JethroData, an analytics database company based upon Hadoop, announced today it has closed a $4.5 million investment round led by Pitango Venture Capital. JethroData, based in Israel, combines the storage scalability of Hadoop with the query performance of a fully-indexed, columnar analytic database.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/7AVDc62-U_A/
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LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists from a British cancer charity are teaming up with technology gurus from the likes of Amazon, Facebook and Google to design and develop a mobile game aimed at speeding the search for new cancer drugs.
The project, led by the charity Cancer Research UK, should mean that anyone with a smart phone and five minutes to spare will be able to investigate vital scientific data at the same time as playing a mobile game.
The first step is for 40 computer programmers, gamers, graphic designers and other specialists to take part in a weekend "GameJam" to turn the charity's raw genetic data into a game format for future so-called "citizen scientists".
"We're making great progress in understanding the genetic reasons cancer develops. But the clues to why some drugs will work and some won't are held in data which need to be analyzed by the human eye - and this could take years," said Carlos Caldas at Cancer Research UK's Cambridge Institute.
"By harnessing the collective power of citizen scientists we'll accelerate the discovery of new ways to diagnose and treat cancer much more precisely."
After the GameJam, which runs in London from March 1-3, an agency will build the game concept into reality and the team plans to launch it in mid 2013.
Cancer already kills more than 7.5 million people a year and the number of people with the disease worldwide is expected to surge by more than 75 percent by 2030, according to the World Health Organization's cancer agency IARC.
CRUK's scientists are working hard to identify the genetic faults that drive cancer to try to find new ways of diagnosing and treating patients in a more targeted way based on their genetic profile and that of their tumors.
In a major international study on breast cancer genetics published last year, CRUK researchers said they are now able to classify the disease into 10 subtypes - a finding that could lead to more accurate and tailored treatment in future.
That study also found several completely new genes that drive breast cancer, offering potential targets for new types of drugs.
Yet this type of research generates colossal amounts of data that need to be analyzed, CRUK said as it announced the gaming project. And while advances in technology mean scientists can process data faster than ever, much of it still needs to be analyzed by people rather than machines.
"The human eye can detect subtle changes that machines are not programmed to look for - leading to serendipitous discoveries providing clues to the causes and drivers of the disease," the charity said.
"With the collective power of hundreds of thousands of people across the globe helping our scientists to analyze this data we could drastically speed up research."
Philip Su, engineering site director of Facebook London said his company believes the best way to solve a problem "is to bring smart people together to 'hack' a solution."
"That approach is just as valid in the field of life sciences as it is in software engineering," he said.
(Reporting by Kate Kelland)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/facebook-google-tech-gurus-design-cancer-research-game-001027631--sector.html
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The Internet didn?t kill TV! According to Mike Proulx, the Internet has become TV?s best friend. Proulx will be the opening keynote speaker at SES New York 2013. The leading event for experienced marketing and advertising professionals will take place March 25-28, 2013, at the New York Marriott Marquis.
Proulx is a Senior Vice President and the Director of Social Media at Hill Holliday, a renowned advertising agency based in Boston, where he leads a team with a focus on cross-channel integration, emerging and social media. He has spent the last 17 years working at various interactive, high-tech, and new media companies on the agency-side, client-side, and as an entrepreneur. He has spoken at dozens of events and has been widely featured in the press including The New York Times, Fast Company, TV Guide, Forbes, BusinessWeek, Mashable, BuzzFeed, and NPR.
Proulx conceived, produced, directed, and co-host the TVnext summit, which took place in early 2011 and 2012. He is the co-author of Social TV, a best-selling book from Wiley publishing that launched in February of 2012. He is also the host of the social TV web series, ?The Pulse on Lost Remote?. He holds a Master?s degree in Computer Information Systems from Bentley University and in 2012 was named the Ad Club?s Media All Star.
His opening keynote is titled, ?Social TV: How Marketers Can Reach and Engage Audiences by Connecting Television to the Web, Social Media, and Mobile.?
Search Engine Watch (SEW) asked Mike Proulx (MP) five questions about his upcoming keynote. Here are his answers:
SEW: How does the convergence of television with the web, social media, and mobile change our behaviors and shake up our long standing beliefs about TV?
MP: There are those who believe that television is a traditional medium with an impending death. The web, social media, and mobile have evolved TV into a multi-screen experience that transcends devices. Not only are we watching more television than ever before, we?re interacting with programming on the ?second screen? in ways that enrich storylines and bring us together to virtually co-view. The modern era of television is a new media that?s more social, more connected, and more portable?and because of this TV is more alive than it?s ever been.
SEW: How has social media created a new and powerful "backchannel" and why does this fuel the renaissance of live broadcasts?
MP: There are a ton of posts happening in social media about any given TV show as it airs. Since Twitter is open and public, it acts as television?s backchannel filled with real-time commentary and conversation ? And it?s not just about TV series but also TV commercials giving producers and marketers instant feedback about their content. Live television events are seeing some of the highest ratings in years and social media brings a level of community and connection to TV watching the likes of which the medium has never before experienced.
SEW: Can you give us some examples of how mobile devices allow us to watch and interact with television whenever and wherever we want?
MP: Tablets, smartphones, and laptops enable television?s portability but it?s apps like HBO Go, ABC Player, Xfinity Remote, and CNN that deliver ?TV? content via those devices. And in the 4G world of mobile, we can watch TV in places once inconceivable. My favorite spot? Laying out on the roof deck on a warm summer night with my iPad in hand streaming HBO?s The Newsroom.
SEW: Why would ?connected TVs? blend web and television content into a unified big screen experience that will bring us back into our living rooms?
MP: Apple TV, Roku, Boxee TV, Google TV, Samsung Smart TVs, etc. stream online video (that was once relegated to our computer screens) onto the ?big screen? of our living rooms. HD YouTube clips suddenly come to life in ways that are far more impactful and dynamic than tiny smartphone screens further blurring the lines of what?s ?TV.? While the notion of TV everywhere lets us watch TV at will regardless of our physical location, the increasingly seamless ability to channel streaming video through the TV set makes the living room that much more compelling.
SEW: With the television landscape changing, why should brands approach the medium once labeled ?traditional? as new media?
MP: TV has become mashed up with the Web, social media, and mobile. Television networks, providers, brands, and agencies must continue to unshackle themselves from dated business and advertising models and rediscover television as a new medium. This means planning television and digital together to tell stories across devices and engage viewers with TV experiences not just TV shows. The speed, scale, and degree of change that has and is happening create enormous opportunity for those brands who have the courage to innovate.
SES New York 2013 offers a variety of conference passes and on-site training. If you register by Thursday, March 7, 2013, you can save up to $600 on Platinum or All Access passes.
For more information, click on Rates and Registration Details. Group discounts for 4 or more pass holders from the same company are also available by contacting [email?protected] and are the best value for the lowest price possible.
I should disclose that SES New York is a client of my agency. But, trust me, TV is not dead yet.
Become an Expert Digital Marketer at SES New York
March 25-28, 2013: With dozens of sessions on Search, Social, Local and Mobile, you'll leave SES with everything and everyone you need to know. Hurry, early bird rates expire February 21. Register today!
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For the fourth year in a row, TechCrunch Disrupt will take over the San Francisco Design Center Concourse, and we're bringing the hottest startups and best minds in the industry with us. Block off September 7-11 on your calendar, because you're not going to want to miss Disrupt SF 2013. The Disrupt Hackathon kicks everything off the weekend before, where companies like GroupMe?and Docracy first started as a gleam in some hacker's eye.?Then comes the main event, which starts every morning with one-on-one chats featuring TechCrunch writers and editors, special guest speakers and judges, along with panels of leading venture capitalists and entrepreneurs addressing the most pressing topics facing today?s tech industry.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/gWzoi-bXa0g/
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Design and Features
The first thing that you'll notice when you pull the UX31A-BHI5T out of the included fabric sleeve is its undeniably attractive design. Its svelte brushed aluminum chassis measures 0.7 by 12.8 by 8.8 inches (HWD) and, at only 3.20 pounds, it's among the lightest touch-enabled ultrabooks that we've seen, including the Samsung Series 5 UltraTouch NP540U3C-A01UB (3.83 pounds) and the Dell Inspiron 15z-5523 (5.19 pounds). With its impressively compact body, the UX31A-BHI5T fits into your bag just as easily as two or three magazines.
The UX31A-BHI5T's 13.3-inch display is, quite literally, a site to behold. With a full HD resolution of 1,920 by 1,080 and built-in IPS (in plane switching) panel, the display's stellar color reproduction and wide viewing angles handily complement its class-leading 1080p resolution. Taken as a whole, the UX31A-BHI5T's display is indisputably superior to that of the 1,366-by-768 resolution displays found in most comparable ultrabooks, like the Samsung NP540U3C-A01UB and Dell 15z-5523. Moreover, the display's capacitive touch functionality is pleasantly responsive, so pinching, zooming, scrolling, and Windows 8-specific functions?like bringing up the Charms menu or swiping through open apps?can be pulled off smoothly. The UX31A-BHI5T's Bang & Olufsen ICEpower speaker do a good job delivering crisp audio, and although its maximum volume lacks the oomph to make the windows rattle, this is an understandable limitation in the tinny-sounding realm of ultrabooks.
The chiclet-styled keyboard makes for a fairly comfortable typing experience. For such a thin system, it largely succeeds in sidestepping the shallow key travel that often plagues ultrabooks. Moreover, it's brightly backlit and doesn't exhibit any noticeable flexing, so the end result is all-around good keyboard. The system's smooth and responsive touchpad provides a good amount of tactile feedback and sports left- and right-click buttons that don't exhibit any unappealing clackiness.
As if often the case with ultrabooks, port selection on the UX31A-BHI5T is limited. The left side of the system houses a USB 3.0 port, a 2-in-1 card reader (SD, MMC), and a headphone jack. The right side, meanwhile, sports another USB 3.0 port, a micro HDMI port, and a mini VGA port, the latter of which can be outfitted with the included mini VGA to VGA dongle. The micro-HDMI port is puzzling, as the similarly sized former high end ultrabook Editor's Choice Asus Zenbook Prime UX32VD-DB71 has a full-sized HDMI port. The UX31A-BHI5T comes equipped with Intel's Wireless Display technology (WiDi 2.0), so you can stream HD video from your system to any television outfitted with an adapter, like the Netgear Push2TV ($99 list).
The UX31A-BHI5T's 128GB SSD may be too small for some, since only 90.4GB of it is can be used. Thankfully, it ships with a minimal amount of preloaded software. Aside from Office Starter 2010, a trial version of Trend Micro A/V, and some proprietary programs (ASUS Software Suite, ASUS PowerWiz, and so on), extraneous software is kept to a minimum. Asus covers the UX31A-BHI5T11 with a one-year warranty on parts and labor.
Performance
Like the rest of its class?save for the Asus UX32VD-DB71?the UX31A-BHI5T packs a 1.7GHz Intel Core i5-3317U processor and an integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000 GPU. Consequently, it yielded very similar performance to its peers on our benchmark tests. Thanks to its speedy SSD, though, the UX31A-BHI5T was able to maintain a slight edge. Its PCMark7 score of 4,510 points trumped the rest of its class, save for the Vizio 14-inch Thin + Light (CT14-A2) (4,819 points). Its Cinebench R11.5 score of 2.40 points, meanwhile, was equal to that of the Vizio CT14-A2 and Asus VivoBook S400CA-UH51 and was bested by the class-leading SamsungNP540U3C-A01UB (2.41 points) by a razor-thin margin and, to a greater extent, the Asus UX32VD-DB71 (3.58 points).
The UX31A-BHI5T also has the chops to tackle moderately intense media creation tasks. It completed our Handbrake video-encoding test in 1 minute 29 seconds, the same as the Dell 15z-5523 (1:29) and a mere second behind the front-running Vizio CT14-A2 (1:28). Similarly, the 5 minute and 31 seconds it took to complete our Photoshop CS6 test was roughly on par with the Dell 15z-5523 (5:33) and only two seconds short of the Vizio CT14-A2 (5:29).
When it came to 3D rendering, the UX31A-BHI5T showcased an unrivaled surefootedness. Its 3DMark11 scores (1,160 points in Entry-level settings; 216 points in Extreme settings) landed at the top of the pile, with the Asus S400CA-UH51 (1,101 and 187 points, respectively) and Vizio CT14-A2 (1,152 points and 208 points, respectively) trailing closely behind. Don't get your hopes up for high-end gaming, though. The UX31A-BHI5T's integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000 didn't have the gusto to break the 30 frames per second (fps) playability barrier on our gaming benchmark tests.
A major area where the UX31A-BHI5T held a clear advantage over its peers is battery life. Its non-removable 50Whr battery lasted an impressive 6 hours 38 minutes on our battery rundown test, or nearly an hour longer than the runner-up HP Envy TouchSmart Ultrabook 4t-1100 (5:48). With other systems clocking in at under five hours?like the Asus S400CA-UH51 (4:18) and Vizio CT14-A4 (4:30)?the UX31A-BHI5T's great battery life becomes all the more apparent.
The Asus Zenbook Prime Touch UX31A-BHI5T isn't the perfect ultrabook. Its limited storage capacity and so-so port selection are obvious shortcomings. Even with these flaws, though, it comes close to delivering a superlative Windows 8 experience. Its brilliant, touch-enabled screen, incredibly thin design, and great battery life, make it worthy of serious consideration. Throw in the fact that its $1,100 price tag is on par with its competitors, and it becomes a no-brainer. This is the ultrabook to beat, and it justifiably replaces the Asus Zenbook Prime UX32VD-DB71 as our Editors' Choice award for high-end ultrabooks.
BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS:
COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Asus Zenbook Prime Touch UX31A-BHI5T with several other laptops side by side.
More laptop reviews:
??? Asus Zenbook Prime Touch UX31A-BHI5T
??? Toshiba Satellite C875-S7340
??? Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2
??? Dell XPS 10
??? Dell Latitude 10
?? more
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/HOd3oX83N7o/0,2817,2415921,00.asp
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ROME (AP) ? An Italian prosecutor has formally requested a manslaughter indictment against the captain of the Costa Concordia cruise ship, which crashed into a reef off Tuscany last year, killing 32 people.
The prosecutors' office in Grosseto also wants Capt. Francesco Schettino to be tried for causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship while the frantic evacuation of passengers and crew was still being conducted. A judge must decide whether to order a trial for Schettino and five others named in the indictment request Monday.
Prosecutors also said Costa Crociere SpA, the Italian cruise company, has asked for a plea bargain agreement which, if it was accepted, could see Costa pay a ?1 million ($1.35 million) fine.
The ship went aground off the Italian island of Giglio during a publicity stunt.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/prosecutor-urges-trial-costa-cruise-ship-capt-142306259.html
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Jennifer Lawrence Wins Best Actress At Oscars…Laughs Off Fall (VIDEO)
Jennifer Lawrence, who won an Oscar for Best Actress for “Silver Linings Playbook” last night at the Oscars, had her big moment almost ruined when she tripped and fell on the stairs as she went onto the stage. The 22-year-old actress hung her head in embarrassment for a moment after tripping on her Dior Haute ...
Jennifer Lawrence Wins Best Actress At Oscars…Laughs Off Fall (VIDEO) Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News
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Following up on their latest two iPad ads, Alive and Together, Apple has released a third in the series, Hollywood, and done so smack dab in the middle of the Oscars. Like the previous ads, Hollywood features fast-paced, almost blip-vert style keywords that shoot rapid-fire across the screen, interleaved with scenes of related apps.
This time the first set of words finish with Lights, and we get iMovie, shopping for lights, and the lightning bolt from Back to the Future. The next set finish with Camera, and with -- wait for it -- camera based apps and movie clips, and finally, everyone say it with me, we get Action, with Apple's Maps, Indiana Jones, and more.
Fast paced and jaunty, I know some people aren't fans of the crowd chanted words, but I think they work as a way to reach increasingly broad, mainstream audiences, and mix the traditionally app-centric iPad ads with the funner iPod style ads.
Watch it up top and let me know what you think.
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/WL7FxgMr25E/story01.htm
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By Geoff Colvin, senior editor-at-large
FORTUNE -- When Carlos Ghosn announced last year that Nissan, which he runs, will start making ultracheap cars for emerging markets under the revived Datsun brand -- and will make a profit on them -- the mainstream response was contemptuous. "A big mistake," a Toyota (TM) executive told the Wall Street Journal; "another blunder," said a Japanese professor. Make a profit on a $3,000 vehicle? Everyone knows the profits are in pickup trucks and luxury cars.
No one can predict if Ghosn's new vision will work. His previous rethinking of the business, the all-electric Leaf, hasn't amounted to much so far. But applaud Ghosn for this: He is trying to develop the most crucial competency for every company today, innovating the business model.
MORE: Trailblazers - 11 people changing business
"Innovation" is the hottest word in business, but most of the discussion centers on products and services. The more profound challenge for most companies now is imagining a new business model, a new answer to the fundamental question, How do we make money?
You will face this challenge. For convenience, just assume the following: Your business model doesn't work anymore. That blunt claim won't be far wrong. Even if the model has worked for decades, even if it's working okay right now, odds are that it soon won't be.
Several forces are combining to shred business models economywide. The most important is information technology, the immediate effect of which is to revolutionize every information-based business. A second-order effect is that IT makes most businesses easier and faster to start or change. It also multiplies the speed and power of other trends, such as the rise of emerging markets, the growing economic role of governments, and changing consumer tastes.
MORE: 40 Under 40
Result: Not since the Industrial Revolution have we seen a longer or broader list of companies whose business models are suddenly obsolete. Start with virtually all companies in the media business, or any company that relies on owning copyrights or selling advertising. Then look at how major retailers -- Best Buy (BBY), Target (TGT), Wal-Mart (WMT) -- are rethinking their models in response to showrooming (browsing in-store and buying online), eBay (EBAY), and Amazon (AMZN). The whole education industry needs a new model. So do banking, the post office, computer makers, Big Pharma, music, and the telecoms. They all need new business models, and almost all are having a hard time finding them.
That's because business-model innovation is a competency that doesn't exist in most companies. It never had to. For example, the newspaper business model worked great for 200 years. Twenty generations of management didn't have to change it. Why should we expect that today's generation would know how it's done?
It's the same in most companies. Even if your model isn't 200 years old, probably no one has had to change it in a while.
MORE: 100 Fastest-Growing Companies
If this were a once-a-generation problem, you could hire some smart consultants and get it over with. But in today's environment, your new model will not last nearly as long as your old one did. The new normal is Amazon. It launched with an innovative model as an online bookstore. Then it also became a marketplace for other booksellers. It started offering other products (clothing, computers) requiring far different distribution infrastructures; began selling digital books, music, TV shows, and movies online; created its own branded devices (Kindle and Kindle Fire); added web services for companies; and is now investing hundreds of millions of dollars in original programming and in warehouses for same-day delivery of groceries and other merchandise. We can't count how many business models Amazon has used in its 18 years of existence. The model is changing continually.
Peter Drucker noted that "sloughing off yesterday" is almost impossibly difficult, yet every organization must get used to doing it regularly. The largest obstacles will be weak imaginations, threatened interests, and culture. Business-model innovation is the new essential competency. It's hard. It will separate tomorrow's winners from the losers.
This story is from the February 25, 2013 issue of?Fortune.
Source: http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2013/02/25/business-model-obsolete/
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NEW YORK (AP) -- The historic cobblestone streets and 19th-century mercantile buildings near the water's edge in lower Manhattan are eerily deserted, a neighborhood silenced by Superstorm Sandy.
Just blocks from the tall-masted ships that rise above South Street Seaport, the windows of narrow brick apartment buildings are still crisscrossed with masking tape left by their owners before the storm. Store interiors are stripped down to plywood and wiring. Restaurants are chained shut, frozen in time, saddled with electrical systems that were ruined by several feet of salt water that raced up from the East River and through their front doors.
"People have no clue that this corner of Manhattan has been hit so badly," said Adam Weprin, manager of the Bridge Cafe, one of the city's oldest bars that sits on a quiet street near the seaport. "Right now, it's a ghost town and a construction site."
Nearly four months after the storm, roughly 85 percent of small businesses near the South Street Seaport are still boarded up. It could be months before some reopen, while others may never return. On Fulton Street, the wide tourist-friendly pedestrian walkway that comprises the seaport's main shopping district, not a single one of the major chain stores ? which include Coach, Ann Taylor and Brookstone ? has reopened.
Among local business owners, there is a pervasive sense that their plight has been ignored by the rest of the city. A state senator who represents the area estimates at least 1,000 jobs were lost in lower Manhattan ? 450 of them in the seaport neighborhood alone.
From its red wood-frame building in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge, the Bridge Cafe has dealt with its share of changes over the last two centuries, including stints as a Civil War-era brothel and a bootlegging speakeasy during Prohibition. It has endured economic slumps, nor'easters and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But after the basement was flooded to the rafters and water destroyed the building's wood foundation, Weprin faced the prospect of shutting its doors for good.
"The neighborhood's been beaten," Weprin said. "You walk around here and it's like Chernobyl. At night, it's vacated."
The small businesses of the seaport were far less resilient than the neighboring skyscrapers that house many of lower Manhattan's large financial companies.
Some corporations were displaced for weeks after the storm, forced to relocate to temporary office space farther uptown while flood-damaged skyscrapers fixed their infrastructure and moved electrical systems to higher floors. Con Edison said 10 major buildings remained without power as of Feb. 13, most operating on emergency generators.
At 110 Wall St., a 27-story office tower that occupies a full block near the New York Stock Exchange, all leases were terminated because the building was so badly damaged by flooding. It remains empty while its management company comes up with a long-term plan for weathering future storms.
"How do we protect the lobby?" said William Rudin, the company's CEO. "How do we protect the retail spaces?"
Spotty phone and Internet service also hampered business activity after underground copper cables operated by Verizon, the area's largest network provider, were wrecked by flooding. By mid-February, Verizon said 10 percent of its customers still had little or no service.
It's unclear how many residents of lower Manhattan fled the neighborhood after Sandy. But 2 Gold St., a flood-damaged luxury residential skyscraper with nearly 1,000 residents, did not allow tenants to start moving back in until last week.
"These offices, these high-rise apartments, they need to be reoccupied," said Lee Holin, who owns Meade's Restaurant, which sits on the edge of the seaport a few blocks from Sandy-damaged skyscrapers on Water Street. "All of our customers who live there have not been here in a long time."
Meade's was only able to reopen thanks to a $25,000 grant that Holin received from the Downtown Alliance, a neighborhood association that has doled out 100 grants to small businesses totaling about $1.5 million.
The grant program was so popular that it was suspended two weeks after its debut in mid-November.
"We don't have a lot of traffic," said Nicole Osborne, who was tending the bar at Meade's on a weekday afternoon. "It's like we've been forgotten."
In the darkened window of Stella Manhattan Bistro, an Italian restaurant on Front Street, hung an American flag reminiscent of those displayed all over the city after Sept. 11. Alongside it, someone had posted a sign that said: "Thank you for all your support. Stay strong."
Most of the Front Street buildings had a geothermal heating and cooling system that was destroyed in the flood, said Jordan Barowitz, a spokesman for the developer, The Durst Organization, Inc. The repairs, which include moving the mechanical systems to the roof, are expected to drag on for months.
"We hope that they will come back," Barowitz said of the shuttered businesses. "It's very challenging."
The future of the South Street Seaport is equally uncertain. Howard Hughes Corp, which controls the former 19th-century counting houses that are home to the retail chains, said it does not yet know which ? if any ? of the major retailers will come back. The hope is to have Fulton Street in working order again before Memorial Day, when the summer season kicks off and the seaport will desperately need an influx of visitors.
But in a case of unfortunate timing, Pier 17, the shopping mall housed inside a rustic wooden building on the pier, is slated to close for a long-planned renovation in June that will transform it into a modern glass-walled structure with a rooftop plaza. The impending renovation has only added to the misery of shop owners who lost so much revenue since the storm and haven't recouped their losses.
Milad Doos, an immigrant from Egypt, is planning to close his jewelry and collectibles store for good.
"Like you see, there's nobody," said Doos, who earned just $5 on a recent afternoon. "After the storm, this whole place has become dead place."
At the Bridge Cafe, most of the wood foundation will be gutted, sparing only two pillars and a wall behind the bar that are part of the original building. Repairs will cost around $400,000.
Weprin, who has no flood insurance, launched a fundraising page online to appeal for financial help from the restaurant's many loyal patrons. To his astonishment, many of them didn't even realize the place was closed.
That's because nobody has frequented the neighborhood for weeks.
"During the day, you have tourists who are coming to look at the carnage," Weprin said. "That's about it. Before Sandy, it was a neighborhood."
___
Associated Press Writer Tom Hays contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nyc-seaport-ghost-town-months-074608566.html
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MTV News rounds up the many musical highlights from Sunday's Academy Awards.
By Jocelyn Vena
Adele performs at the 2013 Oscars
Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1702567/oscars-2013-top-musical-moments-adele-jaws.jhtml
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YANGON, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- China Union Pay (CUP) card services was launched in cooperation with Myanmar Payment Union (MPU) card in Myanmar's Yangon Saturday, signifying the formal introduction of services of the CUP in the Southeast Asian nation.
Governor of the Central Bank of Myanmar U Than Nyein and Chief Resident Representative of CUP (Southeast Asia Region) Yang Wenhui delivered speeches at the launching ceremony, saying that the introduction of CUP services in Myanmar has opened a new page of cooperation between CUP and MPU.
Users of CUP can withdraw Myanmar Kyat currency from the automatic tellers machines (MTU) of MPU member banks and make payment at its points-of-sale as well as at relevant hotels.
MPU and CUP signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement in March 2012 and a memorandum of understanding in November of the year on Myanmar's acceptance of acquiring process of CUP.
MPU was established in September 2011 by 17 domestic banks in Myanmar including three state-owned banks and 14 private banks and starting September 2012, MPU debit card was introduced for services domestically.
At present, there has been 198 ATMs and 465 points-of-sale with the MPU member bank network.
Over 10 years since CUP started operation, it has become the most rapid payment brand in the international market with its business services expanded to cover 141 countries and regions including Myanmar.
In terms of the number of card issued, the CUP has also become the world's biggest brand of bank card payment.
Master Card was introduced as the first international electronic payment card in Myanmar in November 2012, followed by Visa Card in December of the year.
There is a total of 19 private banks and four state-owned banks in Myanmar.
The move-in of the international bank cards came after the United States eased some financial sanctions on the country, before which foreign visitors were unable to use international credit cards on account of such sanctions on money transactions since 2003.
Besides Master, Visa and CUP cards, Myanmar has also allowed introducing services for JCB (Japan Credit Bureau) to facilitate foreign travelers in domestic payment.
It is the latest reform of Myanmar's monetary sector made in coordination with the member banks of MPU, the Central Bank of Myanmar, Internal Revenue Department, Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) and Myanmar Information Technology (MIT) Co..
The move is also seen as being made timely in preparation for the upcoming Myanmar-host 27th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in late 2013.
Source: http://english.sina.com/business/2013/0223/564432.html
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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Dire warnings from Washington about a "cyber Pearl Harbor" envision a single surprise strike from a formidable enemy that could destroy power plants nationwide, disable the financial system or cripple the U.S. government.
But those on the front lines say it isn't all about protecting U.S. government and corporate networks from a single sudden attack. They report fending off many intrusions at once from perhaps dozens of countries, plus well-funded electronic guerrillas and skilled criminals.
Security officers and their consultants say they are overwhelmed. The attacks are not only from China, which Washington has long accused of spying on U.S. companies, many emanate from Russia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Western countries. Perpetrators range from elite military units to organized criminal rings to activist teenagers.
"They outspend us and they outman us in almost every way," said Dell Inc's chief security officer, John McClurg. "I don't recall, in my adult life, a more challenging time."
The big fear is that one day a major company or government agency will face a severe and very costly disruption to their business when hackers steal or damage critical data, sabotage infrastructure or destroy consumers' confidence in the safety of their information.
Elite security firm Mandiant Corp on Monday published a 74-page report that accused a unit of the Chinese army of stealing data from more than 100 companies. While China immediately denied the allegations, Mandiant and other security experts say the hacker group is just one of more than 20 with origins in China.
Chinese hackers tend to take aim at the largest corporations and most innovative technology companies, using trick emails that appear to come from trusted colleagues but bear attachments tainted with viruses, spyware and other malicious software, according to Western cyber investigators.
Eastern European criminal rings, meanwhile, use "drive-by downloads" to corrupt popular websites, such as NBC.com last week, to infect visitors. Though the malicious programs vary, they often include software for recording keystrokes as computer users enter financial account passwords.
Others getting into the game include activists in the style of the loosely associated group known as Anonymous, who favor denial-of-service attacks that temporarily block websites from view and automated searches for common vulnerabilities that give them a way in to access to corporate information.
An increasing number of countries are sponsoring cyber weapons and electronic spying programs, law enforcement officials said. The reported involvement of the United States in the production of electronic worms including Stuxnet, which hurt Iran's uranium enrichment program, is viewed as among the most successful.
Iran has also been blamed for a series of unusually effective denial-of-service attacks against major U.S. banks in the past six months that blocked their online banking sites. Iran is suspected of penetrating at least one U.S. oil company, two people familiar with the ongoing investigation told Reuters.
"There is a battle looming in any direction you look," said Jeff Moss, the chief information security officer of ICANN, a group that manages some of the Internet's key infrastructure.
"Everybody's personal objectives go by the wayside when there is just fire after fire," said Moss, who also advises the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
HUNDREDS OF CASES UNREPORTED
Industry veterans say the growth in the number of hackers, the software tools available to them, and the thriving economic underground serving them have made any computer network connected to the Internet impossible to defend flawlessly.
"Your average operational security engineer feels somewhat under siege," said Bruce Murphy, a Deloitte & Touche LLP principal who studies the security workforce. "It feels like Sisyphus rolling a rock up the hill, and the hill keeps getting steeper."
In the same month that President Barack Obama decried enemies "seeking the ability to sabotage our power grids, our financial institutions, our air traffic control systems," cyber attacks on some prominent U.S. companies were reported.
Three leading U.S. newspapers, Apple Inc, Facebook Inc, Twitter and Microsoft Corp all admitted in February they had been hacked. The malicious software inserted on employee computers at the technology companies has been detected at hundreds of other firms that have chosen to keep silent about the incidents, two people familiar with the case told Reuters.
"I don't remember a time when so many companies have been so visibly 'owned' and were so ill-equipped," said Adam O'Donnell, an executive at security firm Sourcefire Inc, using the hacker slang for unauthorized control.
Far from being hyped, cyber intrusions remain so under-disclosed ? for fear leaks about the attacks will spook investors ? that the new head of the FBI's cyber crime effort, Executive Assistant Director Richard McFeely, said the secrecy has become a major challenge.
"Our biggest issue right now is getting the private sector to a comfort level where they can report anomalies, malware, incidences within their networks," McFeely said. "It has been very difficult with a lot of major companies to get them to cooperate fully."
McFeely said the FBI plans to open a repository of malicious software to encourage information sharing among companies in the same industry. Obama also recently issued an executive order on cyber security that encourages cooperation.
The former head of the National Security Agency, Michael Hayden, supports the use of trade and diplomatic channels to pressure hacking nations, as called for under a new White House strategy that was announced on Wednesday.
"The Chinese, with some legitimacy, will say 'You spy on us.' And as former director of the NSA I'll say, 'Yeah, and we're better at it than you are," said Hayden, now a principal at security consultant Chertoff Group.
He said what worries him the most is Chinese presence on networks that have no espionage value, such as systems that run infrastructure like energy and water plants. "There's no intellectual property to be pilfered there, no trade secrets, no negotiating positions. So that makes you frightened because it seems to be attack preparation," Hayden said.
Amid the rising angst, many of the top professionals in the field will convene in San Francisco on Monday for the best-known U.S. security industry conference, named after host company and EMC Corp unit RSA.
Several experts said they were convinced that companies are spending money on the wrong stuff, such as antivirus subscriptions that cannot recognize new or targeted attacks.
RSA Executive Chairman Art Coviello and Francis deSouza, head of products at top vendor Symantec Corp, both said they will give keynote speeches calling for a focus on more sophisticated analytical tools that look for unusual behavior on the network ? which sounds expensive.
Others urge a more basic approach of limiting users' computer privileges, rapidly installing software updates, and allowing only trusted programs to function.
Some security companies are starting over with new designs, such as forcing all of their customers' programs to run on walled-off virtual machines.
With such divergent views, so much money at stake, and so many problems, there are perhaps just two areas of agreement.
Most people in the industry and government believe things will get worse. Coviello, for his part, predicted that a first-of-its kind - but relatively simple - virus that deleted all data on tens of thousands of PCs at Saudi Arabia's national oil company last year is a harbinger of what will come.
And most say that the increased mainstream attention on cyber security, even if it fixes uncomfortably on the industry's failings and tenacious adversaries, will help drive a desperately needed debate about what do to internationally and at home.
(Reporting by Joseph Menn in San Francisco; Additional reporting by Jim Finkle in Boston and Deborah Charles in Washington; Editing by Tiffany Wu and Jackie Frank)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-near-impossible-battle-against-hackers-everywhere-080356080.html
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ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - A U.N .-mediated peace deal aimed at ending two decades of conflict in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo was signed on Sunday by leaders of Africa's Great Lakes region in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
African leaders failed to sign the deal last month after a disagreement over who would command a new regional force that will be deployed in eastern Congo and take on armed groups operating in the region.
The Democratic Republic of Congo's army is fighting the M23 rebels, who have hived off a fiefdom in eastern Congo's North Kivu province in a conflict has dragged Congo's eastern region back into war and displaced an estimated half a million people.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and leaders from Mozambique, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo Republic and South Sudan were present at the signing of the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Great Lakes.
Rwanda and Uganda had been accused by U.N. experts of supporting the rebels, an accusation they denied.
"It is my hope that the framework will lead to an era of peace and stability for the peoples of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the region," Ban said.
Congo's government and the rebels are holding talks in Uganda aimed reaching an agreement on a range of economic, political and security issues dividing the two sides, including amnesty for "war and insurgency acts", the release of political prisoners and reparation of damages due to the war.
"We ... commit ourselves to respect our obligations of this agreement we signed today, and we wish that all the signatories do the same," Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila said.
The rebels, who launched their offensive after accusing Kabila of reneging on the terms of a March 2009 peace agreement, have broadened their goals to include the removal of Kabila and "liberation" of the entire Congo.
(Reporting by Aaron Maasho; Editing by George Obulutsa)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/african-leaders-sign-u-n-mediated-congo-peace-090726630.html
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On Saturday, Indie Spirit Award winners and Razzie Losers will be up on the site.
Sunday, listen to SiriusXM Indie 104 at 2PM PT/5PM ET for a pre-Oscar extravaganza. Then check the site for real-time Oscar winners and galleries. Grae Drake will be manning the @rottentomatoes Twitter feed with updates from the Winner's room (although to note, she wishes she was in the Losers Room handing out chocolate and free hugs--and no, there isn't a Losers Room).
Monday, Matt, Grae, and the team will be back on SiriusXM for an Oscar Wrap-Up show at 4PM PT/7PM ET. Then, it's going to be hundreds of days until you hear us say the word "award" again, we promise.
Click here to watch more video interviews
Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1926900/news/1926900/
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SYDNEY ? If the burning question going into the port summit was what?s next, one of the answers that has emerged is the need to formalize the roles of the major players in port development.
Mayor Cecil Clarke said the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, which hosted the two-day summit with the Cape Breton County Economic Development Authority and Sydney Ports Corporation, is eager to build on the important discussions that took place among stakeholders and industry experts at the Joan Harriss Cruise Pavilion in Sydney.
Step one, according to the mayor, is to have an issue paper formulated and brought before council.
?An issues paper will be formed and put together with the recommendations of next steps and those recommendations will come forward in the public forum of council and be reported publicly to maintain the transparency that everyone desires,? he said.
Clarke said port development is at a critical point and another step the municipality must take is to formally approach other levels of government on the file.
?We as a municipality have to engage the provincial and federal governments officially. That has not been done,? he said. ?We have to formalize our relationship and our roles and our expectations of what the other orders of government can do.?
The summit, which brought together business executives, politicians, government officials, and individuals with a vested interested in Sydney port development, concluded Friday with presentations and a panel discussion. Issues covered during the event were wide-ranging ? from the worker training that will be required as the port develops, to balancing industrial and residential needs, to the need for long-term planning for the port.
On Thursday, summit participants heard from consultants hired by the CBRM that two ?world-class? developers are interested in constructing a $500-million deep-sea container terminal on the CBRM-owned greenfield site at the Sydport Industrial Park, but due to confidentiality agreements, the interested developers couldn?t be named at this point.
However, Clarke has been informed of who the two entities are, he confirmed Friday.
?Because of the non-disclosure agreements in place and because you?re dealing with companies that are potentially publicly-traded, there are requirements, and very strict requirements,? he said. ?So because of that it?s one of those things where you want to say but can?t say.?
He noted that having knowledge of the developers has allowed him to validate to council that there are legitimate parties interested.
?We?ll now go to next steps and follow up with those two parties. I will have those meetings and look at what we have to do to engage the provincial and federal governments based upon those discussions and then we will bring that back and formalize it appropriately,? he said.
As those discussions happen and next steps are taken, Derek Baker, economic development officer of the Prince Rupert and Port Edward Economic Development Corporation, advised port stakeholders to communicate clearly and honestly with the wider community.
?One of the lessons we learned in Prince Rupert was when the container port was being developed there was a big job of selling how big of a benefit it was going to be the community and one of the things that we did not do was talk about how those are long-term benefits,? he said. ?When the ribbon-cutting ceremony was happening everyone expected this huge boom that didn?t come until five years later.?
?Whatever you do going forward, just be realistic and manage expectations in the community,? said Baker.
Eileen Lannon Oldford, CEO of CBCEDA, said they will endeavour to follow that advice as port development unfolds.
?Economic development is a tough, tough job. It is not an easy process but I think if we really do an excellent communication process, I think the taxpayer will stay with us. I think they will see the? benefits,? she said.
ljgrant@cbpost.com
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Florida governor Rick Scott created a stir this week when he said he?d expand Medicaid as requested by the Obama administration -- even though he plans to defy the health reform law as much as he can.
But health policy experts are hardly surprised. They say it?s a no-brainer for even the reddest states to take the federal government up on its offer to pay for the expansion for the first few years.
That doesn?t mean all Republican governors will do it, however. A lot, they say, depends on what concessions these governors can get out of the Health and Human Services Department in return.
?It?s a lot of money when the feds pick up the tab for the first three years,? said Sarah Hale, who directs health policy at the right-leaning American Action Forum.
?That?s a really big deal. It?s hard for states not to take it,? she added. ?In a lot of ways, it is a pretty big carrot.?
In fact, expanding Medicaid could generate revenue for the states, Topher Spiro of the left-leaning Center for American Progress says. "Many governors are realizing how good a deal it is," Spiro says.
The 2010 Affordable Care Act was designed to transform health care in the United States, which most experts agree currently costs too much and leaves far too many people without health insurance. The law required states to extend Medicaid to people earning up to about 138 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $14,800 for single people and $31,000 for a family of four.
The federal government calculated this would add at least 16 million people to Medicaid, the joint state-federal health insurance plan for the low-income.
In return, the law pledges that the federal government will pay 100 percent of the additional costs for the first three years of the program. States will have to kick in a very small percentage more each year after that.
But after a series of challenges to the law, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that the Medicaid expansion requirement went too far. ?States can?t be forced to add more people to Medicaid, the court ruled.
Any smart governor is taking advantage of this flexibility, or should be, to negotiate deal with the administration on just how to expand Medicaid, several experts said.
?I think the states do have more leverage now than they used to,? said Dr. Mark McClellan, who directs the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at the Brookings Institution.
"Many Republican governors have done a smart thing -- they are actually including in their proposals what they call a circuit breaker," Spiro said. "If at any future date the federal government lowers its share of the funding then the state would either automatically scale back the coverage or re-examine it."
Spiro adds that it would be unlikely this would happen. "It?s not going to be? a bait and? switch," he said, noting that President Obama has pledged the federal government will not scale back support of Medicaid.
Spiro also cites a Georgetown University study that projects Florida will gain $100 million a year by expanding Medicaid. "For example, many of these states have mental health care programs that they pay for themselves. With a Medicaid expansion, Medicaid would pay for mental health care," he said.
A different study done by Ohio State University, the Urban Institute and others projected Ohio could raise $857 million in additional revenue from 2014 to 2022 by expanding Medicaid.
"If you have got more Medicaid funding coming into the state and supporting hospitals, that?s going to increase jobs, it is going to increase economic activity and, as a result, the state is going to yield more tax revenues," Spiro said.
Conservatives are nonetheless suspicious.
?It?s very hard to turn down a 100-percent federally funded program, but there are some costs the states would be taking on,? said McClellan, a medical doctor and economist who headed the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services under the administration of president George W. Bush.
?There are expectations that when Medicaid expands, more people that were already eligible for Medicaid will come forward and enroll.? Those people?s expenses would not be covered by the federal subsidy, and that?s one argument that South Carolina governor Nikki Haley has made in refusing the Medicaid expansion.
Nina Owcharenko of the right-leaning Heritage Foundation, a former congressional staffer, says states have to think about taking on this population for the long-term.
?This is a risky proposition,? Owcharenko says. ?This is a really complicated population that doesn?t get seen (by doctors) as much. This is a population that is below the poverty level. You want to take a moment ?to say, ?Why are they under the poverty level??,? she said in a telephone interview.
?It is changing the face of Medicaid profoundly. We think of Medicaid as a program for children and pregnant women. Serving a kid is completely different from serving a single man in his late 20s.?
The Congressional Budget Office projects that 12 million people will become newly eligible for Medicaid in the states that choose to expand their offerings by 2022.
Owcharenko says Florida?s Scott made a mistake in giving in and expanding Medicaid, even if he did get the Health and Human Services Department to agree he could do so just for three years. ?I think he probably should have taken a longer view on what this would do,? she said.
Hale agrees in part. ?At least Florida got something in return. (But) it?s not like they got this great prize,? she said. ?Other states, she said, may agree to an expansion if they have other interests in play, such as a big hospital industry that might benefit from having more patients.
Hale, Owrachenko and McClellan all agreed that it?s a gamble to presume the federal government can keep up the subsidies, given the current economic and financial climate. ?How is it going to look eight years down the road?? Owcharenko asked. ?I haven?t seen many studies showing revenues are going to be there.?
States may end up having to cut education, transportation and emergency services if Medicaid costs balloon, she predicts.
The Obama administration and most Democrats say expanding Medicaid will cover the working poor who don?t get health insurance through their employers: from part-time workers, to self-employed cleaners, gardeners, and employees of very small businesses.
Under what the law originally proposed, people making between 100 percent and 138 percent of the poverty level can get federal subsidies to buy private health insurance on new health insurance exchanges that are supposed to be up and running in each state by 2014.
But the poorest poor -- those making less than the poverty level -- will not be eligible for subsidies. The health reform law presumed these people would be covered by Medicaid but they will not be if states don?t expand their programs.
Currently, 13 states, all with Republican governors, have made it clear that they will not expand Medicaid, according to the Advisory Board Company: Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin.
Another five, also all with Republicans in charge, probably will not expand Medicaid: Iowa, Nebraska, New Jersey, Virginia and Wyoming.
Twenty-three states, mostly led by Democrats, are on board to expand Medicaid: Arizona -- whose Republican governor Jan Brewer surprised many when she said she?d do it -- Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.
Five states with Republican governors are still wavering: Alaska, Indiana, Kansas, Tennessee and Utah. Four Democratic-led states have also not committed: Kentucky, New York, Oregon and West Virginia.
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Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/50894930/
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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) ? There are two certainties heading into the Daytona 500: Kevin Harvick is the favorite, and no one is sure what the action will look like in the "Great American Race."
Harvick remained perfect through Speedweeks on Thursday by winning the first of two 150-mile Budweiser Duel qualifying races, and the victory has positioned him as the top pick to win NASCAR's version of the Super Bowl.
Being labeled the favorite is the last thing the 2007 Daytona 500 winner wanted headed into Sunday's season-opener.
"We like to be the lame-duck underdog. That's what we're shooting for," Harvick said.
Harvick is a perfect 2 for 2 at Daytona International Speedway. He also won an exhibition race last weekend. This strong start comes at a time when Harvick has found a balance in his life with the addition of son, Keelan, who was born last July, and as he heads into his final season with Richard Childress Racing. Harvick has already decided to move to Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014.
"We've been fortunate to win the first two races of Speedweeks. We've just got to keep a level head on our shoulders, not get too high over what we've done, just do the same things that we've done," he said. "If it's meant to be, it's meant to be. I think we definitely have the car and team to be in contention to do that."
But nobody is quite sure what the 500 will look like with NASCAR's new Gen-6 race car. Sunday's race will go off with a full 43-car field, double the amount of cars that ran in Thursday's qualifying races. There were 19 cars in last Saturday's exhibition.
Kyle Busch, winner of the second duel, believes more cars on the track will create a much different race than what fans have seen so far. All three races at Speedweeks to date have lacked much action as drivers continue to learn the new cars and how it reacts in traffic and different aerodynamic situations.
"With more cars out there, we might see it be a little bit different come Sunday," Busch said. "There were half the field in each race, obviously. There's going to be twice as many good cars, twice as many middle of the pack cars, twice as many back of the pack cars. If you can get your car handling, driving, feeling good, you'll be able to be one of the guys that's up front."
Is Busch, who was wrecked out of last week's exhibition just 15 laps into the race, one of those guys?
"I feel that's where we're at," Busch said. "That's an added bonus for us right now."
Busch gave Toyota its first victory of Speedweeks and snapped Chevrolet's dominance. Harvick took the new Chevrolet SS to Victory Lane twice, and Danica Patrick put it on the Daytona 500 pole in time trials.
Busch held off Kasey Kahne, in a Chevrolet, and learned the driver out front is in the strongest position.
"It's hard to pass the leader," said Busch. "Stay out front. When you get out front, you can hold everyone off."
But Kahne, who settled for second, said timing will be critical and nobody is sure just yet what move will be needed to win the Daytona 500.
"I think it's tough because you don't know when you get that push. You don't know when it plays into your time," said Kahne, who never got close enough to Busch to take a solid shot at the win. "I think you need to be ready at any time to get to the front, to second, to third, try to move up. I don't think waiting till the last lap is a ticket the way things are right now."
And Kahne wasn't ready to give Harvick the win in the big race, either.
"I think Kevin looks really good," he said. "He's got this place figured out. I think he can be beat, yeah. There's a few of us in the second race who had really good cars, and I could move around really well, similar to what Harvick did in the first race."
In the first race, Harvick held off Greg Biffle over a four-lap sprint to win. Harvick and Biffle also went 1-2 in last Saturday night's exhibition race.
The starting field for the Daytona 500 is set by the results from the pair of 60-lap qualifiers, but Patrick held onto the pole by running a safe race in the first qualifier. The first woman to win a pole at NASCAR's top level, Patrick earned the top starting spot in time trials last weekend.
She started first in the first qualifier, raced a bit early, then faded back to run a conservative race and ensure she'll start first in the 500.
"I hate coming to the end like that and just lagging back," she said. "That's not fun. But it's also really ignorant to go drive up into the pack and be part of an accident for absolutely no reason. You're really not going to learn much there."
Patrick wound up 17th out of 23 cars.
"What I really feel like I need to do is go down to the Harvick bus and see what he's doing," she said. "He's got it going on down here."
The first race was dull until Denny Hamlin brought out the only caution with seven laps remaining. Hamlin lost control of his car, spun into Carl Edwards and triggered a four-car accident that also collected Regan Smith and Trevor Bayne, who had a dominant car early in the qualifier.
"I know what the wrecks look like now, I am really familiar with them," said Edwards, who was wrecked at testing in January and in practice for the exhibition race last week. He was also black-flagged in the exhibition race when his window net fell off.
Hamlin said the accident was a product of drivers trying to learn the nuances of NASCAR's new Gen-6 car.
"It just shows you that any kind of bad aero position you put yourself in, your car can be vulnerable," said Hamlin, who was running in the high line when he inched into Edwards' space down low.
Juan Pablo Montoya, who infamously crashed into a jet dryer during last year's Daytona 500 to trigger a massive fuel fire, stopped for minor repairs during the caution. Montoya restarted the race in 13th with four laps remaining, but rocketed through the field to finish third.
"It was time to go," he said. "It's hard, you don't want to tear up the car, and at the same time you want to go. The bumpers are a little fragile. You have to be careful with that. You want to have a good car at the end."
The bulk of both races seemed to be one long parade of the Gen-6 race car. Unsure of how the cars handle in packs, and when the drivers choose to side-draft, most of the field in the first race played it conservatively.
"The choice was obviously made by a bunch of us to run around in circles and just make laps," said two-time Daytona 500 champion Michael Waltrip, who needed a clean race to guarantee a spot in Sunday's field. "There were a lot of people that just wanted to get through some laps and understand what was going on. There were some of us that would have run like that until they threw the checkered just to make the race. And then there were some that decided it was time to go, and they made it work."
Waltrip is racing in a special Sandy Hook Special Support Fund paint scheme, and his car number has been changed to No. 26 as a tribute to the 26 students and teachers killed in the Newtown, Conn., school shooting.
"There's a lot of people up in Connecticut with a smile on their face right now. I'm real proud to get in the race for them," Waltrip said.
Austin Dillon, grandson of team owner Richard Childress, finished third in the second qualifying race to put his Richard Childress Racing car in the Daytona 500. It will be the 22-year-old Dillon's first Daytona 500.
"I'm glad my grandfather can sleep now," Dillon said. "He was wearing me out before the race."
Brian Keselowski, older brother of reigning Sprint Cup champion Brad Keselowski, was the one driver who truly had to race his way into the Daytona 500 in the first qualifier. But he lacked speed early, fell two laps down and missed the race.
Mike Bliss was the driver from the second qualifier trying to make the Daytona 500 field, but finished five laps down and didn't make the race.
___
Follow Jenna Fryer online: https://twitter.com/JennaFryer and http://racing.ap.org
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/harvick-kyle-busch-wins-daytona-500-duels-220114914--spt.html
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Montreal Mayor Michael Applebaum said he was personally threatened by the head of Montreal?s police union because the city has refused to allow officers to work a three-day workweek.
Applebaum produced an email sent from Yves Francoeur?s head of communications Thursday to his press aide stating ?tell the mayor it?s not the civil servants who will have trouble with us on their back, it?s the mayor.?
Stop the cancellation of the three-day workweek and Francoeur will thank the mayor publicly and ?the episode will be closed? the email states.
Applebaum said he also spoke to Francoeur Friday morning and the head of the police brotherhood told him he had till 6 p.m. to change course on the program or he would be personally attacked, without specifying what form those attacks would take.
Applebaum said the city had tried the three-day workweek as a pilot program, but in evaluations, 30 out of 33 police commanders recommended it be scrapped as it was not working. Montreal police chief Marc Parent and the head of human resources for the city concurred. If the police want to dispute the issue, they have the right, Applebaum said, saying he understood they have families and difficult jobs. But it has to be done through proper channels and not by threatening the mayor of a metropolis.
?I remain convinced Montreal taxpayers, most of whom work five-day weeks, will back me on this,? he said.
? Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette
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Source: http://feeds.canada.com/~r/canwest/F297/~3/6fS4V_FK-Tc/story.html
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PRETORIA, South Africa ? Ahead of a judge?s decision on whether to release Oscar Pistorius on bail, South African police on Thursday appointed a new chief detective in the murder case, replacing a veteran policeman who was himself charged with attempted murder.
The sensational twist in the state?s troubled investigation fueled growing public fascination with the case against the double-amputee Olympian, who is charged with premeditated murder in the shooting death of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, in the early hours of Valentine?s Day.
Pistorius, a sporting icon and source of inspiration to millions until the shooting a week ago, is backed by a high-powered team of lawyers and publicists. The abruptness of his fall, and its gruesome circumstances, have gripped a global audience and put South Africa?s police and judicial system under the spotlight.
The man at the center of the storm sat in the dock during his bail hearing, mostly keeping his composure in contrast to slumped-over outbursts of weeping and sobbing on previous days in court. In front of Pistorius, defense lawyer Barry Roux pounced on the apparent disarray in the state?s case, laying out arguments that amounted to a test run for the full trial yet to come.
Roux pointed to what he called the ?poor quality? of the state?s investigation and raised the matter of intent, saying Pistorius and Steenkamp had a ?loving relationship? and the Olympian therefore had no motive to plan her killing.
Pistorius, 26, said he mistook Steenkamp for an intruder when he shot her through a locked door in a bathroom in his home. Prosecutors believe the shooting happened after the couple got into an argument, and prosecutor Gerrie Nel painted a picture of a man he said was ?willing and ready to fire and kill.?
Much of the drama Thursday, however, happened outside the courtroom as South African police scrambled to get their investigation on track.
In a news conference at a training academy, National Police Commissioner Riah Phiyega said a senior detective would gather a team of ?highly skilled and experienced? officers to investigate the killing of 29-year-old Steenkamp, a model and budding reality TV contestant.
The decision to put police Lt. Gen. Vinesh Moonoo in charge came soon after word emerged that the initial chief investigator, Hilton Botha, is facing attempted murder charges, and a day after he offered testimony damaging to the prosecution.
Botha acknowledged Wednesday in court that nothing in Pistorius? version of the fatal shooting of Steenkamp contradicted what police had discovered, even though there have been some discrepancies. Botha also said that police had left a 9 mm slug in the toilet and had lost track of allegedly illegal ammunition found in Pistorius? home.
?This matter shall receive attention at the national level,? Phiyega told reporters soon after the end of proceedings in the third day of Pistorius? bail hearing.
Bulewa Makeke, spokeswoman for South Africa?s National Prosecuting Authority, said the attempted murder charges had been reinstated against Botha on Feb. 4. Police say they found out about it after Botha testified in Pistorius? bail hearing Wednesday.
Botha and two other police officers had seven counts of attempted murder reinstated against them in relation to a 2011 shooting incident. Botha and his two colleagues allegedly fired shots at a minibus they were trying to stop.
Makeke indicated the charges were reinstated against Botha because more evidence had been gathered. She said the charge against Botha was initially dropped ?because there was not enough evidence at the time.?
Pistorius? main sponsor Nike, meanwhile, suspended its contract with the multiple Paralympic champion, following eyewear manufacturer Oakley?s decision to suspend its sponsorship. Nike said in a brief statement on its website: ?We believe Oscar Pistorius should be afforded due process and we will continue to monitor the situation closely.?
On Thursday, Chief Magistrate Desmond Nair asked the defense of Pistorius? bail application: ?Do you think there will be some level of shock if the accused is released??
Defense lawyer Roux responded: ?I think there will be a level of shock in this country if he is not released.?
Prosecutor Nel suggested signs of remorse from Pistorius had nothing to do with whether he planned to kill his girlfriend.
?Even if you plan a murder, you plan a murder and shoot. If you fire the shot, you have remorse. Remorse might kick in immediately,? Nel said.
As Nel summed up the prosecution?s case opposing bail, Pistorius began to weep in the crowded courtroom, leading his brother, Carl Pistorius, to reach out and touch his back.
?He (Pistorius) wants to continue with his life like this never happened,? Nel went on, prompting Pistorius, who was crying softly, to shake his head. ?The reason you fire four shots is to kill,? Nel persisted.
Earlier Thursday, Nair questioned Botha over delays in processing records from phones found in Pistorius? house following the killing of Steenkamp.
?It seems to me like there was a lack of urgency,? Nair said as the efficiency of the police investigation was questioned.
Botha is himself to appear in court in May to face seven counts of attempted murder. Botha was dropped from the case but not suspended from the police force, Phiyega said, and could still be called by defense lawyers at trial.
Pistorius, in the same gray suit, blue shirt and gray tie combination he has worn throughout the bail hearing, stood ramrod straight in the dock, then sat calmly looking at his hands.
Roux said an autopsy showed that Steenkamp?s bladder was empty, suggesting she had gone to use the toilet. Prosecutors say Steenkamp had fled to the toilet to avoid an enraged Pistorius.
?The known forensics is consistent? with Pistorius? statement, Roux said, asking that bail restrictions be eased for Pistorius.
But the prosecutor said Pistorius hadn?t given guarantees to the court that he wouldn?t leave the country if he was facing a life sentence. Nel also stressed that Pistorius shouldn?t be given special treatment.
??I am Oscar Pistorius. I am a world-renowned athlete.? Is that a special circumstance? No.? Nel said. ?His version (of the killing) is improbable.?
Nel said the court should focus on the ?murder of the defenseless woman.?
Botha testified Thursday that he had investigated a 2009 complaint against Pistorius by a woman who said the athlete had assaulted her. He said that Pistorius had not hurt her and that the woman had actually injured herself when she kicked a door at Pistorius? home.
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AP Sports Writer Gerald Imray contributed to this report from Johannesburg.
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