopsid cave fish family. Fossils from this fish date back about 24 million years ago.

They make their homes in freshwater ponds and streams in the Eastern United States. Once considered for the aquarium market, the fish got its name because of its penchant for eating all tank mates.

?Pirate perch have some unique aspects to their morphology and life history, but they are generalist predators, and so should have been avoided by prey animals like all the other fish tested,? he said. ?For some reason, they weren?t avoided at all.?

To test their theory, Resetarits and Binckley ran a series of experiments in artificial pools housing 11 different species of fish, including pirate perch.

The fish were kept at bay at the bottom of the pools with screens so that they could not prey on the beetles and tree frogs that colonized the water.

When it came to choosing a pool, the beetles and frogs consistently steered clear of the water with other fish species in them, most likely because they could smell the presence of fish in the water. However, they had no qualms about moving into pools containing the pirate perch.

?We were incredibly surprised,? Resetarits said. ?It took a while for us to pull this all together. When we first observed it with tree frogs, we were very surprised and puzzled. But when the same lack of response was shown by aquatic beetles, we were quite literally flabbergasted. We continued to do experiments with other fish and always got the same results. All fish except pirate perch were avoided.?

Exactly what the pirate perch is doing to hide isn?t yet known, he said. Researchers want to determine how the pirate perch are either scrambling chemical signals or masking their odor. Once they have identified chemical compounds that might explain the behavior, they will return to the field to test with the same tree frogs and beetles as well as other organisms known to respond to fish chemical cues, such as mosquitoes and water fleas.

?We will also test whether this chemical deception works against the pirate perch?s own predators,? Resetarits said. ?Of course, other critical questions that we are working on include just how much advantage in terms of prey acquisition do pirate perch gain as a result of chemical deception. Does this phenomenon occur in closely related species, such as cavefish? Are there prey species that have found a way around the chemical deception? There are many questions now, and I think we have just scratched the surface.

?I think the most important aspect is not the bizarre, just-so story, but the fact that there is no reason to believe that chemical camouflage is less common than visual camouflage. Humans? sense of smell is just not very sophisticated, so we can?t simply ?notice? examples of chemical camouflage the way we do visual camouflage. I think chemical camouflage is likely quite common. We are starting pursuit of the larger question, starting with close relatives of pirate perch.?

Find Texas Tech news, experts and story ideas at www.media.ttu.edu and on Twitter @TexasTechMedia.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Texas Tech University.

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

Journal Reference:

William J. Resetarits, Christopher A. Binckley. Is the Pirate Really a Ghost? Evidence for Generalized Chemical Camouflage in an Aquatic Predator, Pirate PerchAphredoderus sayanus. The American Naturalist, 2013; : 000 DOI: 10.1086/670016

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/c5NbMbTJghI/130329085941.htm

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Friday, March 29, 2013

The Engadget Podcast is live at 3:30PM ET!

Hey you! We're back! Join Tim, Brian, Peter a bunch of mics and maybe a stuffed animal or two for this latest episode of the Engadget Podcast. Chat and video after the break!

Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/28/engadget-podcast/

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How to Source Affordable Car Insurance in 3 Easy Steps - Auto Candy

Posted by Rob on March 28, 2013

While experts continue to suggest that the UK economy is experiencing turbulence, the countries automotive trade is continuing to boom. As a result of this, it remains a vital part of wider economic growth, with an estimated ?50 billion generated in turnover every single year.

While the automotive trade may be booming, however, the task of sourcing affordable car insurance remains extremely challenging. This is especially true if you are purchasing your first car, as you will be faced with the prospect of high premiums and significant annual outgoings.

Obtaining Affordable Car Insurance: 3 Steps to Success

?With this in mind, what practical steps can you take to minimise the cost of first time car insurance? Consider the following: -

Choose a Viable and Affordable Model of Car: Before you even begin to compare insurance prices, you can strive to minimize potential costs by finding a suitable and affordable model of car. While this may mean striking a compromise between your desired vehicle and something that is more practical, it still affords you the opportunity to take control of your financial situation. Less costly and powerful cars often incur higher insurance premiums, especially if you are purchasing one as a newly qualified driver.

Think Outside of Price Comparison Sites: While price comparison websites are often marketed as the ideal medium through which to find cheap insurance providers, this is not necessarily the case. In fact, a growing number of the market?s leading firms now choose not to advertise their rates on comparison sites, as this ensures that they are able to gain a critical advantage. As a result, you must commit to searching both price comparison resources and independent websites, as this will help you to target the best possible deal.

Add an Experienced Driver to your Claim: When you process your claim, there are innovative and thoughtful ways through which you can lower your annual liability. If you are keen on a time effective solution, however, then you should consider adding an experienced driver to your insurance claim. So long as they are qualified to drive within the UK and a clean points history, then their addition as a second driver could trim the cost of your monthly repayments. While this may save you pence rather than pounds each month, it certainly adds up over a period of two to three years.

?The Bottom Line

Purchasing your first car can be a difficult challenge, especially if you are hoping to keep your insurance premiums to a minimum. With this in mind, you will need to access a host of online resources and visit sites such as www.carshop.co.uk in order help minimise your overall cost.

Source: http://www.auto-candy.com/how-to-source-affordable-car-insurance-in-3-easy-steps/

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Samsung Exynos Octa now rocking LTE, destined for Korean market

When Samsung's Exynos 5 Octa was announced, it was believed to be compatible with 3G networks only. As such, the HSPA+ (global) version of the Galaxy S 4 was the only handset to feature the company's eight-core SoC -- the LTE model shipping with Qualcomm's 4G-capable, quad-core Snapdragon 600 instead. That's apparently changed, with the Korean giant tweeting that the Exynos 5 Octa now supports LTE on 20 bands. So why even make a Snapdragon 600 version of the Galaxy S 4, then? Perhaps Samsung can't produce as many chips as Qualcomm to meet the upcoming worldwide demand for its new flagship. This appears likely, with inews24 and new-samsunggalaxys4 reporting that the Exynos 5 Octa with LTE is currently reserved for Korean models only (SHV-E300S, SHV-E300K and SHV-E300L, to be exact). So, anyone fancy a trip to Seoul in the near future?

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung

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Malta not comparable to Cyprus: Maltese central bank

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

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/malta-not-comparable-cyprus-maltese-central-bank-102235652--business.html

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'Biggest cyberattack in history' turns out to be overblown

Is it "the biggest cyberattack in history"? Or just routine flak that network-security providers face all the time?

News websites across the Western world proclaimed Internet Armageddon today (March 27), largely due to a New York Times story detailing a "squabble" between the spam-fighting vigilantes at Spamhaus and the dodgy Dutch Web-hosting company Cyberbunker.

"Fight Jams Internet," the Times headline said. "Global Internet slows," the BBC proclaimed in the wake of the Times' story. Both websites alleged that Netflix streaming was slowing down as a result.

The reality is less exciting, though still serious. The Internet disruptions, which were centered in Western Europe, appear to be largely over, and were largely unnoticed even when occurring.

But, if anything, the incident may prompt a fix for a basic security flaw in the Domain Name System that serves as one of the underpinnings of the Internet.

"Despite the work that has gone into making the Internet extremely resilient, these attacks underscore the fact that there are still some aspects of it that are relatively fragile," said Andrew Storms, director of security operations at San Francisco-based network-security provider nCircle.

Too much information

Cyberbunker appears to be behind a massive distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that first tried to first take down Spamhaus, then Spamhaus' network-reliability provider CloudFlare, and finally this past Saturday (March 23) hit CloudFlare's own bandwidth providers in Europe.

Boston-based Akamai Networks told the Times, and Spamhaus told the BBC, that the last round of attacks peaked at 300 gigabits per second, possibly the largest amount of bandwidth ever recorded during a DDoS attack.

According to a CloudFlare blog posting, the attack was launched on March 18 and immediately involved a tactic called DNS amplification, in which unprotected Domain Name System (DNS) servers are used to flood targeted servers with huge amounts of useless information, tying up bandwidth and processing time.

The attacks increased in volume during the week, finally peaking on Saturday when, according to CloudFlare, half of the infrastructure on the London Internet Exchange, an Internet node connecting several large-scale networks, was tied up by the attack. (CloudFlare is based in Palo Alto, Calif., but runs a global network.)

DNS servers are essentially the phone books of the Internet. Every Internet-connected device, from your computer to your smartphone, uses them to match a website address that humans use, such as "www.technewsdaily.com," with an Internet Protocol address that computers and routers use, such as "207.86.128.60."

DNS servers are essential, yet many remain "open," which means they will accept lookup requests from anyone, not just their specified clients.

Attackers make lookup requests using the IP addresses of their targets, then request tons of information, which ends up flooding the targeted servers with huge amounts of DNS information.

[5 (Probably) American Cyberweapons]

Did two wrongs make a bigger wrong?

Spamhaus, a group of related companies based in London and Geneva, was started in 1998 to track and combat email spam and spammers. It maintains a blacklist of Web-hosting companies known to host spammers, and a whitelist of known "clean" Web hosts.

Both lists are used by Internet service providers around the world, and Spamhaus is partly responsible for the huge drop in email spam in recent years.

Some Web-hosting companies have complained they've been unfairly placed on the Spamhaus blacklist. Spammers have launched DDoS attacks against Spamhaus' website and servers. (There's even a "Stophaus" website based in Russia and dedicated to combating what it calls Spamhaus' "underhanded extortion tactics.")

It appears Cyberbunker has both complained and attacked.

Cyberbunker bases its operations in a decommissioned NATO bunker, built to withstand a nuclear war, in the southern Netherlands. The company was founded in 1998 by a group of hackers who proclaimed the "Republic of Cyberbunker," a sovereign state "surrounded by the Netherlands on all borders."

The company pledges not to ask questions about what its clients are up to.

"In most cases we have no idea as to who or where our customers actually are," the Cyberbunker site proclaims. "Customers are allowed to host any content they like, except child porn and anything related to terrorism. Everything else is fine."

Such a policy has attracted some unsavory clients, including the file-sharing site The Pirate Bay, and, according to Spamhaus, the cybercrime gang known as the Russian Business Network. Cyberbunker also claims to have been raided by a Dutch police SWAT team, which apparently found nothing incriminating on the premises.

It was Cyberbunker's alleged hosting of spammers that caused Spamhaus to place both Cyberbunker and its ISP on the Spamhaus blacklist in the fall of 2011.

As a result, Cyberbunker's ISP dropped it as a client, but both the ISP and Cyberbunker posted long manifestos about why Spamhaus was evil.

The issue seems to have lain dormant until March 18, when a false Anonymous campaign called "Operation Stophaus" was proclaimed on the online bulletin board Pastebin.

It listed a litany of complaints against the "tax-circumventing self-declared Internet terrorists" of Spamhaus, then added a variant of the Anonymous "We Are Legion" tagline.

That posting may have been cover for the DDoS attacks that began the same day. In a statement to the New York Times, Sven Olaf Kamphuis, who claimed to speak for Cyberbunker, and whose Google+ page gives his residence as "Republic Cyberbunker," affirmed that the Dutch hosting company was behind the attacks.

"Nobody ever deputized Spamhaus to determine what goes and does not go on the Internet," Kamphuis told the newspaper. "They worked themselves into that position by pretending to fight spam."

It's hard to see how such an attack can be legally justified. The Netherlands has famously lax laws governing the Internet and other digital communications, but odds are Cyberbunker will be facing another SWAT raid very soon.

Fixing a hole

For his blog posting, CloudFlare's Matthew Prince used the headline "The DDoS That Almost Broke the Internet." That's not entirely accurate, since the problems were rather localized.

However, the attack may prompt an overhaul of the DNS system. Prince and others have been vocal about the need to lock down most or all DNS servers so they no longer respond to lookup requests from anyone.

That move would go against the model of openness and accessibility that's guided the Internet for 40 years. The idea has always been that any Internet-connected device can reach any other using any path, and open DNS servers are essential to that model.

But the problem of DNS-amplified attacks has been growing exponentially in just the past few months.

The ongoing attacks against U.S. bank websites which began last September use the tactic, and have reached 100 Gbps at times.

If this week's unrelated attacks truly did hit 300 Gbps, the end to the open-DNS server model may be inevitable.

This story was provided by TechNewsDaily, a sister site to LiveScience. Follow Paul Wagenseil?@snd_wagenseil. Follow us?@TechNewsDaily,?Facebook?or?Google+.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/truth-behind-biggest-cyberattack-history-210723787.html

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Thursday, March 28, 2013

'Freakshow' man shaves and sews with toes

By Drusilla Moorhouse, TODAY contributor

Jim, otherwise known as The Armless Wonder, was born without arms or hands, but there's nothing he can't do. Don't believe it? You'll change your mind after watching this exclusive "Freakshow" clip AMC shared with The Clicker.

The cameras follow Jim performing his morning routine -- shaving, brushing his teeth, sipping coffee while reading the newspaper, sewing?

Hold up!

Yes, while, most of us can barely thread a needle with 10 fingers, Jim does it effortlessly with his toes.

"I don't consider myself disabled," Jim said. And why should he? He also writes, drives, plays sports and goes fishing.

"If you find something I can't do," he added, "then we'll talk."

We don't expect to be having that conversation anytime soon.

"Freakshow" airs Thursdays at 9:30 p.m. on AMC.

Related content:

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Source: http://theclicker.today.com/_news/2013/03/28/17504120-freakshows-armless-wonder-threads-a-needle-with-his-toes?lite

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WADA backs HGH test against 'extremist' NFLPA

By STEPHEN WILSON

AP Sports Writer

Associated Press Sports

updated 12:29 p.m. ET March 27, 2013

LONDON (AP) - The World Anti-Doping Agency has defended its test for human growth hormone and accused the NFL players union of being "extremist" for questioning its validity.

WADA director general David Howman tells The Associated Press the test for HGH was endorsed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in its ruling Tuesday in the case of an Estonian cross-country skier.

The court lifted the three-year suspension imposed by the International Ski Federation on two-time Olympic cross-country champion Andrus Veerpalu for use of HGH, citing "procedural flaws." But CAS said it believed Veerpalu did take HGH and backed the testing method.

Howman says "there is no question as to the validity of the test."

The NFL players union said the CAS ruling "validates the players' demands for scientific validity, full due process rights, and a transparent system."

Howman says "I would expect the players association to take a stance which is extremist which is the way they've operated the last few years."

More news

Is Geno Smith worthy of top 10?

??PFT Live: The Chiefs are interested in drafting the QB, but Mike Smith believes it would be smart for the Chiefs to trade the No. 1 pick.

PFT: Getting to know Alabama's Lacy

??ProFootballTalk: Alabama is also known for producing standout running backs, and Eddie Lacy is the latest to emerge, with hopes he follows in the footsteps of Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/51350789/ns/sports-nfl/

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UFC lightweight champ Benson Henderson goes 2-1 at jiu-jitsu tournament

UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson will fight Gilbert Melendez on April 20, but he took on other competitors over the weekend. Henderson competed in the 2013 Pan Jiu-Jitsu Championships. He won his first two matches, but lost 8-0 to Jaime Soares Canuto.

Henderson, a brown belt in jiu-jitsu, decided to do the tournament for fun. It wasn't a break from training for the bout with Melendez. Henderson's coach said he did six rounds of MMA sparring on Saturday before competing on Sunday. Instead, it was just a little bit of competition.

He tweeted about the tournament:

Guess who still got #OnePercentBetter today??? That's right, this guy did...congrats to all the #PanAms2013 winners twitpic.com/ce5c8n

? Benson Henderson (@BensonHenderson) March 25, 2013

Just got done w/#2013PanAm 's, didn't go the way I wanted, 2-1, on the day, lost 8-0...had a blast, MUCH LOVE to the #BJJ community...

? Benson Henderson (@BensonHenderson) March 25, 2013

What are your thoughts on Henderson competing just weeks before his fight? Speak up in the comments, on Facebook or on Twitter.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/ufc-lightweight-champ-benson-henderson-goes-2-1-200528627--mma.html

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Wednesday, March 27, 2013

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Recap - Fight For Romance

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/03/the-real-housewives-of-beverly-hills-recap-fight-for-romance/

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Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Behind Turkish-Israeli reconciliation, concerns about Syria

The deal will help rebuild intelligence links between Turkey and Israel. The Turks do not want to be caught off guard by any use or transfer of chemical weapons in nearby Syria.?

By Christa Case Bryant,?Staff writer, Scott Peterson,?Staff writer / March 24, 2013

Syrian refugees cross the border to Turkey in this December file photo.

Muhammed Muheisen/AP

Enlarge

Jerusalem; and Istanbul, Turkey

Israel and Turkey have gotten back together after nearly three years, not so much because they?re in love but because of mutual concern that Syrian chemical weapons could fall into the wrong hands.?

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The renewal of full diplomatic ties between Israel and Turkey, brought about March 22 with strong US pressure, will enable the estranged allies to better thwart jihadi groups who have penetrated Syria and prevent them from acquiring weapons of mass destruction. In a region roiled by upheaval and rising concern about Syria, the reconciliation marks a welcome step of progress ? one that caught many by surprise.

?We?re all very excited?. The first thing to do is to sit together ? probably not just one on one, but with Americans in the room ? and share intelligence,? says an Israeli official, adding that Jordan will also be brought into the discussions about how to secure Syria?s borders. ?As for us, we?re not in the business of sending ground troops to Syria. But other types of action may be possible, such as destroying certain targets from the air.??

The potential for such cooperation was enough to woo a recalcitrant Turkey to agree to normalize relations after the May 2010 Mavi Mamara incident, in which Israeli naval commandos killed nine Turks ? one of them a Turkish-American ??when they raided a flotilla attempting to break Israel?s economic blockade of Gaza.

?Turkey?s intelligence assets are not anywhere near Israeli intelligence assets,? says Michael Koplow, an analyst of Turkish and Israeli affairs at the Israel Institute in Washington, who recently returned from a two-week trip to Turkey.

?The Turks don?t want to be caught with chemical weapons deployed in Aleppo, which is only 50 miles from Turkish border, and not know about it ahead of time,? says Mr. Koplow, author of the blog?Ottomans and Zionists. ?It?s at a point where they need the Israelis? cooperation.?

US pressure brings reconciliation

After the Mavi Mamara incident, Turkey recalled its ambassador to Israel and demanded that Israel apologize for the deaths and end its blockade on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. Israel refused, saying the deaths came when its commandos were assaulted by activists on the ship, and continued to seal off Gaza to prevent weapons from getting into the hands of Hamas. Turkey expelled the Israeli ambassador.

The Americans have long pressured both countries to reconcile. Heightened diplomatic efforts in the few weeks ahead of President Obama?s visit to Israel paid off just before he left on March 22. He reportedly called Erdogan himself, then passed the phone to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who admitted ?a number of operational mistakes? by Israel?s military and conveyed Israel?s ?apology to the Turkish people for any mistakes that might have led to the loss of life or injury? and agreed to provide compensation, according to a statement from the prime minister?s office. ?Prime Minister Netanyahu also noted that Israel had substantially lifted the restrictions on the entry of civilian goods into the Palestinian territories, including Gaza, and that this would continue as long as calm prevailed.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/lcYMs1OGJko/Behind-Turkish-Israeli-reconciliation-concerns-about-Syria

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High court weighs drug companies' generics policy

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Supreme Court is struggling with whether it should stop pharmaceutical corporations from paying generic drug competitors to delay releasing their cheaper versions of brand-name drugs.

Justices heard arguments from federal officials Monday that these deals can be anticompetitive and keeps lower-cost generic drugs out of American hands. But pharmaceutical companies say these deals save litigation costs and often bring generics to market faster.

A government lawyer argued the companies should be forced to prove that their deals serve a purpose beyond simply paying a generic drug's maker not to challenge a brand-name drug's patent.

But a pharmaceutical company lawyer says they shouldn't be forced to litigate each generic vs. brand-name drug patent lawsuit to conclusion when a settlement can be reached.

Justices will make a decision later this year.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/high-court-weighs-drug-companies-generics-policy-070931180--finance.html

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Beyond the Grave, Onto the Smartphone

A cemetery in Shenyang, the capital of China's Liaoning Province, will become, for lack of a better term, interactive. With mobile devices, people will be able to scan a quick response code on graves of people whose relatives have requested the feature. Scanning this code will allow visitors to learn about the person's life; they can also access a Web page where relatives and friends can upload photos or video.

Source: http://ectnews.com.feedsportal.com/c/34520/f/632000/s/29f98446/l/0L0Stechnewsworld0N0Crsstory0C776230Bhtml/story01.htm

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Monday, March 25, 2013

'Breaking Bad' script missing after car break-in

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) ? A man accused of breaking into "Breaking Bad" actor Bryan Cranston's car late last year and stealing a script for the popular television show set in New Mexico has been arrested, authorities said Monday.

Bernalillo County Sheriff's officials said Xavier Macafee, 29, was being held on suspicion of burglary.

Macafee, of Albuquerque, was booked into jail last Friday and made his initial court appearance Monday, according to authorities who didn't immediately know if he had a lawyer.

Deputy Aaron Williamson, a spokesman for the sheriff's department, said none of the stolen items have been recovered but detectives were investigating the case.

He said other items reported taken from Cranston's car were an iPad, a shoulder bag and "miscellaneous personal items."

Cranston's car was broken into Dec. 20 while it was parked at Sandia Peak, authorities said.

The award-winning AMC TV series is set in Albuquerque and is filming its fifth and final season in and around the city.

"Breaking Bad" follows Cranston's character Walter White producing and selling methamphetamine with a former student named Jesse Pinkman, who's played by Aaron Paul.

A call to AMC network officials in California for comment on the script theft wasn't immediately returned Monday afternoon.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-03-25-Breaking%20Bad-Theft/id-ee3a1f9253954d9c96218f48115fbdd9

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Union: Hawaii teachers vote on contract in April

HONOLULU (AP) -- Hawaii's teachers union has set an April 17 date to vote on a new contract.

The vote comes after a tentative deal was reached over the weekend between the Hawaii State Teachers Association and the state.

Union officials said on the association's Facebook page early Monday that before the vote, teachers will be able to review the contract and ask questions at information sessions before the final vote.

The union also posted a link to the 106-page agreement.

The teachers' last contract expired in June 2011.

Teachers voted down a contract offer in January last year, then tried to pressure the state to accepting it later by voting on it again and passing it.

The sides sought the help of a federal mediator this month.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/union-hawaii-teachers-vote-contract-193458399.html

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Report: T-Mobile Is Finally Getting the iPhone Tomorrow

The saga of T-Mobile and the iPhone is full of twists and turns and fakeouts and missed connections. Every year a new iPhone comes out, every year T-Mobile gets left out of the cool kids club (which is basically every other carrier at this point). That changed in 2012, when T-Mobile announced that it would get the iPhone sometime in 2013. According to CNET, "sometime in 2013" means tomorrow. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/0hQegwO1sU8/report-t+mobile-is-finally-getting-the-iphone-tomorrow

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NRA vs. Bloomberg: Mayor vows to spend $12 million on ads

LaPierre, Bloomberg (Getty Images)

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and National Rifle Association chief Wayne LaPierre squared off on Sunday's "Meet The Press" over the assault weapons ban being debated in Congress.

"I don't think there's ever been an issue where the public has spoken so clearly, where Congress hasn't eventually understood and done the right thing," Bloomberg, who has become one of the most vocal gun control advocates in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., school shootings, said in a taped interview with NBC's David Gregory.

"We are going to have a vote for sure on assault weapons and we're going to have a vote on background checks," Bloomberg continued. "And if we were to get background checks only, it wouldn't be as good as if we got both, but we demanded a plan and then we demanded a vote. We've got the plan, we're going to get the vote. And now it's incumbent on us to make our voices heard."

To do so, the billionaire mayor said he's spending $12 million on an advertising campaign?set to launch in 10 states on Monday?that touts tighter gun laws.

"I think I have a responsibility, and I think you and all of your viewers have responsibilities, to try to make this country safer for our families and for each other," he said. "And if I can do that by spending some money and taking the NRA from being the only voice to being one of the voices, so the public can really understand the issues, then I think my money would be well spent, and I think I have an obligation to do that."

LaPierre says Bloomberg would be better off spending his money elsewhere.

"He's going to find out this is a country of the people, by the people and for the people," LaPierre told Gregory. "And he can't spend enough of his $27 billion to try to impose his will on the American public. They don't want him in their restaurants, they don't want him in their homes. They don't want him telling them what food to eat; they sure don't want him telling them what self-defense firearms to own. And he can't buy America."

[Related: NRA's LaPierre slams critics of school gun plan]

The NRA chief criticized the gun control legislation currently on Capitol Hill, calling the proposed universal background checks a "speed bump" for law-abiding gun owners.

"The whole thing, universal checks, is a dishonest premise. There's not a bill on the Hill that provides a universal check. Criminals aren't going to be checked," LaPierre said. "The mental health records are not in the system, and they don't prosecute any of the criminals that they catch. ... It slows down the law abiding and does nothing to anybody else."

LaPierre then reiterated the NRA's post-Newtown plea for armed security officers in every American public school. "Not a mom or dad wants to drop their kid off at school and leave their kids unprotected."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/bloomberg-nra-guns-assault-weapons-ban-173107813.html

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Google Keep (for Android)

When Google Keep (free) launched earlier this week, some scratched their heads over the clean, simple service and wondered whether it could compete against the likes of Evernote. While the Keep Android app does what it's supposed to do, and does so stylishly, it has yet to prove its worth in an already crowded space.

Using Google Keep
After you fire up the app, Keep will ask you to select one of your saved Google accounts on your Android device, or enter a new one.

You'll immediately be taken to Keep's spare main page with a search bar across the top, a prompt to write a note underneath, and several icons indicating the kind of notes you can make. Simply typing in the text field and pressing Enter will create a text note (as does tapping the document icon). Tapping the check mark starts an itemized list. The microphone button begins recording a speech-to-text voice note, and the camera adds a picture note.

These aren't hard and fast categories, but more like shortcuts to start you off. Pictures can be added to any type of note, and text and photos added to voice notes. Lists can only be lists, and recordings cannot be added to any other type of note.

It's noteworthy (pun intended) that voice notes are only available in Keep's Android app. I found the voice-to-text transcription to be remarkably accurate, much more so than Google Voice. The recording option is probably the fastest way to add a note.

Though there is a settings menu, its primary function is to switch users.

Light on Organization
Notes can be moved to some degree within the app. Rearrange them by tapping and holding notes, and delete notes by dragging them to a trash can icon in the corner. Google Keep makes good use of gestures letting you "archive" a note with a swipe, moving it out of sight but keeping it searchable. The clean app also pops with animations as you move notes around.

There are no tags or notebooks to file notes in Keep, but you can color-code notes from a limited pallet. This is a bit odd, especially considering that Google's now defunct Notebook application once boasted these features. In her review of the Keep web interface, Jill Duffy noted that the color doesn't appear on a new note until after you completed it (and even then, it's just a thin bar of color at the top).?In the Android version, as soon as you select a color, it's applied to the whole note body.

Searching is the best way to find your notes, though the app lacks optical character recognition like Evernote, ?meaning it cannot read text in images. Notes appear the moment they have matches against the search term, and drop out as soon as they're not relevant. Oddly, there is no icon in the app for Google's voice search.

Wonderful Widgets
Widgets are rarely implemented well, but Google Keep does a good job. The app comes with three, two for the lockscreen and one for the desktop. The desktop widget is virtually identical to the more stripped-down lockscreen widget, which are simply shortcuts to creating different note types in the app.

The larger lockscreen widget lets you scroll through all your notes, as well as create new ones. Notably, creating new notes from any of the lockscreen widgets requires you to unlock your device.

It seems like a missed opportunity that the widgets don't allow recording voice notes directly from the lockscreen or desktop without going to the app. However, you can add a voice note from the Google Now widget by saying, "make a note for..."

It also would have been useful to assign certain notes to the lockscreen; being able to look at my grocery list and check off the items without opening the app would be a neat little time saver. Google is on the right track with the widgets, but would do well to expand their capabilities.

No App is an Island?Except Google Keep
The other elements of Google Drive?word processing, spreadsheets, etc.?used to be separate products but were seamlessly rolled up with file storage into one neat app. Keep, on the other hand is an appendage. Your Keep notes and images exist only in Keep, though it is somehow connected to Google Drive.

The isolation continues because although you can share your notes from Keep for Android, the recipient cannot collaborate with you on that note. If I share a note via email or Dropbox, the recipient just sees the note's contents.

The isolation also seems odd because it's difficult to grow your Keep notes into something larger. Grocery lists might not be useful later on, but the promo for Google Keep shows a musician building the elements of a rock show with the app. Actually pulling this off is difficult because items in Keep only become collaborative once you move them out of Keep. (Weirdly, one of the places to move Keep items is Google Drive.)

Also, though the Keep app makes use of Google's search technology, you have to be searching in Keep to find your note. That might seem fine, but if you can't remember where you saved that image (Drive? Keep? Gmail?) tracking it down will be tricky.

Is It a Keeper?
Google seems to have looked at all the other note taking options (and probably its own defunct offering) and decided they were all too complex and too busy?and there's something to be said for that. But the strength of Evernote is that it provided lots of options to be used however you like. Google's simplicity, while aesthetically pleasing, limits what you can do. Really, Google Keep is to Google Drive what Microsoft OneNote is to SkyDrive, only Keep isn't as universally accessible on different platforms.

If you just need a fast, easy way to make lists and add little tidbits to your digital hoard, then Keep can work for you. The app looks great, is easy to use, and Google has a strong track record for reliable data storage. It also means having one less login to remember.

That said, Keep has a lot of unused potential. If Google brings it into the fold, tying it closer to all the other Google products, we could have a real winner on our hands.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/o34LYAyTVZ8/0,2817,2416975,00.asp

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