'Out of control': Vigilante justice grips impoverished South African slum

F. Brinley Bruton / NBC News

Ethiopians Ersido Ayele, left, and his uncle Areg Aroso were devastated when a mob rampaged through their shop in Diepsloot, South Africa, last month.

By F. Brinley Bruton, Staff Writer, NBC News

DIEPSLOOT, South Africa ? Ersido Ayele is still wearing the same pants, shirt and sweatshirt he had on when some 40 looters broke through the corrugated iron roof of his corner store almost three weeks ago.

?They burned all my clothes,? the 33-year-old Ethiopian said. ?They burned everything.?

?Everything? included plastic bags of rice, beans and flour; bars of deodorant and soap; bottles of detergent, shampoo and cooking oil; a refrigerator full of soda. Everything equaled around 180,000 rand ($17,000) worth of stock and savings that he and his uncle Areg Aroso had built up over two years trying to make it in South Africa.?

Nobody has been prosecuted in relation to the looting, which swept through other parts of this dusty patch of land crisscrossed by rivers of open sewage.? And it was not an isolated incident ? like many thousands of others, particularly foreigners, Ayele and Aroso fell victim to violence shaking Diepsloot with increasingly frequency. ?

Diepsloot has become synonymous with so-called "mob violence," or vigilante justice.? Crowds of residents are known to attack and sometimes kill those they believe are responsible for crimes, from burglaries to murder.? And of course there is no telling if the vigilante mob has actually captured a criminal, as the Ethiopian shopkeepers can attest to.

Such attacks perpetrated in the name of retribution go hand-in-hand with runaway crime in the settlement ? rape, assault, murder and arson is common here.?

AFP - Getty Images, file

Police stand guard outside a foreign-owned shop in Diepsloot, South Africa, on May 27 after a mob of looters targeted outlets amid simmering anger toward immigrants.

?This violence in South Africa is currently out of control,? said Stella Mkiliwane, the director of Refugee Ministries Centre, which was set up to help the influx of refugees flooding into South Africa. ?It is so violent, you wonder if this is been done by another human being to another.?

While Diepsloot lies within an hour of Johannesburg?s malls, tony restaurants and wide, gracious avenues, it feels like a different country.?Much of the settlement is a slum crowded with shacks lacking electricity and plumbing.

Government services are non-existent in some parts of Diepsloot. A lack of proper roads makes it difficult for police to access some areas and a lack of street lights means many of its roughly 380,000 residents refuse to visit the latrines after dark because they?re afraid of being assaulted or worse.

Reported incidents of arson in Diepsloot jumped from 260 percent in 2011/2012, according to police statistics.? Murder rose 41 percent and violent assaults increased by 380 percent.

The violence can be extreme.?

Golden Mtika, a journalist who works and lives in Diepsloot, has filmed and photographed dozens of examples of residents taking the law into their own hands. ?

One video shot in September shows a Zimbabwean man being beaten to death with sticks and rocks in broad daylight ?like a snake,? Mtika said, after he was accused of trying to rob a nearby shop.? In another, police struggle to hold back dozens of screaming bystanders as ambulance workers try to come to the aid of a man beaten senseless by the same crowd.?

Another photograph from May shows the body of a man cut in two by residents, according to Mtika.

?This is instigated by a number of people who are unemployed,? he said.? ?When someone is not working they will do anything.?

F. Brinley Bruton / NBC News

Samuel Maira, local representative for the ruling ANC party, says growing joblessness and desperation are behind the violence in Diepsloot, South Africa.

Samuel Maira, local representative for the ruling ANC party, says growing joblessness and desperation are behind the violence.

?People are angry about food,? he said, pointing out that a small minority of residents are involved in violence.? ?When you?re hungry you can do anything, even kill someone.?

He said the government of President Jacob Zuma must concentrate on creating jobs: ?That would help people not commit crimes.?

With unemployment rates of around 30 percent, and youth unemployment at over 50 percent, the issues faced by authorities in Diepsloot mirror those throughout the country, said Prince Mashele, a political analyst and director of the Centre for Politics and Research in Pretoria.

?People are becoming more and more impatient with the government,? he said. ?We are dealing with a deeper problem of unemployment.?

The government?s so-called Youth Wage Subsidy and millions of dollars promised towards job creation have not worked, and the consequent anger all too often spills over into xenophobic attacks, he said.

F. Brinley Bruton / NBC News

Streams of sewage and garbage run through the streets of Diepstloot, South Africa.

?The nearest target is poor Somalians who are running a corner shop,? Mashele said.

Martin Manganye is a local South African businessman who says his corner shop in Diepsloot was driven out of business by immigrants who charged less than he did.?

The government should help South Africans, and not immigrants, he said.

?A lot of South African shops closed? as a result of immigrants opening theirs, he said. ??Every day they are building a shop. If we don?t reduce immigration there will be more attacks.?

Resident are indeed becoming fed up, said Lizzie Chauke, a community leader in Diepsloot.

?There has been no changes since 1996,? he said.

People are so poor and desperate that they don?t even have the money to bury their dead, which has resulted in a backlog of unburied bodies in the morgue, she said.

?People come to us and we take them to (ANC officials),? she added. ?I am angry because we report things and they do nothing.?

?They keep on promising but nothing,? Chauke said.

Meanwhile Ayele, the shop owner, has nobody to appeal to or go to for help. He fled hunger in Ethiopia and cannot go back there.? He has no rights or protection within South Africa.

?We had no food, no work so we came to South Africa,? he said.? ?But here there are lots of problems.?

?I do not have a solution,? Ayele added.

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David Chase memorializes James Gandolfini

NEW YORK (AP) ? The creator of "The Sopranos" said at James Gandolfini's funeral that the actor brought the traits of a sad boy, "amazed and confused," to the role of Tony Soprano.

"You were a good boy," David Chase said Thursday at the ceremony at New York's Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine.

One of four speakers at the funeral, Chase gave his remarks in the form of a letter to Gandolfini, in the present tense. The actor's widow, Deborah Lin Gandolfini, and two family friends, were also speakers at the ceremony.

Chase remembered that Gandolfini once told him that "you know what I want to be? A man. That's all. I want to be a man." Chase said he marveled upon hearing that, since Gandolfini represented a man so many others wanted to be.

Paradoxically, Chase said he always felt he was seeing a young boy.

"A sad boy, amazed and confused," he said. "You could see it in your eyes. That's why you were a great actor."

The 51-year-old actor best known for his role as mob boss Tony Soprano in the HBO series died of a heart attack last week while vacationing with his son in Italy.

Celebrities and fellow actors were in the audience, along with members of the public who wanted to salute Gandolfini's work.

From "The Sopranos" was Edie Falco, Joe Pantoliano, Dominic Chianese, Steve Schirripa, Aida Turturro, Vincent Curatola and Michael Imperioli. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie made an appearance. Dick Cavett chatted with actor Steve Buscemi near the front of the church before the ceremony started.

Some 1,500 seats had been set up. A private family wake was held for the actor Wednesday in New Jersey.

Susan Anton, who was Gandolfini's longtime dialogue coach and collaborator, spoke of how the actor struggled with his work.

"He worked hard," Anton said. "He was disciplined. He studied his roles and did his homework." But when the cameras rolled, his work was an act of faith that carried him to an uncharted place, she said.

New Jersey accents were easy to hear among members of the public waiting outside the cathedral and waiting for a chance to get in. A few people spoke in Italian.

"I'm a fan," said Saul Stein, 60, from Harlem. "I came to pay my respects today because he's a character I identify with, a family man."

One casual meeting with Gandolfini was enough to bring Robin Eckstein to the funeral.

"I had friends that worked with him," she said. "I had the pleasure of meeting him a few times and he was just lovely. So warm ... As soon as he knew you were a friend of a friend you were his friend too. He'll be missed. I missed a meeting at work today. I told them I had a funeral to go to."

Broadway theaters paid tribute by dimming their lights briefly Wednesday night. Gandolfini was nominated for a Tony Award in 2009 as an actor in "God of Carnage."

___

Associated Press correspondent Bethan McKernan and Television Writer David Bauder contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/david-chase-memorializes-james-gandolfini-152830544.html

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Witness: leaked cables contained classified info

FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) ? Army Pfc. Bradley Manning disclosed potentially damaging classified information in at least 117 of the more than 250,000 State Department cables he has acknowledged sending to WikiLeaks, according to evidence prosecutors presented at his court-martial Thursday.

The cables published on the website of the anti-secrecy organization in late 2010 contained protected information about foreign governments; foreign relations; U.S. military activities; scientific, technological or economic matters; and vulnerabilities in America's infrastructure, a State Department classification expert said.

Manning said in a courtroom statement in February that since the cables were labeled for wide distribution within the government, he believed that "the vast majority" of them were not classified, even though they were on a computer network reserved for classified material. He contends the cables revealed secret pacts and duplicity that, while possibly embarrassing, should be publicly exposed.

In written testimony read aloud by a prosecutor, classification expert Nicholas Murphy listed 96 cables that he said had been properly classified as "confidential" and 21 properly classified as "secret." His testimony revealed for the first time the specific cables that are the basis for a federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act charge that is among 21 counts the former intelligence analyst faces.

The globe-spanning reports include at least six sent from the U.S. embassy in Baghdad from 2006 to 2009. One from Jan. 5, 2007, reported that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki "is increasingly willing to allow targeted military action against elements of Moqtada al-Sadr's Jaish al-Mahdi militia and other Sadr organizations."

A confidential Dec. 14, 2007, cable from the U.S. embassy in Moscow reported on a consensus among Russian political observers on "a need for the Kremlin to reform itself and reverse a pendulum that has swung too far in favor of state authority."

Prosecutors began presenting testimony about the cables Wednesday when a former State Department official testified on cross-examination that the agency's computer network would have anyone with Manning's top-secret security clearance unrestricted access to the cables. The government alleges he stole them.

Earlier Thursday, the military judge ruled that Manning's lawyers can offer evidence contradicting the government's assertion that he revealed classified information in a leaked battlefield video from Iraq.

The judge, Army Col. Denise Lind, took judicial notice of the document, a preliminary step toward admitting evidence.

The document is an assessment by a former U.S. Central Command official of video showing a 2007 U.S. helicopter attack in Baghdad that killed at least eight people, including a Reuters news photographer and his driver. His assessment was that the video should be unclassified.

That contradicted evidence offered by prosecutors. They have presented an assessment from a Pentagon official that the video revealed military tactics, techniques and procedures and should be classified.

Manning has acknowledged giving the video to WikiLeaks but denies that it revealed national defense information.

The most serious charge Manning faces is aiding the enemy, which carries a potential life sentence.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/witness-leaked-cables-contained-classified-021831180.html

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The violent birth of neutron stars

June 27, 2013 ? A team of researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics conducted the most expensive and most elaborate computer simulations so far to study the formation of neutron stars at the center of collapsing stars with unprecedented accuracy. These worldwide first three-dimensional models with a detailed treatment of all important physical effects confirm that extremely violent, hugely asymmetric sloshing and spiral motions occur when the stellar matter falls towards the center. The results of the simulations thus lend support to basic perceptions of the dynamical processes that are involved when a star explodes as supernova.

Stars with more than eight to ten times the mass of our Sun end their lives in a gigantic explosion, in which the stellar gas is expelled into the surrounding space with enormous power. Such supernovae belong to the most energetic and brightest phenomena in the universe and can outshine a whole galaxy for weeks. They are the cosmic origin of chemical elements like carbon, oxygen, silicon, and iron, of which Earth and our bodies are made of, and which are bred in massive stars over millions of years or freshly fused in the stellar explosion.

Supernovae are also the birth places of neutron stars, those extraordinarily exotic, compact stellar remnants, in which about 1.5 times the mass of our Sun is compressed to a sphere with the diameter of Munich. This happens within fractions of a second when the stellar core implodes due to the strong gravity of its own mass. The catastrophic collapse is stopped only when the density of atomic nuclei -- gargantuan 300 million tons in a sugar cube -- is exceeded.

What, however, causes the disruption of the star? How can the implosion of the stellar core be reversed to an explosion? The exact processes are still a matter of intense research. According to the most widely favored scenario, neutrinos, mysterious elementary particles, play a crucial role. These neutrinos are produced and radiated in tremendous numbers at the extreme temperatures and densities in the collapsing stellar core and nascent neutron star. Like the thermal radiation of a heater they heat the gas surrounding the hot neutron star and thus could "ignite" the explosion. In this scenario the neutrinos pump energy into the stellar gas and build up pressure until a shock wave is accelerated to disrupt the star in a supernova. But does this theoretical idea really work? Is it the explanation of the still enigmatic mechanism driving the explosion?

Unfortunately (or luckily!) the processes in the center of exploding stars cannot be reproduced in the laboratory and many solar masses of intransparent stellar gas obscure our view into the deep interior of supernovae. Research is therefore strongly dependent on most sophisticated and challenging computer simulations, in which the complex mathematical equations are solved that describe the motion of the stellar gas and the physical processes that occur at the extreme conditions in the collapsing stellar core. For this task the most powerful existing supercomputers are used, but still it has been possible to conduct such calculations only with radical and crude simplifications until recently. If, for example, the crucial effects of neutrinos were included in some detailed treatment, the computer simulations could only be performed in two dimensions, which means that the star in the models was assumed to have an artificial rotational symmetry around an axis.

Thanks to support from the Rechenzentrum Garching (RZG) in developing a particularly efficient and fast computer program, access to most powerful supercomputers, and a computer time award of nearly 150 million processor hours, which is the greatest contingent so far granted by the "Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE)" initiative of the European Union, the team of researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (MPA) in Garching could now for the first time simulate the processes in collapsing stars in three dimensions and with a sophisticated description of all relevant physics.

"For this purpose we used nearly 16,000 processor cores in parallel mode, but still a single model run took about 4.5 months of continuous computing," says PhD student Florian Hanke, who performed the simulations. Only two computing centers in Europe were able to provide sufficiently powerful machines for such long periods of time, namely CURIE at Tr?s Grand Centre de calcul (TGCC) du CEA near Paris and SuperMUC at the Leibniz-Rechenzentrum (LRZ) in Munich/Garching.

Many Terabytes of simulation data (1 Terabyte are thousand billion bytes) had to be analysed and visualized before the researchers could grasp the essence of their model runs. What they saw caused excitement as well as astonishment. The stellar gas did not only exhibit the violent bubbling and seething with the characteristic rising mushroom-like plumes driven by neutrino heating in close similarity to what can be observed in boiling water. (This process is called convection.) The scientists also found powerful, large sloshing motions, which temporarily switch over to rapid, strong rotational motions. Such a behavior had been known before and had been named "Standing Accretion Shock Instability," or SASI. This term expresses the fact that the initial sphericity of the supernova shock wave is spontaneously broken, because the shock develops large-amplitude, pulsating asymmetries by the oscillatory growth of initially small, random seed perturbations. So far, however, this had been found only in simplified and incomplete model simulations.

"My colleague Thierry Foglizzo at the Service d' Astrophysique des CEA-Saclay near Paris has obtained a detailed understanding of the growth conditions of this instability," explains Hans-Thomas Janka, the head of the research team. "He has constructed an experiment, in which a hydraulic jump in a circular water flow exhibits pulsational asymmetries in close analogy to the shock front in the collapsing matter of the supernova core." This phenomenon was named "SWASI" ("Shallow Water Analogue of Shock Instability") and allows one to demonstrate dynamical processes in the deep interior of a dying star by a relatively simple and inexpensive experimental setup of table size, of course without accounting for the important effects of neutrino heating. For this reason many astrophysicists had been sceptical that this instability indeed occurs in collapsing stars.

The Garching team could now demonstrate for the first time unambiguously that the SASI also plays an important role in the so far most realistic computer models. "It does not only govern the mass motions in the supernova core but it also imposes characteristic signatures on the neutrino and gravitational-wave emission, which will be measurable for a future Galactic supernova. Moreover, it may lead to strong asymmetries of the stellar explosion, in course of which the newly formed neutron star will receive a large kick and spin," describes team member Bernhard M?ller the most significant consequences of such dynamical processes in the supernova core.

The researchers now plan to explore in more detail the measurable effects connected to the SASI and to sharpen their predictions of associated signals. Moreover, they plan to perform more and longer simulations to understand how the instability acts together with neutrino heating and enhances the efficiency of the latter. The goal is to ultimately clarify whether this conspiracy is the long-searched mechanism that triggers the supernova explosion and thus leaves behind the neutron star as compact remnant.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/space_time/astronomy/~3/xulUjZRJoLM/130627083034.htm

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Sony expands high-end Cyber-shot lineup with RX100M2, full-frame RX1R (hands-on)

Sony's brilliant RX100 and RX1 advanced point-and-shoots will live to see another day. Instead of replacing these two well-received pocket cams, the company has opted to expand the upper end of its Cyber-shot lineup, adding two very compelling new models. First up is the RX1R, a full-frame compact that'll retail for $2,799, the same price last year's model still commands today. In fact, it's nearly identical to 2012's flavor, with the exception of a redesigned sensor, which drops the optical low-pass filter in the interest of sharper captures. Of course, without that component, the camera is susceptible to moire and false color issues, so the RX1R is a better fit for landscape photographers than portrait shooters or photojournalists. It also sports Triluminous Color output through the HDMI port, for enhanced visuals on select HDTVs.

The vast majority of shooters are going to be much more excited about the Cyber-shot RX100M2, though. This "Mark II" variant of the RX100 borrows a few features from Sony's NEX line, which is never a bad thing. Looking at the camera, you'll first notice the 3-inch 1.3M-dot tiltable LCD, which can flip 84 degrees upward and 45 degrees downward. There's also a Multi Interface Shoe for adding on accessories like a microphone, OLED EVF or external flash. Additionally, the USB port is now a Multi Interface Terminal, so it'll work with the RM-VPR1 remote, and Sony added WiFi, NFC, and Triluminous Color output through the HDMI connector. On the imaging front, there's a brand new 1-inch BSI CMOS sensor, boosting sensitivity to the tune of one full stop (we're told ISO 3200 shots are comparable to ISO 1600 on the RX100). The top sensitivity also jumps from ISO 6400 to 12,800, which is pretty fantastic for a point-and-shoot.

As with the RX1, you'll still be able to snag the RX100 for some time to come. And for many photographers, last year's model may be the best pick -- the RX100M2, while a bit more feature-packed, retails for a $100 more than its predecessor, with a $750 MSRP. The RX1R, however, maintains the same pricing as the RX1, at $2,799. Both cameras, which you can check out now in the hands-on gallery below, are expected in stores by the middle of July.

Gallery: Sony Cyber-shot RX1R and RX100M2 hands-on

Filed under: Cameras, Sony

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/27/sony-rx100m2-rx1-hands-on/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Why You Can't Get Stoned from Smoking Hemp

It's an honest mistake, thinking that marijuana and industrial hemp are one and the same. And in some ways they are: both are species of the genus cannabis, they both have the iconic five-fingered pot leafs, and both are widely sought after the world over. But aside from their outward appearance, they two have very little in common, including where it counts the most.

A Quick History of Hemp

We've been cultivating hemp for more than 12,000 years, making it one of humanity's earliest domesticated plants. While the Chinese have used the material in everything from shoes to paper since at least the 5th century BC, it did not arrive in Western Europe until relatively recently.

Cannabis sativa, "grew and was known in the Neolithic period all across the northern latitudes, from Europe (Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Romania, Ukraine) to East Asia (Tibet and China)," stated Elizabeth Wayland Barber in her book Prehistoric Textiles: The Development of Cloth in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages with Special Reference to the Aegean, noting that it did not reach Western Europe until the Iron Age. "I strongly suspect, however, that what catapulted hemp to sudden fame and fortune as a cultigen and caused it to spread rapidly westwards in the first millennium BC was the spread of the habit of pot-smoking from somewhere in south-central Asia, where the drug-bearing variety of the plant originally occurred. The linguistic evidence strongly supports this theory, both as to time and direction of spread and as to cause."

When it did land in Europe, hemp became a very valuable crop as its fibers could be processed into rope and sailcloth, as Christopher Columbus did. What's more, hemp fibers have proven themselves longer, stronger, more absorbent and insular than cotton, which is why George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both grew it. The plant has even shown promise as both a biogas precursor, thanks to the long hydrocarbons in its oil, and as a soybean replacement, as it contains more fatty acids and dietary fiber than soy.

Today, hemp is big business. China is the single largest grower and exporter of industrial hemp, though more than 30 countries produce the crop. It goes into everything from foodstuffs to cosmetics to textiles. Hemp is legal to import into the United States; however, due to our draconian prohibition of cannabis, hemp is illegal to grow, at least on the federal level. Nineteen states have enacted legislation to promote the use of hemp while another nine?Colorado, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia?have legalized its production outright.

A Weed by Any Other Name

As any self-respecting stoner can tell you, there are two strains of weed that get you high: the tall, scraggly sativas that originated in Southeast Asia and the short, bushy indicas from the Middle East. But there's actually a third strain, cannabis ruderalis, from which we derive industrial hemp. These three species all produce a pair of antagonistic chemical compounds? cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)?albeit in varying ratios.

Sativas are especially high in THC (containing anywhere from 10 to 30 percent THC), which produces the euphoric stoner "head high," and low in CBD, which has been shown to relieve a number of maladies. Indicas are also high in THC but have elevated levels of CBD, which provides a mellower "body high." Ruderalis is the inverse of sativas in that they contain virtually zero THC and massive amounts of CBD. This is the result of both the species' natural disposition and generations of breeding.

The certified low-THC varieties used in Europe and Canada contain maybe 0.2 to 0.3 percent THC when fully matured, and even the lesser-used varieties bred as biofuel precursors top out at 1 percent THC by volume. Trying to get high smoking a one percent THC concentration would be akin to getting hammered on O'Douls, as studies have shown that a sub-one percent concentration produces the same effects as placebo. What's more, the large amounts of the non-psychotropic antagonistic CBD compound further overwhelms the effects of the THC.

As Test Pledge, an arm of the Hemp Industries Association, suggested in a 2000 study, industrial hemp doesn't even contain enough THC to set off a common pre-employment urine test:

Even industrial hemp varieties, bred for low THC content, produce small non-psychoactive quantities of THC - short for delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. If seeds are not properly cleaned after harvesting, excess trace residual THC sticks to their hulls and infuses oil and other products. Until 1998, when thoroughly cleaned seeds from Canada and the European Union became widely available, hemp oil containing more than 50 parts per million (ppm) of THC was often found in the market. While too low in THC to cause psychoactivity, studies have shown that such oil may produce a positive drug test for marijuana. Of course, that has also caused a few cases of alleged false-positives in workplace drug testing.

To determine whether current hemp foods can still cause positive drug tests, a Canadian governmental research program (ARDI) and members of the hemp industry commissioned a toxicological study. 15 individuals consumed hemp oil with a known THC concentration. Four different daily doses were given, each for a ten-day period, to allow the THC concentration to reach steady-state concentration in the body. At the end of each period, two urine samples were collected and analyzed. The study found that none of the 15 individuals who consumed up to 600 ?g (micrograms, or one-millionth of a gram) of THC per day were even close to producing a urine sample that was "confirmed positive".

With current seed-cleaning technology and the correspondingly low trace THC levels in hemp oil and hemp nut, producing a confirmed positive test result would require that unrealistically high amounts of hemp oil or hemp nut be eaten. The practice of "confirming" all urine samples, which test positive in an initial screening test is followed by all federal and most private employers. Because some employers and law enforcement agencies rely on screening tests only, screening positive results caused by copious hemp food ingestion are conceivable, yet not likely.

Turns out the well-worn idiom, "you'd need to smoke a hemp joint the size of a telephone pole to get high" isn't that far from the truth. [Cannabis News - Test Pledge - Wikipedia - 420 Times - HuffPo - National Cancer Institute - Top Image: paul prescott/ Shutterstock]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/why-you-cant-get-stoned-from-smoking-hemp-514157145

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Should Apple bring the iOS 7 design language to OS X? [Poll]

Should Apple bring iOS 7's new, clarified, deferential, depth-driven look and feel OS X? For the last few years Apple has worked diligently and deliberately to bring iOS nomenclature and metaphors back to the Mac, and create a more consistent experience between their two platforms. Right now, however, iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks couldn't look further apart.

iOS 7 has an all-new physics and particle engine, making it feel like a collection of objects in space, and work more like a video game, as well as a completely new paint job with icons and interface elements the likes of which we've never seen on an Apple product before. They've both had their richly rendered textures removed, but where Mavericks lost the old leather, it didn't lose it's Aqua-era gloss, at least not entirely. It didn't gain any of the new modern, ultra-thin, color-tinted look, at least not yet.

Macs are often said to enjoy a halo effect from iOS devices. People buy iPhones and iPads and then start considering the Macs well. For the last few years, no matter how different the two platforms, the interfaces looked similar -- and more importantly, familiar -- enough that the Mac was approachable to iOS users in a very direct and comforting way.

Likewise, Jony Ive is now vice president of all design, not just hardware, and not just iOS. It's not unreasonable to think his grand digital plans will eventually encompass future versions of OS X, as well. (Even the best designer and design teams in the world can't do everything at once.)

On the surface it feels more like a question of when, not if, Apple's platforms regain their semblance of uniformity. And of what iOS looks like by then, and how well it's translated to OS X.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/GhqBMMZHhJI/story01.htm

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Justin Bieber Sued for Allegedly Going MMA on Photographer

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/06/justin-bieber-sued-for-allegedly-going-mma-on-photographer/

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Kelly Guimont talks App Camp for Girls and how to get things done

In between her speaking schedule at AltWWDC, Kelly Guimont, new co-host of the Angry Mac Bastards podcast, offered her perspective on why App Camp for Girls is important.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/ytePK2cTYMw/story01.htm

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Red panda missing: Rusty the panda is found

Red panda missing:?A red panda that vanished from the National Zoo was found in a D.C. neighborhood.

By Elizabeth Barber,?Contributor / June 24, 2013

This undated handout photo provided by the National Zoo shows a red panda that has gone missing from its enclosure at the zoo in Washington.

Abby Wood/Smithsonian?s National Zoo/AP

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The red panda that had gone rogue from The Smithsonian National Zoo?has been found in a bush in Washington D.C.'s Adams Morgan neighborhood.

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The once-lost animal, a male named Rusty, is just less than a year old and has been on exhibit at the zoo for just three weeks, after arriving from Nebraska in April. The precocious escapee had last been seen in his zoo pen Sunday evening and was not there Monday morning, at which time the zoo sounded a ?Code Green? alert for a missing zoo animal.

Rusty was believed to be still within the zoo, keeping his summer vacation local and hiding in a tree, zoo staff said. It was considered reasonably unlikely that the red panda had high-tailed it toward the White House to express his thoughts on animal conservationism or skipped the country altogether to China, to holiday with friends there.

?It is most likely that he has not really left the vicinity. He would have to have some very strong motivation to leave the area,? spokeswoman Pamela Baker-Masson told The Washington Post.

Well, that strong motivation might have been there: a determined bachelor?s last hurrah. The zoo has one other red panda, a female named Shama, and told The Washington Post that it had been planning to breed the two. And the enterprising panda could not have chosen a better neighborhood for its prenuptial jaunt: Adams Morgan, a section of D.C. noted for its young and throbbing club scene.

How the partying red panda escaped is somewhat mystifying. The wires on his cage, which deliver a small electronic shock, were on and functional.?

The red panda, which looks something like a mix between a cat, a bear, and a (miniaturized) giant panda, is considered a vulnerable species, with just some 10,000 of them in the world, mostly in China but also in Bhutan and northern Nepal and Myanmar. It is only distantly related to the giant panda and is more closely related to weasels and raccoons.

The zoo?s giant pandas are still in their pens, and are sleeping happily, the zoo said.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/4mFusJeY3rQ/Red-panda-missing-Rusty-the-panda-is-found

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Pope 'snub' of concert stuns cardinals, sends signal

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - A last-minute no-show by Pope Francis at a concert where he was to have been the guest of honor has sent another clear signal that he is going to do things his way and does not like the Vatican high life.

The gala classical concert on Saturday was scheduled before his election in March. But the white papal armchair set up in the presumption that he would be there remained empty.

Minutes before the concert was due to start, an archbishop told the crowd of cardinals and Italian dignitaries that an "urgent commitment that cannot be postponed" would prevent Francis from attending.

The prelates, assured that health was not the reason for the no-show, looked disoriented, realizing that the message he wanted to send was that, with the Church in crisis, he - and perhaps they - had too much pastoral work to do to attend social events.

"It took us by surprise," said one Vatican source on Monday. "We are still in a period of growing pains. He is still learning how to be pope and we are still learning how he wants to do it."

"In Argentina, they probably knew not to arrange social events like concerts for him because he probably wouldn't go," said the source, who spoke anonymously because he is not authorized to discuss the issue.

The picture of the empty chair was used in many Italian papers, with Monday's Corriere della Sera newspaper calling his decision "a show of force" to illustrate the simple style he wants Church officials to embrace.

Since his election on March 13, Francis, the former cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina, has not spent a single night in the opulent and spacious papal apartments.

He has preferred to live in a small suite in a busy Vatican guest house, where he takes most meals in a communal dining room and says Mass every morning in the house chapel rather than the private papal chapel in the Apostolic Palace.

The day before the concert, Francis said bishops should be "close to the people" and not have "the mentality of a prince".

On Saturday, while the concert was in progress in an auditorium just meters (yards) away, Francis was believed to be working on new appointments for the Curia, the Vatican's troubled central administration.

The administration was held responsible for some of the mishaps and scandals that plagued the eight-year reign of Pope Benedict before he resigned in February.

Francis inherited a Church struggling to deal with priests' sexual abuse of children, the alleged corruption and infighting in the Curia, and conflict over the running of the Vatican's scandal-ridden bank.

Benedict left a secret report for Francis on the problems in the administration, which came to light when sensitive documents were stolen from the pope's desk and leaked by his butler in what became known as the "Vatileaks" scandal.

The Vatican source said he expected Francis to make major changes to Curia personnel by the end of the summer.

Anger at the mostly Italian prelates who run the Curia was one of the reasons why cardinals chose the first non-European pope for 1,300 years.

The key appointment will be the next secretary of state, sometimes referred to as the Vatican's prime minister, to succeed the Italian Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who has been widely blamed for the failings of the Curia.

(Reporting By Philip Pullella; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pope-snub-concert-stuns-cardinals-sends-signal-143358270.html

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Rent The Runway Acquires Fashion-Focused Photo Sharing And Styling App Go Try It On

Rent The Runway, the Netflix for designer clothes, accessories and jewelry; has acquired Go Try It On, a startup that allows users to share photos of themselves and get opinions on their looks. As part of the acquisition, Go Try It On's founder Marissa Evans will join Rent the Runway as Head of Radical?Innovation. Financial terms of the acquisition was not disclosed.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/TK_i0y5YlGc/

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Heat celebrate with parade through downtown Miami

MIAMI (AP) ? The last piece of confetti had landed, the Miami Heat championship celebration was officially over and many in the crowd of revelers were starting to make their way to the exits.

Players and coaches remained on the stage.

They were in no hurry to leave. Every member of the NBA champions stood and watched a giant video board play highlights of Miami's march through the playoffs, from LeBron James' MVP-caliber plays on both ends to Ray Allen's season-saving 3-pointer in Game 6 of the NBA Finals and countless moments in between.

"It's a special group," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "You know what? This season started over nine months ago with that trip to China and we were able to experience so many cool things together in the regular season. But at times, it just seems to be going by so fast."

So maybe that's why the Heat aren't ready to stop celebrating this title just yet.

With an estimated 400,000 people lining the downtown Miami streets, the Heat held their parade and an in-arena rally afterward Monday. James stood atop a double-decker bus with a cigar in his mouth for the parade. Shane Battier blew kisses to the crowd, Dwyane Wade raised three fingers aloft and Chris Andersen flapped his arms in a nod to his "Birdman" moniker.

"It's the ultimate," James told Sun Sports, the Heat broadcast partner. "It's the ultimate. This is what I came down here, to be able to have a parade at the end of the year. I'm extremely blessed, man. It doesn't get any better than this."

Several players held super-soaker squirt guns and sprayed water on fans, confetti dotted the streets, and horns honked from all directions. Heat managing general partner Micky Arison and team president Pat Riley stood in the front of one bus, while Spoelstra ? his championship cap turned backward ? waved and clapped at fans.

"Miami parties better than any city in the world," Spoelstra said. "But it took nine months, nine months of incredible sacrifice, not only by these men right here but everybody in our organization, grinding it out every single day, ups and downs, highs and lows. And to have a culmination like Game 7 in front of all of you here is incredible."

Wade said that without the fans, Miami wouldn't have found a way to win the title.

"It's humbling. It's very humbling to be here," Wade said, gazing out at the enormous crowd. "I envision a lot of things. I can't say I envisioned this. This parade down Biscayne Boulevard was once a vision by Coach Riley and now we've taken this ride three times. It's special."

When Riley got hired by the Heat, he talked at his introductory news conference about his vision of a parade down Biscayne Boulevard. It took Riley until 2006 to deliver on that hope, but now with three parades in eight seasons, the Heat are getting used to these celebrations.

"Their names are going to be respected and honored," Riley said. "And that's all we have. All we have is the name on the front of the shirt, which is the Heat, and the name on the back of the shirt. And that's why we play."

Miami became the sixth franchise in NBA history to win consecutive championships, after topping the San Antonio Spurs in this year's finals for the third title overall for the Heat franchise, needing a Game 7 to get it done. Wade and Udonis Haslem ? a Miami native who said "this is what it's all about" ? are the only players to be part of all three titles, and Wade insisted Monday that the city is going to be his home now for good.

"This is my home. They've treated me well since Day One," Wade said. "I'll be here for probably the rest of my life in this amazing city. I thank the Miamians for accepting me as one of their own."

Miami needed to win Games 6 and 7 of the finals to capture the title, and needed a huge late comeback in Game 6 just to force the ultimate game. Down by five with less than a half-minute left in regulation, James and Ray Allen made 3-pointers ? Allen's coming with 5.2 seconds left ? to force overtime, and the Heat ultimately prevailed to get into Game 7.

"I have to say that is the biggest shot I ever hit in my career," Allen said.

Along the parade route, one vehicle carried a number of uniformed military personnel. The Heat have honored military members before every home game in Miami for the past several seasons.

Police reported no major problems, and bomb- and drug-sniffing dogs were spotted working their way through the crowd. City officials banned fans from carrying backpacks, though several were spotted along the route and some people were searched randomly for security reasons. The huge crowds and parking difficulty did not seem to take away from the fans' celebratory mood.

"It's the excitement of something that doesn't come around too often, even though we've been lucky to experience it two years in a row," said Heat fan Blake Thames, who made the trip down from Palm Beach County.

Some fans began arriving before sunrise Monday, and traffic into downtown was extremely heavy as people hoped to get close enough for a glimpse of the celebration.

"It hasn't hit me yet," James said. "This is unbelievable to be a part of such a great franchise and to be able to go back-to-back."

Players spent the weekend celebrating. Some are planning to start vacations later this week, while others will remain in South Florida for at least a few more days.

"All the fans that we're seeing here is who supported us throughout the whole season, man," James said. "This is the least we could do is ride through the city and show our appreciation."

___

Associated Press Writers Jennifer Kay and Kelli Kennedy in Miami contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/heat-celebrate-parade-downtown-miami-152238430.html

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Microsoft to bring Xbox and PC games to Apple, Android phones: report

By Nadia Damouni and Siddharth Cavale (Reuters) - Tensions started rising at Men's Wearhouse Inc over the past six months, as founder and executive chairman George Zimmer increasingly butted heads with his handpicked CEO over the clothing retailer's strategy. CEO Doug Ewert wanted to sell the company's K&G Fashion Superstore business, while Zimmer wanted to keep it, two sources familiar with the situation said. Zimmer also objected to rising compensation for top executives, including Ewert, while the board thought it was appropriate, the sources said. Zimmer, who is known to U.S. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/microsoft-bring-xbox-pc-games-apple-android-phones-184211530.html

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Netflix Vs. Apple: Who Rules Online Video? | Wall St. Cheat Sheet

It?s no secret that consumers are increasingly moving from traditional sources of entertainment content towards Internet-based content delivery. Two of the biggest beneficiaries of this growing trend have been Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX). ?The only question is: which of these companies is actually the leader in this brave new world of online video?

It turns out that the answer depends on what specific type of content delivery method you are measuring. When it comes to video downloads, Apple emerges as the clear market leader. Apple recently released its astounding movie and television show download rates via a press release that stated, ?iTunes users have downloaded more than one billion TV episodes and 380 million movies from iTunes to date, and they are purchasing over 800,000 TV episodes and over 350,000 movies per day.?

According to research firm NPD Group, Apple accounted for 67 percent of the TV show download market and 65 percent of the movie download market in 2012. Microsoft?s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Xbox was iTunes? closest competitor, and it only held 14 percent of the download market for TV shows and 10 percent of the market for movies.

However, when it comes to the subscription-based video streaming market, Netflix emerges as the clear leader. According to NPD Group, Netflix accounted for 90 percent of the subscription video-on-demand market in the first quarter of 2013.

Source: http://wallstcheatsheet.com/stocks/netflix-vs-apple-who-rules-online-video.html/

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96% Stories We Tell

All Critics (74) | Top Critics (34) | Fresh (71) | Rotten (3)

Stories We Tell is not just very moving; it is an exploration of truth and fiction that will stay with you long after repeated viewings.

Part of the movie's pleasure is how comfortable the "storytellers" are with their director; you get a sense of a complicated but tight-knit family, going along with Sarah's project because they love her.

Never sentimental, never cold and never completely sure of anything, Polley comes across as a woman caught in wonder.

After you see it, you'll be practically exploding with questions - and with awe.

Stories We Tell is just the latest reminder of nonfiction film's current, endlessly innovative state. That's a story worth savoring.

Sarah Polley is often referred to in Canada as a 'national treasure'. She's far more than that. She's a treasure to the world - period. And so, finally, is her film.

An absorbing exercise not only in documentary excavation but in narrative construction.

Sarah Polley's exploration of her tangled family history is a complex and thoroughly fascinating inquiry into the nature of truth and memory -- and, inevitably, into Polley herself.

This is simply a gorgeously realised and warmly compiled family album, which lingers with us not because its subjects are so unusual and alien, but because they feel so close to home. What a success.

Sarah Polley's personal "documentary" suffers from one additional emotional beat too many. Otherwise, it's mesmerizing.

Polley interviews her family and acquaintances with remarkable candor and intimacy, perhaps as a method of catharsis, but it never feels like a vanity project or a simple airing of dirty laundry.

The great conceit of Polley's theories of perspective and truth is that she, as director, ultimately controlled everyone's memories because she arranged them on film.

As with her other films, when Sarah Polley takes it upon herself to tell us a story, you can bet it's a tale well-told and one that you'll want to hear.

What Stories We Tell does so brilliantly is both tell the story and tell about how we tell our stories. The truth may not be out there.

This is a warm, brave and thought-provoking piece of autobiography.

Stories We Tell shows us that the truth and the way its told are two very different things. Polley's wonderful documentary honors both by preferring neither.

I could not love it more.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/stories_we_tell/

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Happy 31st Birthday, Prince William!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/06/happy-31st-birthday-prince-william/

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Girl Wakes Up After Lung Transplant

The 10-year-old girl whose family successfully fought a rule preventing her from qualifying for adult lungs has woken up nine days after receiving a lung transplant from an adult donor.

Sarah Murnaghan of Newtown Square, Pa., was able to respond to yes and no questions on Friday. Her aunt Sharon Ruddock confirmed to ABC station WPVI-TV in Philadelphia that even though Sarah is still on a ventilator she was able to communicate to her family by nodding and blinking.

On Wednesday she was moved off a heavy-duty breathing machine to a traditional ventilator.

Mom on Lung Transplant: 'New Beginning for Sarah' Watch Video Girl, 10, Denied Lung Transplant Due to Age Policy Watch Video Lung Transplant Patient Gets Donor From Same Hospital Watch Video

Sarah was dying of cystic fibrosis when her family brought the Under 12 Rule, a little-known organ transplant policy, to national attention after arguing that it had been pushing Sarah to the bottom of the adult lung transplant waiting list.

The family won a court order to put Sarah on equal footing with adults on the transplant list and prompted an Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network policy change.

On June 12 Sarah underwent a lung transplant with lungs from an adult donor.

"Sarah got THE CALL," her mother, Janet Murnaghan, wrote on her Facebook page. "She will be taken back to the O.R. in 30 minutes."

There have been no reported complications from the transplant although Sarah's mother Janet Murnaghan cautioned that her recovery would be "hard and long" for the 10-year-old.

"As you all know, Sarah was very, very sick going into transplant, therefore the road out is hard and long," her mother, Janet Murnaghan, wrote on her Facebook page. "We are focusing all of our attention on Sarah and as a result are silent."

Sarah was born with cystic fibrosis, a genetic condition that affects cells that produce mucus, sweat and digestive fluid. Patients typically suffer so much lung damage that they often go into respiratory failure, which is why Sarah needs a lung transplant to survive.

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/girl-wakes-lung-transplant/story?id=19464184

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How Messy Is Your Computer's Desktop?

We all aspire to a certain amount of digital desktop cleanliness, but I think rather few of us actually keep up on it. As the days go by, the clutter builds bit by bit, and it's just irritating enough to be unpleasant, but not a big enough deal to actually clean up.

So where are you in the cycle right now? How messy is your desktop? Show it off, and no quick cleaning sprees. Not until after you share, anyway.

Source: http://gizmodo.com/how-messy-is-your-computers-desktop-542920795

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Mixed reactions to Exodus group leaving 'gay therapy'

Phelan M. Ebenhack / AP, file

Alan Chambers, left, president of Exodus International, sits with his wife, Leslie, in their home in Winter Park, Fla. on May 11, 2006

By Miranda Leitsinger, Staff Writer, NBC News

Former participants in a controversial program aimed at ridding people of their homosexuality congratulated its leader for deciding to shut down its ministry, but other groups said there was a role for the ?reparative therapy? used in the ?ex-gay movement.?

The Christian ministry, Exodus International, was founded in 1976 and claims more than 200 branches, churches and counselors in the United States and Canada. It insisted that people could overcome same-sex attraction through prayer and therapy.

But mainstream psychiatric and medical groups have said that program, also known as ?reparative therapy,? is not founded in science and can be harmful. The American Psychiatric Association said 15 years ago that it could cause depression, anxiety and self-depressive behavior in patients.

Such was the case for Bobby Painter, 45, who paid at least $48,000 to attend Exodus' ?Love in Action? program over two years from 1999 to 2000.

The program's use of a 12-step program ? akin to that popularized by Alcoholics Anonymous ? led him to once beat himself up when he got to the amends stage because he was so ?disgusted? with who he was.

?I actually just almost went insane. I was thoroughly depressed,? said Painter, of Columbus, Ohio, who came out as gay in 2003. ?You just become very hate-filled toward yourself.?

The premise itself ? that he could be cured of being gay ? was something the program promised in advertising, he said. But on his first day in the program, he was told there was no cure.

?It was all just a mind game and so you felt completely taken advantage of,? he said. ?I left my job, I left my church, I sold my home? to be in the program.

In an apology posted on the Exodus website, President Alan Chambers said he was ?sorry for the pain and hurt many of you have experienced.?

?I am sorry that some of you spent years working through the shame and guilt you felt when your attractions didn?t change,? he wrote.

In a statement, Exodus International, which describes itself as the oldest and largest group of its kind, said that its board of directors had decided to close down after a year of talking and praying about its place in a changing culture.

Polls show that a narrow majority of Americans, a steadily growing share, support gay marriage, which has been legalized in 12 states and the District of Columbia. The Supreme Court is preparing to rule on two landmark gay-rights cases.

Chambers, over the past year, had caused turmoil in the ex-gay movement by saying that reparative therapy could hurt gays and that there was no cure for same-sex attraction.

Restored Hope Network, a coalition of ministries that aims to help gays and lesbians overcome being homosexuals, formed ? in part ? last year due to that change in course.

?We don't reject reparative therapy out of hand as the Exodus leadership is doing. Neither is it the main platform that we use,? said Rob Gagnon, a board member and a professor at Pittsburgh Theological Seminar.

He said they felt reparative therapy would work for some but not all.

?People will even, without therapeutic intervention, go through shifts,? he added. ?For us then to say well the therapy can't assist that process in any way when we know it's going to happen anyway for many people, at least in a limited way, seems to me to be a little bit absurd, unreasonable.?

He also questioned whether Chambers ? who wrote in the letter that he had ?conveniently omitted my ongoing same-sex attractions? ? was acting out of ?guilt and shame? for not being transparent about that.

?It's out of that guilt and that shame that he's taken a ?throw the baby out with the bathwater? kind of decision,? he said.

California last year became the first state in the nation to ban reparative therapy for teens under 18 years of age. New Jersey's state legislature is weighing similar legislation.

Christopher Rosik, president of the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality, a group of therapists who believe sexual orientation can be changed through various approaches including reparative therapy, said he wasn't surprised by the decision.

But he didn't think it would mean the end of the practice, either.

?Reparative therapy ... does capitalize on certain insights that I think can be applicable for some men, maybe not every man or woman, but are applicable to some,? Rosik told NBC News. ?And these men and women would attest to that.?

He said Exodus' decision wouldn't impact his association's mission to help individuals experiencing unwanted same-sex attraction and behavior, but he felt it could help make clear the difference between the work being done by religious groups and that by professional therapeutic organizations.

Even as they celebrated the shutdown of Exodus, some, like Painter, said it had ultimately, and ironically, served as a bridge to coming to terms with their sexuality. He said there was a need for some kind of ministry to serve as such a gateway for conservative gay Christians.

?One of the things they said (at Exodus) was that God loved you regardless of all of that,? he said, noting it was ?liberating? and a ?turning point? in his struggle. ?All I had to think about was, 'Well, maybe God's not pleased with this part of my life but he's not going to destroy me anymore.'?

?I needed that experience,? he added, ?because I believe if I had just stayed home I would probably have ended my life.?

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2d98af43/l/0Lusnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A60C210C190A632920Emixed0Ereactions0Eto0Eexodus0Egroup0Eleaving0Egay0Etherapy0Dlite/story01.htm

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Peru earthquake: Small offshore earthquake rumbles Lima

A small earthquake hit Peru at 1:40 p.m. local time Tuesday, just off the coast near Lima, Peru's capital city. No injuries or damage have been reported.?

By Liz Fuller-Wright,?Correspondent / June 18, 2013

A small (magnitude 4.6) earthquake hit Peru at 1:40 p.m. local time. The earthquake was located about 15 miles off the coast of Callao, Peru and about 38 miles underground. This picture came from the USGS website, earthquake.usgs.gov.

Courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey

Enlarge

A small earthquake hit just off the coast of Peru early Tuesday afternoon. Early reports estimated a magnitude of 5.6, but the USGS says the earthquake was magnitude 4.6.?

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The earthquake shook buildings in Lima, Peru's capital city, but no injuries or damage have been reported, according to Reuters. A magnitude 4.6 earthquake can be felt, but rarely causes damage beyond clinking some glasses and knocking pictures askew.?Earthquakes of this size happen tens of thousands of times per year.

The earthquake's center was?about 22 miles northwest of Lima?and 38 miles (61 kilometers) underground.

Peru is located on the "Ring of Fire," the belt of earthquakes and volcanoes surrounding the Pacific Ocean. All along its western coast, the South American plate is colliding with the Nazca plate, forcing the heavier ocean crust down into the Earth's mantle. The collision of the plates is like a slow-motion car wreck. They're colliding at only 3 inches per year, but that's enough to cause frequent earthquakes ? and build the Andes Mountains.

The tectonically active region along the coast of South America, known to geologists as the South American arc, is more than 4,000 miles long, from just below the southern tip of Chile to just off the coast of Panama.?

This earthquake was one of the deepest that Peru is likely to experience. Shallower quakes, in the top 30 miles (50 km) of the crust, are due to the crunching of the South American plate as it crumples up the Andes. Earthquakes deeper than 40 miles (70 km) are rare in Peru, and mostly limited to the northern region of the country.

Today's earthquake, located about 38 miles below the surface, was probably along the interface between the Nazca and South American plates. This zone has produced?numerous magnitude 8 or larger earthquakes, many of which were followed by devastating tsunamis. The magnitude 9.5 earthquake that hit southern Chile in 1960, which remains the largest earthquake ever recorded, was one of these subduction zone-interface earthquakes.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/YyIhmo3k8Po/Peru-earthquake-Small-offshore-earthquake-rumbles-Lima

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New Bing Experiment Adds Curated Lists Of Links, Images And Videos From Experts To Search Results

Microsoft today announced a new experiment for its Bing search engine that’s a bit different from the usual social search and algorithm updates we’ve come to expect from the service. Bing Boards, as this new effort is called, aims to create something akin to curated search results for a select group of searches. These lists, Microsoft says, “are visual collections of images, videos and links that tell a story from a unique point of view.” Currently, Microsoft is working with a small group of food and lifestyle bloggers, experts and “social influencers” to create these boards. If the experiment works out, the company plans to expand these offerings to other users and topics. For the time being, though, Microsoft isn’t saying how exactly its curators are creating these lists. Here is an example for a search query that brings up a Bing Board in the sidebar. The Bing team argues that what it’s trying to do here is similar to what it’s been doing with social search all along. “In the same way that we?ve brought knowledge from friends and recognized experts into search, we?re providing a new way for passionate people to create highly specialized content, specifically for search,” Bing Experiences Program Manager Chen Fang writes. Fang notes that these results are meant to be complementary to Bing’s regular web search results and will appear in Bing’s middle column. Microsoft also announced that it’s going to run a number of other social and community experiments on Bing in the near future. While Google seems to have de-emphasized social search, Bing still remains focused on the social aspects of search, and, if anything, it looks like it’s now doubling down on these features in an effort to set itself apart from its competitors.

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

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Will Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj Bring 'American Idol' Fire To BET Awards?

Former judges will reunite when they both perform at the June 30 show along with Ciara.
By Jocelyn Vena

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1709294/mariah-carey-bet-awards-2013.jhtml

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As Tea Party rallies, FBI says IRS probe a top priority

By David Ingram and Patrick Temple-West

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than a dozen FBI agents are assigned to a criminal probe into Internal Revenue Service scrutiny of conservative political groups, FBI Director Robert Mueller said on Wednesday.

"It's a high-priority investigation and it needs to be handled with care, but it also needs to be pushed aggressively," he told the Senate Judiciary Committee at a hearing.

Mueller spoke as Tea Party conservatives rallied outside the U.S. Capitol in the sixth week of a controversy that prompted President Barack Obama to fire acting IRS Commissioner Steve Miller.

At least 1,000 protesters gathered at an "Audit the IRS" event organized by the Tea Party Patriots, an umbrella group of the anti-Washington movement whose members favor lower taxes and less government spending.

Republican Representative Dave Camp of Michigan told the crowd that the IRS investigation will take time, but it will get answers.

"We will hold those responsible accountable," he said.

Carol Bolling, a Tea Party organizer from Georgia, said the IRS should be abolished. "I want something done now. There's enough proof to know what they did," she said of IRS officials.

The IRS came under fire starting on May 10 when a Washington IRS official apologized for the handling by agency employees in Cincinnati of applications for tax-exempt status submitted by some Tea Party-aligned conservative groups.

The Cincinnati agents, before deciding whether to grant tax-exempt status, had sent some of the non-profit groups' applications to a special unit for closer scrutiny to see if the groups respected legal limits on political activity.

PARTISAN DISPUTE

Republicans have alleged that the IRS targeted the groups because of their politics and have tried to link the activity, without success so far, to officials in Washington.

Democrats have said the law on non-profit groups' political involvement needs clarifying and said there is no evidence of political involvement from Washington in the IRS doing its job.

Attorney General Eric Holder said last month the FBI had opened a criminal investigation. Holder said the investigation would be wide-ranging, examining whether the IRS violated civil rights laws or other protections.

The investigation is being run out of the FBI's Washington Field Office, Mueller said. He declined to say whether it could lead to charges against individuals at the IRS.

A report last month from the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, an IRS watchdog, criticized the way the IRS screened the applications, picking out ones with words in their names such as "Tea Party."

This put the IRS' political impartiality at risk, said the audit report from the watchdog.

AGENCY EMBATTLED

Several congressional panels are looking into the matter. At least a half-dozen IRS employees, including at least two Washington officials, have sat down for lengthy interviews with investigators from the House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which is leading the probe.

Separately this week, two Republican senators blasted the IRS for paying bonuses to employees at a time of across-the-board spending cuts in the federal government.

In a letter dated on Tuesday, Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Orrin Hatch of Utah requested information from new IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel on how the agency is handling merit pay.

The IRS in a statement said the agency is under a legal obligation to comply with its collective bargaining agreement with its union. Grassley contends that the union contract allows for reshuffling of funds in the event of a budget shortfall.

(Additional reporting by Kim Dixon; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Xavier Briand)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fbi-director-says-irs-tax-exemption-probe-top-155749439.html

mayan calendar end of the world end of the world december 21 2012 norad 12/21/12 winter solstice