Debt Ceiling Deal Depends On U.S. Senate

The Senate has been working on a bipartisan deal to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling. But House conservatives have signaled they might not go along with a Senate deal. Steve Inskeep talks to Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia about how he thinks the impasse can be resolved.

Copyright © 2013 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And I'm Steve Inskeep. The prospects for a deal to avoid default and reopen the government now depend on the U.S. Senate, whose members include Saxby Chambliss, Republican of Georgia, who's on the line. Senator, welcome back to the program.

SENATOR SAXBY CHAMBLISS: Good to be with you, Steve.

INSKEEP: OK. So let's remember, last night Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid put out a statement saying he's optimistic, and the Republican leader, Mitch McConnell in the Senate, also says he's working on an agreement. Do you believe the Senate will deliver?

CHAMBLISS: Well, they both issued similar statements at the end of last week and over the weekend and it didn't come together. So I hope this time that it does, Steve. Because it's high time we quit this business of shutting down the government. There are too many things that are today impacting the lives of Americans, and just around the corner - i.e., the end of the month and the first of next month we're looking at veterans' benefits and Social Security checks and whatnot being impacted by the shutdown. And that means we're going to have a sure enough serious impact on people's lives. So let's hope so. I think folks on both sides of the aisle in the Senate are ready to get this done.

INSKEEP: Well, let's look at the deal, at least as it's been described. I know the legislation hasn't been passed out but it's described as reopening the government, raising the debt ceiling until early next year. Republicans get a concession on Obamacare. There would be additional income verification for people getting subsidies. Democrats get some minor concessions. Is that something that's likely to get your vote if that's the form it takes?

CHAMBLISS: I'm going to look at what the details are. The income verification is actually part of the law now, but this is supposed to tighten it up even more, and certainly that's key. But you know, we're not talking about a long-term solution, Steve. That's going to impact the decision making on the part of a lot of us.

We're talking about temporarily reopening the government by extending a CR, a continuing resolution, and temporarily raising the debt ceiling only for about four months here. So there's less demand in the minds of those of us who have to cast a vote if it's a temporary situation versus permanent situation.

INSKEEP: Do you think it's important, Senator, to get a big bipartisan vote in the Senate for whatever you send over to the House, where there has been a little bit of chaos?

CHAMBLISS: Well, that's always the goal we have because you want all legislation to have the support of both sides of the aisle. That usually means obviously(ph) it's a pretty good piece of legislation. Here I think it's more important than ever. Speaker Boehner is having lots of problems on the House side corralling his troops over there. And it's not (unintelligible) but it's kind of imploded with this CR debt ceiling issue that we've been working on. So...

INSKEEP: Would you urge him, Senator, to use Democratic votes if he possibly can? He's been trying to pass a deal with only Republicans.

CHAMBLISS: Yeah, I think he's going to have to have Democratic votes. In fact, he could even be in a situation now because of the timeline we're working on where it takes an overwhelming vote of Democrats and some Republicans to get to 218, but I think that's exactly the scenario that his folks have left him now.

INSKEEP: Now, is there a layer to this crisis that we don't see, Senator Chambliss? For example, are people talking privately with Speaker Boehner from the Senate side to the House side?

CHAMBLISS: They are. John is one of my dearest friends. I talk to him regularly anyway, but particularly on this issue we've been conversing regularly, and others have. He talks to Senator McConnell regularly, and I know other members of the Senate have been engaged in conversation with not just the speaker but rank and file House members, trying to encourage them to continue to dialogue, continue to work on it.

Because this doesn't do anybody any good, these types of confrontations.

INSKEEP: We've just got about - forgive me, Senator, we've just got about 30, 40 seconds here.

CHAMBLISS: Sure.

MONTAGNE: I want to ask about another relationship here. Senators Ted Cruz and Mike Lee in the Senate have objected to reopening the government unless Obamacare is also defunded. They didn't show up for a Republican lunch, I'm told, according to Politico, on Tuesday. Have you heard from them and do you think they will try to talk this out, which could take us well past the deadline, days past the deadline under Senate procedures?

CHAMBLISS: Mike and Ted were not at lunch yesterday, but I don't think that is any indication of any issue being involved there. Their stated purpose of shutting down the government early was to defund Obamacare and those of us who've been around a while kept saying, guys, that's not going to happen. It can't happen.

I think they've come to the realization now that it's not going to happen and I think in all good conscience they are trying to figure out what it is they would like to have now to see the government reopened and the debt ceiling raised. But they're probably looking at the next round rather than this round. It's just not going to happen now.

INSKEEP: Senator Chambliss, thanks as always.

CHAMBLISS: OK. Steve, always good to be with you.

MONTAGNE: Saxby Chambliss is a Republican senator from Georgia.

Copyright © 2013 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/10/16/235235700/sen-chambliss-comments-on-government-shutdown?ft=1&f=3
Category: Ken Norton   the league   amber heard   Payday 2   Sean Sasser  

IBM 3Q revenue short of expectations, stock down

NEW YORK (AP) — IBM said Wednesday that its third-quarter net income rose 6 percent, but its revenue fell and missed Wall Street's expectations by more than $1 billion. The company's stock fell in extended trading.

The Armonk, N.Y., computing company earned $4.04 billion, or $3.68 per share, up from $3.82 billion, or $3.33 per share, in the same quarter last year. Excluding one-time charges, the company earned $3.99 per share, above expectations of $3.96.

Revenue dropped 4 percent to $23.7 billion from $24.7 billion. That fell short of the $24.8 billion expected by analysts surveyed by FactSet. Adjusted for the effects of foreign currency exchange rates, the company said revenue fell 2 percent.

IBM is the world's largest technology-services company. Its results provide a gauge of businesses' appetite for technology spending. IBM has grown its earnings each quarter in the past decade, a streak that likely extended through the first quarter of this year.

The company's business has been stable because many of its customers sign long-term contracts that guarantee regular revenue, even when the economy is tough. It also helps that IBM no longer has a direct connection to the personal computer industry, where a sales slump has been hurting the makers of microprocessors and desktop and laptop computers.

Even so, revenue for its services business fell 3 percent. It's hurt by currency fluctuations, which can translate to fewer dollars IBM makes on overseas sales. Adjusting for that, services revenue would have been up 1 percent.

Systems and technology revenue tumbled 17 percent, and the division lost $167 million during the quarter. Software revenue rose 1 percent.

In after-market trading, IBM shares fell $11.08, or 6 percent, to $175.65. They finished the regular session up $2.07 at $186.73.

IBM said results for the July-September period were helped by lower expenses, including a steep drop in its tax rate and the absence of $408 million in charges related to job cuts that it logged in the year-ago period.

The company also noted that its revenue for Internet-based services is up more than 70 percent so far this year.

International Business Machines Corp. said it's working to improve results in certain growth markets and certain hardware businesses that are lagging. As a result, it still expects to post an adjusted 2013 profit of at least $16.90 per share. Analysts expect earnings of $16.87 per share.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ibm-3q-revenue-short-expectations-stock-down-214041025--finance.html
Similar Articles: houston texans   msft   kim zolciak   bachelorette   Tim Hudson  

Baby North West's Birth Plays Out on Next "Keeping Up with the Kardashians": Watch a Preview Here!

As we're just beginning to see more and more glimpses of baby North West, her birth story is currently playing out on "Keeping Up with the Kardashians."

In a preview for next week's episode, Kim Kardashian discovers she has toxemia and has to have her baby right away, five weeks before her due date.

Making a panicked call to sister Khloe, the 32-year-old reality star shares, "I have to deliver the baby right now!" Promising viewers an inside look, the promo states, "Be there the day Kim becomes a mom."

Check out the preview in the player below and catch the birth episode of "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" on Sunday, October 27th at 9:00pm ET on E!

Source: http://celebrity-gossip.net/kim-kardashian/kim-kardashian-1039505
Tags: breast cancer awareness   denver broncos   dexter   cbs sports   ariana grande  

Dems Kidding Themselves on Who Is Winning

By Peter Beinart, The Daily Beast - October 16, 2013

Email

Print

Comments

Read Full Article »

Related Topics: Obama

Email

Print

Comments

RCP Log In | Register

Source: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2013/10/16/dems_kidding_themselves_on_who_is_winning_317858.html
Similar Articles: Tony Gonzalez   gravity   paulina gretzky   amc   Justin Bieber Spits On Fans  

From England, one man feeds Western media on Syria

In this photo taken on Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2013, Rami Abdurrahman, gestures during an interview with The Associated Press in Coventry, England. He's practically a one man band, but Rami Abdurrahman's influence extends far beyond his modest home in this small English city. The bald, bespectacled 42-year-old operates the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights from his house in the cathedral city of Coventry — and a review of recent media coverage suggests its running tally of killings and clashes is the most frequently cited individual source of information on Syria's civil war for the world's leading news organizations. (AP Photo/Raphael Satter)

In this photo taken on Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2013, Rami Abdurrahman, gestures during an interview with The Associated Press in Coventry, England. He's practically a one man band, but Rami Abdurrahman's influence extends far beyond his modest home in this small English city. The bald, bespectacled 42-year-old operates the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights from his house in the cathedral city of Coventry — and a review of recent media coverage suggests its running tally of killings and clashes is the most frequently cited individual source of information on Syria's civil war for the world's leading news organizations. (AP Photo/Raphael Satter)

COVENTRY, England (AP) — He's practically a one man band, but Rami Abdurrahman's influence extends far beyond his modest home in this small English city.

The bald, bespectacled 42-year-old operates the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights from his house in the cathedral city of Coventry — and a review of recent media coverage suggests its running tally of killings and clashes is the most frequently cited individual source of information on Syria's civil war for the world's leading news organizations.

"He's just everywhere," said Joshua Landis, the director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma. "He's the go-to guy for figures. ... I can't think of anybody who comes close."

Abdurrahman, who says he makes his living from a local clothing shop, says the Observatory relies on four unnamed activists in Syria and a wider network of monitors across the country to document and verify clashes and killings. But as the Observatory has increasingly found itself at the center of Western reporting on Syria's civil, some say his figures — and his sources — need more scrutiny.

Opponents say Abdurrahman is in cahoots with the opposition forces bankrolled by Gulf Arab states, skewing casualty figures to keep the spotlight off rebel atrocities. Others contend that Abdurrahman is in league with the Syrian regime. They accuse him of overplaying incidents of sectarian violence to blacken the reputation of those trying to topple President Bashar Assad.

Abdurrahman sees the competing allegations as evidence that's he's being fair; "You know you're doing a good job when all the sides start to attack you," he said in a recent interview.

Still, one prominent critic says it boggles the mind that a man living in Coventry is somehow able to count and categorize the dead in Syria hour by hour, every day of the week.

"Something is going on which is quite fishy," said As'ad AbuKhalil, a professor of Middle Eastern politics at California State University Stanislaus.

BUSY MAN

Abdurrahman was working on four hours' sleep when he met The Associated Press at Coventry's drab-looking train station earlier this month.

He'd planned to get to bed by 10 p.m. the previous night, but rebel infighting in the Syrian border town of Azaz meant he stayed up until 2 a.m. monitoring developments. He got up again at 6 a.m. to check for overnight updates.

"It's not a nine-to-five job," Rami said as he drove across the city, a white dove-shaped air freshener dangling from his rear-view mirror.

By his own account, Abdurrahman operates as a kind of human switchboard, fielding calls round-the-clock from Syrian activists, international journalists, and human rights workers. Particularly intense news days had seen up to 500 calls, he said.

Suspicions have long dogged Abdurrahman. Is the self-exiled Syrian really who he says he is? Who's behind his organization? And is he accurate enough to justify the world's reliance on his reporting?

Switching from English to Arabic and often speaking through a translator, Abdurrahman — whose real name is Ossama Suleiman — defended his decision to use a pseudonym as part of the Arab tradition of the nom de guerre.

He said he received money from a European human rights group, but declined to name it. Only after prodding did he say he had been receiving less than 100,000 euros ($137,000) a year since 2012 in support of his work.

"We're in a state of war," he said. "It's difficult to be completely transparent."

SYRIAN NETWORK

Abdurrahman, born in the Syrian city of Banias, says government harassment of his family first sparked his interest in human rights work. He left for Britain in 2000, moving to Coventry, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of London, where the revenue from the clothes shop helps support him, his wife, and their young child.

He launched the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights in May of 2006, saying the activists he met while in Syria formed the group's core.

Counting the words out with his hand, Abdurrahman said his modus operandi was: "Document, verify, and publish."

That methodology has been put to the test in Syria, where both sides stand accused of peddling misinformation. Abdurrahman said his work was like navigating a "sea of lies."

Abdurrahman boasts 230-odd informants on the ground, ranging from Syrian journalists who leak him stories on the sly to employees of military hospitals who fill him in on army casualties. He said he sticks to the journalistic gold standard of only accepting a story once it had been confirmed by a second source.

He claims to have rarely gotten it wrong, saying he could think of only two cases in which he overstated casualty figures. Other mistakes, such as confusing a car bombing with a mortar strike, were more common, but in every case he insisted errors were corrected.

"We're human, we make mistakes," he said. "But it's our intention not to repeat them."

A LEADING NEWS SOURCE

Abdurrahman's accuracy matters because so many news organizations use his reporting. A review of stories published by three major newswires, including The Associated Press, over the past year show he's cited more often than SANA, Syria's government-run news agency.

Experts attribute the exposure to Abdurrahman's non-stop publication schedule, and the fact that so many observers are barred from Syria and that others are at risk of kidnapping or worse. That means journalists, human rights groups, and even the United Nations — which put out its own death toll at more than 100,000 back in July — have to rely at least in part on his figures.

That level of prominence worries those who harbor doubts about his organization.

"Let's assume good faith," said Nadim Shehadi, with London's Chatham House think tank. "Let's assume he's genuine, and qualified, and everything. He relies on too many sources to be able to check."

The problem with checking what's going on in Syria is that few people can gain access to the areas involved, said human rights researcher Cilina Nasser, who has collaborated with Abdurrahman in compiling casualty figures on several mass killings.

Nasser, who works for London-based Amnesty International, described Abdurrahman as careful and "usually accurate."

Her opinion was largely seconded by Lama Fakih, a researcher with New York-based Human Rights Watch.

"In broad strokes, the reporting is solid," she said.

Nasser said it was important to keep in mind that everyone — from Abdurrahman to the journalists charged with following up on his figures — labors under the same handicap.

"There's always something missing," she said, "which is us being on the ground."

___

Online:

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights English-language website: http://syriahr.com/en/

___

Raphael Satter can be reached at: http://raphae.li/twitter

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-10-20-Britain-Syria's%20Scorekeeper/id-f5fa8e291d5d4263817209c6a4aa6652
Tags: national coffee day   Wally Bayola scandal   Galaxy Note 3   Polina Polonsky   Dennis Farina  

'Brooklyn Nine-Nine' finds humor in humanity

TV

Maria Elena Fernandez
NBC News

8 hours ago

Fox Broadcasting Co.

"I grew up around a ton of cultures and ethnicities and sexual preferences in Berkeley," says "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" star Andy Samberg. "To have that be the tone of the show is very comfortable for me, and I'm very happy that people have taken note and said it's a big deal in that it's not treated like a big deal."

Andy Samberg’s “Brooklyn Nine Nine” character, Detective Jake Peralta is seated at his desk at the police precinct, head in hands and hung over when he receives an antidote from fellow detective Amy Santiago (Melissa Fumero), one handed down by her grandfather: a glass of raw egg yolks. “You look like the corpse we just pulled out of the river,” says their commander, Captain Ray Holt (Andre Braugher), as he walks in. Jake plays it off by claiming the drink is part of his fitness routine.

“You should drink it all,” Holt deadpans and pauses. “For your guns.”

It’s an amusing line the way the Emmy-winning Braugher dryly delivers it during a recent taping on the show's Los Angeles set. Samberg is inspired to improvise different endings that involve consuming the drink, insulting Santiago’s grandfather and trying to one-up Braugher. Soon, both actors are cracking up.

The exercise proves that Fox’s new comedy “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” isn’t going for edge. “Parks and Recreation” producing team Dan Goor and Mike Schur have teamed up again to create a throwback workplace comedy that features daily life in a Brooklyn precinct without a laugh track a la “The Big Bang Theory” or a fake documentary crew like “Parks.”

But the show is quietly breaking ground (it has yet to crack five million viewers) with one of the most ethnically diverse casts on broadcast television. Samberg’s star detective is a goofball but skilled investigator whose two bosses are black men—one of whom is gay—and two of his detective peers are Latinas. In the same way that ensemble dramas like “ER,” “Lost” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” paved the way for multiculturalism without tokenism, “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” defies stereotypical comedic expectations and finds the humor in humanity—not skin color or ethnic background or sexual preference.

“The worst kind of comedy, the worst kind of stand-up to me is when they talk about what you’re looking at—‘I’m Jewish’ or ‘I’m wearing glasses,” Samberg said. “You want to hear jokes about life and things you can relate to. I don’t think this show will ever go out of its way to make comments in that regard.”

Instead, the laughs are found in how the stoic and hard-to-read new commander Holt reacts to Peralta’s antics or how badly Santiago wants to beat Peralta’s closure rate—not where they come from or who they sleep with. Detective Charles Boyle (Joe Lo Truglio) is in love with hard-to-get detective Rosa Diaz (Stephanie Beatriz), a tough cookie who doesn’t speak with an accent or acts particularly sassy. Sgt. Terry Jeffords (Terry Crews) is a hulk of a man who has become petrified of fighting crime since he became a father of twin girls; office secretary Gina Linetti (Chelsea Peretti) is just plain insane.

“I was working on this thing for a month before I realized that there’s two black guys running the precinct—and I work on the show!” said Crews during an interview with NBCNews in his dressing room. “I didn’t even think about that, which is so cool because, oh my God, we have all been there. I’ve turned down a lot of stuff where the message was ‘We’re going to be diverse!’ Give me a break. We’re in Brooklyn. If you don’t make it diverse, it looks funny. We are what ‘Friends’ should have been.”

During an interview in the set’s evidence room, Beatriz, who played Sofia Vergara’s character’s sister on “Modern Family” earlier this year, teared up as she described what it means to her to play a Latina whose ethnicity is not the butt of the jokes or the essence of her character.

“I remember as a kid watching TV and looking for myself and not being able to find myself very often,” she said. “There were very few shows I could see myself. I get a little emotional about it because it’s very important. Back in the day, people would go to theater to watch the human story. Now we’re watching it from our houses; to know that there are people who are watching it who can see themselves is a good feeling. I don’t talk about being Latina every day. I also don’t talk about what kind of deodorant I use. It’s something that happens or is a part of me. And it’s the same on the show. It’s almost monumental in its normalcy.”

The producers and casting director Allison Jones assembled the cast of veterans and fresh faces by staying open-minded during auditions. Once Samberg was cast in the lead role, Goor said his team went about making the Brooklyn precinct as realistic as possible without committing any characters to certain backgrounds or ethnicities. “Parks,” which is set in a small Indiana town, also boasts a multi-ethnic cast that includes Aubrey Plaza, Rashida Jones, Retta, and Aziz Ansari alongside star Amy Poehler.

“Our feeling was not calling attention to their ethnicities and not calling attention too much to Captain Holt being gay,’ Goor said. “We just feel like in real life you’re in a workplace and the Latina lady is not referencing the barrio. She’s a person, just like you’re a person. To a certain extent, it’s just writing toward reality.”

For example, Beatriz auditioned for the role of “Megan.” When the producers decided they wanted to hire her, they renamed her “Rosa.” That the two top officers in the precinct turned out to be black men, Goor said, was a function of wanting to work with Crews from the outset and being pleasantly surprised that Braugher, who is known for his dramatic heft, wanted to test his comedy chops. The role of the commander was always written as gay because the writers wanted the new leader to be a hard-working, ambitious policeman who had been held back because he had come out of the closet in the 80s.

“I’m not playing a gay police captain,” Braugher of his first comedic television role. “I’m playing a police captain who happens to be gay. The distinction is large in my mind. The gay police captain is eventually going to be wearing hot pants and singing ‘YMCA.’ The police captain who happens to be gay is going to be a huge collection of personality characteristics and motivations. I’ll get a husband one of these days but he’ll be my sweetheart as opposed to that man candy we bring in for stunt casting.”

In that same way, detective Boyle (Lo Truglio) is trying to win Rosa’s heart without any mamacita jokes or “spicy” references. “I love that these are traits that don’t define the characters,” the former “Reno 911” star said in an interview. “They shouldn’t. The reality of a police precinct in Brooklyn today is what you see here.”

Braugher jokes that he was lost in the “woods of drama” when “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” found him and won him over with its realistic treatment of diversity. “Broadcast TV is very conservative and they’re always concerned about reflecting the audience’s prejudices rather than reflecting the world as it is. When you’re going into people’s homes, there’s a big pressure to be lovable and acceptable. But life is made up of all these juicy parts. I’m not necessarily a fan of that kind of conservatism. I would like to start by holding a mirror up to life. And this is a show that does that.”

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/entertainment/brooklyn-nine-nine-finds-humor-humanity-not-stereotypes-8C11381614
Category: Benedict Cumberbatch   Susan Bennett   National Cheeseburger Day   9/11   Guardians of the Galaxy  

'Game of Thrones' Parody Turns King's Landing Into Renaissance Park (Video)

What if Eddard Stark was never the lord of Winterfell, but instead ran a Renaissance theme park?

That's the premise of a hilarious new video splicing together scenes and overdubbing lines from the first season of HBO's Game of Thrones. The plot doesn't make much sense, but who cares? Here's what's certain: Eddie Stark must turn a rag-tag gang of employees -- including Terry (Tyrion) and Denise (Daenerys)  -- into competent workers to save the fair.

PHOTOS: 'Game of Thrones'' Most Gruesome Death

Say what you will about the shady characters in Game of Thrones – the lords and ladies of Westeros have impeccable accents. That's not the case here -- and that's half the fun of the video.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/live_feed/~3/TrnIYH3DUOA/story01.htm
Category: julianne hough   mark sanchez   North West  

Miranda Kerr: Big Apple Business Babe

Taking care of some career affairs, Miranda Kerr attended a meeting with Cosmopolitan Magazine at the Hearst Building in Manhattan on Tuesday (October 15).

The Australian poser donned a gorgeous printed dress with blue heels and a black jacket as she exited the appointment and headed home to her son Flynn.

Meanwhile, Kerr’s husband Orlando Bloom recently confessed that he goes totally nakers in his forthcoming film “Zulu.”

Bloom told “Watch What Happens Live,” “You’re in luck ’cause earlier this year I spent about seven days on set wearing just a c**k sock because I’m nude! It’s a film called Zulu. It stars myself and Forest Whitaker. It’s directed by this fantastic French director called Jerome Salle. We premiered it at Cannes. You do get to see the full Orlando Bloom.”

Source: http://celebrity-gossip.net/miranda-kerr/miranda-kerr-nyc-1023386
Similar Articles: suntrust   Joseph Gordon-Levitt   veep   taylor swift   Sonic  

Les News, 101613

Mischa's Breakdown, Bey's New Song? McCartney Supports Miley

Posted by: Trent on October 16, 2013|

• • Torsoswaps are a thing now. [Buzzfeed]


• • Sigourney Weaver believes that gorillas are superior to humans. [Queerty]


• • Nina Dobrev and Derek Hough are dunzo. [PopSugar]


• • Mischa Barton has she suffered a “full-on breakdown”. [GossipCop]


• • The Portland Trailblazers are the first NBA team to officially support marriage equality. [Towleroad]


• • You want a Bigotti? You better work, bitch. [Oh La La]


• • Elle magazine completely covers up Melissa McCarthy on their cover. [Newser]


• • Google Maps reunites families. [Heavy]


• • Is Beyoncé planning to release a new single on December 3? [Idolator]


• • Afrojack drops a new track. [arjanwrites]


• • Paul McCartney is Team Miley. [Starpulse]


• • Wrecking Ball acoustic. [Global Grind]


• • The first couple of Canada. [LaineyGossip]


• • Jeremy Jackson (Baywatch) is 33, John Mayer is 36, Wendy Wilson of Wilson Phillips is 44, Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers is 51, Suzanne Somers (Three’s Company) is 67 and Angela Lansbury is 88 years old. Click HERE to see who else is celebrating a birthday today.

Source: http://www.pinkisthenewblog.com/2013-10-16/les-news-101613
Category: Miss World 2013   broncos   apple   Bryan Cranston   oj simpson  

NASA: Asteroid coming close in 2032 no concern

WASHINGTON (AP) — NASA says a big asteroid that whizzed by Earth last month unnoticed is probably nothing to worry about when it returns much closer in 19 years.

NASA Near-Earth Object program manager Donald Yeomans said there is a 1 in 48,000 chance that the 1,300-foot asteroid will hit Earth when it comes back on Aug. 26, 2032.

The asteroid called 2013 TV135 was discovered Oct. 8, nearly a month after it came within 4.2 million miles of Earth. Yeomans said as astronomers observe and track it better, they will likely calculate that it has no chance of hitting Earth.

Although big, the asteroid is considerably smaller than the type that caused the dinosaur extinction.

NASA posted a "reality check" about the asteroid in response to some media reports.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2013-10-18-US-SCI-Big-Asteroid/id-07de7cb09d014388bae9a1ae239e8458
Similar Articles: fiona apple   Rashad Johnson   powerball numbers   Jason Heyward   The Dirty  

Windows 8.1 debuts -- NSA chief leaves -- IBM leads legacy tech down, down -- FB ads on iOS crush Android -- YAHOO worth meh without Alibaba

October 17, 2013 06:00 PDT | 09:00 EDT | 13:00 UTC

Not a TechBrief subscriber? Sign up for a free subscription.

>> DRIVING THE DAY: Windows 8.1 available now. Free update for Windows 8 users, through the Windows Store, started at 4:00 a.m. PDT today and goes until servers run out/melt down.
>>>> Windows 8.1 review: New version, same mess InfoWorld
>>>> Surface Pro 2 256GB, 512GB models won't ship until Dec. 15 Ubergizmo

>> CRYSTAL BALL: What comes next after Windows 8.1?, by Mary Jo Foley: "Microsoft has two ARM-based Windows operating systems: The Windows Phone OS and the Windows RT OS. The thinking is these will be one by Spring 2015. Because it tends to be easier to take a 'smaller' OS and add to it than to take a larger one and remove features from it, it's likely that the Windows Phone OS is the one on top of which the new operating systems group will build." ZDNet
>>>> Beyond Windows 8.1 InfoWorld

>> DEPARTURE LOUNGE: U.S. eavesdropping agency chief, top deputy expected to depart soon, by Warren Strobel, Mark Hosenball: "The director of the U.S. National Security Agency and his deputy are expected to depart in the coming months.... Army General Keith Alexander's eight-year tenure was rocked this year by revelations contained in documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden about the agency's widespread scooping up of telephone, email and social-media data. Alexander has formalized plans to leave by next March or April, while his civilian deputy, John 'Chris' Inglis, is due to retire by year's end." Reuters
>>>> NSA top two officials' retiring isn't news, but is an opportunity to reshape the agency. "Both retirements were planned long ago, and appear to be exactly on schedule, rather than as any reaction to things happening in the news." TechDirt
>>>> Edward Snowden has more secrets to share, father says after Russia visit Reuters
>>>> Hard numbers, chilling facts: What the government does with your data InfoWorld

>> BILLION-DOLLAR WHIFF: IBM revenues hurt by poor hardware performance in China, its 'nexus of erosion', by Christina Farr: "IBM has missed its revenue estimates for seven straight quarters, which has caused concern among investors and analysts that its business is deteriorating. The company said its software revenue came in at $5.8 billion, shy of the $6 billion level analysts were expecting. Revenue dropped 4 percent to $23.7 billion below average analysts expectations of $24.74 billion.... Performance in China was particularly poor; it's down 5 percent this quarter, with most of the decline attributed to hardware." VentureBeat

>> DIRTY LITTLE SECRET: Facebook ad profit a staggering 1,790% more on iPhone than Android, by John Koetsier: "A study of more than 200 billion ads on Facebook says that mobile ads on iPhone generate 1,790 percent more return on investment than ads on Android. Even worse, advertising on Android actually costs more than it returns.... Brutally put, iPhone owners simply tend to both make more money and spend more money than Android owners." Venture Beat

>> CHANGE VELOCITY: New iPads face very different competition, by Tim Bradshaw: "When Apple unveils its latest iPads in San Francisco next week, it will launch them into a very different tablet market to last year. Apple remains the dominant force in tablets with 32 per cent of the market by unit shipments in the second quarter, according to market trackers IDC. But that is a far cry from the 60 per cent hold it had over its competitors a year earlier." The Financial Times (paywalled)

>> iGOTCHA: Apple's claim of unbreakable iMessage encryption 'basically lies,' researchers say, by Jeremy Kirk: "Researchers at the Hack in the Box conference in Kuala Lumpur showed it would be possible for someone inside Apple, of their own volition or because they were forced to by a government, to intercept messages. The company's claim that iMessage is protected by unbreakable encryption is 'just basically lies,' said Cyril Cattiaux, who has developed iOS jailbreak software and works for Quarkslab, a penetration testing and reverse engineering company in Paris." PCWorld

>> MONEY SHOT: Twitter's huge payday for early investors, by Dan Primack: "For early investors, Twitter is not a home run. It's a grand slam in the bottom of the ninth in Game 7 of the World Series." Fortune

>> FOURTH ESTATE: Why Pierre Omidyar decided to join forces with Glenn Greenwald for a new venture in news, by Jay Rosen: "[eBay founder] Pierre Omidyar was one of the people approached by the Washington Post Company about buying the Post. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, wound up with the prize. But as a result of exploring that transaction, Omidyar started thinking seriously about investing in a news property. He began to ask himself what could be done with the same investment if he decided to build something from the ground up... Omidyar believes that if independent, ferocious, investigative journalism isn't brought to the attention of general audiences it can never have the effect that actually creates a check on power.... 'I have always been of the opinion that the right kind of journalism is a critical part of our democracy.'" Press Think

>> POTEMKIN COMPANY: How much is Yahoo worth without Alibaba? Not much, by Joshua Brustein: "At the high end, Yahoo's stake in Alibaba would be worth $30 billion -- which would imply that the rest of Yahoo's enterprise is worth as little as $4 billion, or 12% of its current value." Bloomberg Businessweek

>> GEEK ALERT: Tilera chips add muscle to x86 servers and free up computing capacity, by Agam Shah: "New Tilera co-processors tuned for Hadoop, video and networking applications can free up the primary CPUs of x86 servers to run other applications. The company's Tile-IQ series of chips will have up to 72 low-power CPU cores, which will bring extra computing muscle to speed up servers." InfoWorld

>> RICKROLL: Google pokes the Microsoft bear, pledges to support Chrome on XP into 2015, by Gregg Keizer: "Google today stuck a finger in Microsoft's eye, telling users of Windows XP that its Chrome browser will support their aged operating system a year longer than will Microsoft's Internet Explorer... referring to the impending retirement deadline for Windows XP, the fact that millions of PCs still run the 12-year-old OS even with that deadline less than six months away, and the likelihood that tens of millions -- perhaps hundreds of millions -- of machines will continue to do so after the do-not-use date." Computerworld

>> The government shutdown has revealed Silicon Valley's dysfunction fetish New York Magazine

>> Ubuntu 13.10 review: The Linux OS of the future remains a year away Ars Technica

>> Here's why the iPhone 5S accelerometer is so screwed up Gizmodo

>> Ebook subscription startup Oyster expands to iPad and opens to all; some stats from Scribd GigaOM

>> Search engine giant Yandex in Russia launches Cocaine, a cloud service to compete with Google App Engine TechCrunch

>> 500 Startups is raising $100M for its third early-stage investment fund TechCrunch

>> MapBox heads into battle against Google Maps with a $10M war chest from Foundry Group VentureBeat

>> Usermind raises $7.6M from Andreessen Horowitz to build software for enterprise business operations GeekWire

>> Facebook lets teenagers share posts publicly TechAdvisor

>> Stay put, young man Washington Monthly (t/h Hacker News)

>> Why Microsoft Word must die Charles Stross

>> Introducing TogetherJS, a real-time collaboration tool for existing websites Mozilla Hacks

>> TWEET O' THE DAY: "David Pogue, before dropping Titanic metaphor on Win8.1, sounds like teacher critiquing mediocre student work: 'maturing, now useful."' @EdwardTufte

FEED ME, SEYMOUR: Comments? Questions? Tips? Shoot mail to Trent or Woody. Follow @gegax or @woodyleonhard.

Pass it on. Tweet us!

Not a TechBrief subscriber? Sign up for a free subscription.

Source: http://www.infoworld.com/t/technology-business/windows-81-debuts-nsa-chief-leaves-ibm-leads-legacy-tech-down-down-fb-ads-ios-crush-android-yahoo-worth?source=rss_business_intelligence
Similar Articles: emily blunt   freedom tower   engadget   Victoria Duval   Betty Pino  

Manzo leaving 'The Real Housewives of New Jersey'

NEW YORK (AP) — One of the original members of "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" has announced she's leaving the show after five seasons.

Caroline Manzo made the announcement Sunday on Twitter and on her blog on Bravo's website after "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" aired the final part of the show's reunion.

She says the reality show — known for its brawls, screaming and family fights — has become something she hopes her future grandchildren will never see.

Manzo wrote that she's filming a pilot spinoff called "Manzo'd With Children" that would give "a very different look" at her family.

An email to Bravo seeking comment wasn't immediately returned Monday.

___

Online:

http://www.bravotv.com/the-real-housewives-of-new-jersey

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/manzo-leaving-real-housewives-jersey-171518005.html
Related Topics: suntrust   national coffee day   neil armstrong  

Here's A Reason To Love Disco Again: Stopping Food Waste

Tristram Stuart, founder of Feeding the 5000, is helping to organize several disco soup events across Europe for World Food Day.

Courtesy of Feeding the 5000

Tristram Stuart, founder of Feeding the 5000, is helping to organize several disco soup events across Europe for World Food Day.

Courtesy of Feeding the 5000

Wednesday is World Food Day, an occasion food activists like to use to call attention to world hunger. With 842 million chronically undernourished people on Earth, it's a problem that hasn't gone away.

This year, activists are trying to make the day a little spicier with pots full of disco soup to highlight the absurd amount of food thrown away that could feed people: one-third of all the food produced every year.

What is disco soup, you ask? It's the tasty outcome of a party designed to bring strangers together to cook food that would otherwise end up in the trash. Oftentimes, the soup is donated to the hungry. Oh, and as the name suggests, there's music involved, too.

The first disco soup party was held in Germany in early 2012 by some folks affiliated with the Slow Food Youth Network Deutschland. The organizers collected discarded fruits and vegetables from a market, blasted some disco music and made a huge pot of soup.

Two months later, a group in France threw a disco soup party and attracted 100 people. More parties followed, in Australia, South Korea, Ireland and beyond. You can check out an earnest little video of another French disco food event here:

The idea eventually caught the attention of Tristram Stuart, a British food waste activist and writer who started Feeding the 5000, a campaign named for an event held in London in 2009 and 2011, where 5,000 members of the public were given a free lunch made with perfectly edible ingredients bound for the rubbish bin.

Stuart is adamant that consumers and businesses in the developed world have a moral obligation to reverse "the global scandal" of food waste. In addition to throwing events to cook up blemished but edible produce, his campaign is working to change European Union legislation on feeding food waste to pigs through the Pig Idea project.

For World Food Day, Feeding the 5000 is hosting a "flagship" disco soup party in Brussels. And the group says more pots full of disco soup will be bubbling away today in the Netherlands, France, Germany, Greece and Macedonia. The event hub is the Disco Anti Food Waste Day Facebook page.

And what if you don't like disco? Can you still have a disco soup event?

"We play anything that gets people dancing as they peel and chop the vegetables and fruit," Dominika Jarosz, event coordinator for Feeding the 5000, tells The Salt in an email.

While there are no disco soup events scheduled for Oct. 16 in the U.S., Feeding the 5000 says disco soup is starting to get traction here. The first U.S. disco soup event was held on Sept. 20 in New York, with the support of Slow Food NYC, the Natural Gourmet Institute, chef Paul Gerard of the East Village restaurant Exchange Alley and the United Nations Environment Program.

In advance of the soup blitz, Stuart visited local farms in New York and New Jersey and gleaned blemished tomatoes, oversized watermelons, squash, eggplants and other fresh produce that the farmers were unable to sell. A rotating crew of DJs provided a soundtrack at the soup-making party at the Chelsea Super Pier, and most of the food was donated to the Bowery Mission. Such events, he says, help raise awareness among food donors like grocery stores and farmers and help them forge long-term relationships with organizations that feed the hungry.

Americans may be getting more motivated to address food waste, but we have to hand it to the Europeans, who do seem to be out in front on the issue. It was a group of Austrians, after all, who started a reality cooking show centered around Dumpster diving.

Food waste was also a talking point for world leaders who spoke up on World Food Day. "Reducing food waste is not, in fact, only a strategy for times of crisis, but a way of life we should adopt if we want a sustainable future for our planet," Nunzia De Girolamo, Italy's minister for agriculture, food and forestry policy, said at a ceremony Wednesday at the Food and Agriculture Organization's headquarters in Rome.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/10/16/235355021/turning-food-waste-into-disco-soup?ft=1&f=1003
Similar Articles: Austin Mahone   Valerie Harper   Tony Hale   Espn.com   Lee Westwood  

2 parties bicker over blame for parks shutdown

WASHINGTON (AP) — As congressional leaders raced to seal a deal that would reopen the government, lawmakers from both parties jabbed at one another Wednesday over who was to blame for the most high-profile casualties of the 16-day shutdown: the national parks.

At a House hearing, members of Congress focused on the World War II Memorial on the National Mall, where veterans were initially denied access after the government closed on Oct. 1. A crowd that included Republican lawmakers converged on the memorial Sunday, pushing past barriers to protest the site's closure.

The memorial and other national park units have become a political symbol as lawmakers bicker over blame for the park closings.

Republicans say many parks and open-air monuments did not need to be closed, but Democrats said the GOP had only itself to blame for the shutdown, after Republicans demanded that measures to defund the new health care law be included in bills to keep the government open.

Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., held up a mirror at the hearing and invited Republicans to look at it to find the cause of the shutdown.

Governors in at least five states have reopened national parks such as the Grand Canyon and Statue of Liberty in recent days, but Republicans say the measures were too little, too late.

Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., said the National Park Service appears to have intentionally made the shutdown "as painful and visible as possible."

Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis denied that, saying that turning away visitors "is not in our DNA."

Jarvis called the agreements with governors that have allowed some parks to reopen "a practical and temporary solution that will lessen the pain for some businesses and communities — a Band-Aid until Congress passes an appropriations bill."

Jarvis, who appeared at the hearing only after being issued a subpoena, urged Congress to reopen the government so his agency can reopen all 401 national park units.

Republicans, including Hastings and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said the Park Service acted in a political and provocative manner when it set up barricades at open-air monuments such as the World War II Memorial and placed traffic cones along highway viewing areas outside Mount Rushmore and other parks.

Hastings heads the House Natural Resources Committee, while Issa leads the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The committees held the joint hearing.

Jarvis defended placement of barricades at the World War II Memorial and other sites, saying that all but a dozen park service employees who work at the National Mall have been furloughed. Given the limited staff resources during the shutdown, "prudent and practical steps were taken to secure life and property at these national icons where security has become increasingly complex in a post-9/11 world," he said.

Contrary to the assertion of several Republican lawmakers, Jarvis said the Park Service allowed veterans and their families to visit the World War II Memorial.

"We know that visits of America's World War II veterans to the memorial are pilgrimages that many of them will only make once," he said. "Throughout the shutdown, we have worked diligently to try and ensure that no Honor Flight group, veteran, or their family has been turned away from visiting the veterans' memorials."

An organization called the Honor Flight Network brings World War II veterans to Washington.

Other visitors also are allowed at the memorial under an exception that allows First Amendment activities, Jarvis said.

Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., was not impressed. He said Jarvis's decision to set up barricades at the Lincoln and World War II memorials was "wrong" and mean-spirited.

"You besmirched (the Park Service's) reputation and soured relations with Congress," Lamborn told Jarvis. "In my opinion you have failed."

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., denounced Lamborn's comment and called Jarvis an "exemplary" public servant. Connolly called the hearing a "theater of the absurd" and "an audacious attempt by the majority to deflect responsibility and blame for the real-world consequences of a government shutdown."

GOP Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah, along with former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, were among those at the World War II Memorial on Sunday. Cruz, Lee and other tea party-backed lawmakers refused to keep the government operating unless President Barack Obama agreed to defund the nation's health care overhaul.

___

Follow Matthew Daly on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDC

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/2-parties-bicker-over-blame-parks-shutdown-145243464--politics.html
Tags: Government Shutdown Over   GTA Online   Americas Cup   kenya   Pga Leaderboard  

Robin Williams In Talks for 'Night at the Museum 3' (Exclusive)

Courtesy Everett Collection

Robin Williams in "Night at the Museum"

Robin Williams is in negotiations to return to Fox’s Night at the Museum franchise. The third film in the series will begin shooting in February 2013.

Night at the Museum 3 will see Ben Stiller return as security guard Larry Daley and Shawn Levy returning to the director’s chair for a series that has grossed close to a billion dollars.

TV REVIEW: The Crazy Ones

Williams has played Teddy Roosevelt in both Night at the Museum and Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian and will reprise the role as the action moves to London.

It’s not known at this time if Smithsonian castmembers such as Amy Adams, Bill Hader, and Christopher Guest, who also played historical figures, will return as well.

Williams is on a high these days with a hit CBS sitcom, The Crazy Ones. On Friday, the show was picked up for a full season as it has been a solid performer for the network and had one of the biggest debuts of the fall season.

He is repped by WME, MBST and Manatt Phelps.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/THRComicCon/~3/3MRB57tFKOs/story01.htm
Similar Articles: kris jenner   breaking bad   Cameron Douglas   Humble Bundle   Jeff Tuel  

Ill. High Court Invalidates 'Amazon Tax' For Sales

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — The Illinois Supreme Court threw out a state law Friday that taxes certain Internet sales, saying the so-called "Amazon tax" violated federal rules against "discriminatory taxes" on digital transactions.

The 6-1 ruling represented the first time a court had invalidated an Internet sales tax law among 18 states that have them. It brought an immediate cry from traditional, store-based retailers for Congress to step into regulating taxes on web sales.

The court determined that Illinois' 2011 "Main Street Fairness Act" was superseded by the federal law, which prohibits imposing a tax on "electronic commerce" and obligates collection that's not required of transactions by other means, such as print or television.

Illinois' law required out-of-state retailers to collect state taxes on annual sales of more than $10,000 that involve in-state "affiliates," or website operators and bloggers, that draw consumers to the retailers' sites in exchange for a cut of each sale.

That prompted several high-profile departures from the Prairie State by companies such as CouponCabin.com, which fled rather than lose so-called "click-through-nexus" payments from the Internet retailers.

But Justice Anne Burke, writing for the court's majority, questioned whether there was any substantial difference between out-of-state businesses reaching Illinois consumers through a click-through-nexus approach or through other approaches that aren't taxed.

"The click-through link makes it easier for the customer to reach the out-of-state retailer," Burke wrote. "But the link is not different in kind from advertising using promotional codes that appear, for example, in Illinois newspapers or Illinois radio broadcasts."

Justice Lloyd Karmeier dissented, saying the federal law does not apply because the state statute doesn't "impose any new taxes or increase any existing taxes," but rather changes the definition of who's obligated to collect them.

But Illinois residents should expect refunds for the books, neckties, CDs or other items they bought by click during the past two years. Regardless of how an item is purchased, Illinois shoppers must pay 6.25 percent sales tax. If a retailer doesn't collect it online, taxpayers must do the math and add the owed sales tax when figuring their state income-tax return in the spring.

Illinois' tax collector, the Department of Revenue, said it's considering asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene. Amazon.com did just that in August, when it sought a review of the New York Court of Appeals' March ruling upholding the law there. The Empire State was among the first to argue that a business with "affiliates" within its borders gives the company a physical presence there — a must if a state hopes to collect taxes from it, according to a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

Revenue officials also said they would continue to push the "Marketplace Fairness Act" in Congress to "level the playing field for all businesses." Its sponsor is Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat.

Friday's Illinois ruling "underscores the need" for Capitol Hill action, said David Vite of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association.

"Brick-and-mortar businesses, which pay property taxes, and income taxes, and are hiring people, are at a significant competitive disadvantage with their remote-selling counterparts," Vite told The Associated Press. "It's time for the federal government to clarify and finish putting retailers, who are making payroll and putting people to work, on equal footing."

An Amazon spokeswoman did not immediately return a message seeking comment Friday.

Neither proponents nor opponents of the measure could say how much Illinois had collected, but just as the law's backers trumpet economics, so do those opposing it. George Isaacson is a lawyer from Lewiston, Maine, who represents the plaintiffs in the case, Performance Marketing Association. Its members are the affiliates who post the retailers' links.

"Our understanding is that the primary economic impact, the effect of the legislation, was in forcing the web affiliates to lay off people," Isaacson said. "That's less income, less income tax. The law was self-defeating in terms of economic impact."

___

Online:

The case is Performance Marketing Ass'n v. Hamer: http://tinyurl.com/ybdtxtd

___

Contact Political Writer John O'Connor at https://twitter.com/apoconnor

Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=237208745&ft=1&f=
Related Topics: sofia vergara   Ios 7 Release Date   Seaside Heights   anthony weiner   Disney Infinity  

Can You Pass This -TE ST-?

On-air challenge: Today's puzzle is an insider's test. Every answer is a familiar two-word phrase or name with the consecutive letters T-E-S-T. Specifically, the first word will end with -TE and the second word will start ST-. For example, given "sheer force," you would say "brute strength."

Last week's challenge from listener Ed Pegg Jr. of mathpuzzle.com: What familiar saying with seven words has seven consonants in a row? The answer is a common saying in ordinary English. Sometimes it's expressed in nine words rather than seven, but it's the same saying. And either way, in one spot it has seven consecutive consonants. What saying is it?

Answer: People (who live) in glass houses shouLDN'T THRow stones.

Winner: Richard Kerr of Tallahassee, Fla.

Next week's challenge: (Please note: this is a two-week challenge) Take a seven-by-seven square grid. Arrange the names of U.S. cities or towns in regular crossword fashion inside the grid so that the cities used have the highest possible total population, according to the 2010 Census. For example, if you put Chicago in the top row and Houston in the sixth row, both reading across, and then fit Atlanta, Oakland and Reno coming down, you'll form a mini-crossword. And the five cities used have a total population, according to the 2010 census, of 5,830,997. You can do better.

As in a regular crossword, the names must read across and down only. Every name must interlock with at least one other name. And no two letters can touch unless they are part of a name.

What is the highest population total you can achieve? And when you send in your answer, please include the names of the cities, in order, across and down.

Submit Your Answer

If you know the answer to next week's challenge, submit it here. Listeners who submit correct answers win a chance to play the on-air puzzle. Important: Include a phone number where we can reach you Thursday at 3 p.m. Eastern.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/10/13/232770489/can-you-pass-this-te-st?ft=1&f=10
Tags: Federal government shutdown   Eiza Gonzalez   Romain Dauriac   Electric Zoo   Jodi Arias  

Apple reasserts claim it doesn't want to spy on your iMessages

The company is moved to make a statement after a researcher presents a hack that could allow the company to read iMessages.

Apple has said time and again in the wake of the NSA snooping scandal that it cannot read user iMessages. But new research has shown that it's theoretically possible.

Security firm QuarksLab on Thursday issued a white paper describing a method by which a hacker or Apple itself could access iMessages. The white paper states that Apple could intercept messages between sender and recipient and make them believe that their communication is secure. In order to do so, however, Apple would need to disrupt the encryption between communications and effectively change how iMessages works.

Back in June, Apple issued a statement on its site discussing its "commitment to customer privacy" in the wake of revelations about the National Security Agency. The company said at the time that iMessages are kept entirely secure.

"Conversations which take place over iMessage and FaceTime are protected by end-to-end encryption so no one but the sender and receiver can see or read them," Apple wrote in June. "Apple cannot decrypt that data. Similarly, we do not store data related to customers' location, Map searches or Siri requests in any identifiable form."

In a statement sent to All Things Digital in response to the new research, Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller said that Apple would have to jump through hoops to achieve access to iMessages and that it has no desire to do so.

"The research discussed theoretical vulnerabilities that would require Apple to re-engineer the iMessage system to exploit it, and Apple has no plans or intentions to do so," Muller told All Things Digital.

CNET has contacted Apple for further comment and will update this story when we have more information.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57608139-37/apple-reasserts-claim-it-doesnt-want-to-spy-on-your-imessages/?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=News-Apple
Category: raiders   Kliff Kingsbury   Amber Riley   Don Jon   Amanda Rosenberg  

Okkervil River: Tiny Desk Concert

At first blush, Okkervil River is obviously a good rock 'n' roll band, but listen closely — especially to its lyrics — and you'll hear a great rock 'n' roll band. The group has been making sharp, thoughtful music since the late '90s, with the first of its seven albums coming out a dozen years ago.

The songs in this Tiny Desk Concert are from The Silver Gymnasium, a record inspired by the childhood of 37-year-old singer-songwriter Will Sheff; he grew up a bespectacled, crooked-toothed redhead in the small New Hampshire town of Meriden. His lyrics are drenched in specific memories, pop-culture references and youthful insecurity. Look at these lines from "Down Down the Deep River":

Tell me 'bout the greatest show or the greatest movie you know

Or the greatest song that you taped from off the radio

Play it again and again — it cuts off at the ending, though

Tell me I'm always gonna be your best friend

Now you said it one time — why don't you say it again?

The stories pop a bit more in this acoustic set-up for Okkervil River, but they rock plenty hard in concert and on their albums. If you've missed the past dozen years of this band, start here and then work your way back through its catalog. The Stage Names is my favorite, but nothing disappoints.

Set List

• "On A Balcony"


• "Pink Slips"


• "Down Down The Deep River"

Credits

Producers: Bob Boilen, Denise DeBelius; Audio Engineer: Kevin Wait; Videographers: Denise DeBelius, Becky Harlan, Abbey Oldham; photo by Meredith Rizzo/NPR

Source: http://www.npr.org/event/music/232122323/okkervil-river-tiny-desk-concert?ft=1&f=1039
Category: james spader   Sons Of Anarchy Season 6   nfl   paulina gretzky   emmy nominations  

World War R: New Comic Pits Archie And Friends Against The Undead

Cover of Afterlife with Archie #1.

Archie Comics

Ready for your fair share of Halloween shakes and shivers, kiddies? Look no further than Afterlife with Archie, a new ongoing comic series that melds our eternal fascination with all things zombie apocalypse and one of the most enduring and successful comic icons of all time, Archie Andrews — and yes, it is actually scary.

That's right, the perma-teenagers in happy-go-lucky Riverdale find their comforting and idealized existence invaded by ... undead hordes. Can these archetypal clean-cut kids survive? Here's the setup:

Reggie Mantle runs over Jughead's fluffy pup Hot Dog. (Of course Reggie started it!) Jughead takes Hot Dog to Sabrina the teen witch, who using the Necronomicon and channeling Pet Sematary, brings him back to life. (And messes it up, 'cause that's what she does!) Hot Dog bites Jughead, who ends up consuming victims at the Halloween Dance. (He is always hungry!)

Meanwhile sexy nurse Betty and even more sexy Vampirella — or "Vampironica," as Betty calls her, after Veronica calls Betty "Florence Nightinghag" — are too busy sniping at each other over costume choices to notice. (Naturally!)

What follows is a five-story arc called "Escape from Riverdale" that will see the surviving members of the gang leave home for the first time in 72 years. Terrific pop-culture horror references (or reverences) in dialogue and art are on every page, plus a dark humor that conjures classic Tales from the Crypt.

This new macabre monthly masterpiece is penned by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, who cut his teeth on horror fare and Archie comics. You might know him as the writer of the upcoming Carrie remake, or for his comic adaptation of Stephen King's The Stand. Less well known — but perhaps more relevant — is his graduate school play, originally called Archie Loves Nathan, in which Archie became college roommates with a real-life monster, Nathan Leopold (of Leopold and Loeb infamy). Afterlife is drawn by Francesco Francavilla, known for his dramatically-lit, moody creations, notably in Detective Comics. This creative combo alone put Afterlife on several most anticipated comics lists; in fact, the first issue sold out in five hours.

While Afterlife marks a lot of firsts for Archie Comics — first horror book, first teen rating — it really is the latest in a chain of successful innovations that's kept Archie on top of the mass market heap, with 2 billion comics sold in several different languages.

Did I just hear a record scratch in the minds of legions of comics readers who find the only thing enduring about Archie Andrews is his eternal squareness? Feeling smug, are you? But consider: in hairstyles, clothes, technology (there will be blood texting), Archie isn't as static as you remember.

Yes, Archie Comics keeps its core titles pristine, but it's also kept up with the times, introducing the out-and-proud character Kevin Keller along with audience-expanding mashups and alternative storylines like Archie Gets Married and Afterlife with Archie.

Remember too, your younger self had different sensibilities. 60% of Archie readers are tween girls, average starting age: nine. Since I happen to know a 9-year-old girl, Lilah, who loves Archie, I asked her what gives. "It's fun to read when I have nothing to do. Jughead is funny and all he thinks about is eating. And I like dogs. So Hot Dog is my favorite."

Dear reader, you know what I had to do. Don't hate me, don't try this at home — and don't come after me, Crypt-Keeper! But I had to ask: What did she think of Afterlife? "I really, really liked it. It was a cliffhanger. I did have a nightmare about zombies but that's just cause I read it a second time at night and it was dark so it was more scary."

Which leads me to a last reason you need to read this book if an Archie horror title wasn't on your list. The kids are going find and consume it. Why not do it together?

Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/10/18/236230146/world-war-r-new-comic-pits-archie-and-friends-against-the-undead?ft=1&f=1008
Tags: Insidious 2   Mayweather vs Canelo results   Jesse Jackson Jr   Amanda Dufner   regions