dresser microelectronics: February 2013

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Linux Gaming: Open-Source Is Better For Everyone - Features ...

The open-source operating system has long been the exclusive domain of programmers and other DIY computer nerds, but big players like Valve have recently begun making real progress in supporting Linux for heavy-duty gaming. Here's why you should cheer for those efforts rather than laughing them off or feeling like they threaten your existing PC gaming domain.

You can't throw a virtual rock on the Internet without hitting a game developer commenting on how dealing with platform holders takes time, effort, and money away from making better games. The additional coding required to conform to standards that affect a tiny portion of their audience in order to pass Microsoft certification comes at a cost. The thirty percent or so (an extremely vague figure, as it varies from game to game and platform to platform) of revenues that platform holders take off the top make it harder for developers to profit from their work. The requirements and restrictions of a platform's exclusive marketplace can make some ideas impossible to bring to life - witness the lack of MMOs on Xbox despite a strong network infrastructure. Finally, onerous burdens like having to pay a platform holder to patch your game make games like Minecraft and Team Fortress 2 lag far behind their PC versions.

With an open-source platform like Linux, there is no platform holder to deal with. Nobody can stop you from making and distributing whatever Linux software you like, charge you a fee for it, or tell you what you can and can't do with a Linux game. That has been the advantage of PC gaming since its inception, and it's done wonderful things for creativity, flexibility, and pricing over the years. With Microsoft pushing Windows in the direction of being a closed platform with Windows 8 (ARM-based tablets running Windows 8 can only run Microsoft-approved programs, and only software sold through Microsoft's digital storefront can access the full suite of Metro UI features), this massive advantage that PC gaming holds could be lost. Linux's open-source nature prevents it from ever being pushed down a similar road.

Valve's Steam service (which recently launched in a Linux incarnation) shares many of the downsides of closed platforms like consoles, iOS, or the Windows Marketplace. However, Valve doesn't control your hardware and cannot prevent any games or content from working on your machine whether it runs Windows, Linux, or Mac. Lacking that stick, Valve and competing companies (including GameStop, which owns Game Informer) must resort to carrots like seamless patching, community features, sales, and other ways to add value in order to attract games and players to their services. Many developers are happy to give Valve and other retailers their cut of a game's sale price in exchange for the visibility and marketing they receive in return, and others prefer using the pre-fab solutions for anti-piracy measures, community/online integration, and other developer-focused added value that Steam in particular offers.

Though Steam and similar services share some downsides with closed platforms like consoles, the key ingredient is choice. If a company doesn't like the way Valve does business, or doesn't think that Steam's positives outweigh its negatives, they're free to ignore it and release their game through other channels. NCsoft and ArenaNet probably didn't need any additional exposure for Guild Wars 2, and obviously decided to avoid losing the revenue that using a reseller like Valve takes off the top. Nonetheless, Guild Wars 2 is available to all PC gamers who own the requisite hardware. Blizzard sticks with its own Battle.net service. EA and Ubisoft insist on annoying players with their own proprietary Origin and Uplay systems. Hundreds of indie developers sell games through their own websites. The PC gaming ecosystem is wider and more diverse than closed platforms by orders of magnitude, and it's all due to its open nature. Game development on Linux will remain open to all business models, types of content, and services, forever.

Finally, a Linux gaming machine will by definition cost around $100 less than the same machine running Windows. Not having to pay Microsoft for its operating system is a huge boon, particularly at the lower end of gaming-capable PC building like Valve's "SteamBox" initiative. A high-end $1,900 machine going up to $2,000 isn't that big of a deal, but bringing a $600 box down to $500 is huge.

As glorious as a Linux-centric PC gaming future would be, there are a number of hurdles that must be cleared for any serious Linux development to take root. Come back Friday for a look at those, and leave your thoughts in the comments section below in the meantime.

Source: http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2013/02/27/linux-gaming-open-source-is-better-for-everyone.aspx

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Joan Rivers makes fat jokes, Holocaust jokes

Donna Ward / Getty Images Contributor

Joan Rivers arrives for "Late Show With David Letterman" on Tuesday.

By Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, TODAY

Singer Adele took home an Oscar in the best original song category Sunday night, but she also had to listen to host Seth MacFarlane joke about her weight. The jokes aren't over: On Wednesday night's "Late Night With David Letterman," comedian Joan Rivers poked fun at the singer's size as well.

"I met Adele! Has she been on the show?" Rivers asked Letterman, puffing out her cheeks and holding her arms far away from her body. When the audience booed, Rivers snapped, "Oh no! No! She's thin! Can we just talk to each other here?"

"What is her song, 'Rolling in the Deep'? She should add, 'Fried Chicken,'" Rivers cracked.

Rivers went on to say that Adele expressed concern about her live Oscars performance, saying, "My throat, my throat! I don't know if I can swallow."

"And I said, 'Oh yeah, you can swallow,'" Rivers said, again holding her arms out to indicate a large person.

Rivers is also being called upon by the Anti-Defamation League to apologize for a "vulgar and hideous" Holocaust joke she made about German-born model Heidi Klum.

On the?E! show "Fashion Police" Monday, Rivers said, "The last time a German looked this hot was when they were pushing Jews into the ovens."

The ADL says in a press release that ?the segment has been shown at least four times on the network and appeared briefly on YouTube.

"It is vulgar and offensive for anybody to use the death of six million Jews and millions of others in the Holocaust to make a joke, but this is especially true for someone who is Jewish and who proudly and publicly wears her Jewishness on her sleeve," the ADL said of Rivers.

At press time, "Fashion Police" had not responded to a request for comment.

What do you think of Rivers' humor? Tell us on Facebook.

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Self-Improvement vs. Self-Absorption: A Look at ?Silver Linings ...

If you want to find happiness and self-fulfillment, you need to focus on yourself. Think about ways to improve your personality, your character, the type of person you are ? then act on them. At least that?s what the world usually tells you.

The Academy Award-nominated movie ?Silver Linings Playbook,? on the other hand, presents a more complex solution ? a solution that also involves the exact opposite advice.

Bradley Cooper stars as Pat Solitano, a husband who wound up in a mental institution for eight months after he beat up and nearly killed the man with whom his wife, Nikki, was having an affair. The incident was prompted by more than just anger though. Pat suffered from bipolar disorder, OCD and severe mood swings which had never been diagnosed.

When Pat?s mother, Dolores (Jacki Weaver), gets him out of the institution to live at home with her and his father, Pat Sr. (Robert De Niro), it?s obvious that Pat is still deeply troubled emotionally and mentally. To give himself direction to win back his wife, who has a restraining order against him, he keeps repeating the motto, ?Excelsior,? meaning ?ever upward.? He also tells himself, ?I?m gonna take all this negativity and I?m gonna use it as fuel, I?m gonna find a silver lining.?

Pat soon meets Tiffany Maxwell (Jennifer Lawrence in her Oscar-winning role), a young widow who is struggling with her own set of mental and emotional issues after her police officer husband is killed. Though they don?t exactly establish a friendship right away, the brokenness each of them brings to the table draws them to each other. They?re also alternately attracted and repelled by the fact that they each say anything that pops into their minds without applying the filter that most of us have in social situations. In other words, they?re a handful.

Because of the restraining order, Pat isn?t allowed to contact Nikki, so he asks Tiffany to get a letter to her explaining how he?s changed. In return, Tiffany wants a favor from Pat. In order to get her mind off her troubles, she?s signed up for a dancing competition and needs a partner. He reluctantly agrees and the two start training together, while also getting to know and rely on each other on a much deeper level.

Some people have praised ?Silver Linings Playbook? for the way it presents the struggle against mental illness. I don?t have any personal knowledge of that topic, so I can?t say how accurate the movie?s treatment is.

What I did see, however, is that Pat?s mental and emotional state started improving more when he stripped the focus off himself and onto the goal of helping Tiffany.

For years, Pat?s focus had been on himself because Nikki never seemed to love him for who he was. He admits they went into the marriage with the goal of changing each other and keeps insisting that?s normal. In reality, that?s only normal for people in troubled marriages ? or between couples who probably never should have gotten together in the first place.

When Pat gets out of the institution, he wants nothing more than to restore his marriage and finally become the man Nikki wanted him to be. He starts reading her favorite books, like Ernest Hemingway?s ?A Farewell to Arms,? but can?t deal with the fact that it has an unhappy ending. Along with this, he still struggles to admit to himself that he suffers from genuine mental problems.

Even though Pat seems to be focusing on Nikki?s needs, he?s really still steeped in his own illusion of what their relationship was. In that sense, there remains a level of self-absorption in his struggle.

Tiffany has her own self-absorption issues. After her husband was killed, she started living a sexually promiscuous lifestyle because she blamed herself for his death. (It makes sense in the context of the story; I?m just trying not to give too much away.) Misplaced guilt can be its own form of self-absorption.

When we meet Tiffany, though, she?s fighting to move forward and forgive herself for past mistakes. She?s also willing to accept herself, flaws and all.

With Tiffany, Pat finds someone who challenges him, but who also accepts him. She sees the brokenness inside him and is reminded of the brokenness within herself. There?s a wonderul scene in which one of Tiffany?s former lovers comes to the door of her parents? home looking for her because he wants to ?get together.? Pat is there at the same time and sends him away, telling him that Tiffany is a nice girl, not an object to be used for his own gratification. Tiffany overhears this and gets a view of herself that she hasn?t heard for a long time. Pat?s opinion of her buoys her opinion of herself.

When the two of them start training for the dance competition, it accomplishes their goal of taking their minds off their own problems. Ironically, Pat finds his best self when he forgets about himself, when he becomes immersed in the dancing and in his feelings and responsibilities toward Tiffany. She also finds the healing she?s been looking for through her attempts to help Pat move forward with his life.

Though the movie isn?t at all overtly religious, the undercurrent of self-forgetfulness ? of lifting yourself up by loving someone else ? is a major presence in the story, much like it is in Christianity. It?s a method that should be in the playbook of anyone who is in pursuit of a silver lining.

(?Silver Linings Playbook? is rated R for foul language, sexual themes, and adult themes.)

Source: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/christophers/2013/02/self-improvement-vs-self-absorption-a-look-at-silver-linings-playbook/

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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Recording Industry Manages a Sliver of Growth for the First Time Since 1999

Global recorded music revenues grew .3-percent to $16.5 billion last year, marking the first increase since 1999. That's the year, you'll remember, that Napster and file sharing brought the industry to its knees. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/P8zSMdO67yI/recording-industry-manages-a-sliver-of-growth-for-the-first-time-since-1999

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Korean operators warn Europe of "curse" of 4G networks

BARCELONA (Reuters) - South Korean telecom executives have a message for European cousins who have long looked on in envy at the highly connected Asian market: Be careful what you wish for.

South Korea, the world's most wired country with 30 percent of its 50 million mobile users on superfast networks, has inspired many European operators ahead of their own rollout of networks based on LTE, or fourth-generation technology.

But SK Telecom Co Ltd , the country's largest operator with more than half of the market, and second player KT Corp , told Reuters that although the rollout of faster networks had been good for consumers, they were still struggling to make money on the technology 18 months after launch.

"Our European colleagues complain that the explosion in data has not fully happened for them, that it did not come to reality," Suk-Chae Lee, the head of KT Corp, told Reuters at the Mobile World Congress on Tuesday.

"In Korea, they are data crazy. We have unprecedented demand. We cannot handle it. But the issue we have is that they are not willing to pay enough. So, the fundamental problem is, can we make any money out of it?"

South Korea is often held up by European governments as the model they would most like to replicate, with superfast networks enabling millions of people to shop online, communicate and become more productive.

The country has three operators who have been forced to fight for every consumer, spending heavily on marketing and handset subsidies and continually offering more for less to lure in and keep their subscribers.

"The traffic increases but the revenue does not necessarily follow," SK's chief technology officer Jae W Byun said in an interview.

"We have seen about a $13 increase in average revenue per user compared with 3G. So, it is good money, but it may not be enough to justify the huge investment needed in LTE."

Byun added that the profitability of LTE would improve as SK expects the number of subscribers on the technology to grow to 60 percent by the end of the year, from 30 percent currently.

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European operators such as Telefonica SA and France Telecom SA , weighed down by regulation, competition and economic woes, are betting that the billions of dollars of investment needed for 4G networks will eventually be offset by an increase in customer prices.

Their optimism will be tested when 4G services reach more subscribers in Germany, France, Scandinavia and Britain this year.

In contrast, in the United States AT&T Inc and Verizon Communications Inc are surfing the 4G wave to grow sales and profits, but that has much to do with the fact that they have a combined 70 percent share of their home market.

The lessons from Korea are not all harsh, though.

SK's Byun said rolling out faster networks could enable a mobile operator ranked number two or three to become market leader because the improvement to the consumer is so significant.

But he also noted that once one operator launched 4G, others had to follow quickly or face being left behind.

"If you want to change the game, then take a risk and invest," said Byun.

Customers of both firms on average consume 1.8 to 1.9 gigabytes of data per month, with users spending hours watching video on YouTube, browsing the web and social networking on smartphones and tablets.

According to research from Cisco, an average smartphone user on slower 3G networks consumes around 342 megabytes. South Korea's leap to 1.8 gigabytes followed an 80 percent jump in mobile data traffic on 2G, 3G and 4G networks in 2012.

"LTE is very beneficial to the people but still the big question remains, can we go on?" KT's Suk-Chae Lee said. "It is a blessing to customers but it is a curse on the operators."

The problem will likely get worse, with analysts at Citi predicting 70 percent of the country's mobile users would be on 4G networks by 2014.

SK says it cannot predict when the network will break even because it depends on marketing costs. Its rival noted that with technology developing so quickly, companies have to continually develop new infrastructure, giving less time to recoup the cost.

"The question remains, how do you build out a network while ensuring that the builder gets a minimum return for their investment?" KT's Suk-Chae Lee said. "It is a dilemma."

(Additional reporting by Miyoung Kim in Seoul; Editing by Dan Lalor and David Holmes)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/korean-operators-warn-europe-curse-4g-networks-115105261--finance.html

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Watch: Veteran Uses Mind to Move Bionic Arm

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Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/video/veteran-mind-move-bionic-arm-18592735

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Eco-Energy: Green Technologies For Your Home's Electricity ...

Last week, we talked to you about heated driveways. We got a lot of responses on our Facebook page ? including some from people who shuddered to think about the energy expenditure involved, and its impact on the environment.

We told you were planning on profiling green technologies, and now we?re delivering.

Today?s Technology in Residence post is about eco-friendly energy, and how to bring it into your home. This isn?t just good for the environment: it also benefits the local energy grid, boosts the value of your home, and takes some pressure off your utility bill in the long term.

If you don?t have a lot of money to spend on going green right now, but you?d like to support clean energy, one solution is to start purchasing your power from Bullfrog Power. Bullfrog derives power from wind, solar, and natural gas, cutting coal out of the mix. When you buy from them, you?re helping them invest in more turbines and solar panels. They offer an online quote system for people who are curious about changing energy companies. They also offer the same service to businesses, and even have case studies on how using green energy for your business can help make a dent in the total energy mix.

However, if you want to reduce your total impact on the grid, and maybe even sell some power back to it, you may want to install solar panels. Pure Energies (warning: autoplay video) has a simple assessment form to fill out, so they can help you figure out how which panels are best for you, where to install them, and what size they should be. The best part of their solution is that there is no upfront cost, so you can work out a financing plan over the long term, rather than saving up and spending money on traditional power sources in the meantime.

If your goal is to sell energy back to the grid, Solart makes participating in Ontario?s MicroFIT program easy. Through this program,

?every homeowner of Ontario can be paid a guaranteed price over a 20-year term for all the electricity produced and delivered to the province?s electricity grid from the solar installation. The returns are up to $12,000 a year for a home or a small business or considerably higher for a large commercial property.

If you?re not interested in solar panels, you may want to look into geothermal energy. Ontario is leading the way in geothermal or ?heat exchange? installation. As Tyler Hamilton notes, ?The most efficient geo-exchange systems are as much as 50 per cent more efficient than the best natural gas furnaces and more than 75 per cent more efficient than oil furnaces.?

If those numbers sound good to you, Quest Geothermal can help you with a quote and installation. The cost of installation will vary depending on location and the experience of your drillers and contractors. E-how has a good run-down of the cost, in US dollars, and points out that the heating bills of homeowners on geothermal systems tend to be between twenty and thirty percent lower than those of traditional power consumers.

However you choose to go about it, there are several ways to go green and change your energy consumption at home. You probably know all about using less power, but changing how your energy is provided means using different power, and that can make a serious difference.

Source: http://www.harveykalles.com/blog/eco-energy-green-technologies-for-your-homes-electricity/

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Investigator: BP Wasn't Prepared For Disasters At Deepwater Oil Wells

Tuesday marked the second day of a civil trial connected to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill in New Orleans. With opening statements over, plaintiffs began calling witnesses. Melissa Block talks to Jeff Brady.

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

There was harsh criticism of BP from the witness stand today and tough cross-examination in the lawsuit over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. An explosion at that oil rig killed 11 people back in 2010 and led to a massive spill. The civil trial is in its second day in U.S. district court in New Orleans. Witnesses for the plaintiffs began their testimony.

And NPR's Jeff Brady was in the courtroom. And, Jeff, who was testifying today? Who took the witness stand today?

JEFF BRADY, BYLINE: The first witness was Bob Bea. He's an engineering professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He testified for the plaintiffs. His expertise is something called process safety. Essentially, that's the things a company can do to limit catastrophic accidents like the Deepwater Horizon explosion.

Bea testified that BP didn't have the risk management systems in place that are necessary for the dangerous work of drilling deepwater oil wells. And he knows this because he was consulting with BP on the subject. Bea said he repeatedly warned the company starting in 2003.

He said BP was talking about his recommendations, but not implementing them and by 2007, Bea's warnings were becoming more aggressive. In one note, he said, "you still don't get it. Process safety is deadly serious and you've turned it into a traveling road show."

BLOCK: A traveling road show, were his words. Really strong criticism there of BP. And as we mentioned, there was some rigorous cross-examination that followed, right?

BRADY: Right. BP's attorney, Mike Brock, cross-examined Professor Bea and he pointed out that implementing these process safety programs takes a long time and it's expensive. The lawyer went through a series of indications that BP was developing the kinds of safety systems that Bea advocates for. And as you might imagine, there were plenty of times, while Bea was working for BP, that he gave the company credit for the progress it was making.

And attorney Brock made sure the judge was aware of those times and then he detailed some of the progress BP had made and communications from executives saying that safety was very important to them. At one point, attorney Brock said to Professor Bea, quote, "this doesn't present evidence of a company that is cutting safety corners, does it?"

And Professor Bea answered no.

BLOCK: And later today, Jeff, I understand that a BP executive also took the witness stand. What did he have to say? for much of the day. How many more witnesses are there?

BRADY: Yeah. His name is Lamar McKay and he was the head of BP America when the Deepwater Horizon accident happened in 2010. He was recently promoted, though. Now he's the head of all of BP's exploration and production business. At the trial, one of the plaintiff's lawyers, Robert Cunningham, tried very hard to box McKay into a corner and get him to say that BP was primarily responsible for everything that led to the blow-out at its Macondo well. But Mr. McKay stuck to what has been BP's line all along that this disaster was the result of many mistakes that were made by everyone involved. That includes BP but also its contractors.

BLOCK: And, Jeff, we've talked about two witnesses on this first day of testimony. How many more witnesses are there to come?

BRADY: Oh, there are dozens, at least 53 witnesses. In fact, Judge Carl Barbier said at the end of the proceedings today that he sat down to figure out how long this trial could last at the current pace. He didn't say exactly how long that was but he determined it will have to move along more quickly than this. Judge Barbier says he is committed to wrapping up this trial by the end of May. This is such a complicated case, though. On one side you have the plaintiffs, including the federal government and the five states on the Gulf coast. Their message is pretty uniform, that BP was grossly negligent leading up to this well blowout and oil spill and the company should receive the stiffest penalties.

Then on the other side, you have all the defendants, BP and its contractors, like Transocean and Halliburton, but they're much less unified. While they're countering the claims from the plaintiffs, they're also pointing fingers of blame at each other. So it's not just a one side against the other type of case.

BLOCK: Okay. NPR's Jeff Brady covering the civil trial against BP in New Orleans. Jeff, thanks so much.

BRADY: Thank you.

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NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/02/26/172998754/investigator-bp-wasnt-prepared-for-disasters-at-deepwater-oil-wells?ft=1&f=1007

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Israel says it successfully tests new missile defense

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel carried out a successful first test on Monday of its upgraded Arrow interceptor, which is designed to destroy in space the kind of missiles held by Iran and Syria, defense officials said.

The U.S.-backed Arrow III will deploy "kamikaze" satellites that track and slam into ballistic missiles above the earth's atmosphere, high enough to allow for any chemical, biological or nuclear warheads to disintegrate safely.

Monday's test was the first flight of the system, but did not involve the interception of any target. Israel deployed the previous version, Arrow II, more than a decade ago and says it has scored around a 90 percent success rate in live trials.

"Arrow II was 'Star Wars'. This is 'Distant-Star Wars'," Yoav Turgeman of state-run Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), the system's manufacturer, told Army Radio.

Launched from a coastal air base south of Tel Aviv, the Arrow III interceptor missile maneuvered for 6 1/2 minutes over the Mediterranean sea, Israeli defense officials said. The test was attended by representatives of U.S. partner firm Boeing and the Pentagon.

"The success of the test is an important milestone in the operational capabilities of the State of Israel to be able to defend itself against threats in the region," Israel's Defence Ministry said in a statement.

A ministry official who briefed foreign reporters said the timing of the test, which took months to prepare and was postponed from mid-2012, was unrelated to current Israeli fears.

Topping these are Iran, whose disputed nuclear drive is the focus of international sanctions, and Syria, which has been wracked by a two-year-old civil war and whose arsenal is believed to include chemical warheads.

U.S. BACKING

Israel plans another Arrow III flight test followed by a simulated interception in space over the Mediterranean, the defense official said. Israeli officials previously predicted the new system would be deployed by 2014 or 2015, alongside Arrow II.

"Israel's hand is always outstretched in peace but we are also prepared for other eventualities. In this vein, I praise the successful test of the Arrow III," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.

Arrow is the long-range segment in Israel's three-tier missile shield. This also includes the successfully deployed "Iron Dome", which targets short-range rockets and mortar bombs favored by Palestinian guerrillas in Gaza, and the mid-range "David's Sling", still under development. They can be deployed alongside U.S. counterpart systems like the Aegis.

Officials say that if Arrow failed to hit an incoming missile at high altitude, there would still be time to destroy it with other systems before it landed on its intended target.

The United States and Israel have been developing Arrow jointly since 1988. Washington says helping Israel develop the capability to shoot down missiles will help prevent wars in the Middle East.

In a statement, the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency called Monday's launch "a major milestone" which "provides confidence in future Israeli capabilities to defeat the developing ballistic missile threat".

Boeing thinks other potential clients for the system may include India, Singapore and South Korea.

"As we prove out that technology, and show that it's not only affordable but effective, we think there will be additional global market opportunities for that capability," Dennis Muilenburg, chief executive of Boeing's defense, space and security arm, told Reuters last year.

The U.S. financial contribution to progressively improved versions of the Arrow system tops $1 billion, the Congressional Research Service said in a March 2012 report to lawmakers.

(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Jeffrey Heller and Peter Graff)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/israel-says-successfully-tests-missile-defense-180244779.html

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Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Watch Zuck, Bill Gates, Jack Dorsey, & Others In Short Film To Inspire Kids To Learn How To Code

Code.org, the new non-profit aimed at encouraging computer science education launched last month by entrepreneur and investor brothers Ali and Hadi Partovi, has assembled an all-star group of the world's most well-known and successful folks with programming skills to talk about how learning to code has changed their lives -- and isn't quite as hard as people might think.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/G97WNCeblmw/

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?Negro? will no longer be used on US Census surveys

WASHINGTON (AP) ? After more than a century, the Census Bureau is dropping its use of the word ?Negro? to describe black Americans in surveys.

Instead of the term that came into use during the Jim Crow era of racial segregation, census forms will use the more modern labels ?black? or ?African-American?.

The change will take effect next year when the Census Bureau distributes its annual American Community Survey to more than 3.5 million U.S. households, Nicholas Jones, chief of the bureau?s racial statistics branch, said in an interview.

He pointed to months of public feedback and census research that concluded few black Americans still identify with being Negro and many view the term as ?offensive and outdated.?

?This is a reflection of changing times, changing vocabularies and changing understandings of what race means in this country,? said Matthew Snipp, a sociology professor at Stanford University, who writes frequently on race and ethnicity. ?For younger African-Americans, the term ?Negro? harkens back to the era when African-Americans were second-class citizens in this country.?

First used in the census in 1900, ?Negro? became the most common way of referring to black Americans through most of the early 20th century, during a time of racial inequality and segregation. ?Negro? itself had taken the place of ?colored.? Starting with the 1960s civil rights movement, black activists began to reject the ?Negro? label and came to identify themselves as black or African-American.

Still, the term has lingered, having been used by Martin Luther King Jr. in his speeches. It also remains in the names of some black empowerment groups that were established before the 1960s, such as the United Negro College Fund, now often referred to as UNCF.

For the 2010 census, the government briefly considered dropping the word ?Negro? but ultimately decided against it, determining that a small segment, mostly older blacks living in the South, still identified with the term. But once census forms were mailed and some black groups protested, Robert Groves, the Census Bureau?s director at the time, apologized and predicted the term would be dropped in future censuses.

When asked to mark their race, Americans are currently given a choice of five government-defined categories in census surveys, including one checkbox selection which is described as ?black, African Am., or Negro.? Beginning with the surveys next year, that selection will simply say ?black? or ?African American.?

In the 2000 census, about 50,000 people specifically wrote in the word Negro when asked how they wished to be identified. By 2010, unpublished census data provided to the AP show that number had declined to roughly 36,000.

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Source: http://thegrio.com/2013/02/25/negro-will-no-longer-be-used-on-us-census-surveys/

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Deloitte: according to Millenials, businesses won't grow without ...

"Innovation at the institutional level is needed to sufficiently shift an organization's mindset to allow new ideas to truly emerge and thrive," said Omar Fahoum, chairman and chief executive of Deloitte Middle East.

"While our current business leaders can debate how and where to innovate, it's clear how much importance our future leaders place on innovation?not just as a driver of business growth but also as a catalyst for solving society's most pressing problems," he added.

Deloitte surveyed close to 5,000 Millennials from 18 countries. When gauging the perception among future leaders about innovation and its impact on society, 84% say business innovations have a positive impact on society, and 65% feel their own company's activities benefit society in some way.

The business community is regarded as playing a lead role in developing innovations that will benefit society. Almost half of the respondents (45%) believe business drives the innovations that most positively impact society, compared to government (18%) and academic bodies (17%).

Talent as a catalyst for innovation
Innovation is also an important component of talent recruitment and retention. Two-thirds of the Millennials surveyed say innovation is a key factor in making an organization an employer of choice. This is particularly relevant to many companies, attracting the ever-growing number of Millenials, who are forecasted to make up 75% of the world's workforce by 2025.

However, discrepancies were found when Millennials were asked about the requirements for innovation:
?39% of respondents believe that encouragement and rewards for idea generation and creativity is a requirement for innovation to occur, whereas only 20% say their current organization operates in this way.
?34% say providing employees with free time to dedicate to learning and creativity is key to an innovative environment, versus 17% who characterize their workplace that way.
?32% consider openness and the freedom to challenge as key to innovation, versus 17% who say this is visible in their organizations.
?42% believe in the importance of encouraging innovative thinking at all levels of the organization, versus 26% who describe their places of employment that way.

"A generational shift is taking place in business as baby boomers, many of whom may have been wedded to the 'old way' of doing business, begin to step down from their leadership roles to retire," said Fahoum.

"Real opportunity exists for organizations to step up and create the conditions and commitment needed to encourage and foster innovation in their work environments. And there's a tremendous upside if we get this right: we can better retain talent, remain more competitive into the future, and more positively impact society," added Fahoum.

Views on innovation vary by geography and industry
?Respondents in the BRIC countries consider themselves and their companies to be innovative, while respondents from Japan place their companies at the bottom in nearly every aspect of innovation. For example, 70% of respondents within the BRIC countries rate their employers as innovative, while only 25% of respondents in Japan did so.

?Six in ten (62%) would describe themselves as innovative, ranging from India (81%), Thailand (79%), South Africa (78%), and Brazil (77%) to Japan (24%).

?65% of respondents feel their company's activities benefit society, led by Brazil (83%), India (74%), and Germany (73%). Only 46% answered affirmatively in South Korea.

?The sectors considered to be responsible for the most innovations are: technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) (52%); consumer goods/services (47%) and manufacturing (37%).

?The sectors considered to be most in need of innovations are: education (27%); electric power (18%), and national government (17%).

Source: http://www.ameinfo.com/deloitte-according-millenials-businesses-wont-grow-331039

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High-stakes trial begins over 2010 Gulf oil spill

Protestors from the National Audubon Institute, the Gulf Restoration Network and other organizations stand outside Federal Court on the first day of the Gulf oil spill settlement trial in New Orleans, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013. U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier is scheduled to hear several hours of opening statements Monday by lawyers for the companies, federal and state governments and others who sued over the disaster. Barbier is hearing the case without a jury. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

FILE - In this aerial file photo madeWednesday, April 21, 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico, more than 50 miles southeast of Venice on Louisiana's tip, an oil slick is seen as the Deepwater Horizon oil rig burns. Nearly three years after the deadly rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico triggered the nation's worst offshore oil spill, a federal judge in New Orleans is set to preside over a high-stakes trial for the raft of litigation spawned by the disaster on Monday Feb. 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, file)

Protestors from the National Audubon Institute, the Gulf Restoration Network and other organizations stand outside Federal court on the first day of the Gulf oil spill settlement trial in New Orleans, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013. U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier is scheduled to hear several hours of opening statements Monday by lawyers for the companies, federal and state governments and others who sued over the disaster. Barbier is hearing the case without a jury. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

NEW ORLEANS (AP) ? BP put profits ahead of safety and bears most of the blame for the disastrous 2010 spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a U.S. Justice Department attorney charged Monday at the opening of a trial that could result in the oil company and its partners being forced to pay tens of billions of dollars more in damages.

The London-based oil giant acknowledged it made "errors in judgment" before the deadly blowout, but it also cast blame on the owner of the drilling rig and the contractor involved in cementing the well. It denied it was grossly negligent, as the government contended.

The high-stakes civil case went to trial after attempts to reach an 11th-hour settlement failed.

Eleven workers were killed when the Deepwater Horizon rig leased by the BP exploded on April 20, 2010. An estimated 172 millions of gallons of crude gushed into the Gulf over the three months that followed in the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

Justice Department attorney Mike Underhill said the catastrophe resulted from BP's "culture of corporate recklessness."

"The evidence will show that BP put profits before people, profits before safety and profits before the environment," Underhill said in opening statements. He added: "Despite BP's attempts to shift the blame to other parties, by far the primary fault for this disaster belongs to BP."

BP attorney Mike Brock acknowledged that the oil company made mistakes. But he accused rig owner Transocean Ltd. of failing to properly maintain the rig's blowout preventer, which had a dead battery, and he claimed cement contractor Halliburton used a "bad slurry" that failed to prevent oil and gas from traveling up the well.

BP has already pleaded guilty to manslaughter and other criminal charges and has racked up more than $24 billion in spill-related expenses, including cleanup costs, compensation for businesses and individuals, and $4 billion in criminal penalties.

But the federal government, Gulf Coast states and individuals and businesses hope to convince a federal judge that the company and its partners in the ill-fated drilling project are liable for much more in civil damages under the Clean Water Act and other environmental regulations.

One of the biggest questions facing U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier, who is hearing the case without a jury, is whether BP acted with gross negligence.

Under the Clean Water Act, a polluter can be forced to pay a minimum of $1,100 per barrel of spilled oil; the fines nearly quadruple to about $4,300 a barrel for companies found grossly negligent, meaning BP could be on the hook for nearly $18 billion.

The judge plans to hold the trial in at least two phases. The first phase, which could last three months, is designed to determine what caused the blowout and assign percentages of blame to the companies involved. The second phase will determine how much crude spilled into the Gulf.

During opening arguments, BP and its partners pointed the finger at each other in a tangle of accusations and counter-accusations. But BP got the worst of it, from its partners and the plaintiffs in the case.

Jim Roy, who represents individuals and businesses hurt by the spill, said BP executives applied "huge financial pressure" to "cut costs and rush the job." The project was more than $50 million over budget and behind schedule at the time of the blowout, Roy said.

"BP repeatedly chose speed over safety," Roy said, quoting from a report by an expert who may testify.

Roy said the spill also resulted from Transocean's "woeful" safety culture and failure to properly train its crew. And Roy said Halliburton provided BP with a product that was "poorly designed, not properly tested and was unstable."

Brad Brian, a lawyer for Transocean, said the company had an experienced, well-trained crew on the rig. He said the Transocean workers' worst mistake may have been placing too much trust in the BP supervisors on the rig.

"And they paid for that trust with their lives," Brian said. "They died not because they weren't trained properly. They died because critical information was withheld from them."

A lawyer for Halliburton defended the company's work and tried to pin the blame on BP and Transocean.

"If BP had shut in the well, we would not be here today," Halliburton's Donald Godwin said.

Underhill, the Justice Department attorney, heaped blame on BP for cost-cutting decisions made in the months and weeks leading up the disaster. He said two BP rig supervisors, Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine, disregarded abnormally high pressure readings that should have been glaring indications of trouble.

Kaluza and Vidrine have been indicted on federal manslaughter charges.

Brock, the BP lawyer, said Transocean employees on the rig also played roles in misinterpreting the "negative pressure test."

"It was a mistake made by several men from two different companies," Brock said. "They were trying to get it right. They were trying to do the right thing."

Hundreds of attorneys have worked on the case, generating roughly 90 million pages of documents, logging nearly 9,000 docket entries and taking more than 300 depositions from witnesses who could testify at trial.

"In terms of sheer dollar amounts and public attention, this is one of the most complex and massive disputes ever faced by the courts," said Fordham University law professor Howard Erichson, an expert in complex litigation.

The spill fouled marshes, killed wildlife and closed fishing grounds. Scientists warn that the disaster's full effect may not be known for years. But they have reported dying coral reefs and fish afflicted with lesions and illnesses that might be oil-related.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-02-25-Gulf%20Oil%20Spill-Trial/id-5ae366e35fbe4af288a8994b94f7c188

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Weather extremes provoked by trapping of giant waves in the atmosphere

Public release date: 25-Feb-2013
[ | E-mail |

Share ]

Contact: Jonas Viering or Mareike Schodder
press@pik-potsdam.de
49-331-288-2507
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)

The world has suffered from severe regional weather extremes in recent years, such as the heat wave in the United States in 2011 or the one in Russia 2010 coinciding with the unprecedented Pakistan flood. Behind these devastating individual events there is a common physical cause, propose scientists of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). The study will be published this week in the US Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and suggests that man-made climate change repeatedly disturbs the patterns of atmospheric flow around the globe's Northern hemisphere through a subtle resonance mechanism.

"An important part of the global air motion in the mid-latitudes of the Earth normally takes the form of waves wandering around the planet, oscillating between the tropical and the Arctic regions. So when they swing up, these waves suck warm air from the tropics to Europe, Russia, or the US, and when they swing down, they do the same thing with cold air from the Arctic," explains lead author Vladimir Petoukhov.

"What we found is that during several recent extreme weather events these planetary waves almost freeze in their tracks for weeks. So instead of bringing in cool air after having brought warm air in before, the heat just stays. In fact, we observe a strong amplification of the usually weak, slowly moving component of these waves," says Petoukhov. Time is critical here: two or three days of 30 degrees Celsius are no problem, but twenty or more days lead to extreme heat stress. Since many ecosystems and cities are not adapted to this, prolonged hot periods can result in a high death toll, forest fires, and dramatic harvest losses.

Climate change caused by greenhouse-gas emissions from fossil-fuel burning does not mean uniform global warming in the Arctic, the relative increase of temperatures, amplified by the loss of snow and ice, is higher than on average. This in turn reduces the temperature difference between the Arctic and, for example, Europe, yet temperature differences are a main driver of air flow. Additionally, continents generally warm and cool more readily than the oceans. "These two factors are crucial for the mechanism we detected," says Petoukhov. "They result in an unnatural pattern of the mid-latitude air flow, so that for extended periods the slow synoptic waves get trapped."

The authors of the study developed equations that describe the wave motions in the extra-tropical atmosphere and show under what conditions those waves can grind to a halt and get amplified. They tested their assumptions using standard daily weather data from the US National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP). During recent periods in which several major weather extremes occurred, the trapping and strong amplification of particular waves like "wave seven" (which has seven troughs and crests spanning the globe) was indeed observed. The data show an increase in the occurrence of these specific atmospheric patterns, which is statistically significant at the 90 percent confidence level.

"Our dynamical analysis helps to explain the increasing number of novel weather extremes. It complements previous research that already linked such phenomena to climate change, but did not yet identify a mechanism behind it," says Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director of PIK and co-author of the study. "This is quite a breakthrough, even though things are not at all simple the suggested physical process increases the probability of weather extremes, but additional factors certainly play a role as well, including natural variability." Also, the 32-year period studied in the project provides a good indication of the mechanism involved, yet is too short for definite conclusions.

Nevertheless, the study significantly advances the understanding of the relation between weather extremes and man-made climate change. Scientists were surprised by how far outside past experience some of the recent extremes have been. The new data show that the emergence of extraordinary weather is not just a linear response to the mean warming trend, and the proposed mechanism could explain that.

###

Article: Petoukhov, V., Rahmstorf, S., Petri, S., Schellnhuber, H. J. (2013): Quasi-resonant amplification of planetary waves and recent Northern Hemisphere weather extremes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Early Edition) [doi:10.1073/pnas.1222000110]

Weblink to the article (once it is published): www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1222000110

For further information please contact:
PIK press office
Phone: +49 331 288 25 07
E-Mail: press@pik-potsdam.de

[ | E-mail | Share ]
?

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

Weather extremes provoked by trapping of giant waves in the atmosphere Public release date: 25-Feb-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jonas Viering or Mareike Schodder
press@pik-potsdam.de
49-331-288-2507
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)

The world has suffered from severe regional weather extremes in recent years, such as the heat wave in the United States in 2011 or the one in Russia 2010 coinciding with the unprecedented Pakistan flood. Behind these devastating individual events there is a common physical cause, propose scientists of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). The study will be published this week in the US Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and suggests that man-made climate change repeatedly disturbs the patterns of atmospheric flow around the globe's Northern hemisphere through a subtle resonance mechanism.

"An important part of the global air motion in the mid-latitudes of the Earth normally takes the form of waves wandering around the planet, oscillating between the tropical and the Arctic regions. So when they swing up, these waves suck warm air from the tropics to Europe, Russia, or the US, and when they swing down, they do the same thing with cold air from the Arctic," explains lead author Vladimir Petoukhov.

"What we found is that during several recent extreme weather events these planetary waves almost freeze in their tracks for weeks. So instead of bringing in cool air after having brought warm air in before, the heat just stays. In fact, we observe a strong amplification of the usually weak, slowly moving component of these waves," says Petoukhov. Time is critical here: two or three days of 30 degrees Celsius are no problem, but twenty or more days lead to extreme heat stress. Since many ecosystems and cities are not adapted to this, prolonged hot periods can result in a high death toll, forest fires, and dramatic harvest losses.

Climate change caused by greenhouse-gas emissions from fossil-fuel burning does not mean uniform global warming in the Arctic, the relative increase of temperatures, amplified by the loss of snow and ice, is higher than on average. This in turn reduces the temperature difference between the Arctic and, for example, Europe, yet temperature differences are a main driver of air flow. Additionally, continents generally warm and cool more readily than the oceans. "These two factors are crucial for the mechanism we detected," says Petoukhov. "They result in an unnatural pattern of the mid-latitude air flow, so that for extended periods the slow synoptic waves get trapped."

The authors of the study developed equations that describe the wave motions in the extra-tropical atmosphere and show under what conditions those waves can grind to a halt and get amplified. They tested their assumptions using standard daily weather data from the US National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP). During recent periods in which several major weather extremes occurred, the trapping and strong amplification of particular waves like "wave seven" (which has seven troughs and crests spanning the globe) was indeed observed. The data show an increase in the occurrence of these specific atmospheric patterns, which is statistically significant at the 90 percent confidence level.

"Our dynamical analysis helps to explain the increasing number of novel weather extremes. It complements previous research that already linked such phenomena to climate change, but did not yet identify a mechanism behind it," says Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director of PIK and co-author of the study. "This is quite a breakthrough, even though things are not at all simple the suggested physical process increases the probability of weather extremes, but additional factors certainly play a role as well, including natural variability." Also, the 32-year period studied in the project provides a good indication of the mechanism involved, yet is too short for definite conclusions.

Nevertheless, the study significantly advances the understanding of the relation between weather extremes and man-made climate change. Scientists were surprised by how far outside past experience some of the recent extremes have been. The new data show that the emergence of extraordinary weather is not just a linear response to the mean warming trend, and the proposed mechanism could explain that.

###

Article: Petoukhov, V., Rahmstorf, S., Petri, S., Schellnhuber, H. J. (2013): Quasi-resonant amplification of planetary waves and recent Northern Hemisphere weather extremes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Early Edition) [doi:10.1073/pnas.1222000110]

Weblink to the article (once it is published): www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1222000110

For further information please contact:
PIK press office
Phone: +49 331 288 25 07
E-Mail: press@pik-potsdam.de

[ | E-mail | Share ]
?

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

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-02/pifc-we022513.php
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Huawei Ascend G526 hands-on: a midrange 4.5-inch LTE handset

The Ascend P2 is getting the bulk of the attention at Huawei's booth at MWC 2013, but the Chinese company has a history of hiding an unannounced phone or two in less-visited corners of the booth. This time around it's the Ascend G526 that blends into the background, hanging out with a few other LTE-enabled devices. The G526, which hasn't been assigned any pricing or timeframe for availability (we've reached out to Huawei for more information), features a 4.5-inch qHD IPS display, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and a dual-core 1.2GHz processor paired with 1GB of RAM. Additionally, it enjoys a 5MP rear camera and VGA front-facing cam, as well as a 1,950mAh battery and WiFi Direct support. There appears to be three variants of this device -- L11, L22 and L33 -- each one offering different frequencies for various carriers and markets. More details are forthcoming, but we'll update this post as we hear more.

The phone, which measures 133 x 67.5 x 9.9mm, is actually rather comfortable to hold in the hand. It's about par for the course when it comes to midrange handsets, with a slick plastic back that curves inward on each side so as to hug the edges. A 3.5mm jack can be seen up top while the power and volume buttons are on the right. Tragically, the micro-USB charging port is located on the upper left side of the phone, which is an incredibly awkward place when you're trying to use the device whilst it's chained to an outlet. We have a full gallery of images of the new device below.

Gallery: Huawei Ascend G526 hands-on

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

Comments

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/8Wk_aOb3a6w/

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Monday, February 25, 2013

Live from Huawei's press event at MWC 2013!

One of the mobile world's Ones To Watch is back. Huawei's phones are getting bigger and better, but it seems two new phones just last month wasn't enough. The company's here at MWC and we're expecting to see some new slender models and hopefully something we haven't already been given hints about. The liveblog starts here -- but not just yet. You'll have to wait until the time stated below.

February 24, 2013 9:00 AM EST

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/24/huawei-liveblog-mwc-2013/

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Orange-tossing tradition originates from Hokkien folk in southern China

Daily Express - Saturday 23rd February, 2013

Printer Friendly Kota Kinabalu: The Government spent about RM604.8 million to manage non-Malaysian prisoners in four prisons in Sabah sfrom 2006 until October 2012. Sabah Prisons Deputy ...

No issue among the Sabah BN parties Muhy

Daily Express - Saturday 23rd February, 2013

Printer Friendly NABAWAN: Sabah is developing rapidly under the Barisan Nasional (BN) government and leadership of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak at the Federal level and Chief Minister ...

Bugis NGO denies any role

Daily Express - Saturday 23rd February, 2013

Printer Friendly Kota Kinabalu: The Sabah Bugis Community Association denied any involvement in the issuance of Malaysian identity cards (ICs) to foreigners who came to Sabah illegally. Its ...

Sabah standoff Clock is ticking for armed group

Asia News Network - Saturday 23rd February, 2013

The clock is ticking away for the Sulu armed group holed up at the Tanduo village as the Sunday deadline draws near with no sign of them giving up peacefully. Reports emerged that the group by Raja ...