Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Occupy Oakland: 400 arrested after violent protest

A violent Occupy Oakland protest over the weekend resulted in damage to Oakland's historic City Hall and YMCA and about 400 arrests. KNTV reports.

By NBC News, msnbc.com staff and news services

Crews cleaned up Oakland's historic City Hall on Sunday from damage inflicted overnight during violent anti-Wall Street protests that resulted in about 400 arrests, marking one of the largest mass arrests since nationwide protests began last year.

At a press conference on Sunday, Oakland police and city officials said they did not have a final tally of arrests. Earlier in the day, the city's emergency operations office put the figure at around 400. The skirmishes injured three officers and at least one demonstrator.


Police said a group of protesters burned an American flag in front of City Hall, then entered the building and destroyed a vending machine, light fixtures and a historic scale model of the edifice. The city's 911 emergency system was overwhelmed during the disturbances.

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"While City Hall sustained damage, we anticipate that all city offices will be open for regular business tomorrow," said Deanna Santana, Oakland city administrator.

Beck Diefenbach / AP

Occupy Oakland protesters burn an American flag found inside Oakland City Hall on Saturday.

Oakland has become an unlikely flashpoint for the national "Occupy" protests against economic inequality that began last year in New York's financial district and spread to dozens of cities.

The protests in most cities have been peaceful and sparked a national debate over how much of the country's wealth is held by the richest 1 percent of the population. President Barack Obama has sought to capitalize on the attention by calling for higher taxes on the richest Americans.

Related stories:

Occupy protests focused on Oakland after a former Marine and Iraq war veteran, Scott Olsen, was critically injured during a demonstration in October. Protesters said he was hit in the head by a tear gas canister but authorities have never said exactly how he was hurt.

The Occupy movement appeared to lose momentum late last year as police cleared protest camps in several cities.

Violence erupted again in Oakland on Saturday afternoon when protesters attempted to take over the apparently empty downtown convention center to establish a new headquarters and draw attention to the problem of homelessness.

'Violent splinter group'
Police in riot gear moved in to drive back the crowd, which they estimated at about 500 protesters.

"Officers were pelted with bottles, metal pipe, rocks, spray cans, improvised explosive devices and burning flares," the Oakland Police Department said in a statement. "The Oakland Police Department deployed smoke, tear gas and beanbag projectiles in response to this activity."

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan accused a "violent splinter group" of the Occupy movement of fomenting the Saturday protests and using the city as its playground. Protesters have accused the city of overreacting and using heavy-handed tactics.

Police move in on Occupy Oakland protesters on Oak Street and 12th as tear gas gets blown back on them in Oakland.

Oakland officials on Sunday were inspecting damage inside City Hall that was caused by about 50 Occupy protesters who broke in and smashed glass display cases, spray-painted graffiti, and burned the?U.S. and California flags.

The break-in on Saturday was the culmination of a day of clashes between protesters and police. At least 300 people were arrested on charges ranging from vandalism and failure to disperse.

At least three officers and one protester were injured.

Quan said Occupy protesters have caused an estimated $2 million in damages from vandalism since October. She said the cost to the city related to the Occupy Oakland protests is pegged at about $5 million.

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More content from msnbc.com and NBC News

This article includes reporting from NBCBayArea.com, The Associated Press and msnbc.com's Miranda Leitsinger.

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Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/30/10268080-occupy-oakland-400-arrested-after-violent-protest

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The Curse of the White Powder

At first glance, the 53 letters mailed in October 2008 from Amarillo, Texas, to?Chase banks around the country looked like the multitude of letters that companies and government agencies receive from regular people every day: addressed to the institution at large and not anybody in particular, an implicit sign of the power differential between hapless sender and indifferent receiver. The content of the Amarillo letters, however, was intended to invert this relationship, at least temporarily. The first of them was opened by an employee at a Chase bank in Norman, Okla., a little after 11 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 20. A white powder, soft as talcum, spilled out of the envelope, landing on the employee's desk. Inside was a typewritten note that read, in part, ?It's payback time. What you breathed in will kill you within 10 days.?

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=d9f4c14224766611f3755ed0057f2886

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Monday, January 30, 2012

Canadian teenagers launch Lego man to the stars (+video)

A duo of 17-year-olds from Toronto attached a Lego man to a weather balloon, along with several cameras and a GPS tracker, and launched it into the Earth's upper atmosphere.

Two teens from Toronto,Canada have launched ?Lego Man in Space? using a helium filled weather balloon and captured stunning video of the miniature toy figure back dropped by the beautiful curvature of Earth and the desolate blackness of space that?s become a worldwide YouTube sensation ? over 2 million hits !

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17 year olds Mathew Ho and Asad Muhammad lofted the tiny 2 inch tall Lego figure from a local Toronto soccer field up to a height of about 85,000 feet, or 16 miles (25 kilometers), where the 22 foot (7 m) diameter helium balloon burst in what is technically known as the stratosphere. The homemade styrofoam capsule ? equipped with two video cameras and four digital cameras (Canon) ? then parachuted back to Earth.

?We launched the project on January 7,? Mathew Ho told Universe Today.?

?After endless hours of hard work, we managed to capture stunning views of our atmosphere and put a ?Lego? man into near space!? said the ambitious teens who are 12th graders at the Agincourt Collegiate Institute.

The pair posted a YouTube video (below) documenting the entire voyage and some camera snapshots on their website on January 25.

Lego Man even snapped cool Moon shots ? look closely at the video and photo below.

"Lego Man in Space" ? The Video

The duo recounted the details of their sensational space tale of science on a shoestring for Canadian TV and newspapers.

?Upon launch we were very relieved. But we had a lot of anxiety on launch day because there were high winds when we were going up after all the hard work,? said Ho in a studio interview on Canadian TV (CTV).

?We were also scared because now we would have to retrieve it back after it came down,? Asad chimed in.

?We had no idea it would capture photos like that and would be so good,? said Ho. ?We were blown away when we saw them back home.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/wXud95AwMKo/Canadian-teenagers-launch-Lego-man-to-the-stars-video

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Arctic snowy owls soar south in rare mass move

Bird enthusiasts are reporting rising numbers of snowy owls from the Arctic winging into the lower 48 states this winter in a mass southern migration that a leading owl researcher called "unbelievable."

Thousands of the snow-white birds, which stand 2 feet tall with 5-foot wingspans, have been spotted from coast to coast, feeding in farmlands in Idaho, roosting on rooftops in Montana, gliding over golf courses in Missouri and soaring over shorelines in Massachusetts.

A certain number of the iconic owls fly south from their Arctic breeding grounds each winter but rarely do so many venture so far away even amid large-scale, periodic southern migrations known as irruptions.

"What we're seeing now ? it's unbelievable," said Denver Holt, head of the Owl Research Institute in Montana.

"This is the most significant wildlife event in decades," added Holt, who has studied snowy owls in their Arctic tundra ecosystem for two decades.

Holt and other owl experts say the phenomenon is likely linked to lemmings, a rodent that accounts for 90 percent of the diet of snowy owls during breeding months that stretch from May into September. The largely nocturnal birds also prey on a host of other animals, from voles to geese.

An especially plentiful supply of lemmings last season likely led to a population boom among owls that resulted in each breeding pair hatching as many as seven offspring. That compares to a typical clutch size of no more than two, Holt said.

Greater competition this year for food in the Far North by the booming bird population may have then driven mostly younger, male owls much farther south than normal.

Research on the animals is scarce because of the remoteness and extreme conditions of the terrain the owls occupy, including northern Russia and Scandinavia, he said.

The surge in snowy owl sightings has brought birders flocking from Texas, Arizona and Utah to the Northern Rockies and Pacific Northwest, pouring tourist dollars into local economies and crowding parks and wildlife areas. The irruption has triggered widespread public fascination that appears to span ages and interests.

"For the last couple months, every other visitor asks if we've seen a snowy owl today," said Frances Tanaka, a volunteer for the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge northeast of Olympia, Washington.

But accounts of emaciated owls at some sites ? including a food-starved bird that dropped dead in a farmer's field in Wisconsin ? suggest the migration has a darker side. And Holt said an owl that landed at an airport in Hawaii in November was shot and killed to avoid collisions with planes.

He said snowy owl populations are believed to be in an overall decline, possibly because a changing climate has lessened the abundance of vegetation like grasses that lemmings rely on.

This winter's snowy owl outbreak, with multiple sightings as far south as Oklahoma, remains largely a mystery of nature.

"There's a lot of speculation. As far as hard evidence, we really don't know," Holt said.

Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46180562/ns/us_news-environment/

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Sunday, January 29, 2012

300 arrested in daylong Occupy Oakland protests (AP)

OAKLAND, Calif. ? Dozens of police maintained a late-night guard around City Hall following daylong protests that resulted in 300 arrests. Occupy Oakland demonstrators broke into the historic building and burned a U.S. flag, as officers earlier fired tear gas to disperse people throwing rocks and tearing down fencing at a convention center.

Saturday's protests ? the most turbulent since Oakland police forcefully dismantled an Occupy encampment in November ? came just days after the group said it planned to use a vacant building as a social center and political hub and threatened to try to shut down the port, occupy the airport and take over City Hall.

An exasperated Mayor Jean Quan, who faced heavy criticism for the police action last fall, called on the Occupy movement to "stop using Oakland as its playground."

"People in the community and people in the Occupy movement have to stop making excuses for this behavior," Quan said.

Protesters clashed with police throughout the day, at times throwing rocks, bottles and other objects at officers. And police responded by deploying smoke, tear gas and bean bag rounds, City Administrator Deanna Santanta said.

Interim Police Chief Howard Jordan said about 300 arrests were made.

"These demonstrators stated their intention was to provoke officers and engage in illegal activity and that's exactly what has occurred today," Santana said.

The group assembled outside City Hall late Saturday morning and marched through the streets, disrupting traffic as they threatened to take over the vacant Henry Kaiser Convention Center.

The protesters walked to the vacant convention center, where some started tearing down perimeter fencing and "destroying construction equipment" shortly before 3 p.m., police said.

Police said they issued a dispersal order and used smoke and tear gas after some protesters pelted them with bottles, rocks, burning flares and other objects.

The number of demonstrators swelled as the day wore on, with afternoon estimates ranging from about 1,000 to 2,000 people.

A majority of the arrests came after police took scores of protesters into custody as they marched through the city's downtown, with some entering a YMCA building, said Sgt. Jeff Thomason, a police spokesman.

Quan said that at one point, many protesters forced their way into City Hall, where they burned flags, broke an electrical box and damaged several art structures, including a recycled art exhibit created by children.

She blamed the destruction on a small "very radical, violent" splinter group within Occupy Oakland.

"This is not a situation where we had a 1,000 peaceful people and a few violent people. If you look at what's happening today in terms of destructing property, throwing at and charging the police, it's almost like they are begging for attention and hoping that the police will make an error."

Dozens of officers surrounded City Hall, while others swept the inside of the building looking for protesters who had broken into the building, then ran out of the building with American flags before officers arrived.

The protest group issued an email criticizing police, saying "Occupy Oakland's building occupation, an act of constitutionally protected civil disobedience was disrupted by a brutal police response today."

Michael Davis, 32, who is originally from Ohio and was in the Occupy movement in Cincinnati, said Saturday was a very hectic day that originally started off calm but escalated when police began using "flash bangs, tear gas, smoke grenades and bean bags."

"What could've been handled differently is the way the Oakland police came at us," Davis said. "We were peaceful."

City leaders joined Quan in criticizing the protesters.

"City Hall is closed for the weekend. There is no excuse for behavior we've witnessed this evening," City Council President Larry Reid said during a news briefing Saturday.

Oakland Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente, echoed Reid's sentiments and said that what was going on amounts to "domestic terrorism."

The national Occupy Wall Street movement, which denounces corporate excess and economic inequality, began in New York City in the fall but has been largely dormant lately.

Oakland, New York and Los Angeles were among the cities with the largest and most vocal Occupy protests early on. The demonstrations ebbed after those cities used force to move out hundreds of demonstrators who had set up tent cities.

In Oakland, the police department received heavy criticism for using force to break up earlier protests. Quan was among the critics, but on Saturday, she seemed to have changed her tune.

"Our officers have been very measured," Quan said. "Were there some mistakes made? There may be. I would say the Oakland police and our allies, so far a small percentage of mistakes. "But quite frankly, a majority of protesters who were charging the police were clearly not being peaceful.

Earlier this month, a court-appointed monitor submitted a report to a federal judge that included "serious concerns" about the department's handling of the Occupy protests.

Jordan said late Saturday that he was in "close contact" with the federal monitor during the protests.

Quan added, "If the demonstrators think that because we are working more closely with the monitor now that we won't do what we have to do to uphold the law and try keep people safe in this city, they're wrong."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_re_us/us_occupy_oakland

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Equal Polarization, My Ass (OliverWillisLikeKryptoniteToStupid)

Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

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Saturday, January 28, 2012

Tweet lightly: How social media could someday affect your credit score, insurance, and more (Digital Trends)

social media map

Did you know January 28 is Data Privacy Day in the United States, Canada, and the European Union? The intention behind Data Privacy Day is to raise awareness of the importance of protecting the privacy of personal information?not just amongst individual users of things like social networking, but also amongst businesses, organizations, and corporations that collect, retain, and access information about their clients, customers, and users. Companies like Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo have been drawing the attention of privacy advocates and regulators in recent years, but the reality is that there are tens of thousands of companies out there collecting, processing, and distributing personal information about individuals all the time. Increasingly, those companies are looking to things like social networking for cues about individuals? behaviors, lifestyle, interests, and activities.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg ??Time?s 2010 Man of the Year ? once famously declared privacy is not a ?social norm,? and Facebook and other companies have consistently borne out that idea in the online world, collecting increasing amount of information about individuals and hiding behind privacy policies longer than the U.S. Constitution. Clauses of implied consent decree that users legally agree to having their information gathered and tracked, so long as they continue using accounts or services. In other words: Users can either agree to be tracked, or they can agree not to use a service. However, this cavalier approach to data collection and user profiling is drawing increased scrutiny not just from consumer and privacy advocates, but by governments and everyday people. The European Commission has just proposed new data protection laws that would enshrine a ?right to be forgotten? for individuals, and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has forced Facebook to toe the line on sharing user information with third parties. Google?s recent ground-up revamp of its privacy policies and user tracking is almost certain to draw FTC scrutiny as well.

Social impact

In observance of Data Privacy Day, Microsoft?which has a major stake in how data protection plays out, has released data from a survey of 5,000 people examining how they approach their online profiles and reputations. Overall, the survey found that 91 percent of respondents have taken some action to manage their overall online profile at some point in time, while about two thirds of respondents feel they are actually in control of their online reputations. However, only 44 percent indicated they actively consider the potential long-term consequences of their online actions; that means a surprising 56 percent do not consider any consequences from their online activity. Further, a surprising 14 percent believe they have been negatively impacted by the online activities of others. In this survey, ?negative impact? means things like being fired from a job, being denied a mortgage, losing health insurance, or losing out on being accepted to a college or a job.

Microsoft Online Reputation survey results

It?s well-known that most employers these days commonly vet job candidates by checking out their social media postings: Pictures from a drunken party in college could come back to haunt job-seekers later in life, particularly as things like Facebook?s now-mandatory Timeline expose more of people?s online histories. Similarly, employers and others can easily trawl through someone?s postings to Twitter and other social media services. Someone who regularly uses insulting or demeaning language in their public tweets or fuels flame wars with strangers in forums might now be an employer?s first choice for a job that entails dealing with the public or customers politely. By the same token, tweeting ?Mainstreet offramp at 90mph, flipped off ugly minivan that honked at me!!? is probably a fast way to lose a job as a delivery driver.

Messages, files, photos, videos and other things marked as private or shared with a small group on a social networking site are only private in a very limited sense. If someone you?ve shared with takes the material public, it?s out there for the whole world to see, forever, just like any other social media posting. Also remember that discovery processes for civil and criminal cases treat social networking posts just like any other communication: They can be subpoenaed, and providers have to turn them over the data regardless of whether that information was free for the whole world or intended for just a selected few. And those subpoenas don?t have to be about you specifically: they might be about one of your online ?friends? or related to a fan page, group, discussion list, or blog you happen to like.

Do not track

Back in December 2010 the FTC fielded a do-not-track proposal that essentially extends the notion behind the the well-received U.S. do-not-call list for telephone solicitation to the Web. Consumers would be able to tell online advertisers that they do not want to be tracked or have data about their online data collected about them and used to target advertising. Although all the major Web browsers implemented support for the do-not-track behavior during 2011 (and Microsoft even submitted a version to the W3C as a standard), the bottom line is that, even if consumers enable the feature on all their browsers, sites and services must explicitly support it. It doesn?t work automatically, and there is no regulatory requirement that any site support it.

Of course, there is a negative consequence for high-profile companies (the Googles, Microsofts, and Facebooks of the world) if they fail to support something like the do-not-track technology: They can be publicly humiliated, which could impact their usership and, ultimately, the amount of money they can earn via their online advertising businesses. However, FTC commissioner Julie Brill, speaking at the George Washington University law school in observance of Data Privacy Day, noted a entirely different aspect of the industry: Low-profile data brokers who specialize in scraping and collecting information about Internet users?and then, of course, sell it to others. Like, perhaps, the Facebooks, Googles, and Microsofts of the world.

social-media-jugglingBrill indicated the FTC intends to take a much closer look at these sorts of data brokers, particularly since the data they collect is essentially unverified and hidden away. Internet users have no way of knowing, reviewing, or correcting what data brokers are saying about them, and similarly have no way to opt out of the data collection. In much the same ways inaccurate credit reports can have a severe negative impact on an individual?s finances (and can take months or even years of effort to correct, even in cases of fraud and identity theft), material collected about individuals via the Internet could have an impact on people?s everyday lives.

?Analysts are undoubtedly working right now to identify certain Facebook or Twitter habits or activities as predictive of behaviors relevant to whether a person is a good or trustworthy employee, or is likely to pay back a loan,? Brill said in her remarks. ?Might there not be a day very soon when these analysts offer to sell information scraped from social networks to current and potential employers to be used to determine whether you?ll get a job or promotion??

Brill outright admitted the FTC doesn?t even know who many of these data brokers are.

The FTC is expected to release its final report early next year, outlining policy principles and urging the industry to adopt and implement transparency principles that put consumers in control of the personal data being distributed about them. Unfortunately, these will be nonbinding recommendations: The FTC doesn?t have much in the way of enforcement power without assistance from Congress, and about the only thing the FTC can bring to bear right now is the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which only applies to credit reporting agencies (CRAs), defined as companies assembling and selling credit and financial information about individuals. It?s not clear whether scrapings from the Internet and social networking services would fall within that definition. And the final policy report is expected to fall far short of the EU?s proposed ?right to be forgotten,? which itself is not above criticism.

It?s not all about you

There are essentially three classes of information that impact people?s online reputations:
  • Items posted by a user for the whole world to see
  • Items posted by a user intended only for a select group
  • Items posted about a user by a third party
This last case is noteworthy because it?s singularly outside of a users? control. In the same way we can?t control what people say when we leave a room, we can?t control what people say about us on social networking services. Unfortunately, people have a tendency to say things online they would never say in real life; equally unfortunately, those kinds of insensitive or outright untrue comments can have an impact on our real lives. The day may come when it?s possible to negatively impact someone?s credit score just by saying enough negative things about them online.

To combat this possibility, industry leaders like Microsoft and Google recommend users be proactive and keep an eye on what?s being said about them online. Both companies recommend regularly searching for all variations on their names in popular search engines to see what turns up. Microsoft?s survey found that only 37 percent of Internet users do this. (Among other things, Google recommends automating these types of searches with a Google Alert. (Unfortunately, you have to have a Google account to do that, and will be subject to Google?s we-track-everything policies.) If you find your online reputation is less flattering than you?d hoped, there?s not much you can do about it: Once something is published on the Internet, it?s essentially available to anyone, forever.

One tactic for maintaining some online privacy can be to keep your personal and professional lives separate. Maybe have one profile that?s public and available to the world ? including employers, schools, government agencies and others. Then, have separate profiles, screen names, and email addresses that handle your personal business, and keep those under tighter control, utilizing the privacy tools available on most social networking services and sites. (Bearing in mind that nothing available on the Internet is truly private.) If you do separate personal and professional roles, don?t cross-pollinate the two! There?s no point to having separate setups if you?re just going to link back and forth between them.

Keep a lid on it

A little over a two years ago, current Google chairman Eric Schmidt opined on CNBC that if people were doing something they didn?t want anyone to know, maybe they shouldn?t be doing it in the first place; Schmidt has also frequently expressed disdain for anonymity online, once declaring it ?too dangerous.? Comments like these from a top executive at one of the world?s most pervasive providers of online services ? and advertising ? should be troubling to anyone who doesn?t feel all the details of their lives ought to be accessible to anyone at any time

Although we can?t control what others say about us, or what companies are compiling about us, we do have control over what we do ourselves. A good rule of thumb for managing online privacy and reputation is ?think before you post.? If you?ve separated your personal and professional online lives, make sure you?re logged into the right account. And before posting a candid photo or hot-under-the-collar remark, think ?Is this something I really want associated with me for years?? Because whether you answer yes or no, it will be.

Image credit: Shutterstock / ra2 studio / VLADGRIN

This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

More from Digital Trends

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/digitaltrends/20120127/tc_digitaltrends/tweetlightlyhowsocialmediacouldsomedayaffectyourcreditscoreinsuranceandmore

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Vegas casinos relying more on baccarat (AP)

LAS VEGAS ? In the days before the Chinese New Year celebration began this week, six high rollers sat down at the private baccarat tables one day at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and began throwing down wagers of $100,000 to $200,000 a hand. It was a scene hardly out of place these days in Sin City.

Big-time gamblers, primarily from Asia, are flocking to Las Vegas to play baccarat and providing a big lift to the overall bottom line of the city's casinos.

Baccarat has easily surpassed blackjack in terms of casino revenue in Las Vegas and now represents nearly 60 percent of the MGM Grand's table games revenue over the past year. It's especially popular this week with tens of thousands of tourists from Asia in town to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

"For us to make money in gaming today without baccarat is almost impossible," said Debra Nutton, senior vice president of casino operations at the MGM Grand hotel-casino. "We need the big whales to make money."

In Las Vegas parlance, a "whale" is a big-time gambler who easily wagers more in one night at the tables than most American families make in a year. Casinos cater to them with plush, secluded gambling salons inside the top casinos ? with baccarat games that often start out at a minimum $10,000 per hand.

The whales typically favor baccarat ? a game romanticized in James Bond flicks and highly popular in Macau and Singapore.

The game is built on a simple premise: Who will end up with a better hand, the player or the banker? Gamblers are dealt two cards and predict whether they will beat the banker, typically a position that rotates among the players at the table. Smaller tables, known as midi-baccarat, start at $100 limits and look more like large blackjack tables, skipping the rotating banker and leaving that role to the dealer. Even smaller-limit tables are called mini-baccarat.

Nevada figures show that during the 12 months ending Nov. 30, casinos statewide won $1.27 billion from baccarat players, with the game offered at 258 total tables in 24 casinos. Blackjack, meanwhile, pulled in just $1.03 billion ? even though it was offered across 2,810 tables in 151 casinos.

While casinos hope to pocket 12 percent of the money wagered on baccarat, the large amounts played in fewer bets mean big swings in revenue quarter to quarter, depending on how lucky the gamblers are.

Slots are still the most popular and lucrative form of gambling in Nevada, with nearly 165,000 machines over 330 locations including supermarket, gas stations and airports.

Baccarat has been the most lucrative table game since 2009, and has been increasing its share since then, according to an analysis of gambling revenues by Dave Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

That's even though the game isn't widely offered, he said.

"The real high-end play is happening in maybe six or seven casinos," Schwartz said.

As Americans struggled during the Great Recession, Las Vegas casinos have worked harder to increase tourism from wealthy international visitors, especially Asians. Their game of choice, casinos say, is baccarat.

The MGM Grand is among those Strip casinos counting on their highest of high rollers coming to town this weekend for the Chinese New Year. Nutton said her casino could double the number of baccarat tables during the Chinese New Year and still be busy.

In addition to private flights and luxury accommodations, Nutton said casinos around Las Vegas attract baccarat play year-round by offering high-roller tournaments with million-dollar prize pools.

One three-day tournament held at the MGM Grand's mansion casino in early October cost $5,000 to enter and offered the winner $750,000, seven others at least $10,000 each, all participants a brand new tablet computer and a drawing among finalists for a 2012 BMW convertible.

Similar tournaments run several times a year around Sin City, Nutton said, in hopes that entrants will also play on their own and come back to each particular casino again.

Wynn Resorts Ltd. and Las Vegas Sands Corp., which run two casinos each on the Las Vegas Strip, derive the majority of their revenue from Asia, where baccarat is the undisputed king of games.

Caesars Entertainment Corp., which owns or manages 52 casinos in 12 U.S. states and seven countries, reported $6.66 billion in revenue from baccarat during the first 9 months of 2011. Over the same time, Sands ? with four casino-resorts in baccarat-heavy Asia and three in the United States ? beat that with $6.87 billion.

The casinos are fiercely competing for a relatively small number of players who can afford five- or six-figure bets, Nutton said.

"There's only that select universe," she said.

Schwartz said that if casinos become more dependent on baccarat's bottom line, they're in for less predictable results. From 2004 to 2010, baccarat showed to have the biggest variance among casino games in its hold percentage, the amount of money casinos keep from the amount wagered.

Hold is generally governed by complex math, designed so gamblers slowly lose money and the house always wins overall.

Between 2004 and 2010, the average hold for baccarat was 11.7 percent, but casinos statewide saw monthly hold for the game as high as 19.5 percent or as low as 3.6 percent.

If a player gets lucky one day and quickly wins several million dollars, casinos are reminded of it when they report their quarterly results, Schwartz said.

"A lot of the more business-oriented folks don't like this kind of volatility in the company," he said. "It's lucrative, but it's also risky."

Steve Rosen, chief marketing officer at Santo Gaming , which runs the Plaza Las Vegas casino in downtown Las Vegas, said he still expects baccarat to become more popular as more people learn to play, casinos add more tables designed for smaller limits and companies keep pushing to attract Asian customers.

"I think a lot of casinos are trying to, they just don't understand how yet. You're going to see more and more baccarat and you're going to see baccarat become more mainstream," Rosen said. "You can't have 91 percent of revenues across the world coming from one game and not have people here paying attention to it."

Tim Fong, co-director of the UCLA Gambling Studies Program, said several cultural factors among Asians combine to encourage gambling, especially during the holiday.

Generations of Chinese citizens, for example, accept gambling in society and also strongly value notions of luck and predetermined destiny, Fong said. Many lived as farmers or peasants before China liberalized its economy, and looked forward to the new year in part because it was the only time they could take a genuine break from work.

"It's much more driven by (the idea that) things are predetermined. It's kind of, well, this is our opportunity to almost test the fates, test our luck as to what's in store for us for the next coming year," Fong said. "There's a lot of value placed on if you do and win really well ... then you're going to have a great year.

"It's kind of like a little litmus test, if you will," he said.

___

Oskar Garcia can be reached at http://twitter.com/oskargarcia

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_en_ot/us_baccarat_vegas_casinos

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Friday, January 27, 2012

Charlotte Bobcats exercise option on top scorer Henderson (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? The Charlotte Bobcats exercised a fourth-year option on top scorer Gerald Henderson that will keep the guard/forward with the club through the 2012-13 NBA season, the team said on Wednesday.

Henderson, taken in the first round of the 2009 NBA Draft by Charlotte, is averaging 15.4 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game this season with Bobcats.

Charlotte, the second-worst team in the league with a 3-15 record, currently is without guard and number two scorer D.J. Augustin, who is sidelined with a toe injury.

(Reporting By Gene Cherry in Salvo North Carolina; Editing by Frank Pingue; To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120125/sp_nm/us_nba_bobcats_henderson

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Thursday, January 26, 2012

Origin of ancient jade tool baffles scientists

The discovery of a 3,300-year-old tool has led researchers to the rediscovery of a "lost" 20th-century manuscript and a "geochemically extraordinary" bit of earth.

Discovered on Emirau Island in the Bismark Archipelago (a group of islands off the coast of New Guinea), the 2-inch (5-centimeters) stone tool was probably used to carve, or gouge, wood. It seems to have fallen from a stilted house, landing in a tangle of coral reef that was eventually covered over by shifting sands.

The jade gouge may have been crafted by the Lapita people, who appeared in the western Pacific around 3,300 years ago, then spread across the Pacific to Samoa over a couple hundred years, and from there formed the ancestral population of the people we know as Polynesians, according to the researchers.

Jade gouges and axes have been found before in these areas, but what's interesting about the object is the type of jade it's made of: it seems to have come from a distant region. Perhaps these Lapita brought it from wherever they originated.

Green rocks
Jade is a general term for two types of tough rock ? those made of jadeite jade and another group of nephrite jade. The stones are both greenish in color, but nephrite jade is slightly softer, while jadeite jade is scarcer, mostly found in cultures from Central America and Mexico before Europeans arrived.

"In the Pacific, jadeite jade as ancient as this artifact is only known from Japan and its usage in Korea," study researcher George Harlow, of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, said in a statement. "It's never been described in the archaeological record of New Guinea."

Researchers from American Museum of Natural History studied the artifact with X-ray micro-diffraction, which bounces a small beam of X-rays off the specimen in order to find its atomic structure, and in turn, the minerals within the rock. A rock's mineral composition varies depending on what chemicals are in the ground when it forms. The signatures are so specific researchers can sometimes pinpoint the origin of rocks.

Surveying stone
"When we first looked at this artifact, it was very clear that it didn't match much of anything that anyone knew about jadeite jade," Harlow said. The artifact's chemical composition "makes very little sense based on how we know these rocks form."

The jadeite in the rock is different from the jadeite jades found in Japan and Korea at the time. It's missing certain elements and has more-than-expected amounts of others; the stone came from another geological source, but the researchers aren't sure where. The only chemical match the researchers knew of was a site in Baja California Sur, Mexico.

The researchers don't think it's likely that Neolithic people of thousands of years ago could have transported it across the Pacific, but they couldn't find any other explanations for its composition. That is, until they came across an unpublished 20th-century German manuscript.

The manuscript's author, C.E.A. Wichmann, collected some curious rocks from Indonesia in 1903 ? about 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) from the site where the jade tool was found ? and the chemical properties he reported seem very similar to that of the artifact. Researchers are now investigating those samples to see if modern techniques can prove that the tool came from Indonesia.

The jadeite jade source, if found, would be "something geochemically extraordinary," the authors write in the paper, to be published in an upcoming issue of the European Journal of Mineralogy.

You can follow LiveScience staff writer Jennifer Welsh on Twitter @microbelover. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook.

? 2012 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46156141/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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Jimmy Kimmel & Melissa McCarthy Help Ellen DeGeneres Celebrate Her Birthday

With Jimmy Kimmel serving as co-host to help celebrate Ellen DeGeneres’ 54th birthday (the episode airs today), I can only imagine what will take place during the extravaganza. No doubt some hilarity ensues. The two welcomed “Bridesmaids” and “Mike and Molly” star Melissa McCarthy to the show, who talked about attending her first Golden Globes last week. We’ve got a clip for you to all enjoy as well, which can be seen below. As you can see by the above pic, Jimmy lets it be known that he’d like to appear in the “Bridesmaids” sequel if there is one. The color suits him, don’t you think? Heh heh. Melissa attended her first Golden Globes Awards with her hubby Ben Falcone last week and she dished with Ellen about being in awe while in the presence of Brangelina. Ellen: So you and Ben are talking to Brad and Angelina. Melissa: So I?m already in some weird altered state talking to Brad and Angelina. They?re so nice and chatty and really bubbly. Finally, I got a little weird and I was like you have to stop for a minute because it?s a lot visually to take in. Ellen: You said that to [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RightCelebrity/~3/UTE90B5A1cM/

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Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Biz Stone, 500 Startups And Others Put $1M In CRM For Web Businesses Intercom

interCRM and 500 Startups incubated company Intercom has raised a seed round of $1 million from angel investors including twitter co-founder Biz Stone, Huddle founder Andy McLoughlin, Dan Martell, 500 Startups and Digital Garage. Intercom's customer relationship management tool (CRM) is designed specifically for web?businesses. The web-based SaaS features Google Analytics-like integration so that its database of customers is always automatically up-to-date, tracking every interaction. With its flexible filtering function, users can be segmented into groups for whom the business has different goals (i.e. converting free users into paying customers).

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/HfB322EF6Pw/

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Fed likely to hint of no rate increase before 2014

(AP) ? It could be quite a while yet before the Federal Reserve starts raising the interest rates it's kept at record lows for three years.

Maybe not before 2014.

That's the thinking of many analysts as the Fed prepares this week to provide more explicit clues about how long short-term rates will likely stay near zero.

Starting when their policy meeting ends Wednesday, Fed members plan to forecast the direction of those rates four times a year. The clearer guidance will accompany the Fed's usual quarterly predictions of growth, unemployment and inflation.

The new hints about rates are part of a Fed drive to make its communications with the public more transparent. The more immediate goal is to assure consumers and investors that they'll be able to borrow cheaply well into the future.

No announcements are expected Wednesday of any further Fed action to try to lift the economy. Most analysts think Fed members want to put off any new steps, such as more bond purchases, to see if the economy can extend the gains it's made in recent months.

That's true even though this year's new roster of voting members on the Fed's policy panel suggests that fewer voters would likely oppose further steps to boost the economy. Twice last year, Fed action to try to further lower long-term rates drew three dissenting votes out of 10.

Instead, expectations are focused on the likelihood that the Fed's first quarterly forecast of interest rates will signal no rate increase is probable until at least 2014. That would mark a shift. Since August, the Fed has said in policy statements that it planned to keep its benchmark rate at a record low until at least mid-2013, as long as the economy remained weak.

Here's why analysts expect the Fed to signal that most members see no increase before 2014:

On Wednesday, the Fed will use two charts to signify the thinking of each of its 17 policy committee members about rates.

One chart will illustrate how high each committee member thinks the Fed's benchmark rate will be at the end of 2012, 2013 and 2014.

A second chart will show how many members think the first rate increase will occur in each year from 2012 through 2016.

The charts won't identify any member by name.

Because the range of options extends as far as 2016, many analysts think the consensus view within the Fed is to avoid any rate increase before 2014 ? the average of the possible options.

"Just seeing that the choice of a year for the first hike in the Fed funds rate goes all the way out to 2016 makes us think there are at least a few members of the committee who don't want to raise rates until the unemployment rate gets back down to 5 percent or 6 percent," said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi.

"We guess there will be some hawks looking for a hike in 2013 and some doves thinking more like 2015," Rupkey said. "The weighted average is likely to be 2014."

Hawks on the Fed tend to be concerned that super-low rates will stoke inflation; doves worry more about high unemployment.

Ward McCarthy, chief financial economist at Jeffries & Co. Inc., said he thinks the Fed's guidance will hint that the first rate increase could come in early 2014.

Others, such as economists at RBC Capital Markets, think the forecasts will suggest no change until late 2014.

A further clue to the Fed's plans will come in its economic projections. In its last projections in November, the Fed forecast that the economy would grow between 2.5 percent and 2.9 percent in 2012. That figure exceeds the forecasts of many private economists. Should the Fed reduce its expectations for growth, that could signal that it's prepared to do more for the economy.

The Fed has already taken numerous unorthodox steps to try to strengthen the economy. Since 2008, for example, it's kept its key rate, the federal funds rate, at a record low between zero and 0.25 percent. It's also bought government bonds and mortgage-backed securities to try to cut long-term rates and ease borrowing costs.

The idea behind the Fed's two rounds of bond buying was to drive down rates to embolden consumers and businesses to borrow and spend more. Lower yields on bonds also encourage investors to shift money into stocks, which can boost wealth and spur more spending.

Some Fed officials have resisted further bond buying for fear it would raise the risk of high inflation later. And many doubt it would help much since Treasury yields are already near historic lows. But Bernanke and other members have left the door open to further action if they think the economy needs it.

The path to such a move could be easier because three regional Fed bank presidents who dissented last year from further Fed action are no longer voting members of the committee. They're being replaced by three who are seen as more likely to back additional efforts to aid the economy.

Vincent Reinhart, a former Fed economist who is chief U.S. economist at Morgan Stanley, says he thinks the Fed will launch another round of bond buying in the spring. That's because he thinks the economy will slow in the current January-March quarter compared with the final months of 2011.

Some think the Fed is most likely to buy more mortgage-backed securities. Doing so could help further reduce record-low mortgage rates and help boost home sales. The weak housing market has held back the economy.

Brian Bethune, an economics professor at Dartmouth College, expects another round of bond purchases in the second half of the year. Bethune thinks the Fed will use those purchases to counter the economic drag that could result if government spending cuts start next January. Those cuts are to take effect unless Congress resolves an impasse on extending tax cuts first passed during the Bush administration.

In addition to providing more guidance on rates, the Fed is weighing other changes in its communications. One could be a new statement to clarify its long-term targets for inflation and unemployment.

The Fed's inflation goal is thought to be between 1.7 percent and 2 percent. Its long-run goal for unemployment is believed to be roughly between 5 percent and 6 percent.

Some private economists say the Fed would start a new bond-buying program only after it resolves an internal debate on its communications strategy ? which could happen as soon as this week.

"They want to get the communications changes out there and get them understood before they do anything else," said Alan Levenson, chief economist at investment firm T. Rowe Price.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-23-Federal%20Reserve/id-b12f586b48514b6b900776a763c2ab67

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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Jury: Woman had ex-NFL player kill millionaire boyfriend

Paul Bersebach / AP

Nanette Packard waits for opening statements to begin in her trial in Santa Ana, Calif. on Monday, Jan. 9, 2012.

By msnbc.com staff and news services

SANTA ANA, Calif.?-- A woman was convicted Monday of arranging to have a former National Football League player kill her millionaire boyfriend more than a decade ago to collect on a $1 million life insurance policy and other cash.

Jurors found Nanette Ann Packard, 46, guilty of first-degree murder in the 1994 shooting death of Newport Beach mogul William McLaughlin and that she committed the crime for financial gain.

Former New England Patriots linebacker Eric Naposki was convicted of killing?McLaughlin in a separate trial.

According to the Orange County Register, the two-week trial?drew scores of court watchers including true-crime authors and producers for two television documentary shows.

Kimberly McLaughlin, the victim's daughter, clasped her hands and whispered "thank you" to jurors as they exited the courtroom in Santa Ana.

"This is in honor of my dad and all of the many people this woman has used and abused," she told reporters after the verdict. "It's a lot of closure for us."

Packard, who wore a white sweater and had her long wavy hair pulled back in a ponytail, sat with her back to dozens of McLaughlin's supporters in the courtroom. Her attorney, Mick Hill, briefly patted her back after the verdict was read.

Prosecutors portrayed Packard as a femme fatale?who had manipulated McLaughlin while living with him?-- and dating other men --as she was stealing his money, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Prosecutors accused Packard of convincing Naposki to kill McLaughlin, giving him a key to the victim's house and telling him when he would be home. She stood to collect $1 million on a life insurance policy and receive other benefits if McLaughlin died, authorities said.

Packard ended up getting at least $500,000 from McLaughlin's estate and by writing checks to herself from his account, said Matt Murphy, deputy district attorney. On the day before the murder, Packard wrote a $250,000 check from McLaughlin's account and deposited it into her personal account, authorities said.

"In this case, we really had two motives: there was love and there was also money," Murphy told reporters, adding that Packard filed a civil suit against McLaughlin's family after his death in a bid to receive more cash. "She's a greedy thief who committed this murder for money."

Packard and Naposki are each scheduled to be sentenced on May 18. Both face a sentence of life in prison without parole, Murphy said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

More content from msnbc.com and NBC News

Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/23/10219669-jury-woman-had-ex-nfl-player-kill-millionaire-boyfriend-in-1994

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The Wiggles are coming to Android

The Wiggles

Attention all parents: The Wiggles are coming to Android. Repeat: The Wiggles are coming to Android. Ruckus Media Group today announced that it's been granted worldwide rights to come up with an iOS and Android storybook apps for smartphones and tablets. The first titles will arrive in iTunes in April, and on Android later in the year.

For those of you without kids, the Wiggles are an Australian children's music group and have sold more than 24 million DVDs, 8 million CDs and 8 million books worldwide. 

The Wiggles Android app will fill yet another niche in Android children's apps. We've seen a plethora of kids apps released over the past year or so, including "A Charlie Brown Christmas," a number of books by popular children's author Sandra Boynton, and "Winnie the Pooh, What's a Bear to Do."

Source: Press release; Also: See more Android kids apps



Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/Vi6GjxM_nYQ/story01.htm

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Monday, January 23, 2012

Sen. Rand Paul has run-in with TSA

The Kentucky senator was detained by TSA officials at the Nashville airport after setting off the alarm on a full body metal detector, then refusing to be patted down. NBC's Kelly O'Donnell reports.

By NBC News and msnbc.com news services

Updated at 4:25 p.m. ET: Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., clashed with the Transportation Security Administration at a Nashville airport on Monday morning and says that was was "detained" by the government agency.

NBC News reported that he set off a full-body scanning machine while going through airport security. Paul reportedly raised his right pant leg, which may have set off the scanner. Paul, according to aides, said it was ?clearly a glitch? and asked to proceed through the machine a second time. The TSA demanded a full-body pat-down, which Paul refused.

"I was told I couldn't leave, that kind of sounds like you are being detained," Paul told NBC News. "I was put into a small cubicle and told not to leave."

NBC News' Tom Costello reports that, according to sources at the TSA, Paul was not detained, but was escorted by police out of the checkpoint.

In a statement to NBC News, TSA spokesman Greg Soule said, ?When an irregularity is found during the TSA screening process, it must be resolved prior to allowing a passenger to proceed to the secure area of the airport. Passengers who refuse to complete the screening process cannot be granted access to the secure area in order to ensure the safety of others traveling.?

Paul was eventually permitted through airport security, according to Soule. ?The passenger has since rebooked on another flight and was rescreened without incident,? he said in a statement at about noon on Monday.

Paul, who has previously called for the TSA to be abolished, told NBC News that passengers should not be subjected to pat-downs.

"I really think no American should have to go through all of this," he said. "I think if the screener goes off and you don't want to have a pat down search, you ought to be able to go back through the screener." Paul says he was sent back through the screener when he went to board his re-booked flight.

Related stories:

Source: http://overheadbin.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/23/10216573-sen-rand-paul-has-run-in-with-tsa

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Official: possibility of unregistered passengers

People watch the grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012. Rescuers on Sunday resumed searching the above-water section of the capsized Costa Concordia cruise liner, but choppy seas kept divers from exploring the submerged part, where officials have said there could be bodies. Civil protection officials said that until the waves slack off, divers would not swim into the submerged part of the vessel just off the port of Giglio, a tiny Island off the Tuscan coast. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

People watch the grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012. Rescuers on Sunday resumed searching the above-water section of the capsized Costa Concordia cruise liner, but choppy seas kept divers from exploring the submerged part, where officials have said there could be bodies. Civil protection officials said that until the waves slack off, divers would not swim into the submerged part of the vessel just off the port of Giglio, a tiny Island off the Tuscan coast. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

A ferry boat, right, sails past the grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012. Rescuers on Sunday resumed searching the above-water section of the capsized Costa Concordia cruise liner, but choppy seas kept divers from exploring the submerged part, where officials have said there could be bodies. Civil protection officials said that until the waves slack off, divers would not swim into the submerged part of the vessel just off the port of Giglio, a tiny Island off the Tuscan coast. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

Tourists stop and have a look at the grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012. Rescuers on Sunday resumed searching the above-water section of the capsized Costa Concordia cruise liner, but choppy seas kept divers from exploring the submerged part, where officials have said there could be bodies. Civil protection officials said that until the waves slack off, divers would not swim into the submerged part of the vessel just off the port of Giglio, a tiny Island off the Tuscan coast. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

A fisherman adjusts a net as the grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia is seen in background, off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012. Rescuers on Sunday resumed searching the above-water section of the capsized Costa Concordia cruise liner, but choppy seas kept divers from exploring the submerged part, where officials have said there could be bodies. Civil protection officials said that until the waves slack off, divers would not swim into the submerged part of the vessel just off the port of Giglio, a tiny Island off the Tuscan coast. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

John Heil, son of Barbara and Gerald Heil of White Bear Lake, Minn. both missing in the cruise ship Costa Concordia accident, talks on a cellphone in the port of Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012 Italy, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012. Rescuers on Sunday resumed searching the above-water section of the capsized Costa Concordia cruise liner, but choppy seas kept divers from exploring the submerged part, where officials have said there could be bodies. Civil protection officials said that until the waves slack off, divers would not swim into the submerged part of the vessel just off the port of Giglio, a tiny Island off the Tuscan coast. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

(AP) ? Unregistered passengers might have been aboard the stricken cruise liner that capsized off this Tuscan island, a top rescue official said Sunday, raising the possibility that the number of missing might be higher than previously announced.

Divers, meanwhile, pulled out a woman's body from the capsized Costa Concordia on Sunday, raising to 13 the number of people dead in the Jan. 13 accident.

Civil protection official Francesca Maffini told reporters the victim was wearing a life vest and was found in the rear of a submerged portion of a ship by a team of fire department divers.

Earlier, Italian authorities raised the possibility that the real number of the missing was unknown because some unregistered passengers might have been aboard. As of Sunday, 19 people are listed as missing, but that number could be higher.

"There could have been X persons who we don't know about who were inside, who were clandestine" passengers aboard the ship, Franco Gabrielli, the national civil protection official in charge of the rescue effort, told reporters at a briefing on the island of Giglio, where the ship, with 4,200 people aboard rammed a reef and sliced open its hull on Jan. 13 before turning over on its side.

Gabrielli said that relatives of a Hungarian woman have told Italian authorities that she had telephoned them from aboard the ship and that they haven't heard from her since the accident. He said it was possible that a woman's body pulled from the wreckage by divers on Saturday might be that of the unregistered passenger.

But one of Concordia's officers, who's recovering from a broken leg suffered during the evacuation, dismissed the allegation that such passengers were on the ship.

"Everyone is registered and photographed. Everything's electronic," the Italian news agency ANSA quoted Manrico Giampedroni as saying.

Authorities are trying to identify five corpses who are badly decomposed after spending a long time in the water.

Gabrielli said they have identified the other eight bodies: four French, an Italian, a Hungarian, a German and a Spanish national.

The missing include French passengers, an elderly American couple, a Peruvian crewwoman and an Indian crewman and an Italian father and his five-year-old daughter. Some of their relatives were briefed by rescuers Sunday, and also met with Pierluigi Foschi, the CEO of Costa Crociere, SpA ? the ship's operator ? who viewed the crippled cruise liner from a boat.

France's ambassador to Italy, Alain Le Roy, recounted Foschi's visit.

"He came to see the families, all families. He met the French family. He met the American family. I am sure he is meeting other families, mostly to express his compassion ... to say that Costa will do everything possible to find the people, to compensate families in any way."

The search had been halted for several hours early Sunday, after instrument readings indicated that the Concordia has shifted a bit on its precarious perch on a seabed just outside Giglio's port. A few meters (yards) away, the sea bottom drops off suddenly, by some 20-30 meters (65-100 feet), and if the Concordia should abruptly roll off its ledge, rescuers could be trapped inside.

When instrument data indicated the vessel had stabilized again, rescuers went back in, but only explored the above-water section and evacuation staging areas where survivors have indicated that people who did not make it into lifeboats during the chaotic evacuation could have remained.

Passengers were dining at a gala supper when the Concordia sailed close to Giglio and struck the reef, which is indicated on maritime and even tourist maps.

There are also fears that the Concordia's double-bottom fuel tanks could rupture in case of sudden shifting, spilling 2,200 metric tons (almost 500,000 million gallons) of heavy fuel into pristine sea around Giglio, which is part of a seven-island archipelago in some of the Mediterranean's most pristine waters and a prized fishing area.

But Gabrielli said pollutants found near the ship have been detergents and other substances, including chlorine, apparently from the wreck of the ship, which carried some 3,200 passengers and a crew of 1,000. Any fuel traces found were "compatible with what you find in a port," he said.

Ferries and cargo ships regularly call at Giglio's port.

Sophisticated oil-removal equipment has been standing by, waiting for the search-and-rescue operations to conclude before workers can start extracting the fuel in the tanks.

Giglio Mayor Sergio Orpelli told Sky TG24 TV that it was tentatively planned to begin fuel-removal operations on Monday but that the timetable ultimately depends on when the rescue efforts are concluded. "No hopes have been abandoned that someone might still be alive," Orpelli said.

Coast guard and fire rescue teams have said that the search will go on, as long as the weather holds and the Concordia stays stable.

The Italian captain, Francesco Schettino, is under house arrest as prosecutors investigate him for suspected manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning the ship while many were still aboard.

Operator Costa Crociere, a subsidiary of U.S.-based Carnival Cruise Lines, has said that Capt. Schettino had deviated without permission from the vessel's route in an apparent maneuver to sail close to the island and impress passengers.

Schettino, despite audiotapes of his defying Coast Guard orders to scramble back aboard, has denied he abandoned ship while hundreds of passengers were desperately trying to get off the capsizing vessel. He has said he coordinated the rescue from aboard a lifeboat and then from the shore.

Rome daily La Repubblica, citing what Schettino allegedly told prosecutors in Grosetto, Tuscany, when he was interrogated last week, quoted him as saying that Costa Crociere was aware of the "recurring practice" of nearing coastlines to salute those ashore. Schettino is quoted as saying that such a maneuver was planned by Costa executives before the ship left the port of Civitavecchia before dinner time on Jan. 13 to gain publicity for the company.

It was not immediately possible to confirm Schettino's allegations. Prosecutors cannot comment on details of a probe while it is still being conducted, and the office of Schettino's lawyer was closed Sunday.

Marco De Luca, a Costa Crociere lawyer, said the company is "an injured party" in the tragedy, which Costa executives have blamed on the captain's failure to follow the programmed route.

Giglio Mayor Orpelli said such "salutes" by passing cruise ships are rare.

Orpelli insisted that before the ill-fated Jan. 13 approach by the Concordia near the reef, the last previous time was on Aug. 14, when the island was celebrating a summer festival in the port, and that the maneuver was closely coordinated with island and navigational authorities. That summer salute was "carried out in perfect safety," the mayor told Sky, adding that he thanked the captain of that voyage "and told him to thank his crew."

Orpelli said that island officials were unaware of the Jan. 13 plan for such a salute.

___

D'Emilio reported from Rome. Fulvio Paolocci reported from Giglio.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-22-EU-Italy-Cruise-Aground/id-665df51069364ff4871f90535ce7d2b4

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Sunday, January 22, 2012

So Long, and Thanks for All the Pirated Movies

While some cyberlockers use ads, they mostly make money by encouraging people to buy premium accounts. They do that by making the free download process cumbersome, asking users to poke around to find the download button, and then sometimes forcing them to wait for a minute or more before they can punch another button and download the file. (That's, um, what I've heard, in any case.) All the while, the sites push ads for their premium services, which allow faster, easier, simultaneous downloads. (4shared, for example, charges $6 or $7 bucks a month for premium service, which it says lets you download 100 gigabytes of data per month.)

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=63ef3fb24ef6fbffbd4237b81683cf89

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Body parts scattered near Hollywood sign in LA (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? An investigation unfolding near the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles is playing out like a gory movie script, as police worked to identity a man whose body was found in parts over the past two days ? first a head on Tuesday, then two hands and two feet on Wednesday.

On Thursday, some 100 police officers and Police Academy recruits searched seven acres of brush in the Bronson Canyon wilderness park in Hollywood to see if they could find more body parts. Officers, some on horseback, pushed through waist- and shoulder-high scrub surrounding a semi-paved hiking trail.

It would have been a perfect place to hide a body had it not been for a single curious dog, police said.

Like a scene from a David Lynch movie, a pooch being walked off-leash on the trail Tuesday afternoon tugged a plastic grocery bag from the brush about 100 yards from the park entrance gates and began playing with it.

"It shakes the bag, and out pops the head," officer Bruce Borihanh said.

A police search the next day uncovered two hands and two feet, all apparently from the same victim.

Investigators checked fingerprints, dental records and missing persons records in an effort to identify the victim, a graying man believed to be 45 to 60 years old.

Police also checked with their counterparts in Tucson, Ariz., where a torso was found a few days ago but it's not believed to be from the same person, Los Angeles police Cmdr. Andrew Smith said.

Whoever dumped the dismembered body parts in Bronson Canyon apparently intended to hide them, he said.

"If they wanted them to be found, they could have left them at the gate," Smith said.

Some parts may have been scattered or eaten by wildlife, police said.

Police did not have a motive for the killing, but there was no evidence that a serial killer was at work, Smith said.

Local residents walking their dogs near the closed park had their own views.

A gang killing or a drug deal that went bad was Mark Hart's suspicion as he walked his two pit bull mixes.

"It sounds like they kind of botched it" because the body was discovered, he added. "They probably thought if they left it there, the coyotes would get it."

The discovery was disconcerting so near a safe and quiet neighborhood, said Renee Dake Wilson, walking her boxer-pit bull mix, Sweet Pea.

"I'm a little worried. It's a concern to have such an event happen in your neighborhood," she said. "But I do think it's an isolated event."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120119/ap_on_re_us/us_human_head_found

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