Is Master School Right For You?

The decision to attain one's master degree is an important one. A few things should be taken into consideration before deciding to go back to school. One must first decide if he or she has enough time to devote to school. Secondly, a critical eye should be given to a potential school budget. Finally, one needs to decide if it is the right time to go back to school. Ultimately, the decision to go back to school should be well thought out and informed.

Most people who are thinking about going back to school consider whether or not they really have the time for it first. It may be very difficult to juggle a full-time job with school. Some people may go back to school during a transition period in their life. They may be able to focus on school full-time. This doesn't mean that one must quit whatever they are doing to go to school. Many people juggle school and work successfully.

Getting a master degree is not a cheap endeavor. One should sit down with a calculator and figure out how much it is actually going to cost. Tuition is only a fraction of what it will cost to go back to school. Potential students should also figure out how much it is going to cost for books, food and living expenses. They need to decide if they will be able to apply for scholarships or if they will need to take out student loans. Many students will save up money before going back to school. This can help to offset expenses if one has to cut back on work hours. It may be necessary to discuss the budget with one's family members as well.

There have been so many technological advancements in the past decade. Students can now study at traditional schools or online. In addition, students are replacing expensive text books with digital copies of their required books. Students often keep all of their notes on laptops or tablets. There are so many great gadgets to help one prepare for getting a master degree. Most professors have decided to go paperless also. Students who are primarily attending school online will get the most use out of their electronic devices.

Ultimately, one needs to decide on whether or not it is the right time to go back to school. Money and time should be the first two factors that need to be considered. Sometimes, it just isn't the right time to go back to school. Other potential students may like to take advantage of transition periods in their life. Staying with one's family after college is a great way to save money during a graduate program. Each situation is different. Every potential student must decide if he or she is ready for graduate school. Pursuing a master degree is a tough but worthy goal. Students will appreciate all of the time they spent planning to ensure scholastic success.

This post is brought to you by Walter Lake, a former student at University of Western Ontario, one of the top Canadian Universities offering quality Master programs in the country. For more information, visit their website. http://www.edu.uwo.ca/

Source: http://articles.submityourarticle.com/is-master-school-right-for-you--322997

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Obama pitches public works spending to create jobs

President Barack Obama speaks at a port in Miami, Friday, March 29, 2013, promoting a plan to create construction and other jobs by attracting private investment in roads and other public works projects. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)

President Barack Obama speaks at a port in Miami, Friday, March 29, 2013, promoting a plan to create construction and other jobs by attracting private investment in roads and other public works projects. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)

President Barack Obama removes his jacket before touring a tunnel project at the Port of Miami, Friday, March 29, 2013, while promoting a plan to create jobs by attracting private investment in highways and other public works. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Barack Obama tours a tunnel project at the Port of Miami, Friday, March 29, 2013, while promoting a plan to create jobs by attracting private investment in highways and other public works. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Barack Obama speaks at a port in Miami, Friday, March 29, 2013, promoting a plan to create construction and other jobs by attracting private investment in roads and other public works projects. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Barack Obama speaks at a port in Miami, Friday, March 29, 2013, promoting a plan to create construction and other jobs by attracting private investment in roads and other public works projects. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

MIAMI (AP) ? Trying to show that the economy remains a top priority, President Barack Obama promoted a plan Friday to create construction and other jobs by attracting private money to help rebuild roads, bridges and other public works projects.

Obama fleshed out the details during a visit to a Miami port that's undergoing $2 billion in upgrades paid for with government and private dollars. The quick trip was designed to show that the economy and unemployment are top priorities for a president who also is waging high-profile campaigns on immigration reform and gun control.

Obama said the unemployment rate among construction workers was the highest of any industry, despite being cut nearly in half over the past three years.

"There are few more important things we can do to create jobs right now and strengthen our economy over the long haul than rebuilding the infrastructure that powers our businesses and economy," Obama said. "As president, my top priority is to make sure we are doing everything we can to reignite the true engine of our economic growth ? and that is a rising, thriving middle class."

Among the proposals Obama called for, which require approval from Congress, are:

?$4 billion in new spending on two infrastructure programs that award loans and grants.

?Higher caps on "private activity bonds" to encourage more private spending on highways and other infrastructure projects. State and local governments use the bonds to attract investment.

?Giving foreign pension funds tax-exempt status when selling U.S. infrastructure, property or real estate assets. U.S. pension funds are generally tax exempt in those circumstances. The administration says some international pension funds cite the tax burden as a reason for not investing in American infrastructure.

?A renewed call for a $10 billion national "infrastructure bank."

Arriving at the expansive port in Miami, Obama stood inside a double-barreled, concrete-laced hole in the ground, touring a tunnel project that will connect the port to area highways. The project has received loans and grants under the programs Obama touted and is expected to open next summer.

The president made private-sector infrastructure investment a key part of the economic agenda he rolled out in his State of the Union address last month. In the speech, he also called for a "Fix-It-First" program that would spend $40 billion in taxpayer funds on urgent repairs.

Congressional approval is not a sure bet, considering that House Republicans have shown little appetite for Obama's spending proposals. In fact, the infrastructure bank is an idea Obama called for many times in the past, but it gained little traction during his first term.

Obama's focus on generating more private-sector investment underscores the tough road new spending faces on Capitol Hill, where Republican lawmakers often threaten to block new spending unless it's paid for by cutting taxes or other spending. "These are projects that are helpful to the economy and shouldn't break down on partisan lines," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.

But Florida Republicans, including Gov. Rick Scott, faulted Obama for being "late to the party." Before Obama arrived in Florida, Scott argued that state taxpayers have had to pick up too much of the tab for this and other port projects because the president was slow to support them.

Alan Krueger, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, told reporters traveling with Obama that the initiatives discussed Friday will cost $21 billion, not including the $40 billion for "Fix-It-First." Krueger said any increased spending associated with the proposals would not add to the deficit.

Krueger said details of how the programs would be paid for would be included in the budget Obama is scheduled to release on April 10.

___

AP White House Correspondent Julie Pace in Washington contributed to this report.

___

Follow Josh Lederman on Twitter: http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-29-Obama/id-2293a13f06f14aa1b27b34591cc46a6c

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Biological transistor enables computing within living cells

Mar. 28, 2013 ? When Charles Babbage prototyped the first computing machine in the 19th century, he imagined using mechanical gears and latches to control information. ENIAC, the first modern computer developed in the 1940s, used vacuum tubes and electricity. Today, computers use transistors made from highly engineered semiconducting materials to carry out their logical operations.

And now a team of Stanford University bioengineers has taken computing beyond mechanics and electronics into the living realm of biology. In a paper to be published March 28 in Science, the team details a biological transistor made from genetic material -- DNA and RNA -- in place of gears or electrons. The team calls its biological transistor the "transcriptor."

"Transcriptors are the key component behind amplifying genetic logic -- akin to the transistor and electronics," said Jerome Bonnet, PhD, a postdoctoral scholar in bioengineering and the paper's lead author.

The creation of the transcriptor allows engineers to compute inside living cells to record, for instance, when cells have been exposed to certain external stimuli or environmental factors, or even to turn on and off cell reproduction as needed.

"Biological computers can be used to study and reprogram living systems, monitor environments and improve cellular therapeutics," said Drew Endy, PhD, assistant professor of bioengineering and the paper's senior author.

The biological computer

In electronics, a transistor controls the flow of electrons along a circuit. Similarly, in biologics, a transcriptor controls the flow of a specific protein, RNA polymerase, as it travels along a strand of DNA.

"We have repurposed a group of natural proteins, called integrases, to realize digital control over the flow of RNA polymerase along DNA, which in turn allowed us to engineer amplifying genetic logic," said Endy.

Using transcriptors, the team has created what are known in electrical engineering as logic gates that can derive true-false answers to virtually any biochemical question that might be posed within a cell.

They refer to their transcriptor-based logic gates as "Boolean Integrase Logic," or "BIL gates" for short.

Transcriptor-based gates alone do not constitute a computer, but they are the third and final component of a biological computer that could operate within individual living cells.

Despite their outward differences, all modern computers, from ENIAC to Apple, share three basic functions: storing, transmitting and performing logical operations on information.

Last year, Endy and his team made news in delivering the other two core components of a fully functional genetic computer. The first was a type of rewritable digital data storage within DNA. They also developed a mechanism for transmitting genetic information from cell to cell, a sort of biological Internet.

It all adds up to creating a computer inside a living cell.

Boole's gold

Digital logic is often referred to as "Boolean logic," after George Boole, the mathematician who proposed the system in 1854. Today, Boolean logic typically takes the form of 1s and 0s within a computer. Answer true, gate open; answer false, gate closed. Open. Closed. On. Off. 1. 0. It's that basic. But it turns out that with just these simple tools and ways of thinking you can accomplish quite a lot.

"AND" and "OR" are just two of the most basic Boolean logic gates. An "AND" gate, for instance, is "true" when both of its inputs are true -- when "a" and "b" are true. An "OR" gate, on the other hand, is true when either or both of its inputs are true.

In a biological setting, the possibilities for logic are as limitless as in electronics, Bonnet explained. "You could test whether a given cell had been exposed to any number of external stimuli -- the presence of glucose and caffeine, for instance. BIL gates would allow you to make that determination and to store that information so you could easily identify those which had been exposed and which had not," he said.

By the same token, you could tell the cell to start or stop reproducing if certain factors were present. And, by coupling BIL gates with the team's biological Internet, it is possible to communicate genetic information from cell to cell to orchestrate the behavior of a group of cells.

"The potential applications are limited only by the imagination of the researcher," said co-author Monica Ortiz, a PhD candidate in bioengineering who demonstrated autonomous cell-to-cell communication of DNA encoding various BIL gates.

Building a transcriptor

To create transcriptors and logic gates, the team used carefully calibrated combinations of enzymes -- the integrases mentioned earlier -- that control the flow of RNA polymerase along strands of DNA. If this were electronics, DNA is the wire and RNA polymerase is the electron.

"The choice of enzymes is important," Bonnet said. "We have been careful to select enzymes that function in bacteria, fungi, plants and animals, so that bio-computers can be engineered within a variety of organisms."

On the technical side, the transcriptor achieves a key similarity between the biological transistor and its semiconducting cousin: signal amplification.

With transcriptors, a very small change in the expression of an integrase can create a very large change in the expression of any two other genes.

To understand the importance of amplification, consider that the transistor was first conceived as a way to replace expensive, inefficient and unreliable vacuum tubes in the amplification of telephone signals for transcontinental phone calls. Electrical signals traveling along wires get weaker the farther they travel, but if you put an amplifier every so often along the way, you can relay the signal across a great distance. The same would hold in biological systems as signals get transmitted among a group of cells.

"It is a concept similar to transistor radios," said Pakpoom Subsoontorn, a PhD candidate in bioengineering and co-author of the study who developed theoretical models to predict the behavior of BIL gates. "Relatively weak radio waves traveling through the air can get amplified into sound."

Public-domain biotechnology

To bring the age of the biological computer to a much speedier reality, Endy and his team have contributed all of BIL gates to the public domain so that others can immediately harness and improve upon the tools.

"Most of biotechnology has not yet been imagined, let alone made true. By freely sharing important basic tools everyone can work better together," Bonnet said.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Stanford University Medical Center. The original article was written by Andrew Myers.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Jerome Bonnet, Peter Yin, Monica E. Ortiz, Pakpoom Subsoontorn, and Drew Endy. Amplifying Genetic Logic Gates. Science, 28 March 2013 DOI: 10.1126/science.1232758

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/ED1fLVQ-WsM/130328142400.htm

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Large robotic jellyfish could one day patrol oceans

Mar. 28, 2013 ? Virginia Tech College of Engineering researchers have unveiled a life-like, autonomous robotic jellyfish the size and weight of a grown man, 5 foot 7 inches in length and weighing 170 pounds.

The prototype robot, nicknamed Cyro, is a larger model of a robotic jellyfish the same team -- headed by Shashank Priya of Blacksburg, Va., and professor of mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech -- unveiled in 2012. The earlier robot, dubbed RoboJelly, is roughly the size of a man's hand, and typical of jellyfish found along beaches.

"A larger vehicle will allow for more payload, longer duration and longer range of operation," said Alex Villanueva of St-Jacques, New-Brunswick, Canada, and a doctoral student in mechanical engineering working under Priya. "Biological and engineering results show that larger vehicles have a lower cost of transport, which is a metric used to determine how much energy is spent for traveling."

Both robots are part of a multi-university, nationwide $5 million project funded by U.S. Naval Undersea Warfare Center and the Office of Naval Research. The goal is to place self-powering, autonomous machines in waters for the purposes of surveillance and monitoring the environment, in addition to other uses such as studying aquatic life, mapping ocean floors, and monitoring ocean currents.

Jellyfish are attractive candidates to mimic because of their ability to consume little energy owing to a lower metabolic rate than other marine species. Additionally, they appear in wide variety of sizes, shapes and colors, allowing for several designs. They also inhabit every major oceanic area of the world and are capable of withstanding a wide range of temperatures in both fresh and salt waters. Most species are found in shallow coastal waters, but some have been found in depths 7,000 meters below sea level.

Partner universities in the project are Providence College in Rhode Island, the University of California Los Angeles, the University of Texas at Dallas, and Stanford University. Priya's team is building the jellyfish body models, integrating fluid mechanics and developing control systems.

Cyro is modeled and named after the jellyfish cyanea capillata, Latin for Llion's Manemain jellyfishJellyfish, with "Cyro" derived from "cyanea" and "robot." As with its predecessor, this robot is in the prototype stage, years away from use in waters. A new prototype model already is under construction at Virginia Tech's Durham Hall, where Priya's Center for Energy Harvesting Materials and Systems is based.

"We hope to improve on this robot and reduce power consumption and improve swimming performance as well as better mimic the morphology of the natural jellyfish," Villanueva said, adding that the project also allows researchers such as himself to better understand aquatic creatures live. "Our hopes for Cyro's future is that it will help understand how the propulsion mechanism of such animal scales with size."

A stark difference exists between the larger and smaller robots. Cyro is powered by a rechargeable nickel metal hydride battery, whereas the smaller models were tethered, Priya said. Experiments have also been conducted on powering jellyfish with hydrogen but there is still much research to be done in that area.

In both cases, the jellyfish must operate on their own for months or longer at a time as engineers likely won't be able to capture and repair the robots, or replace power sources. "Cyro showed its ability to swim autonomously while maintaining a similar physical appearance and kinematics as the natural species," Priya said, adding that the robot is simultaneously able to collect, store, analyze, and communicate sensory data. This autonomous operation in shallow water conditions is already a big step towards demonstrating the use of these creatures."

How does the robot swim? Its body consists of a rigid support structure with direct current electric motors which control the mechanical arms that are used in conjunction with an artificial mesoglea, or jelly-based pulp of the fish's body, creating hydrodynamic movement.

With no central nervous system, jellyfish instead use a diffused nerve net to control movement and can complete complex functions. A parallel study on a bio-inspired control system is in progress which will eventually replace the current simplified controller. As with the smaller models, Cyro's skin is composed of a thick layer of silicone, squishy in one's hand. It mimics the sleek jellyfish skin and is placed over a bowl-shaped device containing the electronic guts of the robot. When moving, the skin floats and moves with the robot, looking weirdly alive.

"It has been a great experience to finally realize the biomimetic and bio-inspired robotic vehicles," Priya said. "Nature has too many secrets and we were able to find some of them but many still remain. We hope to find a mechanism to continue on this journey and resolve the remaining puzzles."

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Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/kLqBg1DBw1g/130328124807.htm

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Netflix signs up The Matrix, Babylon 5 creators to develop a new sci-fi series: Sense8

Continuing its quest to sate subscribers' appetites with a flow of original content, Netflix has announced a new original series, Sense8. Due in late 2014, it's being developed by the Wachowskis of The Matrix, V for Vendetta, Cloud Atlas and Speed Race fame, as well as J. Michael Straczynski, creator of Babylon 5. Details are thin, but the press release promises a gripping global tale of minds linked and souls hunted with a ten episode run for its first season.

As it did with House of Cards, Arrested Development and other productions, Netflix is relying heavily on data from viewers to decide which programs to support. According to chief content officer Ted Sarandos, "Andy and Lana Wachowski and Joe Straczynski are among the most imaginative writers and gifted visual storytellers of our time," whose creations are very frequently viewed on the service. According to the creators themselves, they've sought to work together for a decade, and this idea started from a late night conversation about "the ways technology simultaneously unites and divides us." If that's not enough for now, then there are a few more details and quotes in the press release, which is included after the break.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/27/netflix-wachowskis-sense8/

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Sustainable fishing practices produce local rewards

Public release date: 28-Mar-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Mary Beth O'Leary
moleary@cell.com
617-397-2802
Cell Press

Communities that act locally to limit their fish catches will reap the rewards of their action, as will their neighbors. That's the conclusion of a study reported on March 28 in the Cell Press journal Current Biology of the highly sought-after fish known as squaretail coral grouper living in five community-owned reef systems in Papua New Guinea.

"We found that many larvae that were produced by the managed adults return to that same fish population, which means that the same fishers that agree to regulate their catch benefit from their actions," said Glenn Almany of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University. "Although we've been telling fishers for quite some time that they would benefit from protecting some of their adult fishes, we couldn't prove it because it was difficult to track where larvae end up."

Squaretail coral grouper are especially vulnerable to overfishing because they gather in large numbers to reproduce. Fishers know exactly when and where to go fishing. In order to track where young coral grouper produced by those aggregations end up, Almany and his colleagues applied genetic parentage analysis to adults from a single managed spawning aggregation and to juveniles in that tenure area and four others along a 75-kilometer stretch of coastline.

Within the primary area of the study, 17 to 25 percent of juveniles were produced by the focal aggregation, the researchers found. In the four neighboring tenure areas, 6 to 17 percent of juveniles were from the aggregation. The researchers predict from their data that half of all coral grouper young settle within 14 kilometers of the spawning site following their 25-day larval period.

"Over that time, they could certainly travel a lot farther," Almany said. "The fact that many don't was very surprising."

It also means that both local and cooperative management actions can provide fishery benefits to communities over small spatial scales, which should help to inspire local action, the researchers say.

"This study can empower coastal communities throughout the Coral Trianglethe area of greatest marine biodiversityto make fishery management decisions that they can be confident will benefit them," Almany said.

The fish will be the better for it, too.

###

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?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 28-Mar-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Mary Beth O'Leary
moleary@cell.com
617-397-2802
Cell Press

Communities that act locally to limit their fish catches will reap the rewards of their action, as will their neighbors. That's the conclusion of a study reported on March 28 in the Cell Press journal Current Biology of the highly sought-after fish known as squaretail coral grouper living in five community-owned reef systems in Papua New Guinea.

"We found that many larvae that were produced by the managed adults return to that same fish population, which means that the same fishers that agree to regulate their catch benefit from their actions," said Glenn Almany of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University. "Although we've been telling fishers for quite some time that they would benefit from protecting some of their adult fishes, we couldn't prove it because it was difficult to track where larvae end up."

Squaretail coral grouper are especially vulnerable to overfishing because they gather in large numbers to reproduce. Fishers know exactly when and where to go fishing. In order to track where young coral grouper produced by those aggregations end up, Almany and his colleagues applied genetic parentage analysis to adults from a single managed spawning aggregation and to juveniles in that tenure area and four others along a 75-kilometer stretch of coastline.

Within the primary area of the study, 17 to 25 percent of juveniles were produced by the focal aggregation, the researchers found. In the four neighboring tenure areas, 6 to 17 percent of juveniles were from the aggregation. The researchers predict from their data that half of all coral grouper young settle within 14 kilometers of the spawning site following their 25-day larval period.

"Over that time, they could certainly travel a lot farther," Almany said. "The fact that many don't was very surprising."

It also means that both local and cooperative management actions can provide fishery benefits to communities over small spatial scales, which should help to inspire local action, the researchers say.

"This study can empower coastal communities throughout the Coral Trianglethe area of greatest marine biodiversityto make fishery management decisions that they can be confident will benefit them," Almany said.

The fish will be the better for it, too.

###

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/cp-sfp032513.php

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BOJ chief says Japan economy on the mend

TOKYO (AP) ? Japan's economy has stopped weakening and should show signs of recovery by midyear, the newly appointed central bank governor said Thursday, as weaker-than-expected retail sales for February underscored the challenge he faces in restoring consumer confidence.

"The bank currently assesses that the economy has stopped weakening," Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda told lawmakers in presenting the bank's semiannual report. But he said there was still "a high degree of uncertainty" about the world's third-largest economy because of the crisis in Europe, the tenuous state of the U.S. recovery and often testy relations with China.

Kuroda has pledged to work with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government in achieving a 2 percent inflation target, preferably within two years, and ending years of growth-inhibiting deflation. However, the success of that program will hinge on ensuring that domestic demand is strong enough to spur investment and hiring by companies that are sitting on huge cash reserves.

It also requires moves by the government to cap the country's fast rising public debt ? the largest among advanced industrial nations ? and reassure markets that Japan finances will remain sound, Kuroda stressed.

"To avoid an increase in interest rates on the back of declining confidence in fiscal management, it is also important to take measures aimed at achieving fiscal consolidation in the medium to long term," he said. "We expect the government to take appropriate actions."

Exports, battered by feeble demand in the key U.S. and European markets and by anti-Japanese protests in China, appear to have stopped declining, Kuroda said, while private consumption has remained resilient.

"With regard to the outlook, the pick-up in Japan's economy is expected to become more evident around mid-2013," he said.

However, data from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, released Thursday, showed retail sales falling 2.3 percent from a year earlier in February, worse than the 1.2 percent drop forecast by most analysts. Sales rose 1.6 percent from the month before.

By boosting inflation, Japan's planners hope to persuade consumers to spend more now in anticipation of price increases in the future. That could prove a daunting challenge given a drop in real wages over the past two decades and a weak job market, said Susumu Takahashi, head of the Japan Research Institute and a member of a government economic advisory council.

The only way to achieve the inflation target within two years, he said, was to change expectations.

"The only way is for the deflationary way of thinking to change. Without that it will be very hard," he said.

After taking power late last year, Abe's administration embarked on an aggressive stimulus program of government spending, monetary easing and planned reforms aimed at improving Japan's competitiveness. Revised figures show Japan's economy likely emerged from a recession late last year, but other data has been mixed.

Kuroda said prices are unlikely to rise for the next few months but after that Japan would see some progress toward its inflation target as the economy moved toward a "moderate recovery path."

The central bank asset purchases and other strategies adopted so far have not been sufficient to reach the inflation target, he said, reiterating his intention to manage market expectations and "make clear that we have adopted the uncompromising stance that we will do whatever is necessary to overcome deflation."

Kuroda was appointed to succeed former BOJ governor Masaaki Shirakawa when he stepped down on March 19, three weeks before his term expired. The parliament is expected to approve his appointment to the five-year term, which is due to begin April 8.

The central bank is due to hold its first regular policy meeting under Kuroda April 3-4, when it may further boost its purchases of government bonds to help increase the amount of money available in the economy and encourage more investment by the private sector.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/boj-chief-says-japan-economy-mend-040231149--finance.html

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Action Fraud launch - Professional Security Magazine Online

March has seen West Yorkshire police and the remaining police forces of Yorkshire and the Humber join the rest of the UK?s police forces in launching Action Fraud as a central point of contact for reporting fraud and financially motivated internet crime.

Action Fraud is being launched nationally on April 1, 2013, but from since March 25, the public from across Yorkshire and the Humber will be encouraged to report fraud and internet scams directly to Action Fraud via www.actionfraud.police.uk or by calling 0300 123 2040.

The four forces have been working together to ensure that the new reporting system is adopted consistently across the region and, in doing so, remain committed to tackling fraud, scams and con-artists at a local and regional level.

Action Fraud, run by the National Fraud Authority, will be the main agency for people to contact if they are a victim of a scam or fraud offence both in terms of making reports and accessing support and prevention advice. Reports taken will be used to formulate a national picture as well as being passed on to forces for further investigation.

Speaking of the initiative, Detective Superintendent Steve Waite, Head of Intelligence for Regional Operations said: ?Action Fraud will enable a better sharing of information about the nature and extent of fraud across the region and beyond which will assist all law-enforcement partners in tackling the various different types of fraud affecting our local communities and businesses.

?Here in Yorkshire and the Humber the Economic Crime Units within the four forces have been working together as well as with the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau to ensure we?re ready to go live with Action Fraud on March 25.

?People will still be able to report fraud to their local force, who will take action if a possible fraudster is at their door for example. In non-urgent situations however, they will be encouraged to contact Action Fraud as the most appropriate agency.?

Detective Inspector Andy Howard of West Yorkshire Police said: ?Fraud is a serious offence that affected nearly 5,000 people in West Yorkshire in 2011/12 and West Yorkshire Police have been working closely with Action Fraud here to ensure that the public of West Yorkshire will continue to receive a quality service in relation to the reporting and investigation of fraud and internet crime.

?Having Action Fraud as the main point of contact for people to report this type of crime to ? and contact for updates ? provides the public with an agency who will deal solely with fraud, so we hope people see this as a positive measure and a sign of our commitment to treating fraud seriously.

?People should always contact the police in an emergency, such as if they have a possible fraudster at their door. However Action Fraud will be the lead agency on Fraud from now on. The agency will take people?s information and details of their crime and compile investigations, working with the police to bring offenders to justice.?

Requests for crime updates or advice about fraud should also be referred to Action Fraud via action.fraud@nfa.gsi.gov.uk or in writing to: The Information Manager, FREEPOST, Action Fraud, UK.

Source: http://www.professionalsecurity.co.uk/news/interviews/action-fraud-launch/

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You don't 'own' your own genes: Researchers raise alarm about loss of individual 'genomic liberty' due to gene patents

Mar. 25, 2013 ? Humans don't "own" their own genes, the cellular chemicals that define who they are and what diseases they might be at risk for. Through more than 40,000 patents on DNA molecules, companies have essentially claimed the entire human genome for profit, report two researchers who analyzed the patents on human DNA.

Their study, published March 25 in the journal Genome Medicine, raises an alarm about the loss of individual "genomic liberty."

In their new analysis, the research team examined two types of patented DNA sequences: long and short fragments. They discovered that 41 percent of the human genome is covered by longer DNA patents that often cover whole genes. They also found that, because many genes share similar sequences within their genetic structure, if all of the "short sequence" patents were allowed in aggregate, they could account for 100 percent of the genome.

Furthermore, the study's lead author, Dr. Christopher E. Mason of Weill Cornell Medical College, and the study's co-author, Dr. Jeffrey Rosenfeld, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey and a member of the High Performance and Research Computing Group, found that short sequences from patents also cover virtually the entire genome -- even outside of genes.

"If these patents are enforced, our genomic liberty is lost," says Dr. Mason, an assistant professor of physiology and biophysics and computational genomics in computational biomedicine at the Institute for Computational Biomedicine at Weill Cornell. "Just as we enter the era of personalized medicine, we are ironically living in the most restrictive age of genomics. You have to ask, how is it possible that my doctor cannot look at my DNA without being concerned about patent infringement?"

The U.S. Supreme Court will review genomic patent rights in an upcoming hearing on April 15. At issue is the right of a molecular diagnostic company to claim patents not only on two key breast and ovarian cancer genes -- BRCA1 and BRCA2 -- but also on any small sequence of code within BRCA1, including a striking patent for only 15 nucleotides.

In its study, the research team matched small sequences within BRCA1 to other genes and found that just this one molecular diagnostic company's patents also covered at least 689 other human genes -- most of which have nothing to do with breast or ovarian cancer; rather, its patents cover 19 other cancers as well as genes involved in brain development and heart functioning.

"This means if the Supreme Court upholds the current scope of the patents, no physician or researcher can study the DNA of these genes from their patients, and no diagnostic test or drug can be developed based on any of these genes without infringing a patent," says Dr. Mason.

One Patented Sequence Matched More Than 91 Percent of Human Genes

Dr. Mason undertook the study because he realized that his research into brain and cancer disorders inevitably involved studying genes that were protected by patents.

Under U.S. patent law, genes can be patented by those researchers, either at companies or institutions, who are first to find a gene that promises a useful application, such as for a diagnostic test. For example, the patents received by a company in the 1990s on BRCA1 and BRCA2 enables it to offer a diagnostic test to women who may have, or may be at risk for, breast or ovarian cancer due to mutations in one or both of these genes. Women and their doctors have no choice but to use the services of the patents' owner, which costs $3,000 per test, "whereas any of the hundreds of clinical laboratories around the country could perform such a test for possibly much less," says Dr. Mason.

The impact on these patents is equally onerous on research, Dr. Mason adds.

"Almost every day, I come across a gene that is patented -- a situation that is common for every geneticist in every lab," says Dr. Mason.

Dr. Mason and his research partner sought to determine how many other genes may be impacted by gene patents, as well as the overall landscape of intellectual property on the human genome.

To conduct the study, Dr. Mason and Dr. Rosenfeld examined the structure of the human genome in the context of two types of patented sequences: short and long fragments of DNA. They used matches to known genes that were confirmed to be present in patent claims, ranging from as few as 15 nucleotides (the building blocks of DNA) to the full length of all patented DNA fragments.

Before examining the patented sequences, the researchers first calculated how many genes had common segments of 15 nucleotide (15mer), and found that every gene in the human genome matched at least one other gene in this respect, ranging from as few as five matches 15mer to as many as 7,688 gene matches. They also discovered that 99.999 percent of 15mers in the human genome are repeated at least twice.

"This demonstrates that short patent sequences are extremely non-specific and that a 15mer claim from one gene will always cross-match and patent a portion of another gene as well," says Dr. Mason. "This means it is actually impossible to have a 15mer patent for just one gene."

Next, researchers examined the total sequence space in human genes covered by 15mers in current patent claims. They found 58 patents whose claims covered at least 10 percent of all bases of all human genes. The broadest patent claimed sequences that matched 91.5 percent of human genes. Then, when they took existing gene patents and matched patented 15mers to known genes, they discovered that 100 percent of known genes are patented.

"There is a real controversy regarding gene ownership due to the overlap of many competing patent claims. It is unclear who really owns the rights to any gene," says Dr. Rosenfeld. "While the Supreme Court is hearing one case concerning just the BRCA1 patent, there are also many other patents whose claims would cover those same genes. Do we need to go through every gene to look at who made the first claim to that gene, even if only one small part? If we resort to this rule, then the first patents to be granted for any DNA will have a vast claim over portions of the human genome."

A further issue of concern is that patents on DNA can readily cross species boundaries. A company can have a patent that they received for cow breeding and have that patent cover a large percentage of human genes. Indeed, the researchers found that one company owns the rights to 84 percent of all human genes for a patent they received for cow breeding. "It seems silly that a patent designed to study cow genetics also claims the majority of human genes," says Dr. Rosenfeld.

Finally, they also examined the impact of longer claimed DNA sequences from existing gene patents, which ranged from a few dozen bases up to thousands of bases of DNA, and found that these long, claimed sequences matched 41 percent (9,361) of human genes. Their analysis concluded that almost all clinically relevant genes have already been patented, especially for short sequence patents, showing all human genes are patented many times over.

"This is, so to speak, patently ridiculous," adds Dr. Mason. "If patent claims that use these small DNA sequences are upheld, it could potentially create a situation where a piece of every gene in the human genome is patented by a phalanx of competing patents."

In their discussion, the researchers argue that the U.S. Supreme Court now has a chance to shape the balance between the medical good versus inventor protection, adding that, in their opinion, the court should limit the patenting of existing nucleotide sequences, due to their broad scope and non-specificity in the human genome.

"I am extremely pro-patent, but I simply believe that people should not be able to patent a product of nature," Dr. Mason says. "Moreover, I believe that individuals have an innate right to their own genome, or to allow their doctor to look at that genome, just like the lungs or kidneys. Failure to resolve these ambiguities perpetuates a direct threat to genomic liberty, or the right to one's own DNA."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Weill Cornell Medical College.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Jeffrey Rosenfeld, and Christopher E Mason. Pervasive sequence patents cover the entire human genome. Genome Medicine, 2013 (in press) DOI: 10.1186/gm431

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/jAfUr59mL1E/130326101614.htm

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Rebelfone International SIM Card

Traveling data hogs rejoice. Rebelfone has the best data rates yet for roaming SIM cards, and its voice and text rates are competitive with rivals like Maxroam and Telestial. If you're traveling to one of the 13 countries it covers, and you want to bring lots of data with you, it's an excellent choice.

Like other roaming SIMs, Rebelfone's rental SIM works with unlocked GSM phones. The card will work in AT&T and T-Mobile phones as long as they're world-compatible (and you ask your carrier to unlock your handset), as well as in Sprint's and Verizon's slim selection of "world phones." The card will fit in the iPhone 4S but not the iPhone 5, as Rebelfone offers full-sized and "micro" SIMs, but not yet the unique nanoSIM used by the iPhone 5.

Of course, you'll get the lowest rates of all by buying a prepaid SIM on the ground at your destination. But that isn't possible for a lot of travelers stymied by language barriers, confusing local rules, or just unfamiliarity with a city. Getting a SIM in advance also lets you tell your friends your new number before you leave.

We used Rebelfone in Spain with no complaints. The SIM came with a red instruction booklet with our phone number and PIN inked in the front. We popped the SIM into a Samsung Galaxy Nexus?(MicroSIMs are also available for $5 extra) and the phone automatically set itself up with the right APN for data services. Online customer support is available 24/7 if you can't get the APN set up.

Since the SIM is actually a local SIM, you have a local phone number and there's no callback rigamarole?it's just straight dialing. I'd very strongly recommend monitoring both your voice and data usage, though as data overage is generally a dollar per megabyte. The free app Onavo Count?can help with that.

Pricing and Plan
Rebelfone takes a unique approach: rather than selling you a prepaid SIM, it prefers to rent you a postpaid SIM. That gives it access to very low data rates, although you need to mail back the SIM at the end of your trip.

Rebelfone's best plans only apply to 13 countries scattered around the world: Australia, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, the UAE, and the UK. Texting and calling rates are variable and competitive; typically you'll get free incoming calls, with outgoing calls and texts costing from 20-40 cents per minute.

It's the data that really matters here. In those 13 countries, Rebelfone has "data packs" where you pay up front for giant data buckets, anywhere from 500MB to, in some cases, 5GB. In exchange for paying between $30-100 up front for your data, you get rates that competitors can't come anywhere near. Most other SIMs charge by the megabyte, and OneSimCard's 250MB EU data package, at $49, is considerably more expensive than these rates. That makes Rebelfone the best choice we've seen for travelers to these 13 countries who want to use large amounts of data.

If you're traveling to several countries within Europe, you can also get a pan-European voice or data SIM, although strangely, you can't get a SIM with both voice and?data for multiple countries.

One of Rebelfone's other services is noteworthy: It offers very cheap rental phones, at 49 cents per day. The phones are simple flip-phones with no data access, but if you don't have your own world phone, calling rates are once again quite competitive here and this is a very good option. Rebelfone offers five rental devices: The Nokia C2-01, Blu Deejay, Unnecto Eco, Samsung GT3600, and Samsung C3050. They're all older, basic phones, but I'd go with the Nokia C2-01, as it has the nicest screen and camera.

If you don't want your friends to have to call a foreign number, you can rent a U.S. number for $2/month plus $0.49/minute for incoming calls.

As with all of these roaming solutions, Rebelfone makes it very difficult to figure out what the overall cost of your trip will be. You have to factor in the cost of the SIM (free to about $20), expected usage, any data bundles or prepaid credit you buy in advance, and $25 for round-trip shipping.

With, say, 20 minutes of outgoing local calls, 100 text messages, and a 500MB data bundle, a weeklong trip to Italy would cost you about $91. On a competitor like Maxroam, the same total price would only get you about 100MB of data, although you'd be able to take the Maxroam SIM to multiple countries (which you can't do with Rebelfone's single-country voice-and-data SIMs.)

Conclusions
There's no one best SIM for every trip. For single-country trips, the best choice is often a local SIM purchased in that country, but that may be too difficult for tourists. For heavy data users heading to one of the 13 countries listed above, Rebelfone's data packs are an unbeatable deal. Heavy data users should also consider XCom Global's International MiFi Hotspot, which offers unlimited data in some countries. That device can connect not only your phone, but also your tablets and PCs. Here at PCMag, we take one to every overseas trade show.

On the other hand, if you're roaming across borders but not using much data, OneSimCard has free incoming calls in 150 countries (as opposed to Rebelfone's 75 countries) with lower per-megabyte data rates than competitors. Outside of Europe, Telestial's regional Passport SIMs give you free incoming calls in a few countries OneSimCard doesn't cover, such as Bolivia, Honduras, and Iran, although data rates are pretty hideous.

I've stopped handing out Editor's Choice awards to these SIM cards because they're all the best for specific kinds of trips. If you've been frustrated with the data options for your next trip to its 13 key countries with data packs, Rebelfone's SIM will solve your problem.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/xPjeZFv7g6E/0,2817,2416856,00.asp

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Pitney Bowes stamps out shareholder fraud lawsuit

By Nate Raymond

(Reuters) - Pitney Bowes Inc has won the dismissal of a securities fraud lawsuit accusing it of misleading investors by not disclosing problems in its businesses that in 2007 caused it to miss financial projections for the first time in seven years.

District Judge Vanessa Bryant in Hartford, Connecticut, said the mail processing equipment company had included appropriate cautionary language in its regulatory statements and on conference calls that warned investors about the risks.

"A company need not be prescient, it need only be aware of its business environment and warn of factors and circumstances present in its business environment which could affect the company's results," she wrote.

Matthew Broder, a Pitney spokesman, said the company is pleased with the decision.

Samuel Rudman, a partner at Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd representing the plaintiffs, declined to comment.

The lawsuit was filed in October 2009 and led by the Labourers' Pension Fund of Central and Eastern Canada, and sought class-action status.

The plaintiffs alleged that the Stamford, Connecticut-based company and certain executives were aware of adverse factors that were hurting Pitney's financial results, but chose not to disclose those problems and potentially boost financing costs on a $500 million debt offering in September 2007.

Among the alleged problems was declining revenue in its U.S. mailing segment as fewer customers than expected converted to digital from analog mail meters; failure to offer new products to preserve market share; failure to meet internal sales projections; and customer dissatisfaction.

The plaintiffs said the misstatements took place between July and October 2007, when the company reported disappointing results that sent its share price down 15 percent to $39.93 from $46.99 the next day.

In her 77-page decision Friday, Bryant said the plaintiffs "failed to adequately plead that any problem area had already come to pass at the time the statements were made."

The case is NECA-IBEW Health & Welfare Fund v. Pitney Bowes Inc, et al, U.S. District Court, District of Connecticut, No. 09-01740.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Maureen Bavdek)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pitney-bowes-stamps-shareholder-fraud-lawsuit-153817457--sector.html

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Cyprus bank shutdown enters second week

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) ? Banks across Cyprus remain firmly padlocked after financial authorities extended the country's bank closure, fearing worried depositors will rush to drain their accounts. The shut-down is hammering businesses, which have been without access to their funds for more than a week.

All but the country's two largest lenders had been due to reopen Tuesday, after being shut while politicians figured out how to raise the funds necessary for Cyprus to qualify for an international bailout. Under the deal for a 10 billion euro ($12.94 billion) rescue clinched in Brussels early Monday, Cyprus agreed to slash its oversized banking sector and inflict hefty losses on large depositors in troubled banks.

Hundreds of angry students from a left-wing student union gathered outside Parliament, screaming "People, fight back, they're sucking your blood."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cyprus-bank-shutdown-enters-second-week-090738411--finance.html

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Who will join The Rock's 'G.I. Joe' squad?

All WWE programming, talent names, images, likenesses, slogans, wrestling moves, trademarks, logos and copyrights are the exclusive property of WWE, Inc. and its subsidiaries. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. ? 2012 WWE, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This website is based in the United States. By submitting personal information to this website you consent to your information being maintained in the U.S., subject to applicable U.S. laws. U.S. law may be different than the law of your home country. WrestleMania XXIX (NY/NJ) logo TM & ? 2012 WWE. All Rights Reserved. The Empire State Building design is a registered trademark and used with permission by ESBC.

Source: http://www.wwe.com/inside/rock-gijoe-squad

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Coca-Cola cutting 750 U.S. jobs

(Reuters) - Coca-Cola Co said on Thursday it will lay off 750 people in the United States as the world's largest soft drinks maker streamlines its business three years after a big acquisition.

The job cuts, which will be across the board, represent about 1 percent of the company's workforce of 75,000 in North America. About one-fourth of the cuts will be in Coke's home city of Atlanta, said a spokesman, confirming an earlier media report.

In a memo sent to employees last month, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, Coke said that since the integration of its North American bottling system in 2010, it has identified areas that must be improved.

"We must become a more aligned and unified North American group," the memo said. "That means improving our structures, processes and systems."

Shares of Coca-Cola, which operates in nearly all the countries of the world, were up 3 cents at $39.90 in morning trade.

(Reporting By Martinne Geller in New York; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/coca-cola-cutting-750-u-jobs-143749104--sector.html

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South Korea: Chinese address source of attack

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? A Chinese Internet address was the source of a cyberattack on one company hit in a massive network shutdown that affected 32,000 computers at six banks and media companies in South Korea, initial findings indicated Thursday.

It's too early to assign blame ? Internet addresses can easily be manipulated and the investigation could take weeks ? but suspicion for Wednesday's shutdown quickly fell on North Korea, which has threatened Seoul and Washington with attack in recent days because of anger over U.N. sanctions imposed for its Feb. 12 nuclear test.

South Korean regulators said they believe the attacks came from a "single organization," but they've still not finished investigating what happened at the other companies.

Experts say hackers often attack via computers in other countries to hide their identities. South Korea has previously accused North Korean hackers of using Chinese addresses to infect their networks.

"We do know that North Korea does route attacks through Chinese servers because that's the only way they can communicate with South Korea," Timothy Junio, a cybersecurity fellow at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation, said. "It's not surprising there's a Chinese IP address involved."

Seoul believes North Korea runs an Internet warfare unit aimed at hacking U.S. and South Korean government and military networks to gather information and disrupt service.

The attack Wednesday caused computer networks at major banks and top TV broadcasters to crash simultaneously. It paralyzed bank machines across the country and raised fears that this heavily Internet-dependent society was vulnerable. On Thursday, only one of the attacked banks, Shinhan, was fully online, officials said.

A Chinese address created the malicious code in the server of Nonghyup bank, according to an initial analysis by the state-run Korea Communications Commission, South Korea's telecom regulator.

KCC spokesman Cho Kyeong-sik said investigators are analyzing the log-in records and the malicious code collected from the infected servers and computers. It could take at least four to five days for the infected computers to recover fully, he said. Experts say the entire investigation could take weeks.

South Korean regulators have also distributed vaccine software to government offices, banks, hospitals and other institutions to prevent more outages.

In an indication of the high tension on the Korean Peninsula, South Korean media reported that North Korea sounded air-raid warnings in radio broadcasts Thursday morning as part of military drills.

The network paralysis took place just days after North Korea accused South Korea and the U.S. of staging a cyberattack that shut down its websites for two days last week. Loxley Pacific, the Thailand-based Internet service provider, confirmed the North Korean outage but did not say what caused it. South Korea denied the allegation.

The attack may have also extended to the United States. Greg Scarlatoiu, executive director of the U.S.-based Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, said he discovered early Wednesday that their website had been hacked. They have yet to establish who was behind it but strongly suspect it came from North Korea.

Several of the committee's publications, including lengthy reports with satellite imagery of North Korean prison camps, had been removed, along with biographies of their staff and board, and their policy recommendations to the Obama administration.

The South Korean shutdown did not affect government agencies or sensitive targets such as power plants or transportation systems, and there were no immediate reports that bank customers' records were compromised, but the disruption froze part of the country's commerce.

Some customers were unable to use the debit or credit cards that many rely on more than cash. At one Starbucks in downtown Seoul, customers were asked to pay for their coffee in cash, and lines formed outside disabled bank machines.

Broadcasters KBS and MBC still didn't have full computer use on Thursday, but the shutdown did not affect TV broadcasts.

The YTN cable news channel also said the company's internal computer network was paralyzed. Footage showed workers staring at blank computer screens.

KBS employees said they watched helplessly as files stored on their computers began disappearing.

Last year, North Korea threatened to attack several news companies, including KBC and MBC, over their reports critical of children's' festivals in the North.

"If it plays out that this was a state-sponsored attack, that's pretty bald faced and definitely an escalation in the tensions between the two countries," said James Barnett, former chief of public safety and homeland security for the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.

An ominous question is what other businesses, in South Korea or elsewhere, may also be in the sights of the attacker, said Barnett, who heads the cybersecurity practice at Washington law firm Venable.

"This needs to be a wake-up call," he said. "This can happen anywhere."

An official at the South's Korea Communications Commission said investigators speculate that malicious code was spread from company servers that send automatic updates of security software and virus patches.

The shutdown raised worries about the overall vulnerability to attacks in South Korea, a world leader in broadband and mobile Internet access. Previous hacking attacks at private companies compromised millions of people's personal data. Past malware attacks also disabled access to government agency websites and destroyed files in personal computers.

Seoul blames North Korean hackers for several cyberattacks in recent years. Pyongyang has either denied or ignored those charges. Hackers operating from IP addresses in China have also been blamed.

In 2011, computer security software maker McAfee Inc. said North Korea or its sympathizers likely were responsible for a cyberattack against South Korean government and banking websites earlier that year. The analysis also said North Korea appeared to be linked to a massive computer-based attack in 2009 that brought down U.S. government Internet sites. Pyongyang denied involvement.

"North Korea has almost certainly done similar attacks before," Junio said. "Part of why this wasn't more consequential is probably because South Korea took the first major incident seriously and deployed a bunch of organizational and technical innovations to reduce response time during future North Korea attacks."

South Korea has created a National Cybersecurity Center, a national monitoring sector and a Cyber Command modeled after the U.S. Cyber Command. Junio said South Korea's major antivirus firms also play a large role in stopping hacking attacks.

The shutdown comes amid rising rhetoric and threats of attack from Pyongyang over U.N. sanctions imposed for its December long-range rocket launch and February nuclear test. Washington also expanded sanctions against North Korea this month in a bid to cripple the government's ability to develop its nuclear program.

North Korea has threatened revenge for the sanctions and for ongoing U.S.-South Korean military drills, which the allies describe as routine but which Pyongyang says are rehearsals for invasion.

Last week, North Korea's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea warned South Korea's "reptile media" that the North was prepared to conduct a "sophisticated strike" on Seoul.

Lim Jong-in, dean of Korea University's Graduate School of Information Security, said North Korea was probably responsible for Wednesday's attack.

"Hackers attack media companies usually because of a political desire to cause confusion in society," he said. "Political attacks on South Korea come from North Koreans."

___

Associated Press writers Foster Klug, Youkyung Lee and Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, Matthew Pennington and Ed Donahue in Washington and Martha Mendoza in San Jose, California, contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/south-korea-chinese-address-source-attack-015145641.html

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Claims against BP contractors dismissed at trial

NEW ORLEANS (AP) ? A federal judge conducting a trial to assign fault for the nation's worst offshore oil spill dismissed claims Wednesday against a BP contractor and the company that made a key safety device on the drilling rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, triggering the disaster.

After plaintiffs' attorneys rested their case Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier ruled there was no evidence that BP's drilling fluids contractor M-I LLC made any decision that led to the blowout of BP's Macondo well. Barbier dismissed all claims against M-I on the 15th day of the trial.

The judge also agreed to rule out punitive damages against Cameron International, the manufacturer of the blowout preventer on the ill-fated Deepwater Horizon rig, which was rocked by an explosion and fire in 2010 that killed 11 workers and touched off the enormous spill.

"I have not heard or seen evidence that would in any way support a finding of gross negligence or willful misconduct on the part of Cameron," Barbier said.

The judge was acting on requests by M-I and Cameron to have claims against them dismissed. The two Houston-based companies have been bit players at the trial, which has centered on the actions and decisions of employees of energy giant BP, rig owner Transocean Ltd. and cement contractor Halliburton.

M-I is a wholly owned subsidiary of oil field services firm Schlumberger. Two M-I employees, Gordon Jones and Blair Manuel, were among the 11 workers killed in the blast.

BP, Transocean and Halliburton made similar requests Wednesday for Barbier to dismiss gross negligence and punitive damage claims against them, but the judge said he wasn't ready to rule on them at this stage of trial.

Barbier is hearing testimony without a jury. Barring a settlement, he could decide how much more money the companies owe for their roles in the disaster. BP could be on the hook for nearly $18 billion in penalties under the Clean Water Act if the judge finds that it acted with gross negligence.

After Barbier's rulings, the trial's fourth week continued with more testimony by witnesses for Transocean, whose chief had executive testified Tuesday. BP and Halliburton also will call their own witnesses later in the proceedings.

Barbier has heard testimony by more than a dozen witnesses called by the Justice Department and private attorneys for Gulf Coast residents and businesses. The plaintiffs' lawyers rested Wednesday after their last witness, a former Halliburton laboratory manager, finished testifying.

Earlier Wednesday, well control expert Calvin Barnhill testified that he believes Deepwater Horizon rig workers "got ahead of themselves" as they tried to seal the Macondo well and prepared to move on to drilling a different well.

"They were ready to get through with this job," said Barnhill, a witness for Transocean.

But Barnhill said he hasn't seen any evidence that rig workers sacrificed safety in a rush to complete a job that was behind schedule and millions of dollars over budget.

Transocean president and CEO Steven Newman testified Tuesday that he believes his company's employees on the rig should have done more to detect signs of trouble before the blowout. However, he said the Swiss-based drilling company didn't identify any internal "management failures" that led to the disaster.

Also on Wednesday, a federal grand jury handed up an indictment containing new allegations against former BP engineer Kurt Mix.

Mix was charged last year with deleting text messages about the company's response to the Gulf oil spill. Wednesday's new indictment accuses him of also deleting about 40 voicemails from a supervisor and roughly 15 voicemails from a BP contractor.

Mix, of Katy, Texas, pleaded not guilty in May to two counts of obstruction of justice after he was charged with deliberately deleting more than 200 text messages to and from the supervisor and more than 100 to and from the contractor. Mix doesn't face any new counts in the superseding indictment.

Prosecutors claim he deleted the messages to prevent them from being used in a grand jury's probe of the spill.

Mix's attorney didn't immediately respond to a call and email seeking comment.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/claims-against-bp-contractors-dismissed-trial-203711086--finance.html

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Visa Adds Overstock.com, Its Biggest Retail Catch Yet, To Its V.me Digital Wallet

Visa today is announcing a key development in its bid to build a ubiquitous digital wallet service to compete against the likes of PayPal. It has signed on Overstock.com as the lastest retailer to use V.me. That service now has 35 online merchants signed up, but Overstock, which makes some $1 billion in online sales annually across categories like furniture, rugs, bedding, electronics, jewelry and cars, and is in the top-five e-commerce sites in the U.S., is by far the biggest. Jennifer Schulz, global head of e-commerce for Visa, tells TechCrunch that there are another 132 online merchants due to go live in the coming weeks.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/QDZqNOz_6hs/

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Low-Wage Workers Feel Worse Off Now Than During Recession: Survey

WASHINGTON -- America's lower-income workers have posted the biggest job gains since the deep 2007-09 recession ? but few are bragging.

As a workforce sector, those earning $35,000 or less annually are generally pessimistic about their finances and career prospects. Many see themselves as worse off now than during the recession, a two-part Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey of workers and employers shows.

The survey revealed that many people at the lowest rung in the workplace view their jobs as a dead end. Half were "not too" or "not at all" confident that their jobs would help them achieve long-term career goals. And only 41 percent of workers at the same place for more than a decade reported ever receiving a promotion.

Yet 44 percent of employers surveyed said it's hard to recruit people with appropriate skills or experiences to do lower-wage jobs, particularly in manufacturing (54 percent). While 88 percent of employers said they were investing in training and education for employee advancement, awareness and use of such programs among the lower-wage workers was only modest.

Although President Barack Obama made it a national goal to "equip our citizens with the skills and training" to compete for good jobs, the survey shows a U.S. workforce that has grown increasingly polarized, with workers and their bosses seeing many things differently.

Seventy-two percent of employers at big companies and 58 percent at small ones say there is a "great deal" or "some" opportunity for worker advancement. But, asked the same question, 67 percent of all low-wage workers said they saw "a little" or "no opportunity" at their jobs for advancement.

Through last month, the economy had recovered only about 5.7 million of the 8.7 million jobs shed in the deepest downturn since the Great Depression. Low-wage jobs are usually the first to come back following a recession. While the outlook clearly is improving, economic growth remains anemic and unemployment is a still-high 7.7 percent.

Ronald Moore, 48, of Lebanon, Ind., is among those who have seen their situation improve. He started his own home-inspection company three years ago after he couldn't find enough work as a truck driver. But "nobody was buying homes, so no one needed an inspection," he said. "It was pretty rough in the beginning." Now he operates a custom cabinet business, where business is starting to improve. Slowly.

To gauge the experiences and perspectives of lower-wage workers, the AP-NORC Center conducted two separate surveys. A sample of 1,606 workers earning $35,000 or less annually was surveyed last summer, while a companion poll of 1,487 employers of such workers was conducted from November through January.

Roughly 65 percent of the jobs the U.S. economy added since the recession officially ended in June 2009 have been lower-wage ones.

Despite those numerical gains, "lower-income households have been hit very hard and have not benefited as much from the recovery," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics. "Their real wages are going nowhere. And this is a group that has more debt, fewer assets, is less likely to own a home or stocks and with little capacity to absorb higher gasoline prices."

Economists also say low-wage workers were hit particularly hard by an increase in Social Security payroll taxes resulting from "fiscal cliff" negotiations late last year between Obama and Congress.

A degree of economic "self-righting" will happen as more middle-income and higher-income jobs come back and economic growth accelerates, said Robert Trumble, director of the Labor Studies Center at Virginia Commonwealth University. "But the situation we've been facing for the last half-dozen years or so has been tough. And the lower your income, the tougher it is."

"Some things are better. But there are still some things that are still hard," said Sarah Mueller, 33, of Palm Harbor, Fla., who found work as a Montessori teacher two years ago after working as a part-time and substitute teacher. "With student loans, people are still struggling ? I'm one of those people ? to pay back student loans that are astronomical," she said.

Seventy-four percent of lower-wage workers say it is "difficult" or "very difficult" for them and their families to get ahead financially. Half thought their financial situation was somewhat or much worse than in 2008.

Many worry a lot or some (71 percent) about being unable to pay their bills, unexpected medical expenses (70 percent), losing their job (54 percent) or keeping up with their mortgage or rent (53 percent).

Many reported stagnant (44 percent) or declining (20 percent) wages over the past five years.

Employers and workers tend to agree that employees themselves hold the bulk of the responsibility for helping workers to get ahead in their careers, but employers are more apt to place some of that responsibility on high schools and colleges.

Despite their many frustrations, 74 percent of low-income workers said they were very or somewhat satisfied with their jobs. Yet 90 percent of all workers said they were satisfied with their job, according to an AP-GfK poll conducted in September.

The surge in low-wage jobs seems to have escaped notice by employers, the survey suggests. Just 22 percent of them said their organization's lower-wage workforce grew over the last four years and only 34 percent expect it to increase in the coming four years.

Lower-wage workers are also pessimistic about the overall direction of the country, with 7 in 10 saying "wrong direction," above the 60 percent of all adults who said so in AP-GfK polling conducted at the same time.

"Lower-wage jobs are coming back first," said labor economist Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute, a labor-leaning think tank. "But it's all bleak and it's all due to lack of demand for work to be done. We're still not getting more than just what we need to hang on," Shierholz said. "These last few months have looked better, but we cannot yet claim robust recovery by any stretch."

Lena Hughes, 31, of Indianapolis, a certified hospital nursing assistant, would agree.

"Everybody is struggling financially. It's hard to get jobs still," she said. "I don't think it's getting any better."

The surveys were sponsored by the Joyce Foundation, the Hitachi Foundation and NORC at the University of Chicago. The Joyce Foundation works to improve workforce development and education systems to assist job seekers who may lack skills or credentials. The Hitachi Foundation aims to expand business practices that improve economic opportunities for less well-off workers while benefiting business.

The worker survey was conducted online using the GfK KnowledgePanel and by telephone by interviewers from NORC from Aug. 1 through Sept. 6, 2012. The employer survey was conducted online and by phone by NORC from Nov. 12, 2012, through Jan. 31, 2013. The margin of sampling error for the survey of workers was plus or minus 2.9 percentage points; for employers, it was 4.5 points.

___

Associated Press News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius and writer Stacey A. Anderson contributed to this report.

___

Follow Tom Raum on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tomraum

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/20/low-wage-workers-worse-off_n_2914300.html

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