http://www.filmannex.com/search/most_recentAs an infant 20 years ago, Spencer Elden was thrown into a pool in Southern California to be photographed, naked, underwater, appearing to reach for a dollar bill. The photo would become one of the most iconic images of 1990s music: Nirvana's "Nevermind" album cover. Released on September 24, 1991, "Nevermind" catapulted the band and its music to the top of the charts, with songs including "Smells Like Teen Spirit" giving birth to the Seattle-based grunge musical style. On the 20th anniversary of the album's release, Elden, the now-20-year-old son of an artist, said in jest that now he suffers more tribulations than other famously photographed babies whose images are associated more with cuteness than grunge. "When I am introduced, they introduce me as the Nirvana baby," said Elden. And because he was sans diaper when the famous shot was taken, there are other questions. "They usually poke fun at me asking me, 'Is it the same size?'" "I always say, "It's changed, do you want to see it?'" Elden, also an artist, said he never met Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, whose looks and demeanor epitomized the '90s Generation-X subculture, a group and a mindset chronicled in films such as "Dazed and Confused" and "Slacker." "Definitely, I like Nirvana a lot and there are no songs that I don't like -- they all have a special place for people," Elden said. Elden said he is not swimming in cash as a result of his baby celebrity status. His father, artist Rick Elden, agreed in 1991 to work on the cover with fellow photographer Kirk Weddle. He received no royalties for the job. "My dad was an artist rigging special effects for Hollywood," said Elden. "They went to the local pool, threw me in the water and that was it. It was a friend-helping-a-friend kind of thing." On Saturday, Elden said he celebrated the historic release of "Nevermind" with friends. "We hung out ... and just listened to Nirvana music, drank beer and hung out. It was a good time," he said.http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/nevermind-nirvana-cover-baby-is-now-20-just-like-the-album/35393http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/nevermind-nirvana-cover-baby-is-now-20-just-like-the-album/3539326 09 2011 08:55:51 +0000First, some perspective: Even after yesterday's big Facebook f8 hullabaloo, people will still listen to and discover music without Facebook, as hard as that might be to believe right now, given all the attention paid to the social network's shift into media sharing, which suddenly made Twitter look like the stripped-down communications protocol it has always been. But it would be folly to ignore the effects of Facebook's shift into "verbs" in addition to "nouns," as Mark "Sugar Mountain" Zuckerberg cleverly put it yesterday -- by which he meant that Facebook can now track and share what you do, in addition to the things you like. Yes, Facebook will facilitate legal music sharing -- something the industry has been trying to do ever since Napster electrified (some would say "electrocuted") the music business over 10 years ago. But as important as it is, Facebook's music initiative is missing five key ingredients, all of which are within its grasp: 1. True music sharing We're not saying it would be easy, but if Facebook really wants to help people listen to each other's music, it should let them do so using whatever music service they want. This morning, listening to friends' music through my Facebook Ticker and sharing my music through it, I've already used Spotify, Rdio, Songza, and MOG -- and it's not even 10 a.m. yet. WIRED: Facebook vs. Google+ on privacy True, Facebook has started down the road of universally translating between music services, so that I can hear your songs even if you use Rhapsody and I use MOG -- but so far, it has done so by tilting the playing field favorably (some would say unfairly) towards Spotify. If Facebook really wants to offer "frictionless" music sharing, to borrow Zuck's oft-repeated phrase, it will let people listen to shared stuff using whatever they want, rather than the same service used by the sharer. 2. Real-time group listening A Facebook employee deleted a tweet about it, but Evolver.fm has confirmed that at least two streaming radio services plan to implement it. Slacker, specifically, says it has been working with Facebook to do so for months. So why didn't Facebook Music launch with the ability to join other listeners on a station in real-time, so that people can chat about what they're hearing a la Turntable.fm? This will probably be the neatest thing about Facebook Music, and even after yesterday's presentation, it's 100% vaporware. 3. Music tab in the ticker Facebook is now more cluttered than ever, which, according to hilarious Wired.com pundit Lore Sjöberg, is because Facebook finds it beneficial to keep its users dissatisfied while offering them a forum where they can express that dissatisfaction -- just like the Democratic Party. Zuckerberg kept using the word "lightweight" to describe the new Ticker on the right side of Facebook, but accusations of clutter are not without merit. So why not add a music filter? As a music fan, I'm mainly interested in what people are listening to, Ticker-wise. I don't care about who my friends have friended. The Facebook Ticker should offer a way to look only at music activity, and there's no good reason for it not to. 4. Apple As Matt Rosoff of Business Insider observed, the white elephant not in the room at f8 yesterday was Apple, iTunes, and iCloud. Apple would need to swallow some pride in order to join Facebook's music ecosystem, but maybe it should. Some argue that Apple only ever sold music in order to sell more iPods and iPhones anyway. Now that it can sell apps for other music services, and run those on its devices, perhaps Apple is no longer concerned about selling music. From a user perspective, it would be nice if iTunes activity were included in Facebook's music activities. Last.fm scrobbles from iTunes, so why can't Facebook? Maybe this one will happen when Apple takes the wraps off of iCloud later this year. 5. Independent developers For this one, Facebook's off the hook for the most part -- it just needs to stay out of the way. One of the neatest things about Rdio and now Spotify is that they let independent app developers build third-party players atop their catalogs. If I subscribe to either service, I can use any music app that taps into it, offering a potentially huge range of interfaces, platforms, designs, features, etc. to choose from -- more than Rdio or Spotify could ever develop on their own. WIRED: Facebook's gone rogue -- it's time for an open alternative If someone wants to build a music player that lets people choose what to play by rolling virtual dice, slaying a dragon, wandering through a 3-D library, or whatever, on any platform, I can use that interface to play Rdio's or Spotify's music. This is already starting to happen -- and unless Facebook somehow gets in the way, all of the music played in these third-party apps should appear on Facebook. In fact, Facebook could even encourage this sort of thing. So, Mark, once that hangover subsides.... What are you waiting for?http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/5-features-missing-from-facebook-music/35392http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/5-features-missing-from-facebook-music/3539226 09 2011 08:54:34 +0000Apple will unveil its next-generation iPhone at an event on Tuesday, October 4, according to a report on AllThingsD, a Wall Street Journal blog network. The phone will be available to consumers "within a few weeks" of that announcement, the publication says, citing unnamed sources. CNN has not confirmed this news and AllThingsD acknowledges the date could change. The smartphone likely will be called the iPhone 5 or the iPhone 4S, according to the common wisdom on tech blogs. A version of the phone was reportedly found in a San Francisco bar earlier this summer, according to the tech site CNET, but few details about the phone's hardware are certain. AllThingsD also expects Tim Cook, Apple's new CEO, to handle most of the announcement. Cook took over leadership of the much-scrutinized tech company after its iconic co-founder, Steve Jobs, stepped down from the post after going on medical leave. "The pressure will be on Cook to turn in a good performance at the event," writes John Paczkowski, "especially after what has so far been a very smooth leadership transition at Apple." The blog TechCrunch agrees: "Apple's future likely hinges more on his on-stage presence than just a piece of hardware."http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/next-iphone-to-be-unveiled-october-4/35319http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/next-iphone-to-be-unveiled-october-4/3531922 09 2011 05:19:05 +0000Facebook has made big changes to users' pages, and people are responding in droves with their metaphorical "dislike" buttons. News Feeds were popping with not-so-gentle complaints Wednesday as many of the social-networking behemoth's 750 million users began seeing the overhaul. "This is absolutely the worst of the many wrong-headed 'improvements' you have made, and that's quite a feat," a user named Franklin Habit wrote on the site's official Facebook page. "I think Facebook's usefulness to me has now been outstripped by its lack of ease in use." Others were more succinct. "This sucks," wrote user Brandon Howell. "That is all." To be fair, griping about Facebook changes is a time-honored hallmark of the site. Change is hard for some people, and users grumble every time Facebook revamps their pages. And it's perhaps a touch on the ironic side that many of the current complaints are coming from folks who, in turn, complained in December when the current format was rolled out. Or the time before. And the time before that. Which isn't to say that the changes aren't pretty dramatic. Instead of defaulting to your friends' most recent posts, the News Feed (which people hated when it was introduced) is now topped in many cases by what Facebook calls "Top Stories" for you. It uses an algorithm that combines such factors as which friends you interact with most and which friends' posts have the most comments and "likes" on them. That algorithm, of course, was in its infancy on Wednesday, leading many users to say the top stories that Facebook suggested were random, at best. "The 'top stories' needs to be gotten rid of," wrote user Kristy Montaney. "They're out of context and I want to check my News Feed from most recent to oldest, none of this 'top stories' stuff." In a post on The Facebook Blog, developer Mark Tonkelowitz said the idea is to help people who may not log in to the site all the time find the best content, not just the newest. "Now, News Feed will act more like your own personal newspaper," he wrote. "You won't have to worry about missing important stuff. All your news will be in a single stream with the most interesting stories featured at the top." If you check Facebook more frequently, he said, you'll see newer stories at the top of your feed. The other most glaring change Wednesday was a new, scrolling rail on the right side of the home page. Facebook calls it The Ticker. We're partial to "The ADD Bar," because the feature seems pitched to our attention-deficit lifestyles with its rapidly streaming nuggets of friends' activity. If a friend "likes" an update, comments on a post or subscribes to a page, it now pops up in the -- OK, we'll say it -- somewhat Twitter-like timeline. Haters were calling it distracting. But Tonkelowitz believes the Ticker plugs the gap in the time lag the News Feed sometimes experiences, letting users have more real-time interactions. One apparent quirk of the Ticker is that when a friend interacts with a nonfriend (say, likes the status update of someone you're not friends with), clicking on that activity will show the original post. Tonkelowitz's blog post said the Ticker "shows you the same stuff you were already seeing on Facebook." But, Wednesday morning, clicking on a few items there seemed to show updates and other posts by nonfriends, even when those users' privacy settings appeared to make their posts private. Facebook did not immediately respond Wednesday to a message seeking clarification on how that feature works. The company may explain the new changes further at f8, its annual conference, on Thursday. In the history of Facebook changes, the pattern has typically been that users complain loudly at first and threaten to leave the site but then eventually learn to live with, if not like, the new approach. This time may be somewhat more interesting in that it's the first major Facebook overhaul since Google rolled out its rival social networking site, Google+. Many of the anti-change posts Wednesday were coupled with threats to defect to Google+ if things aren't changed back. And interestingly -- and, we have to assume, coincidentally -- the Facebook overhaul was announced on the same day that Google+, previously an invite-only affair, was opened to the public.http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/users-not-happy-with-new-facebook-changes/35318http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/users-not-happy-with-new-facebook-changes/3531822 09 2011 05:17:40 +0000California schools are hurting. Budget cuts in the millions are causing school districts to find ways to save cash. Some schools have laid off staff. Others have increased class sizes. And some have spent millions on solar panels to trim their electricity bills. With the help of low-interest loans from the federal government, the San Ramon Valley Unified School District installed 10,000 photovoltaic panels at five schools. It was one of 90 systems in California, including some colleges, to do so. Those panels should create enough electricity to offset 67% to 75% of each school's electrical use, a San Ramon Valley official said. The savings initially will be used to pay back the loans, which came from federal stimulus funds, officials said. U.S. military goes solar The panels will effectively pay for themselves in 16 years, said Terry Koehne, a spokesman for the San Ramon Valley district, which has 35 schools and 27,000 students about 30 miles east of San Francisco. "It's pure profit after that," he told CNN. "And following that, we're going to start realizing savings of $2 (million), $3 (million), $4 million a year." Like many California schools, San Ramon Valley has seen budget cuts -- $20 million in five years -- and needs to spend its money wisely. Budget cuts trigger early end to solar credits Upfront costs for the panels and installation were $23 million, Koehne said, a price "the overwhelming majority" of the area residents accepted. According to the Contra Costa Times, though, some people objected to spending millions on equipment while other detractors worry the school system won't see the savings predicted. But Koehne said the program is saving money for both the community and the school district "at a time when we desperately need it." "And it also helps us to reduce the carbon footprint," he added. "It's a no-brainer." The solar industry has experienced recent turmoil: Three U.S. companies have filed for bankruptcy protection, including California-based Solyndra, which was the target of a federal raid last week and an investigation into $535 million in loan guarantees funded by the 2009 stimulus bill. Nevertheless, solar panels are less expensive right now, thanks in part to a growing competition from Chinese manufacturers. SunPower, which is manufacturing the panels for San Ramon Valley, predicted the savings will come sooner -- they're big enough that the 90 school systems they work with can save money right away. Bill Kelly, SunPower's managing director, said the energy saved and government incentives will help schools save millions of dollars in the first year. And, he added, there are multiple benefits to the community, including putting electricians back to work installing the panels. "One of the things that's rewarding for me is that technology companies like ours are bringing job opportunities to California," Kelly said. "And then we're also helping students that will be coming into the market prepare for those jobs." The company sponsored a two-week "solar institute" for dozens of students to learn about how this energy benefits their schools and to become advocates for solar power, Koehne said. Many of the panels in California were installed on roofs, but San Ramon installed solar canopies that cover its school parking lots, too. The canopies also move, getting the most energy they can by tracking the sun through the daylight. Monica Garcia, president of the school board for the Los Angeles Unified School District, said the electric bill savings will be more than $100 million over 20 years. "What that means to me is less dollars going to facilities and more dollars going to kids," she said.http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/cash-strapped-california-schools-seek-savings-through-solar/35259http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/cash-strapped-california-schools-seek-savings-through-solar/3525919 09 2011 11:57:54 +0000Many science fiction fans take for granted that there's no sound in the vastness of space. But Janna Levin, a physics and astronomy professor at Barnard College, says dramatic events in space do make a kind of music. "There's no air in space to compress to ring against your ear," she told CNN in an interview at the TED conference in Long Beach, California, in March. "But it's important to realize the universe isn't a silent film, because space itself wobbles and rumbles like a drum in response to all of these things unfolding in the cosmos." "If space itself is ringing and squeezing and stretching, your eardrums can resonate in response ... you could hear the sound of very dramatic events in the universe," Levin said. In a talk at TED, Levin illustrated her point by conjuring up an example of two black holes spinning around each other and coalescing. "Black holes can bang on space time like mallets on a drum," she said. Watch Janna Levin's TED Talk She added in the interview, "We can design experiments that can pick up the ringing of space ... you can plug that into the stereo system and pick up the sound." There are tens of thousands of black holes, which can be formed by massive dying stars, in our galaxy, Levin said. Listening to their music might prove hazardous. Your ear could hear but, as Levin added, "Now of course, your head would be squeezed and stretched unhelpfully, so you might have trouble understanding what's going on."http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/cosmic-music-from-dying-stars/35258http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/cosmic-music-from-dying-stars/3525819 09 2011 11:50:45 +0000How did the makers of "I Don't Know How She Does It" not know that there are two insurmountable problems with their bogus chick flick about the amusing travails of a working mother? The first is that the movie is based on a 2002 novel by British journalist Allison Pearson, and we live in 2011. True, Kate Reddy (Sarah Jessica Parker) is now an "investment manager" in Boston rather than a British hedge-fund shark. Otherwise, Kate.2011 has the same accessories as Kate.2002, including a cute architect husband (Greg Kinnear), two kids who push Mommy's guilt buttons, and various male associates oblivious to commonplace 2011 workforce realities. Into this time warp screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna ("Morning Glory," "27 Dresses") adds gratuitously bitchy stay-at-home gym-rat mothers and a boss (Kelsey Grammer) who blanches at the word mammogram. Pierce Brosnan plays a fairy-tale New York businessman as princely as he is single. The second insurmountable problem is the difference between Parker's performance as a fortysomething banker, wife, and mother musing (in voice-over) at her computer and her previous performance as a single, thirtysomething girl-about-town in "Sex and the City": There is none. I don't know why she does it.http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/review-i-dont-know-how-she-does-it-is-a-bogus-chick-flick/35244http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/review-i-dont-know-how-she-does-it-is-a-bogus-chick-flick/3524418 09 2011 14:41:20 +0000(Rolling Stone) -- Young, pretty Annabel (Mia Wasikowska) is dying of cancer. But the young, prettier Enoch (Henry Hopper -- son of Dennis) lifts her spirits by letting Annabel accompany him to the funerals of strangers. Always a laugh, that. Whimsy overload, I know, a kind of new-century "Harold and Maude" with both lovers being death-obsessed Harold. Jason Lew's cloying script is a minefield of quirk and dark shadows. Did I mention Enoch's parents died in a car crash? And wait for Hiroshi (Ryo Kase), Enoch's BFF before Annabel -- he's the ghost of a kamikaze pilot. You heard me. Before you stop reading this review and label "Restless" a must to avoid, let me remind you that the director is Gus Van Sant, who knows young love like nobody's business. Check out "My Own Private Idaho" and "Paranoid Park" or any of the mesmerizing indie films Van Sant directs between mainstream Oscar projects such as "Good Will Hunting" and "Milk." Van Sant and his longtime cinematographer, Harris Savides, can caress the faces of youth with a poet's eye for beauty and pain. And the two stars, shot amid the splendors of Van Sant's beloved Oregon, make an ideal canvas. Wasikowska, from "Alice in Wonderland" to "Jane Eyre," is an actress of translucent expressiveness. And Hopper has his father's brooding intensity and a quicksilver humor all his own. They are both so good, I suggest you dive into the story unfolding in their eyes rather than the banal one in the script. Rolling Stone rating: 2.5 starshttp://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/review-restless-an-ideal-canvas/35243http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/review-restless-an-ideal-canvas/3524318 09 2011 14:39:30 +0000Katy Perry opens up about kissing girls and her Christian upbringing in the June issue of Vanity Fair. In the interview, the quirky singer, who became a household name with her 2008 hit "I Kissed a Girl," admits that she's indeed had same-sex smooches but didn't discuss it until now because she felt her male interviewers were sleazy. "I said no, I hadn’t experienced it, even though I had, because I didn’t like where the guys were taking the interviews," she explains. Perry, the daughter of evangelical Christian ministers, also says that she was raised in a very "non-accepting" family and didn't have a childhood. Besides only being allowed to read the Bible, she was banned from saying the words "deviled eggs" and "Dirt Devil." “Growing up, seeing Planned Parenthood, it was considered like the abortion clinic,” she says. “I was always scared I was going to get bombed when I was there…. I didn’t know it was more than that, that it was for women and their needs. I didn’t have insurance, so I went there and I learned about birth control.” Now, she says she's more "open to possibility." “I have always been the kid who’s asked ‘Why?’ In my faith, you’re just supposed to have faith. But I was always like…why?” Perry tells VF. “At this point, I’m just kind of a drifter. …My sponge is so big and wide and I’m soaking everything up and my mind has been radically expanded. Just being around different cultures and people and their opinions and perspectives.” Including her husband, Brit actor and comedian Russell Brand, who Perry married in October of last year. (The couple opted not to sell photos of their wedding despite the fact that they were offered "millions of dollars" for them, she reveals.) “Russell is into Hinduism, and I’m not [really] involved in it," she says. "He meditates in the morning and the evening; I’m starting to do it more because it really centers me. [But] I just let him be him, and he lets me be me.” Brand, she adds, has “never lied to me once. I trust him; there’s just a level of trust that we’ve built up.” Though Perry has left her born-again upbringing behind, she still remains close to her parents. “I think sometimes when children grow up, their parents grow up,” she tells the magazine. “Mine grew up with me. We coexist. I don’t try to change them anymore, and I don’t think they try to change me. We agree to disagree. They’re excited about [my success]. They’re happy that things are going well for their three children and that they’re not on drugs. Or in prison.” http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/katy-perry-yes-i-really-kissed-a-girl/27763http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/katy-perry-yes-i-really-kissed-a-girl/2776305 05 2011 00:36:53 +0000Does this count as a “Violent Torpedo of Truth”? The age-old tale that Charlie Sheen accidentally shot Kelly Preston in the arm back in 1990 is getting an update: Sheen tells fans at his “Truth” tour stop in Vancouver that he had nothing to do with it. Sheen, who was engaged to Preston at the time, says he was downstairs making coffee when the incident happened. "I thought she was still asleep upstairs. And I heard a f--- gunshot go off. I thought, 'She did it, she finally f-- did it,” he told the crowd. “She killed herself and they're going to f--- blame me.'” Well, he was right about the blame – even Sheen himself admits, “For years, people thought...there was this discussion, this conversation about the time that I tried to kill Kelly Preston.” At the time, he says that he "abandoned the coffee - because a gunshot in the morning will wake you up better than a nice cup of coffee - [and] I come around the corner and there's naked Kelly Preston at the top of the stairs, holding her wrist, staring at me, covered in blood, and I thought, that's pretty f--- hot,” although he quickly adds that he didn’t really think that. Once he cleaned her up, got bandages and stopped the bleeding, he says that Preston told him that “when she lifted my pants off the scale in the bathroom while she was sitting on the toilet, the tiny revolver I used to carry fell out of the back pocket and hit the floor and shot a bullet right between her legs. So she got hit with shrapnel from the toilet bowl.” The morning grew even more strange, Sheen goes on. “The oddest moment, when I picked up the phone, I looked at the phone completely perplexed and I didn’t know whether to call 911 or 411." Sheen and Preston, who is now married to John Travolta, never made it to the altar, but the 48-year-old actress doesn't seem to harbor any ill will towards the former "Two and a Half Men" star. "We were together for a year, and he wasn't drinking, and he wasn't doing drugs," Preston recently told People. "And there's a beautiful person in there. He really is a great man." http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/charlie-sheen-on-kelly-preston-i-didnt-shoot-her/27762http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/charlie-sheen-on-kelly-preston-i-didnt-shoot-her/2776205 05 2011 00:35:17 +0000Prince William and his bride, Duchess Catherine Middleton, may be headed for The Hills. Thenewlyweds are coming to Los Angeles for two days in early July, reports royal biographer Andrew Morton of the Morton Report. A spokesperson for the LAPD, however, tells PEOPLE they haven't heard about plans for an upcoming trip for the royal couple, but Morton says it is expected to take place right after the two tour Canada from June 30 to July 8, which will be their first public appearance since their wedding. Could the brief stop in Hollywood also involve the couple's wedding guests -- and current L.A. residents Victoria and David Beckham? Should be fun for the paparazzi, regardless. A rep for the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce did not return an immediate request for comment.http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/are-prince-william-catherine-middleton-headed-to-hollywood/27743http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/are-prince-william-catherine-middleton-headed-to-hollywood/2774304 05 2011 07:26:59 +0000Hard to believe, but just last year Jennifer Lopez's career looked like it was about to go Louboutins-up -- possibly for good. After she flopped in theaters with "The Back-up Plan" and split with her longtime record label, Sony, the question mark in "LOVE?" (originally slated for release last spring) went from figurative to all-too-real. Then a rebooted "American Idol" started its annual search for a star -- only to find one right at its own judges' table. Gone was her old swagger; J. Lo 2.0 is an all-embracing, Oprahfied earth madre with enough new admirers to earn a top five hit (lead single ''On the Floor''). Will those fans fall for "LOVE?" Probably. It's a harmless collection of prefab dance pop with just enough hints of Latin spice to remind listeners of Jenny's from-the-block past (see: the stoop-party-ready ''Papi'') without losing sight of her Bel Air present. She even doles out scraps of tabloid feed on ''One Love,'' which seems to nod to her ex-fiancé Ben Affleck (''Went nowhere but kept the ring,'' she sings). But most of the album is an utterly anonymous exercise in high-end sound production, as luxuriously empty as one of the new designer bags Lopez lusts after on the misleadingly named ''Good Hit.'' And despite the star power she emits on screen, her vocals have always been less than stellar; on "LOVE?" she often sounds limited and nasal, with a flatness that can feel downright Rebecca Black-esque at its worst. So, if Lopez really wants a response to the album's title question, the answer is: Let's just be friends.http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/review-jennifer-lopezs-love/27742http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/review-jennifer-lopezs-love/2774204 05 2011 07:25:58 +0000Sony said the Internet security breach targeting its networks was more extensive than originally thought. Hackers also gained access to databases containing subscriber information for Sony Online Entertainment, a San Diego subsidiary that makes online multiplayer games for computers and the PlayStation 3. The Sony division took its Web services offline Monday. That shutdown came 12 days after Sony Computer Entertainment disconnected the PlayStation console game network and Sony Network Entertainment shut down Qriocity media streaming services. Sony said last week that it expected to start restoring some services this week, but they remain offline. Sony disclosed the first breach on April 22, and then on April 27, the company announced that personal info and perhaps credit card numbers had been stolen for as many as 77 million accounts. With the PC game network also compromised, Sony adds 24.6 million accounts to the pot. Some popular games maintained by Sony's online division include "EverQuest," "DC Universe Online" and "Free Realms." This additional network was targeted on April 16 and April 17, the same days the other networks were hacked. While the infrastructures are separate, "There's a degree of architecture that overlaps" among Sony's many networks, said Michele Sturdivant, a spokeswoman for Sony Online Entertainment. "Initially, we believed that data was not stolen," she said, but then the company uncovered evidence to the contrary during its ongoing investigation. "They used very sophisticated means to access the data, and they used sophisticated means to cover their tracks." The information hackers took from Sony Online Entertainment's system included users' names, home addresses, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, login names, encrypted passwords, birth dates and genders. Unlike the last breach, hackers didn't get the answers to security questions or have access to most people's financial information. However, information from an additional 12,700 users stored on a database that was retired in 2007 was also compromised, Sony said. The data there included credit and debit-card numbers and expiration dates, but not security codes, for non-United States residents, as well as direct-debit banking records for some customers in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain. Sony apologized for the security lapse and outages on Sunday. The company plans to offer PlayStation account holders a 30-day voucher for the PlayStation Plus service, which lets gamers download free and exclusive games. Current Plus subscribers will get an extra 30 days added to their accounts. Similarly, Sony Online Entertainment will add 30 days to customers' accounts, along with additional play time for each day the service is down. The company also says it is in the process of outlining how it will recompense gamers who own its PlayStation 3 games. Additionally, Sony will offer complimentary assistance for customers who want to enroll in identity theft protection programs. Sony says it's working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to make sense of the security breach. On Monday, PlayStation spokesman Patrick Seybold denied a report that said the hacker group offered to sell Sony a list of credit card numbers stolen from its systems.http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/sony-pc-game-network-was-also-hacked/27734http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/sony-pc-game-network-was-also-hacked/2773403 05 2011 23:51:40 +0000When Christiaan Rendle first heard Apple promoting software called AirDrop, he was flying high -- and concerned about a crash landing. "AirDrop PRO" is the name of the iPhone game that Rendle and his partner, Mirko Kiric, developed and began selling on Apple's App Store in August 2009. In it, players navigate cargo planes and attempt to land crates onto targets below. The AirDrop that Apple is drumming up interest in isn't Rendle's game. AirDrop also happens to be the name of a new feature coming in OS X Lion, the next version of the Mac computer platform that Apple says will come out this summer. Rather than cartoon planes and parachuting boxes, this AirDrop is made by Apple and will let people exchange documents between computers wirelessly -- over the air, in tradespeak -- by dragging and dropping files. Rendle's small game development studio, Cozmo Games, has served more than 400,000 downloads of the AirDrop game, which costs 99 cents and is now on its second version. Though Apple hadn't come knocking in the two months since pulling the curtains off AirDrop for the Mac, Rendle says he has been on edge. He's concerned the most highly valued technology company in the world, with its mighty legal arm, could try to muscle him out of the name he's been using for nearly two years. "As yet, Apple has not contacted us regarding the use of the name, and we think they would have by now, given that the new Lion OS will be released in the coming months," Rendle wrote in an e-mail last week. "But if (they) do, there is not a lot we can do. Apple are (sic) notorious for aggressively protecting their trademarks, and there is just no way to out-lawyer them." Apple has traditionally flexed its legal assets to defend product names, either fighting infringements or cutting deals with trademark owners. An Apple spokesman declined to comment for this story. Public records don't turn up a trademark filing from Apple for AirDrop. Rendle said he hasn't filed for one either. (The App Store is also home to another game called "Air Drop This.") But Apple does have a history of pursuing alleged violators. After receiving a legal letter from Apple in 2009, John Devor, CEO of a development studio called Little App Factory, appealed to Apple CEO Steve Jobs via e-mail. He pleaded that Apple reconsider its stance and allow him to keep the name of his program, iPodRip. "Change your apps name. Not that big of a deal," the Apple co-founder allegedly replied. IPodRip, a program for extracting music from Apple's music players, eventually rebranded as iRip -- minus the "iPod" trademark. Software developer Bonobo Labs reported in February that it had received a note from Apple regarding a free app for the Mac called Unretina. Apple owns the rights to the name Retina, for its small, high-resolution screens, and suggested that Bonobo was infringing on those trademarks, the report said. But Rendle's circumstance with AirDrop isn't necessarily clear-cut in Apple's favor. Because Cozmo appears to have used the name commercially first for its mobile game, the little guy could win favor in a trademark lawsuit, said Polk Wagner, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Courts could determine that the words "air" and "drop," in Apple's instance, constitute a "descriptive name" -- like trying to trademark "computer" for a new line of PCs, Wagner said. But in a court argument, Apple could leverage the fact that it has used "air" in other products, like AirPort, AirPlay and MacBook Air, Wagner said. The company that spends more aggressively in advertising can also gain an edge in trademark disputes, he said. Guess which that would be. "I think it's likely (the small developer) would get squashed," Wagner said. "The first 15 things on Google (search) were all Apple-related, and they haven't released the product yet." While getting overshadowed can seem a punishment in itself, Rendle is optimistic. His "AirDrop" game could even benefit from Apple's new software, he said. "We would expect that our average downloads will increase once Lion is released, given that people will inevitably be searching for 'AirDrop' and discover our game," Rendle wrote. However, he said he expects that if Apple ports its feature from desktops to mobile, where the AirDrop game has thrived, "I'm sure we'll be hearing from them ... and looking for a new game name," he wrote. On the flip side, Apple's infatuation with a particular name can bring a payday. Computer-networking giant Cisco Systems, which owns the trademark for iPhone, sued Apple in 2007 after the announcement of the blockbuster smartphone. They reached an agreement in February, which opened the doors for collaboration between the two behemoths and involved an undisclosed settlement. Last year, an app developer vented on Web forums about a message he said Apple sent him that urged him to remove his timekeeping utility from the App Store. "We received notice from the trademark owner of FACETIME who has confirmed their ownership of registrations for FACETIME in the U.S. and other countries," wrote BCWood, the developer whose app had existed for about a year without question. The trademark owner of FaceTime, of course, is Apple. But when one Facetime suffered, another prospered. To christen Apple's new video-calling service, the tech giant came to an agreement with FaceTime Communications, a communications and security firm that rebranded as Actiance, for rights to the FaceTime name. Terms were not disclosed. Sometimes, Apple doesn't get its way. In 2006, the company unveiled a set-top box called the iTV. After the British broadcaster by the same name voiced its objections, the Cupertino, California, company released the product under the name Apple TV. Rendle and Apple finally connected regarding the AirDrop name on Wednesday, but the conversation left many questions open. An Apple developer relations manager called Rendle to tell him that Apple doesn't own a trademark on the name and is not concerned about overlap, Rendle said. Apple uses generic names for some of its software, such as Mail, Photos and Clock. But the Apple manager offered the small development team no assurance that things would not change in the future, Rendle said. "That was very much the response I expected. So, we'll just have to see how big Apple's AirDrop becomes," Rendle wrote. "If it gains traction and is introduced to iOS, I am sure Apple's position will likely change."http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/game-developer-braces-for-fight-with-apple-over-name/27733http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/game-developer-braces-for-fight-with-apple-over-name/2773303 05 2011 23:50:43 +0000As reactions poured in from all over the world to the announcement that Osama bin Laden was killed in a U.S. operation, President Barack Obama declared it "a good day for America." "Our country kept its commitment to see that justice is done," Obama said Monday. The world, he said, is a better place because of bin Laden's death, and the successful operation reminds Americans that there is "nothing we can't do" when they work together. Noting that patriotic crowds have gathered across the country to celebrate, the president said, "We're reminded that we're fortunate to have Americans who have dedicated their lives to protecting ours." "As commander-in-chief, I could not be prouder," Obama said at a previously scheduled Medal of Honor ceremony. A DNA match confirms with virtual certainty that Osama bin Laden was killed in the operation, a senior administration official told CNN Monday. Officials compared DNA of the person killed with bin Laden "family DNA," a senior administration official said. There are also photographs of the body with a gunshot wound to the side of the head that shows an individual who is recognizable as bin Laden, a U.S. government official said. No decision has yet been made on whether to release the photographs and if so, when and how. One of bin Laden's wives identified the body to U.S. forces, a senior U.S. defense official said. The mastermind of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks -- the worst terrorist attacks on American soil -- was killed by U.S. forces Monday in a mansion in Abbottabad, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, U.S. officials said. Four others in the compound also were killed. One of them was bin Laden's adult son, and another was a woman being used as a shield by a male combatant, the officials said. A U.S. government official told CNN the operation that killed the founder and leader of al Qaeda was designed to do just that, not to take him alive. But another senior U.S. official told CNN the operation included instructions to arrest bin Laden alive if he surrendered -- however, no one involved expected that he would surrender. Details of exactly how the raid played out have not been released. In the operation, U.S. forces recovered "quite a bit of material," a senior U.S. intelligence official said. "There's a robust collection of materials we need to sift through, and we hope to find valuable intelligence that will lead us to other players in al Qaeda." A task force has been set up "because of the sheer volume of material collected," the official said. "That material is currently being exploited and analyzed." The successful operation sends a message to the Taliban in Afghanistan, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Monday. "You cannot wait us out. You cannot defeat us. But you can make the choice to abandon al Qaeda" and participate in a peaceful political process, Clinton said. "There is no better rebuke to al Qaeda and its heinous ideology," she said. "The fight continues and we will never waver." Some doubted that the terrorist leader would ever be caught, she said, but "this is America... We persevere, and we get the job done." Clinton also noted that bin Laden's death comes at a time of "great movements toward freedom and democracy." Bin Laden's body was later buried at sea, an official said. Many Muslims adhere to the belief that bodies should be buried within one day. The official did not release additional details about the burial, but said it was handled in keeping with Muslim customs. The death of the founder and leader of al Qaeda comes almost 10 years after the September 11, 2001, attacks. The announcement in the United States of bin Laden's death came on the same date -- May 1 -- that Adolf Hitler's death was announced in 1945. Terrorists "almost certainly will attempt to avenge" the death of Osama bin Laden, CIA Director Leon Panetta said in a message sent to agency employees. The operation was "CIA-driven," a senior administration official told CNN. Obama and Panetta considered all options, the source said. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, in a statement, said the "death of Osama bin Laden is an important success not only for the United States, but the entire world. Our efforts to combat terrorism, however, do not fixate on one individual, and we remain completely focused on protecting our nation against violent extremism of all kinds." The Department of Homeland Security does not plan to issue a new alert, and would only do so if there is "specific or credible information to convey," she said. "... Our security posture, which always includes a number of measures both seen and unseen, will continue to respond appropriately to protect the American people from an evolving threat picture both in the coming days and beyond." A Transportation Security Administration official said the TSA "continually evaluates the latest threats and screening measures which are implemented based on the latest intelligence." U.S. diplomatic facilities around the world were placed on high alert following the announcement of bin Laden's death, a senior U.S. official said, and the U.S. State Department issued a "worldwide caution" for Americans. The travel alert warned of the "enhanced potential for anti-American violence given recent counter-terrorism activity in Pakistan." Among those who lost loved ones, there was a mix of celebration and remembrance. "While we can close the book on Osama bin Laden at present, for the parents and families there will never be closure," said Sally Regenhard, mother of a firefighter who died on 9/11, describing the day as "bittersweet." "It's good to see an evil person receive justice," she added, "but it's very bitter to realize that so many good people met a brutal and needless death at the hands of this monster." In an address to the nation Sunday night, Obama called bin Laden's death "the most significant achievement to date in our nation's effort to defeat al Qaeda." Washington is nine hours behind Pakistan. "Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan," Obama said. "A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability. No Americans were harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties. After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body." A congressional source familiar with the operation said bin Laden was shot in the head. The killing of bin Laden was the culmination of years of intelligence work and months of following a specific lead, senior U.S. administration officials said. The key break involved one of the few couriers trusted by bin Laden, according to the officials. About two years ago, intelligence work identified where the courier and his brother lived and operated in Pakistan, and it took until August to find the compound in Abbottabad that was raided, they said. According to the senior administration officials, intelligence work determined at the beginning of 2011 that bin Laden might be located at the compound. Obama chaired five National Security Council meetings from mid-March until late April, with the last two on April 19 and April 28 -- last Thursday. On Friday morning -- before visiting Alabama's tornado-ravaged areas -- Obama gave the order for the mission, the officials said. Senior Obama administration officials believe the compound was built five years ago for the specific purpose of hiding bin Laden. U.S. forces carried out several so-called "practice runs" in order to minimize casualties. Footage that aired Monday on CNN affiliate GEO TV showed fire and smoke spewing from the compound where bin Laden was killed. One resident in the city of Lahore said Monday she was stunned to hear bin Laden was in the country. "But was it really him?" the woman said. A senior national security official told CNN that officials had multiple confirmations that the body was bin Laden's, saying they had the "ability to run images of the body and the face." A resident in Abbottabad, who did not want to be fully identified, said he was wary of making any personal statements or giving his reaction to the news. But he said the house where bin Laden allegedly was killed has been occupied by many people for the past five years. Half a world away, the scene outside the White House was one of pure jubilation. Hundreds reveled through the night, chanting "USA! USA!" Others chanted "Hey, hey, hey, goodbye!" in reference to the demise of bin Laden. Many also spontaneously sang the national anthem. In New York, a cheering crowd gathered at ground zero -- the site where the twin towers of the World Trade Center stood before bin Laden's terrorist group flew two planes into the buildings on September 11, 2001. Strains of "God Bless America" could be heard intermittently trickling through the crowd. One former New York firefighter -- forced to retire due to lung ailments suffered as a result of the dust from ground zero -- said he was there to let the 343 firefighters who died in the attacks know "they didn't die in vain." "It's a war that I feel we just won," he said. "I'm down here to let them know that justice has been served." Bob Gibson, a retired New York police officer, said the news of bin Laden's death gave him a sense of "closure." "I never thought this night would come, that we would capture or kill bin Laden," he said. "And thank the Lord he has been eliminated." Bin Laden once reportedly slipped out of a training camp in Afghanistan just hours before a barrage of U.S. cruise missiles destroyed it. He had been implicated in a series of deadly, high-profile attacks that had grown in their intensity and success during the 1990s. They included a deadly firefight with U.S. soldiers in Somalia in October 1993, the bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa that killed 224 in August 1998, and a bomb attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 sailors in October 2000. In his speech Sunday night, Obama reiterated that the United States is not fighting Islam. "I've made clear, just as President Bush did shortly after 9/11, that our war is not against Islam. Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader; he was a mass murderer of Muslims," Obama said. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, welcomed the death of bin Laden. "As we have stated repeatedly since the 9/11 terror attacks, bin Laden never represented Muslims or Islam. In fact, in addition to the killing of thousands of Americans, he and al Qaeda caused the deaths of countless Muslims worldwide," the statement said. While the death of bin Laden "is a significant victory," the war on terrorism is not over, said Frances Fragos Townsend, former Homeland Security adviser to President George W. Bush. "We've been fighting these fractured cells. We've seen the U.S. government, military and intelligence officials deployed around the world," Townsend said. "By no means are these other cells nearly as dangerous as he is, but we will continue to have to fight in chaotic places." But for now, many Americans were soaking up the historic moment. "It's what the world needed," said Dustin Swensson, a military veteran of the Iraq war who joined the revelers outside the White House. "(I'll) always remember where I was when the towers went down, and I'm always going to remember where I am now."http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/obama-a-good-day-for-america/27689http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/obama-a-good-day-for-america/2768902 05 2011 13:54:47 +0000One week ago, the chief of Pakistan's Army Staff, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, told graduating cadets in the city of Abbottabad that the "back of terrorism" in Pakistan had been broken, thanks to the sacrifices of Pakistan's soldiers. Kayani was speaking at the "passing out parade" at the prestigious Kakul military academy in Abbottabad, the West Point of Pakistan. At that very moment, the man who had dragged Pakistan into the "War on Terror" a decade earlier was, it transpires, just a mile or two away, living in apparent comfort behind the high walls of a very private compound. Osama bin Laden, who had declared war on Pakistan, had apparently been living for months in a city that had made its name as a military garrison. Abbottabad, pronounced AHB-tah-bahd, is some 60 miles by winding mountainous roads north of Pakistan's capital. Surrounded by green hills, it is renowned for its trees and parks. It's a popular retirement place for officers in the Pakistani army, partly because of its military academy, but also because of its agreeable climate. During British rule, the Imperial Gazeteer of India described it as "picturesquely situated," 4,120 feet above sea level. Abbottabad sits on the Karakoram Highway, an engineering marvel that links Pakistan with China through the Himalayas. Before much of Pakistan became off-limits to most foreign tourists, it was also a popular spot for those on their way to and from the Swat valley and the foothills of the Himalayas. But despite its military traditions, its hockey fields and golf courses, Abbottabad and neighboring districts are also familiar territory to al Qaeda and other extremist groups. In January this year, Pakistani security forces stormed a modest house in the city and seized Umar Patek, an Indonesian linked to al Qaeda who had a $1 million bounty on his head under the FBI's Rewards for Justice program. He had allegedly helped build the bombs used in the 2002 bombings in Bali that killed 200 people. Patek -- a key leader in the Indonesian terrorist group Jemaah Islamiya -- had rented a room in the house of a retired accountant in Abbottabad after arriving in Pakistan some months earlier on a forged visa. He is now being held (after treatment for gunshot wounds sustained during his arrest) pending a decision on his extradition. Patek's arrest followed that of a Pakistani in Abbottabad called Tahir Shehzad, an alleged al Qaeda facilitator who had been under surveillance for some time, according to Pakistani media reports. Shehzad had allegedly gone to Lahore to meet two French militants who were planning to travel to North Waziristan with Patek. So Abbottabad emerges as something of a way station for al Qaeda and associated groups. Geographically, that makes sense. As the crow flies, the city is just over 100 miles from the border with Kunar province in Afghanistan, an area where al Qaeda has kept a foothold since 9/11. Even with poor roads and mountainous terrain in between, the journey can be completed in a day. It is even closer to the restive tribal territories. In the past two years, the Pakistani army in this area has been preoccupied with reversing the gains of the Pakistani Taliban, rather than chasing down the remnants of al Qaeda or launching the offensive against militants in North Waziristan that Washington has long demanded. The area to the north of Abbottabad saw a surge in Taliban activity two years ago, as the Taliban sought to extend their influence from the tribal areas that border Afghanistan into what was North West Frontier Province, now called Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The town of Buner, just 30 miles from Abbottabad and 60 miles from Islamabad, fell to the Taliban early in 2009. They also established a training camp close to the town of Mansehr, a few miles from Abbottabad. The Pakistani military has since gradually reasserted control over the area, expelling the Taliban from the Swat Valley, but at a bloody cost. Clashes continue sporadically in the area, and an attack on the offices of the charity World Vision last year in Mansehr resulted in six of the non-governmental organization's workers being shot dead. To the east of Abbottabad is Pakistani Kashmir, its forested hills hosting training camps for several groups committed to "liberating" Indian Kashmir. So it is a city close to the front lines of several of South Asia's insurgencies and terror campaigns. Like much of the region, Abbottabad has long been a theater of sectarian and religious rivalry. Back in the mid-19th century a British officer named Maj. James Abbott brought peace to an area that saw violent confrontations between its Sikh and Muslim populations. Abbott's contribution was recognized when the town was named after him. He even wrote a poem about the place that would bear his name: "I remember the day when I first came here And smelt the sweet Abbottabad air ..."http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/abbottabad-the-military-town-where-bin-laden-hid-in-plain-sight/27688http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/abbottabad-the-military-town-where-bin-laden-hid-in-plain-sight/2768802 05 2011 13:53:19 +0000In the tech world, a fraction of a millimeter is enough space to to start an iPhone conversation. A day after the long-awaited white iPhone 4 hit stores, Web chatter was focused on the fact that it appears to be a shade thicker than the 10-month-old black model. (Wired.com measures the difference at a whopping 0.2 millimeters). So, what's the big deal? For most people, the answer is: "Nothing." But for some current (or, now, former) black iPhone owners, some models of tight-fitting, precision cases won't fit on their new phone. Relatively big cases should be fine. To many observers, this is just further evidence that no detail about Apple gadgets is too trivial to go unreported. (Add that to the ever-so-slightly different placement of the mute switch on the Verizon iPhone and you're creating the need for a veritable cornucopia of different iPhone cases. Sort of.) The leading theory on the white phone's gain in girth is that extra coating was needed to keep light out of the phone so the camera would work. The aluminum antenna band around the phone's edge is no thicker than the black iPhone's, just the painted glass casing. Apple vice president Phil Schiller suggested as much, saying that the white coloring interfered with the iPhone's proximity sensors. Maybe this'll be a short-lived issue anyway. The next iPhone (either the iPhone 5 or a permutation of the iPhone 4, similar to the 3GS) should be out by the end of the yearhttp://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/gasp-white-iphone-4-is-thicker-than-black-one/27663http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/gasp-white-iphone-4-is-thicker-than-black-one/2766301 05 2011 14:19:20 +0000If you're a mainstream Apple fan, you probably got all hot and bothered on Thursday when an e-mail hit your inbox saying the "amazing iPhone 4" is now available in white. Previously the phone only came in black, and tech blogs have been drooling over the possibility of this white whale of a phone for months. But the real Apple nerds are so over that now. Even rumors about the yet-to-be-announced-and-possibly-non-existent iPhone 5 are growing passé. The new topic du second: the "iPhone 6." Seriously, people? A new version of the iPhone 4 just came out. People have been talking about the iPhone 5 for -- well, pretty much since right after the iPhone 4 debuted in June 2010. And now, even before the release of the iPhone 5, which is rumored to come out in September, the techies are fixated on the next-next version. This might seem ludicrous, but maybe it's normal in the hyper-drive world of tech news. So we'll go with it. Here's a look at what the plugged-in bloggers are saying about the iPhone 6 (to repeat: not the iPhone 5, but the one after that). The name: Everyone seems to be calling Apple's next-next smartphone the iPhone 6, but it's unclear whether that really will be the name. Apple hasn't gone chronologically in the past. The iPhone 4 seemed to be more of a hint that Apple wished the phone worked on a 4G network than the model number. After the original iPhone came the iPhone 3G (which works on AT&T's 3G network) and then the iPhone 3GS (the "S" supposedly stands for "speed," since that phone was faster). The fact that there never was an "iPhone 2" kind of discounts this look-at-the-numberline approach. The release date: 2012 seems logical. As The Atlantic writes in another rumor round-up post, "that makes sense as it fits with the smartphone's history; since it debuted in 2007, a new model has come out every year." The screen: The Japanese publication Nikkan started the iPhone 6 rumor mill with a post saying Sharp will produce a new kind of screen for the phone. Thinner and lighter: Some smartphones -- particularly Android phones -- are getting bigger, since big screens are better for watching video. Apple's iPhone 6 is rumored to continue to get thinner and lighter. Here's what Apple Insider has to say on the subject: "The liquid crystal display on the anticipated 'iPhone 6' is said to feature 'low-temperature poly-silicon' technology, a next-generation display format that allows for thinner and lighter screens that consume less power than traditional LCD screens." The Register says this screen tech could end up in tablets, too. What do you want to see in the iPhone 5/6? Do you want to start speculating about an iPhone 7? You can tell us in the comments now. Or, if you want to digest this whole situation for a few months and get back to us, that's absolutely OK, too.http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/forget-iphone-4-and-5-what-about-iphone-6/27662http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/forget-iphone-4-and-5-what-about-iphone-6/2766201 05 2011 14:15:35 +0000Can't get to a television set for the royal wedding on Friday? Fear not. The British royal family is making sure that anyone with access to the Web will be able to keep up with the nuptials of Prince William and Kate Middleton. The ceremony is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. in London (6 a.m. ET). Some of the official channels where you can follow along include: YouTube The wedding will be streamed live on The Royal Channel, the official YouTube account of the monarchy. The broadcast will begin at 10 a.m. London time (5 a.m. ET). The live feed will include commentary, historical facts and a look at the procession to and from the ceremony. Twitter The @clarencehouse Twitter feed, the official feed of the youngest generation of royals, including William, will be providing live updates throughout the day. The feed, with more than 50,000 followers, has been giving sneak peeks at everything from flowers being used to decorate Westminster Abbey to the wedding's official commemorative stamp. Looking for tweets about the blessed event? Search for the hashtag #rw2011. Flickr Once Friday's pomp and circumstance begins, photo sets will be uploaded to the British monarchy's official Flickr gallery. Already up on the site are several sets showing preparations for the wedding. Facebook If you're on Facebook anyway (meaning not at work, since nobody monitors their news feed on the clock, right?), you can keep track of updates on the British monarchy's page. We're betting this won't be the most efficient way to check in, though. The feed looks like its largely posts from YouTube, Twitter and elsewhere. Everywhere else Of course, virtually every media outlet on the Web will be providing coverage of the wedding. To choose one completely at random, CNN will provide live online and televised coverage beginning at 4 a.m. ET. The coverage will incorporate the network's Twitter and Facebook presences, as well as iReport. And you'll also find updates on Unveiled, CNN.com's royal wedding blog. Selected tweets with the hostage #CNNtv will be used on CNN and CNN International. Bar codes that will appear during CNN's television coverage will allow smartphone users to scan and instantly download the CNN Mobile Royal Wedding Planner. Also, GetGlue, the entertainment-based mobile app, is awarding special stickers for users who check in to various wedding-themed CNN shows throughout the week.http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/how-to-follow-the-royal-wedding-online/27595http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/how-to-follow-the-royal-wedding-online/2759528 04 2011 10:11:46 +0000Friday's nuptials between Prince William and Kate Middleton won't be the first royal wedding to captivate Anglophiles from around the world. But it will be the first with its own Twitter hashtag. (That's #rw2011, if you're tweeting along at home). The wedding's full-bore digital presence -- from live-streaming video to mobile apps -- casts a light on a royal family that, for the past century, has needed to, sometimes reluctantly, stay on the cutting edge of communications technology. These days, that means a YouTube channel (created in 2007), a Flickr account for official photos, a Twitter stream for princes William and Harry and a Facebook page with 350,000 fans. There were even plans to broadcast Friday's wedding in 3D, although they were eventually scrapped due to a perceived lack of interest and access. "The Royal Family has embraced social media in its own time, which is typical of how a basically conservative institution has learned to adapt," said Charlie Beckett, director of a journalism and society think tank at the London School of Economics. That adapting has taken multiple forms over the years for a family that's increasingly had to justify its relevance, and the money British taxpayers fork over to help maintain their lavish lifestyle. "The success of the royal family over the last 100 years is that they have always adapted very quickly to an ever-changing society," said Mark Saunders, a royal biographer and contributor to CNN's royal wedding coverage. Beckett said movie audiences got a good look recently at the sometimes uneasy royal relationship with emerging media. "You only have to look at 'The King's Speech,' the movie, to see how technology has been vital to the Windsors' PR efforts," he said. "They adapted to radio, then TV ... and now the internet." The Academy Award-winning movie tells the story of Britain's King George VI, who overcomes a persistent stammer to deliver an inspiring 1939 radio address when England declared war on Germany. His father, King George V, gave the first royal Christmas address on radio in 1932, overcoming concerns about the largely untested medium of radio. As depicted in "The King's Speech," it was George V who drilled into his son the public-relations importance of being a radio presence. It was George VI's daughter, Queen Elizabeth II, who embraced the TV age. In an unprecedented move, the new queen allowed a BBC crew into Windsor Castle in 1969 to film "Royal Family," a yearlong documentary meant to introduce the royals to their subjects. "It was amazing," said Fred Goodland, a royal archivist, in a BBC segment looking back on the series. "This was the first time we'd seen them talking to one another rather than addressing us." Elizabeth's coronation was the first royal event televised live. For its time, it was a far cry from the historical and pop-culture images of royals past. "The idea of the royal family was always that they were the family on the hill that lived in the big castle," Saunders said. "Though they set an example, they never opened their doors." The monarchy got its own website in 1997, although it was a mostly perfunctory affair that seemed to say, "We hear everyone's supposed to have a web page, so here it is." That changed in 2009, when Elizabeth and family had the site overhauled, an event that earned its own Buckingham Palace launch party. The reinvigorated, and fairly exhaustive, site now includes features spanning from virtual tours and slideshows of the royal residences to a feature on official gifts the queen has received from foreign dignitaries (Two black beavers? Check. A box of snail shells? Check. Cowboy boots? Check.) But there's one aspect of the Facebook Age the royals haven't embraced: the two-way dialogue it can facilitate. Many celebrities use Twitter and other online venues as a way to communicate, even debate, directly with fans and detractors (look no further than CNN's own high-profile Brit, Piers Morgan, and his frequent bouts of argy-bargy on the micro-blogging site). But the royal Facebook and YouTube pages don't allow comments. The Twitter feed remains a stream of official announcements, and the Flickr gallery includes nothing that could be confused for a candid shot. In some ways, that one-way firehose of information is a perfect fit for the monarchy. Particularly in the 1990s (and more markedly since the 1997 death of Princess Diana, which her sons reportedly still blame on the paparazzi involved in her car crash) the Windsors have had a testy relationship with the media. But today's digital media lets the royal family bypass the traditional means of spreading information. These days, instead of offering up an interview, a Windsor spokesperson will merely alert the press to pay attention to Twitter or YouTube at a certain time, journalists covering the royals say. This royal embrace of what London's Guardian called an arsenal of social-networking tools is a strategy the family hopes will spur even greater interest in Friday's wedding -- and also control the way the event, and its participants, are perceived. Observers expect the family's embrace of the internet to continue, if not ramp up, in the years to come. The evolution of the crown's journey into cyberspace, Saunders said, is one that probably will sound familiar: The younger generation of royal Brits were the early adopters, and the older folks followed. "We are seeing Twitter and Facebook and YouTube as a direct result of William and Harry and the way they were brought up," said Saunders, whose books include "Prince Harry: The Biography" in 2002. "They were brought up by a thoroughly modern mother, and a father that was dragged into the modern. "They were the first royal children of the new media age."http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/the-british-royals-wary-dance-with-technology/27594http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/the-british-royals-wary-dance-with-technology/2759428 04 2011 10:10:14 +0000What are the essential ingredients for a successful marriage? With Kate and Will's big day just around the corner, we asked you how you keep the flame alive through thick and thin. Anne Williams, who's been married for 31 years, emphasizes laughter and shared responsibility -- particularly when it comes to money: "Don't separate bills. Make them OURS not YOURS and MINE" she advises. Mary Hudnall, from Texas, has been married for over 26 years and attributes her success to a few key ingredients, including "freedom of self-expression," and plenty of "alone-time." Chad Tew, meanwhile, says he's boiled it down to three lessons that have sustained his marriage over the years: "Be mindful of each other on a daily basis; grow together over time; and stay passionate." David Mitchell, who lives in Nova Scotia, recalled how, after his third child was born, it was difficult for he and his wife to find time for each other. That, he said, is when "date night" began. "Every Friday we feed the kids, then after they are in bed (the oldest at 8.30), WE have our dinner," he explains. "We try to cook together, sip on a nice wine and then sit down to eat just the two of us. No TV, no internet, no distractions." And, although it may not seem like much, the Town Councilor who's been with his wife for 20 years says "it makes a difference I can assure you." What else is key making a marriage last a lifetime? Share your thoughts in the comments below.http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/happily-ever-after-your-marriage-tips-for-william-and-kate/27583http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/happily-ever-after-your-marriage-tips-for-william-and-kate/2758327 04 2011 23:10:49 +0000Just after announcing his engagement, Prince William told the world he had given Kate Middleton the distinctive sapphire and diamond ring belonging to his late mother Diana, Princess of Wales, as "my way of making sure my mother didn't miss out on today and the excitement." The prince was particularly close to his mother, who died in a Paris car crash in 1997, and both he and his brother Harry know how much his wedding would have meant to her. William is even reported to have taken his fiancee to visit Diana's tomb at her ancestral home, Althorp House, in central England, in the run-up to the big day. Watch the royal wedding and share it with iReport Royal experts say the second-in-line to the British throne has been closely involved in the planning of the wedding, which has other echoes of Diana. As well as taking place at Westminster Abbey, where his mother's funeral took place, after they are married, William and Kate will ride to Buckingham Palace in the open-topped 1902 State Landau carriage Video that carried Prince Charles and Diana after their wedding in 1981. The Glass Coach that transported Diana to St. Paul's Cathedral will be used if the weather is wet. And while Diana cannot be at the wedding, William seems to have taken care to invite guests of whom his mother might have approved. These include Elton John, a friend of Diana's who sang "Candle in the Wind" at her memorial service, soccer star David Beckham and Madonna's former husband Guy Ritchie. Who's going to the wedding? Check out the guest list Arthur Edwards, royal photographer for The Sun tabloid newspaper for more than 30 years, said Prince William -- like his mother before him -- wants close control of media coverage. "He wants everything his way. He didn't want anybody to break the (engagement) story, for instance," Edwards told CNN. Love and marriage: What William told royal photographer "William wanted to do it, he explained to us on the day of the engagement. He said 'I want this marriage for life.' And it was very organized and rational, the way he was speaking, and transparent, I thought. He was just very honest." Kate too has described her respect for Diana, to whom she is often compared, saying "obviously I would have loved to have met her and she's obviously an inspirational woman to look up to." Representatives of many of the charities closely associated with both William and his mother, such as the homeless project Centrepoint, will also be among the 1,900 wedding guests, and Ken Wharfe, who was Diana's bodyguard, said it is this that is her chief legacy. "We all know what Diana's feelings would be today, she'd be immensely proud of her son. But she'll be remembered for the campaigning work she did to find a cure for AIDS. She was the first member of the royal family that was actually prepared to put her name to it. In the '80s, AIDS wasn't a subject that people talked about generally. "I remember going with Diana to many charitable soup kitchens in central London, often without the glare of the media. I went with William as well, where she was actually instructing William. I think it will be her legacy of kindness and sincerity and the fact that she captivated the hearts of the normal man or woman on the street. Such was her popularity, she knew how to communicate ... remember the royal family do communicate, but in a way that is so traditionally royal." Christopher Anderson, author of "William and Kate," agreed, saying that while the young prince is emotionally close to his father, "William is his mother's son, certainly in affairs of the heart." "He has a connection with people and it's because of what she consciously did to make him aware of how real people live." William has stressed in a television interview that no one is "trying to fill my mother's shoes," and royal aides will be keen to ensure lessons have been learned from her tragic demise. According to Catherine Ostler, former editor of society magazine Tatler, despite earlier incidents of paparazzi photographers harassing Kate -- reminiscent of their treatment of Diana -- there now seems to be greater restraint by the tabloid media. "I think it's a deliberate decision by editors and the palace to protect her and William," Ostler said. "We've all got this specter of Diana and how horribly it went wrong and how we all know it must be unbearable pressure for a girl that age from an ordinary background to cope with this instant celebrity. So they're pacing it." And more importantly there's a big difference between the William-Kate relationship and that of Charles and Diana. "They are much more of an equal partnership," Ostler said. "There was always a sense from day one, even when they were engaged ... when Charles and Diana went on a trip and it was a walkabout and they split up, everyone would want to be on the Diana side of the fence. Now everybody says people don't mind if they get Kate or William because William has star quality in his own right." William appears to have chosen a confident and beautiful woman, equal to his late mother in her prime. Now royal watchers wait in anticipation to see if Kate becomes another "People's Princess."http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/royal-wedding-shows-dianas-influence-lives-on/27582http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/royal-wedding-shows-dianas-influence-lives-on/2758227 04 2011 23:09:51 +0000Just after announcing his engagement, Prince William told the world he had given Kate Middleton the distinctive sapphire and diamond ring belonging to his late mother Diana, Princess of Wales, as "my way of making sure my mother didn't miss out on today and the excitement." The prince was particularly close to his mother, who died in a Paris car crash in 1997, and both he and his brother Harry know how much his wedding would have meant to her. William is even reported to have taken his fiancee to visit Diana's tomb at her ancestral home, Althorp House, in central England, in the run-up to the big day. Watch the royal wedding and share it with iReport Royal experts say the second-in-line to the British throne has been closely involved in the planning of the wedding, which has other echoes of Diana. As well as taking place at Westminster Abbey, where his mother's funeral took place, after they are married, William and Kate will ride to Buckingham Palace in the open-topped 1902 State Landau carriage Video that carried Prince Charles and Diana after their wedding in 1981. The Glass Coach that transported Diana to St. Paul's Cathedral will be used if the weather is wet. And while Diana cannot be at the wedding, William seems to have taken care to invite guests of whom his mother might have approved. These include Elton John, a friend of Diana's who sang "Candle in the Wind" at her memorial service, soccer star David Beckham and Madonna's former husband Guy Ritchie. Who's going to the wedding? Check out the guest list Arthur Edwards, royal photographer for The Sun tabloid newspaper for more than 30 years, said Prince William -- like his mother before him -- wants close control of media coverage. "He wants everything his way. He didn't want anybody to break the (engagement) story, for instance," Edwards told CNN. Love and marriage: What William told royal photographer "William wanted to do it, he explained to us on the day of the engagement. He said 'I want this marriage for life.' And it was very organized and rational, the way he was speaking, and transparent, I thought. He was just very honest." Kate too has described her respect for Diana, to whom she is often compared, saying "obviously I would have loved to have met her and she's obviously an inspirational woman to look up to." Representatives of many of the charities closely associated with both William and his mother, such as the homeless project Centrepoint, will also be among the 1,900 wedding guests, and Ken Wharfe, who was Diana's bodyguard, said it is this that is her chief legacy. "We all know what Diana's feelings would be today, she'd be immensely proud of her son. But she'll be remembered for the campaigning work she did to find a cure for AIDS. She was the first member of the royal family that was actually prepared to put her name to it. In the '80s, AIDS wasn't a subject that people talked about generally. "I remember going with Diana to many charitable soup kitchens in central London, often without the glare of the media. I went with William as well, where she was actually instructing William. I think it will be her legacy of kindness and sincerity and the fact that she captivated the hearts of the normal man or woman on the street. Such was her popularity, she knew how to communicate ... remember the royal family do communicate, but in a way that is so traditionally royal." Christopher Anderson, author of "William and Kate," agreed, saying that while the young prince is emotionally close to his father, "William is his mother's son, certainly in affairs of the heart." "He has a connection with people and it's because of what she consciously did to make him aware of how real people live." William has stressed in a television interview that no one is "trying to fill my mother's shoes," and royal aides will be keen to ensure lessons have been learned from her tragic demise. According to Catherine Ostler, former editor of society magazine Tatler, despite earlier incidents of paparazzi photographers harassing Kate -- reminiscent of their treatment of Diana -- there now seems to be greater restraint by the tabloid media. "I think it's a deliberate decision by editors and the palace to protect her and William," Ostler said. "We've all got this specter of Diana and how horribly it went wrong and how we all know it must be unbearable pressure for a girl that age from an ordinary background to cope with this instant celebrity. So they're pacing it." And more importantly there's a big difference between the William-Kate relationship and that of Charles and Diana. "They are much more of an equal partnership," Ostler said. "There was always a sense from day one, even when they were engaged ... when Charles and Diana went on a trip and it was a walkabout and they split up, everyone would want to be on the Diana side of the fence. Now everybody says people don't mind if they get Kate or William because William has star quality in his own right." William appears to have chosen a confident and beautiful woman, equal to his late mother in her prime. Now royal watchers wait in anticipation to see if Kate becomes another "People's Princess."http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/royal-wedding-shows-dianas-influence-lives-on/27581http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/royal-wedding-shows-dianas-influence-lives-on/2758127 04 2011 23:08:00 +0000Time may be running out much faster than we thought for the United States. In just five years, China may lay claim to the title “World’s Largest Economy”. This is not coming from China fearmongers or doomsayers – this is according to the International Monetary Fund and its new GDP forecasts. The numbers: China’s gross domestic product will rocket $8 trillion in the next five years to $19 trillion. The U.S. GDP will grow $3.5 trillion in the same timeframe to $18.8 trillion. And it will be in that year - 2016 - that China's slice of world output will start to edge past the United States': 18% versus 17.7%. In the years after, that gap is forecast to widen. So how can this be? And so soon? Especially after numerous prior estimates have forecast China’s #1 status to occur in the 2020s, if not 2050? Well, the IMF has based its predictions on numbers for purchasing power parity, or PPP. This gauges the strength of China's domestic consumption, which is then compared to that in the U.S. The famous Big Mac index is based on this. That operates on the notion that the iconic McDonald’s burger should cost the same in each of the more than 120 countries it’s produced. If a Big Mac costs less in another country, then that country’s currency is considered undervalued. This year, you’ll pay 40% less for a Big Mac in China than in the United States. Digest the implications of that morsel as you keep reading. I interviewed Frederic Neumann, HSBC’s Managing Director of Asian Economics Research, here in Hong Kong. He confirmed PPP is one credible way to measure GDP, but that there are also other credible ways. Those 'other' ways, he says, show that China’s path to economic #1 is much longer than the IMF’s forecast leads us to believe. Neumann says U.S. dollar terms are a different way to measure China growth. Using this "it would take much longer for the Chinese economy to overtake the U.S. - probably 2025," And while PPP measures domestic purchasing power, U.S. dollars are a better gauge for purchasing power on the world stage. Per capita income is a third way to measure economic power. The CIA World Factbook estimates that China’s 2010 figure was $7,400, compared with $47,100 for the United States. With this in mind, Neumann says China might not overtake the U.S. until the 2040s or 2050s - a date more in line with past estimates. Regardless, it is not a question of "if" but “when” China - which last year overtook Japan as the world’s second largest economy - will be the world’s biggest economy. Whenever it happens, that day will herald a new dawn for China and the end of an age for America. http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/the-american-age-to-end-in-2016/27565http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/the-american-age-to-end-in-2016/2756527 04 2011 05:04:25 +0000New technology to modernize America's aging air traffic system promises to help air traffic controllers and may have prevented a recent tarmac collision between two aircraft at a New York airport, say experts. As part of its "NextGen" plan to overhaul traffic management, the FAA plans to replace its current radar tracking system by 2020 with a more accurate GPS-based network. With the new technology, pilots and controllers can see surrounding aircraft in real time -- without the 10-second delay that comes with the half-century old radar technology. What's going on with air traffic controllers? GPS-based tracking displays certainly would have had a role to play in preventing the April 11 collision on the tarmac at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, said Bill Voss, former FAA air traffic development director and current president of the Flight Safety Foundation. The incident occurred when a taxiing Air France Airbus A380, widely regarded as the largest commercial airliner, collided with a much smaller Comair Bombardier CRJ-700 regional jet, which was parked. No one was hurt in the collision, but wings on both planes were damaged, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. Video of the incident showed the smaller plane appearing to turn at about a 45 degree angle after the giant Air France jet taxied by. Typically, planes taxiing at airports are tracked by air traffic controllers watching from towers. They use radar and other technology to track aircraft when bad weather makes it hard to see. But during good weather controllers usually follow planes by using their eyes -- even at night. "You'd be surprised -- almost all of this is done with pieces of paper, an eyeball and a pencil," said Voss. "It is a very visual and manual activity." If either the Air France or the Comair pilot had access to a GPS cockpit surface map, the JFK collision might have been avoided, he said. Under NextGen, animated surface maps in the cockpit will be a critical safety improvement, said Voss. Specifically, cockpit displays "might have shown the A380 crew that the regional jet was not pulled up as far as expected," Voss said. "It also may have alerted the regional jet crew that the world's biggest airliner was about to taxi behind them, in which case he might have pulled up a bit further." The NTSB is investigating the incident. Preventing so-called ground incursions such as the JFK collision is high on the NTSB's list of priorities, say aircraft operators. Will air traffic overhaul make us safer? When the entire plan is fully implemented by 2025, NextGen is widely expected to make air travel more efficient, faster and safer in a system already widely accepted as the safest in the world. Asleep at the switch It has been a tough few weeks for the FAA, as officials have acknowledged a series of reports about controllers sleeping on the job, prompting questions about worker fatigue, staffing and scheduling. "What Next Generation does require us to do is to really work closely with our controllers in deployment so that we can ensure that they are properly equipped and trained to take on these new technologies," said FAA Deputy Administrator Michael Huerta. Huerta's boss, FAA administrator Randy Babbitt has acknowledged the situation has left him "infuriated." The string of reports about controllers asleep at the switch began March 23, when an American Airlines flight was seeking landing clearance at Washington's Reagan National Airport. Pilots and a regional air traffic controller were unable to contact anyone at Reagan's tower, so pilots landed the airliner safely without assistance. The FAA later said the controller was asleep and was "in the process of a disciplinary proceeding which will terminate this employee." How are controllers trained? Video In that situation, NextGen technology wouldn't set off "any special bells or whistles to wake anyone up, unless they start mounting a cattle prod to it or something." joked Voss. Living the life of an air traffic controller A cockpit display showing the location of the incoming plane and any surrounding aircraft would go a long way toward reassuring a pilot left stranded without a controller, said Voss. Air traffic control hinges on 'human factor' It is designed to improve teamwork between pilots and air traffic controllers, say aviation officials. It's not at all meant to replace controllers. "It offers another layer of protection," he said. "However, we don't know if those other aircraft can see the pilot's plane -- that's the incremental difference. You still really do need to have a controller and a landing clearance." Shifting roles and responsibilities Does having a cockpit display lessen the importance of the air traffic controller? No, said Melvin S. Davis, top NextGen official at the National Air Traffic Controllers Association union. It won't make the job easier, just more efficient, he said. "Human capacity remains about the same, but the amount of machines moving through the system based on that human's capacity increases." Davis said it's time to do away with the old fashioned paper-and-pencil flight strip markings that controllers in towers have been using to track aircraft for decades. "Those are things that should be done digitally that aren't," he said. Aviation leaders are quick to point out the nation's impressive commercial airline safety record in 2010: zero fatal crashes. Will NextGen help controllers battle fatigue? "It is far too early to tell fatigue-wise how the interaction with the new systems of tomorrow will differ from the systems that we deal with today,' said Davis. "But those are things that are being explored and developed as we speak." As in many industries, air traffic controllers with more experience often look down their noses about the abilities of the younger generation. The best controllers, they say, maintain a constantly moving mental picture of all their air traffic -- what they call situation awareness. Maintaining situation awareness is critical to aviation safety, especially if there's a problem with the tracking technology. Privately, controllers have expressed concern that younger controllers may be too reliant on technology when tracking their planes -- and not as reliant on their situation awareness as they should be. NextGen technology may have helped a recent air traffic control incident involving first lady Michelle Obama, Voss said. The plane the first lady was flying on, a military version of a Boeing 737, was approaching Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland when it came too close to another aircraft. Controllers directed the first lady's pilot to abort the landing. Neither plane was ever in any danger, officials said. GPS-based tracking might have given the controller more time to adjust the flight path of the first lady's plane, said Voss. This is because there would be virtually no delay on the display screen, compared to old-style radar. Airline traffic is expected to skyrocket to 1 billion annual passengers by 2021. But during the recession, the nation's aging air traffic system has enjoyed a reprieve in the form of sagging ridership. It's an opportunity to improve safety that shouldn't be missed, said Voss. "The only question is can we get enough done during this reprieve to start tightening up the airways."http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/can-technology-fix-the-faas-air-traffic-troubles/27564http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/can-technology-fix-the-faas-air-traffic-troubles/2756427 04 2011 05:03:33 +0000Like the energy source itself, it's the question that won't go away: what can be done with spent nuclear fuel? Sweden believes it has the answer. The plan is to bury the country's expected 12,000 tons of nuclear waste in corrosion-resistant copper canisters under 500 meters of crystalline bedrock. There it will remain isolated from human contact for at least 100,000 years. The idea, which still needs final approval, was developed by Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management company (SKB) -- a collective of Sweden's nuclear power companies. After three decades of research, SKB believes that Osthammar in central Sweden is the perfect final resting place for the country's nuclear waste. Not only is the 1.9 billion-year-old bedrock ideal says SKB, but the locals are largely in favor of the plan and it is close to the nuclear power plant at Forsmark. I grew up not far from the Forsmark nuclear power plant. In school they took us on tours of the facility and many friends' parents worked at the plant. The region also has a long history of mining and ironworks, so having the nuclear industry as neighbor was nothing strange. My parents still live there, and recently my mother got a call from a researcher asking her what she thought of the planned repository. "Do you trust the authorities to solve the problem today in your neighborhood, or do you want to wait for a better technology and leave the waste to future generations who did not actually benefit from the nuclear power?" she was asked. The latest poll showed that 88% of Osthammar residents are in favor of having the storage site in their community. Swedes have a complicated relationship to nuclear power. Following the Three Mile Island incident in the U.S. in 1979, Sweden voted to shut down all its nuclear reactors by 2010. However the decision was overturned by a new government and only two reactors were decommissioned. Today Sweden's 10 nuclear reactors produce almost half of the country's electricity. Sweden has so far accumulated more than 5,000 tons of spent fuel. It is stored in a bright blue water tank, 40 meters underground in the southern city of Oskarshamn. But even though the radiation is shielded by eight meters of water, this facility has to be monitored 24 hours a day, every day of the year. "And we will certainly not do that for the next 100,000 years," Brita Freudenthal, SKB's guide at the facility told me. After a few mishaps in the early stages of looking for a community that would be willing to accept the final repository, SKB started visiting the locals in their homes to have a face-to-face dialogue over some coffee and biscuits. "The women talk more about the water, if they can eat the berries in the forest, if they can eat the moose they hunt. Men are more interested in the technology, if the canister will be safe. If there is a question, I've heard it," said Saida Laârouchi Engstrom from SKB. Erik and Catharina Waernulf live in Forsmark with their four young children. "SKB are very good at giving information" Catharina said. "I think the closer you live the less scared you are. The waste has to be stored somewhere, so why not here?" Erik added. For the mayor of Osthammar, Jacob Spangenberg, whether or not to accept the repository has nothing to do with the new investment and the new jobs it would generate. "This is a possibility for our nation and our society to solve a very, very difficult problem," he said. The industry's application is now undergoing a thorough review by the Swedish authorities. Mayor Spangenberg has the ultimate right of veto if he is not satisfied with the results. There was another community, Oskarshamn, that also wanted the repository, but SKB's geological surveys showed that the bedrock was much safer near Forsmark. But if the application doesn't go through, or Osthammar doesn't accept the results of the review, what is Sweden going to do with the waste? It's a tricky question that not only this Nordic country has to face. http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/the-town-that-wants-nuclear-waste/27525http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/the-town-that-wants-nuclear-waste/2752525 04 2011 18:41:35 +0000Whoever said television was a glamorous business obviously hasn’t been assigned the job of pitching up a tent and sleeping on the sidewalks of central London for nearly a week. In anticipation for Friday’s royal wedding, I’ll be joining other die-hard royal fans by camping out on the Mall in front of Buckingham Palace starting Tuesday. Armed with only a tent, a sleeping bag, some necessary supplies and of course a camera and laptop, I’ll be bringing you the behind-the-scenes story of what it’s actually like to join people from all over the world in a make-shift tent city. We want to share their experiences with you so you can get a real sense of what it’s like there on the ground. It’ll be my job to speak to royal fans and find out why they want to camp out for the best spot to see the ceremonial procession and of course the first kiss between Prince William and soon-to-be Princess Kate. I have no idea who to expect to see pitching up a tent next to me – is it going to be a group of monarchists that are my grandmother’s age or will it be much more of a party atmosphere. It’ll also be interesting to see where people are coming from – whether it’s from Commonwealth countries like Canada and Australia or if Americans are the ones who will make their presence known. It’s all part of the big mystery of the coming week. Speaking of mystery, I still haven’t given any real though to some basic necessities of how to live by the side of the road. I’m not quite sure where I will get water from or what I’ll be eating. Someone in the CNN London bureau joked that I should stock up on tinned beans and cans of spam, but there are some things I just won’t do. I’m just hoping that I’m lucky and have some friends that might want to pop over with some fast food. Someone also recommended ordering pizzas – not quite sure what I would say is my address though. Of course there will be other interesting elements that pop up throughout the course of the week, from camping etiquette to how to stay clean! Now I’ll need something to do so throughout the week I’ll be doing live interviews with my laptop as well as packaging up an interesting story each and every day that will be featured on CNN. I’ll also be blogging about my adventures throughout the course of the day so be sure to stay connected with me online and on the television.http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/roughing-it-for-the-royal-wedding/27524http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/roughing-it-for-the-royal-wedding/2752425 04 2011 18:40:15 +0000China has ordered its banks to conduct stress tests to see how they would be affected if property prices fell by up to 50 per cent, in a sign of growing official unease about the overheated real estate market. The tests are more stringent and factor in a larger drop in prices than earlier ones conducted in the past two years. This comes after predictions from prominent Chinese analysts of 20-30 per cent property price declines this year. Analysts said previous tests looked only at the effect of housing price declines on loans to developers and mortgage borrowers, and disregarded the effect on loans collateralised by land and real estate. This resulted in an overly optimistic assessment of their exposure to a serious property market correction. "If property prices drop 50 per cent we would be in big trouble; it would mean a hard landing for the economy," according to Wang Tao, chief China economist at UBS Securities. UBS recently described the Chinese property market as the single most important sector in the entire global economy because of the overwhelming importance of real estate construction to China's growth model and, by extension, global commodity demand. Ms Wang said a crash in the real estate market could have a huge effect on developers, cement companies, steel producers and consumer purchases of items such as cars and appliances, which are closely correlated to property sales. For now, prices are still rising in China despite more than a year of government policies to cool the sector and bring down prices that are well out of reach of most of the population. Property transaction volume across the whole country increased in the first quarter of the year from the same period a year earlier but a closer look at data shows a steep decline in March in the 10 largest cities, which often lead the rest of the country. Transaction volume collapsed 40 per cent from a year earlier in China's 10 largest cities in March following a 33 per cent increase in the first two months, according to Du Jinsong, a real estate analyst at Credit Suisse. Mr Du forecasts a 5-10 per cent decline in real estate prices in China this year, accompanied by a 15 per cent dfal in transaction volume but he said most Chinese analysts were predicting a 20-30 per cent decline in prices this year. Officials say about 20 per cent of all Chinese bank lending has gone directly to mortgage borrowers or property developers but a huge proportion of loans to other borrowers are backed by land as collateral. China's banking regulator said it had asked banks to test the effect of 50 per cent price drops in cities with the fastest price increases, but in cities where prices had not risen as much banks were required to test for price drops of 40 per cent, 30 per cent or less. Officials were quick to point out the stress tests were not a prediction by the regulator or an indication of the government's expectations. Beijing has introduced a series of measures since last year to slow soaring prices, including raising interest rates, raising down-payment requirements, directly restricting home purchases, imposing price control targets and levying a trial real estate tax in Shanghai and Chongqing, two of China's biggest cities.http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/china-broadens-stress-tests-for-banks/27498http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/china-broadens-stress-tests-for-banks/2749824 04 2011 18:54:13 +0000(Mashable) -- Call it Cloudgate, Cloudpocalyse or whatever you'd like, but the extended collapse of Amazon Elastic Cloud Compute (EC2) is both a setback for cloud computing and an opportunity for us to figure out how to stop it from happening again. Amazon may be best-known for its online shopping site, but it also has a substantial cloud computing business. It provides a scalable, flexible and particularly efficient solution for companies to store and deliver massive amounts of content. Its model of only paying for what you consume was a radical innovation when it launched in 2006. In fact, Amazon Web Services has been so affordable and reliable that thousands of companies from Foursquare to Netflix utilize the company's cloud computing technology and servers to run their businesses. They put their faith in Amazon's cloud because there was no reason to think that it would falter. One of cloud computing's key tenants is reliability through redundancy of both servers and data centers. Then on Wednesday, Amazon's northern Virginia data center started experiencing problems that caused major latency and connectivity issues. The trouble was apparently due to excessive re-mirroring of its Elastic Block Storage (EBS) volumes -- this essentially created countless new backups of the EBS volumes that took up Amazon's storage capacity and triggered a cascading effect that caused downtime on hundreds (or more likely thousands) of websites for almost 24 hours. The collapse took its share of victims. Among the most prominent companies affected were Foursquare, Quora, Hootsuite, SCVNGR, Heroku, Reddit and Wildfire, though hundreds of other companies big and small were affected. Luckily, one of Amazon's most prominent customers, Netflix, didn't experience problems because it's built for the loss of an entire data center, while companies relying on Amazon's four other global data centers didn't experience too many issues. A learning moment FathomDB founder Justin Santa Barbara has a detailed post on his blog about what may be the biggest problem to come out of this week's collapse: Amazon's cloud redundancies failed to stop a mass outage. Its Availability Zones are supposed to be able to fail independently without bringing the whole system down. Instead, there was a single point of failure that shouldn't have been there. This week's disaster in the cloud is a reminder to startups to build redundancy into their applications and their own systems, but as Santa Barbara points out, most startups don't have the time or resources to engineer for multiple cloud systems (each Amazon global region/data center has its own rules and features, making a simple "switch" to another center difficult). These companies trusted Amazon to keep them online, and Amazon failed to deliver. Catastrophic issues will always occur, but in the pre-cloud era, downtime only affected a single computer or website. Today, a catastrophic event takes down thousands of websites, causing millions or even billions of dollars in lost revenue and productivity. This incident is no reason for us to shun cloud computing, though. Its benefits (scalability, cost reduction, device independence, performance and more) far outweigh its cons. We do need to take a hard look at how we structure our cloud infrastructure though and find new ways to either prevent single points of failure or quickly move content off failing clouds faster, especially as the world's computing power is consolidated into fewer and fewer systems. Cloud computing is still in its infancy, and today's events make it clear that we still have a lot of work to do. It could be a whole lot worse next time if we aren't prepared. http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/learning-from-amazons-cloud-collapse/27497http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/learning-from-amazons-cloud-collapse/2749724 04 2011 18:52:46 +0000It was two years in the making for a television crew to get access inside one of the holiest sites of the Greek Orthodox world, the monasteries on Mount Athos in Greece. The cluster of 20 monasteries has remained perched on the cliffs high above the Aegean Sea for centuries. In the monasteries, also known collectively as the Holy Mountain or The Garden of the Mother of God, the monks spend most of their time in prayer and are purposefully isolated from the outside world. "A woman hasn't been allowed on the mountain for over a thousand years," said Bob Simon, correspondent for CBS News' "60 Minutes." That prohibition against women even extends to animals, with the exception of cats who pull double duty as rodent control. The only food the monks import is cheese - because it comes from cows. Otherwise they all grow their own food on the island. "The whole purpose of [the monks] being there is to be away from the outside world to a remarkable extent. Monks have spent decades there without spending a day off the island," he said. "Technically it's a peninsula, but they don't have newspapers or television or radio or women, and the whole idea is to just devote themselves entirely to prayer, so they're really not interested with what goes on in the outside world and they don't want to get involved in it." Simon thinks the only reason he and his crew were granted access to the monks, many of whom had never done interviews, was a story they did on the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the leader of the global community of 300 million Greek Orthodox Christians. Simon said the interview was received well, especially in the United States. "I think [the Patriarch] sort of leaned on the monks to say, 'Hey, we're OK, let them in,' but he has no executive authority the way the pope does, he can just make recommendations," Simon said. But even with that recommendation from on high, it still took several years to work out the shoot. Just getting to the monasteries is chore. First you have to get to Thessaloniki in Greece. "From Thessaloniki you take a long drive, about three hours on roads that are not great. Then you wind up in this place that is, I think I called it scruffy in the script, then you take a ferry. The only trouble is the waters between this town and Mount Athos are really rough," Simon said. He said his producers got stuck in the town for three days while they waited for a day where the waters were calm enough to travel to the peninsula. "There may be a forest or mountain somewhere that hasn't changed in the last 1,500 years, but in terms of an inhabited place, I don't think there's any place that has changed so little as Mount Athos," he said. During World War II, Mount Athos came under the personal protection of Hitler when the Nazis invaded Greece. At the advice of German officers, the monks wrote Hitler and asked for the protection, which he provided. The monks told Simon that Hitler was planning to pillage the monasteries for their art treasures, even going so far as to send officers to photograph more than 1,000 works of art. But they said Hitler got bogged down in Russia and never removed any of the art. Simon said in the course of their centuries-old tradition on the mountain, the monks viewed it as just a speed bump. "They have no connection with our world. Their only consideration is to survive to keep the mountain going, because it is the most sacred spot on the world as far as they are concerned. It is a place [where] a life of prayer is more effective than anywhere else. So sure the Nazis threatened them, but over the centuries they been threatened by everybody."http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/inside-an-ancient-monastery/27495http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/inside-an-ancient-monastery/2749524 04 2011 12:08:03 +0000Opening night for the Passion of the Christ re-enactment in Rio de Janeiro's famous Cidade de Deus neighborhood Friday night was a little different. Instead of a Jesus with long strands of hair crucified, the packed theater saw the Son of God in dreadlocks being burned alive inside tires, in a torture by known by drug traffickers as "microwave." Directed and written by Adilson Dias, the play modernizes the words in one of religion's most well-known biblical stories and brings it home for a community surrounded by drug traffic and crime. All 15 actors, ages 18 to 30, had some connection with Rio's drug traffic. Some were victims who lost their families to the drug violence, others were dealers before becoming actors. The company works together to keep each other accountable and out of trouble. In this story, the messiah is a young missionary trying to evangelize a group of delinquent youths amidst drugs, heavy artillery and the dangers of everyday life in the slums. At the last supper, drugs are shared before the bread. "I truly believe that if Jesus were alive today, humanity would find a way, with a cross or without, for him not to be alive," Dias said. When he grew up in the slums, he was told, 'Here (in the slums), only Jesus saves.' I then began to imagine Jesus getting here. What he would find today." Dias' relationship with religion and culture began in the streets. He "lived" in front of the Candelaria Church and used cultural centers for drinking water. Fast-forward a couple of decades. The now nonpracticing yet devout Catholic says he has the utmost respect for the words of Jesus. "Thankfully, I live in a country that allows for freedom of expression even in the areas that are most impacted by social and economical inequalities," he said. Dias' Theater Company Provocation will stage the play "Another Passion" for three nights at the Cidade de Deus before starting a monthlong journey through other smaller communities in Rio. Two filmmakers have expressed interest in turning the play a movie, Dias told CNN. Brazil is heavily Catholic, but the Archdiocese of Rio De Janero has made no official comment on the play. E-mails and phone calls by CNN to the archdiocese have not yet been answered. Dias says he's heard a handful of negative comments from a few religious communities in the area, but he tells CNN there have been no large-scale protests or retaliation against his play. He says he would welcome and value it if clergy came to watch his play.http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/in-rios-reimagined-passion-play-drug-lords-kill-christ/27494http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/in-rios-reimagined-passion-play-drug-lords-kill-christ/2749424 04 2011 12:06:56 +0000Editor's note: Robert Mahoney is deputy director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent, nonprofit organization working to defend press freedom worldwide. Mahoney has worked as a reporter and bureau chief for Reuters, reporting on politics and economics. He has covered conflicts such as the civil war in Liberia, the Palestinian intifada, the Iraqi missile attacks on Israel and the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. (CNN) -- It is a bitter irony that Chris Hondros, the prize-winning photographer killed in Libya on Wednesday alongside Oscar-nominated photojournalist Tim Hetherington, was to due to speak in New York next week on the dangers of covering conflict. I felt honored to be invited to sit on the same panel as him at the International Center of Photography, with other veteran battlefield photographers and their editors. The question for the panelists was essentially, "Covering conflict: Is it worth it?" Each generation of journalists finds its own answers to that deceptively simple question. Advances in picture and audio technology, coupled with warp-speed mobile communications, have transformed newsgathering. But the essentials of sketching out the first draft of history, whether in words or in images, are the same. The only way to capture the truth is to get close to it. Despite powerful telephoto lenses, conflict photographers still work much like Robert Capa, who used a simple Contax camera to capture the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s. Hetherington and Hondros, who won the Robert Capa Gold Medal for his work in Iraq, understood the catalyzing power of the still image. Their work freezes the flow of blood or tears on a human face, rendering the real cost of fighting in Afghanistan, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. They knew that a single image, like the napalmed Vietnamese girl running from her burning village, can crystallize a whole war. That is why they were in the thick of bullets and mortar bombs in Misrata. Now, unfortunately, they join a tragically high honor roll of journalists who have given their lives to bear witness. The Committee to Protect Journalists has documented the deaths of 861 journalists over the past two decades. In that period, 150 have been killed directly in combat. Of those, about half were photojournalists or camera operators. Last year, 40% of journalists who died in the line of duty were killed in combat-related crossfire and in dangerous assignments such as street protests. And this year, because of the uprisings in the Middle East, 12 of the 16 journalists killed worldwide have died covering combat or on dangerous assignments. Libya, with four combat deaths and brutal detentions of journalists, is especially dangerous for the press. The fighting is chaotic, with fluid or nonexistent front lines. Irregulars, soldiers without uniforms, pro-Gadhafi forces moving among civilians and firing into populated urban areas, all make for a deadly maze through which unprotected journalists must thread a path. Unlike the U.S.-prosecuted wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, journalists in Libya are not embedded with any military. Hetherington and Hondros had worked as both "embeds" and unilaterals, the military jargon for those journalists who go it alone. It was extremely difficult, if not impossible, to cover the fighting in both U.S. theaters without the army. Hetherington turned this to his advantage brilliantly by co-directing the 2010 Oscar-nominated "Restrepo," a film about a year spent on a forward operating base in Afghanistan with U.S. troops. Hetherington and Hondros knew from training and experience how to handle themselves in combat. As a photojournalist, you learn where to stand to shoot, what to wear, how to approach combatants, how to hire a driver, a fixer, an interpreter, how to choose a hotel, and on and on. Any journalist may wear a bulletproof vest and a helmet. But in the end, reporters are exposed. Mortar rounds and rocket-propelled grenades like those whizzing through the streets of Misrata are no respecters of Kevlar chest plates. Hetherington and Hondros were not alone. Two other colleagues with them on the street were wounded in the same attack. Others escaped uninjured. To the east, still other photographers and reporters are missing or in detention, grabbed by pro-Tripoli forces. In the eight weeks since this civil war erupted, the Committee to Protect Journalists has documented more than 80 attacks on the press, including the killing of a cameraman for Al-Jazeera and reporter for Libya Al-Hurra TV. As of today, 17 journalists are missing or in detention, among them three photojournalists: Spaniard Manuel Varela, European Pressphoto Agency; South African Anton Hammerl, Christian Science Monitor; and American James Foley, Global Post. We never will get to hear Chris Hondros' thoughts on covering war next week at the International Center of Photography. He already gave his answer by venturing onto Tripoli Street in Misrata with his camera. http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/journalists-gave-their-lives-to-bear-witness/27448http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/journalists-gave-their-lives-to-bear-witness/2744821 04 2011 23:58:58 +0000Editor's note: "Jaime's China" is a weekly column about Chinese society and politics. Jaime FlorCruz has lived and worked in China since 1971. He studied Chinese history at Peking University (1977-81) and served as TIME Magazine's Beijing correspondent and bureau chief (1982-2000). Beijing, China (CNN) -- In a round-table meeting with government advisers and researchers of a government-run think tank on April 14, Premier Wen Jiabao enjoined them to listen to people's voices and relay these truthfully to top leaders. Wen's call to speak the truth comes at a time when the Chinese authorities are rounding up dissenters and muzzling whistle-blowers. A contradiction? Analysts say Wen's statement is designed to counter public scepticism and to warn officials against lying or pandering to higher ups. Others suggest it may just be part of Beijing's crisis management. A People's Daily commentary explains that Wen's appeal is meant to elicit accurate assessment of the situation so authorities can deal with problems effectively. "I don't think it is in contradiction to the party's crackdown on dissents," says Wenfang Tang, a political science professor at Ohio University. "Wen is trying to promote the legitimacy of the party, at least on the surface, whereas the dissidents want to destroy it." In recent years, China has seen communist governments in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan swept by political turmoil called the "color revolution". Beijing has also watched authoritarian regimes in the Middle East and North Africa toppled by popular uprisings. The fall of these regimes has raised the spectre of a Chinese "jasmine revolution." That does not seem likely--yet. More than 30 years after Chairman Mao's death, the Communist regime has built one of the most successful authoritarian governments in the world, delivering double-digit economic growth while keeping its one-party grip. Still, China's leaders fear outbreaks of luan (chaos). "They are not complacent," says a retired Communist Party official, who declined to be identified. "They may disagree on the ways and means but they agree on one goal that anti-government acts will be nipped in the bud at all cost. They do not care what other people and countries will say." They have good reasons to fret. The country is grappling with high inflation, endemic corruption, growing pollution concerns and a widening gap between the rich and the poor. They fear outbreak of ethnic strife in Tibet and Xinjiang, which experienced bloody street riots in 2008 and 2009, respectively. China's leaders have been trying to ease the pressure. "Their calculation is that if the government can keep the economy growing and jobs and wages increasing, the legitimacy of the CCP will be maintained," says China-watcher Drew Thompson. "But the challenges of growing social injustice, environmental damage and sustaining high economic growth will continue to haunt the leaders." To avoid its own "jasmine revolution," Beijing is taking firm measures to nip dissent in the bud. Police have detained scores of dissidents, including lawyers and prominent artist Ai Weiwei. Censors block Internet and social networking sites like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. At the same time, Chinese leaders try to project a sense of calm and normalcy. Party insiders say this tactic is known as neijin waisong--"tight inside, appearing lax from the outside." At the press conference at the end of the annual session of China's legislature last month, I asked Premier Wen if he thought political reform was urgently needed so the leadership could better address the people's grievances and avert social unrest. The solution, he replied, was political reform--but reform that is gradual and led by the Communist Party. "It's not easy to pursue political restructuring in a country of 1.3 billion people," he said. "It needs to take place in an orderly way, under the leadership of the party." Wen added: "At present, I think the biggest danger lies in corruption, and eliminating the breeding ground of corruption needs systemic and structural reform." Premier Wen is not necessarily pushing for radical political reforms, analysts say. Instead, says the retired Communist Party official, "he advocates transparency and accountability so as to effectively solve problems, avoid chaos and consolidate the Party's leadership." Wen's admirers say he is a reformist at heart. However, he sounds like a lonely voice among China's top leaders. Wu Bangguo, chairman of China's parliament and No. 2 in the party's hierarchy, in March ruled out the possibility of a multi-party democracy in China. Says Professor Wenfang Tang: "The question is whether Wen's effort to promote inner-party democracy will have a spill-over effect on political opposition outside the party. His style is different from Hu Jintao's and other technocrats. He is emotional and immensely popular, likes to appear in front of cameras and create sound bites." Some observers wonder if Wen's pronouncement is just part of a "good cop, bad cop" charade, with Wen playing the reform-minded leader and President Hu Jintao playing the hard liner. But there may be one other reason why the 69-year-old Wen feels freer to speak out in recent months. His two five-year terms will end in March 2013, after which he is expected to go into semi-retirement.http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/chinas-premier-wen-speak-the-truth/27447http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/chinas-premier-wen-speak-the-truth/2744721 04 2011 23:57:35 +0000NEW YORK -- Apple detractors had a lot to moan about this quarter: iPad 2 sales worries, Japanese supply-chain concerns and the rise of Android. But in the end, Steve Jobs and company shut them down with blowout results. After the bell Wednesday, Apple posted earnings of $6.40 per share on revenue of $24.67 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $5.37 on sales of $23.38 billion. Sales rose 83% from the same period a year ago, while profits nearly doubled. Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) shares rose 2.7% in after-hours trading. That likely surprised critics who had been abuzz about things that might have gone wrong in the quarter. Ahead of the earnings release, many media outlets posted articles iPad 2 concerns that arose from language in a legal complaint that Apple filed against Samsung this week. "A lot of people's sentiments were negative going into the quarter," said Jeff Fidacaro, senior equity research analyst at Susquehanna Financial Group. "But the numbers came in well above what detractors expected." iPad: Tablet sales did miss Wall Street expectations. Apple sold 4.69 million iPads during the quarter, while analysts were expecting about 6.3 million. But on a post-earnings conference call with analysts, Apple chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer insisted that the iPad issues were due to supply, not demand. "We sold every iPad 2 we were able to make this quarter," Oppenheimer said. In the same call, Apple chief operating officer Tim Cook called the iPad 2 supply/demand issue "the mother of all backlogs." Fidacaro said "it's not uncommon to see that happen" with a hot new product, and "it's bullish to the demand far outstripping supply." Oppenheimer also said the iPad is generating strong interest from business customers. Around 75% of Fortune 500 companies have deployed or are testing the tablet for their employees, he said. Brushing off Japan concerns: The second major worry from critics was supply-chain effects of the tsunami in Japan. On the conference call, Cook said that the crisis didn't disrupt the company's performance in the second quarter. Apple "does not anticipate any material supply or cost" issues next quarter as a result of the Japan tragedy, he said. But he noted that "the situation is still uncertain, and therefore unpredictable." How's Steve? An analyst on the conference call noted it was "great" to see Apple CEO Steve Jobs at the iPad 2 launch in March, and he asked about the status of Jobs' medical leave. Cook said Jobs is still on leave, though "we see him often. And he continues to be involved in major strategic decisions." iPhones, iPods and Macs: Apple also announced that it sold a record 18.65 million iPhones in the quarter, up 113% from last year. That followed the smartphone's February release on the Verizon (VZ, Fortune 500) Wireless network. The iPhone figures are especially important to Apple, Fidacaro said, because their profit margins are higher than those of the iPad. The company sold 3.76 million Mac computers in the quarter, up 32% from a year ago. But the iPod business continues to slow. Although Apple sold more than 9 million of its music players, that was down 17% from the same period last year. Outlook: Apple said it expects earnings of $5.03 per share on revenue of $23 billion for the third quarter. The company typically provides a conservative outlook for the current quarter. Analysts are currently expecting earnings of $5.25 a share and sales of $23.8 billion. Last quarter was Apple's best-ever, with revenue of $26.7 billion driven by holiday iPad and iPhone sales that easily topped forecasts. Apple's $6 billion profit also set a new record. Apple stock briefly dipped into negative territory for 2011 on Monday, dropping below $322 a share for the first time since December. The stock has recovered since then, closing on Wednesday at about $342.http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/apple-earnings-nearly-double/27422http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/apple-earnings-nearly-double/2742220 04 2011 20:07:31 +0000NEW YORK -- Apple detractors had a lot to moan about this quarter: iPad 2 sales worries, Japanese supply-chain concerns and the rise of Android. But in the end, Steve Jobs and company shut them down with blowout results. After the bell Wednesday, Apple posted earnings of $6.40 per share on revenue of $24.67 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $5.37 on sales of $23.38 billion. Sales rose 83% from the same period a year ago, while profits nearly doubled. Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) shares rose 2.7% in after-hours trading. That likely surprised critics who had been abuzz about things that might have gone wrong in the quarter. Ahead of the earnings release, many media outlets posted articles iPad 2 concerns that arose from language in a legal complaint that Apple filed against Samsung this week. "A lot of people's sentiments were negative going into the quarter," said Jeff Fidacaro, senior equity research analyst at Susquehanna Financial Group. "But the numbers came in well above what detractors expected." iPad: Tablet sales did miss Wall Street expectations. Apple sold 4.69 million iPads during the quarter, while analysts were expecting about 6.3 million. But on a post-earnings conference call with analysts, Apple chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer insisted that the iPad issues were due to supply, not demand. "We sold every iPad 2 we were able to make this quarter," Oppenheimer said. In the same call, Apple chief operating officer Tim Cook called the iPad 2 supply/demand issue "the mother of all backlogs." Fidacaro said "it's not uncommon to see that happen" with a hot new product, and "it's bullish to the demand far outstripping supply." Oppenheimer also said the iPad is generating strong interest from business customers. Around 75% of Fortune 500 companies have deployed or are testing the tablet for their employees, he said. Brushing off Japan concerns: The second major worry from critics was supply-chain effects of the tsunami in Japan. On the conference call, Cook said that the crisis didn't disrupt the company's performance in the second quarter. Apple "does not anticipate any material supply or cost" issues next quarter as a result of the Japan tragedy, he said. But he noted that "the situation is still uncertain, and therefore unpredictable." How's Steve? An analyst on the conference call noted it was "great" to see Apple CEO Steve Jobs at the iPad 2 launch in March, and he asked about the status of Jobs' medical leave. Cook said Jobs is still on leave, though "we see him often. And he continues to be involved in major strategic decisions." iPhones, iPods and Macs: Apple also announced that it sold a record 18.65 million iPhones in the quarter, up 113% from last year. That followed the smartphone's February release on the Verizon (VZ, Fortune 500) Wireless network. The iPhone figures are especially important to Apple, Fidacaro said, because their profit margins are higher than those of the iPad. The company sold 3.76 million Mac computers in the quarter, up 32% from a year ago. But the iPod business continues to slow. Although Apple sold more than 9 million of its music players, that was down 17% from the same period last year. Outlook: Apple said it expects earnings of $5.03 per share on revenue of $23 billion for the third quarter. The company typically provides a conservative outlook for the current quarter. Analysts are currently expecting earnings of $5.25 a share and sales of $23.8 billion. Last quarter was Apple's best-ever, with revenue of $26.7 billion driven by holiday iPad and iPhone sales that easily topped forecasts. Apple's $6 billion profit also set a new record. Apple stock briefly dipped into negative territory for 2011 on Monday, dropping below $322 a share for the first time since December. The stock has recovered since then, closing on Wednesday at about $342.http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/apple-earnings-nearly-double/27421http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/apple-earnings-nearly-double/2742120 04 2011 20:07:13 +0000Apple devices appear to be tracking their owners' locations and storing data about people's whereabouts without their knowledge, according to a report posted Wednesday on a site called iPhone Tracker. The unauthorized surveillance started in June 2010, when the latest version of Apple's mobile operating system was released, according to two researchers who say they discovered a hidden tracking file and posted it out of concern for users. Apple has not responded to the allegations. The researchers have posted a program online that will let any iPhone user see a map of his or her location over time, going back to June, when iOS 4.0 was released. The program's developers, listed as Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden, say this data is stored on a person's iPhone or 3G-enabled iPad and on computers that are synced with those devices. There's no evidence, they say, that the data is also transmitted to Apple as it's collected. "Cell phone providers collect similar data almost inevitably as part of their operations, but it's kept behind their firewall. It normally requires a court order to gain access to it, whereas this is available to anyone who can get their hands on your phone or computer," they write. "By passively logging your location without your permission, Apple have made it possible for anyone from a jealous spouse to a private investigator to get a detailed picture of your movements." The location data appear to be collected at random intervals over time, using cell phone towers to triangulate approximate locations, they write. They say these data are stored in a file named "consolidated.db," and that it's "unclear" why Apple would collect this information. "One guess might be that they have new features in mind that require a history of your location, but that's pure speculation. The fact that it's transferred across devices when you restore or migrate is evidence the data-gathering isn't accidental," they write on the iPhone Tracker site. Some iPhone users expressed outrage at the news. Sam Biddle, an editor at Gizmodo, used the downloadable program to map out his recent whereabouts, which he says was a frightening experience. "This is a map of everywhere I've been for the last months. Everywhere," he writes on that tech site. "I didn't carry around a tracking device. The FBI isn't sending goons in unmarked vans to track me. All I did was use an iPhone." He adds: "The data itself is jarringly accurate. Even though it appears to rely on tower triangulation rather than GPS pinpointing (meaning you're not safe with location services switched off), the map I was able to generate with mapping software the security duo released visualizes my life since the day I bought my iPhone 4 in July. Everywhere I've been. Bus trips home. Train trips to visit family. Vacations. Places I'd forgotten I'd even gone. Zoom in on that giant blotch over New York, and you can see my travels, block by block. "My entire personal and professional life -- documented by a phone I didn't know was also a tracking device. It's all accessible -- where I've been, and when. I don't really have anything to hide, which is why I don't mind sharing the map. But it's just not right to have no choice in the matter; I don't want this information bouncing around in my pocket with me." Others, including Forbes writer Kashmir Hill, wonder if this feature is "cool or creepy." She decides on "cool," writing that the program is "like a persistent, pervasive, secret location-diary."http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/report-iphones-secretly-track-their-users-locations/27420http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/report-iphones-secretly-track-their-users-locations/2742020 04 2011 20:04:57 +0000Palo Alto, California (CNN) -- President Barack Obama wasn't just in the news Wednesday. He's also in your news feed. The White House held a "town hall" at Facebook's headquarters, where the president answered questions before a small audience about the economy and the federal deficit. The event was broadcast live, available to Facebook's more than 500 million users. Facebook representatives chose questions from among the queries submitted in advance by audience members and by people tuning in on the Web. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg moderated. After some palling around between the president and the 26-year-old computer whiz, Zuckerberg offered questions submitted online that gelled with Obama's key talking points and victories, such as health care and education. Facebook employees, who made up the majority of the audience, were chosen to ask several questions. During Wednesday's Facebook visit, Obama at times related his answers to the young and technology-savvy crowds most passionate about Facebook. Obama pleaded that they "don't get frustrated and cynical about our democracy," he said. "If you don't give the system a push, it's just not going to change. And you're going to be the ones who suffer the consequences." This event marks the second of three "town hall" events Obama has scheduled this week to take questions on the economy and White House deficit-reduction proposals. During a similar event Tuesday in Virginia, Obama delivered campaign-style messages that emphasized what he called his balanced approach to reducing federal deficits and lowering the national debt. He's also scheduled to appear Thursday at a town-hall meeting in Reno, Nevada. "The president is looking forward to visiting Facebook and speaking directly to the American people about his plan for responsibly bringing down the deficit and continuing on the path to economic recovery," White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement before the event. "This is a part of our effort to hear from the American people." The president's blitz comes as Congress faces two major fiscal issues in coming months: passing a budget for fiscal year 2012, which begins October 1, and raising the federal debt ceiling so the government can continue meeting its obligations. "There are things that we do that we can afford not to do," Obama said Wednesday, citing cutbacks on government spending, especially in the Pentagon. "We made cuts in every area." Obama's plan, which is at odds with proposals by congressional Republicans, calls for an end to tax cuts for the rich, further reforms to Medicare and Medicaid and a reduction in military spending. Republicans are demanding significant fiscal reforms, such as a balanced budget amendment and mandatory spending caps. Discussing his tax-reform proposal onstage, Obama ribbed Zuckerberg, pointing out that the Facebook founder would have to pay more. Zuckerberg is estimated to be worth $13.5 billion, according to data from Forbes. By letting Facebook choose the questions for Obama at its town hall, the White House elected not to use a technology -- created by Facebook's rival, Google -- it has employed online in the past by letting citizens vote on each other's questions. With that system, questions sometimes strayed from key talking points and to tangential topics such as marijuana legalization. Obama didn't mention Google, but he did praise Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates's foundation for work in education, as well as Intel in a question about immigration. "We don't want them starting Intel in China, or starting Intel in France. We want them here," he said.http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/obama-targets-youth-tech-crowd-at-facebook-town-hall/27419http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/obama-targets-youth-tech-crowd-at-facebook-town-hall/2741920 04 2011 20:02:34 +0000Okavango Delta, Botswana (CNN) -- Each year, the heart of Botswana turns from parched savannah into rich wetland, and the Okavango Delta springs to life. The natural phenomenon draws in thousands of tourists from around the world hoping to catch a glimpse of this changing landscape. The annual flooding has been described as a miracle. Yearly rains from the highlands of Angola take an 800-kilometer journey downstream, finally reaching Botswana's Okavango Delta three months later. As the landscape dramatically transforms from desert to wetland, nature bursts into life and visitors begin to arrive in the area. In Botswana, Okavango tourism is second to only diamond mining as a foreign-exchange earner. In the middle of the Delta is Maun airport and as the tourist season begins it is about to become one of the busiest landing strips in Southern Africa. "Most of the tourists who visit the Okavango come in by air into Maun and then they need to get out to these small bush camps and the only planes who can take them there are small bush planes," explained pilot Adam Hedges. It takes four to six weeks from when the waters arrive to complete the transformation from desert to wetland. As the area is reborn the sheer amount of water in the world's largest inland delta will form an estimated 150,000 islands. "It's a very seasonal place," Hedges said. "It's a pulse wetland so a huge wave of water comes in and is slowed down by the hundreds of square kilometers of papyrus and this wave takes about three to four months to reach Maun," he added. "You can see the Delta changing as it comes through." As Botswana enters its dry season the Delta's water level will reach its peak, fueled by rainwater that has traveled from Angola. "In Botswana we have maybe an average of 450 millimeters a year (of) rain on the Delta itself. In the highland of Angola they have more like 1,500 millimeters a year, so it's about three times as much rainfall and that flow that comes from the rainfall is what sustains the Delta itself here," explained wetland ecologist Mike Murray Hudson. Hudson was born in Botswana and has made a career out of studying the floods. "It's a slow and creeping and nutrient life-bringing pulse of water that comes into the Delta every year and people have been living with it for thousands of years," he said. While life in the Delta depends on this seasonal pulse, experts like Hudson say that year to year, water levels and its movement can be unpredictable. "It's a lot higher in the last couple of years and that's why you can't see the sandbanks as easily," said Hedges. "Fifteen to 20 years ago, all this area would have been dry. It used to be a hunting area, but as you can see, most of it is now underwater, which makes operations quite tricky," he continued. With the water comes one of the continent's most magnificent migrations. Elephants, zebras and antelope are just some of the animals that make the trek from the Kalahari Desert in the south to the nutrient rich delta in the north. Safari guide Judge Sango gets up early to search for wildlife before the mid-day heat kicks in. "People need to derive some kind of benefits from the Delta so that they can ultimately look after the Delta, so tourism is a very good business. It's a viable business," Sango said. While the environment may be breathtaking, it isn't always an easy place to work when sometimes a road can become a stream. "We have been receiving heavy downpours and significant flood waters from Angola; it can be a mission, it can be a challenge driving around this area," he said. But by October most of the water will have vanished, 10 billion tons sucked up by the atmosphere. "The water that comes into the Delta never flows out into the sea. It ends up evaporating and pretty much all of the evaporation that takes place, takes place in the Delta itself," Hudson explained. "About 97 or 98% of the water that flows in from Angola goes into the air through the plants and through the trees and in this, it's pretty unique," he continued. In the late 90s Botswana registered the Delta as a wetland of international importance through the Ramsar Convention. It is seen as a sign that the government is serious about conserving its tourism gem. But Sango believes that when it comes to looking after the Delta the local population should be consulted. "I think people need to be engaged, locals need to be directly involved and they need to feel the positive impacts by way of enterprise," he said. "That way we'll see people and the large population keen to conserve and look after the Delta."http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/travelers-flock-to-africas-miracle-oasis/27403http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/travelers-flock-to-africas-miracle-oasis/2740320 04 2011 11:41:31 +0000or much of the past decade, the Iranian government has tolerated what it considers a particularly depraved and un-Islamic vice: the keeping of pet dogs. During periodic crackdowns, police have confiscated dogs from their owners right off the street; and state media has lectured Iranians on the diseases spread by canines. The cleric Gholamreza Hassani, from the city of Urmia, has been satirized for his sermons railing against "short-legged" and "holdable" dogs. But as with the policing of many other practices (like imbibing alcoholic drinks) that are deemed impure by the mullahs but perfectly fine to many Iranians, the state has eventually relaxed and let dog lovers be. (See the top 10 animal stories of 2010.) Those days of tacit acceptance may soon be over, however. Lawmakers in Tehran have recently proposed a bill in parliament that would criminalize dog ownership, formally enshrining its punishment within the country's Islamic penal code. The bill warns that that in addition to posing public health hazards, the popularity of dog ownership "also poses a cultural problem, a blind imitation of the vulgar culture of the West." The proposed legislation for the first time outlines specific punishments for "the walking and keeping" of "impure and dangerous animals," a definition that could feasibly include cats but for the time being seems targeted at dogs. The law would see the offending animal confiscated, the leveling of a $100-to-$500 fine on the owner, but leaves the fate of confiscated dogs uncertain. "Considering the several thousand dogs [that are kept] in Tehran alone, the problem arises as to what is going to happen to these animals," Hooman Malekpour, a veterinarian in Tehran, said to the BBC's Persian service. If passed, the law would ultimately energize police and volunteer militias to enforce the ban systematically. In past years, animal-rights activists in Iran have persuasively argued that sporadic campaigns against dog ownership are politically motivated and unlawful, since the prohibition surfaces in neither the country's civil laws nor its Islamic criminal codes. But if Iran's laws were silent for decades on the question of dogs, that is because the animals — in the capacity of pet — were as irrelevant to daily life as dinosaurs. Islam, by custom, considers dogs najes, or unclean, and for the past century cultural mores kept dog ownership down to minuscule numbers. In rural areas, dogs have traditionally aided shepherds and farmers, but as Iranians got urbanized in the past century, their dogs did not come along. In cities, aristocrats kept dogs for hunting and French-speaking dowagers kept lap dogs for company, but the vast majority of traditional Iranians, following the advice of the clergy, were leery of dogs and considered them best avoided. (Read "Can Animal Rights Go Too Far?") That has changed in the past 15 years with the rise of an urban middle class plugged into and eager to mimic Western culture. Satellite television and Western movies opened up a world where happy children frolicked with dogs in parks and affluent families treated them like adorable children. These days, lap dogs rival designer sunglasses as the upper-middle-class Iranian's accessory of choice. "Global norms and values capture the heart of people all around the world, and Iran is no exception," says Omid Memarian, a prominent Iranian journalist specializing in human rights. "This is very frightening for Iranian officials, who find themselves in a cultural war with the West and see what they're offering as an 'Islamic lifestyle' failing measurably." The widening acceptability of dog ownership, and its popularity among a specific slice of Iran's population — young, urban, educated and frustrated with the Islamic government — partly explains why dogs are now generating more official hostility. In 2007, two years into the tenure of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, security forces targeted dog owners alongside a crackdown on women's attire and men's "Westernized" hairstyles. In the regime's eyes, owning a dog had become on par with wearing capri pants or sporting a mullet — a rebellious act. (See the 140 best Twitter feeds.) The government's tolerance for this low-level lifestyle dissidence fizzled after Ahmadinejad's contested electoral victory in 2009, which sparked massive demonstrations and the most serious challenge to Islamic rule since the 1979 revolution. In the aftermath of that upheaval, the state has moved to tighten its control over a wide range of Iranians' private activities, from establishing NGOs to accessing the Internet, to individual lifestyle decisions, according to Hadi Ghaemi, the director for the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. "No doubt such attempts are motivated by a desire to squash acts of criticism and protests, even if through symbolic individual decisions that simply don't conform to officially sanctioned lifestyles," Ghaemi says. The criminalizing of dogs, in this context, helps the government address the legal gray areas concerning lifestyle behavior. When authorities found it difficult to police what it termed Westernized hairstyles worn by young men, it solved the problem last year by releasing a poster of specifically banned styles. For many young people, these measures are a firm reminder that the government will brook no disobedience, whether it be chanting antigovernment slogans in the streets or sporting excessively long sideburns. Dog owners in Iran, like much of the population, are mostly preoccupied these days with inflation, joblessness and the parlous state of the country's economy. But they will soon need to consider whether keeping their shih tzu or poodle is worth the added worry. Their dogs may face the same fate as the hundreds of street dogs that the government regularly sweeps from the streets of Tehran. "Many in Tehran and other big cities find the killing of street dogs offensive and cruel," says Memarian. "It's like the Iranian people and officials live in two different worlds." http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/the-latest-enemies-of-iran-dogs-and-their-owners/27402http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/the-latest-enemies-of-iran-dogs-and-their-owners/2740220 04 2011 11:40:22 +0000Pripyat, Ukraine (CNN) -- There's an eerie stillness about the desolate buildings and empty streets of Pripyat. From the main square, overgrown with brambles and wild grass, the town looks like an ancient ruin lost in a jungle. Buildings, windows smashed, stand like monolithic giants peering down. On one, an unlit neon sign saying "restaurant" clings onto a rooftop. From another, a hammer and sickle looms over the scene below. I can't think of a single place I've visited that feels so utterly abandoned and lost. The order to evacuate Pripyat came too late. It had been 36 hours since an explosion in Reactor 4 at Chernobyl, on April 26, 1986, had spewed its radioactive debris over the town. Fearing panic, the then Soviet authorities, under Mikhail Gorbachev, ordered Pripyat's citizens to continue life as normal. So, as the world's worst nuclear accident wreaked havoc, searing with radiation all in its path, children in this town went to school and sat through lessons. Couples got married. When the evacuation did get under way, once the scale of disaster could no longer be denied, residents were told they would be back in a few days. They took nothing with them, just documents, some money and some food for the bus ride. Even inside the Soviet Union, the disgraceful way the situation was handled by the authorities was severely criticized. On several occasions since, Gorbachev -- remembered for his perestroika and glasnost reforms -- said he believed Chernobyl was equally responsible for bringing about the collapse of the Soviet Union. Even 25 years on, the problem of Chernobyl has far from gone away. There is debate over how many people died, and how many are still dying, as a result of the calamity. Aid workers told CNN that 140,000 people employed as "liquidators" to clean up the radioactive mess, have died since the accident. It's unclear if this is as a direct result of their exposure to high radiation levels, with the number of deaths attributed to the accident still disputed. Researchers say, apart from the spikes in certain types of cancers, there is evidence of severe anxiety among survivors. Around Chernobyl itself, the government of Ukraine maintains a 30-kilometer exclusion zone. That means an area about the size of Switzerland has been taken out of productive use, having an enormous economic impact. And the impact is unlikely to diminish anytime soon. Nuclear disasters like Chernobyl and Fukushima don't run on a human timeline. Limited numbers of tourists are allowed into the accident zone for brief visits, despite radiation being well above normal. However, scientists say generations may pass before it is entirely safe for people to return.http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/25-years-on-in-chernobyls-shadow/27394http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/25-years-on-in-chernobyls-shadow/2739419 04 2011 22:33:27 +0000Lagos, Nigeria (CNN) -- Roughly 17,000 people fled their homes in eight northern Nigerian states as violence erupted after presidential elections in Africa's most populous nation, the Nigerian Red Cross said Tuesday. The agency reported deaths but could not give an exact number. It was treating 360 people who suffered injuries, said spokesman Andronicus Adeyemo. Incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan, who was declared the winner Monday, appealed for unity as the breadth of the unrest sounded alarms for the government. "My brothers and sisters, we are all winners," Jonathan said in a televised address. "In this context there is no victor and no vanquished. We have demonstrated, even in our diversity, the progress of Nigeria remains paramount for all." Jonathan suspended Interior Minister Capt. Emmenuel Iheanacho on Tuesday, handing the portfolio to his labor minister. "For now, his continued manning of the ministry is not in the interest of the nation," Jonathan said in a statement. Nigerians in the northern states rioted after it became apparent that Jonathan had won, charging that the elections had been rigged. Tuesday, the government deployed the military to restive areas as strict curfews helped maintain calm. But peace was tenuous, and another round of voting is coming up in a week. Nigeria's elections, staggered over three weeks, conclude with the vote for governors April 26. Jonathan hails from a Christian and animist south that is rich with oil. On the streets of the northern, mainly Muslim cities, rioters shouted the name of former military ruler Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, the main opposition candidate. The results highlighted modern Nigeria's deep divide. Buhari's office issued a statement Tuesday calling reports of burning of worship places a "sad, unfortunate and totally unwarranted development." "I must say that this is a dastardly act (that) is not initiated by any of our supporters and therefore cannot be supported by our party," said Buhari's spokesman Yinka Odumakin. "I must emphasize that this is purely a political matter, and it should not in any way be turned into an ethnic, religious or regional one." Nigeria's credibility was riding on the elections after a 2007 vote that was condemned for rampant vote rigging, violence, theft of ballot boxes and intimidation. The election this year, though marred by violence and delays because of organizational failures, was considered an improvement. British Foreign Secretary William Hague hailed the vote as a "significant step forward" for Nigeria. However, only the ruling People's Democratic Party has signed the results; representatives of the other parties refused to do so. The Civil Society Election Situation Room observers noted a number of irregularities, including underage voting in several states, intimidation and cases of thumbprints placed on ballots. The observers lashed out at the Independent Nigerian Election Council's management of the election and said it had been "ineffective" in its oversight function. "The collation process seems to have been the weakest link in the election management process," the Civil Society report said. "This state of affairs raised doubts about the authenticity of some of the figures arising from this process. Further, there were allegations that, in some cases, figures may have been doctored."http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/widespread-election-violence-erupts-in-nigeria/27393http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/widespread-election-violence-erupts-in-nigeria/2739319 04 2011 22:30:59 +0000British billionaire Richard Branson plans to turn over one of his Caribbean islands to lemurs. Well, perhaps not the whole island, but Branson wants to establish a colony of the endangered primates on Moskito Island, one of two private isles he owns in the British Virgin Islands, according to news reports. Branson, whose Virgin group covers businesses from airlines to music to casinos, told the BBC last week that illegal logging in Madgascar, which he says has increased since a coup two years ago, threatens lemur populations on that island, the only place in the world the animals live in the wild. "We've been helping to try and preserve lemurs, and sadly in Madagascar because of the government being overthrown the space for lemurs is getting less and less," the BBC quoted him as saying. According to The BVI Beacon in the British Virgin Islands, Branson applied to bring the animals into the territory last October. The BBC reports Branson will be bringing 30 ring-tailed lemurs from zoos in Canada, Sweden and South Africa to the 125-acre island in a few weeks. The BVI Beacon said the animals will be kept in cages for up to a month and eventually released to roam the island. Other types of lemurs could follow if the program meets with success. Some scientists are questioning whether a species should be introduced into territory half a world away from its homeland. Biologist James Lazell, an experienced researcher in the Virgin Islands and president of the U.S.-based Conservation Agency, called Branson's plan a "terrible idea," saying the lemurs could damage the island's ecological balance, according to the Beacon. “They eat everything. They eat lizards. They eat fruits. They eats roots, insects, bird eggs, absolutely everything,” Lazell is quoted as saying. Penelope Bodry-Sanders, vice-chairman of the Lemur Conservation Foundation, told The Guardian, "the jury is out on this." "We don't know what pathogens the lemurs will bring to the Caribbean or what pathogens they will receive. It is great that Mr. Branson cares, and he has a history of acting responsibly, but we need more information," The Guardian quotes her as saying. The Lemur Conservation Foundation operates a lemur reserve in Manatee County, Florida. Branson told The Guardian that his experts said risks were small and local species would be protected if it became evident the lemurs were posing a threat. "We will have to play it by ear. If this works out well, we will bring in more lemur species and eventually hope to find a bigger island for them," the Guardian quotes him as saying. http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/branson-giving-caribbean-island-to-lemurs/27386http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/branson-giving-caribbean-island-to-lemurs/2738619 04 2011 14:18:44 +0000Fort McMurray, Alberta (CNN) -- This is Drew Zieglgansberger's dirty little secret: a huge metal tube that's filled with a roaring natural-gas flame. "Here's the big culprit," Zieglgansberger said, yelling over the squeal of the industrial process, which is used to melt oil out of the ground here in northern Canada. "We're burning natural gas to get out something like bitumen (oil). We know that, but I wanted to show you anyway. It's a massive amount of energy we use to create the steam." This is the oil industry's answer to the traditional process of strip mining Canada's boreal forest to extract "oil sands" from the ground. Instead of digging for oil, "in situ" oil fields such as this one, about 500 miles north of Canada's border with Montana, send pipes and steam into the ground to slurp the fuel out of the dirt. The metal tube is large enough "you could get three half-ton trucks in there," said Zieglgansberger, who is Cenovus' senior vice president at Christina Lake. The fire heats water, which winds around inside the tunnel in pipes that look like brain matter. Cenovus injects that steam into the ground to melt a sticky form of crude that's mixed in with the dirt about 1,200 feet below the surface. The heat and water loosen the oil, allowing it to be pumped back to the surface and then refined. The huge flame is the "culprit" because all of the energy it takes to power the process makes extracting oil in this way rather inefficient. But it's also an opportunity: Cenovus and others see this type of operation as an environmentally friendly alternative to oil sands mining. Instead of clearing the forest to dig out this oil-dirt mixture, and leaving ponds of toxic waste on the surface, in-situ developments such as this do their work underground. The companies do cut strips out of the forest to conduct seismic tests that tell them where the oil is located. They argue this is both aesthetically pleasing and environmentally friendly. Some environmentalists, however, say the strips still pose problems for local wildlife, including migrating caribou. The oil industry sees this type of operation as its future. By 2015, most of the oil produced from Canada's massive oil sands reserve will be steamed out of the ground instead of mined, Zieglgansberger said. About 80% of all oil sands will be extracted using this method, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. These technological advances could lead to a cleaner manner of oil extraction. "Technological advancements are what started this industry, and it's what is going to help this industry continue to grow," said Anne Marie Toutant, vice president of mining operations at Suncor, the company that started mining for oil here in 1967. The mining side of Canada's oil sands is also making an effort to be greener. Suncor plans to stop building new tailing ponds, which are toxic lakes of industrial waste that have been blamed for killing migratory birds. The company has developed a new polymer that it can inject into these lakes to turn them back into land much more quickly. "We're now talking about reducing our footprint to about one quarter of what it would have been," said Bradley Wamboldt, general manager for tailings at Suncor. "Viewed from space, that means you see less of an impact." The company recently opened up a field on the site of a former tailing pond after filling the hole with dirt and then planting native vegetation on top. The Alberta government has certified only 257 acres of land as fully reclaimed -- 0.16% of the total active mining area. About 6,500 acres are at some intermediate stage of the process, according to the province's environment ministry. Projects such as these, and the promise of in-situ technology, lead Zieglgansberger to believe technology and innovation can make a dirty fuel cleaner. "I don't want to do something that's going to make my grandkids say they're ashamed of their grandfather," he said. The industry gets an unfair rap, he said. "We're not just a bunch of cowboys out here punching holes in the ground so we can hold up our money bags and go, "Arr! Look at us!' "http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/can-tech-make-a-dirty-fuel-clean/27384http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/can-tech-make-a-dirty-fuel-clean/2738419 04 2011 14:16:50 +0000Tokyo (CNN) -- A robot probe found sauna-like conditions inside the No. 2 reactor building at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant but lower levels of radiation than in other damaged units, the plant's owner reported Tuesday. Reactor No. 2 is believed to be leaking water, thousands of tons of which are filling the basement of its turbine plant and utility tunnels. Workers at the plant began pumping the first of that highly radioactive fluid into a storage tank for contaminated water Tuesday, Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency announced. But the Tokyo Electric Power Company, which owns the six-reactor plant, says it has no idea how much lies in those darkened spaces. A robot inserted into the unit's reactor building Monday found temperatures up to 41 degrees Celsius (106 F) and humidity ranging from 94-99 percent, Tokyo Electric reported Tuesday. Those conditions fogged up the lenses of the probe's cameras, forcing operators to withdraw the device after a few minutes, company officials said. But the radiation level it recorded was only 4.1 millisieverts per hour -- less than 10 percent of the doses found in the No. 1 and No. 3 reactor buildings. By comparison, the average resident of an industrialized country receives a dose of about 3 millisieverts per year. Emergency standards for plant workers battling the month-old nuclear disaster limit their annual exposure to 250 millisieverts, while a CT scan produces just under 7 and a chest X-ray delivers a one-time dose of about .05 millisieverts. Doses above 100 millisieverts can increase the long-term risk of cancer, while 1,000 millisieverts can produce radiation sickness. Engineers began deploying the U.S.-built "Packbots" into the reactors on Sunday. It's part of an effort to get a better view of conditions inside the buildings, where high radiation readings have kept workers out for weeks. Cooling systems at Fukushima Daiichi, about 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, were knocked out by the massive tsunami that struck Japan's Pacific coast after a massive earthquake March 11. The disaster triggered the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl as the cores of reactors 1-3 overheated and spewed huge amounts of radioactive contamination across the surrounding area. The buildings that house reactors 1 and 3 were blown apart by hydrogen explosions in the first days of the crisis. Another hydrogen buildup is believed to have ruptured a water reservoir beneath the No. 2 reactor, and the pools housing spent but still-energetic fuel assemblies are concerns in units 1, 3 and 4. Tokyo Electric this week laid out a six- to nine-month timetable for winding down the crisis and bringing the reactors to a complete shutdown. The disaster has led to mandatory evacuations of about 78,000 people living within 20 km (12.5 miles) of the plant and orders to people living another 10 km away to remain sheltered, affecting another 60,000-plus. Several towns both inside and outside that radius were told to prepare to evacuate soon, while others have been directed to stand by for further instructions. http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/robot-finds-sauna-like-conditions-in-reactor/27368http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/robot-finds-sauna-like-conditions-in-reactor/2736819 04 2011 04:26:46 +0000Dallas (CNN) -- Sara Rogers-Smith considers herself one of the lucky ones. She, her husband and two kids were allowed to return to their home Monday and found it in one piece after a wildfire swept the area. Some of their neighbors were not as fortunate. "We definitely feel lucky," Rogers-Smith said in a telephone interview from her home in southwest Austin. "The wind was blowing in the complete opposite direction of our house." Have you been affected by wildfires? Send photos, videos She said several other homes in her area were damaged and that at least two were burned to their foundations, leaving just metal and ash as reminders of what was. Dozens of large fires continued to burn out of control Monday in Texas in what officials have described as unprecedented conditions that show no signs of abating soon. "We're experiencing conditions never seen in Texas before," said Marq Webb, a spokesman with the Texas Forest Service. "Yesterday, we had 1,400 people and that number will go up today," he said in a telephone interview Monday from the service's incident command center in Merkel just west of Abilene. Perfect storm for wildfires In all, the Forest Service has been asked to help battle fires covering some 700,000 acres, said Webb. Thirty-one fires were being fought in East Texas; another 11 fires in West Texas, officials said. "We've had 19 consecutive days of just super-dry weather, relative humidities in the single digits," said Forest Service spokeswoman C.J. Norvell in Midland. "What we're seeing right now is winds that are typical of spring, but everything else is typical of late summer -- no rain, vegetation that's just super dry. When you combine those two, it really has not boded well." The Wildcat Fire just north of San Angelo has led to the evacuation of hundreds of people from their homes, Norvell said. The same fire threatens three small communities just north of San Angelo -- Robert Lee, Bronte and Tennyson, she said. A predicted change in wind direction from south to southwest could worsen the prognosis, she said. "This little change is going to test some infrastructure and fire lines that we've set up," she said. The fires have a variety of causes -- some of them acts of nature, such as lightning strikes -- but most of them acts of man, said Webb. Those include anything from fence welding to debris burning, despite the fact that burn bans are in effect for 195 of the state's 254 counties, he said. Texas authorities have made an arrest in connection with one of hundreds of blazes scorching the state in what a Forest Service official called the "perfect storm for wildfires." A man was arrested and charged with reckless endangerment, which is a felony under Texas law, Austin Fire Department Battalion Chief Palmer Buck said early Monday. The man, whom authorities did not immediately identify, was being held under a $50,000 bond. According to Buck, the man started a campfire at a homeless camp in a remote area, which got out of control and prompted evacuations. The fire burned about 60 acres. "We're experiencing conditions we've never seen in Texas before," he said. "We have a huge area of Texas with abundant fuels and they are tinder dry -- and I'm talking about probably half of the state." Monday's forecast was worse than Sunday's, "and tomorrow's supposed to be worse than today," he said. Though temperatures are expected to dip Wednesday, they were predicted to ramp back up on Thursday and Friday. Such weather has taxed the resources available to fight the fires. "We're stretched pretty thin right now," Webb said. Conditions this spring are the driest they've been in Texas since 1917, said a Texas Forest Service spokeswoman. Authorities have responded to 7,807 fires across more than 1.5 million acres since this year's wildfire season began, Gov. Rick Perry wrote over the weekend in a letter to President Barack Obama. Perry requested that the federal government declare Texas a disaster area. Fires have affected all but two of the state's 254 counties. Perry noted that one firefighter has died and 18 others have been injured, while 244 homes have been destroyed and another 8,514 threatened residences "saved." CNN affiliate WFAA in Dallas-Fort Worth reported Bill Morris was one of the many Texans forced from his home by the fires. He spoke to the station as he was putting photographs and his wife's jewelry in the car, preparing to leave -- again. "I've spent the night in a hotel three different times. And then I'm told I can come back, and come back just to get evacuated the next day," he said. In the Possum Kingdom complex west of Fort Worth, approximately 90 head of cattle were killed by the fire, said Webb. In southwest Austin, 10 homes suffered major damage and six suffered minor damage in a 100-acre area, said Matt Curtis, a spokesman for Mayor Lee Leffingwell. Curtis said Monday morning that the fire was contained, though firefighters were expected to spend the day looking for potential flareups and hot spots. "Luckily, this fire happened in a somewhat unpopulated part of that neighborhood," he said. The multi-jurisdictional effort included the Austin Police Department, the Austin-Travis County Fire Department, the Austin-Travis County EMS, the Travis County Sheriff's Department and the Texas Forest Service. "The mayor, who has lived in Austin all 72 of his years, described this as the largest fire he had ever seen in Austin and largest multi-jurisdictional effort," said Curtis.http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/fires-burn-across-texas-with-no-end-in-sight/27362http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/fires-burn-across-texas-with-no-end-in-sight/2736218 04 2011 23:37:38 +0000Los Angeles (CNN) -- Match.com says it will begin cross-referencing members against the National Sex Offender Registry after a lawsuit filed last week in California, in which a woman claims she was raped by a convicted offender she met on the dating website. Mandy Ginsberg, president of Match.com, U.S., said in a statement Sunday night that "improved technology and an improved database now enables a sufficient degree of accuracy to move forward" with an initiative it had previously discounted because of the background checks' "historical unreliability." In a class action lawsuit filed April 13 in Los Angeles County Superior Court, the woman, identified as Jane Doe, claims she met a man named Alan Wurtzel, who according to the lawsuit has a record of "six separate convictions for sexual battery" in Los Angeles County alone. Because it has failed "to undertake a basic screening process [emphasis provided] that disqualifies from membership anyone who has a documented history of sexual assault," the lawsuit says, "Match and sexual predators benefit, while female members ... are endangered." The woman was quoted by ABC News as saying she was raped in 2010 during her second date with Wurtzel, whom she had met on the website. The woman, whom the network described as an "Ivy League graduate who works in film and television," said the man followed her into her residence and attacked her. "Never in my wildest dreams did I think I was going out with a criminal," said the woman, whose face and voice were disguised for the broadcast interview. ABC reported that charges are pending in the case, and it quoted Wurtzel's attorney as saying that the incident was "a consensual sexual encounter." The class action names as plaintiffs, along with "Jane Doe," all of Match.com's paying female members from August 2010 to the present. The Los Angeles Times reported that the plaintiff's attorney has said he will ask a Los Angeles County judge to issue a temporary injunction barring Match.com from signing up more members until his client's demands for criminal screening are met. The statement from Match.com's president cautioned that despite the background checks, the website could not guarantee "the actions of all its members." "We want to stress that while these checks may help in certain instances, they remain highly flawed, and it is critical that this effort does not provide a false sense of security to our members," Ginsberg's statement said. "Match.com is a fantastic service, having changed the lives of millions of people through the relationships and marriages it has given rise to, but people have to exercise common sense and prudence with people they have just met, whether through an online dating service or any other means," Ginsberg said. In the terms of use in its online membership agreement, the website says its members are "solely responsible" for their interactions with people they meet on the site, and that the website will not be held liable for "any damages whatsoever" arising from meetings. As of Monday morning, that section still said Match.com "does not in any way screen its members, nor does Match.com inquire into the backgrounds of its members or attempt to verify the statements of its members." Rival dating site eHarmony says it already cross-checks its users with public sex offender lists, and that this policy "has allowed us to keep many known registered sex offenders off of our service." The company, however, says these screenings may not enough on their own. It urges users to "exercise good judgment." "Additionally, we use industry-leading technology and have staff members dedicated to monitoring the quality and integrity of the membership pool. Our goal is to prevent people who seem intent on harming others from joining the service," eHarmony said in a statement e-mailed to CNN. "As a matter of course, eHarmony does not conduct full criminal background checks. Registries can be incomplete or inaccurate, assaults and other crimes often go unreported, and perpetrators of crimes are not always convicted. Relying solely on screening can provide a false sense of security." The site on Monday published a list of online dating safety tips on its blog.http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/matchcom-to-begin-checking-for-sex-offenders-in-wake-of-lawsuit/27361http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/matchcom-to-begin-checking-for-sex-offenders-in-wake-of-lawsuit/2736118 04 2011 23:36:16 +0000New York (CNN) – When Eric Schmidt announced he was stepping aside as CEO of Google he famously tweeted, “Day-to-day adult supervision no longer needed!” But investors aren’t so sure about that. In the weeks since Schmidt announced he was stepping aside as CEO, the stock has fallen 9 percent. Larry Page, the founder and now CEO has a reputation as a brilliant innovator, a non-conformist and an introvert. Those attributes work for entrepreneurs, but often do not translate into good CEO’s. I had a chance to sit down with Steven Levy, a veteran technology journalist who has just released a new book about Google, “In the Plex,” and asked whether Page has the ability to lead the company. “He is a smart guy...we know he has a great vision of the future,” Levy said. “Larry has to step up not only in terms of great products, great vision, take on Facebook, but also make people feel okay about Google and not be scared of it.” Page takes the reins at a critical time for Google. It is still making pots of money, but growth rates are not anywhere near the meteoric 40% pace of years past. Google has missed the rise of social networking. In his book, Levy details Google’s “Facebook panic,” describing how concerned they are about the vast information Facebook now controls. Does that mean their best days over? No says Levy. “The thing they have going for them is that Larry, in particular, looks far ahead and he is making a big bet on artificial intelligence and pushing Google's mission to the farthest definition that you could, which is gathering and making accessible all the world's information,” Levy said. “It is by no means assured. In the short term they have a big challenge in the social space with Facebook, but I think they have a shot.” Artificial intelligence? I knew from press reports that Google was working on a driver-less car, but everyone knows Google likes to experiment with new technologies in lots of different fields. It is one of the things investors worry about – that the company is spread too thin. But Levy says that misses the point. “Google has always been an artificial intelligence company.” In his book Levy details how A-I is actually the secret to their superior search methods. He says they are working on something called zero query search, which will anticipate user questions. Looked at from that perspective Google’s driver-less car seems less random. Levy may be biased from all the time he spent hanging out with Google staffers and eating all the free food (something we joked about). But he knows his technology and raises an interesting point. The search business may be peaking, but if Google isn’t really a search company – they may still have room to surprise us.http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/what-kind-of-company-is-google/27332http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/what-kind-of-company-is-google/2733217 04 2011 00:57:06 +0000(CNN) -- AS Roma became the first Italian soccer club to be owned by foreign investors on Saturday when an American group completed its takeover of the Serie A side. The consortium is headed by Thomas DiBenedetto, a partner of the New England Sports Ventures group which owns English club Liverpool and U.S. baseball team the Boston Red Sox. He and his cohorts will have a 60% stake, with the remainder held by Italy-based European banking organization UniCredit -- which bought the club when president Rosella Sensi last year decided she wanted to sell up. "The business aspect has been very important but I love Rome and I want to do something big for this city," Thomas DiBenedetto told reporters in quotes carried by the UK Press Association. "I am proud of my Italian origins and for this reason I will do big things. I didn't expect so much attention. "I knew of the great passion from the Romans and this has been one of the reasons for doing this. "I share this passion. I never played but my father played in the American Soccer League." Founded in 1927, the club -- nicknamed "Giallorossi" (The Yellow-Reds) after the team colors -- has been listed on the stock exchange since 2000. Its website lists its share capital as almost €20 million ($28.9 million). The Sensi family had been owners for 18 years, and in 2009 announced plans to move away from the Stadio Olimpico and build a new 55,000-capacity ground in the western suburbs of Rome which have yet to come to fruition. Buoyed by the news, Roma went in Saturday's home match against Palermo in sixth place in the table, 12 points behind leaders AC Milan with six rounds to play. But it ended in a defeat that dented the team's European hopes for next season despite the Wolves taking a 19th-minute lead through the club's veteran top scorer Francesco Totti, with the captain netting from the penalty spot. However, Maurizio Pinilla leveled just before halftime also from a penalty after he was fouled, and 20-year-old Uruguayan striker Abel Hernandez scored twice in the last seven minutes before Mirko Vucinic's late consolation for Roma. AC Milan moved six points clear at the top with a 3-0 victory at home to 17th-placed Sampdoria later in the evening. Veteran Dutch midfielder Clarence Seedorf opened the scoring in the 20th minute with a freekick driven across the goal into the bottom corner, striker Antonio Cassano netted a penalty nine minutes after halftime and Brazil forward Robinho sealed it on 61. Sampdoria will drop into the bottom three if Cesena beat bottom club Bari on Sunday, or Brescia win at Genoa. Napoli can reduce the deficit to three again by winning at home to fifth-placed Udinese on Sunday, after which there will be five rounds to play. Third-placed defending champions Inter Milan dropped eight points behind their arch-rivals after a 2-0 loss at lowly Parma, who moved four points clear of the relegation zone. Sebastian Giovinco put Parma ahead in the 36th minute and Amauri -- another striker on loan from Juventus -- made it safe with four minutes to play. It capped a miserable week for Inter, whose European Champions League title defense ended with a 7-3 aggregate quarterfinal defeat against Schalke.http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/us-investors-make-history-with-roma-takeover-milan-extend-lead/27331http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/us-investors-make-history-with-roma-takeover-milan-extend-lead/2733117 04 2011 00:54:56 +0000Santa Monica, California (CNN) -- Computers used to be blind, and now they can see. Thanks to increasingly sophisticated algorithms, computers today can recognize and identify the Eiffel Tower, the Mona Lisa or a can of Budweiser. Still, despite huge technological strides in the last decade or so, visual search has plenty more hurdles to clear. At this point, it would be quicker to describe the types of things an image-search engine can interpret instead of what it can't. But rapid progress, coupled with the growing number of brilliant minds taking up the challenge, is making intelligent robo-eyesight within reach. Hartmut Neven, an engineering director leading visual-search initiatives for Google, predicts that near-perfection could come in the next decade. "Within 10 years, we can pretty much recognize, in principle, pretty much any object we're interested in," Neven said in a recent interview. "Scientific and technical progress is accelerating in an exponential (pace)." Neven began his research in 1992, and under his own forecasted timeline, is essentially more than halfway to meeting his goal. Google Goggles The product of his work and of a team of engineers is contained in a service called Goggles. It exists as a standalone application for Android phones and as a feature of the Google Mobile App for the iPhone. With Goggles, the user snaps a picture, which is transmitted across cellular networks to Google's servers. Google's computers then tell the phone what they recognized in the photo. This process can take only a second or two -- and sometimes even less. Google's algorithms, the lines of code that break down data into bits recognizable by machines, are good at picking out certain things. Iconic buildings and artwork, products on store shelves, barcodes and magazine advertisements are a breeze. The system can recognize text on a poster and search the Web for a page with similar writing, or translate the menu at a French restaurant. Microsoft also has a visual-search app for Bing, though its features are more limited. So far, these computer systems are less skilled at recognizing humans. But the Google Goggles team is working on a system that can identify faces in photos, as long as those people say it's OK for Google to include them in its database, Neven said. Unrecognizable objects But Google's algorithms return no results for loads of common things. Furniture, clothing, accessories, gadgets, food, animals, cars, trees and many everyday objects are seen as foreign objects by the system. "Our ambition is nothing less than being able to recognize any object on the planet," Neven said. "But today, computer vision is not in that state yet. There are many things that, unfortunately, we cannot properly recognize." The biggest obstacles are in one category: Objects without a strong "visual texture," and with few distinct markings. These include many products that are hard to identify without colorful packaging, such as purses, shoes and cell phones. "Unpackaged products is something that has been a priority for a while, but it's not easy to solve," Neven said. "If we get that done much better, then suddenly 90% of relevant objects are in our reach." Google developers are hammering away at the problem. Neven is excited about the potential to enable the system to identify which species of tree a leaf fell from, or the model of car parked on the street. In the meantime, Google lists the Goggles app in its Labs section, meaning the project is still in an experimental phase, a Google spokesman said. Allowing access this way lowers expectations and avoids exposing the technology to too many people who may find themselves turned off by the fact that it often fails to return accurate results. The app displays a quick tutorial when it's first launched. Google also showcases Goggles features that aren't all that practical but that create buzz for the technology, such as a version that can solve Sudoku puzzles. The Goggles app can also read QR codes, those black-and-white squares found on ads and posters that, when scanned by smartphones, access videos and other interactive content. Until Goggles can recognize everything, QR codes serve an interim need: Take a picture of something and get its digital counterpart. Other image-search uses This underlying image-search technology is important to many Google products. The image-recognition algorithms help to recognize cars and people in Google's Street View service in order to blur license plates and faces. They also help raise red flags when a photo reveals too much human skin, categorizing them for Google Images's "adult" filter. Neven joined Google in 2006 when the search giant acquired his company, called Neven Vision. His former colleague, Orang Dialameh, is the CEO at IPPLEX, a holding company that also has teams of engineers working on image-recognition projects. Dialameh's developers have employed cameras to build apps that can help identify objects, such as cash or cereal boxes, without requiring the user to snap a picture. Some of these apps are being marketed as utilities for blind people. IPPLEX's next venture, Nantworks, will allow users to tag objects using a cell phone's camera, Dialameh said. Dialameh, who, like his colleague, is based in Southern California, faces many of the same obstacles that Google does -- not the least of which is convincing people to use the apps in their daily lives. "How will this become a consumer behavior?" "We're not used to taking out a camera and showing stuff to our phone." Others are embedding this kind of technology in more obvious applications. Face.com can examine photos on Facebook to identify people in pictures who weren't manually tagged. In the same way, Neven's technology at Google can be used to identify faces in a Picasa user's personal photo collection. But this facial-recognition technology, which sometimes thinks your sister is actually Grandpa, has a ways to go. And not everyone is sold on its usefulness. "Before people-tagging came out, I think most people would have said that the best way to figure out who's in photos was to have some face-recognition algorithm," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in an interview with several reporters after a news conference in November. "But it actually turns out that the best way is to just have people tagged."http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/how-google-is-teaching-computers-to-see/27292http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/how-google-is-teaching-computers-to-see/2729215 04 2011 20:24:11 +0000(SuperYachtWorld) -- Ever dreamed of taking an up-close-and-personal look at the undersea world? You can commune with coral with these four stunning subs. Smartsub Four.2 A two-person 4.2-meter-long epoxy composite submarine that meets IMO guidelines for passenger submersible crafts as well as the relevant rules of the leading class societies. It is electronically limited to 50-meter dives (a commercial version is capable of 200). Touch-screen displays and joystick control make operation of the sub easy. Triton 1000/2 Two occupants can dive up to 300 meters in this stable catamaran configuration. Advanced crew training includes a deep submersible pilot simulator and 24/7 customer support. The 50-meter Trinity "Mine Games" has one. The new 3000 range can take three passengers up to 1,000 meters. Seamagine Pearl A two-person model that dives to 150 meters in standard mode, with the option of 300 or 900 meters dive capacity. The tried-and-trusted model, measure 4.5 meters long and 2.3 meters high, is into its seventh generation. The clamshell opening allows easy access for guests and crew. A three-person Ocean Triumph model goes to 450 meters, with an option to dive to over 900. U-Boat Worx C-Explorer A new deep-sea sub from U-Boat Worx designed to supplement its successful C-Quester model. The new range can be built to go to depths of 1,000 meters and carry from two to five passengers for 18 hours. A 360-degree acrylic pressure hull ensures passengers get the best unobstructed view possible. The two-person C-Explorer can dive to 100 meters.http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/experience-the-life-aquatic-in-your-own-personal-sub/27291http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/experience-the-life-aquatic-in-your-own-personal-sub/2729115 04 2011 20:22:35 +0000