Giant cockroach genus Pseudophoraspis expands to the north with 3 new species

Feb. 28, 2013 ? Cockroaches (Blattodea) are an insect order remarkable in their biodiversity and distribution, with more than 4500 species known and great geographical reach. Cockroach fossils date back around 400 million years, which testifies to their great adaptability and endurance that puts them among the planet's great survivors.

The cockroach genus Pseudophoraspism has has been reported from China for the first time thanks to the discovery of three new species: Pseudophoraspis clavellata, Pseudophoraspis recurvata and Pseudophoraspis incurvata, alongside the first regional record of three already described ones. They belong to the cockroach family Blaberidae, known also as giant cockroaches. The study was published in the open access journal ZooKeys.

Although the adults of the newly described species can reach a size of around 3 cm in length, they are still some of the smallest representatives in the family. For comparison, the females of the largest species known, Blaberus giganteus, can reach up to 10 cm in length. The heaviest species, Macropanesthia rhinoceros, also known as the rhinoceros cockroach, reaches only around 8 cm but can weigh remarkable 35 grams.

All of the known species of the genus Pseudophoraspis, to which the three newly described ones belong, were reported from Southeast Asia and South Asia, with Vietnam considered the north boundary of their territory. This new record of three already known species, and three newly discovered ones in China's provinces Hainan, Yunnan and Guangxi, however, considerably expands the reach of the genus to the North.

One of the authors, Dr. Zongqing Wang from the Institute of Entomology, Southwest University, China comments: "All of the known species were reported from Southeast Asia and South Asia, and the previously known boundary of this genus would be Vietnam. We found three new species from China, located in Hainan, Yunnan and Guangxi Provinces respectively, which extends the range of the genus Pseudophoraspis northward."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Pensoft Publishers, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Zongqing Wang, Keliang Wu, Yanli Che. New record of the cockroach genus Pseudophoraspis (Blaberidae, Epilamprinae) from China with descriptions of three new species. ZooKeys, 2013; 273 (0): 1 DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.273.4122

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/most_popular/~3/xFDHyMQ5TLo/130228103438.htm

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Singer Rick Springfield Returning To ?General Hospital? With His Son!

Singer Rick Springfield Returning To “General Hospital” With His Son!

Jessie’s Girl singer Rick Springfield will be reprising his role as Dr. Noah Drake on the soap opera “General Hospital”, with his son Liam Springthorpe making his television debut as an undercover cop on the show. The 63-old singer, who last appeared on the show in March 2012, says his character has lots of personal ...

Singer Rick Springfield Returning To “General Hospital” With His Son! Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News

Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2013/02/singer-rick-springfield-returning-to-general-hospital-with-his-son/

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Google Chromebook Pixel Review: Awesome, Just Not $1300 Worth of Awesome

Google set out to build "the best laptop possible." The result: the Chromebook Pixel. A sleek and powerful device designed specifically for life in the cloud. If the display doesn't make your jaw drop, the price tag will. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/jbcHwoSnEQA/google-chromebook-pixel-awesome-just-not-1300-worth-of-awesome

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Hagel confirmed as defense secretary

Former Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel testifies at his Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing on Jan.??The Senate on Tuesday voted to confirm former Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel as secretary of defense, overcoming a fierce campaign by some GOP lawmakers to block President Barack Obama's nominee.

Hagel's nomination, which required support from just a majority of the chamber, passed 58-41.

Four Republicans voted to approve Hagel's nomination: Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Sen. Mike Johanns of Nebraska and Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama.

In a statement, Obama praised the Senate for passing the confirmation.

"With the bipartisan confirmation of Chuck Hagel as our next Secretary of Defense, we will have the defense secretary our nation needs and the leader our troops deserve," Obama's statement read.? "From the moment he volunteered for military service in Vietnam, Chuck has devoted his life to keeping America secure and our armed forces strong.? An American patriot who fought and bled for our country, he understands our sacred obligations to our service members, military families and veterans."

Tuesday's vote ended a tumultuous confirmation process that began the moment Obama announced Hagel as his choice to replace outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

Despite Hagel's tenure in the Senate, many of his former colleagues refused to endorse him for the defense post, pointing to his past comments about the U.S. relationship to Israel and Iran's nuclear program. Even some Democrats showed hesitancy about confirming Hagel at first. It was not until he made a series of personal visits to key members of the party that he was able to secure their support.

During Hagel's? confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, he faced a grilling from senators on the panel who pressed him on a wide rang of topics. Hagel's performance was disappointing, but the White House stood by its choice.

The first attempt in the Senate to end debate fell short in the face of an unprecedented GOP filibuster two weeks ago, with Democrats just one vote shy of the 60 needed to proceed to confirm Hagel. (The tally showed 58 votes in favor, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid changed his vote to ?no? as it was needed to secure the right under parliamentary rules to bring up Tuesday?s vote.)

Last week 15 Republicans sent a letter to Obama urging him to withdraw Hagel's nomination, citing his record and comments he made in the past about Iran's nuclear weapons program. The White House dismissed the request.

Now that he has been confirmed, it remains unclear clear how the sustained battering will affect Hagel's tenure at the Pentagon. But the rough handling he got from his fellow Republicans and former colleagues shows one thing for sure: The former lawmaker cannot count on getting the benefit of the doubt from Congress as he moves to deal with spending cuts that start coming into force on Friday, or takes on challenges overseas like the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

In an effort to dispel any lingering concerns over Israel, Michael Oren, Israel's Ambassador to the United States, released a statement of confidence in the new nominee. "Israel looks forward to working closely with Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel. Under the Obama Administration, security ties between the United States and Israel have been superb," Orien wrote in a message on his Facebook page. "We are fully confident that those bonds will grow stronger still as our countries continue to meet common challenges to our security."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/defense-secretary-nominee-hagel-faces-big-step-confirmation-114702931--politics.html

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YC-Backed Microryza Is A ?Kickstarter? For Scientific Research

Do you want know whether cannibalism existed amongst Tyrannosaurus Rexes or whether specific viruses contribute to lung cancer risk? Better yet, do you want to be part of making this research happen faster? A Y Combinator-backed startup called Microryza is positioning itself as a “Kickstarter” for science research. The idea for Microryza sprouted when Cindy Wu, then an undergraduate at University of Washington, found that she had little hope of getting funding for studying a potential anthrax therapeutic. She had discovered it after helping to create a video game that let regular people fold and create virtual enzymes. They came up with 87 different mutants that summer through the video game, and found that one could potentially treat anthrax infections after winning an MIT based synthetic biology competition. But her professor at the time was skeptical that she could get funding to study it further. “He told me it was a small, early-stage idea and that because I was an undergraduate, I couldn’t get an NIH (National Institutes of Health) or NSF (National Science Foundation) grant,” she said. But he then let her pitch at a lab meeting and funneled money from another existing lab grant into her work. “I was so lucky. But I realized there are so many other undergraduates, graduate students and faculty members that would never be able to get funding,” she said. “I talked to 100 different scientists and found that all of them had high-risk ideas, but they never wrote proposals because they didn’t think it would go through.” So last year, she and co-founder Denny Luan launched Microryza. They work with five or six universities including the University of Washington, USC and UC Santa Cruz. They vet every single researcher on the platform. Luan said Microryza looks for three things: 1) Is the researcher who they say they are? 2) Is the proposal fundamentally new research? 3) Is the researcher capable of carrying out the project? They also work with the researchers to make sure there’s a lasting connection with their backers long after they receive funding. This is the hard part with science-focused Kickstarter concepts (and Microryza isn’t the only one), because research can take years before backers see conclusive results. There have been a few attempt with sites like Petridish, which launched last year and appears to have more than 30 completed projects. Luan and Wu worked on building an information

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/VvrGLhz6STU/

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OMG, Have You Seen Kim & Kanye's Naked Mag Cover?

When Kim Kardashian said during a recent interview that baby daddy Kanye West had taught her the value of privacy, we definitely didn't expect to see the two of them posing together naked on the cover of a French magazine just one week later. But this is a Kardashian we're talking about -- did you really think a little thing like a pregnancy was going to keep her inside?

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/kim-kardashians-naked-magazine-cover-kanye/1-a-524003?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Akim-kardashians-naked-magazine-cover-kanye-524003

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The Fed's Running the Show and Risk Keeps Going Up

Monday, February 25th, 2013
By Mitchell Clark, B.Comm. for Profit Confidential

There just isn?t enough real economic growth out there for a rising stock market?at least not much more than has already been achieved. News from the Federal Reserve of the central bank considering how to end quantitative easing sent the stock market much lower, revealing just how artificial the whole system is.

I actually think the current stock market is fairly valued, but it shouldn?t be going up in value with modest revenues and earnings growth. The Federal Reserve is the catalyst for today?s trading action, but first-quarter earnings season will be a catalyst for investor sentiment. Some companies and industries are doing better than others. The choppy recovery in the U.S. economy is now being reflected in earnings results, as corporations can no longer cut any more costs. Revenue growth is now the key.

On the release of the minutes from the Federal Reserve meeting, stock markets around the world sold off, literally. All the positive action so far this year has been incredibly tenuous, and the low trading volume said it all. I think we?re now in a mini-correction, induced by recent news from the Federal Reserve, although it won?t be a market-breaking pullback.

Right now, the prospects for gold, silver, and oil are terrible, and the near-term action in resource stocks is headed downward. We also have a lot of solid, dividend paying large-caps that are trading right near their highs and are due for a break.

It?s odd that the stock market reacted so negatively to the Federal Reserve?s latest news. Investors have been complaining about all the easy money and artificially low interest rates. The predictability of the stock market?s reaction to the Federal Reserve is telling of the herd mentality of the system. Wall Street really is just a big game.

The stock market is going to be convulsing near term, and the key for investors will be to keep focusing on what corporations are saying about their businesses. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE/WMT) reduced its first-quarter guidance just slightly because of higher gas prices and increased payroll taxes, but its fourth-quarter earnings beat consensus. The company also announced an 18% increase to its quarterly dividend, which is always welcome news. (See ?Show Me the Money? Just Ask Costco.?)

Federal Reserve monetary policy is responsible for the stock market action since the financial crisis and recession of 2008/2009. Corporations and the economy have been responsible for the slow growth in revenues and earnings since then, and the stock market is appropriately valued. Therefore, the near-term fundamentals haven?t really changed.

We have seen continued recovery in the U.S. housing market and even in employment (especially employment in the private sector). The industrial economy reported continued strength in the fourth quarter of 2012, and the technology sector is holding its own. All in all, the stock market is where it should be, and economic growth will be low and slow for the near future.

It?s going to be another wacky year for stocks, thanks to the Federal Reserve. Anything is possible these days, which is why it pays to be conservative with your holdings. For me, dividend paying blue chips continue to be the only stocks to own. Everything else really is a gamble.

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Rating: 7.0/10 (1 vote cast)

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The Fed?s Running the Show and Risk Keeps Going Up, 7.0 out of 10 based on 1 rating

Source: http://www.profitconfidential.com/stock-market/the-feds-running-the-show-and-risk-keeps-going-up/

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Benedict XVI: I am not abandoning the Church

February 24, 2013, (Romereports.com) (-ONLY VIDEO-) The Lord is calling me 'out to the mountain' to devote more time to prayer and meditation, but this does not mean I'm abandoning the Church. In fact, if God is asking this of me, it's precisely to continue serving the Church with the same dedication and love with which I have served so far, but in a way that's more suited for my age and strength.

Source: http://www.romereports.com/palio/benedict-xvi-i-am-not-abandoning-the-church-english-9143.html

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Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 now official

Samsung has stepped forward and officially announced the Galaxy Note 8.0. We've sen and heard enough leaks and rumors to know that we would be seeing an 8-inch version of the popular Note series, but tonights' news clears up al the speculation and replaces it with information direct from Seoul. 

The Note 8.0 takes everything you love about the Note series, adds some great new features, and packages it all into a solid tablet form factor. The Note 8.0 will still be able to make phone calls in some countries, but the 8-inch screen puts this one squarely into the portable tablet genre. And that's a good thing. Users who didn't want a full-sized 10-inch tablet, but still wanted access to the great S Pen technology now have that option.

We've spent some time with the Note 8.0 on the eve of Mobile World Congress 2013, and have the answers to all your questions covered. The Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 will be available world wide (Europe, Korea, North America, S.E. Asia, S. W. Africa, the Middle East, China, Taiwan, and Latin America) in Q2. Keep an eye on Android Central for exact dates and pricing. The full press release, press photos, and a Chat-On video featuring the Note 8.0 are after the break.

Galaxy Note 8.0 hands-on | Galaxy Note 8.0 specs | Galaxy Note 8.0 forums

read more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/C-pjzoB7JWg/story01.htm

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Afghan president orders US forces out of key province

NBC's Jim Miklaszewski joins Lester Holt to discuss the latest on Afghan President Hamid Karzai order that U.S. forces be removed from Wardak province over allegations of torture and disappearances.

Ahmad Jamshid / AP, file

Afghan President Hamid Karzai addesses military officers in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Feb. 16, 2013

By Hasani Gittens, News Editor, NBC News

Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai has ordered that all U.S. special forces must leave Wardak province, just west of Kabul, within two weeks ? citing allegations of disappearances and torture.

In a statement Sunday, a spokesman for Karzai said, "after a thorough discussion, it became clear that armed individuals named as U.S. special force stationed in Wardak province engage in harassing, annoying, torturing and even murdering innocent people."

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Karzai's office cited a "recent example" in which nine people allegedly "disappeared" and a separate incident where a student was taken from his home in the middle of the night and whose tortured body was found two days later under a bridge with his throat cut.

U.S.?defense officials strongly deny that military personnel condoned, or were involved in, any kidnappings, torture or murders of Afghan civilians or suspects.

In addition to demanding the U.S. pull out in two weeks, Karzai also demanded the immediate cessation of all international special forces operations in Wardak.

Military?officials told NBC News that Karzai's order came as a total surprise. The province is one of the hottest combat zones in Afghanistan and?is a strategically important area because it is seen as the gateway the Taliban uses to carry out attacks in Kabul, the war-torn nation's capital.

In response, International Security Assistance Force, which coordinates the multinational coalition in Afghanistan, said "the U.S. Forces Afghanistan is aware of the reporting of presidential spokesman Aimal Faizi's comments today. We take all allegations of misconduct seriously and go to great lengths to determine the facts surrounding them."

The ISAF declined to comment further until they've "had a chance to speak with" senior officials in the Afghan government.

In their statement, the Afghan government noted that "Americans reject having conducted any such operation," but also noted "that such actions have caused local public resentment and hatred."

President Barack Obama announced during his State of the Union address earlier this month that 34,000 American troops --? about half of the total U.S. force in Afghanistan -- will leave the country by the end of this year.

NBC's Jim Miklaszewski and Courtney Kube contributed to this report

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/24/17076037-afghan-president-orders-us-forces-out-of-key-province?lite

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Q&A: Why investors are wary of Italy's elections

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) ? Investors are keeping a wary eye on Italy as the country heads to the polls Sunday and Monday to elect a new parliament. They fear that a new government and prime minister could weaken or scrap the economic reforms and budget cuts begun by outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti during his 15 months in office and hurt Italy's chances of recovering from a decade of low growth.

While the markets are unlikely to punish Italy as they did in 2011-12, they will want to make sure a new government doesn't mean a return to Italy's bad old days.

Here are some questions and answers about this weekend's elections matter for Italy and the rest of Europe.

Q: Why all the worry?

A: Italy's economy ? the third-largest among the 17 European Union countries that use the euro ? has only grown less than a half percent a year on average for a decade. That is compared to 1.25 percent in other rich Western countries. Faster growth is needed to shrink Italy's mounting debt burden, which already equals 127 percent of its annual gross domestic product.

Because of its size, Italy's problems can dent market confidence in the whole eurozone. Doubts about Italy's ability to manage its debt caused markets to question whether the euro could survive in 2011-12.

Q: What's wrong with its economy?

Before it joined the euro in 1999, the country used to give its economy a boost by to devaluing its old currency, the lire ? a trick that used to make its exports cheaper.

Devaluation helped mask underlying problems such as labor rules that favor vested interests such as unions and established workers, which kill off job prospects for younger people; a high business tax burden and heavy cost to businesses from expensive public utilities and red tape.

Italy "remains in dire need of structural reforms to boost competitiveness and improve trend growth," wrote economists Norbert Aul and James Ashley at RBC Capital Markets. They noted that the only economies that have grown more slowly in the past 12 years are Zimbabwe, San Marino, and Portugal.

A growing economy would increase government revenue from business and income taxes and the country's debt.

Q: Where does Monti come into all this?

A: Italy's political parties installed Monti, a former EU commissioner and academic, as prime minister to lead a temporary crisis government of financial experts in November, 2011. His predecessor, Silvio Berlusconi, resigned after high borrowing costs, fed by fears Italy would not pay its debts, threatened the country with financial ruin and rattled confidence in the eurozone.

Monti set about easing some of Italy's anti-business practices, such as labor laws that made it extremely difficult to fire longtime workers. He reduced the budget deficit with the help of an unpopular tax on homes.

Italy's deficit is down to around 3 percent of gross domestic output for last year ? not great, but it complies with the official limit for eurozone members.

However, in January, Monti resigned as Prime Minister after Berlusconi's party withdrew its support and criticized his cutbacks - hence the new elections.

Q: So now the elections are under way, what are investors afraid of?

A: Italy's Byzantine election laws could mean many different outcomes. The worst result would be no party or coalition being able to form a government, leading to new elections.

Researcher Vincenzo Scarpetta at the Open Europe think tank says the probability of this is "very low" but that re-run elections could mean "potentially, huge market pressure, which Italy can hardly afford." This pressure would come in the form of rising interest rates on government debt.

Another possibility could be a parliament so divided that it can't govern effectively, or a shaky coalition of parties with clashing agendas ? meaning that any policies would be the result of endless compromise and back-room deals. A badly split parliament "would surely affect investors' confidence as Italy's political future would remain unclear," said Aul and Ashley.

The return of a government led by Berlusconi's center-right coalition ? regarded as unlikely ? could also dismay markets given his call to repeal Monti's home tax and the lack of confidence markets showed in him in 2011.

Q: What do markets want to see?

A: Analysts say investors seem to be anticipating that the center-left Democratic Party, led by Pier Luigi Bersani will win. Bersani opposes budget austerity but is regarded as not totally against all efforts to improve conditions for business. Markets would like it best if he wins but still needs the seats won by small parties led by Monti to govern. That would mean the government might continue with some of the reforms.

Q: So should we expect market chaos and the eurozone crisis to erupt again?

A: Not right away, no. Italian law requires extensive consultation, so it could take weeks to tell who is in charge. In 2008, it took 24 days for Berlusconi to be sworn in despite a landslide win.

However, an anti-reform result could mean Italy's borrowing costs could rise in the days and weeks following the election.

That would be a sure sign that bond investors are more skeptical of the country's long-term ability to pay.

But it's considered unlikely that the yields would immediately rise to the record levels of last year that threatened to push Italy to default. That is thanks to the European Central Bank, which has done much to calm fears that a country will be unable to pay its debts. In September, the ECB offered to buy unlimited amounts of bonds issued by indebted countries, if they agree to reforms and to cut their deficits. No one has used the program yet but its mere existence has lowered Italy's borrowing costs.

Nonetheless, a new Italian government that rejects reform "will lead to more uncertainty, higher yields and a gradual process toward the situation we had last year," says Carsten Brzeski, an analyst at ING in Brussels.

The big problem is the long-term absence of growth rather than what the markets do next week.

Economists Aul and Ashley warn: "Whichever party ends up in power... needs to focus upon Italy's economic frailties as a matter of priority."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-02-23-Italy-Election-QandA/id-696cf897c7164ce0aa813bc48cf60be1

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Don't Just Blame Cats: Dogs Disrupt Wildlife, Too

Though they seem so natural in our homes, cats and dogs are natural predators, too. Most will attack birds, lizards and smaller mammals when given the chance, and scientists have demonstrated how their explosive populations can upset ecosystems.

The scourge of domestic cats has been thrown into the spotlight recently. A campaign in New Zealand is pushing to get rid of cats, or at least keep them confined indoors, where they can't prey on kiwis and other native birds. And a study out last month attached some staggering figures to cats' carnage in the United States: it found that the felines kill between 1.4 billion and 3.7 billion birds and between 6.9 billion and 20.7 billion small mammals, such as meadow voles and chipmunks, each year.

But defensive cat lovers should rest assured ? a new study from researchers at the University of Oxford reminds us that domestic dogs are also killers and disease-spreaders that can pose conservation problems when they're allowed to roam free outdoors.

Generalizing the ecological impact of the world's estimated 700 million domestic dogs can be tricky since they are treated very differently across cultures ? some kept in handbags, others chained outside or left to stray. In any case, the researchers say that free-roaming dogs (ones without an owner or otherwise left to run free) are thought to account for about 75 percent of the global dog population, and their interactions with other animals can be problematic. [The 10 Most Popular Dog Breeds]

Oxford researchers Joelene Hughes and David W. Macdonald reviewed 69 studies on canine-wildlife relations in rural areas. All but three of these articles found that dogs had a negative impact, mostly due to predation.

Free-roaming dogs can especially cause harm on islands, where ecosystems tend to be vulnerable in the face of non-native predators like dogs. For instance, in the late 1980s, researchers found that a single German shepherd on the loose in New Zealand's Waitangi State Forest was responsible for killing up to 500 kiwis. The dog had a collar, but was unregistered, and its owner was not found.

In another example from 2006, 12 ownerless dogs were thought to be wiping out populations of the endangered Fijian ground frog on the tiny Viwa Island. The Fijian villagers' solution was to "befriend" the dogs by feeding them scraps of food. Ten of the canines were eventually tamed and shipped off the island and the remaining two were killed.

The researchers note that much of the scientific literature on the problems posed by dogs focuses not on conservation issues, but health risks to humans. While canine rabies has been eradicated in the United States, dogs are responsible for nearly all of the 55,000 rabies deaths that occur worldwide, mostly in Asia and Africa. And rabies can disrupt wildlife, too, the researchers said, noting that dogs have been blamed for spreading the disease among several other animal species in Africa, including the extremely rare Ethiopian wolf.

"Despite the increasing recognition of the potential problem dogs may create for wildlife, few solutions to conservation issues were offered by the literature reviewed, particularly to non-disease related problems," Hughes and Macdonald write. "Local people and authorities may be reluctant to undertake dog population management or control because of the close nature of dog-human relationships, aversion to the methods that may be used to remove dogs" ? like poisoning and shooting the feral ones ? "lack of adequate alternative care options, and perceived prohibitive costs of action."

Their research was detailed last month in the journal Biological Conservation.

Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook?& Google+.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/dont-just-blame-cats-dogs-disrupt-wildlife-too-020659115.html

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NYPD creates ?iTheft? unit for catching iPhone and iPad thieves

We?ve reported on a number of stolen iPhone and iPad cases on iDB over the years. Apple?s gadgets are both popular and expensive, making them the perfect targets for thieves looking for a quick score.

But those thieves better watch out if they ever find themselves on the streets of New York. The city?s police?department?has assigned a team of cops to work directly with Apple to put a stop to these thefts?

The New York Post reports:

?The theft of Apple devices is so rampant in New York that a team of cops has been assigned to work with the tech giant to get the stolen gadgets back, The Post has learned.?Every time an Apple device is stolen, detectives attempt to get tracking numbers from the victim or online records.

That number, known as the International Mobile Station Equipment Identity, is then shared with the officers in Police Headquarters who pass it on to Apple.?The California-based company then informs the NYPD of the device?s current location ? and it can track it even if it was reregistered with a different wireless provider.?

Of course,?identifying stolen phones by their unique identifiers has been done for several years. But this is the first time a dedicated law enforcement squad has teamed up with a tech giant like Apple to do it.

?We?re looking for ways to find individuals who have stolen Apple products and return the products to their original owners,? said an NYPD spokesman. ?It is being done to learn the pattern who is stealing.?

The ?iTheft? unit has already proven to be successful. They tracked one iPad all the way down to the Dominican Republic, and recovered it. And in another case, they busted a man suspected of selling stolen iPads.

I think this is a neat initiative?by the NYPD, and it?s probably very comforting to folks in New York City?where nearly 12,000 Apple devices were stolen last year. And I give a thumbs up to Apple for helping out.

Of course, the four major carriers are said to be working on a centralized database for stolen smartphones and tablets. But it?s not expected to be up and running until November of this year, at the earliest.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zipadblog/~3/U-9jjeKgsJA/

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LaHood: Time for GOP to "wake up" to avoid "calamity" at airports

Updated at 3:10 p.m. ET

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today warned of the "enormous impact" the looming sequester budget cuts will have on air travel in America, given that his department will have to cut nearly $1 billion from its budget, with more than $600 million coming from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

As the one former Republican congressman in President Obama's cabinet, LaHood put the responsibility squarely on Republicans to step up and work with Democrats to find a way to avert the cuts, slated to kick in on March 1.

"What I'm trying to do is to wake up members of the Congress on the Republican side to the idea that they need to come to the table... so we don't have this kind of calamity in air service in America," he said. "So that we're not just taking a meat axe to one part of FAA."

Play Video

LaHood: GOP must "step up" on sequester to prevent air traffic "calamity"

Play Video

LaHood warns travel delays will anger Americans

Cutting $1 billion from the Transportation Department would affect dozens of programs, LaHood said. For instance, the vast majority of the FAA's nearly 47,000 employees will face furloughs, he said -- and the largest number of FAA employees are air traffic controllers.

The Transportation Department is beginning discussions with unions today to close more than 100 air towers with fewer than 150,000 flight operations a year, such as towers in Hilton Head, S.C., and San Marcos, Texas. It's also discussing eliminating overnight shifts in more than 60 towers.

"We're going to reduce the number of controllers, which will reduce their ability to guide planes in and out of airports," LaHood explained.

Flights to major cities like New York and Chicago could experience delays up to 90 minutes during peak hours, he said. Furthermore, with fewer employees on staff to efficiently deal with issues such as runway repairs, there could be even more delays. Customers would likely see these impacts around April 1 -- 30 days after the cuts go into effect.

"These are harmful cuts with real-world consequences that'll cost jobs and hurt our economy," LaHood said.

Following LaHood's remarks, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association released a statement with even more ominous predictions.

"Once towers are closed, the airports they serve may be next," NATCA president Paul Rinaldi said. "Additionally, we believe the delay estimates provided by the FAA are conservative and the potential for disruptions could be much higher. Every one of these actions by the FAA will have an impact far beyond inconveniencing travelers. Local economies will be diminished, military exercises will be cancelled and jobs will be lost. There's no telling how long these effects will be felt because many of these service reductions may not be reversed."

LaHood stressed today that "obviously, as always safety, is our top priority." That said, he added that he expects customers to be very angry.

"Nobody likes a delay. Nobody likes waiting in line," he said. "If we can't get our hamburger within five minutes... you know what happens. They start calling their member of Congress."

Most members of Congress agree the sequester cuts should be averted, but they've been incapable of agreeing how to do so. Democrats want to replace the cuts with a plan that includes some new tax revenue and spending cuts. Republicans, however, say they refuse to raise any new tax revenue, after agreeing to some new revenues during the "fiscal cliff" debate.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said it's "factually incorrect" to say both parties are unwilling to compromise -- Democrats, he pointed out, are willing to make significant spending cuts while the GOP is obstinately against any new tax revenue.

LaHood, who repeatedly pointed out he served as a Republican in Congress for 14 years, said, "I think Republicans need to step up here... I'm telling them to come to the table and start talking to Democrats to figure out how do we solve this."

He said he's talked to about half a dozen Republican congressional offices about the impact the sequester will have on the Transportation Department, and their response is "not good. They get it."

The secretary said it was "nonsense" to suggest he was exaggerating the impact of the sequester.

"It's going to be very painful for the flying public," he said.

Source: http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~r/cbsnews/feed/~3/zn6zNRbdGLA/

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American Troops Deployed to Niger

About 100 American troops have been deployed to the African nation of Niger, where a U.S. defense official said they would be setting up a drone base for surveillance missions.
President Barack Obama announced the deployment Friday in a letter to Congress, saying that the forces "will provide support for intelligence collection and will also facilitate intelligence sharing with French forces conducting operations in Mali, and with other partners in the region."
French troops have been fighting Islamic militants in Mali, which neighbors Niger. The drone base will allow the U.S. to give France more intelligence on the militants. Over time, it could extend the reach not only of American intelligence-gathering but also U.S. special operations missions to strengthen Niger's own security forces.
The defense official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the project.
The drones at the Niger base will be unarmed and used for surveillance, not airstrikes.
Obama said in his letter to Congress that the U.S. forces has been deployed with the consent of Niger's government. The forces were also deployed with weapons "for their own force protection and security," the president said.
Last month, the U.S. and Niger signed a status-of-forces agreement spelling out legal protections and obligations of American forces that might operate in Niger in the future.
Africa is increasingly a focus of U.S. counterterrorism efforts, even as al-Qaida remains a threat in Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere. Last month's terrorist attack on a natural gas complex in Algeria, in which at least 37 hostages and 29 militants were killed, illustrated the threat posed by extremists who have asserted power propelled by long-simmering ethnic tensions in Mali and the revolution in Libya.
A number of al-Qaida-linked Islamic extremist groups operate in Mali and elsewhere in the Sahara, including a group known as al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, which originated in Algeria and is active in northern Mali.
In January, French forces intervened to stop the extremists' move toward Mali's capital, and Washington has grown more involved by providing a variety of military support to French troops.

Source: http://www.wilx.com/home/headlines/American-Troops-Deployed-to-Niger-192620381.html

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Confirmed: Google Glass Will Tether With Android And iPhone For 3G Or 4G Data

Google opened up a sort of pre-order contest for civilians (i.e., non-developers) this week for its new augmented reality headgear that should ship before the end of 2013 for $1,500 (for those with a clever enough idea.) The other significant news is that both CNET?and The Verge?report that ?Glass will be able to connect via Bluetooth to both?Android phones?and the iPhone. Glass can pull down data from wifi or use the 3G or 4G feed from a connected phone, but it won?t have its own cellular radio.?

It?s nice to see that Google is not escalating the platform wars by locking iOS out of the Glass ecosystem. In truth, that would not have been in Google?s best interest. The whole point of Google?s strategy is to increase the flow of information as many ways as possible. Also, as with the rumored iWatch, squeezing a cellular radio (and another data plan) into the device doesn?t make much sense, especially since the entire target audience already has a smart phone.

The bigger question with Glass, for me, is how users will manage?and to what extent they will be allowed to manage?the huge potential torrent of data that this device will collect. The Verge?s Joshua Topolsky had a hands-on (or face-on!) with Glass at Google?s NYC HQ (and a local Starbucks) and found it very easy to?acclimate to. ?The privacy issue is going to be a big hurdle for Google with Glass,? he writes. ?Almost as big as the hurdle it has to jump over to convince normal people to wear something as alien and unfashionable as Glass seems right now.?

I don?t think fashionability is going to be an issue, boundaries will be.?Glass, product director Steve Lee tells Topolsky,??It?s a very intimate device. We?d like to better understand how other people are going to use it. We think they?ll have a great opportunity to influence and shape the opportunity of Glass by not only giving us feedback on the product, but by helping us develop social norms as well.?

Topolsky asks about ?Glass etiquette,? and wonders how ?to answer questions about what?s right and wrong to do with a camera that doesn?t need to be held up to take a photo, and often won?t even be noticed by its owner?s subjects. Will people get comfortable with that? Are they supposed to??

He hits on what is the most radical thing about Glass, the ability to record what is right in front of you, unobtrusively, in real time. Glass will so completely remove the friction from this process that we are all bound to record?and be recorded?without even thinking about it. This is great from a data flow perspective, and remarkable in terms of social science and, of course, marketing. But it places us smack in the middle of the user experience paradox of Glass.

Lee and lead industrial designer for Glass, Isabelle Olsson, told Topolsky about the questions that led them through the product development process. ?What if we brought technology closer to your senses?? Lee asks ?Would that allow you to more quickly get information and connect with other people but do so in a way?with a design?that gets out of your way when you?re not interacting with technology?? So this is supposed to make us more present than the hunched over masses staring at their smart phones.??I don?t want to do that, you know? I don?t want to be that person,? says Olsson.

But if the technology is so close to our sense so as to become prosthetic?a great outcome in terms of design?how do we maintain appropriate boundaries? This is the great experiment of Glass and really for the entire ?connected world.? In this way, Google is much farther ahead than Apple with its supposed iWatch. Glass?s technology is even closer to us physically, even closer (it seems) in coming to market and more active. The iWatch, like most Apple mobile products, will be more about consuming than creating content. Glass, in contrast, will be a documentary studio in an eyeglass case!

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
To keep up with?Quantum of Content, please subscribe to my updates on?Facebook,?follow me on?Twitter?or add me on?Google+.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonykosner/2013/02/23/confirmed-google-glass-will-tether-with-android-and-iphone-for-3g-or-4g-data/

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Three mega-trends fuelling investor interest in Africa

Anthony Thunstrom

How we made it in Africa | 18 February 2013

BY KATE DOUGLAS

In November 2011, professional services firm KPMG officially launched their Global Africa Project (GAP). The formation of GAP added Africa on KPMG?s global high growth market investment programme, alongside markets like India, China and Brazil.

Last year KPMG announced that it will invest US$100 million in Africa to build up their capacity to serve global and regional clients that were investing in the continent?s growth markets.

KPMG?s chief operating officer for GAP, Anthony Thunstrom, told How we made it in Africa that when KPMG South Africa?s CEO Moses Kgosana pitched the business case for GAP to their global board, it wasn?t hard to sell. This was mainly because the firm had received an increased number of calls from their big clients to discuss an Africa strategy.

?To be honest it wasn?t necessarily crystal ball thinking,? said Thunstrom. ?I think the impetus came from the clients talking to us. When you sat back and kind of analysed what the trends were, it was really what we call the ?three Africa mega-trends?.?

The first mega-trend identified by KPMG?s GAP is the growing resources industry. For Thunstrom this doesn?t only include oil, gas and minerals, but also agricultural investment, which he said is currently gaining momentum across the continent.

?From a global food security and a biofuels perspective, from a local foods security perspective, to the point that we are now starting to see a lot of activity both from a government to government level, and equally even at a private equity level with people buying up significant agriculture interest in Africa really because that is the remaining arable land on the planet,? explained Thunstrom.

The second mega-trend catching the eye of KPMG?s clients is Africa?s demographics and expanding population. With roughly a billion people on the continent, Africa?s population is close to China?s and India?s. What is more appealing to companies targeting consumers is that this population is young and urbanising fast.

?If you play this forward in the next five to 10 years from a consumer demand point of view, it actually starts to put up in a level that rivals, if not surpasses, anywhere in the world,? continued Thunstrom. ?You are looking at at least half a billion new consumers that aren?t really spending any money today, [but will be] in a fairly comfortable consumer position in the next five, six, seven years. And that really feeds into so many different sectors. It is going to drive financial services from a bank?s perspective, it talks to mobile phones, it talks to food, FMCG, motor vehicles, and then ultimately on to the third mega-trend, which is really around infrastructure.?

According to Thunstrom, infrastructure investment is the third mega-trend for two reasons. Firstly, Africa suffers historically from an infrastructure deficiency from post-colonial days and a number of civil wars.

?Then, secondly, with the degree of urbanisation that we?re seeing at the moment together with the [pace] that people are developing new mines, new oil fields, new gas finds, the reality is that there is a whole lot of new infrastructure that wasn?t needed two years ago, that is going to be needed over the next 10 years. And already we are just seeing Africa globally as having the biggest potential for infrastructure spend anywhere in the world from the next 10 to 20 years. So that is really the basis of how we have seen the opportunity in Africa,? added Thunstrom.

Source: http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/21668

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In China, Hacker Allegations Seen as Omen, Opportunity

? A U.S. cyber security company's allegation this week that the Chinese military is running cyber espionage operations from a high-rise complex in Shanghai appears to be turning into yet another thorn in the side of U.S.-China relations. Some Chinese analysts say the latest allegations could affect ties.
?

x

Part of the building of 'Unit 61398', a secretive Chinese military unit, is seen in the outskirts of Shanghai, February 19, 2013. ??The report by cyber security firm Mandiant took direct aim at China's government. It says it can trace years of attacks on U.S. corporations to a specific division of the People's Liberation Army (Unit 61398).

Chinese authorities have rejected the allegations, while domestic media have alleged ulterior motives behind the report.
?
On Thursday, a China Daily editorial argued what it said was the real reason for the accusation - a beefing up of the Pentagon?s Cyber Command. The piece said that in recent weeks, U.S. media have reported plans to aggressively expand Cyber Command in the coming years.

It also noted that two years ago when the Pentagon set up its Cyber Command there were similar accusations.
?
Other Chinese publications dismissed the hacking allegations as baseless. The Chinese-language version of the Global Times mocked U.S. media coverage as hyping the report's findings.
?
Cyber threats are among the increasing number of challenges to relations between the U.S. and China. Economic disputes have long plagued ties. And over the past year, island disputes in the South China Sea or between Japan and China have also become more intense.
?
?We found that more and more tensions have happened in strategic affairs. This is not good," said Shi Yinhong, an international relations professor at Beijing?s Renmin University of China. "It is almost a bad omen.?
????????
Shen Dingli, a political scientist at Shanghai?s Fudan University, says that while the U.S. government has yet to back Mandiant's claim that the Shanghai building is the true source of the attacks, there is reason to be concerned about the situation.

?The situation looks bad and if China has done it, it is not appropriate. It would violate China?s own law. And this would make other countries' attacks on China kind of legitimate,? said Shen.
?
Shen said while the accusations in the Mandiant report are questionable, there is no doubt cyberspace has become a new field of competition for the two countries and that both are active in carrying out attacks.?

?I think that China is probably doing it massively, a lot of attacks, and the U.S. is doing it more pointedly, to a particular place,? explained Shen.
?
Professor Shi says because of that, the two countries need to talk.?

?At least this kind of claim and objection provides a chance that both China and the United States, both governments should face this kind of issue more directly and launch some dialogue and talks to discuss this,? stated Shen.
?
Chinese and U.S. officials have discussed cyber security issues and the two sides have held unofficial or ?track two? talks as they are called. But analysts say that the engagement is not enough to meet the complexity of the challenges that come with cyber attacks.

Source: http://www.voanews.com/content/in-china-hacker-allegations-seen-as-omen-opportunity/1608173.html

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Justified, Season 4

Getting locked in a shed with Boyd by some hill people was actually one of the less-scary threats to Raylan's well-being this season on Justified.

Photo by Prashant Gupta/FX.

?A lot of shocking things have happened on Justified this season: Arlo managed to kill someone in jail, Boyd and Ava ordered Colton to off Ellen May, and Raylan lost his girlfriend to a washed-up wannabe MMA fighter whose real dream was to manage cockfights. But perhaps the most shocking thing of all came at the beginning of Week 7?s ?Money Trap,? when the show flashed back to the point where Raylan handed double-homicide suspect Jody Adair over to bail bondswoman Sharon Edmunds. That moment would have come, chronologically, toward the end of Episode 1. So imagine my surprise when ?Six days ago? flashed on the screen to ground the reader in the time-setting. Six days? That means that the entirety of the season?seven episodes so far?has taken place over the course of about a week.

With all that?s happened, Raylan?s had a week to rival Jack Bauer. Let?s review:

Raylan?s long week starts when he gets a call from Sharon Edmunds, who offers him cash to track down Jody Adair. Raylan apprehends him that night. Meanwhile, two teenagers break into Arlo?s house, steal Raylan?s car (and Jody Adair, who?s in the trunk), and then later pull a gun on him. ?You just showed me your tits 45 minutes ago,? Raylan protests to Roz. At some point, he turns Adair over to Edmunds. This happened over parts of two days, but Raylan never slept.

Day 2: Raylan meets Lindsey?s supposedly former husband, and then gets guns pulled on him by the Truth kids. Still, this is a pretty uneventful day; maybe he had time to read a book or go bowling or something.

Day 3: He has sex with Lindsey, runs off Randall (or so he thinks), watches an FBI agent kill himself (but not before making it look like he might shoot Raylan), rescues Drew Thompson?s ?widow,? and returns home to find his apartment trashed and Lindsey?and his money?missing.

Day 4: He hunts down Bonnie and Clyde, loses Lindsey, cuffs Randall, and discovers that the ?goodly sum? he?s been socking away for his unborn child has been converted into a van full of chickens. On the bright side, he eventually gets a decent night?s sleep, and the only gunfight involves bean-bag rounds.

Day 5: Raylan is captured and locked in a shed with Boyd by some hill people, who quickly shoot at them. Boyd and Raylan scrap their way out, and Raylan talks the hill people into sparing their lives, right before he handcuffs Boyd to a tree. All night. ?Elsewhere, Josiah Cairn goes and gets his foot cut off and disappears, wrecking Raylan?s plans to cuddle up with a good book the next day.

Day 6: Raylan and his new friend Sheriff Shelby track down Josiah Cairn?in a truly Jack Bauer-esque moment?right as one of the morons who kidnapped him is cauterizing his stump with a blow torch. Shockingly, guns are drawn. Sheriff Shelby shoots one of Josiah?s kidnappers, wounding him.

Day 7: ?Raylan chases Joey Adair all over Lexington, scoops up a sweet young damsel in distress, and eventually confronts Adair at the Highnote. Like most of the people Raylan encounters this week, Adair tries to pull a gun. Raylan draws faster. Lights out.

So, what did you do this week? Is there a body count involved? Raylan?s week, by the numbers:

Killed in action: Sharon Edmunds, her partner, Agent Barnes, Jody Adair

Wounded: Roz (stabbed by Constable Bob), Josiah (chopped), the convenience store clerk (beat up by Randall), the bumbling idiot who chopped Josiah?s foot (shot but alive)

Kidnapped (and rescued): Josiah, Eve Munro

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=5500eb6a6658c6c17559dd4a8e0161eb

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3-D printed magazines could change gun control

Tech-savvy gun enthusiasts could easily find a way around any new curbs on firearms: If they want something, print it.

A Texas law student who used a 3-D printer to fashion a plastic magazine and then posted his ensuing trip to the firing range online got more than 280,000 views on YouTube - but then his leased 3-D printer was confiscated by a jittery manufacturer.

3-D printers are often used to make consumer items like jewelry and hearing aids, and also help reduce waste in manufacturing, according to Alyssa Reichental of 3D Systems Corporation, which manufactures 3-D printers for sale worldwide.

President Obama cited the innovative power of 3-D printing during his State of the Union speech last week, saying it would "revolutionize the way we make almost everything." A 3-D printer is a bit like a conventional printer, but instead of using ink on paper, it deposits layers of resin or other material that will harden to make a three-dimensional object.

Get more pure politics at ABCNews.com/Politics

But a larger portion of his speech was devoted to his desire to enact new firearm restrictions. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D., Calif., proposed legislation in January that would ban the manufacture, sale, possession or transfer of any ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 bullets. That would presumably include home-manufactured magazines made with 3-D printers.

University of Texas law student Cody Wilson says he opposes any such restrictions. He's the activist who put up the YouTube video last month that showed him firing a Colt M-16 with a 30-round plastic magazine made by a 3-D printer.

Government actions on gun control are merely symbolic, according to Wilson.

"We hope to make the issue relevant," Wilson said. Government leaders "act like passing a law will keep magazines off the street but we want to show them that magazines will always be on the street."

Wilson runs an organization called Defense Distributed, which aims to spread information on how to create printable guns.

Wilson's actions have prompted some printing companies, like the major 3-D printing company Stratasys, to take action. Stratasys said it believes Wilson used its property for "illegal purposes."

The company leased a machine to Wilson last year but later confiscated it after learning what Wilson planned to do with it, according to a report in The Washington Post. Another company, MakerBot, also removed gun designs of downloadable blueprints it maintains for 3-D printer users, according to the report.

The printers are intended to be used to create consumer goods like Invisalign, according to 3-D Systems Chief Marketing Officer Cathy Lewis. She said 3-D printing is already becoming commonplace in communities across America.

"3-D printing ought to be used for educational purposes," said 3D Systems Chief Marketing Officer Cathy Lewis. "There is no way to deny access to a product that we make affordable and easy to use, but we make sure we are not assisting in products that could be printed or used for illicit or non-authorized purposes."

Also Read

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/welcome-age-printed-gun-magazine-110126551--abc-news-politics.html

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Study: High levels of flame retardants found in firefighters, cancer link possible

By EMS1 Staff

SAN FRANCISCO ? A new study found that a dozen San Francisco firefighters have unusually high levels of flame retardants in their systems.

This may suggest why so many firefighters are afflicted with cancer and other health problems, researcher say.

The Chemosphere study found that firefighters had high concentrations of the common retardant polybrominated diphenyl ethers. Their levels were two to three times higher than that of other people in California and the general U.S. population.

Researchers admit, while the size of the study was small, it brings to light how these chemicals may affect firefighters, as they are oftentimes exposed to them.

The study was led by the Marine Environmental Research Institute and a retired firefighter.

Source: http://www.ems1.com/fire-ems/articles/1408199-Study-High-levels-of-flame-retardants-found-in-firefighters-cancer-link-possible/

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Chinese cyberspies have hacked most Washington institutions

The information compromised by such intrusions, security experts say, would be enough to map how power is exercised in Washington to a remarkably nuanced degree. The only question, they say, is whether the Chinese have the analytical resources to sort through the massive troves of data they steal every day.

READ: Zero Day ? A special report on the threat in cyberspace

?The dark secret is there is no such thing as a secure unclassified network,? said James A. Lewis, a cybersecurity expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, which has been hacked in the past. ?Law firms, think tanks, newspapers ? if there?s something of interest, you should assume you?ve been penetrated.?

The rising wave of cyber-espionage has produced diplomatic backlash and talk of action against the Chinese, who have steadfastly denied involvement in hacking campaigns. A strategy paper released by the Obama administration Wednesday outlined new efforts to fight the theft of trade secrets.

Cyberspying against what could be called the ?information industry? differs from hacks against traditional economic targets such as Lockheed Martin, Coca-Cola and Apple, whose computer systems contain valuable intellectual property that could assist Chinese industrial or military capabilities.

Instead, journalists, lawyers and human rights workers often have access to political actors whose communications could offer insight to Chinese intelligence services eager to understand how Washington works. Hackers often are searching for the unseen forces that might explain how the administration approaches an issue, experts say, with many Chinese officials presuming that reports by think tanks or news organizations are secretly the work of government officials ? much as they would be in Beijing.

?They?re trying to make connections between prominent people who work at think tanks, prominent donors that they?ve heard of and how the government makes decisions,? said Dan Blumenthal, director of Asian studies at the American Enterprise Institute, which also has been hacked. ?It?s a sophisticated intelligence-gathering effort at trying to make human-network linkages of people in power, whether they be in?Congress or the executive branch.?

China?s aggressive effort

Russia and some other nations also are said to engage in cyber-
espionage against private companies and institutions, but security experts and U.S. officials say China?s effort is the most aggressive and comprehensive. The infor?mation-technology staffs of private groups have scrambled to neutralize the intrusions, often hiring outside specialists to expel hackers and installing monitoring systems to keep them out.

Yet such efforts do not always succeed, security experts say. Hackers often build secret ?back door? access to computer systems or redouble their efforts to penetrate again once they?ve been purged.

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/chinese-cyberspies-have-hacked-most-washington-institutions-experts-say/2013/02/20/ae4d5120-7615-11e2-95e4-6148e45d7adb_story.html?tid=socialss

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Demonstration in Israel set to protest Argentina-Iran pact on AMIA case

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

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/jta/breaking-news/~3/QxpR_zdKYzw/demonstration-in-israel-against-argentina-iran-pact-set

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New imaging device is flexible, flat, and transparent

Feb. 20, 2013 ? Digital cameras, medical scanners, and other imaging technologies have advanced considerably during the past decade. Continuing this pace of innovation, an Austrian research team has developed an entirely new way of capturing images based on a flat, flexible, transparent, and potentially disposable polymer sheet. The team describes their new device and its possible applications in a paper published February 20 in the Optical Society's (OSA) open-access journal Optics Express.

The new imager, which resembles a flexible plastic film, uses fluorescent particles to capture incoming light and channel a portion of it to an array of sensors framing the sheet. With no electronics or internal components, the imager's elegant design makes it ideal for a new breed of imaging technologies, including user interface devices that can respond not to a touch, but merely to a simple gesture.

"To our knowledge, we are the first to present an image sensor that is fully transparent -- no integrated microstructures, such as circuits -- and is flexible and scalable at the same time," says Oliver Bimber of the Johannes Kepler University Linz in Austria, co-author of the Optics Express paper.

The sensor is based on a polymer film known as a luminescent concentrator (LC), which is suffused with tiny fluorescent particles that absorb a very specific wavelength (blue light for example) and then reemit it at a longer wavelength (green light for example). Some of the reemitted fluorescent light is scattered out of the imager, but a portion of it travels throughout the interior of the film to the outer edges, where arrays of optical sensors (similar to 1-D pinhole cameras) capture the light. A computer then combines the signals to create a gray-scale image. "With fluorescence, a portion of the light that is reemitted actually stays inside the film," says Bimber. "This is the basic principle of our sensor."

For the luminescent concentrator to work as an imager, Bimber and his colleagues had to determine precisely where light was falling across the entire surface of the film. This was the major technical challenge because the polymer sheet cannot be divided into individual pixels like the CCD camera inside a smartphone. Instead, fluorescent light from all points across its surface travels to all the edge sensors. Calculating where each bit of light entered the imager would be like determining where along a subway line a passenger got on after the train reached its final destination and all the passengers exited at once.

The solution came from the phenomenon of light attenuation, or dimming, as it travels through the polymer. The longer it travels, the dimmer it becomes. So by measuring the relative brightness of light reaching the sensor array, it was possible to calculate where the light entered the film. This same principle has already been employed in an input device that tracks the location of a single laser point on a screen.

The researchers were able to scale up this basic principle by measuring how much light arrives from every direction at each position on the image sensor at the film's edge. They could then reconstruct the image by using a technique similar to X-ray computed tomography, more commonly known as a CT scan.

"In CT technology, it's impossible to reconstruct an image from a single measurement of X-ray attenuation along one scanning direction alone," says Bimber. "With a multiple of these measurements taken at different positions and directions, however, this becomes possible. Our system works in the same way, but where CT uses X-rays, our technique uses visible light."

Currently, the resolution from this image sensor is low (32x32 pixels with the first prototypes). The main reason for this is the limited signal-to-noise ratio of the low-cost photodiodes being used. The researchers are planning better prototypes that cool the photodiodes to achieve a higher signal-to-noise ratio.

By applying advanced sampling techniques, the researchers can already enhance the resolution by reconstructing multiple images at different positions on the film. These positions differ by less than a single pixel (as determined by the final image, not the polymer itself). By having multiple of these slightly different images reconstructed, it's possible to create a higher resolution image. "This does not require better photodiodes," notes Bimber, "and does not make the sensor significantly slower. The more images we combine, the higher the final resolution is, up to a certain limit."

The main application the researchers envision for this new technology is in touch-free, transparent user interfaces that could seamlessly overlay a television or other display technology. This would give computer operators or video-game players full gesture control without the need for cameras or other external motion-tracking devices. The polymer sheet could also be wrapped around objects to provide them with sensor capabilities. Since the material is transparent, it's also possible to use multiple layers that each fluoresce at different wavelengths to capture color images.

The researchers also are considering attaching their new sensor in front of a regular, high-resolution CCD sensor. This would allow recording of two images at the same time at two different exposures. "Combining both would give us a high-resolution image with less overexposed or underexposed regions if scenes with a high dynamic range or contrast are captured," Bimber speculates. He also notes that the polymer sheet portion of the device is relatively inexpensive and therefore disposable. "I think there are many applications for this sensor that we are not yet aware of," he concludes.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Optical Society of America.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Alexander Koppelhuber, Oliver Bimber. Towards a transparent, flexible, scalable and disposable image sensor using thin-film luminescent concentrators. Optics Express, 2013; 21 (4): 4796 DOI: 10.1364/OE.21.004796

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