Sunday, June 30, 2013

Glenn Greenwald: NSA Can Store A Billion Cell Phone Calls Every ...

Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald says he has another big scoop about the National Security Agency's surveillance practices up his sleeve.

Speaking over Skype to the Socialism Conference in Chicago, Greenwald claimed that the NSA has the ability to store one billion phone calls each day.

Greenwald's reporting earlier this month sparked the scandal over NSA surveillance practices that is currently plaguing the Obama administration. The stories were based on classified documents leaked to him by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, and Greenwald indicated Friday night that he's sitting on several more -- one of which he decided to talk about even though his story on it hasn't been published yet.

"It talks about a brand new technology that enables the national security agency to redirect into its own repositories one billion cell phone calls every single day. One billion cell phone calls every single day," he said.

"But what we're really talking about here is a localized system that prevents any form of electronic communication from taking place without its being stored and monitored by the National Security Agency," Greenwald continued. "It doesn't mean that they're listening to every call, it means they're storing every call and have the capability to listen to them at any time, and it does mean that they're collecting millions upon millions upon millions of our phone and email records."

Watch Greenwald's talk in full above.

Also on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/29/glenn-greenwald-nsa-cell-phone-calls_n_3520424.html

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Saturday, June 29, 2013

Former Tesco chairman says turnaround could take three years

LONDON (Reuters) - A former chairman of Tesco , the world's No.3 retailer, said that restoring the store group's fortunes could take up to three years and appealed to investors to give Chief Executive Phil Clarke sufficient time.

Once one of the most consistent British companies in terms of earnings growth, Tesco, which trails France's Carrefour and U.S. group Wal-Mart by annual sales, has had a particularly testing year.

In April the firm posted its first profit fall in two decades, wrote down the value of its global operations by $3.5 billion and confirmed plans to exit its loss-making U.S. business Fresh & Easy.

"We're all very sad in this room to see the legacy that Terry Leahy (CEO from 1997 to 2011) left," Ian MacLaurin told shareholders on Friday at the firm's annual meeting.

"It is a very sad situation - your enormous writedowns, (and) the situation in America," said MacLaurin, who chaired Tesco from 1985 to 1997.

MacLaurin said Tesco's board and shareholders had to counter "an age of short-termism" by taking a long-term view and giving Clarke - who took over from Leahy in March 2011 - and his team time to fix things.

"This job is going to be probably two or three years," he said.

Tesco avoided a rebellion from investors over executive pay at the AGM.

Some 95.2 percent of shareholders who voted at the meeting backed the firm's executive pay report, even though advisory group Pensions Investment Research Consultants (Pirc) had called on investors to vote against it in protest at what it regarded as excessive payoffs to two departed executives.

Tesco paid Tim Mason, the former boss of Fresh & Easy, and Richard Brasher, ousted as the head of the UK business in March 2012, "liquidated damages" of 1.68 million pounds ($2.6 million) and 1.3 million pounds respectively in the 2012-13 year. ($1 = 0.6577 British pounds)

(Reporting by James Davey, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/former-tesco-chairman-says-turnaround-could-3-years-140716181.html

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UK asks banks to tender for Lloyds, RBS advisory roles

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain has kicked off the process of appointing advisors for the sale of its shares in Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland , asking investment banks to submit proposals by July 8.

UK Financial Investments (UKFI), which manages the government's stakes in the banks, is looking to appoint a bookrunner, co-lead managers, capital markets advisers and strategic advisors for the sales.

Finance minister George Osborne said in his annual speech to financiers in the City of London last week that the government was ready to start selling its shares in Lloyds.

(Reporting by Matt Scuffham, Editing by Kylie MacLellan)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/uk-asks-banks-tender-lloyds-rbs-advisory-roles-114148384.html

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Thursday, June 27, 2013

Calcium and vitamin D help hormones help bones

June 26, 2013 ? Should women take calcium and vitamin D supplements after menopause for bone health? Recommendations conflict, and opinions are strong. But now, an analysis from the major Women's Health Initiative (WHI) trial throws weight on the supplement side -- at least for women taking hormones after menopause. The analysis was published online today in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society.

Among the nearly 30,000 postmenopausal women in the hormone trial, some 8,000 took supplemental calcium (1,000 mg/day) and vitamin D (400 mg/day), and some 8,000 took look-alike placebos. These women came from all the hormone groups in the study -- those who took estrogen plus a progestogen (required for women with a uterus), those who took estrogen alone, and those who took the hormone look-alike placebos. The researchers looked at how the rates of hip fracture differed among women who took hormones and supplements, those who took hormones alone, and those who took neither.

The supplements and hormones had a synergistic effect. Women using both therapies had much greater protection against hip fractures than with either therapy alone. Taking supplements alone wasn't significantly better than taking no supplements and no hormones. The benefit of hormone therapy was strong in women who had a total calcium intake (supplements plus diet) greater than 1,200 mg/day. Similarly, the benefit was strong in women who had higher intakes of vitamin D, but the individual effect of each one could not be determined because the two supplements were given together.

The effects translated into 11 hip fractures per 10,000 women per year among the women who took both hormones and supplements compared with 18 per 10,000 women per year among those who took hormones only, 25 per 10,000 women per year among those who took supplements alone, and 22 among those who got neither therapy.

These results suggest, said the authors, that women taking postmenopausal hormone therapy should also take supplemental calcium and vitamin D. Although they couldn't specify how much, they noted that the benefits seem to increase with increasing total intake of calcium and vitamin D. The dose will depend on keeping side effects, such as constipation from too much calcium, to a minimum, they said.

That differs from the recommendation of the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), made earlier this year. USPSTF stated there was no basis for recommending calcium and vitamin D supplements to prevent fractures. But now, with a study this large, there may well be.

The study will be published in the February 2014 print edition of Menopause.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/health_medicine/nutrition/~3/wr6GzUBIb4U/130626113516.htm

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Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Congress not 'mature enough' to deal with Voting Rights Act decision

Following the Supreme Court's ruling on the Voting Rights Act, NBC's Chuck Todd says he's a pessimist on Congress' ability to update the map that determines which states must get federal permission before they change their voting laws.

By Matthew DeLuca, Staff Writer, NBC News

Activists and organizers said that they would urge Congress and the president to act quickly after the Supreme Court struck down the formula in the Voting Rights Act that determined which jurisdictions were covered, presenting lawmakers with a challenge some watchers said they may not be ready for.

The 5 to 4 vote struck down a section of the?historic civil rights legislation?that determined which states, many of them with histories of racial discrimination, needed approval from the Department of Justice before changing voting laws.

President Obama said he was ?deeply disappointed? by the court?s decision in a statement released on Tuesday.

?I am calling on Congress to pass legislation to ensure every American has equal access to the polls,? Obama said. ?My administration will continue to do everything in its power to ensure a fair and equal voting process.?

NBC News Chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd said on MSNBC that Congress is not ?mature enough? to reach a speedy political solution.

Civil rights supporters react to the Supreme Court's decision to strike down a key portion of the 1965 Voting Rights Act on Tuesday.

?This is not a welcome decision, by any means,? a senior White House official said in reaction to the decision. ?But there is a theoretical path for Congress to update the statute in ways that would make it constitutional.?

?As a practical matter, that may be difficult to do given political dynamics,? the official told NBC News.

Removing the map determining which jurisdictions need pre-clearance of new voting laws rendered the Voting Rights Act effectively toothless, law professor Kenji Yoshino said on MSNBC. While lawmakers could draw up a new map, ?it?s not clear that this Congress is going to have the will to do that,? he said.

?I think what the court did today is stab the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in its very heart,? Representative John Lewis said. ?It took us almost 100 years to get us where we are today, so will it take us another 100 years to fix it? I call upon my colleagues in the Congress to get it right, to fix it.?

Judiciary Committee Chairman Senator Patrick Leahy, a Democrat, said that he looked forward to working with members of Congress after the court?s ruling.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand called the Supreme Court?s ruling a ?significant setback that will put Congress to the test of whether we can move quickly and without partisanship.?

Republican Senator Jeff Duncan called the court?s ruling a ?win for fairness,? saying that he hoped it would ?end the practice of treating states differently and recognizes that we live in 2013, not the 1960s.?

?This is not an issue just for civil rights advocates, this is not an issue just for African Americans or Latinos, this is not just an issue for those in the South,? said Sherrilyn Ifill, director-counsel of the NAACP?s legal defense and educational fund. ?This is the American we have all come to expect and that we have all come to enjoy and be proud of, and the question for us is are we willing to fight for it.?

?We will not sit down, we will not be silent, we will not accept the evisceration of our rights, we will fight every step of the way to make sure that voting rights are available to every single American,? said Barbara Arnwine, president of the Lawyers? Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

?This is devastating,? civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton said on MSNBC. ?I think what we must do is really put pressure on Congress now to deal with this.?

?This is a devastating blow to those of us that need that protection, especially given the voter suppression schemes that we saw in 2012,? Sharpton said.

Politico Playbook: "Not yet six months into his second term, Barack Obama's presidency is in a dead zone," Politico's John Harris, Jake Sherman and Elizabeth Titus write. Harris joins Morning Joe to explain exactly why Obama currently has "less influence over his circumstances."

Sharpton said that voting rights were among the most important issues when Dr. Martin Luther King pushed for civil rights for black Americans in the 1960s.

?They just canceled the dream,? Sharpton said, ?and the children of the dream are not going to sit by and allow that to happen.?

Civil rights litigator Judith Browne Dianis said that while the face of racial discrimination in voting has changed over the years, there are still many states that have ?tried to roll back voting rights by making it harder to vote for people of color.?

?We know that discrimination still exists in those states. We know that discrimination also exists in other states,? Dianis said. ?We?re going to have to set the record straight.?

?We witnessed in the last election cycle numerous states, an orchestrated effort, forty states in fact, where legislation was introduced to suppress the vote,? said Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League.

?I think this is another opportunity from both sides of the Congress to demonstrate that this is not going to get caught up in partisan wrangling, obfuscation, and obstruction,? Morial said.

Rick Pildes, a constitutional law professor at New York University, said that politicians concerned about voting rights might see leadership from the White House in the aftermath of the landmark ruling.

?I think there?s probably no body in political office today who understands these issues better than President Barack Obama,? Pildes said.

NBC News? Peter Alexander contributed to this report.

Related:

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2dc62254/l/0Lnbcpolitics0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A60C250C191337160Econgress0Enot0Emature0Eenough0Eto0Edeal0Ewith0Evoting0Erights0Eact0Edecision0Dlite/story01.htm

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Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Is your writing or creativity a victim of common sense? - Time to Write

Could common sense be hurting your writing or other creative project? Inc.com reported a speech by Luke Williams, author of Disrupt, at the World Innovation Forum. He was speaking about organizations, but I think what he says applies to most individuals as well:

?"The only time an organization does change is when they are forced to, when they are backed into a corner and there is no other choice.?

The rest of the time, it feels safer to stick with what we know and especially what has worked in the past. Williams pointed out, "Nothing kills a new idea faster than common sense."

HOW TO ABANDON COMMON SENSE

My favorite way to break out of this is to consider the opposite of what we assume to be true. A useful twist is to imagine that somebody else has proved the opposite to be true and then try to figure out how that could possibly be so.

That removes the immediate doubt that can can crop up that we could ever come up with something so radical.?

NONSENSE ABOUT WRITING--OR IS IT?

For instance, one common sense assumption about writing is that your fiction needs a beginning, middle, and end.

Let?s assume that in June of 2013, M. R. Bixby proved that you can have success with a work of fiction that doesn?t have a beginning, middle, and end. How could that be? What might he have written?

Hmm, maybe he wrote a book of stories that have only beginnings and middles. Your challenge as a reader is to make up or write a fitting ending. There could be a website at which you could post your ending and you could see what others have written. Maybe Bixby awards a prize every month for the new ending he likes best.?

Or, similarly, maybe he wrote a book of only endings, and invites you to work backward and write what might have happened to bring those characters to that point.

Or maybe he provides you with a series of scenes that could take place in any order and invites you to connect them in whatever way you want: A couple breaks up, they make passionate love, they each reveal a dark secret from their past. Which of these happened first, which second, which third? How does it change the story when you switch the order?

As I hope you can see, not only is challenging common sense a good way to come up with new ideas, it?s a lot of fun as well.

(Some of the greatest writers of the past and present refused to follow common sense. You can find their advice on writing, in my book Your Creative Writing Masterclass, published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or you other favorite bookseller.)

Source: http://timetowrite.blogs.com/weblog/2013/06/is-your-writing-or-creativity-a-victim-of-common-sense.html

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Monday, June 24, 2013

'Monsters University' Box Office: Pixar Film Beats Out 'World War Z'

LOS ANGELES ? Turns out zombies and Superman are no match for monsters.

Disney's "Monsters University" is the weekend box-office winner, according to studio estimates released Sunday. The animated family film, which reunites stars Billy Crystal and John Goodman and their characters from the 2001 hit "Monsters, Inc.," debuted in first place with $82 million, beating out swarming zombies in "World War Z" and Superman himself in "Man of Steel."

"The diversity of this weekend is part of what makes this business so great," said Dave Hollis, Disney's head of distribution. "It's a really extraordinary weekend for the industry."

Especially for "Monsters University," Pixar's 14th consecutive film to open in first place. Such expectations of excellence put a "healthy pressure" on filmmakers, Hollis said: "To deliver that kind of quality consistently is a differentiator in the marketplace."

Still, the film exceeded studio expectations with its domestic totals, he said.

Paramount's Brad Pitt zombie romp overcame critical advance publicity to open in second place with $66 million. Media reports months ahead of the film's opening chronicled its problems, including a revamped ending that delayed its release.

Rewrites and reshoots sent the film over budget. It ended up reportedly costing more than $200 million to make, but early reviews were positive.

"What `World War Z' proves is that all the negative backstory that can be thrown at a movie doesn't matter if the movie's good," said Paul Dergarabedian of box-office tracker Hollywood.com. "I don't think the audience cares one lick if they had to reshoot the ending if they like the ending and like the movie."

The success of the film means it could be a franchise in the making. Paramount's president of domestic distribution, Don Harris, called the opening "spectacular."

"It's the biggest live-action original opening since `Avatar,'" he said. "(It's) Brad Pitt's biggest opening ever, and in terms of Paramount's recent history, it ranks behind `Iron Man' and `Transformers' as the third largest potential franchise opening in the history of the company."

Warner Bros. "Man of Steel" was third at the box office, adding another $41.2 million to its coffers and bringing its domestic ticket sales over $210 million in just the second week of release.

The Sony comedy "This Is the End," which stars Seth Rogen, James Franco and Jonah Hill as versions of themselves trapped in a mansion during the apocalypse, finished in fourth place.

Summit Entertainment's magic-heist thriller "Now You See Me" held onto fifth place in its fourth week in theaters.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released on Monday.

1. "Monsters University," $82 million ($54.5 million international).

2. "World War Z," $66 million ($45.8 million international).

3. "Man of Steel," $41.2 million ($89 million international).

4. "This Is the End," $13 million.

5. "Now You See Me," $7.87 million ($6.6 million international).

6. "Fast & Furious 6," $4.7 million ($11.2 million international).

7. "The Internship," $3.43 million ($3.2 million international).

8. "The Purge," $3.41 million ($1.1 million international).

9. "Star Trek: Into Darkness," $3 million ($4.9 million international).

10. "Iron Man 3," $2.2 million ($400,000 international).

___

Estimated weekend ticket sales at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada) for films distributed overseas by Hollywood studios, according to Rentrak:

1. "Man of Steel," $89 million.

2. "Monsters University," $54.5 million.

3. "World War Z," $45.8 million.

4. "After Earth," $13.4 million.

5. "Fast & Furious 6," $11.2 million.

6. "The Hangover Part III," $8.6 million.

7. "Now You See Me," $6.6 million.

8. "Despicable Me 2," $6.4 million.

9. "The Great Gatsby," $5.5 million.

10. "Star Trek: Into Darkness," $4.9 million.

___

Follow AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen on Twitter: . www.twitter.com/APSandy

___

Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/23/monsters-university-box-office-pixar-world-war-z_n_3486945.html

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Sunday, June 23, 2013

AP PHOTOS: Supermoon looms bright in night sky

Look up in the sky for a super sight: the biggest and brightest full moon of the year.

The so-called supermoon will appear 14 percent larger than normal early Sunday as our celestial neighbor swings closer to Earth. Some may think the supermoon looks more dazzling, but it's actually an optical illusion. The moon looms larger on the horizon next to trees and buildings.

The moon will come within 222,000 miles of Earth and turn full around 7:30 a.m. EDT, making it the best time to view.

Here are AP photos of the supermoon:

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-photos-supermoon-looms-bright-night-sky-025350564.html

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Saturday, June 22, 2013

Wall Street ends slightly up but slumps for the week

By Ryan Vlastelica

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks ended mostly higher on Friday, with the Dow and S&P 500 ending two days of heavy losses, though traders continued to fret over planned changes to the Federal Reserve's easy money policy.

Major indexes posted their biggest weekly declines since April, while the Nasdaq fell for a third straight day on a steep decline in software company Oracle Corp . Markets were volatile, with the Nasdaq at one point dropping more than 1 percent.

Shares have slumped since Wednesday when Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke laid out the Fed's plans to scale back on its $85 billion in monthly asset purchases. The S&P broke under its 50-day moving average, contributing to 4.6 percent pullback from its all-time closing high reached on May 21. This retreat represents the largest since an 8.9 percent decline between September and November.

"A lot of investors thought the sell-off was overdone after we broke through those technical levels, but all the existential things that drove us down are still in place," said Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at the ConvergEx Group in New York. "People aren't sure what's going to happen with Fed policy or rates or anything else. It is too soon to say we hit a bottom."

Slightly more stocks rose than fell on the New York Stock Exchange while 57 percent of Nasdaq-listed shares rose. About 10.29 billion shares changed hands on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and NYSE MKT, above the daily average so far this year of about 6.36 billion shares.

When trading began on Friday, the S&P 500 had fallen nearly 5 percent from an all-time closing high of 1,669.16 on May 21. However, stocks rebounded after a Wall Street Journal analysis said the market may be misreading the Fed and that a reduction in bond buying may not come as soon as some expect.

While the S&P turned positive in afternoon trading, the 10-year Treasury yield rose to 2.531 percent as investors reset expectations after Bernanke gave a more explicit timeline for scaling back its bond-buying.

Volatility has spiked since May 22 when Bernanke first hinted that the Fed may begin to rein in its stimulus measures. Analysts cited the quarterly expiration and settlement of June equity options and futures contracts on Friday as another source of volatility and higher volume.

The CBOE Volatility Index, a gauge of anxiety on Wall Street, fell 8 percent to 18.86. On Thursday, it jumped 23 percent and closed above 20 for the first time this year.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 44.31 points, or 0.30 percent, at 14,802.63. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 4.45 points, or 0.28 percent, at 1,592.64. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 7.39 points, or 0.22 percent, at 3,357.25.

For the week, the Dow fell 1.8 percent, the S&P was down percent 2.1 percent, and the Nasdaq lost 1.9 percent. It was the biggest weekly decline for all three since April and also the fourth week of losses out of the past five.

Shares of major banks were hit hard as the Treasuries sell-off continued on fears of losses from their bond holdings. Citigroup dropped 2.2 percent to $46.87 and Morgan Stanley lost 1 percent to $24.91. Bank of America Corp fell 1.6 percent to $12.69.

"Investors are very nervous about financials, but I think they'll come back to the group when earnings are shown to be holding up," said John Carey, who helps oversee $200 billion as portfolio manager at Pioneer Investment Management in Boston.

At these levels, he added, "I would look for opportunities in the group."

Oracle dropped 9.3 percent to $30.14 a day after the tech giant missed expectations for software sales and subscriptions for a second straight quarter. Oracle was the biggest drag on both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.

S&P Dow Jones Indices said Thursday that News Corp's spinoff - also known as News Corp - will replace Apollo Group in the S&P 500. Apollo fell 2.5 percent to $19.24.

China's central bank faced down the country's cash-hungry banks on Friday, letting interest rates spike as it increased pressure on banks to curb rampant informal lending and speculative trading. Some worry that its approach could backfire, creating the potential for defaults and gridlock in the money markets of the world's second-largest economy.

(Editing by Kenneth Barry)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wall-st-extends-losses-nasdaq-down-1-pct-154315864.html

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Friday, June 21, 2013

Chasing After Allosaurus

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Chasing After Allosaurus
A little more than a year ago, in the corner of a Salt Lake City tattoo parlor spattered with sci-fi ephemera and fantasy art, I watched as artist Jon McAffee inked an Allosaurus onto my arm. The bloody art was a celebration of a dream realized and a promise to myself.

Source: National Geographic
Posted on: Thursday, Jun 20, 2013, 8:13am
Views: 8

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/128731/Chasing_After_Allosaurus

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Saturday, June 15, 2013

Superformula against cancer: Superhero chemotherapy for child ...