oyesmiah88: April 2013

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Samsung Galaxy S4 loses to Galaxy S3, iPhone 5 in drop tests

Posted on 30 Apr 2013 at 09:31, by Gareth Halfacree

Extended warranty specialist SquareTrade has suggested that the Samsung Galaxy S4 is not as robust as its Gorilla Glass-protected screen and polycarbonate body would suggest - rating it lower in drop survivability than the last-generation Galaxy S3 or rival iPhone 5.

Subjecting all three devices to a barrage of durability tests shared on YouTube, the company found that the Galaxy S4 failed before any of the rival devices - including Samsung's own previous-generation Galaxy S3 handset. While the S4 was found to be slightly more waterproof than its predecessor, the drop testing didn't go so well for Samsung's latest flagship.

"Major strikes against the S4 include high breakability during SquareTrade drop tests, a slippery back panel, and a wider screen that reduces grip-ability, especially compared to the ultra-slim iPhone 5," the company stated following its testing. "Our research and experience shows that even the smallest device characteristics can dramatically affect its breakability: the weight balance of a device can affect the way it spins in free-fall, making it more likely to land on its screen; devices with rubber backs are less likely to slide, and device dimensions can effect how snugly smartphones fit in pant and jeans pockets. The likelihood of damage due to these common scenarios has never been higher."

The company's results may come as a surprise to iPhone owners: Samsung fans have long decried Apple's decision to include a glass back on the handset, doubling the likelihood that something will shatter when the handset is dropped. Samsung's handsets, by contrast, use a casing constructed from impact-resistant polycarbonate plastic - a material which is supposed to deform on impact and reduce the shock to the rest of the handset.

Whatever changes in the Galaxy S4 design have caused its drop survivability to lessen compared to previous-generation hardware, it's something Samsung will doubtless be keen to address in future revisions of the hardware: the company is already rumoured to be looking into moving to a metal unibody chassis for its Galaxy Note 3, despite having defended its use of plastics in the past.

Samsung has not yet provided comment on the results of SquareTrade's testing.

Source: http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/smartphones/1299460/samsung-galaxy-s4-loses-to-galaxy-s3-iphone-5-in-drop-tests

mark jenkins super bowl commercials 2012 mia amar e stoudemire m.i.a. adrianne curry hoekstra

Ireland's coalition government riven by new abortion law

Ireland is introducing an abortion bill that would include mental health among factors that could put a woman's life at risk. Opponents say it would open the door to greater liberalization.

By Jason Walsh,?Correspondent / April 29, 2013

Abortion rights protesters bearing pictures of Savita Halappanavar march through central Dublin, Nov. 2012, demanding that Ireland's government ensures that abortions can be performed to save a woman's life. Ireland has been shocked by the death of Halappanavar, a 31-year-old Indian-born woman who died from septic shock during childbirth last year.

Shawn Pogatchnik/AP/File

Enlarge

When Ireland's Supreme Court ordered the government to pass a law allowing abortion when a pregnant woman's life was at risk, none of the five judges could likely have imagined that its ruling would still be pending more than 20 years later.

Skip to next paragraph

' + google_ads[0].line2 + '
' + google_ads[0].line3 + '

'; } else if (google_ads.length > 1) { ad_unit += ''; } } document.getElementById("ad_unit").innerHTML += ad_unit; google_adnum += google_ads.length; return; } var google_adnum = 0; google_ad_client = "pub-6743622525202572"; google_ad_output = 'js'; google_max_num_ads = '1'; google_feedback = "on"; google_ad_type = "text"; google_adtest = "on"; google_image_size = '230x105'; google_skip = '0'; // -->

This week, Ireland is preparing to announce the draft law, which permits abortions on limited medical grounds, including threat of suicide.?Mandated by the Irish Supreme Court in 1992, and?finally confirmed in December 2012, the bill has been with the cabinet for several weeks. But the depth of feeling ? at least among the political class ? about allowing any abortion has been underscored by yet another delay as ministers attempt to bridge a chasm between?the two governing parties, conservative Fine Gael and center-left Labor.

The issue took on new urgency this week when The Sunday Independent newspaper published a report based on?a "sting" operation by an anti-abortion activist. The activist posed as a pro-choice supporter and secretly recorded two Labor lawmakers saying they wanted to go much further in allowing abortion on demand, and that the currently proposed law was merely a steppingstone.

The backlash was immediate, with anti-abortion activists online branding the Labor party "liars" and claiming the recordings were proof of an agenda to seek laws allowing abortion on demand.

Caroline Simons, legal adviser to the Pro Life Campaign, says the revelation will come as a surprise to the majority of Irish people.

"It's not something the government has been highlighting, [but] in other countries risk to mental health and suicide opened the door to abortion on demand," she says.

One Fine Gael lawmaker, Brian Walsh, has already signaled his intention to oppose any bill that includes being at risk of suicide as grounds for abortion. His party colleague, junior minister Lucinda Creighton, has become a rallying figure for opponents of abortion within the party. She claims at least six members will rebel against the government, though many observers say more will stake their careers on the question.

Labor senator and attorney Ivana Bacik says the divisions are overstated.

"Some people would like to suggest this is a major rift between Labor and Fine Gael, but that's not true. Most people in Fine Gael would like to see a resolution to this, so we can hope calmer heads will prevail.

"Clearly it's not going to lead to abortion on demand. It won't change the law. It just restates the existing position [of the Supreme Court]," she says.

The 'X' case

Allowing abortion because the mother may be at risk for suicide remains controversial in Ireland. Following the 1992 Supreme Court ruling in the so-called "X case," where a 14-year-old girl who became suicidal when denied an abortion after being raped, preoccupation with suicide has been included among the list of immediate threats to a pregnant woman's life that constitute grounds for an abortion. Despite the ruling, successive governments have failed to legislate ? until now.

A 2012 poll conducted by research firm Red-C found 85 percent those surveyed said they wanted the government to legislate for "X," supporting the move.

Dubliner Joan O'Connell says she thinks public opinion is often moved by personal experience.

"Although this is a deeply emotional issue, many people in Ireland are generally reasonable and understand the nuances of actual cases ? once the discussion is taken out of the abstract. The figures on women who travel for abortion necessarily mean that there are many people in Ireland know a woman who has had an abortion, even if they are unaware of it," she says.

Still, the inclusion of suicide has angered anti-abortion campaigners ? but now it's the turn of pro-choice activists and politicians to object.

Who evaluates?

A leak published in The Sunday Times last week said any woman seeking to procure an abortion would have to submit to assessment by a panel consisting six hospital doctors. The panel would have included two obstetricians, three psychiatrists, one of whom was to be a specialist perinatal psychiatrist, of which there are three in the entire country. One doctor, psychiatrist Anthony McCarthy, compared this to "an inquisition."

The government scotched the six-doctor claim, but opted to delay the publication of the bill for a week. The Christian Science Monitor understands that the bill, due to be published Tuesday, now proposes a two-stage consultation, with women reporting suicidal thoughts required to consult a lower, but as yet unspecified, number of doctors. Suicide remains the sticking point: how to deal with threat to life by non-pyschiatric medical condition is believed to be settled between the two governing parties.?

Peadar O'Grady, a child psychiatrist and representative of campaign group Doctors For Choice, says making abortion decisions contingent on medical opinion sidesteps the real question of individual autonomy.

"The political cowardice is about handing over responsibility [to psychiatrists] for an individual case in order to avoid handing the choice over to the woman," he says.

Medical opinion is divided, however ? 113?psychiatrists have signed a letter saying abortion as treatment for suicidal thoughts "has no basis in the medical evidence available."

Pro-choice activists dispute the claim that the inclusion of suicide will lead to abortion on demand, citing Ireland's unique constitutional ban on abortion: the eighth amendment to the Constitution effectively forbids abortion by giving equal rights to the pregnant woman and the unborn.

The law follows in the wake of the findings of the inquest into the death of Savita Halappanavar, a 31-year-old Indian-born woman who?died from septic shock during childbirth?last year. Both Ms. Halappanavar and her husband, Praveen, requested an abortion after being told the fetus was unviable,?but were denied, sparking outrage in Ireland and India. The inquest recorded a verdict of death by "medical misadventure."

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/cfubZ3UgF0U/Ireland-s-coalition-government-riven-by-new-abortion-law

valentines day ideas the villages florida egoraptor gisele bundchen the bourne legacy roland martin suspended lake vostok

Obama says his health care law mostly in place

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama argues that his signature health care law is already benefiting most Americans even if they don't know it.

The president says despite what he calls "sky is falling" predictions, the Affordable Care Act's provisions are already in place for those with health insurance.

He says what's left is to help those Americans who don't have health care coverage to obtain it. He acknowledged that is "a big undertaking" and predicted there could still be some glitches as the details are worked out.

Obama was speaking at a news conference Tuesday at the White House.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-04-30-Obama-Health%20Care/id-eb511e97107b444286f12cbb183676ca

Chief Keef FRANK ZAMBONI Tiffany Six aaliyah jodie foster seahawks natalie wood

Chris Kluwe: When They Come for You

"Why do you speak out in support of the gay community?"

I've been asked this question multiple times, at multiple events, and every time I give the same answer: "Because it's the right thing to do. Treat others the way you?d like to be treated."

A simple lesson, one we all learn in kindergarten, yet one that so many people seem to forget as they go through life; as they become more preoccupied with greed, narcissism, hate, and selfishness.

Such an easy equation, and yet so difficult for those lacking empathy to solve, unable to put themselves in another person?s shoes, failing to comprehend the complete dickishness of their actions (actions they would not want perpetrated upon themselves), convinced of their own smug superiority as they try to control someone else?s life.

Why do I speak out in support of the gay community?

Because the words, "We should round them all up and send them to an island to die," are absolutely abhorrent to any rational-minded person and should never be uttered by one member of the human race about another.

Why do I speak out in support of the gay community?

Because the actions of bullying, intolerance, and bigotry, actions that have driven (and will continue to drive) young children and adults to suicide, are actions any creature with an ounce of empathy within their soul ought condemn as the twisted depravity they truly are.

Why do I speak out in support of the gay community?

Because I wish to live in freedom, and every time I contemplate that freedom, I am reminded of a poem by Martin Niemoller:

First they came for the communists,

and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.

Then they came for the socialists,

and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,

and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,

and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me,

and there was no one left to speak for me.

I speak for freedom, even though it is a freedom I currently have. I speak for equality, even though I am currently equal. I speak for justice, even though it is a justice I currently do not need. I speak for gay rights and the rights of every person, no matter their religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual predisposition, or social or economic status, to live free of the chains of oppression and hate, the barbs of ignorance and small minded fear, because that is the life I want to live - a life where I can make my own choices. A life where I can be who I am, not what someone else decides I should be.

TREAT OTHERS THE WAY YOU WANT TO BE TREATED. If we do not make this the cornerstone of our society, if we do not understand that infringing on the freedom of consenting adults to live their lives (in whatever fashion that happens to be) is infringing on the freedom of us all, then we will eventually join other society, culture, and civilization that has ever existed, on the trash heap of history marked "Failure" -- brought there by conflicts those civilizations bred into being, conflicts between those lacking empathy and those desirous of freedom.

Why do I speak out in support of gay rights, of all rights to equality?

Because if I don?t, then who will be left to speak for me?

This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post as part of our continuing commitment to recognize fearlessness. To share your story of Becoming Fearless -- either your own or that of someone you know -- send a post (500-850 words), with your headshot and brief bio, to fearless@huffingtonpost.com.

"; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-kluwe/when-they-come-for-you_b_3177689.html

katy perry part of me video photoshop cs6 beta cate blanchett nfl news tebow tebow jets romney etch a sketch

Deutsche Bank has "zero tolerance" for tax evaders: CEO

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank has "zero tolerance" for customers seeking to evade taxes by holding assets in foreign accounts managed by the lender, Co-Chief Executive Juergen Fitschen told German radio broadcaster Deutschlandfunk.

"Tax evasion is a crime," Fitschen said in an interview. "It's unacceptable."

Germany's biggest lender has restrictive policies for dealing with its customers' overseas assets and all employees working in the area are aware of it, Fitschen said.

"We have zero tolerance," he said, adding that if the bank had the slightest indication that foreign assets handled by the bank were not taxed, it would demand that customers prove the assets were legitimate.

Tax evasion has become an election issue in Germany after the shock revelation that Uli Hoeness, the Bayern Munich soccer club president and an associate of Chancellor Angela Merkel, had turned himself into tax authorities over a secret Swiss bank account.

Germany's financial watchdog Bafin plans to take a closer look at banks' business in offshore tax havens.

Fitschen said he was confident the Bafin enquiry would bring a good result. "As in other areas, we have nothing to hide."

Separately, UBS Chairman Axel Weber told Wirtschaftswoche magazine that Switzerland's biggest bank would no longer do business with customers seeking to evade taxes.

"I am confident that we can persuade the affected customers to put their situation with the German tax authorities in order," said Weber, who is a former Bundesbank president.

(Reporting by Jonathan Gould; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/deutsche-bank-zero-tolerance-tax-evaders-ceo-122013761.html

lint buenos aires train crash argentina train crash nancy pelosi nancy pelosi gop debate republican debate

'Mortal Instruments' Actor Robert Sheehan Makes Magic Out Of The Mundane

Actor takes MTV News behind the scenes of upcoming 'City of Bones' adaptation.
By Amy Wilkinson, with reporting by Josh Horowitz

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1706470/mortal-instruments-city-of-bones-simon.jhtml

acl earthquake los angeles unemployment 2012 nfl draft grades young justice d rose iman shumpert

Monday, April 29, 2013

Cyberattack suspect to be sent home to Netherlands

MADRID (AP) ? A Dutch citizen arrested in Spain on suspicion of launching what authorities have called the biggest cyberattack in Internet history is expected to be handed over to the Netherlands within 10 days, a Spanish court official said Monday.

The suspect ? identified only by his initials S.K. ? was questioned Saturday in the National Court in Madrid after his arrest last week and agreed to the deal, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because court rules prevent him from giving his name.

Police say the 35-year-old suspect operated from a bunker in northeast Spain and also had a van capable of hacking into networks anywhere in the country. He was arrested Thursday in Granollers, 35 kilometers (22 miles) north of Barcelona.

He is accused of attacking the anti-spam watchdog group Spamhaus, whose main task is to halt ads for counterfeit Viagra and bogus weight-loss pills reaching the world's inboxes.

Dutch authorities alerted Spanish police in March of large denial-of-service attacks being launched from Spain that were affecting Internet servers in the Netherlands, United Kingdom and the U.S. These attacks culminated with a major onslaught on Spamhaus.

Denial-of-service attacks overwhelm a server with traffic, jamming it with incoming messages. Recent cyberattacks ? such as the ones that caused outages at U.S. banking sites last year ? have tended to peak at 100 billion bits per second. The attack on Spamhaus was three times that size.

Police from the Netherlands, Germany, Britain, Spain and the U.S. took part in the investigation.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-04-29-EU-Spain-Cybercrime/id-187118ad175147eeadf64b588118a347

school shooting oscar nominations C7 Corvette tom brady denver post Scandal denver broncos

Mike McCue Wants Flipboard To Be The Home Of Brand Advertising For Mobile Publishers

Today at Disrupt NY 2013, Flipboard CEO Mike McCue said that publishers are facing a huge reduction in ad revenues. Publishers have seen revenues go from dollars in print, to dimes on the web, to pennies on mobile. According to McCue, a lot of the reason for that is the way that content is packaged and ads are displayed.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/wCEHXl4zSOo/

brian wilson storm chasers david blaine gotye divine mercy cabin in the woods the legend of korra

Report: There's Going to Be a Lot of Jony Ive in iOS 7

With Jony Ive in the driver's seat for iOS 7, the scent of change is on the breeze. Change itself is inevitable, it's just a question of how much. And according to 9to5Mac's sources, the answer to that question is "a lot."

According to several unnamed sources who have been briefed on the upcoming iOS 7, the vibe is "flat." And we're talking really flat; one source went so far as to compare it to Windows 8 Modern UI-grade flatness. In addition to the unsurprising banishment of skeumorphism, word is all elements of gloss and shine will disappear as well.

Rumored to be codenamed "Innsbruck," iOS is shaping up to be a pretty big departure from the stitching and lined paper of iOS past. And although the changes may be slightly alienating?or if nothing else, a little surprising?to long-time users, they should make things more usable going forward, freeing apps from their leather shackles and velvet curtained cells. And what's left is rumored to still be "familiar," though how that will manifest exactly remains to be seen. The core fundamentals of iOS are said to remain unchanged.

The first hints of this evolution have already shown up in the recently modified Podcast app, and it's likely that's only the beginning. We'll have to wait for WWDC in June before we get a peek at what exactly is in store. It's bound to be interesting. And, hopefully, refreshing. [9to5Mac]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/report-theres-going-to-be-a-lot-of-jony-ive-in-ios-7-484762156

bracket Jason Terry Steubenville rape Beyonce Bow Down Jason Molina UCF Pigeon Forge Fire

Utah excels in economy and business: Chamber of Commerce report

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When it comes to economic growth and business strength, there may be no better U.S. state than Utah, according to a report set to be released by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Monday.

The business association found that Utah, population 2.8 million, ranked third among all states in overall economic performance - a measure of how states' economies have fared over time in terms of jobs, gross domestic product, productivity and income.

Moreover, Utah was the only state to make the top 10 lists for all five of the "policy" areas the Chamber assessed - exports, innovation and entrepreneurship, business climate, talent pipeline and infrastructure.

"Utah is the strongest job growth performer behind North Dakota ... The state is becoming known as a professional services and finance center," said the Chamber. "Manufacturing is a competitive advantage for the state. Over the past decade, Utah's manufacturing sector saw a slight increase in employment during a time when national manufacturing employment contracted by 22.51 percent."

Utah's unemployment rate is one of the lowest among the states at 4.9 percent in March 2013, according to the U.S. Labor Department.

Each year the Chamber ranks states according to various economic and business measures for its "Enterprising States" report. This year, fortune seemed directly tied to technology and engineering across the five areas the Chamber evaluates.

For exports, Utah came in third after Louisiana and Texas, primarily because it is a major supplier to the world of electronic memory circuits, aircraft engines and parts, vehicle airbags and X-ray equipment, according to the Chamber.

Utah had top rankings in entrepreneurship mostly because it is establishing high-tech businesses at a fast rate.

The Chamber also considered Utah strong in the "talent pipeline" area, which looks at both education and training as well as job assistance programs after the state legislature approved funds to foster more engineering graduates and software developers.

Technology was even a factor for Utah's top ranking in infrastructure, with the Chamber emphasizing Utah's high-speed data connections alongside the high quality of the state's bridges.

For the business climate measure, which assesses the influence of government-related costs on local businesses, the Chamber put Utah sixth because of its high small-business lending activity, low taxes and laws.

Technology also gave Maryland and Virginia a boost in the Chamber's report.

The Chamber ranked Maryland first in entrepreneurship, largely because of its research and development and its science and technology employment growth, and Virginia third partly for having the highest share of businesses in high-tech industries.

Still, the extraction and the commodities boom continues to prove crucial for jobs, business and incomes in most states.

North Dakota's "stratospheric growth" from the oil and natural gas industry put it first on the list of economic performance, followed by Texas, which has added 41,000 jobs in natural resources extraction in the last two years, according to the Chamber.

Three other energy heavyweights completed the top 10 economic performance list, with Wyoming fourth, Oklahoma seventh and Louisiana eighth.

The Chamber of Commerce is not the only one to notice that certain states are bounding ahead as the recovery from the 2007-09 recession unfolds. Earlier this month, Standard & Poor's Ratings Service said it expected to find the strongest growth this year in the Rocky Mountain region, including Utah and Wyoming, and in the West South Central area encompassing Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas.

(Reporting By Lisa Lambert; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/utah-excels-economy-business-chamber-commerce-report-040329836.html

anthony davis toure patti smith lottery winners lottery winners april fools day pranks ohio state vs kansas

Code Alert: Tynker Wants to Teach Your Child to Tinker With Tech ...

Tynker 2

Krishna Vedati doesn?t want your children to just watch Saturday morning cartoons. He wants them to make their own.

Vedati is the CEO of Tynker, a ?learn to code? platform for kids in third through eighth grade, one of many that have popped up in recent years aimed at parents who think computing skills are critical for their children.

But rather than focus on computer languages like HTML, the Mountain View-based startup teaches kids how to think like a programmer, he said.

?The way I think about programming is just like any other language the kids are learning today,? Vedati said. ?This is just like another language, just a different set of life skills than if you learned French or Spanish.?

Consumer might want what Vedati?s offering, after results from a pilot of Tynker in Bay Area schools over the past year. The startup, which has raised $3.5 million in angel funding, was inundated with 10,000 new requests after openin up to educators nationwide earlier this month, the majority from parents eager to get their hands on a home version of the coding platform.

Vedati estimates that a home-based edition should be ready in the next couple months. However, for now, Tynker is only available to schools. The platform is free for educators, with an option to pay and upgrade to premium.

Vedati?s own son went to a coding camp at Stanford University and, two weeks later, was able to build a Flash player game. Still, Vedati noticed that he had merely learned how to regurgitate the pre-scripted instructions for building the game, without any understanding of programming?s fundamentals.

It got Vedati thinking. How could he and the rest of the Tynker team design a platform that could convey the conceptual logic behind programming to kids in a structured and, more importantly, fun manner? It was the ideal project for Vedati, an engineer turned entrepreneur. He has been coding since his university years in India where his love of video games drew him to field.

?[Kids are] exposed to so much technology,? he said. ?But school hasn?t changed in 50 years, so we thought these kids need a different set of skills for their generation to use the technology to their advantage.?

Tynker 1

With Tynker, kids are introduced to coding through a simple, visual platform that allows its young users to create games and basic animations with nary a line of code in sight. Its drag and drop design is similar to Scratch, another kid-friendly coding language conceived at MIT. One of Tynker?s simplest concepts is animating a character and teaching it how to walk and talk.

?By the time they?re done training the character, they?ve probably learned 20 primitives,? said Vedati. ?Once they get the knowledge of 20 primitives, then they?re asking what else can I do??

In general, Vedati says girls focus on storytelling and characters, while boys gravitate towards designing games. And, in general, the coding projects grow more complex as the children get older. Whereas third graders are happy to make anything they can show their parents, eighth graders want to build multi-level games.

Later down the line, Vedati said he aims to extend Tynker?s reach to high schoolers in a manner that would transition students to a regular programming language, such as JavaScript or Python and he hopes Tynker will help fix the lack of coding courses at schools nationwide.

?Programming is very near and dear to me,? Vedati said. ?I firmly believe that it?s a life skill that anyone can learn and they could put it to use no matter what their interests are whether their interests are history, art ? there?s computation going on in every field.?

Source: http://allthingsd.com/20130428/code-alert-tynker-wants-to-teach-you-child-to-tinker-with-tech/

March Madness 2013 bracket March Madness 2013 selection sunday NIT Tournament clay matthews Ncaa Tournament 2013 2013 NCAA Bracket

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Obama jokes about aging during 2nd term

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama joked Saturday that the years are catching up to him and he's not "the strapping young Muslim socialist" he used to be.

Obama poked fun at himself as well as some of his political adversaries during the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner attended by politicians, members of the media and Hollywood celebrities.

Entering to the rap track "All I Do Is Win" by DJ Khaled, Obama joked about how re-election would allow him to unleash a radical agenda. But then he showed a picture of himself golfing on a mock magazine cover of "Senior Leisure."

"I'm not the strapping young Muslim Socialist that I used to be," the president remarked, and then recounted his recent 2-for-22 basketball shooting performance at the White House Easter Egg hunt.

But Obama's most dramatic shift for the next four years appeared to be aesthetic. He presented a montage of shots featuring him with bangs similar to those sometimes sported by his wife.

"So we borrowed one of Michelle's tricks," Obama said. "I thought this looked pretty good, but no bounce."

Obama closed by noting the nation's recent tragedies in Massachusetts and Texas, praising Americans of all stripes from first responders to local journalists for serving the public good.

Saturday night's banquet not far from the White House attracted the usual assortment of stars from Hollywood and beyond. Actors Kevin Spacey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Claire Danes, who play government characters on series, were among the attendees, as was Korean entertainer Psy. Several Cabinet members, governors and members of Congress were present.

And despite coming at a somber time, nearly two weeks after the deadly Boston Marathon bombing and 10 days after a devastating fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas, the president and political allies and rivals alike took the opportunity to enjoy some humor. Late-night talk-show host Conan O'Brien headlined the event.

Some of Obama's jokes came at his Republican rivals' expense. He asked that the GOP's minority outreach begin with him as a "trial run" and said he'd take his recent charm offensive with Republicans on the road, including events with conservatives such as Sen. Ted Cruz, Sen. Rand Paul and Rep. Michele Bachmann.

"In fact, I'm taking my charm offensive on the road -- a Texas barbeque with Ted Cruz, a Kentucky bluegrass concert with Rand Paul, and a book-burning with Michele Bachmann," Obama joked.

Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson would have had better success getting Obama out of office if he simply offered the president $100 million to drop out of last year's race, Obama quipped.

And on the 2016 election, the president noted in self-referential irony that potential Republican candidate Sen. Marco Rubio wasn't qualified because he hasn't even served a full term in the Senate. Obama served less than four years of his six-year Senate term before he was elected president in 2008.

"I mean, the guy has not even finished a single term in the Senate and he thinks he's ready to be President," Obama joked.

The gala also was an opportunity for six journalists, including Associated Press White House Correspondent Julie Pace, to be honored for their coverage of the presidency and national issues.

The New Yorker's Ryan Lizza won the Aldo Beckman Award, which recognizes excellence in the coverage of the presidency.

Pace won the Merriman Smith Award for a print journalist for coverage on deadline.

ABC's Terry Moran was the winner of the broadcast Merriman Smith Award for deadline reporting.

Reporters Jim Morris, Chris Hamby and Ronnie Greene of the Center for Public Integrity won the Edgar A. Poe Award for coverage of issues of national significance.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-jokes-aging-during-2nd-term-072516199.html

westminster kennel club dog show jeremy lin game winner chocolate covered strawberries shrimp scampi kate upton si cover lobster recipes hearts

FBI's longtime director faces criticism of bureau again

By Susan Cornwell and Thomas Ferraro

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As he nears the end of a dozen years as director of the FBI, Robert Mueller finds himself defending the agency over its handling of two high-profile cases. It is a familiar spot for the low-key ex-Marine.

At the request of President Barack Obama, Mueller stayed on for two years beyond the job's 10-year term to help stabilize law enforcement's fight against domestic and international threats to U.S. security. Recent events - the bombing at the Boston Marathon and ricin-laced letters sent to Obama and a U.S. senator - have left Mueller dealing with suggestions that agency missteps may have added to the damage.

Mueller, 68, who is scheduled to leave office in early September, has endured many congressional attacks against his agency's performance. While he is not universally praised on Capitol Hill, he has won enough bipartisan support to be considered a success.

Tellingly, it was a target of the 2001 anthrax letters - Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont - who told Mueller at a 2008 hearing that he seriously doubted the findings of the FBI's long and complicated anthrax investigation. But three years later, Leahy as Senate Judiciary Committee chairman helped Mueller win a two-year extension of his term.

The FBI chief gets far milder treatment than some other prominent members of the 0bama administration, such as U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice. She came under heavy fire from Republicans for remarks she made after the September 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. Mission in Benghazi in which four Americans were killed, including Ambassador Chris Stevens.

In Washington, where making enemies is easy, Mueller wins high scores from members of Congress for his competence, even as he guided a vast expansion of FBI powers since the hijacked plane attacks of September 11, 2001.

"I believe he is well liked, even though I find fault with a lot of his policies, or how he does things," Senator Charles Grassley, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, said in an interview. "I think he's well intentioned ... it's kind of difficult for me to criticize him even when there is a screw-up," Grassley added.

This month, the FBI has faced fresh assaults over its failure to spot the potential danger from Tamerlan Tsarnaev, a suspect in the April 15 Boston Marathon bombings, after Russia asked the bureau to investigate him two years ago. Tamerlan Tsarnaev died in a police shootout and his brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, has been charged in the bombings that killed three people and injured more than 200.

Two senior Republican lawmakers complained Tamerlan Tsarnaev was yet another in a series of cases in which a person investigated by the agency had later taken part in attacks.

Soon after the Boston bombings, the FBI accused an Elvis impersonator of sending letters containing ricin to Obama and other officials, only to quickly drop the charges for a lack of evidence.

Mueller and his leadership team have briefed members of Congress about the cases, but further inquiries are likely.

"I think he is ready to go home. He has had 12 years," said Dutch Ruppersberger, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee. He praised Mueller, who was first nominated to the job by a Republican president, George W. Bush.

"He has had some major issues to confront, including 9/11, then Russian and China threats, cyber threats," he said.

Some lawmakers say that despite the Boston blasts, the FBI thwarted other plots in recent years, including one to bomb New York's subway system. They also note that there was an arrest within days of the Boston bombing.

"I thought they (the FBI) did fabulous in getting to the bottom of the Boston bombing, but as great as that was, it was embarrassing to bring in a guy who had nothing to do with the ricin mailings," said Representative Louie Gohmert, a Texas Republican who serves on the Judiciary Committee, which has oversight of the FBI.

Mueller's office did not comment, although Mueller has praised the work of the FBI and other law enforcement agencies for the arrest of the Boston bombing suspect.

LOW PROFILE?

Some think Mueller's secret to success has been keeping a low profile in a town where many people are constantly angling to get attention. Mueller, while doing a lot of closed-door briefings for leaders, does not talk much to the media.

"I think he has been successful because he hasn't been a press hog," Grassley said.

Mueller, a former Justice Department official, was nominated for the top FBI job in 2001 and took office days before the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

When Obama asked Mueller to stay on, some Senate Republicans initially balked. One, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, came around after Mueller met with him to discuss the bureau's handling of a Kentucky case.

Mueller fielded heavy criticism from his earliest days in office.

After the 9/11 attacks, politicians from both parties questioned how the FBI had missed several warning signs of the hijackings, such as a memo from a Phoenix agent about Middle Eastern men taking flight lessons.

The anthrax case led to criticism because the bureau focused for so long on the wrong man, a mistake that ultimately cost the government millions of dollars in settling a lawsuit.

The FBI finally concluded that Army scientist Bruce Ivans was responsible for the anthrax attacks, but he killed himself before charges were brought.

In 2008, Leahy, then the Democratic chairman of the Judiciary Committee, told Mueller he did not believe the FBI finding that Ivans was solely responsible. Leahy said he thought others had to be involved.

Mueller reorganized the FBI to expand its analytical capability and improve its intelligence collection. He also beefed up its bioterrorism capabilities.

He has been praised for resisting some parts of the expansion of domestic surveillance under Bush.

Grassley said Mueller had not always been as responsive as possible to the senator's letters or "as protective of whistleblowers as he should be."

But he said there should not be another extension as director for Mueller, no matter how well liked he may be.

The purpose of the law limiting the director's term "is to make sure we don't get into this J. Edgar Hoover syndrome, that one guy is so indispensable," Grassley said, referring to the former FBI director of almost four decades. "We don't want to get caught in that syndrome again."

(Reporting By Susan Cornwell; Editing by Marilyn W. Thompson and Peter Cooney)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fbis-longtime-director-faces-criticism-bureau-again-122025633.html

pippa middleton space shuttle discovery spacex tupac hologram tupac back tax deadline death race

Google releases Glass kernel GPL source, lets developers have at it

While our own Tim Stevens is currently adapting to life through Google Glass, developers are going beyond scratching the surface to fiddle with what's inside. Hot on the heels of Jay Freeman rooting Glass, devs will be pleased to know Google's throwing 'em a bone to by publicly releasing the kernel source. Interestingly, Karthik's Geek Center spotted info within the file that points to Glass potentially being equipped for NFC support. If you're up for tinkering, you'll find the temporary location of the tar.zx file itself at the source link.

Filed under: Misc, Robots, Wearables, Software, Google

Comments

Via: Karthik's Geek Center

Source: Google

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/27/google-releases-glass-kernel-gpl-source/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

palestine powerball winner powerball winner Zig Ziglar alabama football florida lotto sean taylor

Algeria president in France for tests after minor stroke

By Lamine Chikhi

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was transferred to France for medical tests on Saturday night after suffering a minor stroke, Algeria's official news agency said.

Bouteflika, who has ruled over the North African oil and gas producer for more than a decade, had an "transient ischemic attack" or mini-stroke on Saturday but his condition was not serious, the APS agency said, quoting the prime minister.

The 76-year-old is part of an older generation of leaders who have dominated politics in a country that supplies a fifth of Europe's gas imports and cooperates with the West in combating Islamist militancy.

He has rarely appeared in public in recent months, prompting speculation about his health.

"The president felt unwell and he has been hospitalized but his condition is not serious at all," Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal was quoted as saying by APS.

The president was then moved to France, on the recommendation of his doctors.

Bouteflika and other members of Algeria's elite have controlled Algeria since it won independence from France in a 1954-62 war.

In the early 1990s, the military-backed politicians overturned an election which Islamists were poised to win and then fought a conflict with them in which about 200,000 people were killed.

They also saw off the challenge of Arab Spring protests two years ago, with Bouteflika's government defusing unrest through pay rises and free loans for young people.

Bouteflika has served three terms as president of the OPEC member and is thought unlikely to seek a fourth at an election due in 2014.

U.S. diplomatic cables leaked in 2011 said Bouteflika had been suffering from cancer but it was in remission.

More than 70 percent of Algerians are under 30. About 21 percent of young people are unemployed, the International Monetary Fund says, and many are impatient with the gerontocracy ruling a country where jobs, wages and housing are urgent concerns.

A transient ischemic attack is a temporary blockage in a blood vessel to the brain. it typically lasts for less than five minutes and "usually causes no permanent injury to the brain", the American Stroke Association said on its website.

The attacks should be seen as a warning as a third of people who experience them go on to have a full stroke within a year, the organization added.

(Reporting by Lamine Chikhi; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/algerian-president-france-medical-tests-034747376.html

born to run pranks pregnancy test april fools day 2012 ja rule amityville horror acm