Baghdad hit by wave of deadly car bombs

A series of car bomb blasts in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, has killed at least 42 people and injured many more, officials say.

The blasts targeted markets and car parks in mainly Shia Muslim districts of the city.
There has been a recent upsurge in sectarian violence, sparking fears of a return to the bloodletting of 2008.
More than 5,000 people have been killed so far this year, according to United Nations data.
Monday's blasts struck during Baghdad's morning rush hour, with reports of 13 bombs, most of them in Shia neighbourhoods.
Groups of labourers gathering ahead of the working day were among the bombers' targets.
One of the deadliest attacks was reported from the eastern Sadr City district where seven people were killed and 75 injured in a crowded vegetable market.
Another six were reported killed in Shuala, a mainly Shia area of north Baghdad.
The city neighbourhoods affected also included New Baghdad, Habibiya, Sabaa al-Bour, Kazimiya, Shaab and Ur, as well as the Sunni districts of Jamiaa and Ghazaliya, the Associated Press news agency reports.
War goes on No-one has claimed responsibility for Monday's attacks, but Sunni Muslim insurgents have been blamed for much of the most recent violence.
The interior ministry accused rebels linked to al-Qaeda of exploiting political divisions and regional conflicts to sow violence.
"Our war with terrorism goes on," interior ministry spokesman Saad Maan told AP.
The recent upsurge in violence was triggered in April by an army raid on a Sunni Muslim anti-government protest camp near Hawija, north of Baghdad.
Many in the country's Sunni Muslim minority complain of being excluded from decision-making and of abuses by the security forces. Recent raids in Baghdad on suspected al-Qaeda hideouts in mainly Sunni districts are thought to have worsened grievances.
One of the bloodiest attacks over the past few weeks was a double bombing in a funeral marquee in Sadr City on 21 September, which left more than 60 people dead.
Several dozen people died in a wave of attacks on Sunday, including another explosion at a funeral.
A suicide bomber attacked a Shia Muslim mosque south of the city, causing the roof to collapse. More than 40 people are now known to have been killed in that incident.
Irbil, the normally stable capital of Iraq's autonomous province of Kurdistan, was hit by a series of bombings on the same day, killing six members of the security services. Officials said that violence could be linked to fighting between jihadists and Kurds in Syria.

SOURCE : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-24328932

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Congress in game of chicken as shutdown looms

(Reuters) - With a deadline to avert a federal government shutdown fast approaching, the U.S. Capitol was eerily quiet on Sunday as Republicans and Democrats waited for the other side to blink first and break the impasse over funding.
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives early on Sunday passed a measure that ties government funding to a one-year delay of President Barack Obama's landmark healthcare restructuring law. Senate Democrats have vowed to quash it.
If a stop-gap spending bill for the new fiscal year is not passed before midnight on Monday, government agencies and programs deemed non-essential will begin closing their doors for the first time in 17 years.
In a sign that lawmakers increasingly view that as inevitable, the House unanimously approved a bill to ensure that U.S. soldiers would be paid no matter what happened.
The high-stakes chess match in Congress will resume on Monday when the Democratic-controlled Senate reconvenes at 2 p.m. Senate Democrats will then attempt to strip two Republican amendments from the spending bill: the one that delays the 2010 healthcare law known as Obamacare and another to repeal a medical device tax that would help pay for the program.
They would then send a bill with a simple extension of government spending back to the House, putting the legislative hot potato back in Republican House Speaker John Boehner's lap as the shutdown looms.
"Tomorrow, the Senate will do exactly what we said we would do and reject these measures," said Adam Jentleson, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. "At that point, Republicans will be faced with the same choice they have always faced: put the Senate's clean funding bill on the floor and let it pass with bipartisan votes, or force a Republican government shutdown."
The impasse prompted a sell-off on Asian markets on Monday, with Japan's benchmark Nikkei shedding 1.7 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index off 1.2 percent. U.S. stock futures also fell.
DEBT LIMIT PRELUDE
The funding standoff is a harbinger of the next big political battle: a far-more consequential bill to raise the federal government's borrowing authority. Failure to raise the $16.7 trillion debt ceiling by mid-October would force the United States to default on some payment obligations - an event that could cripple its economy and send shockwaves around the globe.
And yet, neither side wants to be the one to cast the final vote that would lead to a shutdown. Polls consistently show the American public is tired of political showdowns and opposed to a shutdown.
There were no signs from Congress or the White House of last-minute negotiations to resolve the standoff. Instead, Democrats and Republicans spent their energies trying to pin blame on the other side for failing to avoid a calamity.
No lawmakers were seen in or around the Capitol during daylight hours on Sunday until late afternoon when 16 House Republican members held a news conference on the Senate steps to call on Reid to pass the funding and "Obamacare" delay measure.
"I personally believe that Senator Reid and the president, for political purposes, want to shut down the government. It's a scorched earth policy," said Representative Tim Griffin, a Republican from Arkansas.
Democratic Senator Charles Schumer shot back that the Republican tactics were a "subterfuge" to avoid blame for a shutdown. "So instead of continued game-playing, we urge Speaker Boehner to reconvene the House, pass a clean CR (continuing resolution) and move on," he said in a statement.
Boehner and Reid have taken a low profile as the deadline draws closer, leaving on-camera appearances to deputies and often speaking through their press staffs.
One of Boehner's deputies, Representative Kevin McCarthy, said if the Senate stripped the funding bill of the "Obamacare" provisions, House Republicans would simply return it with other changes to the healthcare law.
"It will be additions that Senate Democrats said they can support," McCarthy told "Fox News Sunday," without specifying these "other options."
The repeal of the medical device tax did win some Democratic support in the House early on Sunday.
VETO THREAT
Obama has threatened to veto any bill that delays his healthcare program.
The funding impasse is the culmination of more than three years of failed conservative efforts to repeal "Obamacare," a program aimed at extending health insurance to millions of those without coverage.
Republicans argue that the healthcare law, key parts of which are set to launch on October 1, is a massive and unnecessary government intrusion into medicine that will cause premiums to skyrocket and damage the economy.
And if the battle over "Obamacare" pushes up to the mid-October deadline to raise the debt ceiling, U.S. stocks may suffer. When gridlock threatened a debt default in 2011, the Dow Jones industrials fell about 2,100 points from July 21 to August 9, with the market needing two more months to regain its footing.
Under a government shutdown, more than a million federal employees would be furloughed from their jobs, with the impact depending on the duration of a shutdown.
The current timetable could leave Boehner with the most difficult decision of his career: whether to approve a clean continuing resolution the Senate will likely send it Monday afternoon or allow the government to shut down for the first time since late 1995.
In a government shutdown, spending for functions considered essential, related to national security or public safety, would continue along with benefit programs such as Medicare health insurance and Social Security retirement benefits for seniors.
But civilian federal employees - from people who process forms and handle regulatory matters to workers at national parks and museums in Washington - would be temporarily out of work.
The last government shutdown ran from December 16, 1995, to January 6, 1996, and was the product of a budget battle between Democratic President Bill Clinton and Republicans, led by then-Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Republicans suffered a public backlash when voters re-elected Clinton in a landslide the following November, a lesson never forgotten by senior Republicans, including Boehner.

SOURCE : http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/30/us-usa-fiscal-idUSBRE98N11220130930

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Kvitova tames Kerber to win Pan Pacific Open

TOKYO: Czech Petra Kvitova recovered from a second-set meltdown to beat fellow left-hander Angelique Kerber 6-2, 0-6, 6-3 and capture the Pan Pacific Open on Saturday for her second title of the year.

Seventh seed Kvitova, the 2011 Wimbledon champion, burst from the blocks in the Tokyo final, storming through the first set, but inexplicably suffered the dreaded 0-6 'bagel' in the second.

She quickly rediscovered her poise in the decider, screaming in delight and pumping her fist as she put away a sharp volley to take a 4-0 lead.
The 23-year-old put fifth seed Kerber out of her misery on her fourth match point, a blistering crosscourt forehand ending the German's resistance after an hour and 39 minutes and giving Kvitova an 11th career singles title. "I really want to qualify for the end of season championships but I want to enjoy this feeling first," said Kvitova, projected to rise from 11th to seventh in the new world rankings and closing in on sixth place in the race for next month's WTA Championships in Istanbul. "I felt a bit tired," added Kvitova after her tour-high 32nd three-set match of 2013. "Angie came back at me but I tried to stay focused and it's amazing to win such a big tournament."
It was Kvitova's first title since Dubai in February and winning the premier five event earned her $426,000. Kerber, who had been seeking a third title and first of the year, took home $213,000. "It's tough to answer why I play so many three-set matches," Kvitova told AFP after levelling her head-to-head record with Kerber to 2-2. "I've still not figured out why. I played two and a half hours yesterday (in beating Venus Williams) but that's not the reason. My game is still up and down but I keep fighting until the last point."

Kvitova voiced confidence she could push on and win another grand slam title in 2014. "After winning Wimbledon I know what it takes," she said. "It's an unbelievable feeling and I really want to experience it once more. "I have a new fitness coach (Marek Vseticek) and my condition has felt good this week," she said. "It's a good sign for me. I have more confidence on court."

Kerber, who paid dearly for making only 48 percent of her first serves in the final set, was gracious in defeat. "After the second set I tried to play the same tennis but she was too good at the end," said the 25-year-old. "She played aggressively. All credit to her." (AFP)

SOURCE : http://www.thenews.com.pk/article-120231-Kvitova-tames-Kerber-to-win-Pan-Pacific-Open

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Miss Teen USA Cassidy Wolf Has "Mixed Emotions" About Sextortion Photos Scandal

Cassidy Wolf has "mixed feelings" about the arrest of former classmate Jared James Abrahams, who confessed to federal investigators on Thursday to blackmailing and extorting the reigning Miss Teen USA. Wolf appeared on NBC's Today on Friday, Sept. 27, where she opened up about how it felt to have someone break into her computer, remotely turn on her webcam and watch her most intimate moments.
"My computer light never came on, so I wasn't aware. This person had been taking pictures of me in my room, changing clothes from putting on outfits, walking back and forth from the shower," Wolf recalled. "I received an anonymous email from an anonymous person [who] basically was extorting me and blackmailing me. I saw that he had attached nude photos of me that he had taken in my bedroom."
Wolf alerted the authorities, who subsequently launched an investigation. Abrahams—a 19-year-old college student studying computer science—was formally charged on Thursday, Sept. 26. Investigators found evidence of hacking software as well of images and videos of the victim. He is out on $50,000 bail and has been placed on house arrest; he can only leave to attend church, school, doctor's appointments and meetings with his lawyer.
"This happened to me when I was a normal girl in high school and it can happen to anybody," said Wolf.

Crowned in August, Wolf said she's not sure how to feel about Abrahams' confession. "It's weird for me to be able to put a face to the person who did this to me, and to know that it was somebody I went to high school with," she said. "That's just weird. It's mixed emotions, honestly."
While she's "relieved" that Abrahams has been identified, she also feels pity for her former classmate. "I just think it's sad that he chose to do this and has now kind of put himself in this big dilemma," the 19-year-old said.
PHOTOS: Meet the 2013 Miss USA contestants
"I don't think he realizes the consequences that he's done and the people that he hurt," she added, noting that she "never had any interactions" with Abrahams in high school. "He terrorized me and many girls for so long." Abraham's attorneys have argued that he has mental health issues; his family has issued an apology.
Wolf hopes that by sharing her experience, it will help give other victims the courage to "tell somebody" about similar incidents. "I know some of the girls who were involved in the case didn't have the opportunity to talk to law enforcement and to get help," she said, "so it makes me feel really good that I was able to help them out, as well as other people who could be going through the same thing."

Read More : http://www.eonline.com/news/464030/miss-teen-usa-cassidy-wolf-has-mixed-emotions-about-sextortion-photos-scandal

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Robin Thicke Bows Down To Wifey Paula Patton's 'Greatness': Watch!

Paula Patton is looking for love for all the wrong reasons in her brand-new rom-com "Baggage Claim," out this weekend.
The flick follows an unlucky-in-love flight attendant named Montana (Patton) as she scurries across the country to try to resurrect a love connection with some of her former flames. The film also stars Taye Diggs, Jill Scott, Djimon Hounsou, Adam Brody and Trey Songz.
"It's a really fun romantic comedy. It's full of fun moments, but really it's about a girl who at the very beginning of the movie thinks she found the man of her dreams," Patton explained to MTV News at the film's premiere earlier this week in L.A. "She quickly realizes he's so not."
If that wasn't enough of a dilemma for her, some kooky antics arise along the way to further complicate her search. "And then in that very same moment, [she] finds out her younger sister is getting married, and marriage is really important to her family," she continued. "And she's devastated. And so she's not really looking for love. She's really looking to show her family up, which is probably not the right idea."
Though her motives aren't the most well-intentioned, there is a lot of heart in the film as well. "She decides to go back to all her ex-boyfriends and see if maybe there was love, maybe she was too picky. And through that journey, she also has self-discovery and finds some love for herself," she said. "And the rest ... you got to see the movie."
In real life, Patton is anything but on the prowl for romance. She's been married to her longtime love, Robin Thicke, since 2005 after meeting him as a teenager. And in case you're wondering, he's very excited about the film's release.
"What's great about tonight, it's her being in a romantic-comedy starring role," Thicke gushed. "She's in almost every scene. It's a long time coming. I couldn't be more excited and proud of her. We're just here to celebrate her greatness tonight."

SOURCE : http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1714733/robin-thicke-paula-patton-baggage-claim.jhtml

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Kanye West tweets angrily at Jimmy Kimmel

Kanye West launched a Twitter tirade against Jimmy Kimmel on Thursday after the late-night funnyman spoofed West in a video segment on Tuesday's Jimmy Kimmel Live.
Unless it's all an elaborate prank, West was apparently angered by this video, which makes fun of the rapper's recent interview with BBC Radio 1's Zane Lowe in which West describes himself as the "biggest" rock star ever.

Most of West's profanity-laced, all-caps tweets can't be reproduced on the website of a family newspaper. (Kimmel stayed pretty calm throughout the exchange.) The Hollywood Reporter has a run-down of the blow-up, which includes doctored photos posted by West of SpongeBob SquarePants with profane captions.
And here's a Storify of it all, too.
Elsewhere on Twitter, reaction to the "feud" wasn't serious.

Read more : http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2013/09/26/kanye-west-jimmy-kimmel-twitter/2880903/

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Miley Cyrus Looks Fur-ocious!

Miley Cyrus posted on Twitter a rare picture of her with actual clothing on! And not just regular clothing, either, but a coat that Cruella de Vil might own!
Hmm, with Liam Hemsworth getting some lovin' from Eiza, who can blame Miley for wanting a little therapeutic fluffy embrace. We just hope that no actual leopards were harmed in the making of this Twitter picture.
When Miley put on this parka, she thought ________________.

SOURCE : http://perezhilton.com/page/3/#sthash.4BYTXxt3.dpbs

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Scientists Discover Secrets Behind Dazzling Northern Lights

Researchers have discovered the secrets behind dazzling displays of Earth’s northern lights in the Northern Hemisphere, the powerhouse for the cosmic storms in the magnetic field of our planet.
The new findings can help scientists predict when the stormy weather of our space may expose astronauts to deadly radiation bursts or disrupt the global power systems. Researchers can now also add insight into the spectacular auroras over the polar regions of our planet.
Space physicist Vassilis Angelopoulos from the University of California at Los Angeles said, “We finally found out where the energy comes from that powers the aurora in the space weather.”

During the solar storms the charged particles bombard the magnetic field of our planet and result in sending high-energy particles to the magnetotail. As an aftermath these energetic particles flow back to Earth as geomagnetic storms.
Magnetotail is the name given to the long tail of our planet’s magnetic field.
Plasma and particles are streamed from sun via solar wind at speeds of up to 1 million mph and it deforms the magnetic field of our planet. To the sun facing side the field is compressed and it is elongated as a long tail the other side. Some of the energy in this phenomenon gets transferred to our magnetic field and discharges as magnetic storms. This as a result looks as glowing light shows or the northern lights. Similar auroras on the Southern Hemisphere are called as southern lights.
Angelopoulos added, “Those can be so intense at times of storms that they light up the entire night sky all the way down south to Hawaii.”

SOURCE : http://www.pentagonpost.com/scientists-discover-secrets-behind-dazzling-northern-lights/83412240

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Colin Kaepernick, Frank Gore lead 49ers past Rams, 35-11

ST. LOUIS — Colin Kaepernick threw two touchdown passes, Frank Gore had his first 100-yard game of the season and the San Francisco 49ers' defense stepped up without some of their stars in a 35-11 rout over the St. Louis Rams on Thursday night.

Anquan Boldin had five catches for 90 yards and a touchdown, and Gore had 153 yards on 20 carries and a 34-yard score for San Francisco (2-2), which was outscored 46-10 the previous two games. Navarro Bowman had two of the 49ers' five sacks with a strip leading to a fourth-quarter scoring run by Anthony Dixon.
The Rams (1-3) had an overtime win and tie against San Francisco last year, and took the early lead Thursday before falling flat. Greg Zuerlein banged in a 40-yard field goal off the right upright to end a nine-game scoring drought in the first quarter, but the 49ers answered with 28 straight points.
The 49ers came close to a Super Bowl title in February and regained their footing against the team that gave them the most trouble last season. Minus cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha and linebackers Patrick Willis and Aldon Smith, they quieted a raucous, hopeful crowd, sending all but a few thousand home early.
Kaepernick had no touchdown passes and four interceptions the previous two weeks and completed fewer than 50 percent of his passes. He was 15 for 23 for 167 yards.
Boldin had a monster debut with the 49ers after helping the Ravens beat San Francisco in the Super Bowl, but had been quiet along with the rest of the offense the previous two weeks. He had two highlight catches in the second quarter, a 42-yarder despite Cortland Finnegan getting flagged for holding, and a 20-yard score capped by a dive into the end zone after barely avoiding the sideline.
Gore more than doubled his output from the first three weeks and got a lot more work, too, after totaling just 11 carries last week. Four days earlier, DeMarco Murray burned them for 175 yards in Dallas' 31-7 win.
The Rams have trailed by double digits in every game, making up an 11-point deficit against Arizona in the opener but not gaps of 21 and 24 points against Atlanta and Dallas, and were down by 25 in the fourth quarter against San Francisco.
They got hit by injuries, too, the worst of them when rookie safety T.J. McDonald was carted off with a leg injury in the second half.
After mustering just 25 yards in the first quarter, the 49ers took a noisy crowd out of it in the second, averaging more than 11 yards per snap while piling up 176 yards and two touchdowns. Kaepernick was 8 for 12 for 104 yards in the half, all but 11 of those yards in the second quarter.
The Rams went for it on 3rd-and-1 from the 49ers 34 and Donte Whitner's diving interception in the end zone set up an eight-play, 80-yard drive capped by Gore's 34-yard run on third-and-1 in the final minute that made it 14-3.
The San Francisco defense took Gore off the hook for getting stripped by rookie Alec Ogletree and a turnover, forcing St. Louis into a three-and-out. Davis, who had been questionable with a because of a hamstring injury, broke open for an easy catch in the left side of the end zone to push the lead to 21-3.
Boldin entered with 83 career receptions against the Rams, the most of any opponent he has faced.
din entered with 83 career receptions against the Rams, the most of any opponent he has faced. 

 

SOURCE : http://www.latimes.com/sports/football/nfl/la-sp-0927-49ers-rams-20130927,0,4326401.story#axzz2g5a89OHU

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Senate Is Set to Vote on Budget Bill as House Weighs Options

WASHINGTON — The Senate will conclude one of its more unpredictable — and stranger — weeks on Friday when it is expected to approve a bill to finance the federal government, including the health care law that Republicans have been trying to kill.

Barring any unforeseen twists, which can never be ruled out on Capitol Hill, the Senate will proceed to a series of votes at 12:30 p.m. that will send a budget bill to the House that Republicans there have vowed to change because of their strong opposition to any measure that helps the administration put the health care law into effect.

That will set up a game of legislative Ping-Pong that will tip the government perilously close to shutting down on Tuesday.

Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, has said he would reject anything but a plain budget bill, including Republican suggestions to delay the health care law or to repeal a tax on medical devices that would help pay for it.

But House Republicans and Speaker John A. Boehner seem intent on not surrendering the budget fight without wresting concessions from the Democratic-controlled Senate and President Obama.

It is unclear what the Republicans want, other than a complete repeal of the health law. Senior House Republicans continue to assess their options as the Senate prepares to vote on Friday, and are likely to insert any changes over the weekend, when the House plans to be in session.

One idea, according to a Republican who had spoken to the leadership, would be to put an amendment in the Senate budget bill that would eliminate health insurance subsidies for members of Congress and many of their aides, who must purchase their insurance on the exchanges that are part of the new law.

“That is an arrow in the quiver,” the Republican said.

That strategy, Republicans said, would put Senate Democrats in the uncomfortable position of either approving the amendment or rejecting it and risk appearing that they are willing to shut down the government over subsidies to themselves and their staffs.

But the Senate would not be able to act on any House bill until Monday, the day before the government is set to shut down if an agreement is not reached.

Getting to that point could be bumpy, starting with the Senate debate on Friday.

Conservative Republicans like Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah caused a stir on the Senate floor on Thursday when they raised objections that forced a budget vote, which could have occurred that afternoon, to be pushed back until Friday.

Mr. Cruz’s 21-hour speech from Tuesday afternoon until noon Wednesday was a sensation in the conservative media and among Tea Party activists, even as some Republican colleagues accused him of putting his own ambitions and a desire for national attention above the party’s interests.

He and his allies in the Senate, like Mr. Lee, have planned a sequel of sorts on Friday with a series of interviews on conservative radio shows and on Fox News.

On Sean Hannity’s Fox News program on Thursday night, Mr. Cruz encouraged viewers to go to a Web site that lists the telephone numbers of Republican senators who are opposed to his plan, and he encouraged them to keep fighting as Friday’s vote neared. He offered some dismissive words for his Republican colleagues.

“They’re beaten down, and they’re scared that if we stand together on this, and if a government shutdown results, that Republicans will be blamed and it’s too politically risky,” Mr. Cruz said, adding: “I hope they have second thoughts. I hope they listen to their constituents.”

The campaign has infuriated many of his fellow Republicans, who have done little to conceal their outrage. They have accused Mr. Cruz and his supporters of staging self-serving publicity stunts fueled by social media-savvy outside groups that have urged their followers to bombard the Senate with phone calls.

Mr. Cruz and his allies “have sent e-mails around the world and turned this into a show,” Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee, said on Friday. “And that is taking priority over getting legislation into the House.” 

SOURCE : http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/28/us/politics/senate-is-expected-to-approve-budget-bill.html

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Watchdog plan: Syria arsenal inspections by Oct. 1

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The global chemical weapons watchdog is calling for inspections of Syria's chemical arsenal to begin by Tuesday.
The draft decision of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons obtained by The Associated Press also authorizes the body to inspect "any other site identified by a State Party as having been involved in the Syrian chemical weapons program, unless deemed unwarranted by the Director-General."
That goes beyond usual practice as the organization only inspects sites that have been declared by member states.
The draft, being discussed by the organization's executive council Friday night, calls for the destruction of all Syria's chemical weapons and equipment to be completed by "the first half of 2014."

SOURCE : http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/09/27/syria-chemical-weapons-inspections/2881791

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Iran seeks 'phased actions' in nuclear talks

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's foreign minister is urging step-by-step compromises between his country and world powers to advance negotiations over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
Mohammad Javad Zarif's remarks on Iran's state TV referred to "phased actions" after reviving stalled talks with a six-nation group — the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and other envoys are scheduled to meet with Zarif on Thursday in New York to discuss restarting the talks.
Zarif did not elaborate in his comments late Wednesday, but it is seen a reference to gradual removal of sanctions by the West in return for a gradual decrease in Iran's nuclear activities, possibly uranium enrichment.
The West fear Iran could eventually produce a nuclear weapon — a charge Iran denies.

SOURCE : http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/09/26/iran-seeks-phased-actions-in-nuclear-talks/2875031

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First computer made of carbon nanotubes is unveiled

The first computer built entirely with carbon nanotubes has been unveiled, opening the door to a new generation of digital devices.

"Cedric" is only a basic prototype but could be developed into a machine which is smaller, faster and more efficient than today's silicon models.
Nanotubes have long been touted as the heir to silicon's throne, but building a working computer has proven awkward.
The breakthrough by Stanford University engineers is published in Nature.
Cedric is the most complex carbon-based electronic system yet realised.
So is it fast? Not at all. It might have been in 1955.

The computer operates on just one bit of information, and can only count to 32.

"In human terms, Cedric can count on his hands and sort the alphabet. But he is, in the full sense of the word, a computer," says co-author Max Shulaker.
"There is no limit to the tasks it can perform, given enough memory".
In computing parlance, Cedric is "Turing complete". In principle, it could be used to solve any computational problem.
It runs a basic operating system which allows it to swap back and forth between two tasks - for instance, counting and sorting numbers.
And unlike previous carbon-based computers, Cedric gets the answer right every time.
Imperfection-immune "People have been talking about a new era of carbon nanotube electronics, but there have been few demonstrations. Here is the proof," said Prof Subhasish Mitra, lead author on the study.
The Stanford team hopes their achievement will galvanise efforts to find a commercial successor to silicon chips, which could soon encounter their physical limits.
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are hollow cylinders composed of a single sheet of carbon atoms.
They have exceptional properties which make them ideal as a semiconductor material for building transistors, the on-off switches at the heart of electronics.
For starters, CNTs are so thin - thousands could fit side-by-side in a human hair - that it takes very little energy to switch them off.
"Think of it as stepping on a garden hose. The thinner the pipe, the easier it is to shut off the flow," said HS Philip Wong, co-author on the study.

But while single-nanotube transistors have been around for 15 years, no-one had ever put the jigsaw pieces together to make a useful computing device.

So how did the Stanford team succeed where others failed? By overcoming two common bugbears which have bedevilled carbon computing.
First, CNTs do not grow in neat, parallel lines. "When you try and line them up on a wafer, you get a bowl of noodles," says Mitra.
The Stanford team built chips with CNTs which are 99.5% aligned - and designed a clever algorithm to bypass the remaining 0.5% which are askew.
They also eliminated a second type of imperfection - "metallic" CNTs - a small fraction of which always conduct electricity, instead of acting like semiconductors that can be switched off.
To expunge these rogue elements, the team switched off all the "good" CNTs, then pumped the remaining "bad" ones full of electricity - until they vaporised. The result is a functioning circuit.
The Stanford team call their two-pronged technique "imperfection-immune design". Its greatest trick? You don't even have to know where the imperfections lie - you just "zap" the whole thing.
Read More : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24232896

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Pakistan earthquake creates new island, 'mud volcano' to blame

Mud houses in the mountains crumbled as a 7.7-magnitude earthquake shook western Pakistan early on Tuesday. Meanwhile, on the coast, residents of Gwadar saw a solitary island rise from the sea.
Older residents of the coastal town said the land emergence was déjà vu — an earthquake in 1968 produced an island that stayed for one year and then vanished, Ali Mohammad, 60, and Azeem Baloch, 57, told NBC News.
Seismologists suspect the island is a temporary formation resulting from a "mud volcano," a jet of mud, sand and water that gushed to the surface as the temblor churned and pressurized that slurry under the ocean floor.
"Sandy layers underground are shaken, and sand grains jiggle and become more compact," John Armbruster, a seismologist at the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University told NBC News. The shifting sand layers are compacted and pressurize the water, which gushed upwards, carrying mud and sand along with it.
This "liquefaction" of sand and mud layers take place after any earthquake, but these sudden islands are usually spotted after strong earthquakes, at least 7- or 8-magnitude events. The distance of the island from the epicenter of the quake is "a little bit surprising," Armbruster said, granted that "the sediments are quite soft and susceptible to this."
Back in the 1940s, a sizable island rose from the sea in the area, but it didn't last long. After an earthquake near Karachi struck, the British Indian Geological survey recorded a new island "big enough that people could land a boat and walk on it," Armbruster said. "Within days, weeks" — he wasn't sure how long — "it washed away."
Researchers at the United States Geological Survey are investigating the new formation, Paul Earle, a USGS geophysicist told NBC News, but have yet to get independent confirmation of it.
It is clear that "the islands are not created because the ground was ... pushed up by the earthquake," he said, but more likely it was a secondary effect of shifting sediments. He also agrees the formation appears to have been caused by a mud volcano, but added that they don't need an earthquake to set them off. There are "mud volcanoes in Yellowstone that have not been triggered by earthquakes," he said.
While mud volcanoes are typical of watery, loose sediments layers off the coast of Baluchistan, more substantial instant islands — or "land uprisings" — do suddenly appear in other parts of the world, Stephan Graham, a geologist at Stanford University told NBC News.
They're typically seen along fault lines where one tectonic plate slides under another, like the hungry subduction zone under New Zealand. Fault lines like the San Andreas, at which the Pacific Plate and the North American plates slide past each other sideways, are less likely to see such upcrops, Graham said.
It also takes a pretty sizable earthquake to push up an entirely new land feature. "You wouldn't expect to see it in a 3- or 4-magnitude [quake]," Graham said, it would take a stronger temblor of 7 or 8 magnitude to change the landscape.

SOURCE : http://www.nbcnews.com/science/pakistan-earthquake-creates-new-island-mud-volcano-blame-4B11248003

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Joseph Gordon-Levitt has secret girlfriend, unsure about marriage

Psssst! Joseph Gordon-Levitt has a secret girlfriend.
But he's not saying who.
Gordon-Levitt, 32, who plays a porn-addicted young man in "Don Jon," which he also directed and wrote, spoke about his lady love on SiriusXM's "The Howard Stern Show" but he wouldn't reveal her name, just little morsels about who she is and why he's never talked about her before.
"I have a girlfriend but I tend not to really like to talk about it in public," the "Dark Knight Rises" star said. "She is not in show business."
PHOTOS: Hollywood backlot moments
"I get up in movies and I play other people, so when the audience is watching me in movies, I don't want them thinking about me and who I'm dating, and blah blah blah," he told Stern. "I want them to see the character, the story that I'm telling, you know."
And apparently his girlfriend -- he refused to say how long they've been dating -- wants to stay out of the spotlight, too.
"The girl that I'm with, she really doesn't want to be a part of it and you can imagine not wanting to have that kind of scrutiny," he said.
Apparently the two met through "mutual friends" and when asked if he was in love, he shied away from the question.
"Oh, jeez, man! Come on! This is getting private."
PHOTOS: Celebrity portraits by The Times
Speaking of privates (and other vices), the actor talks about making an "adult film" about a man who can't connect with other people and how it could have been somewhat "autobiographical." (At least that's what Stern wanted it to be.)
The idea came about in 2008 and he finished the script while shooting "The Dark Knight Rises" and said he "was stoned" when he first thought of it as a comedy. (He also admitted he tried cocaine a few times but didn't like it, but liked LSD and didn't really do any other hard drugs. Then he made sure he made a PSA about being careful when doing drugs.)
"The first ideas of a Don Juan type of character -- watches too much pornography -- and a princess type of character, who watches too many romantic comedies," he said. "He likes the 'one-way thing,' he doesn't actually want to deal with a person, another human being."
The film also stars Scarlett Johansson, Julianne Moore and Tony Danza.
But in Gordon-Levitt's real life, he's "quick to run" in long-term relationships, Stern said.
"I think I'm a pretty good person and a good boyfriend. Yeah, I just wouldn't want to be with someone who was disrespectful to me."
When he was asked if he could be married and stay faithful, Gordon-Levitt waffled and said he didn't know if it was or wasn't for him.
"I think that I could partner up with somebody -- I don't know who that somebody is -- I could partner up with a woman and commit to we're going to raise a family and that's a project we're going to commit to for 20-something years."
He said he could be capable of being sexually monogamous during that time, but also said things may change after the kids are grown up.
"I like to not be too committed to any one future that's really far away, necessarily, unless there's a reason, which is why I'm saying if you're gonna raise a family ... I can make that commitment."
The film is in wide release Friday.

SOURCE : http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/gossip/la-et-mg-joseph-gordon-levitt-girlfriend-don-jon-20130925,0,394905.story

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UPDATE 1-Joint U.S.-Russian crew reaches space station

(Recasts with crew's arrival at space station)
* Soyuzcapsule reaches station in less than six hours
* Crew to join three already living aboard space station
* Next crew will bring Olympic torch but won't light it
By Irene Klotz
Sept 25 (Reuters) - - A Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday to deliver three new crew members to the International Space Station.
The Soyuz rocket and capsule lifted off at 4:58 p.m. EDT (2058 GMT) on an express route to the station, which orbits about 250 miles (400 km) above Earth.
Less than six hours after liftoff, veteran Russian commander Oleg Kotov and rookies Sergey Ryazanskiy of Russia and Michael Hopkins of the United States reached the outpost, a $100 billion project of 15 nations. Only two other crews have made the journey as quickly. Previous Soyuz capsules took two days of orbital maneuvers to reach the station.
The arrival of Kotov, Ryazanskiy and Hopkins returns the station to its full, six-member live-aboard crew. Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano have been running the station on their own since Sept. 10.
The skeleton crew was to have overseen the arrival of a commercial cargo ship on a test flight to the station this week.
But a software problem left the unmanned Cygnus freighter unable to receive navigation data properly from the station, delaying its arrival until no earlier than Saturday to avoid conflicting with the Soyuz's berthing. Typically, at least 48 hours are needed between spacecraft dockings.
The cargo ship, built and launched by Orbital Sciences with backing from NASA, blasted off aboard an Antares rocket on Sept. 18 from a new launch pad on the Virginia coast.
"As a crew we're very excited to be up there when Cygnus rendezvous and docks and (we're) looking forward to opening that hatch," Hopkins said on Tuesday during a prelaunch press conference.
Hopkins and Ryazanskiy are making their first flights. Kotov, who will take over command of the station when Yurchikhin leaves in November, has made two previous long-duration missions on the station.
During their five-month stay, Kotov and Ryazanskiy are scheduled to make three spacewalks, the first of which will include taking an unlighted Olympic torch outside the airlock to promote the Sochi Olympic Games in Russia, which open in February 2014.
"Our goal here is to make it look spectacular," Kotov, speaking through a translator, told reporters.
"We'd like to showcase our Olympic torch in space. We will try to do it in a beautiful manner. Millions of people will see it live on TV and they will see the station and see how we work," Kotov said.

Read more :  http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/09/26/space-station-launch-idINL2N0HM04Z20130926

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House Republicans explore strategy to avoid federal government shutdown

With federal agencies set to close their doors in five days, House Republicans began exploring a potential detour on the path to a shutdown: shifting the fight over President Obama’s health-care law to a separate bill that would raise the nation's debt limit.
If it works, the strategy could clear the way for the House to approve a simple measure to keep the government open into the new fiscal year, which will begin Tuesday, without hotly contested provisions to defund the Affordable Care Act.

But it would set the stage for an even more nerve-racking deadline on Oct. 17, with conservatives using the threat of the nation’s first default on its debt to force the president to accept a one-year delay of the health-care law’s mandates, taxes and benefits.
Obama administration officials dismissed the plan, vowing that there would be no delay of the insurance initiative, which is set to begin enrolling consumers Tuesday. They argued that Republicans risk destroying their own credibility among voters, who strongly disapprove of such brinkmanship regardless of their views on the Affordable Care Act.
“Once you start saying ‘delay’ with something as damaging as the default of the United States, people hear the second part: They hear the default,” said White House strategist David Simas, speaking at a breakfast held by Third Way, a moderate Democratic group.
GOP leaders met for nearly 90 minutes Wednesday afternoon to discuss the strategy, which they plan to present to rank-and-file lawmakers Thursday morning. If it wins approval, the leaders hope to introduce the debt-limit bill Thursday and hold a vote as soon as Saturday — letting GOP lawmakers mount a fresh assault on the health-care law before deciding whether to shut down the government.
The debt-limit bill will be loaded with dozens of other conservative priorities, including the approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline and the abolition of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Rep. Steve Southerland (Fla.), who attended the meeting on behalf of the massive class of GOP lawmakers elected in 2010, sidestepped questions about whether conservatives would be willing to trade the leverage of a government shutdown for the leverage of a default.
Leaders are “running the traps on every conceivable formula,” he said. “We’re looking at every possibility.”
The strategizing in the House came as Senate Democrats advanced a slow but inevitable campaign to approve a measure to keep the government open without undermining the president’s most significant legislative achievement, commonly known as Obamacare.
After conservative Rep. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) staged a 21-hour attack on the law, he joined all 99 of his Senate colleagues Wednesday in voting to end his filibuster and start debating a House-passed bill that would fund the government through Dec. 15.
As written, that measure also would defund Obamacare. But after a long debate expected to stretch into the weekend, Senate rules permit Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) to strip out the anti-Obamacare provisions, change the expiration date on the funding bill to Nov. 15, and pass the measure with a simple majority achieved entirely with Democratic votes.

 

SOURCE : http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/house-republicans-explore-strategy-to-avoid-federal-government-shutdown/2013/09/25/80c9d576-2618-11e3-b75d-5b7f66349852_story.html

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The Milky Way's Supermassive Black Hole Erupted Two Million Years Ago

Like most galaxies, the Milky Way has a supermassive black hole in its center. For the most part, however, that black hole is dormant – meaning that it isn’t emitting large amounts of radiation. That’s because that radition, in the form of X-rays, gamma rays, radio waves, is emitted when large objects – like giant gas clouds or stars – are brought into the black hole’s gravitational field. Matter falling into the black hole is subjected to exceedingly large gravitational forces, and the result is a blaze of light and radiation that is very visible to telescopes.
However, a team of scientists has uncovered evidence that two million years ago – when humanity’s earliest ancestors newly stepped on the world – the supermassive black hole in the center of our galaxy, Sagittarius A*, erupted in an explosion of high-energy radiation called a “Seyfert flare.” During that time, the radiation from the black hole was about 100 million times more powerful than it is today. Our ancestors may have even see the huge burst of light themselves, but this was hundreds of thousands of years before any kind of human was taking notes.
Astronomers have seen signs that there was such a Seyfert flare for the past few years, in the form of antimatter radiation and other clues. However, this new research enables astronomers to closely date when that explosion could have happened.
The key the astronomers found was actually discovered 20 years old, in the form of a strange glow that astronomers had noticed in the Magellanic Stream. The Magellanic Stream is composed of large clouds of gas – mostly hydrogen – that stretch for light years in the wake of the Milky Way’s two companion Galaxies, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. The Stream is about 2 billion years old.
“We didn’t understand the cause. Then suddenly we realised it must be the mark, the fossil record, of a huge outburst of energy from the centre of our Galaxy,” remarked researcher Joss Bland-Hawthorn in a press release.
As the radiation traveled from the explosion at the heart of our galaxy, it eventually hit the Magellanic Stream, where the high energy hitting the gas clouds caused them to light up, the same way cosmic radiation causes auroras here on Earth.
Having arrived at that thought, the astronomers then crunched the numbers, using complicated geometries to figure out the direction of a potential eruption. Then they determined how long it would take the radiation to get to the Magellanic Stream, then how long it would take for the light from that explosion to then be visible here on Earth. Based on those calculations, the eruption most likely occurred about 2 million years ago.
The team also considered a number of other alternative sources for the glow, and found that they were far less likely due to the amount of energies involved. Additionally, these findings are consistent with the other signs of an eruption of Sagittarius A* that have been discovered in recent years.
“All this points to a huge explosion at the centre of our Galaxy,” said researcher Philip Maloney.

Read more : http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2013/09/25/the-milky-ways-supermassive-black-hole-erupted-two-million-years-ago

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Alibaba Plans U.S. Listing

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is now planning to list its shares in the U.S., after talks with the Hong Kong stock exchange for an initial public offering in the city broke down, said a person familiar with the situation.
Alibaba's stock market debut could value the Chinese e-commerce company at $70 billion or more based on analyst estimates, making it the technology industry's largest IPO since Facebook's FB +2.60% offering last year, which valued the U.S. social network giant at about $100 billion. An Alibaba IPO would be much bigger than Twitter Inc.'s planned listing—the U.S. microblog's value is estimated at around $10 billion.

Enlarge Image

Reuters

Alibaba Group, China's largest e-commerce company, has given up on listing in Hong Kong and is moving toward a New York IPO.

The loss of the IPO will be a big blow to Hong Kong's stock exchange, which has struggled in the last couple of years to regain its 2011 status of being the world's top venue for new listings. Investment bankers in Hong Kong have also been pitching for a role in the IPO, which could have been one of the city's biggest in recent years.
Alibaba has yet to file its listing plan with the U.S., but the Chinese e-commerce giant has already hired a U.S. law firm to work on an IPO in New York, and it will likely hire banks soon, the person said.
Alibaba, which operates online marketplaces such as Taobao and Tmall, had been looking at either Hong Kong or New York as a possible listing venue. It wasn't clear why the talks with the Hong Kong exchange collapsed, but Alibaba had been talking to the city's bourse about setting up a structure to allow its "partners"—which include Alibaba founder Jack Ma and senior management—to maintain some control over the makeup of its board even after an IPO. Specifically, the 28 partners at the firm would nominate the majority of the board, and put that nomination up for a vote with the shareholders. Critics said that such a system would grant too much power to the partners, whose suggestions would rarely be rejected by shareholders.
In a letter to employees earlier this month, Mr. Ma explained why Alibaba's partners—including himself—needed to have the power to determine the company's future while keeping its long-term vision intact.
"We believe that only a group of people who are passionate about the company and are mission-driven will be able to protect the company from external pressure from competition and temptation to seek short-term gains," Mr. Ma said.
A spokeswoman at Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd, 0388.HK -1.17% the operator of Hong Kong's stock exchange, declined to comment.
Alibaba's board nomination proposal had placed the Hong Kong exchange in a tough spot, as accepting the request would go against the bourse's oft-stated principle of treating all shareholders equally. Some critics urged the bourse to reject the proposal, saying that, if the exchange gave in, other prospective IPO candidates would also ask for special rights.
The person familiar with the situation declined to comment on how the talks ended—including whether the Hong Kong exchange clearly rejected the company's board nomination proposal—but said that Alibaba now plans to go public in the U.S.
Alibaba will opt for the same type of system of nominating the majority of its board, should it list in the U.S., the person familiar with the matter said, rather than adopting the dual-class voting system favored by many U.S.-listed technology companies like Facebook and Google Inc. A dual-class system allows a company to issue two classes of shares with different voting rights, giving founders and management greater weight in shareholder votes. Hong Kong, however, doesn't allow such a system.
According to the person, Alibaba believes that its proposed board nomination system can enable the company to determine its own long-term strategic direction while offering better protection of shareholder rights than a dual-class structure does.

SOURCE : http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304526204579096381790891334.html

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Pakistan earthquake: Hundreds dead in Balochistan

A powerful earthquake has killed at least 250 people in Pakistan's remote south-west province of Balochistan.

The 7.7-magnitude quake struck on Tuesday afternoon at a depth of 20km (13 miles) north-east of Awaran, the US Geological Survey said.
Many houses were flattened and thousands of people have spent the night in the open.
After the quake, a small island appeared off the coast near the port of Gwadar, witnesses reported.
People gathered on the beach to see the new island, which is about 9m (30ft) high and 100m long, Gwadar Police Chief Pervez Umrani said.
Balochistan is Pakistan's largest but least populated province.
The region is prone to earthquakes, with at least 35 people killed in a 7.8-magnitude tremor that was centred in south-eastern Iran in April.
Mud houses The latest quake was so powerful it was felt as far away as Karachi, Hyderabad, and India's capital, Delhi.

Entire villages are reported to have been flattened in the impoverished and sparsely-populated district of Awaran.
Balochistan government spokesman Jan Buledi said most of the fatalities were in Awaran town and the surrounding villages, and he warned that the death toll could rise. At least 340 people have been injured.
"We are seriously lacking medical facilities and there is no space to treat injured people in the local hospitals," Mr Buledi said.
He said helicopters were airlifting the most seriously injured to Karachi while others were being cared for in neighbouring districts.
Pakistan's military was among the first to respond to the crisis, having a heavy presence in the area already because it is fighting a long-running separatist Baloch insurgency.
The army said it had sent more than 200 soldiers, medical teams and tents from the regional capital Quetta, but the mountainous terrain is said to be hampering the rescue operation.

Read more : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24222760

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Miley Cyrus: Confessions of Pop's Wildest Child

In the backroom of a tattoo parlor on North La Brea Avenue in L.A., Miley Cyrus is about to get some new ink. "All right, face down," says the tattoo artist, a bald guy named Mojo. Miley flips onto her stomach and sticks her ass in the air. On the bottom of her dirty feet, in ballpoint pen, are written the words ROLLING (right foot) and $TONE (left).
EXCLUSIVE: Outtakes from Miley's Wild Cover Shoot
"People get tattoos of the most fucked-up shit," Miley says. "Did you know Alec Baldwin has Hannah Montana's initials tattooed on him? No, wait – Stephen Baldwin. He said he was my biggest fan, and I told him my biggest fans have tattoos. So he got hm tattooed on his shoulder." She shakes her head. "People do fucked-up shit."
For her first Rolling Stone cover story, Miley wanted to do something fun. "I thought about going to play laser tag," she says. "But laser tag sucks. And we could have gone bowling, but what are we, 90?" Naturally, the next idea was getting a tattoo.
"All right, darlin'," says Mojo. "You ready?"
"Ready," she says. Mojo fires up the needle, which begins buzzing extremely loudly. "I hate seeing the needle," says Miley. She cranes her neck backward. "Does it hurt? It hurts, right?"
Mojo: "Yeah, it hurts."
These are the 20-year-old pop star's first tattoos on her feet, but she has lots of others: a peace sign, an equal sign, a heart and a cross (all on her fingers); the words love inside her right ear and just breathe over her rib cage; a Leonardo da Vinci sketch on her right forearm, and above it, the Roman numerals VIIXCI, for 7/91, the month and year her parents first met. And on the inside of her left forearm, the words so THAT HIS PLACE SHALL NEVER BE WITH THOSE COLD AND TIMID SOULS WHO NEITHER KNOW VICTORY NOR DEFEAT. "It's from a Teddy Roosevelt speech," she says. "It's about how people judge who wins and who loses, but they're not the ones in there fighting." In other words, "It's about critics."
Four days earlier, Miley performed at the VMAs. Maybe you heard about it. A lot of people got mad. Miley did things with a foam finger that made the inventor of the foam finger accuse her of having "degraded" an "icon." Most people thought it was Miley's fault, but Miley didn't care. That's what the Teddy Roosevelt quote is about. Haters gonna hate.
Mojo leans in with the needle. On the stereo, "Apache," by the Incredible Bongo Band, is playing. He writes the r, then the o. "How you doing?" he asks.
"Good," Miley says, gritting her teeth.
Then he does the l. "Motherfucker!"
Over on the couch, a guy named Cheyne is cracking up. Cheyne, 22, is Miley's assistant, and also her best friend. They've known each other for a long time, but Miley hired him only last year, before she went to Philadelphia and Miami to record her new album. Cheyne was working at Starbucks at the time. "And I was like, 'Fuck that,'" Miley says. "My best friend can't work at Starbucks! We've been working ever since."
Mojo, on the g, hits a nerve. "Owwww!" Miley screams.
"You hanging in there?" Mojo asks.
"I'm alive," she says.
"OK. We're almost done."
Mojo takes a quick break while Miley collects herself, and then finishes the job. "Easy!" Miley says. After, Mojo asks if she'll do him a favor. He takes out his phone and calls his 10-year-old daughter, Josie, who just started fifth grade.
"What a cool dad!" says Miley. "Face­Timing from the tattoo shop."
Josie's face pops up onscreen. "Hi, Daddy!" she says.
"Hi, sweet angel!" says Mojo.
Miley leans in. "Hey! I hear you make a face like me!" Josie smiles and sticks her tongue out, and Miley does the same. "Yay!" Miley says.
"OK, say good night," says Mojo.
"Good night!" says Josie.
"Adios!" Miley says. Mojo hangs up, and Miley hops down off the table and lands on her feet.
"Motherfucker!" she says.
In this era of deep national polarization, there's one thing on which we can pretty much all agree: It's an interesting time to be Miley Cyrus. She's been dealing with fame in varying degrees for her entire life, first as the daughter of country star Billy Ray Cyrus, whose "Achy Breaky Heart" was to 1992 what "Blurred Lines" is to 2013, then as the insanely popular Disney tween icon Hannah Montana. But all that was just a prelude to Miley 3.0, a tongue-wagging, hard-twerking, all-grown-up pop star, like it or not.
Follow Miley Cyrus' Rapid Transformation From Disney Kid to Dirty Girl
Miley has been planting the seeds for her big transition to adulthood for the past five years. She was 15 when she weathered her first scandal, when she posed for Vanity Fair wearing a sheet that made her look topless. ("I feel so embarrassed," she said in a statement. "And I apologize to my fans, who I care so deeply about.") A year later came a pole-dancing stunt at the Teen Choice Awards (the "pole" was on an ice cream cart; the dancing was PG at most). The following year she was photographed in Spain drinking a beer at age 17, and a month after that, TMZ posted a video of her taking a rip from a bong. (Miley claimed it was legal salvia.) And yet, in millions of people's eyes, she's still Hannah Montana – which may be part of the problem.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/miley-cyrus-confessions-of-pops-wildest-child-20130924#ixzz2ftJXf6o9

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Roku Starts to Look More Like Apple TV

Roku and Apple TV are the two little boxes that fight for the big cord-cutting (or more likely, cord-supplementing) masses, though they have tackled it in different ways. But with new movie- and TV rental services offerings Roku announced today, and a coming ability to sling video from your computer or mobile device to your TV, Roku is starting to look more like its rival.
(To put this in perspective, though, far more people use a game console or a connected Blu-ray player than a set-top box to get online video to their TVs)
Roku is also launching a new line of streaming boxes that essentially bring higher-end features down to lower-priced models.
MORE: Beyond Netflix: Where Your Shows Are Hiding
Apple TV points you first toward its own iTunes service to buy or rent TV shows and movies, though it has always included Netflix streaming and has been adding more channels, currently up to 25. Starting as simply a Netflix streaming box, Roku has continually added video and music channels, now numbering about 1,000. (Thankfully, Roku also has a good universal search function that covers many of the biggest channels at once.)

Read More : http://www.tomsguide.com/us/roku-updates-services-devices,news-17599.html

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Eagle vs Deer: Rare Images Caught on Camera

 

Kerley said she was preforming a routine check to switch out the camera trap's batteries and memory cards when she noticed the deer carcass in the snow. But something in the scene was off, she said.
"There were no large carnivore tracks in the snow, and it looked like the deer had been running and then just stopped and died," Kerley said. "It was only after we got back to camp that I checked the images from the camera and pieced everything together. I couldn't believe what I was seeing."
The camera trap is part of a series set up in the Lazovskii State Nature Reserve in Primorye in the southern Russian Far East as a means to monitor the region's Amur tigers. Kerely and other ZSL researchers have been monitoring the territory for the past six years. Camera trap images are typically recordings of common prey species and occasionally a resident or transient tiger, so seeing an image of an eagle in the act of taking down a deer was unexpected. But Jonathan Slaght of the Wildlife Conservation Society and Kerely's study co-author, said golden eagles have a well-documented history of eyebrow-raising predation attempts.
"The scientific literature is full of references to golden eagle attacks on different animals from around the world, from things as small as rabbits -- their regular prey -- to coyote and deer, and even one record in 2004 of an eagle taking a brown bear cub," Slaght said.
Slaght added that Kerley was "really lucky" to have obtained images of such a rare and opportunistic predation event.

Read more : http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/4111/20130923/eagle-vs-deer-rare-images-caught-camera.htm

 

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Valve Introduces SteamOS, A Linux-Based Platform To Bring Steam To Your Living Room

Valve just announced the first part of its living room strategy with SteamOS, a free Linux-based operating system that takes the ‘Big Picture’ feature one step further. In addition to playing your game collection, SteamOS allows you to watch movies and listen to music.
The company has yet to announce a hardware partner for SteamOS, but this could certainly be the operating system behind the rumored Steam Box computer. OEMs will be able to use SteamOS to build gaming computers, as Valve states multiple times that it’s an open platform.
When it comes to gaming, SteamOS will work particularly well for audio performances and reducing input latency. Yet, only Linux games will work on SteamOS. While many games are now available on Linux, it still has a long way to go compared to Mac OS and especially Windows. That’s why you will be able to run Steam on your Windows or Mac computers in another room and then stream your games to your living room using SteamOS. Latency shouldn’t be an issue, as everything happens on your local network.
The family sharing feature now makes even more sense as the living room is the perfect place to let your kids play video games. Everyone will be able to have a separate profile and play the same games, just like you would on your Xbox.
SteamOS could certainly replace your gaming console, but it could replace your Roku or Apple TV as well for movies, TV and music. Valve didn’t announce a content partner but did say they are “working with many of the media services you know and love.” Services such as Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Hulu Plus and HBO Go should make their way to the platform.
While many of these services are only available in a few countries, SteamOS will be available for everyone in the world. We just don’t know when or what devices will run SteamOS. The second announcement is set for Wednesday.
The company has yet to announce a release date for SteamOS. And while it isn’t the long-anticipated Steam Box, Valve plans to make other announcements in the coming days. On Steam’s website, users can find a teaser page with three icons that represent three different announcements for the living room — SteamOS is only the first one.

SOURCE : http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/23/valve-introduces-steamos-a-linux-based-platform-to-bring-steam-to-your-living-room

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Fairfax consortium bids $4.7 billion to take BlackBerry private

(Reuters) - Smartphone maker BlackBerry has agreed to go private in a $4.7 billion deal led by its biggest shareholder, allowing the on-the-go email pioneer to regroup away from public scrutiny after years of falling fortunes and slumping market share.
The $9 a share tentative offer, from a consortium led by property and casualty insurer Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd, will set a floor for any counteroffers that might emerge for Blackberry, which has been on the block since August.
As an investor, Fairfax Chief Executive Prem Watsa is often described as the Canadian Warren Buffett because he also takes the long view.
Blackberry shares peaked above $148 in June 2008 when the company's devices were still the top choice for bankers, politicians and lawyers.
The stock, halted pending the announcement on Monday, closed below the offer price on Nasdaq, at $8.82, indicating the market's lack of faith that other bids would emerge.
"I would think a competing buyout offer is quite unlikely," said Elvis Picardo, strategist at Global Securities in Vancouver. "The miniscule premium, and the muted market reaction, is another indication that the market views the odds of a competing bid as slim."
BlackBerry, based in Waterloo, Ontario, once dominated the market for secure on-your-hip email. But it introduced consumer-friendly touchscreen smartphones only after it lost the lead to Apple Inc's iPhone and devices using Google Inc's Android operating system.
BlackBerry has until November 4 to seek superior offers, which the Fairfax group has the right to match. The group is seeking financing from Bank of America Merrill Lynch and BMO Capital Markets to complete the deal and has until that November 4 deadline to conduct its due diligence.
A BlackBerry statement did not name members of the consortium, although many in the financial community see Canada's deep-pocketed and influential pension funds as likely participants.
"We need to be careful given disclosure constraints, but we can say that we are focused on a strong Canadian solution," said Fairfax spokesman Paul Rivett.
The pension funds, with assets around the world, traditionally take a long-term view in their investment decisions. Officials at the biggest funds either did not reply to requests for comment, said they had no information or declined to comment.
"We never discuss whether or not we plan to enter into any investment," said Deborah Allan, spokeswoman for Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan.
CANADIAN BUFFETT
Watsa stepped down from the BlackBerry board of directors in August, citing a potential conflict of interest, as the company said it was exploring a sale.
Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper quoted Watsa as saying that a significant amount of the equity in the deal will come from within the country. The consortium included neither strategic players, nor other technology firms, he said.
BlackBerry's recent challenging years have been in stark contrast to the rapid growth it previously enjoyed.
The Z10 touchscreen device that the company hoped would claw back market share from the iPhone thudded badly at launch in January, and it has lost ground even in emerging markets where it had carved out an important role.
A spokeswoman for phone company MTN Nigeria, for example, said that while BlackBerrys are still very relevant in Nigeria, "the adoption rate has declined significantly from a year ago due to lack of newer low to mid-end smart phone models." In Brazil, locally made iPhones are the first choice for government workers. "I have never seen a Brazilian government employee using a BlackBerry," said one government source.
And while some U.S. government agencies still use only the BlackBerry, others allow devices like iPhones as well.
The American Lawyer surveyed 83 of the top 200 U.S. law firms in November 2012 and found that 90 percent of them expected to see a drop-off in the number of Blackberry devices.
John Sroko, chief information officer at Duane Morris, said that three years ago the firm only offered BlackBerry devices because they were deemed most secure. But in recent years, the firm has allowed their lawyers to use other devices too.
"People like Blackberry for the keyboard and email," he said. "The switch was caused by a better browsing experience and the apps."
NOBODY ELSE
Donald Yacktman, president and founder of Yacktman Asset Management which holds something under 1 percent of BlackBerry according to Thomson Reuters data, said he does not expect a counteroffer to emerge.
"This is pretty much Plan B. They've clearly not hit the targets," he said.
Jack Gold, principal analyst and founder of J. Gold Associates, said "this is probably the best possible outcome of several unattractive options for BlackBerry."
"Going private and potentially bringing back the founder of the company, Mike Lazaridis (as has been rumored) could buy them some time to put the house in order," he noted.
Lazaridis, BlackBerry's co-CEO until early 2012 and a board member until March, did not respond to requests for comment.
On Friday, BlackBerry said it would step back from the hypercompetitive consumer market and focus on what it calls enterprise customers - businesses, governments, legal firms and security forces.
The company warned it would report revenue on the sale of just 3.7 million of its phones for the entire second quarter, and write down almost $1 billion.
By contrast, Apple sold 9 million iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c models in three days after their Friday launch.
A Defense Department official said the Pentagon had more than 600,000 mobile devices in use in spring, including 470,000 BlackBerrys, 41,000 devices with Apple operating systems and 8,700 smart phones with Android systems.
"We are moving towards a secure mobile communications infrastructure that supports a variety of devices," the official said.
Blackberry has rarely traded below $9 a share even in recent years when it issued profit warnings, slashed jobs and launched devices that arrived late to disinterested audiences.
In the past 12 months the stock has risen as high as $18.32 and fallen as low as $6.22 on the Nasdaq.
BDT & Company, LLC, BofA Merrill Lynch and BMO Capital Markets are acting as financial advisors, and Shearman & Sterling LLP and McCarthy Tétrault LLP are acting as legal advisors to Fairfax in connection with the transaction.

Read more : http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/24/us-blackberry-offer-fairfax-idUSBRE98M0YI20130924

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