Sunday, June 30, 2013

Sony Is 'Inviting', Wii U Is 'Underpowered'

http://www.nowgamer....derpowered.html

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Dreamfall Chapters could come to next-gen consoles, the most likely being the PS4 and the least likely being the Wii U.

Dreamfall Chapters - the final in the Longest Journey trilogy - has been Kickstarted and will be coming to PC whenever it's ready, but it might also come to PS4 and Xbox One.

Speaking with Eurogamer, Ragnar Tornquist said, "We are preparing to go to consoles. Without officially announcing anything. We are keen on getting this game to as many people as possible.

"We're building a game that has cross-platform technology anyway, so I think the chances are extremely good that we'll land on one or both of the next-gen consoles."

Despite recent criticisms surrounding Microsoft's closed wall system - and the barrier that presents to indies - Tornquist revealed that he has been in talks with all three console manufacturers.

"We have started dialogue with Microsoft, yeah," he said. "The Xbox One and Microsoft, they get a lot of flack, but it's still an extremely interesting platform for us, obviously, and it's going to be huge.

"I've officially also said that Sony is a lot more inviting and welcoming to indie developers, so it's a lot easier for us to start that dialogue and get support. It is a bit harder with Microsoft but it's not like we're excluding anything."

Tornquist added that the PS4 is "definitely an interesting platform for us right now" suggesting that, if anywhere, it'll be on the PS4 where Dreamfall Chapters appears outside of the PC.

While Nintendo is accommodating, the problem here is the technical capabilities of the Wii U.

"We are also in dialogue with Nintendo," said Tornquist. "We're going to be looking at it. We can't make any promises because the Wii U, it's underpowered compared to the next-gen consoles and PC obviously - I don't think that's a secret or Nintendo would get upset at me.

"We're going to look at getting the game running on Wii U and then we'll make decisions depending on how that goes and what we see the market possibilities are doing. Like I said, we don't want to exclude anything, so we'll try anything."

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Should have seen this one coming.


Source: http://thewiiu.com/topic/13452-sony-is-inviting-wii-u-is-underpowered/

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Saturday, June 29, 2013

Video: Ford?s Virttex driver performance simulator

IMG_1974

There is a lot of technology in a car these days and making it efficient and safe is always a priority for car manufacturers. Ford have a great way of testing changes in the UI for in car tech and measuring the distractions it can cause. Obviously Ford don?t want to put test drivers out on the road with the risk of crashing so they have simulator for testing driver performance and reactions to the test systems.

IMG_1986
The simulator is a full sized Ford Escape in a hydraulically controlled pod which has a 360 degree screen so the driver is totally immersed. The control room can then put different scenarios to the test and see how the driver reacts. They can use it for features like lane drift detection and braking alerts.
IMG_1985

In this video we take a look in the control room for a demonstration of the system and an explanation how the system works and what Ford use it for.

Source: http://thedigitallifestyle.com/w/index.php/2013/06/29/video-fords-virttex-driver-performance-simulator/

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Stocks snap three-day winning streak, open lower

stocks

4 hours ago

Stocks skidded back into the red on Friday, as investors seemed reluctant to jump in following a three-day winning streak and after a Fed governor outlined a hypothetical start date for the slowing down of asset purchases.

Fed Governor Jeremy Stein highlighted the upcoming September policy meeting as a possible time when the central bank may need to consider paring back its QE program, adding that the Fed considers the overall economic improvements since it launched the stimulus instead of giving undue weight to the most recent round of tepid economic data.

(Read More: Buckle Up! Expect More Market Volatility This Year)

Stein's comments contradicted comments from other Fed policymakers who have suggested the central bank will bide its time before scaling back its bond purchases.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average eased and was down 56 points in early afternoon trading, after logging its third-straight three-digit rise on Thursday. The Dow is on track for its strongest first half of the year since 1999.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq also poked back into negative territory. The S&P 500 is on pace for its best first half since 1998.

The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, slid near 16.

Among key S&P sectors, consumer discretionary and utilities led, while techs held small losses.

Meanwhile, Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker said markets should brace for more volatility as they digest news the Fed will scale back bond buying later this year, but the swings will not derail growth. Lacker said he expects U.S. growth to remain around 2 percent for the "foreseeable future."

Cleveland Fed President Sandra Pianalto and San Francisco Fed President John Williams were also scheduled to speak throughout the day. Williams' speech may attract particular interest, as he has previously advocated tapering back bond purchases as early as this summer.

(Read More:Fed Out in Force as Markets Stabilize)

On the economic front, business activity index in the Midwest fell in June to 51.6 from 58.7 in May, according to the Institute for Supply Management-Chicago. A Reuters survey of economists on average expected a median reading of 56.0 in June versus the May figure of 58.7.

Meanwhile, consumer sentiment improved in late June, with the final reading on the overall index at 84.1, above the preliminary reading of 82.7, according to Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the final June reading of 82.8.

Japan's benchmark stock index hit a three-week high on Friday on the back of positive economic reports that include much stronger than expected industrial output and retail sales numbers.

"We had better job market numbers, better production numbers, and even consumer prices are picking up. So data-wise, today is a pretty good day for Japan," said Takuji Okubo, principal and chief economist at Japan Macro Advisors.

Traders will closely watch gold prices, as the precious metal dipped below a key level of $1,200 per ounce. Analysts warned that miners could be severely affected if prices remain this low.

(Read More: Three Reasons Gold Will Go to $800)

? 2013 CNBC LLC. All Rights Reserved

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Complex activity patterns emerge from simple underlying laws

Complex activity patterns emerge from simple underlying laws [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 28-Jun-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Stamatios Nicolis
snicolis@math.uu.se
46-184-713-236
Uppsala University

A new study from researchers at Uppsala University and University of Havana uses mathematic modeling and experiments on ants to show that a group is capable of developing flexible resource management strategies and characteristic responses of its own. The results are now published in Physical Review Letters.

Group-living animals are led to regulate their activity and to make decisions on how to manage resources, under the action of a variety of environmental stimuli and of their intrinsic interactions. The latter are typically cooperative, in the sense that the activity of a single animal increases nonlinearly with the number of already active ones.

The researchers monitored experimentally and using mathematical modeling the activity profile of food-searching ants in a natural environment. The number of ants entering in or exiting the nest was recorded as well as the local temperature over several days.

The study shows that the group is capable of developing flexible resource management strategies and characteristic responses of its own. This is achieved by operating in an aperiodic fashion close to a regime of chaos, where nonlinearity is especially pronounced and offers the group more options than just following passively the day/night temperature cycle.

Furthermore, the group bursts into its foraging activity rapidly and subsequently relaxes to the inactive mode more slowly. This flexible behavior is reminiscent of "free will" in the sense that groups' activities are not totally constrained by the environment but on the contrary constitute new, emerging modes of behavior not encoded in the external stimuli or in the activity rhythms of the individuals within the group.

"Our results are likely to account for a wide range of temporal rhythms observed across the animal kingdom as well as in human societies", says Stamatios Nicolis, researcher at the Department of Mathematics, who lead the study.

"For instance, signal processing in the brain typically leads to complex patterns of electrical activity as witnessed by the electroencephalogram whose aperiodic, chaotic-looking structure is not a simple replica of the signal but reflects instead the ability of the brain to store vast amounts information and to process them selectively depending on the circumstances", says Stamatios Nicolis.

###

"Foraging at the edge of chaos: Internal clock versus external forcing" by "S. C. Nicolis, J. Fernndez, C. Prez-Penichet, C. Noda, F. Tejera, O. Ramos, D. J. T. Sumpter, and E. Altshuler, Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 268104 (2013), DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.268104

For more information, please contact

Stamatios Nicolis
tel: + 46 18-471 3236
e-mail: snicolis@math.uu.se


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Complex activity patterns emerge from simple underlying laws [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 28-Jun-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Stamatios Nicolis
snicolis@math.uu.se
46-184-713-236
Uppsala University

A new study from researchers at Uppsala University and University of Havana uses mathematic modeling and experiments on ants to show that a group is capable of developing flexible resource management strategies and characteristic responses of its own. The results are now published in Physical Review Letters.

Group-living animals are led to regulate their activity and to make decisions on how to manage resources, under the action of a variety of environmental stimuli and of their intrinsic interactions. The latter are typically cooperative, in the sense that the activity of a single animal increases nonlinearly with the number of already active ones.

The researchers monitored experimentally and using mathematical modeling the activity profile of food-searching ants in a natural environment. The number of ants entering in or exiting the nest was recorded as well as the local temperature over several days.

The study shows that the group is capable of developing flexible resource management strategies and characteristic responses of its own. This is achieved by operating in an aperiodic fashion close to a regime of chaos, where nonlinearity is especially pronounced and offers the group more options than just following passively the day/night temperature cycle.

Furthermore, the group bursts into its foraging activity rapidly and subsequently relaxes to the inactive mode more slowly. This flexible behavior is reminiscent of "free will" in the sense that groups' activities are not totally constrained by the environment but on the contrary constitute new, emerging modes of behavior not encoded in the external stimuli or in the activity rhythms of the individuals within the group.

"Our results are likely to account for a wide range of temporal rhythms observed across the animal kingdom as well as in human societies", says Stamatios Nicolis, researcher at the Department of Mathematics, who lead the study.

"For instance, signal processing in the brain typically leads to complex patterns of electrical activity as witnessed by the electroencephalogram whose aperiodic, chaotic-looking structure is not a simple replica of the signal but reflects instead the ability of the brain to store vast amounts information and to process them selectively depending on the circumstances", says Stamatios Nicolis.

###

"Foraging at the edge of chaos: Internal clock versus external forcing" by "S. C. Nicolis, J. Fernndez, C. Prez-Penichet, C. Noda, F. Tejera, O. Ramos, D. J. T. Sumpter, and E. Altshuler, Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 268104 (2013), DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.268104

For more information, please contact

Stamatios Nicolis
tel: + 46 18-471 3236
e-mail: snicolis@math.uu.se


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-06/uu-cap062813.php

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Man paralyzed after saving drowning girl, dies at 43

Michael Patterson (photo: Facebook)Michael Patterson (photo: Facebook)

Michael Patterson, the 43-year-old Georgia man who dived into a creek to save a 4-year-old girl from drowning and became paralyzed from the chest down during the rescue, died after spending three weeks in a hospital, the Associated Press reports.

Patterson's family shared the news on Facebook.

Patterson's bravery left many, including the woman whose daughter he rescued, stunned. "He jumped in head first and after I grabbed her, I looked back and he was floating on top of the water," Jones told WSB-TV.com after Patterson's injury, which occurred on June 8.

The girl, Javea Jones, was able to be resuscitated. Patterson broke his neck during the dive. He also developed respiratory acidosis, pneumonia and a bacterial infection following the injury, according to Fox News.? The medical problems that came after the broken neck contributed to his death, Polk County Coroner Trey Litesey told news outlets.

Patterson's bravery was commended across the Web. Comments on the Yahoo News story following his injury reflected the immense respect people had for his actions.

One commenter wrote, "there really are no words to express the character of this man." Another wrote, "now this is what a hero looks like."

On Facebook, where friends and family of Patterson had set up a page to raise funds for his care, there was an outpouring of sympathy.

The friends of Mike Patterson wrote this on a Facebook page:

Mike?s spirit and selfless actions inspired tens of thousands who sent cards, letters and emails and engaged in posts at the Friends of Mike Patterson Facebook page (www.facebook.com/Friendsofmikepatterson). His life and the lives of others are forever changed by his courageous, split-second decision to save another?s life. Mike?s tragic story made news headlines around the globe. His heroic act stirred an outpouring of emotion and a desire to help Mike in his time of need. His caring nature will forever be honored.

At this time, funeral or any other arrangements are not known. The Friends of Mike Patterson Trust will post additional information as it becomes available. Please keep Mike's family and friends in your prayers.

Patterson's dive was not the first time that he had demonstrated his bravery. A week before, he and another man had pulled a truck driver from his cab after the truck caught fire.

His mother told WSB-TV that her son didn't see what the big deal was about his part in rescuing the man from the truck fire.

"He said he did what he thought, what he hoped anyone else would have done for him. That's not a very common thing anymore, for anyone to care about someone they don't know," she told the Cedartown Standard.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/man-became-paralyzed-saving-drowning-girl-dies-43-210825678.html

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Low self-control promotes selfless behavior in close relationships

June 27, 2013 ? When faced with the choice of sacrificing time and energy for a loved one or taking the self-centered route, people's first impulse is to think of others, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

"For decades psychologists have assumed that the first impulse is selfish and that it takes self-control to behave in a pro-social manner," says lead researcher Francesca Righetti of VU University Amsterdam in the Netherlands. "We did not believe that this was true in every context, and especially not in close relationships."

Righetti and colleagues sought to examine whether impulsivity, in close relationships, might actually benefit others.

They found that participants whose self-control was taxed (and were thus more impulsive) were more willing to sacrifice time and energy for their romantic partner or best friend than participants whose self-control wasn't taxed.

In one study, to find out whether they would sacrifice in actual practice, the researchers told couples they would have to talk to 12 strangers and ask them embarrassing questions. The participants didn't know that they wouldn't actually have to follow through with the task.

Participants with high self-control opted to split the burden right down the middle -- assigning six strangers to themselves and six strangers to their partner. But participants with low self-control opted to take on more of the burden, sacrificing their own comfort to spare their partners.

A final experiment revealed that married individuals low in trait self-control sacrificed more for their partners, yet were also less forgiving of their transgressions -- presumably because self-control is required to override the focus on the wrongdoing and think instead about the relationship as a whole.

While sacrificing for a partner may help to build the relationship on a day-to-day basis, Righetti and colleagues note that it could backfire over the long-term, compromising individuals' ability to maintain a balance between personal and relationship-related concerns.

This balance is a perennial issue for anyone in a close relationship:

"Whether it's about which activities to engage in during free time, whose friends to go out with, or which city to live in, relationship partners often face a divergence of interests -- what is most preferred by one partner is not preferred by the other," notes Righetti.

The field of research is relatively new, so the jury is still out on what effects sacrifice has on relationship well-being, but Righetti is hopeful that research over the next few years will shed more light on the link.

Co-authors on this research include Catrin Finkenauer, also of VU University Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and Eli Finkel of Northwestern University.

This research was supported by grants from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/vEB9BGp7PWA/130627142553.htm

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Friday, June 28, 2013

Perry, filibuster star clash over Texas abortions

GRAPEVINE, Texas (AP) ? A fight over sweeping attempts to limit abortion in Texas became a personal grudge match Thursday between conservative Republican Gov. Rick Perry and a state senator whose lengthy, one-woman filibuster has catapulted her to sudden, national political stardom.

Addressing the 43rd annual National Right to Life Conference in Grapevine, Perry singled out state Sen. Wendy Davis of Fort Worth, saying that her life story proves all children born into difficult circumstances deserve not be aborted.

"She was the daughter of a single woman. She was a teenage mother herself. She managed to eventually graduate from Harvard Law School and serve in the Texas Senate," Perry said. "It's just unfortunate that she hasn't learned from her own example that every life must be given a chance to realize its full potential and that every life matters."

In comments to reporters afterward, he went even further, saying that he was glad Davis' mother didn't chose to have an abortion.

"What if her mom had said, "I just can't do this. I don't want to do this,'" Perry said. "At that particular point in time I think it becomes very personal."

Davis starting working at 14 to help support a household of her single mother and three siblings. By 19, she was already married and divorced with a child of her own ? but she eventually graduated with honors from Harvard Law School and won her senate seat in an upset.

In an e-mailed statement Wednesday, Davis shot back: "Rick Perry's statement is without dignity and tarnishes the high office he holds."

"They are small words that reflect a dark and negative point of view," she said. "Our governor should reflect our Texas values. Sadly, Gov. Perry fails that test."

On Tuesday, Davis' marathon speech and raucous outbursts from abortion rights protesters in the state Senate that kept lawmakers from approving sweeping restrictions that could make abortion all but impossible for many women in the second-largest state.

Those efforts ran out the clock on the midnight deadline Tuesday to pass legislation during a special legislative session Perry called to tackle abortion and other key issues. But on Wednesday, he called a second, 30-day extra session and put tighter abortion rules at the top of the agenda he sets for lawmakers.

The extra session has delayed Perry's expected announcement on whether he will seek a fourth full term as governor in elections next year. Davis is up for re-election then too, but some Democratic activists are urging her to seek the party's gubernatorial nomination.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/perry-filibuster-star-clash-over-texas-abortions-175240836.html

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DuPont and PMA team up to embed Powermat wireless charging in Corian countertops

DuPont and PMA team up to embed Powermat wireless charging in Corian countertops

DuPont's managed to work its way into just about every home and place of business here in the US of A, but despite this nationwide proliferation, we haven't seen the Delaware-based chemicals giant making waves in the consumer electronics space. But with home wraps, plastics and body armor on lockdown, it's as good a time as any to venture into CE. Through a partnership with the Power Matters Alliance (PMA), the company will soon begin embedding Powermat's wireless charging tech within its Corian solid surface, a synthetic granite alternative often used for countertops and installed everywhere from kitchens and meeting rooms to hospitals and research labs. As a notable first step, DuPont has joined the PMA, and could soon be playing a key role in charging up your gadgets on the go. We've seen Powermat demo its own tabletop charging concept at CES, but with DuPont now on board, it shouldn't be long before we begin to see seamless Corian installations pop up in public spaces, and perhaps even some homes.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/27/dupont-joins-pma/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Thursday, June 27, 2013

Capitol Report | New Mexico ? NM insurance boss gets job after his ...

THANKS, HONEY: John Franchini was named Superintendent of Insurance for New Mexico after his wife resigned her job. NM Watchdog photo.

THANKS, HONEY: John Franchini was named Superintendent of Insurance for New Mexico after his wife resigned her job. NM Watchdog photo.

ALBUQUERQUE ? John Franchini must have really wanted to become the superintendent of insurance for the state New Mexico. And he may have to buy his wife plenty of candy and flowers.

On Wednesday afternoon, the 67-year-old veteran of state politics announced his wife Julie had resigned her job as an underwriter for the Independent Insurance Agents of New Mexico and that cleared the way for the Insurance Nominating Committee to approve Franchini for the top job in an 8-0 vote.

?She will stay out of insurance completely,? Franchini told the committee after Mark Reynolds of the State Attorney General?s Office concluded that having Franchini?s wife working in the insurance industry ? even though her firm is a non-profit organization ? could be interpreted as a conflict of interest.

?I?ve agonized over this for the last few days and nights,? committee chairman Chris Krahling said. ?I think we?re doing the right thing, going by the letter of the law.?

Effective July 1, the insurance division becomes a stand-alone state agency after previously been part of the Public Regulation Commission. The Legislature passed a bill approving the switch and within the law a provision specifically stated the superintendent ?shall not have a spouse or child who has any direct financial interest in an insurer, insurance agency or insurance transaction except as a policyholder or a claimant??

The attorney general?s opinion concluded that as long as Julie Franchini was employed at her firm, ?Mr. Franchini may be disqualified from serving as State Superintendent of Insurance.?

?I?m not happy about it,? Franchini told the committee, saying he thinks the agency is being judged differently than other parts of state government, but said, ?I accept the attorney general?s statement.? Franchini said his wife is resigning immediately.

?It?s really important that the public sees there is no conflict and that this agency gets a clean slate,? committee member Jason Marks said.

?Appearances are important,? committee member Norman Becker said.

The decision means that Franchini continues as the state?s top insurance boss. He?s held a similar title when the agency?s been run through the PRC.

But PRC commissioner Pat Lyons has come out against a Franchini nomination.

In addition to the potential conflict of interest, Lyons alleged that Franchini ?tried to sneak through raises? for himself and members of his staff in May.

Franchini told the PRC he knew nothing about those increases but last week told the committee that he was in favor of the raises, saying some staff members were ?immorally? underpaid.

?He did an about-face,? Lyons told New Mexico Watchdog before Wednesday?s meeting. ?He didn?t tell the truth, it?s not right.?

?That was an unjustified criticism,? Franchini told New Mexico Watchdog after he had been confirmed. ?Pat is wrong. I can?t agree with that.?

The pay raise flap did not come up in Wednesday?s hearing.

After being told of Franchini?s confirmation, Lyons told New Mexico Watchdog, ?I got overruled on that ? I wish him the best and hope the new insurance commission does a great job for New Mexico.?

Franchini said his current job pays about $100,000 per year and could go up to $125,000. He said the loss of his wife?s salary would represent ?approximately a 30 percent? reduction in their household income.

?We have a lot to do,? Franchini told the committee about the newly-constituted agency, which is estimated to hire nearly 100 people and have a budget of $7.7 million. ?For the first few months, we?ll stumble a bit but we will address every consumer concern that comes our way ? The more open we are, the better we can serve the state.?

Contact Rob Nikolewski at rob@nmwatchdog.org and follow him on Twitter @robnikolewski

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 26th, 2013 and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Source: http://www.capitolreportnewmexico.com/2013/06/nm-insurance-boss-gets-job-after-his-wife-quits-hers/

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With Echoes Of Summly And Siri, Wibbitz Relaunches Its Text-To-Video Service As A Consumer App

wibbitzChalk up another point for the growth of apps coming out of Israel that are focused on consumers, but draw on the country's better-known heritage for producing big data and enterprise startups. Wibbitz, a platform that draws on natural language technology, artificial intelligence and some clever algorithms to automatically translate texts into videos, is today launching a consumer-focused app.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/D2eRsDqaPQs/

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Wednesday, June 26, 2013

China and U.S. war over Snowden, but no lasting damage seen

By Sui-Lee Wee

BEIJING (Reuters) - China rebuked the United States on Tuesday for accusing it of facilitating the flight of fugitive U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden, and said suggestions that it had done so were "baseless and unacceptable".

The remarks from the Chinese foreign ministry and earlier comments from state media have underscored the strain in ties between the two countries since Snowden, who is wanted by the U.S. government on charges of espionage, fled Hong Kong on Sunday.

The White House said the decision by the Chinese territory to allow Snowden to leave was "a deliberate choice by the government to release a fugitive despite a valid arrest warrant, and that decision unquestionably has a negative impact on the U.S.-China relationship.

China rejected the accusation.

"The U.S. side has no reason to call into question the Hong Kong government's handling of affairs according to law," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a regular briefing. "The United States' criticism of China's central government is baseless. China absolutely cannot accept it."

Hua also defended the Hong Kong government's decision to let Snowden go, saying it "handled the relevant case completely according to law.

"This is beyond dispute. All parties should respect this."

Experts on both sides however said the tirade should quickly blow over, and that neither country would be keen to let ties deteriorate permanently just weeks after a successful summit meeting between President Barack Obama and President Xi Jinping.

"China does not want this to affect the overall situation, the central government has always maintained a relatively calm and restrained attitude because Sino-U.S. relations are important," said Zhao Kejing, a professor of international relations at China's elite Tsinghua University.

"The United States has no reason to exert greater pressure, otherwise it would lose moral support."

Kenneth Lieberthal, a China expert at the Brookings Institution who was an Asia adviser in Bill Clinton's White House, said sanctioning Beijing was "inconceivable" and linking Snowden to other issues would undo careful policy aimed at handling issues in separate lanes to avoid big ruptures in ties.

"Over the years, we've sought to prevent any serious disagreement in one issue area from spilling over and degrading the entire relationship," he said.

At the summit earlier this month, Obama confronted Xi over allegations of cyber-theft. Xi earlier told a news conference with Obama that China itself was a victim of cyber attacks but that the two sides should work together to develop a common approach.

AMMUNITION

Snowden's revelations of widespread snooping by the U.S. National Security Agency in China and Hong Kong have given Beijing considerable ammunition in the tit-for-tat exchange.

"In a sense, the United States has gone from a 'model of human rights' to 'an eavesdropper on personal privacy', the 'manipulator' of the centralized power over the international Internet, and the mad 'invader' of other countries' networks," said the overseas edition of China's People's Daily, which can reflect the government's thinking.

"The world will remember Edward Snowden," the newspaper said. "It was his fearlessness that tore off Washington's sanctimonious mask."

Beijing was torn about keeping Snowden or letting him go, but decided that allowing him to leave was "the lesser of three evils", a source with ties to China's leadership told Reuters, requesting anonymity to avoid repercussions for speaking to a foreign reporter.

"If Snowden was handed over to the United States, China would be perceived to be a running dog of the United States and be criticized by (Chinese and foreign) Internet users sympathetic to Snowden," the source said.

"Allowing Snowden to continue to stay in Hong Kong or come to the mainland would cause more trouble and headache," the source said. "Allowing Snowden to leave was the only option".

The Chinese government has said it was gravely concerned by Snowden's allegations that the United States had hacked into many networks in Hong and China, including Tsinghua University, which hosts one of the country's Internet hubs, and Chinese mobile network companies. It has said it had taken the issue up with Washington.

"Not only did the U.S. authorities not give us an explanation and apology, it instead expressed dissatisfaction at the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region for handling things in accordance with law," wrote Wang Xinjun, a researcher at the Academy of Military Science, in the People's Daily commentary.

State news agency Xinhua was more conciliatory in its tone.

"Both Beijing and Washington fully know that an isolated case should not be allowed to hurt one of the most critical relationships in the world," Xinhua said in a commentary. "It is in the interest of both countries to keep the positive momentum in bilateral relations."

Still, China's academics and state media have been loud in their calls for the Obama administration to apologize to Beijing.

"The United States should not shift the real focus," said Liu Feitao, the deputy chief of U.S. studies at the China Institute of International Studies, a think-tank affiliated with China's foreign ministry.

"This thing has nothing to do with China, except that America owes China an explanation on the cyber attack leaks by Snowden."

(Additional reporting by Michael Martina, Benjamin Kang Lim and Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/top-china-paper-hits-back-u-accusations-snowden-040824725.html

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Microsoft announces Visual Studio 2013 preview now available for download, 5,000 new APIs in Windows 8.1

Microsoft announces Visual Studio 2013, 5,000 new APIs in Windows 81

Windows 8.1 isn't just good news for users, as the new OS version is also bringing the goodies for developers as well, in the form of 5,000 new APIs for devs to play with. Along with 8.1's arrival is a new version of Visual Studio, that'll allow devs to write native apps for Windows 8 and optimize them for the platform. The software comes with all the diagnostic tools any good Win8 developer needs, including a way to see an app's power consumption and network efficiency. The Visual Studio 2013 preview is available for download today, so devs anxious to dig in can do so at the source below.

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Source: Visual Studio

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/26/microsoft-visual-studio-2013/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Senate moves forward on immigration bill

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Senate has agreed to spend tens of billions of dollars on a dramatic increase of border security.

The move comes as senators near passage of immigration legislation offering U.S. citizenship to millions of people.

The 69-29 vote Wednesday came as the Senate plowed through a few remaining procedural hurdles ahead of final passage. That might happen as early as Thursday.

Earlier, senators knocked down a Republican objection raised against the bill.

The outcomes indicate the legislation commands the backing of well over the 60 senators needed to pass the bill and send it to the House, where an uncertain future awaits.

The White House-backed measure spends tens of billions on border security while establishing a 13-year path to citizenship for 11 million people already here illegally.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senate-moves-forward-immigration-bill-164205436.html

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Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Syria says rebels will take years to match army's strength

BEIRUT (Reuters) - A decision by Western and Arab countries to arm rebels fighting to topple Syria's President Bashar al-Assad poses a danger to peace talks, the Syrian foreign minister said on Monday.

Walid al-Moualem told a news conference in Damascus that the opposition had little hope of matching the Syrian army's strength despite a pledge by the states that make up the "Friends of Syria" to increase military support to the rebels.

"If they expect or fantasize that they can create a balance of power, I think they will need to wait years for that to happen," he said during the televised news conference.

Western and Arab countries as well as Turkey, who have thrown their weight behind the opposition, said their decision to arm the rebels was to rebalance the conflict in which more than 93,000 people have been killed, most of them civilians.

Assad is seen as having gained momentum, seizing a strategic town near the Lebanese border which helps him cement control between the capital Damascus and his stronghold on the Mediterranean coast.

Moualem said that a move towards openly giving military support to the rebels would encourage terrorism and that radical Islamist groups linked to al Qaeda would benefit the most.

"The decision in Doha is dangerous...because it aims to prolong the crisis, to extend the violence and the killing, and to encourage the terrorists to carry out their crimes," he said.

The United States and Russia are planning a peace conference in Geneva between the opposition and Assad's government.

"Arming the opposition will obstruct Geneva. Arming the opposition will kill more of our people," Moualem said. "We head to Geneva not to hand over power to another side.

"Whoever on the other side imagines this, I advise them not to go to Geneva."

The government was willing to discuss forming a broad-based government of national unity in Geneva, he added.

The Syrian conflict began as peaceful protests against four decades of Assad family rule, but descended into a civil war that has drawn in foreign fighters to both sides of the fight, increasing regional ethnic and sectarian tensions.

Syria's opposition, led mostly by the Sunni Muslim majority, has attracted foreign Islamist fighters. Shi'ites from Iraq and Lebanon have joined the fight on the side of Assad, who is from the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.

Moualem said Syria wanted a ceasefire in order to hold talks at Geneva.

"We are insistent that if Geneva is held there must be a ceasefire, and we are ready to study mechanisms for observing it on the basis that neighboring states abide, by halting training, arming and financing and sending them to Syrian territory," he said.

In Brussels, a European Union report said the bloc should support a political settlement but also ease sanctions to help people in rebel-held areas, following steps to exempt the rebels from oil and banking sanctions.

The report from the EU's executive Commission and foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton also said the two-year-old Syrian conflict and a refugee exodus were putting severe strain on Syria's neighbors, threatening the internal stability of Lebanon and Jordan,

Having taken in more than half a million refugees, Lebanon authorities were unable to cope alone, the report said.

"It is imperative to shield the country from the efforts of some of the local and regional actors to wage the Syrian struggle on Lebanese soil," it said.

Lebanon has suffered growing violence at home as the conflict turns into a proxy war along sectarian lines. Lebanon's Hezbollah Shi'ite militia has joined the war on Assad's side.

(Reporting by Erika Solomon; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syria-says-rebels-years-match-armys-strength-123228650.html

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Highlights of Obama's climate plan

President Barack Obama unveiled a sweeping plan Tuesday to combat climate change and prepare the U.S. and other nations for its effects.

Some highlights of the president's plan:

REDUCE POLLUTION

? Issue a presidential memorandum to launch the first-ever federal regulations on carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants.

? Finalize proposed limits on carbon dioxide emissions from new power plants without further delay.

? Provide up to $8 billion in federal loan guarantees to spur investment in efficiency projects and advanced fossil energy, including technology to limit carbon emissions.

? Expand permitting for renewable energy projects like wind and solar on public lands, with a goal of powering more than 6 million homes by 2020.

? Set a goal of installing 100 megawatts of renewable energy projects on federally assisted housing projects by 2020.

? Take more aggressive steps to increase efficiency for appliances and federal buildings, with a goal of reducing carbon dioxide pollution by 3 billion metric tons overall by 2030.

? Develop fuel-economy standards for heavy-duty vehicles.

PREPARE FOR CLIMATE CHANGE

? Create a National Drought Resilience Partnership to help communities, farmers and landowners prepare for droughts and wildfires.

? Promote climate change preparedness by creating a toolkit for local governments and businesses, and by partnering with hospitals.

? Update flood risk reduction standards that all federally funded projects must meet.

GLOBAL EFFORTS

? Work with China, India and other major polluting countries to reduce emissions.

? End U.S. public financing for new coal-fired power plants in other countries. Plants in the poorest countries using the most efficient technology available would be exempt.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/highlights-obamas-climate-plan-190959869.html

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Musical inspired by Tupac Shakur songs being born

FILE - This 1993 file photo originally provided by Columbia Pictures shows rap musician Tupac Shakur is shown in a scene from, "Poetic Justice." A musical inspired by the music of Tupac Shakur hopes to bring gangsta rap to a Broadway stage. A workshop of ?Holler If Ya Hear Me? is currently under way in New York under the direction of Kenny Leon, who helmed the hits ?Fences? and ?The Mountaintop.? The musical sets Shakur?s music to an original story and hopes to be ready for the 2013-2014 Broadway season. (AP Photo/Columbia Pictures, file)

FILE - This 1993 file photo originally provided by Columbia Pictures shows rap musician Tupac Shakur is shown in a scene from, "Poetic Justice." A musical inspired by the music of Tupac Shakur hopes to bring gangsta rap to a Broadway stage. A workshop of ?Holler If Ya Hear Me? is currently under way in New York under the direction of Kenny Leon, who helmed the hits ?Fences? and ?The Mountaintop.? The musical sets Shakur?s music to an original story and hopes to be ready for the 2013-2014 Broadway season. (AP Photo/Columbia Pictures, file)

(AP) ? A musical inspired by the music of Tupac Shakur hopes to bring gangsta rap to a Broadway stage.

A workshop of "Holler If Ya Hear Me" is currently under way in New York under the direction of Kenny Leon, who helmed the Broadway hits "Fences" and "The Mountaintop." The new musical sets Shakur's music to an original story and hopes to be ready for the 2013-2014 Broadway season.

Producers said Monday the musical is set in a Midwestern industrial city during present time and tells the story of two childhood friends "as they struggle to reconcile the challenges and realities of their daily lives with their hopes, dreams and ambitions."

Rapper and actor Shakur, who had multimillion-seller albums like "2Pacalypse Now" and "All Eyez on Me," was killed in September 1996 as he sat in a car in Las Vegas. He was 25 and known for his raw lyrics that drew on the rage of a coarse urban existence.

The new musical has a book by Todd Kreidler, who was a dramaturg for "Radio Golf" and "Gem of the Ocean," and choreography by Tony Award-winner Wayne Cilento of "Wicked" and "Sweet Charity." Afeni Shakur, the late artists' mother, is a producer.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-06-24-Theater-Tupac%20Shakur/id-41b6ee0c58554f1b8b148fa9107df844

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Monday, June 24, 2013

Lovefilm bringing Star Trek, other CBS shows to the UK and Germany

Lovefilm bringing Star Trek, other CBS shows to the UK and Germany

CBS may have teamed up with Netflix in the US to satisfy those of us with an Enterprising bent, but the company has taken a different tack in the UK and Germany. Instead, the firm has signed a deal with Lovefilm to bring CBS and Showtime-owned shows to Amazon's streaming network. The press release promises that users will be able to watch classic Star Trek, Voyager, The Good Wife, Dexter and Californication instantly, although a brief check of the UK site reveals that you may need to wait a short while more before you can immerse yourself in the Delta quadrant / Hank Moody's psyche.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/jh-uldBe3qw/

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Microsoft's 'Project Mountain' puts $700 million into data center powering Xbox One and Office 365 cloud

Microsoft's 'Project Mountain' puts $700 million into data center powering Xbox One and Office 365

Microsoft really, really doesn't want your Xbox One's online services going offline. In a near $700 million investment ($677.6 million), the company's opening a new data center in Iowa specifically aimed at powering Xbox Live and Office 365. Microsoft's Christian Belady told Iowa's Des Moines Register that the data center "supports the growing demand for Microsoft's cloud services" -- a much lauded function of both the Xbox One and Office 365. Alongside the $700 million investment, the company's getting a $6 million tax rebate from the state to move in, effective for five years. As for Microsoft's cloud, we'll assuredly hear more about it -- for both Xbox One and Office 365 -- this week at Build.

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Via: NeoGAF

Source: Des Moines Register

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/Uq2YRYocLEo/

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Analysis: For Obama, a world of Snowden troubles (reuters)

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Sunday, June 23, 2013

Taliban kill 10 foreign climbers, Pakistani guide

ISLAMABAD (AP) ? Islamic militants disguised as policemen killed 10 foreign climbers and a Pakistani guide in a brazen overnight raid against their campsite at the base of one of the world's tallest mountains in northern Pakistan, officials said.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed it carried out the attack at Nanga Parbat to avenge the death of their deputy leader in a U.S. drone strike last month.

The area has largely been peaceful, hundreds of kilometers (miles) from the Taliban's major sanctuaries along the Afghan border. But the militant group, which has been waging a bloody insurgency against the government for years, has shown it has the ability to strike almost anywhere in the country.

The Taliban began their attack by abducting two local guides to take them to the remote base camp in Gilgit-Baltisan, said Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan. One guide was killed, and the other has been detained for questioning. The attackers disguised themselves by wearing uniforms used by the Gilgit Scounts, a paramilitary force that patrols the area, Khan said.

Around 15 gunmen attacked the camp at around 11 p.m. Saturday, said the Alpine Club of Pakistan, which spoke with the surviving guide, Sawal Faqir. They began by beating the mountaineers and taking away any mobile and satellite phones they could find, as well as everyone's money, said the club in a statement.

Some climbers and guides were able to run away, but those that weren't were shot dead, said the club. Faqir was able to hide a satellite phone and eventually used it to notify authorities of the attack.

Attaur Rehman, the home secretary in Gilgit-Baltistan, said 10 foreigners and one Pakistani were killed in the attack. The dead foreigners included three Ukrainians, two Slovakians, two Chinese, one Lithuanian, one Nepalese and one Chinese-American, according to Rehman and tour operators who were working with the climbers. Matt Boland, the acting spokesman at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, confirmed that an American citizen was among the dead, but could not say whether it was a dual Chinese national.

The shooting ? one of the worst attacks on foreigners in Pakistan in recent years ? occurred in a stunning part of the country that has seen little violence against tourists, although it has experienced attacks by radical Sunni Muslims on minority Shiites in recent years.

Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan claimed responsibility for the attack, saying their Jundul Hafsa faction carried out the shooting as retaliation for the death of the Taliban's deputy leader, Waliur Rehman, in a U.S. drone attack on May 29.

"By killing foreigners, we wanted to give a message to the world to play their role in bringing an end to the drone attacks," Ahsan told The Associated Press by telephone from an undisclosed location.

The U.S. insists the CIA strikes primarily kill al-Qaida and other militants who threaten the West as well as efforts to stabilize neighboring Afghanistan. In a recent speech, President Barack Obama outlined tighter restrictions on the highly secretive program.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who wants to pursue peace talks with militants threatening his country, has insisted the U.S. stop the drone strikes, saying they violate Pakistan's sovereignty and are counterproductive because they often kill innocent civilians and stoke anti-U.S. sentiment in this nation of 180 million people.

Sharif responded to the attack on the camp by vowing "such acts of cruelty and inhumanity would not be tolerated and every effort would be made to make Pakistan a safe place for tourists."

Officials expressed fear the attack would deal a serious blow to Pakistan's tourism industry, already struggling because of the high level of violence in the country.

The interior minister promised to take all measures to ensure the safety of tourists as he addressed the National Assembly, which passed a resolution condemning the attack.

"A lot of tourists come to this area in the summer, and our local people work to earn money from these people," said Syed Mehdi Shah, the chief minister of Gilgit-Baltistan. "This will not only affect our area, but will adversely affect all of Pakistan."

He said the base camp was cordoned off by police and paramilitary soldiers after the attack, and a military helicopter searched the area.

Volodymyr Lakomov, the Ukrainian ambassador to Pakistan, also condemned the attack and said, "We hope Pakistani authorities will do their best to find the culprits of this crime."

Many foreign tourists stay away from Pakistan because of the country's reputation as being a dangerous place. But a relatively small number of intrepid foreigners visit Gilgit-Baltistan during the summer to marvel at the towering peaks in the Himalayan and Karakoram ranges, including K2, the second-highest mountain in the world.

A few try to climb them. The world's ninth-highest mountain, Nanga Parbat is 8,126 meters (26,660 feet) tall and is notoriously difficult to summit. It is known as the "killer mountain" because of numerous mountaineering deaths in the past.

Pakistan has very close ties with neighboring China and is sensitive to any issue that could harm the relationship. Pakistani officials have reached out to representatives from China and Ukraine to convey their sympathies, the Foreign Ministry said.

The government suspended the chief secretary and top police chief in Gilgit-Baltistan following the attack and ordered an inquiry into the incident, said Khan, the interior minister.

The shooting was one of the worst attacks on foreigners in Pakistan in the last decade. A suicide attack outside a hotel in the southern city of Karachi killed 11 French engineers in 2002. In 2009, gunmen attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team in the eastern city of Lahore, killing six Pakistani policemen, a driver and wounding several players.

___

Associated Press writer Rasool Dawar contributed to this report from Peshawar, Pakistan.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/taliban-kill-10-foreign-climbers-pakistani-guide-003952483.html

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IT?S THE ARTS with Unqualified Offerings (Unqualified Offerings)

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'Friends of Syria' agree to give urgent rebel aid

DOHA (Reuters) - Western and Arab countries opposed to President Bashar al-Assad agreed at talks in Qatar on Saturday to give urgent military support to Syrian rebels fighting for his overthrow, and to channel it through a Western-backed rebel military command.

Ministers from the 11 main countries which form the Friends of Syria group agreed "to provide urgently all the necessary materiel and equipment to the opposition on the ground, each country in its own way in order to enable them to counter brutal attacks by the regime and its allies".

They also condemned "the intervention of Hezbollah militias and fighters from Iran and Iraq", demanding that they withdraw immediately.

Guerrillas from Lebanon's Shi'ite pro-Iranian Hezbollah organization spearheaded the recapture of the strategic border town of Qusair from mainly Sunni Muslim rebels two weeks ago.

Hezbollah and Shi'ite Iraqi gunmen have also been fighting around the Shi'ite shrine of Sayyid Zainab south of Damascus, while Iranian military commanders are believed to be advising Assad's officers on their counter-offensives against the rebels.

The ministers said the growing sectarian nature of the conflict and the foreign interventions "threaten the unity of Syria (and) broaden the conflict" across the region. They also expressed strong concern at the increasing presence of "terrorist elements" and growing radicalization in Syria.

(Editing by Alison Williams)

(This story has been refiled to fix headline to put 'Friends of Syria' in quote marks)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/friends-syria-agree-urgent-rebel-aid-214656701.html

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