Monday, April 29, 2013

Iraq suspends Al Jazeera, other networks for 'promoting violence' - RT

Iraq has suspended Qatar-based Al Jazeera and nine other satellite TV channels from broadcast, citing "unprofessional reporting? that generated inter-ethnic strife in the war-torn country.

The Iraqi Communication and Media Commission said in a statement on Sunday that the satellite channels had ?exaggerated things, given misinformation and called for breaking the law and attacking Iraqi security forces.?

The statement accused the channels of ?openly advertising terrorist organizations? banned in Iraq, as well as threatening to ?jeopardize the democratic process? in the country.

?We took a decision to suspend the license of some satellite channels that adopted language encouraging violence and sectarianism,? Mujahid Abu al-Hail of the Communications and Media Commission told AFP. ?It means stopping their work in Iraq and their activities, so they cannot cover events in Iraq or move around.?

Al Jazeera and Sharqiya, a popular channel in Iraq, are among the 10 suspended channels. Al Jazeera was not formally notified of the move in advance, the Qatari channel said on their website.

Al Jazeera responded with a statement urging the Iraqi authorities ?to uphold freedom for the media to report the important stories taking place in Iraq.?

?We cover all sides of the stories in Iraq, and have done for many years. The fact that so many channels have been hit all at once though suggests this is an indiscriminate decision,? the statement added.

The official announcement follows clashes between Iraqi security forces and Sunni Muslim protesters that broke out on Tuesday, killing 169 people in three days and injuring nearly 300. The violence saw Sunni protesters take over an army base and torch a Shia mosque in Sulaiman Pek before army helicopters were deployed to quell the unrest.

In remarks broadcast on state TV, Prime Minister Nuri Maliki called on Iraqis ?to take the initiative and not be silent about those who want to take the country back to sectarian civil war.? Thousands of Sunnis have been protesting since December over what they see as an effort by the Shia-dominated parliament to keep them out of top positions in the government.? They have further decried tough anti-terrorism laws, which they argue infringe on their religious freedoms.

Authorities have been accused of carrying out regular raids in Sunni areas, detaining those who critics say have been wrongly accused of terror links or ties to the deposed Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein.

Sunday?s decision is not the first time Iraqi authorities have sought to restrict the operations of foreign media outlets in the country. In June 2012, Iraq's Communications and Media Commission (CMC) placed restrictions on 39 media outlets, including the BBC and Voice of America, over alleged licensing problems, AFP reported.

The Journalism Freedoms Observatory (JFO) in Iraq claims that the CMC had recommended banning 44 news outlets.

Iraq is often at the bottom of global press freedom rankings. In 2013, Reporters Without Borders placed it 150th in media rights on its annual World Press Freedom Index, trailing Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Source: http://rt.com/news/iraq-bans-10-channels-530/

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Not just Austin, dammit (Offthekuff)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/302298415?client_source=feed&format=rss

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This Is How NASA Is Testing the Supersonic Airplanes of the Future

This might look like some kind of space ship?but it's actually a model of a supersonic Boeing airliner, being tested in NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio.

Read more...

    


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/PjGrhKOuZVE/this-is-how-nasa-is-testing-the-supersonic-planes-of-the-future

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Mother in UK forced 14-year-old to get pregnant

LONDON (AP) ? A woman desperate for another child forced her 14-year-old daughter to get pregnant using syringes of donor sperm, a British judge said.

In a ruling reported for the first time Monday, High Court judge Peter Jackson said the mother had behaved in "a wicked and selfish way" that almost defied belief.

The judge said the woman, an American divorcee living in Britain with three adopted children, hatched the plan after she was prevented from adopting a fourth.

The scheme involved getting her oldest daughter to inseminate herself with syringes of sperm purchased over the Internet from a Denmark-based company, Cryos International.

Jackson said the daughter, identified only as A, "became pregnant at the mother's request, using donor sperm bought by the mother, with the purpose of providing a fourth child for the mother to bring up as her own."

In his ruling, the judge quoted the teenager as saying said she was shocked by the suggestion, but thought, "If I do this ... maybe she will love me more."

"My mum is a very determined person and she does her best not to let anything get in her way if she wants it," the teenager added.

The judge said the mother also made the teenager use douches of vinegar or lemon and lime juice in hopes of increasing her chances of having a girl.

The judge said it was likely but not certain that the daughter soon became pregnant and suffered a miscarriage. After six more attempts with the donor sperm, she gave birth to a baby boy in July 2011, when she was 17.

But midwives at the hospital became alarmed by the odd behavior of A's mother. Her daughter wanted to breastfeed the baby, but her mother said: "We don't want any of that attachment thing."

The hospital alerted the authorities, and the children were taken into foster care. The mother is now serving a five-year jail term for child cruelty.

Details of the case were heard during proceedings at the family division of the High Court over the children's future last year. They were reported for the first time Monday after several British media organizations, including the publisher of The Guardian newspaper, challenged reporting restrictions.

A court order bars identifying the family members in order to protect the children.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mother-uk-forced-14-old-pregnant-131603990.html

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Friday, April 26, 2013

What is PPC Advertising? | Business is Awesome!

PPC advertising, or pay per click advertising, is an online marketing method that attempts to direct traffic to certain websites. Advertisers then pay a fee for each time the ad is clicked. PPC is a very effective way to promote the website of a particular organization, person, or business to a particular target audience, but what else is involved in this innovative advertising method?

Place Your Bids
Essentially, PPC advertising is an Internet advertising method that requires advertisers to bid on the specific keywords that they believe will generate increased traffic to their websites. When someone types selected keywords into a search engine and visits a website related to the wording chosen by the advertiser,the webpage displays a PPC ad.

Supply and Demand
The rates that are charged for individual keyword bids and resulting advertisement clicks vary significantly. If you are operating in a highly competitive industry or if the phrases you select are also in demand by numerous other advertisers, the price of the PPC services increases dramatically. On the other hand, if you select something like ?wrapping paper? or ?cheddar cheese,? chances are good that you will ?pay considerably less than if you were targeting common keywords like ?computer? or ?spa services.?

According to Google AdWords, one of today?s leading PPC platforms, you are given some level of control over your online advertising costs, but it all comes down to supply and demand. If your target words are in high demand, you must be willing to pay a higher price for your pay per click marketing services.

A Good Value
PPC advertising is a good way to buy website traffic. It is beneficial to web users and advertisers alike. The target audience gets what it wants in its online keyword searches, and the advertisers increase the visibility of their ads while only getting charged for the instances in which people click on their particular ads. PPC is a great way to level the playing field between companies as even a small company can maintain a competitive edge against larger firms by keeping up with online advertising efforts. This helps smaller companies gain some much-needed exposure and increase traffic to their website.

Source: http://businessisawesome.com/what-is-ppc-advertising/

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How art will raise GDP by 3 percent

This summer, the US will start to include intellectual property as part of capital expenditure, rather than as input cost.?The relevance of this is that it will raise GDP (likely by about 3%) as input costs are subtracted from GDP while capital investment is included, Karlsson writes.

By Stefan Karlsson,?Guest blogger / April 25, 2013

Pablo Picasso's "Mother and Child" hangs in an exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago. Intellectual property will be counted as capital expenditure, not input cost, in GDP calculations, beginning this summer.

Caryn Rousseau/AP/File

Enlarge

Washington Post reports?that the U.S. will, starting this summer, start to include "research and development and the creation of artistic works", or in other words IP as part of capital expenditure, rather than as input cost. The relevance of this is that it will raise GDP (likely by about 3%) as input costs are subtracted from GDP while capital investment is included.

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There are three possible way to measure output. One is to include the value of all transactions, the second is to include the value of only consumption and gross investment, the third is to include only consumption and net investment. GDP is essentially the second approach.

The problem with the first approach is that makes no distinction as to how much value was created in a certain transaction, creating the result that if a company outsourced one step in the production process rather than performing with its own employees then output would be considered higher even if the value of the final product wasn't bigger.?

Officials: Bomb suspect silent after read rights

FILE - This combination of undated file photos shows Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, left, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19. The FBI says the two brothers are the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing, and are also responsible for killing an MIT police officer, critically injuring a transit officer in a firefight and throwing explosive devices at police during a getaway attempt in a long night of violence that left Tamerlan dead and Dzhokhar captured, late Friday, April 19, 2013. The ethnic Chechen brothers lived in Dagestan, which borders the Chechnya region in southern Russia. They lived near Boston and had been in the U.S. for about a decade, one of their uncles reported said. Since Monday, Boston has experienced five days of fear, beginning with the marathon bombing attack, an intense manhunt and much uncertainty ending in the death of one suspect and the capture of the other. (AP Photo/The Lowell Sun & Robin Young, File)

FILE - This combination of undated file photos shows Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, left, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19. The FBI says the two brothers are the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing, and are also responsible for killing an MIT police officer, critically injuring a transit officer in a firefight and throwing explosive devices at police during a getaway attempt in a long night of violence that left Tamerlan dead and Dzhokhar captured, late Friday, April 19, 2013. The ethnic Chechen brothers lived in Dagestan, which borders the Chechnya region in southern Russia. They lived near Boston and had been in the U.S. for about a decade, one of their uncles reported said. Since Monday, Boston has experienced five days of fear, beginning with the marathon bombing attack, an intense manhunt and much uncertainty ending in the death of one suspect and the capture of the other. (AP Photo/The Lowell Sun & Robin Young, File)

Pedestrians pass the spot where the first bomb detonated on Boylston Street near the finish line of the Boston Marathon Wednesday, April 24, 2013, in Boston. Traffic was allowed to flow all the way down Boylston Street on Wednesday morning for the first time since two explosions killed 3 people and injured many on April 15. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

Andrew Collier, left, puts his hand on his brother, Robert, after delivering the eulogy at a memorial service for their brother, slain Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus officer, Sean Collier, at MIT in Cambridge, Mass. Wednesday, April 24, 2013. Sean Collier was fatally shot on the MIT campus Thursday, April 18, 2013. Authorities allege that the Boston Marathon bombing suspects were responsible.(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Michelle Littke, of Scituate, Mass., wites on a poster at a makeshift memorial in Copley Square on Boylston Street in Boston, Wednesday, April 24, 2013. Traffic was allowed to flow all the way down Boylston Street on Wednesday morning for the first time since two explosions on April 15.(AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

Running shoes hang from a barrier at a makeshift memorial in Copley Square on Boylston Street in Boston, Wednesday, April 24, 2013. Traffic was allowed to flow all the way down Boylston Street on Wednesday morning for the first time since two explosions on April 15. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

BOSTON (AP) ? Sixteen hours after investigators began interrogating him, the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings went silent: He'd just been read his constitutional rights.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev immediately stopped talking after a magistrate judge and a representative from the U.S. Attorney's office entered his hospital room and gave him his Miranda warning, according to a U.S. law enforcement source and four officials of both political parties briefed on the interrogation. They insisted on anonymity because the briefing was private.

Before being advised of his rights, the 19-year-old suspect told authorities that his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, only recently had recruited him to be part of the attack that detonated pressure-cooker bombs at the marathon finish line, two U.S. officials said.

The CIA, however, had named Tamerlan to a terrorist database 18 months ago, said officials close to the investigation who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case with reporters.

The new disclosure that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was included within a huge, classified database of known and suspected terrorists before the attacks was expected to drive congressional inquiries in coming weeks about whether the Obama administration adequately investigated tips from Russia that Tsarnaev had posed a security threat.

Shortly after the bombings, U.S. officials said the intelligence community had no information about threats to the marathon before the April 15 explosions that killed three people and injured more than 260.

Tsarnaev died Friday in a police shootout hours before Dzhokhar was discovered hiding in a boat in a suburban back yard.

Boston police Commissioner Ed Davis had said earlier that shots were fired from inside the boat, but two U.S. officials told the AP that the suspect was unarmed when captured by police, raising questions about how he was injured. The homeowner who called police initially said he saw a good amount of blood in the boat.

Washington is piecing together what happened and whether there were any unconnected dots buried in U.S. government files that, if connected, could have prevented the bombings.

Lawmakers who were briefed by the FBI said they have more questions than answers about the investigation of Tamerlan Tsarnaev. House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said lawmakers intend to pursue whether there was a breakdown in information-sharing, though Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat who sits on the House Intelligence Committee, said he "hasn't seen any red flags thus far."

U.S. officials were expected to brief the Senate on the investigation Thursday.

The suspects' father said Thursday that he is leaving Russia for the United States in the next day or two, but their mother said she was still thinking it over.

Anzor Tsarnaev has expressed a desire to go to the U.S. to find out what happened with his sons, defend his hospitalized 19-year-old son Dzhokhar and if possible bring his older son's body back to Russia for burial.

Their mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, who was charged with shoplifting in the U.S. last summer, said she has been assured by lawyers that she would not be arrested, but was still deciding whether to go.

It is unclear whether the issue of their younger son's constitutional rights will matter since the FBI say he confessed to a witness. U.S. officials also said Wednesday that physical evidence, including a 9 mm handgun and pieces of a remote-control device commonly used in toys, was recovered from the bombing scene.

But the debate over whether suspected terrorists should be read their Miranda rights has become a major sticking point in the debate over how best to fight terrorism. Many Republicans, in particular, believe Miranda warnings are designed to build court cases, and only hinder intelligence gathering.

Christina DiIorio Sterling, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz, said in an email late Wednesday, "This remains an ongoing investigation and we don't have any further comment."

Investigators have said the brothers appeared to have been radicalized through jihadist materials on the Internet and have found no evidence tying them to a terrorist group.

U.S. investigators traveled to the predominantly Muslim province of Dagestan in Russia and were in contact with the brothers' parents, hoping to gain more information.

They are looking into whether Tamerlan, who spent six months in Russia's turbulent Caucasus region in 2012, was influenced by the religious extremists who have waged an insurgency against Russian forces in the area for years. The brothers have roots in Dagestan and neighboring Chechnya but had lived in the U.S. for about a decade.

Dzhokhar told the FBI that they were angry about the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the killing of Muslims there, officials said.

Dzhokhar's public defender had no comment on the matter Wednesday. His father has called him a "true angel," and an aunt has insisted he's not guilty.

Investigators have found pieces of remote-control equipment among the debris and were analyzing them, officials said. One official described the detonator as "close-controlled," meaning it had to be triggered within several blocks of the bombs.

That evidence could be key to the court case. And an FBI affidavit said one of the brothers told a carjacking victim during their getaway attempt, "Did you hear about the Boston explosion? I did that."

Officials also recovered a 9 mm handgun believed to have been used by Tamerlan from the site of an April 18 gunbattle that injured a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority officer, two U.S. officials said.

In other developments:

? Vice President Joe Biden condemned the bombing suspects as "two twisted, perverted, cowardly, knockoff jihadis" while speaking at a memorial service Wednesday for Sean Collier, a campus police officer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who was ambushed in his cruiser three days after the bombing. More than 4,000 mourners paid tribute to the officer.

? The Office of Health and Human Services in Massachusetts confirmed a Boston Herald report Wednesday that Tamerlan, his wife and toddler daughter had received welfare benefits up until last year, when he became ineligible based on family income. The state also says Tamerlan and his brother received welfare benefits as children through their parents while the family lived in Massachusetts.

? The area around the marathon finish line was reopened to the public.

___

Jakes reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Pete Yost, Matt Apuzzo, Eileen Sullivan, Adam Goldman and Eric Tucker in Washington, David Crary, Denise Lavoie, Bridget Murphy and Bob Salsberg in Boston and Lynn Berry in Moscow contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-04-25-Boston%20Marathon-Explosions/id-c022329b57a748b38f11ba37aca590f8

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South African aviator dies

JOHANNESBURG (AP) ? Laurie Kay, a South African pilot best known for flying a Boeing 747 passenger jet low over a Johannesburg stadium before the final of the 1995 Rugby World Cup, has died at the age of 67.

Kay had a suspected heart attack on Wednesday at the offices of the anti-rhinoceros poaching unit in Kruger National Park, South Africa's showcase game reserve, according to the country's parks service. Kay flew helicopters on patrols aimed at stopping poachers and was also doing technical work on a new anti-poaching surveillance aircraft, said Ike Phaahla, a parks spokesman.

"He was a great aviator," Phaahla said. "He was a gentleman. He had this outgoing personality. He made you feel very easy around him."

Kay was a South African Airways pilot when he swooped twice over Ellis Park stadium in a big jet at the start of the June 24, 1995 rugby final in which South Africa defeated New Zealand by a score of 15-12. The stenciled underside of the plane read "Good Luck Bokke" in a message of support for South Africa's national team, the Springboks.

The daring stunt, depicted in the Hollywood movie "Invictus," electrified tens of thousands of fans who had no inkling that authorities had planned for a giant passenger jet to roar overhead. South Africa's ensuing victory on the field was a euphoric, unifying occasion for a country that had recently emerged from white racist rule.

Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid leader who became South Africa's first black president in 1994 elections, attended the game in a South African team shirt. It was a powerful gesture of reconciliation because rugby was a cultural bastion of white Afrikaners, who were guardians of the apartheid system.

Kay's flyover in a densely populated city flouted the most basic guidelines in international aviation, said John Carlin, author of "Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation."

"The idea was to release maximum vibrations, noise and power into the stadium with a view to energizing the crowd and energizing the players," Carlin said in a telephone interview from Spain. "He got the plane very near to stalling in order to get that maximum power effect when he was over the stadium. It was pretty outrageous."

According to South African Airways, Kay and his crew had spent the previous week plotting the course, flying it many times in a light plane, and spending hours in a flight simulator. Director Clint Eastwood included the flyover episode in "Invictus," the 2009 film about South Africa's rugby victory that starred Morgan Freeman as Mandela.

The Boeing 747 was empty save for a small crew during the flyover, making it highly maneuverable despite its large size, noted Tony Smit, a longtime friend and pilot.

"There was nothing daredevil about Laurie," said Smit, who praised Kay for charity work and the mentoring of young pilots. "Everything that he did in aerobatics shows, everything is calculated to the finest degree."

Carlin said Kay, like many South African whites, initially had reservations about Mandela as the African National Congress leader negotiated an end to apartheid in the early 1990s. But that changed when the pair met on an international flight, according to the author. Mandela asked Kay, the captain, if he could upgrade members of his delegation from economy class, and Kay was charmed by Mandela's gracious manner.

"He was one more in a long, long line of people who succumbed to Mandela's charisma and general seductive abilities," Carlin said.

Even Mandela was startled during the 1995 flyover, said Carlin, who interviewed some of the president's bodyguards afterward.

"I don't think he had been prepared for this particular detail of the day's choreography," he said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/south-african-aviator-dies-112626112.html

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Iran says it's ready to resume talks with world powers

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA (Reuters) - Iran is ready to resume talks with world powers on its disputed nuclear program and awaits word from the European Union on timing and details, Iran's deputy nuclear negotiator said on Thursday.

Ali Bagheri, in an interview with Reuters in Geneva, said Iran needed 20 percent-enriched uranium for its Tehran research reactor and four others being built, and was continuing to convert some of its stockpile into reactor fuel.

"We are waiting for Lady Ashton to call Dr. Jalili, and Dr. Jalili is obviously ready to take the call," Bagheri said.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton oversees diplomatic contacts with Iran on behalf of the the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany. Saeed Jalili is Iran's chief negotiator.

"We are waiting to see whether Lady Ashton's response is going to cover the time and venue of another round of negotiations, or will she limit her response to just discussing the substantive side of things," Bagheri said.

In Brussels, a spokesman for Ashton said she had consulted with foreign ministers on how to move forward the process. "Arrangements for a phone call with Dr. Jalili have already been made in order to discuss next steps," Michael Mann said.

The six powers and Iran failed in talks in the Kazakh capital Almaty this month to end the deadlock in a decade-old dispute over Tehran's nuclear program, prolonging a standoff that could yet spiral into a new Middle East war.

At those talks, the six asked Iran to suspend its most sensitive uranium-enrichment work in return for modest relief from international sanctions, an offer Tehran did not accept.

Iran's presidential election is set for June 14, leading to speculation on whether the next round of talks will take place before the poll. "We are ready to continue with the talks ... We have no limits as far as time is concerned," Bagheri said.

Israel, which has long hinted at possible air strikes to deny its arch-foe any means to make a nuclear bomb, suggested this week it would be patient before taking any military action.

Iran says its nuclear work is entirely peaceful and that it is only refining uranium to power a planned network of nuclear energy plants and for medical purposes. Critics accuse it of covertly seeking the means to produce nuclear weapons.

"NO CAUSE FOR CONCERN"

Bagheri, referring to the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said: "I need to point out the Islamic Republic of Iran uranium enrichment activities to the level of 20 percent is under strict agency monitoring. Obviously activities that are being monitored by the agency are no cause for concern."

An IAEA report in February said Iran had in December resumed converting to oxide powder some of the uranium it has enriched to 20 percent fissile concentration, for the production of reactor fuel.

That helped restrain the growth of Iran's higher-grade uranium stockpile, a development that could buy more time for diplomacy.

In a potentially encouraging sign for the powers, Bagheri said on Thursday this conversion was continuing.

"We produce 20 percent uranium to provide fuel for Tehran's research reactor, also four other reactors in four different parts of Iran which are under construction. With this in mind, plans have been drawn up to convert 20 percent uranium to 20 percent oxide," Bagheri said.

"This is very much going according to plan. This activity is ongoing," he added.

The IAEA said on Tuesday it would hold a meeting with Iran on May 15 aimed at enabling its inspectors to resume a stalled investigation into suspected nuclear bomb research, the 10th round of talks since early 2012.

Bagheri said Iran was already cooperating fully with the IAEA but was willing to discuss requests "which go beyond our obligations" under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

"We are very much hoping in this round of talks between my country and the agency, we no longer have such meddling and sabotaging of talks," he said.

"Experience tells us that usually certain Western parties, including the U.S., whenever we are close to striking a bargain, reaching an agreement, they interfere."

The IAEA-Iran talks are separate from, but have an important bearing on, the negotiations between Tehran and world powers. Iran's refusal to curb sensitive nuclear activity with both civilian and military applications and its lack of openness with IAEA inspectors have drawn U.N. and Western sanctions.

"Once we reach an agreement with the agency, we also expect the (six powers), because of such cooperation with the agency which goes well beyond our obligations, to lift a number of sanctions. Unilateral sanctions which are illegal," Bagheri said.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; additional reporting by Fredrik Dahl in Vienna and Justyna Pawlak in Brussels; editing by Andrew Roche)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iran-ready-resume-talks-world-powers-awaits-call-144538391.html

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Thursday, April 25, 2013

Detroit MI Call Center Jobs: Customer Service Representative Part ...

Customer Service Representative Part Time at Main and Huron-1301120

Customer Service Representative

We invite you to explore the award-winning culture, people, rewards and opportunities that make Comerica Bank so special. Make your next career choice a confident one. The Customer Service Representative (CSR) is responsible for contributing to the overall success of a Retail Banking Center by meeting or exceeding sales goals, achieving prescribed customer service levels and executing operational objectives. This position's work schedule involves evenings and every Saturday and requires the lifting and movement of currency/coin packages weighing up to 25 pounds.

Position Competencies

Successful incumbents possess integrity, are trustworthy, have composure, listening skills, interpersonal savvy, a drive for results, time management, functional and technical skills, are customer focused, and have the ability to develop peer relationships and boss relationships.

Comerica Bank uses IBM Lotus Notes for database, calendaring and e-mail functions.

Reporting Information/Location

This Customer Service Representative position is located at 101 N. Main Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48104 and reports to the Retail Assistant Banking Center Manager. This position has no direct reports.

Position Responsibilities

1. Sales/Service

a. Meet or exceed individual goals for sales and referrals. Provide remarkable customer service through all customer interactions, opening new accounts, problem resolution, telephone answering, safe deposit access, etc.

b. Responsible for developing an in-depth knowledge of consumer products and services; referring loans and deposit products to consumer and small business customers and prospects.

c. Uncover customer needs through the use of probing techniques and other sales tools.

d. Conduct outbound calls by using referral sources, walk-in sources, telephone or in-person calls.

e. Actively participate in sales meetings and offer creative ideas.

f. Provide transactional customer service, including but not limited to the following: accept and process deposits, withdrawals and payments and handle other over the counter and mail transactions.

2. Operations

a. Ensure compliance with applicable federal, state and local laws and regulations, and Comerica's policies and procedures. Ensure compliance and completion of necessary compliance related training.

b. Adhere to all Banking Center audit and compliance standards.

c. Control losses by following policies and procedures.

3. Teamwork

a. Assist management with daily activities as assigned.

Total Rewards

We know that our employees are critical to our overall success. We are dedicated to investing in their future to maintain long-term relationships for lasting commitments. One of the ways we do this is to offer a comprehensive package of compensation and benefits programs which are regularly reviewed to maintain them at competitive levels. Your salary will be commensurate with your work experience.

Travel

Travel is not required of this position.

Qualifications
- High school diploma or general equivalency diploma (GED)
- 1 year of Customer Service experience
- 1 year personal computer, system data entry or Internet search experience
- 6 months of cash handling experience
- 6 months of Retail or Financial sales experience

Comerica Incorporated (NYSE: CMA) is a financial services company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and strategically aligned by the Business Bank, the Retail Bank, and Wealth & Institutional Management. Comerica's more than 9,200 colleagues focus on relationships, and helping people and businesses be successful. In addition to Texas, Comerica Bank locations can be found in Arizona, California, Florida and Michigan, with select businesses operating in several other states, as well as in Canada and Mexico.

Upon offer, Comerica conducts a comprehensive background check and a hair follicle drug test. Upon hire, a fingerprinting check is completed.

Comerica is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to workplace diversity.

Primary Location: US-MI-Ann Arbor
Job: Banking Center Management/Teller
Schedule: Part-time
Shift: Day Shift
Work Hours (Example: 8:00am - 5:00pm Monday - Friday): 8:30am-1:30pm Monday; 11:30am-4:30pm Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday

Travel
: No

Source: http://www.callcenterjobs.com/userViewJob.cfm?jid=35974&view=1&PowerID=0

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More legal trouble for Pakistan's Musharraf

ISLAMABAD (AP) ? A Pakistani court on Wednesday rejected bail for ex-military ruler Pervez Musharraf in a case connected to the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007, a government prosecutor said.

It was the latest setback for Musharraf, who returned to Pakistan last month from four years in self-imposed exile to make a political comeback but is currently under house arrest in connection with a different case.

Musharraf returned to run in the parliamentary election scheduled for May 11, but was disqualified because of his actions while in power and is spending most of his time battling legal cases.

He seized power in a military coup in 1999 when he was army chief. He was serving as president when Bhutto was killed in a gun and bomb attack in December 2007, shortly after she returned from exile to contest the elections.

Musharraf blamed the Pakistani Taliban for Bhutto's slaying, but government investigators later said there was evidence of his involvement. A U.N. report faulted Musharraf's government for failing to provide Bhutto with adequate security.

Musharraf has denied the allegations against him.

The former military ruler had arranged a pre-arrest bail in the Bhutto case and several others before returning to Pakistan, meaning he could not be immediately arrested on arrival.

On Wednesday, the Islamabad High Court rejected Musharraf's bail after his lawyer failed to appear to argue for an extension in the Bhutto case, said government prosecutor Zulfikar Chaudhry.

Musharraf could now be arrested and tried in connection with the Bhutto case as well, said Chaudhry.

Musharraf was placed under house arrest over the weekend in connection with a case involving his decision to fire senior judges, including the chief justice of the Supreme Court, while in power. His arrest followed a dramatic escape from court in which he fled in a speeding vehicle to avoid detention. He was eventually placed under arrest at his heavily guarded house on the outskirts of Islamabad.

Musharraf stepped down from power in 2008 because of growing discontent with his rule, especially among the legal community because of his decision to dismiss judges. He returned last month despite the legal challenges against him, as well as death threats by the Pakistani Taliban.

Police defused a car bomb parked about 150 meters (500 feet) from Musharraf's house in Islamabad on Tuesday and are investigating how the vehicle was able to get so close to his home.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/more-legal-trouble-pakistans-musharraf-084530970.html

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Google joins the FIDO Alliance, supports its two-factor authentication standard

Google joins the FIDO Alliance, supports its two-factor authentication standard

Google's already investing in two-factor authentication, but it's making a bigger commitment to the security method by joining the FIDO (Fast IDentity Online) Alliance's board of directors. Founded in-part by heavyweights Lenovo and PayPal, the group envisions a future where an open standard developed by it will lead to interoperable two-step security that can log users into sites and cloud apps across the web -- not to mention replace passwords as we know them. While support for USB keys is certainly in the works, the group expects to throw its weight behind the likes of NFC, voice and facial recognition, fingerprint scanners and more. There's no telling how soon FIDO's efforts will bear fruit, but the search titan's support ought to help move things along.

[Image credit: Marc Falardeau, Flickr]

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Via: MIT Technology Review

Source: FIDO (PDF)

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/g60xluU9gvs/

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Thinx upgrades the video monitor with embedded LTE and SMS alerts; ships in Q3 for around $500

Thinx upgrades the video monitor with embedded LTE and SMS alerts ships soon for around $500

As part of our tour through Verizon's Waltham, Ma.-based Innovation Center this week, we were able to see a brief demo of the Thinx 4G LTE video monitor -- a product that was briefly teased at CES, but we've heard precious little about since. Essentially, this is a rather sophisticated 1080p video monitor, designed for small businesses that would prefer that their monitors do more than just capture reels of archived footage. Thinx's solution throws in an admin panel and a smartphone app; users can install the camera and then define hot zones for the sensor to keep tabs on. If and when a specific event occurs (e.g. 50 individuals cross a virtual line), owners can be alerted via SMS -- and, of course, they can then view only the footage pertaining to said event with merely a click.

The aforementioned apps (available for iOS and Android) will allow owners to look in live at any time, with recorded video automatically stored on the included 4GB SD card, a personal NAS or a cloud storage facility like Dropbox. Better still, the control panel supports multiple cameras for those trying to cast eyes over an entire office complex, and there's room for a 12V battery that'll keep it humming along "for a few hours" should the power cut out. Tom Thomasson, vice president of marketing at Thinx, told us that the product is slated to go on sale in the US during the third quarter of this year, and it's one of "over 30" new products that Verizon will help launch during the 2013 / 2014 time frame.

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Source: Thinx

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/24/thinx-video-monitor-embedded-lte-sms-alerts/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Stocks gain on earnings; fake tweet rattles market

NEW YORK (AP) ? The stock market climbed Tuesday following strong earnings across a range of U.S. industries.

Coach, Lockheed Martin, DuPont and Travelers all rose after they reported results that were better than analysts expected.

Markets swooned briefly, then quickly recovered, shortly after 1 p.m. when The Associated Press' Twitter account was hacked and a fake tweet was posted about an attack at the White House.

Major indexes rose about 1 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average increased 152 points to 14,719.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 16 points to 1,578 and the Nasdaq composite rose 35 points to 3,269.

The gains were broad. Four stocks rose for every one that fell on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume was average at 3.5 billion shares.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stocks-gain-earnings-fake-tweet-rattles-market-201754129--finance.html

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Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Scientists provide 'new spin' on emerging quantum technologies

Apr. 23, 2013 ? An international team of scientists has shed new light on a fundamental area of physics which could have important implications for future electronic devices and the transfer of information at the quantum level.

The electrical currents currently used to power electronic devices are generated by a flow of charges. However, emerging quantum technologies such as spin-electronics, make use of both charge and another intrinsic property of electrons ? their spin ? to transfer and process signals and information.??

The experimental and theoretical work, carried out by researchers from York?s Department of Physics, the Institute of Nanoscience in Paris and the University of Missouri-Columbia, USA, could have important implications for spintronics and quantum information technologies.

The team looked at semiconductors? structures ? the base of current electronic devices and of many spintronic device proposals - and the problems created by internal fields known as spin-orbit fields. In general, these tend to act differently on each electronic spin, causing a phenomenon referred to as ?spin-decoherence?. This means that the electronic spins will behave in a way which cannot be completely controlled or predicted, which has important implications for device functionalities.

To address this problem, the scientists looked at semiconductor structures called ?quantum wells? where the spins can be excited in a collective, coherent way by using lasers and light scattering. ?????

They demonstrated that these collective spin excitations possess a macroscopic spin of quantum nature. In other words, the electrons and their spins act as a single entity making them less susceptible to spin orbit fields, so decoherence is highly suppressed.

The theoretical work was led by Dr Irene D?Amico from York?s Department of Physics, and Carsten Ullrich, an Associate Professor from Missouri-Columbia?s Department of Physics. The project began with their prediction about the effect of spin Coulomb drag on collective spin excitations, and developed into a much larger international project spanning over three years, which was funded in the UK by a Royal Society grant, with additional funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

Dr D?Amico said: ?This work has developed into a strong international collaboration which has greatly improved our understanding at fundamental level of the role of many-body interactions on the behaviour of electron spins.

?By combining experimental and theoretical work, we were able to demonstrate that through many-body interactions, a macroscopic collection of spins can behave as a single entity with a single macroscopic quantum spin, making this much less susceptible to decoherence. In the future, it may be possible to use these excitations as signals to transport or elaborate information at the quantum level.?

After reporting their results in the journal Physical Review Letters last year, the team of scientists confirmed and extended the results by considering different materials and type of excitation. The second set of experiments, were recently reported in Physical Review B (Rapid Communication) and highlighted by the Journal as an ?Editor?s Suggestion?.

Dr Florent Perez, who led the experimental work with Florent Baboux, at the CNRS/Universit? Paris VI, says the results strongly suggest that the quantum nature of the macroscopic spin is universal to collective spin excitations in conductive systems.

He said: ?The collaboration with Irene D?Amico and Carsten Ullrich has been particularly powerful to disentangle the puzzle of our data. In our first joint work we constructed an interpretation of the phenomenon which was confirmed in a second investigation carried out on a different system. This paved the way for a universality of the effect.?

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of York, via AlphaGalileo.

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


Journal References:

  1. F. Baboux, F. Perez, C. A. Ullrich, I. D?Amico, J. G?mez, M. Bernard. Giant Collective Spin-Orbit Field in a Quantum Well: Fine Structure of Spin Plasmons. Physical Review Letters, 2012; 109 (16) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.166401
  2. F. Baboux, F. Perez, C. A. Ullrich, I. D'Amico, G. Karczewski, T. Wojtowicz. Coulomb-driven organization and enhancement of spin-orbit fields in collective spin excitations. Physical Review B, 2013; 87 (12) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.87.121303

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/FO4fPwHMdsc/130423091030.htm

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Airlines say they shouldn?t pay for furlough-induced tarmacdelays?

If the FAA furloughs air traffic controllers and a plane full of passengers sits on the tarmac for 3 or more hours, should the Department of Transportation (DOT) ding the carrier for violating the government?s three-year-old rule against extended tarmac delays?

The airline industry says ?no? and two industry trade groups ? Airlines for America (A4A) and the Regional Airline Association (RAA) ? have filed a motion asking DOT to suspend the rule in the event such violations are a result of the sequestration-related furloughs that went into effect Sunday.

?We believe granting this exemption serves the best interests of the flying public by providing airlines with the operating flexibility necessary to focus on responding to the FAA?s projected delays in ways that minimize and avoid worsening the disruption and inconvenience to our passengers,? said A4A spokesperson Katie Connell via email.

The request seeks to spare airlines from the fines laid out under the rule that was first put in place in April 2010 as a response to several high-profile cases in which passengers were stuck on grounded airplanes for up to 9 hours.

Under the rule, carriers that violate the rule are subject to fines of up to $27,500 per passenger. In August 2011, the rule was extended to include international flights, which can incur the same penalties if they don?t offer passengers the opportunity to disembark after 4 hours.

Although bitterly opposed by the airline industry when the rule was first proposed, it has led to a drastic decline in the number of extended tarmac delays. The most recent incident involved 34 planes operated by US Airways and its partners that were stranded during a mid-February snowstorm in Charlotte, N.C., an incident DOT is currently investigating.

For proponents of the tarmac delay rules, the industry motion represents a case of d?j? vu all over again: ?The airlines are rehashing the same arguments they used before,? said Paul Hudson, president of the consumer group FlyersRights.org. ?Their request is for 90 days or the length of the sequester and there?s no doubt they will try to extend it indefinitely.?

For Hudson, the issue should be considered a ?non-starter? because the rule includes language that releases the airlines from liability for situations that are out of their control.

?The DOT already has the discretion not to fine them,? he told NBC News. ?There are provisions that if there are air traffic control or security reasons that prevent planes from getting back to the gate then the airlines are relieved of the obligation.?

In the meantime, both the furloughs and bad weather have led to an uptick in delays in recent days. According to FAA, there were 1,200 delays in the system on Monday that were attributable to staffing reductions with 1,400 additional delays caused by weather and other factors.

Similar, albeit fewer, delays were reported on Tuesday with wind, weather and staffing issues leading to late-afternoon delays in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York. The worst delays were at Newark (weather/wind) and LaGuardia (staffing), both of which were reporting delays of 115 minutes.

Obviously, such delays aren?t long enough to trigger the tarmac delay rule although they?re plenty long enough to inconvenience passengers. Travelers who wish to weigh in the issue of fines, furloughs and who?s responsible for the current situation have until 5 p.m. Friday to send their comments to DOT.

Rob Lovitt is a longtime travel writer who still believes the journey is as important as the destination. Follow him on Twitter.


Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2b1a63dd/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Ctravel0Cairlines0Esay0Ethey0Eshouldnt0Epay0Efurlough0Einduced0Etarmac0Edelays0E6C956960A3/story01.htm

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Fireballs! 'Tis the season for massive meteors.

Tonight (April 23) through Friday at dawn may be your best chance of the year to spot a fireball, a meteor that shines brighter than Venus, the brightest planet in the sky.

By Joe Rao,?SPACE.com / April 23, 2013

In this picture provided by Wally Pacholka of AstroPics.com, a Geminid fireball explodes over the Mojave Desert in the Jojave Desert, Calif. on Dec. 13, 2009. Unlike this Geminid fireball, the fireball-watching in the next few nights isn't connected to the just-completed Lyriad meteor shower or any other regular meteor shower.

Wally Pacholka / AstroPics.com / AP

Enlarge

The dramatic fireball that exploded over Russia in February got many people wondering if there is any way to anticipate future dazzling meteors before they appear.

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Well, meteors not associated with an annual shower are certainly tough to predict. But there are some patterns that skywatchers can keep in mind to maximize their chances of spotting a fireball (which technically is any meteor that shines more brightly than Venus in the sky).

For example, springtime is "fireball season," when the number of bright meteor sightings increases by as much as 30 percent, NASA experts say. And the three-day stretch from Tuesday (April 23) to Thursday (April 25) is perhaps the best time to watch for the next prospective fireball event, which might possibly even lead to the fall of a meteorite.?

Over the years, some real dazzlers have been seen during this time frame. And in at least two cases, the orbits of the meteors were virtually identical, suggesting Earth might hit more such space rocks when it passes through this part of its orbit.

A river of rubble?

Is there perhaps a "river of rubble" orbiting the sun that is populated by rather large meteoroids?

Unlike most of the annual meteor showers that are composed chiefly of dust and sand-sized particles ? such as the Lyrids, which peaked overnight Sunday (April 21) ? this supposed fireball stream might be made up of objects that are considerably larger, perhaps originating in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter or perhaps being shed by the nucleus of a long-dormant comet.?

The circumstantial evidence for such a meteor stream lies with two brilliant fireballs that appeared during the 1960s.

One of these fireballs cast shadows over northern New Jersey on April 23, 1962. The other was seen by thousands of people over England, Wales and Northern Ireland on April 25, 1969 and also dropped a 0.6-pound (0.27 kilograms) meteorite in the town of Sprucefield, Northern Ireland.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/JN_cGf2dRGw/Fireballs!-Tis-the-season-for-massive-meteors

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BitTorrent Sync: Secure File Sync Between Computers Using P2P ...

BitTorrent Sync, a free to use (but not open source) tool that can be used to automatically synchronize files between computers using the BitTorrent protocol, is now available for all as public alpha. The application runs on Linux, Windows, Mac OS X and NAS.

The tool, which has been in closed alpha for the past four months, is advertised as "a simple tool that applies p2p protocol for direct live folder sync with maximum security, network speed and storage capacity".

And indeed, BitTorrent Sync is a great way of syncing and sharing files between computers, even files that you usually wouldn't trust with cloud sync tools such as Dropbox: besides the files being transferred directly between the users (so your files don't end up on some cloud server), the connection is encrypted with a AES cypher and a 256-bit key created on the base of your Secret, a random 20 byte or more string. For increased security, there's also an option to generate a Secret that expires after a day.

Basically, this peer-to-peer (p2p) sync tool can be compared with cloud sync services such as Dropbox or Ubuntu One, but no server is involved which also means that the sync can be faster than such services and there are no space restrictions (except your HDD). This also means the computers need to be online for the sync to work, obviously.


Arch Linux users can install BitTorrent Sync via AUR.

To use BitTorrent Sync (or "BtSync") on Linux, download and extract the binary for your architecture (Ubuntu users: use the "Linux i386" or "Linux x64" links on the left; don't download the "glib 2.3" binaries), extract it and to run it, simply type the following in a terminal (assuming you've extracted the "btsync" binary in your home folder):

cd ./btsync

To see a list of available options, type:
./btsync --help

And if you want to stop BitTorrent Sync, use:
killall btsync

BitTorrent Sync doesn't come with a GUI for Linux, but it can be configured through a web interface so once you've started BtSync like we've explained above, open a web browser and enter the following URL: http://localhost:8888/gui/


Now let's add a folder to sync. To do this, click "Add folder", then browse for a folder you want to sync and also click "Generate" to generate a Secret for this folder. Then click "Add" to add the folder:

If you want to connect to other devices / synchronize a folder from a remote computer on your machine, follow the same steps as above, but instead of clicking "Generate" for the Secret, paste the Secret generated for the folder from the remote computer.


On Linux, most of the settings aren't available in the web interface. Instead, you can run:
./btsync --dump-sample-config > sync.conf

Which will create a new "sync.conf" file with a sample configuration file. Modify the settings in this file to suit your needs and then run BtSync using the following command (which will make BtSync use the newly created configuration file):

./btsync --config sync.conf

For more on how to use BitTorrent Sync on Linux but also on Windows and Mac OS X, see the User Guide PDF file.

Download BitTorrent Sync for Linux, Windows, Mac OS X and NAS.

Source: http://www.webupd8.org/2013/04/bittorrent-sync-secure-file-sync.html

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U.S. existing homes sales show surprise drop | Mortgages & Real ...

Sales of previously owned U.S. homes unexpectedly dropped in March, showing uneven progress in the industry.

Purchases of previously owned houses, tabulated when a contract closes, fell 0.6% to a 4.92 million annual rate last month, figures from the National Association of Realtors showed today in Washington. The median forecast of 75 economists surveyed by Bloomberg projected sales would increase to a 5 million rate. Prices climbed, reflecting more demand for higher-priced houses.

Historically low mortgage rates, rising property values and employment gains have helped mend the U.S. housing market, a source of strength for the world?s largest economy a boost. At the same time, a drop in the inventory of cheaper properties for sale compared with last year may be restraining the pace of progress in the industry.

?Housing will remain a positive for the economy, but there should be some slowing in the next few months,? David Sloan, a New York-based senior economist at 4Cast Inc., said before the report. ?The slowing is temporary. There is a shortage of supply. The housing market will revive.?

Stocks fell after the report, with the Standard & Poor?s 500 Index declining 0.2% to 1,552.78 at 10:03 a.m. in New York.

Sales estimates in the Bloomberg survey ranged from 4.9 million to 5.2 million. The prior month?s pace was revised to 4.95 million from a previously reported 4.98 million.

Existing-home purchases, counted when contracts close, are recovering from a 13-year low of 4.11 million in 2008. Annual sales peaked at 7.08 million in 2005. A total of 4.66 million previously-owned houses were sold in 2012.

Year Ago

Compared with a year earlier, purchases increased 7.2% in March on an unadjusted basis, today?s report showed.

The median price of an existing home rose 11.8%, the most since November 2005, to $184,300 last month from $164,800 in March 2012.

The number of previously owned homes on the market rose to 1.93 million in March from 1.9 million a month earlier, according to Monday?s report. At the current sales pace, it would take 4.7 months to sell those houses compared with 4.6 months at the end of February. The group has said supply in the six-months range is ?normal.?

The inventory of unsold homes was 2.32 million a year earlier.

The supply of homes is ?plentiful on the upper end of prices. There?s very little inventory on the lower end,? Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said in a news conference today as the figures were released.

Borrowing Costs

Real-estate activity is being stoked by cheaper borrowing costs and an improving labor market. The average rate for a 30- year fixed mortgage fell to 3.41% in the week ended April 18, the third consecutive drop, according to Freddie Mac. The rate declined to a record low of 3.31% in November.

Higher home prices have also boosted household wealth. Property values rose 10.2% in the 12 months through February, the biggest gain in almost seven years, according to Irvine, California-based CoreLogic Inc.

Builders are responding by stepping up construction, providing a boost for the expansion. They broke ground on new homes in March at the fastest pace in almost five years, the Commerce Department said April 16.

Contacts in most districts of the Federal Reserve system said ?residential and commercial real estate improved markedly? with rising property values and demand for home loans that was ?steady to slightly up,? according to its Beige Book business survey, which covers the period from late February to early April.

Furniture Sales

The strength in housing is spilling over into other parts of the economy such as manufacturing.

?We?re encouraged by the sustained improvement in housing sales, new home construction, rising housing prices, reduced inventories, historically low mortgage rates, and the best housing affordability in years, all of which combined to create a positive environment for our company and our industry,? Paul Toms, chief executive officer at Martinsville, Virginia-based furniture maker Hooker Furniture Corp., said on an April 15 earnings call.

Bloomberg.com

?

?

Source: http://business.financialpost.com/2013/04/22/surprise-drop-in-u-s-existing-homes-sales-show-uneven-progress-in-recovery/

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Heads Up! 'Fireball Season' Peaks This Week

The dramatic fireball that exploded over Russia in February got many people wondering if there is any way to anticipate future dazzling meteors before they appear.

Well, meteors not associated with an annual shower are certainly tough to predict. But there are some patterns that skywatchers can keep in mind to maximize their chances of spotting a fireball (which technically is any meteor that shines more brightly than Venus in the sky).

For example, springtime is "fireball season," when the number of bright meteor sightings increases by as much as 30 percent, NASA experts say. And the three-day stretch from Tuesday (April 23) to Thursday (April 25) is perhaps the best time to watch for the next prospective fireball event, which might possibly even lead to the fall of a meteorite. [5 Amazing Fireballs Caught on Video]

Over the years, some real dazzlers have been seen during this time frame. And in at least two cases, the orbits of the meteors were virtually identical, suggesting Earth might hit more such space rocks when it passes through this part of its orbit.

A river of rubble?

Is there perhaps a "river of rubble" orbiting the sun that is populated by rather large meteoroids?

Unlike most of the annual meteor showers that are composed chiefly of dust and sand-sized particles ? such as the Lyrids, which peaked overnight Sunday (April 21) ? this supposed fireball stream might be made up of objects that are considerably larger, perhaps originating in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter or perhaps being shed by the nucleus of a long-dormant comet.?

The circumstantial evidence for such a meteor stream lies with two brilliant fireballs that appeared during the 1960s.

One of these fireballs cast shadows over northern New Jersey on April 23, 1962. The other was seen by thousands of people over England, Wales and Northern Ireland on April 25, 1969 and also dropped a 0.6-pound (0.27 kilograms) meteorite in the town of Sprucefield, Northern Ireland.

After enough ground observations were gathered, orbits for both objects were computed. Remarkably, the two turned out to be very similar.?

Something to ?Crow? about

Both the New Jersey and United Kingdom meteors seemed to emanate from a spot in the sky near the constellation of Corvus (the Crow).?

Corvus is a rather striking star pattern situated low in the southeast sky around 9 p.m. local daylight time ? a little four-sided figure of fairly bright stars, like a triangle whose top has been removed by a slanting cut.

By around midnight it appears almost due south, and by the first light of dawn it?s disappearing beyond the southwest horizon. So any brilliant fireballs traveling on a general south-to-north trajectory might be related to this supposed fireball stream, especially if they seem to come from the direction of Corvus.

Here are three other possible candidate "Crow" meteors, all of which blazed up on the calendar date of April 25:

April 25, 1966:?This brilliant exploding meteor passed northward over New Jersey and eastern New York into Canada along a flat trajectory. Observations were analyzed by both U.S. and Canadian experts, who determined that the end point of the meteor's visible path was at an altitude of around 9 miles (15 kilometers) near Huntingdon, Quebec. Canadian astronomers B.A. McIntosh and J.A.V. Douglas noted, "The anticlimax of so spectacular an event is surely the failure to recover meteorites ... Much of the possible fall area is either sparsely populated or unfavorable terrain for recovery." They suggest that part of the meteoritic mass may have come down in the rugged Adirondack Mountains, along the trajectory but before the end point.???

April 25, 1971:?A man named James A. Lewis reported that he and his wife heard a "thunder-like" sound in north-Central Wisconsin. "I thought it was lightning," Lewis wrote, "until I looked up and saw the fireball-like object hurtling northerly through the clouds. It seemed to break up about 30 degrees above the northern horizon." (As reported in Natural History Magazine, Vol. LXXX, No. 7, August-September 1971).

April 25, 2005:?A fireball was seen as far north as Portland, Maine and as far south as Long Island. A Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman said that a number of witnesses thought the meteor was a plane crashing in Connecticut, the Associated Press reported at the time.

Prospects for 2013

It should be stressed that this possible fireball stream bears no relation to the annual performance of the Lyrid meteor shower. [Spectacular Lyrid Meteor Photos from 2013]

If you do plan on watching the night sky for any prospective fireball activity this year, keep in mind that you're going to have stiff competition from a very bright moon which, unfortunately, turns full on April 25.

The moon?s brilliant light will squelch the light of all but the brightest stars, but if you?re lucky enough to witness a fireball suddenly bursting forth, it should easily be seen in spite of the moonlight.?

Also keep in mind that any potential fireball sightings are likely to be very few and very far between. This plus that bright moon might sound discouraging, but considering what some have been lucky to see in the past around this time of year, it still just might be worthwhile to spend a little time under the stars on the nights of April 23, 24 and 25.?

You never know.

Editor's note:?If you snap a great photo dazzling fireball that?you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, send photos, comments and your name and location to managing editor Tariq Malik at?spacephotos@space.com.

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for The?New York Times and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, New York. Follow us?@Spacedotcom,?Facebook?or?Google+. Originally published on?SPACE.com.

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

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/heads-fireball-season-peaks-week-161720175.html

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