Mexican ex-governor Mario Villanueva gets 11 years in US prison for money laundering

By Bernard Vaughan, Reuters

NEW YORK -- A former Mexican state governor was sentenced to 11 years in prison in the United States on Friday after pleading guilty to conspiring to launder millions of dollars in bribes from a notorious drug cartel.

With credit for time served and good behavior, Mario Villanueva, 64, could be released from U.S. custody in two to three years, his lawyer, Richard Lind, said after the hearing. He faces another 23 years in prison in Mexico stemming from similar charges, Lind said.

Mexico's drug war is also part of a drug culture with roots in music, movies and even religion

From 1993 to 1999, Villanueva was governor of Quintana Roo, a state on the Yucatan Peninsula that is home to the popular tourist destination Cancun.

While in office he conspired to launder millions of dollars in bribery payments from the Juarez drug cartel through accounts and shell corporations in the United States and elsewhere, prosecutors said.

He was extradited to the United States in 2010 after serving a six-year sentence in Mexico for money laundering.

"This defendant violated the public trust to enrich himself," Assistant U.S. Attorney Glen Kopp told U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero in New York on Friday.

In a plea agreement last year, Villanueva pleaded guilty to one charge of money laundering conspiracy; he faced a maximum of 20 years in prison.

"I ask for your compassion and your clemency," Villanueva told Marrero, as several of his family members, including his wife and son, looked on.

The Juarez cartel transported more than 200 tons of cocaine into the United States in the 1990s, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan.

Prosecutors said Villanueva reached an agreement with the cartel soon after it established operations in Quintana Roo in 1994. He received payments of between $400,000 and $500,000 for each cocaine shipment that went through the state in exchange for ensuring law enforcement would not interfere.

By late 1995, he began transferring the money to bank and brokerage accounts in the United States, Switzerland and elsewhere in an effort to hide the funds, prosecutors said.

Consuelo Marquez, a Lehman Brothers investment broker, helped set up several offshore corporations for Villanueva to shelter the bribe proceeds, according to the indictment against Villanueva. She also established brokerage accounts for him and conducted a series of wire transfers at his direction, according to the indictment.

Marquez was sentenced to three years of probation and fined $10,000 in 2006 after pleading guilty to money laundering charges.

Villanueva, while under investigation in Mexico, disappeared in March 1999, just before his term as governor expired. He was discovered by Mexican authorities in 2001.

While a fugitive, Villanueva tried to transfer funds in the Lehman accounts to third-party accounts with Marquez's help, according to the indictment.

With his sentence, Villanueva "completes his descent from elected government official to corrupted official to incarcerated felon," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.

The case is USA v. Mario Ernesto Villanueva Madrid, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 01-cr-021.

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'Blade Runner' Oscar Pistorius resumes training ahead of murder trial

Alessandro Garofalo / Reuters, file

Oscar Pistorius pictured training in Italy ahead of the London 2012 Olympics.

By Alastair Jamieson, Staff writer, NBC News

Oscar Pistorius, the double-amputee Olympic sprinter who faces trial for the alleged murder of his model girlfriend, has resumed training, his spokesman announced Friday.

The Paralympic gold medal winner, dubbed "Blade Runner" for his prosthetic legs, has ?decided to resume a low-key track routine? to help him prepare mentally for the trial, his media manager Anneliese Burgess said in a statement.

The South African runner ?is not contemplating a formal return to athletics and his training is not aimed at preparing for competition,? the statement said.

?His focus at this time remains entirely on the court case," Burgess added. "His family, and those close to him, have encouraged him to spend a few hours a week on the track to assist him in finding the necessary mental and emotional equilibrium to process his trauma and prepare for the trial.?

Pistorius, 26, is accused of deliberately shooting Reeva Steenkamp,?29, in a bathroom at his home in Pretoria, South Africa, on February 14.

He denies the murder charge. Pistorius says he mistook her for an intruder.

Thy Olympian was granted bail after a pre-trial hearing earlier this year. The murder trial is set to begin August 19.

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Broker seeks partners for new force majeure insurance product ...

Insurance broker Guarantees and Bonds has brought a new product to the UK market?and is seeking travel industry partners having cut ties with Rock Insurance.

The company, which represents Northern and Western Insurance Company (NWIC) in the UK, worked with Rock Insurance and Advantage exclusively up until December.

Nevis-based NWIC entered the UK travel insurance market in 2010 offering supplier failure, airline failure and travel disruption cover through Advantage Travel Centres and Rock Insurance. It stepped in when AmTrust (formerly IGI) pulled out of the market in August 2010.

Guarantees and Bonds director Philip Radley said NWIC was now comfortable with the travel market having seen what the claims levels were like and was tailoring policies that met the specific needs of the travel industry.

The company, which also works with The Travel Network Group and Advantage, has introduced a new umbrella product combining financial supplier failure insurance with cover for force majeure [unforeseen] events, such as strikes, tropical storms, or political unrest in destinations.

It is in talks to work with more smaller brokers but will also to sell its policies through travel companies directly. Radley said less than ten suppliers had failed in the last three years, but claims for force majeure had been much more frequent.

Radley?said: ?We are trying to create something different from what the rest of the market has to offer. We can bring ideas from other sectors. We want to take a larger share of the market. If a tour operator comes to us with an idea, and it works for us commercially, we?ll look at it.?

Radley is keen to work with smaller agents and operators rather than the big two.

?Smaller agents are more interesting to work with and we can tailor the product for them. We understand that agents and operators can be quite cash poor so we will reimburse their mark-up as well (in the event of a failure).

?With the assistance of Advantage we have changed our policies and made them more user-friendly.?

Radley said agents could expect prices starting from ?1 per person for the umbrella cover claiming this was significantly lower than competitors in the supplier failure market which work on much bigger mark-ups.??

Source: http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/Articles/2013/06/28/44526/broker+seeks+partners+for+new+force+majeure+insurance+product.html

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Paula Deen Dropped By Publisher Despite Soaring Book Sales

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/06/paula-deen-dropped-by-publisher-despite-soaring-book-sales/

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Islamists rally to support Egypt's president

CAIRO (AP) ? Thousands of backers of Egypt's Islamist president rallied Friday in Cairo in a show of support ahead of planned opposition protests this weekend demanding his removal, as passengers swamped the capital's international airport to leave, fearing widespread violence.

The opposition plans to bring out massive crowds on Sunday in protests nationwide, vowing to force President Mohammed Morsi to step down. Across the city from the pro-Morsi rally Friday, thousands massed in Cairo's central Tahrir Square, shouting for the president to "leave, leave,"

For the past several days, Morsi's opponents and members of his Muslim Brotherhood have been battling it out in the streets of several cities in the Nile Delta in violence that has left at least five dead. The latest died Friday from injuries suffered in fighting the day before, security officials said.

Many fear the clashes are a prelude to more widespread and bloodier battles on Sunday. In a sign of the charged atmosphere, a senior cleric, Sheik Hassan al-Shafie, from Al-Azhar, the country's most eminent Muslim religious institution, warned of the possibility of "civil war" after the street clashes in the Delta.

The Cairo International Airport was flooded with departures, in an exodus airport officials called unprecedented. They said all flights departing Friday to Europe, the United States and the Gulf were fully booked with no vacant seats.

Many of those leaving were families of Egyptian officials and businessmen and those of foreign and Arab League diplomats ? as well as many Egyptian Christians, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to the press.

Both sides have vowed to remain peaceful, and each side has blamed the other for the violence so far.

Tamarod, the activist group whose anti-Morsi petition campaign evolved into Sunday's planned protest, said in a statement it was opposed "to any attack against anybody, whatever the disagreement with this person was," and accused the Brotherhood of sparking violence to scare people from participating Sunday.

Tamarod says it has collected nearly 20 million signatures in the country of 90 million demanding Morsi step down.

The Brotherhood says the five killed in the Delta clashes were its members. Some people "think they can topple a democratically elected President by killing his support groups," Gehad el-Haddad, a Brotherhood spokesman, wrote on his Twitter account.

The pro-Morsi rally was held in front of the Rabia el-Adawiya Mosque in Cairo, not far from the presidential palace, which is one of the sites where the opposition plans its protests Friday.

In his Friday prayer sermon, the cleric of Rabia el-Adawiya warned that if Morsi is ousted "there will be no president for the country" and Egypt will descend into "opposition hell."

Thousands of Morsi backers filled the street outside, chanting religious slogans. "It is for God, not for position or power," they shouted. "Raise your voice strong, Egyptian: Islamic Shariah." Many wore green headbands with the slogans of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Security officials say three people have died in the past three days in Nile Delta city of Mansoura, along with two others in the nearby province of Sharqiya.

In Sharqiya on Thursday, an Islamist march encountered an anti-Morsi march, leading to scuffles that evolved into full-fledged battles, the officials said. The two sides hurled stones at each other and fired gunshots, and at least 70 were injured. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.

In the Delta city of Tanta on Friday, four unidentified men believed to be Morsi supporters tried to attack a mosque preacher during his sermon, in which he called on worshippers to stand with Al-Azhar's calls to avoid bloodshed.

Hundreds of protesters in the nearby city of Bassioun hurled stones at the local headquarters of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party. They tore down the party's sign and crushed it, security officials said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/islamists-rally-support-egypts-president-152215993.html

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Facebook is now letting Android users test out beta versions of its main app.

Facebook is now letting Android users test out beta versions of its main app. But ironically you've got to sign up for Google Groups to get in on the fun.

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/y0FWYnJPCO4/facebook-is-now-letting-android-test-out-beta-versions-600360938

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Not All Immigrants Agree On Offering Others 'A Path to Citizenship ...

If Congress overhauls immigration laws, undocumented immigrants may be offered a path to citizenship. But not everyone agrees with that, and some of those in the opposition are immigrants themselves. From the public radio collaboration Fronteras Desk, reporter Jude Joffe-Block has one family?s story from Arizona.

It is likely that the immigration reform bill that will be taken up later this year in the House of Representatives will offer undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship. But not everyone agrees with that part of the bill and it is certain to face tough opposition. And some of those against the path to citizenship are immigrants themselves. Their views can be influenced by how they came to America. From the public radio collaboration Fronteras Desk, reporter Jude Joffe-Block has one family?s story from Arizona.

On a recent evening in Tempe, Arizona, Alex Khazanovich plays the piano with his 24-year-old son, Mark. The elder Khazanovich learned to play the piano as a child in the former Soviet Union. There wasn?t much on TV there. ?In the old country we only had two channels on the TV and they didn?t show anything worthwhile,? he says.

But life was difficult under Soviet rule for Jewish families like his. When he was a teenager, Alex Khazanovich headed to Canada with his parents. Then, an engineering job brought him to the US, and his young family, including his son Mark, settled here in Arizona the 1990s.

?I think the United States is a country that is much more free and conducive for people to exercise their individuality and freedom of expression,? says Alex Khazanovich, now 50 years old with a full beard. He became a US citizen after a long process. So now, when he?s asked about immigration reform, he?s concerned that the bill the Senate is set to approve soon includes a path to citizenship for people who came illegally.

?It is just wrong to disregard when people do something that is against the law,? says Khazanovich. He says his philosophy is rooted in his intense patriotism for his adopted country. ?One of the reasons we always saw America as the bastion of freedom because of our belief that our laws are fair and that they are fairly applied to everyone,? he says.

And his son Mark, who became a US citizen as a teenager, agrees: ?I think it would marginalize the experiences of the hundreds of thousands if not millions of people who have immigrated to this country legally, including my family.?

His father adds: ?We definitely don?t want to throw people out who are living here, but we do not want to reward those who figure they will bypass the process that is in place.?

Both men say that instead of a path to citizenship, immigrants in the country without papers should get legal permanent residency. It?s a fair compromise, they argue.

?If I was living in a terrible country, I would much rather have the option of living in America and not vote, then not live in America. I think that side is not often made,? says the younger Khazanovich.

But he adds that his position is not always easy to articulate. ?People are quick to assume that if someone doesn?t support this bill, then, you know, they are labeled as racist or bigots, or things like that,? he says.

Mark Khazanovich also says that he doesn?t want to risk being misunderstood. ?For, me it is not an issue of a person?s ethnicity or race, but it is just the principle,? he says. ?It wouldn?t matter to me what country they are illegally trying to immigrate from. I don?t believe in illegal immigration.?

And yet, the Khaznovichs say they don?t see a place for themselves in the most visible grassroots efforts that oppose illegal immigration. Those groups, they say, tend to be more hostile to unauthorized immigrants than they are comfortable with.

?A lot of them talk about exclusion and deportation and all those things and I think there are a number of reasons why that is not a good option,? says Alex Khazanovich. ?We have neighbors and friends, who I don?t ask them about their immigration status, but I don?t want to see them being deported.?

His son adds: ?I think these groups, obviously they care about this issue, but I feel like they are more on the extreme side. And I think that there?s a middle ground that is not only compassionate but is fair and, you know, a more realistic approach.?

As the debate over immigration reform continues, it?s still unclear whether this middle position the Khazanovichs agree with will emerge.

Source: http://www.theworld.org/2013/06/not-all-immigrants-agree-on-offering-others-a-path-to-citizenship/

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Pandora to negotiate royalties with musicians after Pink Floyd slams ...

This week saw Pink Floyd ripping Pandora a new one with an aggressive op-ed article regarding the music streaming service?s request over slashing royalties for musicians. Now, it has emerged that talks are underway between the radio service and groups representing artistes about ending this feud.

Multiple sources close to the matter have told The Verge that formal negotiations between Pandora and groups representing music artistes, indie and major labels are expected to kick off soon. Of the matters that will be discussed,? most will mainly revolve around how much royalties should web radio services pay musicians and labels for their music.

Talks to commence soon

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The feud kicked off ever since Pandora appealed to the Congress to enforce a cut of 85 percent in royalties for musicians, something the latter opposed strongly. The radio service slunk away for a while before kicking the hornet?s nest again.

Legendary rock band Pink Floyd, known to be very picky about Internet radio, jumped into the war of words with an op-ed column for USA Today on Monday. The band accused Pandora of emotionally blackmailing musicians into getting them to support the cut in royalties.

Pandora had been sending out unsolicited mails to musicians that apparently tried to hoodwink artistes into supporting the reduction in royalties for themselves. The mail asks bands to be a ?part of the conversation? Pandora is having with its listeners but fails to mention the royalty cut, something that has angered Pink Floyd. ?But a business that exists to deliver music can't really complain that its biggest cost is music. You don't hear grocery stores complain they have to pay for the food they sell. Netflix pays more for movies than Pandora pays for music, but they aren't running to Congress for a bailout. Everyone deserves the right to be paid a fair market rate for their work, regardless of what their work entails,? the band slammed the service.

Indie musician, David Lowrey says that despite his song getting played on Pandora one million times, all he received in payment from it was a paltry $16.89. That amount, he points out, is less than what he makes through sales of a single T-shirt.

The talks that have been long overdue will now try to find a middle path between musicians and the service over royalty cuts.

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Source: http://tech2.in.com/news/web-services/pandora-to-negotiate-royalties-with-musicians-after-pink-floyd-slams-the-service/897528

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Broad immigration bill cruising to Senate passage

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Far-reaching immigration legislation cruised toward passage in the Senate as House Republicans pushed ahead Wednesday on a different approach that cracks down on millions living in the United States illegally rather than offering them a chance at citizenship.

Presidential politics took a more prominent role in a long-running national debate as Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., tried to reassure conservatives that many of the criticisms of the bill, which he helped write, are "just not true."

The potential 2016 White House contender said in remarks on the Senate floor it has been difficult for him "to hear the worry and the anxiety and the growing anger in the voices of so many people who helped me get elected to the Senate and who I agree with on virtually every other issue."

The political impact of the issue aside, there was no doubt that the Senate bill was on track for passage by Thursday or Friday.

Supporters posted 67 votes or more on each of three procedural tests Wednesday, far more than the 60 needed to prevail. More than a dozen Republicans sided with Democrats on each, assuring bipartisan support that the bill's backers hope will change minds in the House.

At its core, the legislation includes numerous steps to prevent future illegal immigration, while at the same time it offers a chance at citizenship for millions living in the country illegally.

It provides for 20,000 new Border Patrol agents, requires the completion of 700 miles of fencing and requires an array of high-tech devices be deployed to secure the border with Mexico.

Businesses would be required to check on the legal status of prospective employees. The government would be ordered to install a high-tech system to check on the comings and goings of foreigners at selected international airport in the United States.

Other provisions would expand the number of visas for highly skilled workers relied upon by the technology industry. A separate program would be established for lower-skilled workers, and farm workers would be admitted under a temporary program.

Some farm workers who are in the country illegally can qualify for a green card, which bestows permanent residency status, in five years.

Many of the bill's supporters also cheered a ruling from the Supreme Court that said married gay couples are entitled to the same federal benefits as heterosexual couples. The decision would allow gay married citizens or permanent residents to sponsor their foreign-born spouses for U.S. residency, and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano pledged to implement it.

The basic legislation was drafted by four Democrats and four Republicans who met privately for months to produce a rare bipartisan compromise in a polarized Senate. They fended off unwanted changes in the Senate Judiciary Committee, and then were involved in negotiations with Republican Sens. John Hoeven of North Dakota and Bob Corker of Tennessee on a package of tougher border security provisions that swelled support among Republicans.

Across the Capitol, an attempt at a bipartisan deal faltered, and majority Republicans began moving ahead on legislation tailored to the wishes of conservatives and vehemently opposed by Democrats.

The House Judiciary Committee already has approved two measures and was at work on a third during the day as it followed a piecemeal path rather than the all-in-one approach of the Senate.

The House bill under consideration Wednesday would require businesses to check on the legal status of employees within two years, as compared with four in the Senate measure.

One of the bills approved earlier makes it a new crime to remain in the country without legal status. It also allows state and local governments to enforce federal immigration laws, an attempt to apprehend more immigrants living in the United States illegally. It encourages those living in the United States unlawfully to depart voluntarily.

The second bill that cleared last week deals with farm workers who come to the United States temporarily with government permission. Unlike the Senate legislation, it offers no pathway to citizenship.

With attention beginning to shift to the House, Rep. John Fleming, R-La., said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, had assured the rank and file they will vote on bills being written on their side of the Capitol. "We are not going to take up the Senate bill," Fleming said, quoting the speaker.

Internal divisions among Republicans, combined with overwhelming opposition among Democrats, recently sent a farm bill down to defeat in the House, and it is unclear if the GOP will be able to command a majority for its own approach to immigration legislation.

At the same time, rules generally guarantee Democrats a chance to have the full House vote on its own alternatives, and it is unclear whether they might seek the vote on the Senate bill that Republicans hope to avoid.

For now, supporters of the Senate bill contented themselves with urging the House to change their minds.

"A permanent, common-sense solution to our dysfunctional system is really in sight," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. "It is my hope that our colleagues in the House will follow the Senate's lead and work to pass bipartisan reform and do it now."

Outnumbered critics said the measure fell far short of the claims made by its backers.

"It continues to promote false promises that the border would be truly secure," said Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.

A short while later, Rubio, without mentioning anyone by name, stood at his desk to slam opponents of the Senate bill for what he said are false accusations.

He said it is not true, for example, that the administration can ignore the requirements for border protection or that future Congress' can cancel funding or that it creates a taxpayer subsidy for people to buy a car or a scooter.

Nor are critics correct to claim a new 1,100-page bill was recently introduced that no one has read, he said.

"This is the exact same bill that's been publicly available for 10 weeks," he said, with the exception of about 120 pages that require tougher border security.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/broad-immigration-bill-cruising-senate-passage-200518755.html

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A look at 48 years of the Voting Rights Act

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The voting law that became a major turning point in black Americans' struggle for equal rights and political power is now outdated, the Supreme Court says.

Whether that's a marker of racial progress or proof of backsliding will be hotly debated. But neither side denies that remarkable changes were wrought through the nearly half-century-old Voting Rights Act.

As the issue moves to Congress, a look at the law's history:

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15th AMENDMENT

The right to vote, for American men at least, was supposed to be guaranteed when the 15th Amendment was added to the U.S. Constitution after the Civil War.

The amendment says: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."

Freed slaves began voting and even winning office, but former Confederate states came up with tactics to evade the 15th Amendment.

These literacy tests, poll taxes and other discriminatory laws, as well as intimidation and violence, continued for decades. In 1940, only 3 percent of eligible blacks in the South were registered to vote, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

Nearly a century after the amendment was ratified in 1870, the civil rights movement forced the nation to acknowledge the injustice.

___

THE MARCH FROM SELMA

Activists who tried to help blacks register in the South in the 1960s were met with violence. The fatal shooting of a demonstrator by a law officer in Alabama inspired the idea of a march to the state capital on March 7, 1965.

Hundreds of marchers on their way to Montgomery were clubbed and tear-gassed by state troopers at the Edmund Pettus Bridge near Selma. TV news cameras captured what became known as "Bloody Sunday."

Protesters across the country rallied in support of the marchers. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. flew to Selma to lead demonstrations. And President Lyndon Johnson seized the momentum to propel the Voting Rights Act through Congress.

He signed it into law on Aug. 6, 1965.

___

VOTING RIGHTS ACT

The law outlawed racial discrimination against voters in local, state and federal elections.

Some entire states, as well as counties in other states, were subjected to special federal enforcement, based on a formula used to weigh their record on voting rights. They had to get approval in advance before they could make even minor changes to voting laws, such as moving polling places.

The enforcement provisions were originally seen as emergency measures that might be allowed to expire in 1970 if no longer needed.

But lawmakers extended the provisions in 1970, 1975 and 1982. In 2006, Congress voted overwhelmingly to keep them another 25 years.

"We've made progress toward equality, yet the work for a more perfect union is never ending," President George W. Bush said as he signed the legislation.

___

NEARLY A HALF CENTURY LATER

The Supreme Court's 5-4 decision Tuesday effectively halts enforcement of the Voting Rights Act, unless Congress updates it.

The court said Congress has failed to adjust the law to reflect decades of strides toward racial equality. The United States now has a black president; a black justice sits on the Supreme Court. And 48 years after "Bloody Sunday," Selma is governed by a black mayor, Chief Justice John Roberts noted, writing for the court's conservative majority.

The Supreme Court decision means that a host of state and local laws in covered jurisdictions now can take effect without Justice Department approval. Prominent among those are voter identification laws in Alabama and Mississippi.

The other covered states are Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia. Certain counties in California, Florida, New York, North Carolina and South Dakota, and some local jurisdictions in Michigan, are also included.

Enforcement coverage has been triggered by discrimination not only against blacks, but also against American Indians, Asian-Americans, Alaska Natives and Hispanics.

Under the law, jurisdictions can break away from federal oversight if they show a clean record on voting rights for 10 years. Towns in New Hampshire were released in March.

___

WHAT'S NEXT

President Barack Obama said the Supreme Court decision was a disappointing setback. He called on Congress to act to rectify the situation.

The Republican-led House and Democratic-led Senate find few points of agreement these days, however. And Congress did nothing in response to a 2009 Supreme Court ruling that warned lawmakers that the Voting Rights Act's enforcement formula needed to be updated.

Unless Congress acts, there will be no deterrent to changes that would undermine voting rights, such as redrawing districts to dilute the power of minority voters. Voters can still use lawsuits to challenge such changes.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing in dissent, said throwing out effective enforcement was akin to "throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet."

___

Associated Press writer Mark Sherman contributed to this report.

___

Follow Connie Cass on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ConnieCass

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/look-48-years-voting-rights-act-204806941.html

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SK Telecom launches the world's first LTE-Advanced network, and the Galaxy S4 LTE-A

Just days after an LTE-Advanced variant of Samsung's Galaxy S 4 leaked, Korean carrier SK Telecom has officially announced it's launching the world's first publicly available LTE-Advanced wireless network. The Galaxy S4 LTE-A is also official (in red or blue) as the first device able to take advantage of the new technology for even faster data transmission speeds. According to the press release, SK Telecom plans to have as many as seven LTE-A devices available by the end of the year, all capable of up to 150Mbps. While SK Telecom is using Carrier Aggregation and Coordinated Multi Point technology to improve speeds right now, it will add Enhanced Inter-Cell Interference Coordination in 2014 to go even faster. After that, it suggest carrier aggregation will improve to support higher speeds and faster uploads in subsequent years.

To take advantage of the higher speeds, SK Telecom's Btv IPTV service will begin offering 1080p video streaming in early July. That will be accompanied by enhanced multiview baseball broadcasts, more free videos, an HD video shopping service with six channels on one screen in August and the addition of FLAC audio files via its music package. Right now, the company has Seoul covered in LTE-A, and plans to eventually offer it in 84 cities, all at the same price as existing LTE service. Check after the break for the press release with all the details, plus video of a speed test.

Update: We've just come across another juicy tidbit that makes the Galaxy S4 LTE-A all the more worthwhile -- it'll ship with a Snapdragon 800 SoC that contains a 2.3GHz quad-core CPU, plus 32GB of built-in storage and a 2,600mAh battery. It goes without saying that this phone will be speedy on all angles. As spotted by SlashGear, the new GS4 variant will also see the debut of a new Samsung software feature: ImageON. Explained as a Google Googles-esque app, it'll automatically analyse photos and offer up related videos and "extend access to relevant content on the internet."

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/25/sk-telecom-lte-advanced-galaxy-s-4/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Emmys: Alex Karpovsky on 'Girls' - 'Every character has shown unsavory, forbidden aspects'

By Lucas Shaw

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - Alex Karpovsky had written, directed and edited three movies and starred in several more before he met Lena Dunham at the South by Southwest Film Festival in 2009. Dunham was there with her first movie, "Creative Nonfiction," and she recruited Karpovsky to star in her next, "Tiny Furniture."

Dunham soon scored a deal with HBO and brought Karpovsky into the fold for one of the most divisive shows on television, "Girls." Karpovksy plays Ray, the manager of a coffee shop who dated Shoshana (Zosia Mamet) until the last episode of Season 2.

Had you ever done TV before "Girls"?

I hadn't, but I needed very little persuasion. I loved the way "Tiny Furniture" came out and was so proud of the movie. I have total faith in Lena. Wherever she wanted to take us, I was willing to go without any hesitation.

How would you say the show has evolved over its first two seasons?

In Season 1 we established a lot of characters, but in Season 2 and now midway through Season 3 we're trying to explore the underpinnings and backstories. That's a lot of fun to do, going to zany and weird places without disorienting the audience - whether that's a coke bender or a really dark episode on Staten Island.

Has the progression of any character particularly surprised you?

All of them have. I don't mean that as a copout, but whether it's Hannah's OCD or Adam's Alcoholics Anonymous past, every character has surprises. There's Ray's dark energy and unresolved interpersonal issues. Every character has shown unsavory, forbidden aspects.

You once said in an interview that you tend to play characters who are "neurotic, guilt-ridden and full of anxiety." Does that apply to Ray?

He's definitely anxiety-ridden, because he's in his 30s and working at a coffee shop, and that's not what he wants to do with his life. Neurotic would seem to apply more to other characters like Hannah and Shoshana. Guilt-ridden certainly, not for taking Shoshana's virginity but for being his own worst enemy.

Why do you play those types of characters?

I have a lot of those properties myself and play those characters in my own films. It's pretty clear I play largely autobiographical versions or caricatures of myself. When you do something some people feel works, you just keep doing it for a long time.

How similar are other people on "Girls" to the people who play them?

I don't know, just because I don't know these people very well. I never knew anyone on the show except Lena before we started working on it. Lena is very different from Hannah. Hannah is still trying to figure things out, struggling and unsure of herself. Lena is almost the polar opposite.

Would you say that people who struggle to get out of their own way is one of the primary themes of the show?

One of the primary themes is the obstacles people in their early 20s are negotiating with, fumbling around in modern-day New York City. It centers on four girls, and the boys are satellites hovering around the four central planets that are at the front door of womanhood.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/emmys-alex-karpovsky-girls-every-character-shown-unsavory-180455737.html

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Good Reads: From a bold vision for China to cyberwarfare to Norwegian fishing

CHINA'S WORLDVIEW

China?s new president, Xi Jinping, has a bold vision for his country, inspired by its ancient prestige. In Time magazine, Hannah Beech describes how Mr. Xi intends for China to match US military capabilities, becoming the strongest country economically, politically, and culturally.

This ?China Dream,? depending on how Xi shapes his tenure as president, could lead to shifts in international dynamics. ?How China sees the world matters because Chinese aspirations, tastes and fears will shape the lives of billions of people across the globe. Indeed ... China ? and its worldview ? may once again dictate the narrative of our age,? Ms. Beech writes.

But despite its desire to become the world?s main superpower, China must deal with internal issues first, Beech writes. Chief among these is stanching the exodus of the country?s elite ? 150,000 Chinese received permanent residency abroad in 2011. ?When a nation?s elite is ready to bolt at a moment?s notice, it says much about the regime?s lack of legitimacy and its staying power,? David Shambaugh, a China scholar, told Beech.

RECOMMENDED: Six countries where Edward Snowden could get asylum

HERO OR TRAITOR?

In a carefully executed leak, former National Security Administration contractor Edward Snowden unveiled documents showing how US government programs mine communication data including people?s e-mails, Facebook posts, and even Skype chats. Digital surveillance is not new, especially during this era of heightened national security awareness. Gathering electronic information is legal under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, but Mr. Snowden said the government is redefining what is constitutional, creating ?architecture of oppression.?

In an identity-revealing video interview with Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian, Mr. Snowden explained why people should be worried about the government?s actions.

?Even if you are not doing anything wrong, you are being watched and recorded. And the storage capabilities of these systems increases every year, consistently by orders of magnitude,? Snowden said, adding that just a wrong call could raise suspicion. ?Then they can use the system to go back in time and scrutinize every decision you?ve ever made, every friend you?ve ever discussed something with, and attack you on that basis to sort of derive suspicion from an innocent life and paint anyone in the context of a wrongdoer.?

The fallout of his actions is not yet known as the United States arranges to press charges against the whistle-blower. Whether he is a hero or a traitor depends on how one weighs the balance between civil liberties and national security.

CYBERWAR PROLIFERATION

The US government, reportedly using cyberattacks to deter Iran?s nuclear program, has opened itself up to similar cyberattacks ? igniting a tit-for-tat struggle that is ushering in a new wave of proliferation, which Michael Joseph Gross describes in Vanity Fair.

?The paradox is that the nuclear weapons whose development the U.S. has sought to control are very difficult to make, and their use has been limited ? for nearly seven decades ? by obvious deterrents,? Mr. Gross said. ?Cyber-weapons, by contrast, are easy to make, and their potential use is limited by no obvious deterrents. In seeking to escape a known danger, the U.S. may have hastened the development of a greater one.?

Both Washington and Tehran are boosting their arsenal of cyberweapons in a war that is increasingly aggressive and cryptic. Not to mention that cyberwarfare is not limited to traditional rules of engagement. ?You don?t have to be a nation-state to do this,? one hacker told Gross. ?You just have to be really smart.?

ERADICATING EXTREME POVERTY BY 2030

Can the world powers eradicate extreme poverty for 1 billion people by 2030? If gross domestic product growth during the past decade is any indicator, the answer is a resounding yes, according to The Economist.

Whereas poverty used to be an unchangeable fact of life, unprecedented growth in developing countries has shifted the outlook for eliminating poverty in places where people live on less than $1.25 a day. The primary condition for continued progress is for developing countries to maintain the steady growth of their GDP.

?Poverty used to be a reflection of scarcity. Now it is a problem of identification, targeting and distribution. And that is a problem that can be solved,? says the report.

RECOMMENDED: Six countries where Edward Snowden could get asylum

FISHERMEN NO MORE

In the small coastal communities in northern Norway, traditional occupations of whaling and cod fishing are losing luster for young people bent on landing salaried positions on the mainland, far from their roots. In National Geographic, Roff Smith explains that this change is a drastic turnaround for the region, where previous generations flocked in order to cash in on a booming industry.

?It isn?t a scarcity of whales that is bringing down the curtain, or even the complicated politics of whaling,? writes Mr. Smith. ?It?s something far more prosaic and inexorable: Norwegian kids, even those who grow up in the seafaring stronghold of Lofoten, simply don?t want to become whalers anymore. Nor do they want to brave storm-tossed winter seas to net fortunes in cod, as their forebears have done for centuries.?

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/good-reads-bold-vision-china-cyberwarfare-norwegian-fishing-143823672.html

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US tones down demands that Russia expel NSA leaker

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Rebuffed by Russia's president, the Obama administration toned down demands Tuesday that fugitive National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden be expelled from a Moscow airport in a sign that the U.S. believes he is not worth scuttling diplomatic relations between the former Cold War enemies.

The White House issued a measured, if pointed, statement asking again that Russia help U.S. authorities capture Snowden ? but stopped far short of threatening a cooling detente if he escapes.

It was a turnabout from tough talk against China a day earlier for letting Snowden flee Hong Kong instead of sending him back to the U.S. to face espionage charges for revealing classified national security surveillance programs that critics worldwide say violate privacy rights.

The outright refusals by Russia and China to cooperate on Snowden served as a fresh wake-up call to the U.S. that it cannot expect burgeoning superpowers to comply with its requests despite recent attempts to overcome longtime suspicions, and improve global partnerships.

Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking to reporters in Saudi Arabia, called for "calm and reasonableness" as Moscow and Washington danced around Snowden's fate.

"We would hope that Russia would not side with someone who is a fugitive from justice," Kerry said. "We're not looking for a confrontation. We are not ordering anybody."

Russian President Vladimir Putin also said he wished to avoid a diplomatic showdown over Snowden. But he refused to back off his refusal to turn over Snowden to the U.S.

"Mr. Snowden is a free man, and the sooner he chooses his final destination the better it is for us and for him," Putin said. "I hope it will not affect the business-like character of our relations with the U.S. and I hope that our partners will understand that."

Snowden remained for a third day in the transit zone of Sheremetyevo Airport, and Putin said he was out of Moscow's reach since he had not passed through immigration and was, technically, not on Russian territory. Snowden was believed to be waiting to fly to an undisclosed location ? most likely in South America or Iceland ? that would give him political asylum despite frustrated U.S. demands that he be extradited.

Experts predicted that Putin, ultimately, will not stop Snowden from leaving or take any steps to help the U.S. catch him. But Washington may have to place Snowden's escape against the risk of damaging relations as the U.S. and Russia negotiate a number of high-priority issues, including nuclear arms reductions and a peace settlement in Syria.

Gary Hart, the former Democratic senator and presidential candidate, doubted that Washington would let Snowden make already poor U.S.-Russian relations any worse. Hart is an expert on Russia and board chairman of the American Security Project think-tank that was created by Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.

"An incident like this should not interfere with the ongoing relationship between both countries," Hart said in an interview Tuesday. "There is too much else at stake to seriously impair a bilateral relationship with both Russia and China. In the grand scheme of things I don't think it's going to make much difference."

But Russia hasn't made it easy for the U.S.

Earlier this month, Putin held off President Barack Obama's call for negotiations to reduce nuclear weapons by noting that any talks would have to involve other nations. And Putin has refused to back down from Russia's support for the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad and, in turn, has forced leaders of the Group of Eight industrial economies to call for a negotiated Syrian peace settlement instead of Assad's outright ouster.

"For quite some time now, the Russians have shown themselves when the opportunity presents itself to poke a finger in the U.S. eye," said Andrew Weiss, a Carnegie Endowment for International Peace expert who oversaw Russian issues on the White House National Security Council in the late 1980s and 1990s.

"At this point, both sides see an interest in not having a huge rupture over Snowden, mostly, I think, over the expectation that Snowden doesn't want to stay in Russia," Weiss said. "I think on the U.S. side there's a desire, with President Obama scheduled to be in Moscow in early September, not to blow up the relationship over this issue."

Kerry also was expected to meet next week with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Brunei.

On Tuesday, State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell would not discuss how the Obama administration might respond if Snowden was allowed to leave the Moscow airport unscathed. "We're not there yet," Ventrell said.

Obama administration lawyers believe Russia has legal authority to deport Snowden, even though Moscow says it does not. Ventrell also noted that the U.S. has returned "many hundreds of criminals over the recent years" to Russia as Moscow has requested, and cited stepped-up law enforcement cooperation between the two countries since the April 15 twin bombings at the Boston Marathon that killed three people. The attack allegedly was carried out by two brothers who are ethnic Chechens originally from the Russian province of Dagestan.

Several Republican lawmakers urged Obama to step up pressure on Putin.

Sen. John McCain of Arizona, speaking on CNN, called Putin "an old KGB colonel apparatchik." And Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., a former ambassador, said the Russian leader's refusal to expel Snowden "reinforces a concern all of us have that these relations are deteriorating."

"There is essentially no respect between these two presidents of these two very important countries," Coats said.

___

Associated Press writers Sagar Meghani, Pete Yost, Nedra Pickler, Alicia A. Caldwell and Donna Cassata in Washington, Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and Matti Huuhtanen in Naantali, Finland, contributed to this report.

___

Follow Lara Jakes on Twitter at https://twitter.com/larajakesAP

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-tones-down-demands-russia-expel-nsa-leaker-222456623.html

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Jon Gosselin: I live in the woods now

Celebs

Gael Fashingbauer Cooper TODAY

4 hours ago

Michael Buckner / Getty Images file

Jon Gosselin in 2012.

Once Jon Gosselin lived in a large house in Pennsylvania and his life unrolled on television in front of millions. Now, the dad of eight lives "in the woods," and says he doesn't even have an address.

Gosselin didn't clarify exactly where or how he lives, but he confirmed to VH1's "The Gossip Table" that he's taken to a more private life after living in an apartment where paparazzi and others "figured out where I was."

Gosselin, then-wife Kate, and their twins and sextuplets starred on "Jon and Kate Plus 8" for five seasons before divorcing. The show continued as "Kate Plus 8" despite Jon Gosselin suing to prevent filming of his children.

Gosselin was asked if Kim Kardashian and Kanye West should allow their newborn daughter, North, to appear on the reality show "Keeping Up With the Kardashians," and unsurprisingly, he didn't think so.

"I wanted to raise my kids off television, so I changed my mind," he said. "So I would definitely not film with my newborn child."

Gosselin was also asked if he still wore Ed Hardy clothing, the brand he favored at the height of his tabloid fame in 2009. He said no, adding "I gave all my (Hardy clothing) to my mother." Tattoo artist Hardy recently told the New York Post that an association with Gosselin "tanked" his clothing brand.

He also said he'd be interested in appearing on "Dancing With the Stars," as his ex-wife Kate Gosselin famously did in 2010. She was the fourth celebrity eliminated on the show's tenth season, and partner Tony Dovolani later joked he needed "a lot of therapy" after partnering with her.

"I feel like I could probably get further than her," Jon Gosselin said.

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/jon-gosselin-i-live-woods-now-6C10433570

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The CW Sets Fall Premieres: 'Tomorrow People,' 'The Originals'

By Tim Kenneally

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - The CW's new sci-fi drama "The Tomorrow People" will premiere October 9 at 9 p.m., following the the Season 2 premiere of the network's superhero hit "Arrow."

Meanwhile, the historical drama "Reign" will make its debut on October 10, after the season premiere of "The Vampire Diaries," and the "Vampire Diaries" spinoff "The Originals" will sink its teeth into the CW schedule on October 15, prior to the season premiere of "Supernatural."

The CW released its Fall 2013 premiere dates on Monday, including new series such as "The Originals" and returning shows such as "Hart of Dixie" and "The Carrie Diaries."

Read the full schedule of premiere dates below.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 7

8:00-9:00 PM HART OF DIXIE (Season Premiere)

9:00-10:00 PM BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (Season Premiere)

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9

8:00-9:00 PM ARROW (Season Premiere)

9:00-10:00 PM THE TOMORROW PEOPLE (Series Premiere)

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10

8:00-9:00 PM THE VAMPIRE DIARIES (Season Premiere)

9:00-10:00 PM REIGN (Series Premiere)

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15

8:00-9:00 PM THE ORIGINALS (Series Premiere)

9:00-10:00 PM SUPERNATURAL (Season Premiere)

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25

8:00-9:00 PM THE CARRIE DIARIES (Season Premiere)

9:00-10:00 PM AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL: GUYS AND GIRLS

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cw-sets-fall-premieres-tomorrow-people-originals-211406172.html

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Flooding forces 75,000 from western Canadian homes

A police car sits stuck in a parking lot of an apartment building after heavy rains have caused flooding, closed roads, and forced evacuation in Calgary, Alberta, Canada Friday, June 21, 2013. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jeff McIntosh)

A police car sits stuck in a parking lot of an apartment building after heavy rains have caused flooding, closed roads, and forced evacuation in Calgary, Alberta, Canada Friday, June 21, 2013. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jeff McIntosh)

The Bow River overflows in Calgary, Canada on Friday, June 21, 2013. Heavy rains have caused flooding, closed roads, and forced evacuations in Calgary. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jeff McIntosh)

A search and rescue boat carries rescued passengers from a flooded industrial site near highway 543 north of High River, Alberta, Canada on Friday, June 21, 2013. The rescued passengers spent the night moored on a structure they built in the water. Calgary's mayor said Friday the flooding situation in his city is as under control as it can be, for now. Officials estimated 75,000 people have been displaced in the western Canadian city. Mayor Naheed Nenshi said the Elbow River, one of two rivers that flow through the southern Alberta city, has peaked. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jordan Verlage)

Firefighters monitor flood waters that spilled over a highway 543 north of High River, Alberta, Canada on Friday, June 21, 2013. The rescued passengers spent the night moored on a structure they built in the water. Calgary's mayor said Friday the flooding situation in his city is as under control as it can be, for now. Officials estimated 75,000 people have been displaced in the western Canadian city. Mayor Naheed Nenshi said the Elbow River, one of two rivers that flow through the southern Alberta city, has peaked. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jordan Verlage)

A search and rescue boat carries rescued passengers from a flooded industrial site near highway 543 north of High River, Alberta, Canada on Friday, June 21, 2013. The rescued passengers spent the night moored on a structure they built in the water. Calgary's mayor said Friday the flooding situation in his city is as under control as it can be, for now. Officials estimated 75,000 people have been displaced in the western Canadian city. Mayor Naheed Nenshi said the Elbow River, one of two rivers that flow through the southern Alberta city, has peaked. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jordan Verlage)

CALGARY, Alberta (AP) ? Flooding forced the western Canadian city of Calgary to order the evacuation of its entire downtown Friday, as the waters reached the 10th row of the city's hockey arena.

Communities throughout southern Alberta were inundated by overflowing rivers that washed out roads and bridges, soaked homes and turned streets into dirt-brown waterways. Police say as many as four people might have died.

About 350,000 people work in downtown Calgary on a typical day. However, officials said very few people need to be moved out, since many heeded warnings and did not go to work Friday.

Twenty-five neighborhoods in the city, with an estimated population of 75,000, have already been evacuated due to floodwaters in Calgary, a city of more than a million people that hosted the 1988 Winter Olympics and serves as the center of Canada's oil industry.

Outside the city, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said two men were seen floating lifeless in the Highwood River near the hard-hit community of High River on Thursday, but no bodies have been found. They also say a woman who was swept away with her camper has not been located. And it wasn't clear whether a man who was seen falling out of a canoe in the High River area was able to climb back in.

In the downtown Calgary, water was inundating homes and businesses in the shadow of skyscrapers. Water has swamped cars and train tracks.

The city said the home rink of the National Hockey League's Calgary Flames flooded and the water inside was 10 rows deep.

At the grounds for the world-famous Calgary Stampede fair, water reached up to the roofs of the chuck wagon barns. The popular rodeo and festival is the city's signature event. Mayor Naheed Nenshi said it will occur no matter what.

About 1,500 have gone to emergency shelters while the rest have found shelter with family or friends, Nenshi said.

Nenshi said he's never seen the rivers reach so high or flow so fast, but said the flooding situation was as under control as it could be. Nenshi said the Elbow River, one of two rivers that flow through the southern Alberta city, has peaked.

The mayor suggested that levels on the Bow River ? which, in Nenshi's words, looked like an ocean ? would remain steady for the rest of the day as long as conditions didn't change.

Police urged people to stay away from downtown and not go to work.

The flood was forcing emergency plans at the Calgary Zoo, which is situated on an island near where the Elbow and Bow rivers meet. Lions and tigers were being prepared for transfer, if necessary, to prisoner holding cells at the courthouse.

Schools and court trials were cancelled Friday and residents urged to avoid downtown. Transit service in the core was shut down.

Residents were left to wander and wade through streets waist-deep in water.

"In all the years I've been down here, I've never seen the water this high," resident John Doherty said.

"I've got two antique pianos in the garage that I was going to rebuild and they're probably under water," he said. "We're shell-shocked."

Alberta Premier Alison Redford promised the province would help flood victims put their lives back together and provide financial aid to communities that need to rebuild. The premier said at a briefing that she had spoken to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who was heading to Calgary and promised disaster relief.

Redford urged people to heed evacuation orders, so authorities could do their jobs. She called the flooding that has hit most of southern Alberta an "absolutely tragic situation."

The premier warned that communities downstream of Calgary had not yet felt the full force of the floodwaters.

It had been a rainy week throughout much of Alberta, but on Thursday the Bow River Basin was battered with up to 100 millimeters (four inches) of rain. Environment Canada's forecast called for more rain in the area, but in much smaller amounts.

Calgary was not alone in its weather-related woes. Flashpoints of chaos spread from towns in the Rockies south to Lethbridge.

More than a dozen towns declared states of emergency. Entire communities, including High River and Bragg Creek, near Calgary, were under mandatory evacuation orders.

Some of the worst flooding hit High River, where an estimated half of the town's residents experienced flooding in their homes.

Military helicopters plucked about 30 people off rooftops in the area. Others were rescued by boat or in buckets of heavy machinery. Some even swam for their lives from stranded cars.

A spokesman for Defense Minister Peter MacKay said 354 soldiers are being deployed to the entire flood zone.

Further west, in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains, photos from the mountain town of Canmore depicted a raging river ripping at house foundations.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-06-21-Canada-Alberta%20Flooding/id-d8af4cbfa9894eb99a6c36614c47d423

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China Has the World's Fastest Supercomputer (And It's 2x Fast as Ours)

Watson may have been able to trounce a pair of Jeopardy champs, but it can't hold a candle to the new king of number crunching, the 3.12 million-core Tianhe-2.

Built by China's National University of Defense Technology at the National Supercomputer Center in Guangzho, the Tianhe-2 supercomputer runs on a proprietary Linux build. The system is powered by 32,000 Xeon processors, themselves augmented by 48,000 Xeon Phi accelerators and a petabyte of memory to sustain its 33.86 petaflop (quadrillion mathematical calculations per second) performance.

That's double, double, what the last year's top-ranked (by the semi-annual Top 500) supercomputer, the 17.59 petaflop Titan at Oak Ridge National Labs can do. But the race to hit a Quintrillion calculations a second, an exoflop, is just heating up. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's deputy director, Horst Simon, believes that the exaflop barrier could be broken by the end of the decade, assuming researchers can figure out how to power the process. The Tianhe-2 consumes 17.8 megawatts currently and as Horst explains:

The increasing trend in power efficiency, though it might look like a gradual slope over time, is really a one-time gain that came from switching to accelerator/manycore [architectures] in 2010. This is not a sustainable trend in the absence of other new technology. There is no more magic ? we're maxed out. Right now, the most efficient system needs 1 to 2 megawatts per petaflops. Multiply that by 1,000 to get to exascale and the power is simply unaffordable.

Perhaps most impressive is the amount of indigenous hardware employed in the machine. Outside of the Intel processors, "The interconnect, operating system, front-end processors, and software are mainly Chinese," said Top500 editor Jack Dongarra. We'll have to wait until December, however, to see if the Tianhe-2 can hold onto its crown in an increasingly crowded field. [Top 500 - CNet - Image: Top 500]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/china-has-the-worlds-fastest-supercomputer-and-its-2-513791711

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McCain presses Obama on secret emails (The Arizona Republic)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

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We're live from the 2013 Paris Air Show!

While you were sleeping earlier today, we were getting trampled by crazed commuters at a train station, overheated in a steamy bus that inched through traffic at one mile per hour, and soaked by heavy rains and an overflowing airport sewage system. But all in all, it was a pretty fantastic day. That's due in no small part to the dozens of incredible aircraft we had a chance to get up close and personal with, the fighter jets demonstrating slow flight and vertical climbs a few hundred feet above the ground, and the A350 cockpit we stumbled upon in the Airbus booth.

Yes, we're here at the 2013 Paris Air Show -- France's gigantic biennial aviation fest. It's more or less like any other trade show we've visited in the past few weeks, just instead of tablet accessories, we're digging through aircraft components, and the Airbus A350 is this expo's Zenbook Infinity. There's been no shortage of press on TV and all over the web today, so you're probably familiar with the show's theme: Airbus versus Boeing. Sure, that's more or less been the case every time Le Bourget Airport has opened its doors to the aviation community, but with the Dreamliner's recent dilemma and the A350's budding ascendance, the competition this year is furious. But we'll leave the industry analysis to aviation publications -- we're here for the gear. And some pretty ambitious flight demos. You can catch more of today's action in our video after the break.

Gallery: 2013 Paris Air Show

Filed under: Transportation

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/17/2013-paris-air-show/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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ShopAndroid Father's Day Weekend Sale: Save 15% on ALL Android Accessories!

In honor of Father's Day this Sunday, all weekend long we're celebrating dads everywhere with a sale in our Shop Android store. That's right... until midnight PT on Monday, you can save 15% on ALL Android cases and accessories. To take advantage of the savings, all you need to do is use coupon code DAD13 at checkout. It's as simple as that. Enjoy the savings, and happy father's day!!

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/xUH0N0cT6TE/story01.htm

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