Twitter rushes to release photo filters before holidays ? in response to Instagram threat
venturebeat.comTwitter is reportedly aiming to release photo filters to be used inside its official Twitter app in time for the holiday season. AllThingsD reported the news, citing sources familiar with the matte...
Source: http://www.facebook.com/venturebeat/posts/497824503572675
, Williamsport Sun-Gazette
WELLSBORO- The North Campus of Pennsylvania College of Technology in Charleston Township will be sold to a Shell Oil subsidiary, company officials announced.
According to Deb Sawyer, business communications adviser for Shell, the building will serve as Shell's main Tioga County office, with about 100 people moving from Shell's other locations around the county, including rented spaces in the borough and Mansfield.
"The idea is to have leadership at the North Campus. We will keep some field offices like the one on routes 660 and 6, and we are looking for at least one more in Wellsboro as a smaller field office," she said.
Sawyer said the company has been interested in the building for some time, but declined to disclose the purchase price.
"They were in negotiations a while ago and then those stopped and then we started looking at it again this summer," she said.
Shell officials were interested in the building because it is centrally located and provides enough space "so we can get the people we need in one space," she said.
"We had been renting the building for training space so our people are already familiar with it," she added.
Sawyer said the company anticipates closing on the property by the end of the year. "Then there will be a short time of renovations, such as fitting it for office space," she said.
There are no immediate plans to change the outside of the building or take it down, and nothing will be done to the exterior, she added.
"We are considering long-term options that may include even taking down the building and putting up a new structure but that will be way down the road," she said.
The larger spaces inside will be used for cubicles for employees who do drilling, "and then we also have a projects department," Sawyer said.
"We have many who operate from the office and many are out in the field and team leaders and administrative staff," she added.
Among the training Shell provides at the building is safety training.
"New employees and contractors have to go through pretty extensive safety training, including first aid, medic, defensive driving, and production has its own safety meetings every other Thursday so we rented it consistently for that," she said.
Sawyer said her understanding is college staff will start moving out on Dec. 17.
"We are hoping to start renovations by January and then be in there fairly quickly," she added.
Shannon M. Munro, executive director of workforce development and continuing education at Penn College, said the North Campus property at Route 6 is 35.2 acres, too big for the college's needs.
"The college has a continuing need to ensure that we are right-sizing our operations, and the new location is more in line with current training needs," Monro said.
The last class at the location on Route 6 will be held Dec. 19, she said.
"Office furniture and equipment is being moved now to the new location with a start date for new classes to begin after Jan. 1," Monro said.
Penn College is renting 1,996 square feet of space at the high school, or three classrooms, and an additional 210 square feet of office space at the district administrative building, according to Monro.
"The college will have access to a classroom for additional offerings, as needed, in the administrative building. The Route 6 facility has six classrooms, a nursing lab and one computer lab," she added.
Four existing full-time staff positions and one part-time staff position will not be impacted as a result of the move.
"Penn College hires additional instructors as needed for course offerings," Monro said.
Student enrollment also will not be impacted by the move, Monro added, as all non-credit courses will continue.
"The medical assistant and practical nursing programs will be held at the new high school building and additional noncredit classes will be held at the district's Administrative Building at 227 Nichols St.," she said.
"Currently, we offer noncredit medical assistant and practical nursing classes at the North Campus. The new location also will house noncredit and clock-hour training programs and will build on the long history of hands-on programs designed to address training needs in the health-care and natural gas fields, as well as other offerings such as leadership training, business development, soft skills, pre-employment, computer and personal enrichment classes," she said.
According to Monro, Penn College has not offered credit programming at the North Campus since May 2001.
Classes will continue at the high school indefinitely, Monro added.
"There is no plan to discontinue classes in Wellsboro and no limitations on class size as a result of the move to the new location. We do limit class size in some cases to accommodate student learning and to ensure that the instructor has the ability to interact one-on-one with each student," she said.
Source: http://www.sungazette.com/page/content.detail/id/586703.html
NEW YORK (AP) - In the six years since the last major video game system launched, Apple unveiled the iPhone and the iPad, "Angry Birds" invaded smartphones and Facebook reached a billion users. In the process, scores of video game consoles were left to languish in living rooms alongside dusty VCRs and disc players.
On Sunday, Nintendo Co. is launching the Wii U, a game machine designed to appeal both to the original Wii's casual audience and the hardcore gamers who skip work to be among the first to play the latest "Call of Duty" release. Just like the Wii U's predecessor, the Wii, which has sold nearly 100 million units worldwide since 2006, the new console's intended audience "truly is 5 to 95," says Reggie Fils-Aime, the president of Nintendo of America, the Japanese company's U.S. arm.
But the Wii U arrives in a new world. Video game console sales have been falling, largely because it's been so long since a new system has launched. Most people who wanted an Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 or a Wii already have one. Another reason: People in the broad 5-to-95 age range have shifted their attention to games on Facebook, tablet computers and mobile phones.
U.S. video game sales last month, including hardware, software and accessories, totaled $755.5 million, according to the research firm NPD Group. In October 2007, the figure stood at $1.1 billion.
The Wii U is likely to do well during the holiday shopping season, analysts believe -so well that shoppers may see shortages. But the surge could peter out in 2013. The Wii U is not expected to be the juggernaut that the Wii was in its heyday, according to research firm IHS iSuppli. The Wii outsold its competitors, the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, in its first four years on sale, logging some 79 million units by the end of 2010. By comparison, IHS expects the Wii U to sell 56.7 million in its first four years.
In the age of a million gadgets and lean wallets, the storied game company faces a new challenge: convincing people that they need a new video game system rather than, say, a new iPad.
The Wii U, which starts at $300, isn't lacking in appeal. It allows for "asymmetrical game play," meaning two people playing the same game can have entirely different experiences depending on whether they use a new tablet-like controller called the GamePad or the traditional Wii remote. The GamePad can also be used to play games without using a TV set, as you would on a regular tablet. And it serves as a fancy remote controller to navigate a TV-watching feature called TVii, which will be available in December.
Nintendo, known for iconic game characters such as Mario, Donkey Kong and Zelda, is expected to sell the consoles quickly in the weeks leading up to the holidays. After all, it's been six long years and sons, daughters, brothers and sisters are demanding presents. GameStop Corp., the world's No. 1 video game retailer, said last week that advance orders sold out and it has nearly 500,000 people on its Wii U waitlist.
Even so, it's a "very, very crowded space in consumer electronics" this holiday season, notes Ben Bajarin, a principal analyst at Creative Strategies who covers gaming.
Apple's duo of iPads, the full-size model and a smaller version called the Mini, will be competing for shoppers' attention. Not to be outdone, Amazon.com Inc. has launched a trove of Kindle tablets and e-readers in time for the holidays. These range from the Paperwhite, a touch-screen e-reader, to the Kindle Fire HD, which features a color screen and can work with a cellular data plan. Then there are the new laptops and cheaper, thinner "ultrabooks" featuring Microsoft's new Windows 8 operating system -not to mention smartphones from Apple Inc., Samsung and other manufacturers.
"Nintendo has to be a cut above the noise here," Bajarin says.
The Wii U is the first major game console to launch in years, but in some ways Nintendo is merely catching up with the HD trend. Sony Corp. and Microsoft Corp. began selling their own powerful, high-definition consoles six and seven years ago, respectively. Both Sony and Microsoft are expected to unveil new game consoles in 2013.
Baird analyst Colin Sebastian thinks the question is not how well the Wii U will do during the holidays, but how it will fare three and six months later.
Gaming has changed significantly in the past six years, especially when it comes to the type of mass-audience experiences that serve as Nintendo's bread and butter. Zynga Inc., the online game company behind Facebook games such as "FarmVille" and "Texas HoldEm Poker," was founded in 2007. The first "Angry Birds" game, that addictive, quirky distraction that has players flinging cartoon birds at structures hiding smug green pigs launched in late 2009. The first iPad, of course, came out in 2010 -three years after the first iPhone.
Fils-Aime acknowledges that Nintendo competes in the broad entertainment landscape, "minute-by-minute," for consumers' time.
"That's true today and that was true 20 years ago," he says, adding that Nintendo's challenge is communicating to people "what is so fun and appealing about the new system."
Analysts expect Wii U sales to be brisk over the holidays. Nintendo's loyal -some would say, fanatical- fan base has been placing advance orders and will likely keep the systems flying off store shelves well into next year. The classic Mario and Zelda games are a huge part of the appeal, since they can't be played on any gaming system but Nintendo's.
Research firm IHS iSuppli estimates that by the end of the year, people will have snapped up 3.5 million Wii U consoles worldwide, compared with 3.1 million Wii units in the same period through the end of 2006.
After the Wii went on sale, shortages persisted for months. Stores were met with long lines of shoppers trying to get their hands on a Wii as late as July 2007, more than seven months after the system's launch.
Though supply constraints are expected this time around, Fils-Aime says Nintendo will have more hardware available in the Americas than it had for the Wii's initial months on the market. The company says it will also replenish retailers more frequently than it did six years ago.
An initial sell-out doesn't mean the Wii U will be successful over the long term, IHS notes, citing its estimate that the Wii U won't match the Wii's sales over time.
Bajarin believes it's going to take "a little bit of time" for the Wii U's dual-screen gaming concept to sink in with people. If it proves popular, Nintendo could see even more competition at its hands.
"Technologically, it's not a leap of the imagination to see Apple, Google, Microsoft do something like this," he says.
____
Follow Barbara Ortutay on Twitter at https://twitter.com/BarbaraOrtutay
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.nbc12.com/story/20130021/wii-u-new-console-launches-in-a-sea-of-gadgets
We broke news on the official rollout of Facebook's new mobile share button yesterday. Now it's available for iOS and Android through app updates that also bring iOS users emoji for Messages, the ability to tag friends in-line in any post or comment. Dedicated emoji messaging apps like Line have won the hearts of mobile users, but now they won't have to leave Facebook to communicate graphically.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/bVQtNUi5E_o/
GAZA (Reuters) - A Hamas rocket killed three Israelis north of the Gaza Strip on Thursday, drawing the first blood from Israel as the Palestinian death toll rose to 15 in a military showdown lurching closer to all-out war and an invasion of the enclave.
On the second day of an assault Israel said might last many days and culminate in a ground attack, its warplanes bombed targets in and around Gaza city, where tall buildings trembled.
Plumes of smoke and dust furled into a sky laced with the vapor trails of outgoing rockets.
The sudden conflict, launched by Israel with the killing of Hamas's military chief, pours oil on the fire of a Middle East already ablaze with two years of revolution and an out-of-control civil war in Syria. Palestinian allies, led by Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi, denounced the Israeli offensive.
After watching powerlessly from the sidelines of the Arab Spring, Israel has been thrust to the centre of a volatile new world in which Islamist Hamas believes that Mursi and his newly dominant Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt will be its protectors.
The Palestinian Islamist group claimed it had fired a one-tonne, Iranian-made Fajr 5 rocket at Tel Aviv in what would be a major escalation, but there was no reported impact in the Israeli metropolis 50 km (30 miles) north of the enclave.
"The Israelis must realize that this aggression is unacceptable and would only lead to instability in the region and would negatively and greatly impact the security of the region," Mursi said, although there was no immediate sign of robust action by Egypt, Israel's most powerful Arab neighbor.
The new conflict will be the biggest test yet of Mursi's commitment to Egypt's 1979 peace treaty with Israel, which the West views as the bedrock of Middle East peace.
The Muslim Brotherhood, which brought Mursi to power in an election after the downfall of autocrat Hosni Mubarak, has called for a 'Day of Rage' in Arab capitals on Friday. The Brotherhood is seen as the spiritual mentors of Hamas.
ASSASSINATION
The offensive began on Wednesday when a precision Israeli airstrike assassinated Hamas military mastermind Ahmed Al-Jaabari, and Israel shelled the enclave from land, air and sea.
The 15 killed in Gaza included Jaabari and six Hamas fighters plus eight civilians, among them a pregnant woman with twins, an 11-month old boy and three infants, according to the enclave's health ministry. Medics reported at least 130 wounded.
At Jaabari's funeral on Thursday, supporters fired guns in the air celebrating news of the Israeli deaths, to chants for Jaabari of "You have won." His corpse was borne through the streets wrapped in a bloodied white sheet. But senior Hamas figures were not in evidence, wary of Israel's warning that they are now in its crosshairs.
The Israeli army said 156 targets were hit in Gaza, 126 of them rocket launchers. It said 200 rockets had struck Israel since the start of the operation, 135 of them since midnight.
Israel's Iron Dome interceptor system has so far shot down 81 rockets headed towards residential areas, the military said.
One of those that got through caught its victims before they could reach the blast shelters that are everywhere in the Negev region, prey to sporadic Palestinian rocket attacks from Gaza for the past five years.
Israeli police said the three died when a rocket hit a four-story building in the town of Kiryat Malachi, some 25 km (15 miles) north of Gaza. They were the first Israeli fatalities of the latest conflict to hit the coastal region.
Expecting days or more of fighting and almost inevitable civilian casualties, Israeli warplanes dropped leaflets in Gaza telling residents to stay away from Hamas and other militants.
The United States condemned Hamas, shunned by the West as an obstacle to peace for its refusal to renounce violence and recognize Israel.
"There is no justification for the violence that Hamas and other terrorist organizations are employing against the people of Israel," said Mark Toner, deputy State Department spokesman.
The U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting late on Wednesday to discuss the Israeli assault. It called for a halt to the violence, but took no action.
In France, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabious said: "It would be a catastrophe if there is an escalation in the region. Israel has the right to security but it won't achieve it through violence. The Palestinians also have the right to a state."
"GATES OF HELL"
Israel's sworn enemy Iran, which supports and arms Hamas, condemned the Israeli offensive as "organized terrorism". Lebanon's Iranian-backed Shi'ite militia Hezbollah, which has its own rockets aimed at the Jewish state, denounced strikes on Gaza as "criminal aggression", but held its fire.
Oil prices rose more than $1 as the crisis grew. Israeli shares and bonds fell, while Israel's currency rose off Wednesday's lows, when the shekel slid more than 1 percent to a two-month low against the dollar.
A second Gaza war has loomed on the horizon for months as waves of Palestinian rocket attacks and Israeli strikes grew increasingly intense and frequent. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, favored in polls to win a January 22 general election, said on Wednesday the Gaza operation could be stepped up.
His cabinet has granted authorization for the mobilization of military reserves if required to press the offensive, dubbed "Pillar of Defense" in English and "Pillar of Cloud" in Hebrew after the Israelites' divine sign of deliverance in Exodus.
Hamas has said the killing of its top commander In a precision, death-from-above airstrike, would "open the gates of hell" for Israel. It appealed to Egypt to halt the assault.
Israel has been anxious since Mubarak was toppled last year in the Arab Spring revolts that replaced secularist strongmen with elected Islamists in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, and brought civil war to Israel's other big neighbor Syria.
Cairo recalled its ambassador from Israel on Wednesday. Israel's ambassador left Cairo on what was called a routine home visit and Israel said its embassy would stay open.
Gaza has an estimated 35,000 Palestinian fighters, no match for Israel's F-16 fighter-bombers, Apache helicopter gunships, Merkava tanks and other modern weapons systems in the hands of a conscript force of 175,000, with 450,000 in reserve.
(Additional reporting by Ari Rabinovitch in Jerusalem, Erika Solomon in Beirut, John Irish in Paris. Marwa Awad in Cairo.; Writing by Douglas Hamilton; Editing by Peter Graff)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/israel-hammers-hamas-gaza-offensive-004808421.html
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) ? Tampa Bay linebacker Quincy Black is expected to recover from a neck injury suffered against San Diego but is experiencing complications with his left arm.
Black was carted off the field after tackling running back Ryan Mathews during the third quarter of the Buccaneers' 34-24 victory over the Chargers.
Buccaneers coach Greg Schiano said Monday that Black did not suffer any spinal damage and that the sixth-year pro had "full function" with the exception of a problem with his left arm that will keep him off the field for an undetermined length of time.
"Overall, he's going to be OK," Schiano said. "Now, it's a serious injury. And he's having some complications with his left arm. So there's still further tests he has to go through before we can make a definitive statement. But it's serious. How much time that means, we're going to have to see."
Black remained on the field on his back after appearing make helmet-to-helmet contact with Mathews, who was not injured. The linebacker's neck and back were immobilized before he was placed on a cart, transported to a nearby hospital for observation and later released.
"The spine is fine. It's nerves and things coming off. I don't want to say too much because I'm not even exactly sure, and I don't want to misspeak," Schiano said.
"But I do know that it's going to need some further tests to get to the bottom of it," the coach added. "There's a lot of really smart, good doctors that are working on it right now for Quincy, which makes me feel good. We're going to get him the best care, and get the best solution, and get him back to being well."
Schiano, who's in his first season with Tampa Bay, was the head coach at Rutgers when former Scarlet Knights player Eric LeGrand's career was ended when he broke two vertebrae and suffered a serious spinal cord injury during a kickoff return against Army in October 2010.
The coach couldn't help but think of the paralyzed defensive lineman when Black remained on the ground, however he almost immediately spotted a positive sign.
"I think actually because of what I've been through with Eric, I was a little relieved because I saw (Black) move his right hand," Schiano said. "It was a totally different situation. He was fine, looking me in the eye and talking. Totally different than when that happened before."
Schiano also visited Black at the hospital before the player was released late Sunday.
"He had just been through a lot of tests. But he was OK," Schiano said. "He's a grown man, he's a mature guy. He knows there's something. It's not a little thing, but I think he'll be fine."
Black's teammates are pulling for him, too.
"It's bigger than football. He's on of my good friends, and a guy I look up to. He helped me as a rookie and still helps me out," second-year linebacker Mason Foster said. You see him hurt, it's definitely a blow, but you got to keep playing, and next man up."
The Bucs (5-4) have overcome injuries that forced Schiano to juggle the offensive line and use some inexperienced players in the defensive secondary to win four of the past five games to climb over .500 after a 1-3 start.
Schiano would not speculate on long Black might be sidelined or if the injury could threaten his career.
"I don't know enough yet. That would be speculating. I sure hope not," the coach said. "I think right now we still have to do these other tests to find out exactly what it is."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/injured-bucs-lb-black-complications-arm-185614293--spt.html
New Browns CEO Joe Banner began working at the team?s headquarters Oct. 31 and attended its 25-15 loss to the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday at Cleveland Browns Stadium. In an interview today with the Beacon Journal, Banner addressed a number of topics, including personnel decisions, his philosophies on running a franchise and stadium enhancements.
Here are some of the highlights from the discussion with Banner, the former president of the Philadelphia Eagles:
Q: Has the enormity of the challenge sunk in during your first week on the job?
A: ?It?s both sides. There is a huge challenge here. I consider that kind of good news because that?s what I thrive on. But I?ve confirmed what I knew. I was at the game on Sunday. It?s the first game I?ve been at. The team is 2-6, gets off to a bad start and the crowd is still rabid and loud and positive. That?s everything you hear about it before you come here. I?ve gotten lots of e-mails from fans kind of greeting me. I?ve been involved on the edge of a few the events we?re doing just to see. People don?t realize a part of the fun of working for one of the teams is all the energy and passion from the outside coming toward the team. So you hear about it and you kind of know that?s the reputation. You can see some stats on attendance or something. But getting here and feeling it is a whole other experience. That?s been really fun. I just know that if we can do the right things to get the team on track it?s just gonna be an amazing ride for everybody. That?s the good part. And I do feel like there?s confirmation that the team has made good moves and is on the right track and I think everybody also realizes has a ways to go. But the beginning of a foundation to build off of is certainly here. So those are really the two most important things and, in my mind, they?re both positives. Day-to-day work there?s a lot to do here. Some of it is just different ways I approach things that I want to convert us to. It?s not like they were wrong and I?m right or anything. It?s just different. And some of the things I do think that we can do even better or have a bigger awareness of. So that parts a very big job.?
Q: You and owner Jimmy Haslam have said you?ll wait until the end of the season to evaluate coaching staff and front office and make personnel decisions. With the team?s record 2-7 at the bye, does that plan still stand?
A: ?Yeah. I mean obviously we?re watching and our opinions are kind of moving forward in terms of having more knowledge to contribute to them. But we?re gonna sit down together at the end of the season and that?s when we?ll decide what we think we need to do to be who we want to be, frankly, down the road.?
Q: What will you ultimately weigh when facing those decisions?
A: ?I think the question is fairly simple. I think the answer is hard. But I think the question is fairly simple. We want to put together an organization in every way that?s capable of working at a championship level. That doesn?t mean you win the championship every year. We know that?s not gonna happen. So evaluating who is here who can perform to that level ? football-wise, non-football-wise, it could be charity-wise, it could be marketing-wise. But really evaluating as we look to the future. So we?re not evaluating the moment. We?re not stuck on exactly how many games we win between now and then. We?re wanting to see the qualities and the decision making at any level of the organization that we think says that person or that group two years from now as we implement our systems, our culture can function at a championship-caliber level. So that question we think is very easy, very clear to us. Now the answer and the evaluation, we?re luck to have some time, but it?s a relatively short time to make major, important decisions. It?s very hard. So hopefully we?ll get it right. We?re gonna try to be objective. We?re gonna be thorough. By having each other, we kind of have a sounding board to increase the chances that we?re not missing something, that we?re thinking about it the right way. But it?s gonna be hard. We?re not gonna get all of them ? I?ll tell you that ahead of time. But hopefully we get the most important ones right and we have a decent batting average.?
Q: Most people assume coach Pat Shurmur and General Manager Tom Heckert will be gone after this season. Is that fair?
A: ?I?m aware of the perception, and it?s not fair. We?re gonna make an objective evaluation. The outcome is not predetermined. I?m aware that the perception is out there. I can?t tell you that?s not a possible outcome. But anybody thinking that that?s a predetermined outcome is on the wrong track.?
Q: Wins and losses obviously matter, but how do you evaluate the big picture when it comes to Shurmur and Heckert?
A: ?First of all, it?s two separate answers. So you have a sense of what is it in the most successful coaches currently and historically ? what are the qualities about them? How do they lead? How do they think? How do they strategize? What kinds of players do they like? Do players grow under them? What?s the quality of their staff? So it?s a lot of things you can look at if you look at past successful coaches to see, ?OK, in a head coach, this is generically, what am I looking for to find somebody who?s really good?? And then as you watch somebody like Pat in the role, you make a determination in terms of those key qualities, so to speak, how is he? And it?s a separate set of characteristics, but you?ve got a similar thing with Tom. What are the characteristics you think you?ve seen in general managers who have contributed to building championship-caliber teams. And again, player evaluation is important, but it isn?t the only thing. So then you evaluate him on what you consider kind of those key criteria. And hopefully we have the right key criteria and then we evaluate them correctly as it relates to those criteria.?
Q: What do you consider the key criteria for a general manager?
A: ?Well, I mean it?s things like I just mentioned in a head coach. Even a layman, if you looked at the really successful head coaches, you would say they were extremely strong leaders for example. You?d say they have hired very, very good staffs, and they?ve managed those staffs very well. They?re extremely hard workers themselves, not just the people are them. They tend to have strong conviction about their philosophies. Sometimes they get accused of being stubborn, but I actually welcome people that have thought it through and have strong convictions about what they do. Those are just some anecdotal examples, but it?s those kinds of things. They?re not deeply studied, frankly. Most fans who watch the NFL, if you say to them, name the three or four coaches over the last 10 years you think have been most successful and tell me what you think their characteristics are, they?d be similar to the things I just rattled off.?
Q: Are Shurmur and Heckert a package deal?
A: ?No. There are things about them that you need to evaluate together. There are things about them that you need to evaluate together ?cause none of us were in the room to know who was for or against what decisions. And then there are independent aspects of different qualities you?re looking for in the positions because they?re two different positions. In one, for example, leadership is a much more important element. Leadership matters in both positions, but in one position, it?s much more important than the other. So there are aspects of it in which they are linked, so to speak, and there are aspects in which you?ll do a very independent analysis.?
Q: There?s a perception that you were OK with Heckert leaving the Eagles to become general manager of the Browns and that your relationship with him wasn?t great. Can you address that?
A: ?The second part is false. I?ve always had a very good relationship with Tom. I still have a very good relationship with Tom. I like him as a person. I respect him professionally. As far as I know, that?s mutual. Tom?s leaving the Eagles was a little bit similar to my leaving the Eagles. He reached a point where he was looking for something different. In his case, it was more authority. In my case, it was kind of a new challenge. The organization was lucky enough to have some very good people in place. So when he expressed that interest and had an opportunity, the organization, including myself, was fine supporting him leaving and taking that opportunity and felt the organization was still in good hands. When I had the same interest and the organization had, in that case, Howie Roseman and Don Smolenski to kind of split the job that I had and kind of take it over. The organization was supportive of my interest in pursuing something like this. So there was nothing negative in either my or Tom?s departure from the Eagles. It was more a reflection of our desires and the organization being well structured and having a lot of levels of quality people that left it OK for that kind of move. So in that sense, I was OK with it because it was what Tom wanted and we were in good shape in terms of replacing him. But I?ve always had a very good relationship with Tom and we like each other. That hasn?t been different and isn?t different here.?
Q: Can you outline your vision for your role in football and roster decisions and your philosophy for how the organization should make those types of decisions?
A: ?Well, my philosophy is kind of simple. If you put a group of smart, knowledgeable people in a room -- and a number of them, not one or two, but in this kind of a case, probably four or five ? you create an environment where everybody feels free and safe to express their point of view and if need be argue or debate opinions, you increase the chances of getting a higher percentage of the decisions right by having that quality of intelligence, that number of people and an open dialogue and debate to come to conclusion. You want to create consensus, which -- I?ve been in this league a long time -- you can do almost all the time. I know the public is skeptical of that, but that?s really the reality. Because then you have everybody pulling in the same direction and make sure it?s the right decision. My history is we rarely do things which we don?t have consensus. There are too many things that you can get consensus about to go do the thing that maybe half or you or for and half of you are against. So that?s what I?m used to doing. Whether it?s a business decision or a football decision, I think that?s how you make smart decisions. I don?t care, it could be politics, whatever it is, get a group of smart people together, get all the information, have a good, honest, open dialogue where everybody feels safe saying what they think and then making a decision about which there?s a consensus, so everybody?s motivated to make it work. That?s what I?m used to. That?s how we?ll make decisions here in all areas of running the Browns, and I think that will lead us to having a good batting average. That does not mean that we?ll get them all right. The best teams in the league in the draft are hitting 50 percent of the time. This is a business by it?s very nature in which you?re gonna have a fair number of mistakes for people to point at if they want to. But what you want to do is maximize your chance of getting it right. I think philosophically that?s what we?re gonna do here, and that?s what gives you your best chance.?
Q: Would you prefer the coach or the general manager to have final say on roster decisions or do you not have a preference?
A: ?I think it relates to the people. I do think when you get to the 53-man roster, who?s dressing each week, who?s playing, you certainly want to give the coach an awful lot of freedom. Whatever he me contractually have, I think when you get down to that level, I think you really want to have the coach either deciding or having an overwhelming influence over it. But if you had somebody in personnel that was particularly strong and a coach was comfortable with that, you don?t have to etch that in stone. You can kind of wait and see people?s strengths and weaknesses, but I go in with a slight bias that the coach has to play a big role on those things.?
Q: Jason La Canfora of CBS reported the Browns are considering hiring NFL Network?s Mike Lombardi to help with personnel. Can you comment?
A: ?Well, since I haven?t even decided whether the people that are here are staying or going, I think speculation that I?m actually deciding or have decided who I?d bring in if we made a chance is not right. And then getting into comments about who we would be looking at if we made a change when we haven?t made a decision whether to make a chance is not anything I?d engage in.?
Q: How do you view the roster?
A: ?I think there?s a foundation in place to move forward. I think there?s some good, young players here. I do think there?s a ways to go in terms of starting to talk about winning the division, advancing through the playoffs, winning championships. There are young players we need to take time to see what they?re gonna be. We have a projection but you don?t know. But I?ve seen people take over a franchise in which you looked at the roster and you?re like, ?Oh, my God. There?s nothing here to build on.? This is not the case here. Exactly how many of those players we can build on, exactly how good some of the younger players are gonna be, some of that we have to project, some of that time will tell. But this is certainly not one of those situations where you look at the roster and you?re kind of like, ?Oh, my God. I?m just starting from scratch here. Or what am I gonna do and how long is this gonna take?? There?s clearly a foundation of players that you can start to add to and move forward from as opposed to needing to get to begin with.?
Q: You?ve said you needed to learn about the game experience at Cleveland Browns Stadium. Is there anything that stuck in your mind when you were there Sunday that made you say, ?Wow, we should do this. We need to look at this.?
A: ?Well, it?s more of the latter. I can?t get to the point that quickly with what we need to do. I don?t think I?m telling anybody anything they don?t know that there were longer lines at the concession stands than ideally we?d like to have there be. We?ll probably increase some of the varieties of food options. I think there?s some pedestrian and car traffic issues that we can enhance to help people get in and out of the building faster. I know we?re gonna do an evaluation of the number of gates and the opportunity there to maybe streamline lines. These are just headlines of things we?re gonna work on. I don?t want anybody that in a couple of games at the end of the season that a whole lots gonna happen. But you?re starting to make observations of things you want to assign people to study deeper or in the offseason, we?ll have to get into. So there are very basic experiential issues. Once you get past satisfying kind of the base issues -- clean bathrooms, reasonable food choices, reasonable length of line. It?s a football stadium. There?s gonna be a line. We want to try to mitigate it as much as we can. Then I think you just get into the on-field aspect of the fans? experience. So is the scoreboard as interesting and compelling as it can be? Are we showing other game scores often enough? For people who play fantasy football often enough, are we putting that information up often enough. About our own game, down and distance and who made the tackle and how many yards has [Trent] Richardson run for so far in the game. Is that kind of information readily available? Is it a consistent place that people can get used to? Is the security staff well trained? Are the guest-services people friendly and knowledgeable enough to help people when they need it? I think there?s questions that we want to look at and figure out how can we get even better in every single one of those areas. I hope by the beginning of next season, people aren?t gonna walk in and have some radical [change in experience], but I hope at least people are at least feeling some change and attention to some details and some of he experiential things that enhance their experience. I didn?t have an experience that makes me feel to the contrary, but I want people to feel that the stadium is incredibly clean and comfortable to them. Some stadiums you go into and it just doesn?t have that kind of air about them. To me, it?s really important that people come, if people want to bring their kids that they feel like it?s a comfortable place to come, it?s a safe place to come, they can take them to the bathroom, they can get them something to eat. So those are the kind of things that we?re gonna look at to start and then make some improvements and then grow from there.?
Q: Haslam said architects would be brought in to evaluate the possibility of a retractable roof, changing the scoreboards and other potential stadium enhancements. Has that happened yet?
A: ?No. We?ve started to have a few conversations with the architects about what we?re thinking and that we?d like to bring them in and have to find a free time kind of a thing. But we have not actually had meetings with anybody yet.?
Q: What are your thoughts on those possible enhancements like a retractable roof and scoreboards?
A: ?It?s hard for me to evaluate any particular option. A scoreboard is a very complicated thing to evaluate and an extremely expensive option to look at the pros and cons and things that could justify that cost. I mean I?m kind of inherently, personally, an old-fashioned you know play-the-game-outdoors-and-deal-with-it person. But there may be some rational, so we?re gonna have a full menu and frankly look at the thing from scratch on all aspects. Now clearly in the area of technology as it relates to scoreboards and sound systems, things have advanced so far from when these systems came from. I don?t want to prejudge anything, but it?s inconceivable we won?t be making some very dramatic changes there. But we?re gonna go into the thing with kind of a wide open menu of what kind of things could we do to make this better, enhance the experience, modernize it? I don?t mean that in kind of a look way. It?s more of a technology and sound when I say that.?
Q: The scoreboards that feature high-definition screens make quite a difference.
A: ?Yeah, I think that if you?ve only experienced a game in a stadium that only has the older scoreboard and you haven?t seen this HD technology or the sound systems that come with them, you really can?t appreciate it. It?s like your TV at home. If you put the old TV next to the HD TV, then you go, ?Wow, that?s a huge difference.? If you just have the old TV and you?ve never seen HD, you don?t really appreciate how much the enhancements are. So those are the kinds of things that are kind of at the top of the list of things we?re likely to do.?
Q: What about the stadium?s lack of wireless Internet access? It?s a complaint among many fans.
A: ?Yeah, same thing. It?s a complicated issue on how to fix it, not in the sense if you just wanted to do something better than we have at the moment. Easy to do. It?s just a matter of taking the time to do it and investing in it. What?s harder to do is where are things gonna be three, five and eight years from now so we actually create a Wi-Fi solution that has the ability to be long term? But, absolutely, we?re aware of it. I?m sure it?ll be part of our moving forward. You can?t run kind of a modern, full, in-person sports experience without those kinds of things being part of the building. We?ll have Wi-Fi in the building. Now will we have it by next year, meaning 2013? I hope so. It depends upon how it fits into the more comprehensive changes. But there?s no question that in the relatively near future ? if you give me a little liberalization on that timing ? we won?t go on without a Wi-Fi building for much longer. But those are the kinds of things I?m talking about when I talk about fan experience. In 2012, we should have a Wi-Fi building. But it may take a year to get there, or we may have it by next season.?
Q: Not only did you push to have a new stadium built for the Eagles, but you also drove the deal to get a new practice facility. What do you think of the Browns? headquarters in Berea?
A: ?I think it?s a good place. I think it?s like what I?m saying in general: As technology changes and philosophies about management and leadership change, if I was starting from scratch, there are some things I?d do differently. But what you really want is a building that?s conducive to people being able to work together, feel like they?re in it together, have an environment that supports the notion that we?re trying to be the best, have your players feel like whether it?s the training space, the weight room, the fields that you?re giving them the chance to grow to develop, to be the best they can be. In that sense, this place [the team?s headquarters] is outstanding. The stadium has more variation from if you were starting from scratch what you?d like to see than what you have, and trying to figure out what to do about that will be one of our big challenges and frankly, from a long-term perspective, is one of the most important issues the organization has to deal with. You want from a player, from a fan, from a business, from a community-relations perspective, to have a stadium that gives us the opportunity to do everything the best it can be and to do so going forward, not just in the moment. We?ll have to figure that out.?
Q: Is it fair to say you?re in the phase of determining which facets of the organization will change and how drastic those changes will be?
A: ?My first evaluation is really just people. What?s the right organizational chart? Who are the people who that fit into it properly? I know the public?s focus is football, and it obviously includes football, but it really is the whole organization. Where do we have the right people to kind of plug there to be performing at the level we want to be in a year, two, three years? And where don?t we? Where do we have good people but we need more people? Are there people here that are not in the best department to take advantage of what we want to do and what their strengths are? That?s really almost all of my time the first couple of months. Other than just what absolutely has to be done day-to-day or answers or directions people need, that?s really what I?m spending all my time on.?
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FILE - In this Nov. 11, 2011 file photo, the Bishop of Durham, the Right Reverend Justin Welby. The next archbishop of Canterbury will be officially introduced Friday, Nov. 9, 2012 with the expectation that the new leader of the world?s Anglicans will be former oil company executive Jason Welby. (AP Photo/PA, Owen Humphreys, File) UNITED KINGDOM OUT, NO SALES, NO ARCHIVE
FILE - In this Nov. 11, 2011 file photo, the Bishop of Durham, the Right Reverend Justin Welby. The next archbishop of Canterbury will be officially introduced Friday, Nov. 9, 2012 with the expectation that the new leader of the world?s Anglicans will be former oil company executive Jason Welby. (AP Photo/PA, Owen Humphreys, File) UNITED KINGDOM OUT, NO SALES, NO ARCHIVE
LONDON (AP) ? The next archbishop of Canterbury will be officially introduced Friday, with the expectation that the new leader of the world's Anglicans will be former oil company executive Jason Welby.
Welby made an unusual mid-career shift from the oil industry to the clergy. He has said he faced conflicts between his beliefs and how companies acted ? and has made business ethics and standards part of his work.
"I don't believe in good human beings," Welby said in an interview with The Guardian newspaper in July. "But I believe you can have structures that make it easier to make the right choice or the wrong choice."
He has impeccable establishment credentials, having been schooled at Eton College and Cambridge University. His mother was a private secretary to Winston Churchill. But his father went to the United States during Prohibition and became a bootlegger, Welby was quoted as saying by the Mail on Sunday newspaper in July.
If British press reports are correct, Welby, 56, is set to become leader of the world's 77 million Anglicans.
Government and church officials declined Thursday to confirm speculation about the choice. But The Times and The Daily Telegraph have reported it will be Welby, and two British betting agencies stopped taking bets earlier this week after a flurry of wagers backing him.
Prime Minister David Cameron's office said the official announcement will be made Friday morning.
Welby declined to say 'yes' or 'no' to the swirl of speculation. "I am not able to comment, only Lambeth Palace can," he told reporters, referring to the church's headquarters.
The next archbishop will replace Rowan Williams, who is retiring after a turbulent decade dealing with the Anglican Communion's deep divisions about gay bishops and homosexuality.
Before he steps down, Williams is pressing hard to resolve a dispute over whether women can serve as bishops, the issue preoccupying the Church of England. A vote is set later this month by the church's governing General Synod.
Welby favors female bishops.
He serves as ethical adviser to the Association of Corporate Treasurers and was recently appointed to the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards, which is examining possible reforms of the industry.
Welby was praised Thursday by a U.S. colleague. Bishop Shannon Sherwood Johnston of Virginia, who has been working with Welby on a reconciliation project with dioceses in parts of West Africa, described him as a positive, friendly person.
"He's extremely amiable. He's a man of very deep faith and profound learning, but he is most approachable," Johnston said. "His diplomatic skills will be very important. "
Before seeking ordination, Welby worked six years for French oil company Elf Aquitaine and then as treasurer of exploration company Enterprise Oil in 1984.
His views on corporate responsibility, he has said, "came out of working in an extractive industry often in developing countries where ethical questions were very frequent."
"During my time there I came to realize there was a gap between what I thought, believed and felt was right in my non-work life and what went on at work."
In 1989, he resigned to study for the priesthood, but only after a struggle.
Welby has recalled being interviewed by a bishop who asked why he wanted to be a priest. "I said: 'I don't, but I can't get away from the feeling it is the right thing to do.'"
His dissertation in theological college was published under the title "Can companies sin?" He believes they can.
Following ordination in 1993 he was a parish priest for nine years before moving to Coventry Cathedral, as co-director of international ministry. In 2005, he became co-director of the cathedral's conflict reconciliation ministry in Africa, where he had experience in the oil industry.
"I have had to establish relationships with killers and with the families of their victims, with arms smugglers, corrupt officials and more," he once said.
In 2007 he was appointed dean of Liverpool Cathedral, Britain's largest church, and in November last year he was elevated to Durham, the fourth-ranking diocese in the church of England.
His business background still serves him well, Welby has said.
"Treasury teaches you to be decisive. Markets don't allow you to hang about and vacillate," he said in an interview in The Treasurer, the magazine of the Association of Corporate Treasurers. "And treasury teaches you about teamwork and working collaboratively. In treasury you are there to serve the company and the operating departments."
Welby and his wife Caroline have two sons and three daughters. Their first child, a 7-month-old girl, was killed in a traffic accident in 1983.
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Rachel Zoll in New York contributed to this report.
Associated Press
Mohammad Hussain / AP
Supporters of cricket star-turned-politician Imran Khan's party raise their hands during a peace march protesting U.S. drone strikes on the outskirts of Tank, Pakistan, on Oct. 7.
By Reuters
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The roars celebrating the re-election of U.S. President Barack Obama on television give Mohammad Rehman Khan a searing headache, as years of grief and anger come rushing back.
The 28-year-old Pakistani accuses the president of robbing him of his father, three brothers and a nephew, all killed in a U.S. drone aircraft attack a month after Obama first took office.
"The same person who attacked my home has gotten re-elected," he told Reuters in the capital, Islamabad, where he fled after the attack on his village in South Waziristan, one of several ethnic Pashtun tribal areas on the Afghan border.
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"Since yesterday, the pressure on my brain has increased. I remember all of the pain again."
The whole world was watching as America chose its president, and the general sentiment appeared to be a sigh of relief. NBC's Richard Engel reports.
World leaders welcome Obama's 2nd term - but many challenges loom
In his re-election campaign, Obama gave no indication he would halt or alter the drone program, which he embraced in his first term to kill al-Qaida and Taliban militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan without risking American lives.
Drone strikes are highly unpopular among many Pakistanis, who consider them a violation of sovereignty that cause unacceptable civilian casualties.
"Whenever he has a chance, Obama will bite Muslims like a snake. Look at how many people he has killed with drone attacks," said Haji Abdul Jabar, whose 23-year-old son was killed in such a bombing.
Analysts say anger over the unmanned aircraft may have helped the Taliban gain recruits, complicating efforts to stabilize the unruly border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan. That could also hinder Obama's plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan in 2014.
A group of 32 American anti-drone activists will join a march to Pakistan's tribal areas, where U.S. strikes have killed thousands of people over the last eight years. NBC News Amna Nawaz spoke to some of them.
Americans ignore 'great risks,' travel to Pakistan to protest US drone strikes
Obama authorized nearly 300 drone strikes in Pakistan during his first four years in office, more than six times the number during the administration of George W. Bush, according to the New America Foundation policy institute.
Since 2004, a total of 337 U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan have killed between 1,908 and 3,225 people.
The institute estimates about 15 percent of those killed were non-militants, although that percentage has declined sharply to about 1-2 percent this year. Washington says drone strikes are very accurate and cause minimal civilian deaths.
The Pakistani government says tens of thousands of Pakistanis have been killed in the fight against militants. Many were civilians caught in suicide bombings. Others were killed by the Pakistani army.
In Pakistan's largest city, 'Old Glory' is flammable and profitable
Getting accurate data on casualties and the effects of drones is extremely difficult in the dangerous, remote and often inaccessible tribal areas. The Taliban often seal off the sites of strikes.
Muhammed Muheisen / AP
Images of daily life, political pursuits, religious rites and deadly violence.
While the aerial campaign has weakened al-Qaida, its ally, the Pakistani Taliban, remains a potent force despite a series of Pakistan army offensives against their strongholds in the northwest.
Seen as the biggest security threat to the U.S.-backed Pakistani government, that faction of the Taliban is blamed for many of the suicide bombings across Pakistan, and a number of high-profile attacks on military and police facilities.
For many Pakistanis, 'USA' means drones
"We are amazed that Obama has been re-elected. But for us there is no difference between Obama and Romney; both are enemies. And we will keep up our jihad and fight alongside our Afghan brothers to get the Americans out of Afghanistan," Pakistan Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said.
On Thursday, a suicide bomber rammed the gates of a military base in Pakistan's biggest city, Karachi, killing at least one soldier and wounding more than a dozen people.
Pakistan's 'Generation Y' battles to shape country's future
Pakistanis were largely indifferent in the run-up to Tuesday's election, expecting little change to the drone attacks regardless of whether Obama or Republican challenger Mitt Romney won.
"Any American, whether Obama or Mitt Romney, is cruel," Warshameen Jaan Haji, whose neighborhood was struck by a drone last week, told Reuters on the eve of the election. "I lost my wife in the drone attack and my children are injured. Whatever happens, it will be bad for Muslims."
Pakistani politician Imran Khan, a vocal critic of U.S. drone strikes, said he believed Obama stepped up the attacks in his first term so he wouldn't look weak on national security.
Despite security concerns, presidential candidate Imran khan leads an anti-drone rally, including 30 Americans, into Pakistan's badlands. Amna Nawaz reports.
"I think Obama essentially has an anti-war instinct," he told Reuters. "Without the worry of being re-elected, he will de-escalate the war, including the use of drones. This is positive."
Can social media propel 'rock star' politician Imran Khan to power?
But for Mohammad Khan, who is not related to the former cricketer, the damage is already done.
The February 2009 drone attack that destroyed his home left him as the main provider for 13 family members, forcing him to move to Islamabad and work with a real estate company.
"When the Sandy hurricane came, I thought that Allah would wipe away America," he said. "America just wants to take over the world."
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(Reuters) - The result of Tuesday's U.S. presidential election will separate winners and losers across economic sectors and could determine which stocks will advance or decline in equity markets.
Below is a breakdown of the possible implications by sector of a victory by either Democratic President Barack Obama or his challenger, Republican Mitt Romney.
AN OBAMA VICTORY
* Alternative Energy: Obama has said he will continue to support development of renewable energy technologies such as solar and wind, but he will need the support of Congress to extend or renew tax breaks that have underpinned the growth of those industries.
* Chemicals: Producers are concerned that an Obama victory would mean a host of new regulations they say add undue costs and burden onto their businesses.
* Coal: The industry feels that tougher Environmental Protection Agency regulation under Obama has stifled the coal industry. Industry groups say coal plants that make up 3 percent of U.S. power generation capacity are due to be retired and there is no scope for new plants to be built under an Obama-run EPA.
* Finance: Financial reforms in the Dodd-Frank Act would likely be implemented more strictly for insurers and investment banks. Favorable tax policies for dividends and capital gains could change, affecting the profits of private equity firms.
* Healthcare: Hospitals and health insurers will benefit from the phased-in implementation of Obama's healthcare act, which requires most individuals to have health insurance.
* Rundown: Under a Democratic government the industries most likely to benefit include healthcare facilities and services, food and staples retailers, homebuilding and life sciences tools and services, according to a note from LPL Financial.
A ROMNEY VICTORY
* Chemicals: Producers are concerned that a Romney victory would mean that recent work to reauthorize existing chemical plant security standards would be voided by a plan to rework and re-legislate the standards.
* Coal: Romney signaled firm support for coal, along with natural gas and oil, on the campaign trail. He has said that under a Romney administration, the EPA would loosen industry regulations. But a victory may not be a clear one for coal. In 2003, as Massachusetts governor, Romney railed against a coal plant in the state as one that "kills people."
* Defense: A Romney victory would put an end to $500 billion in defense budget cuts scheduled to take effect early next year and would increase spending on weapons and warships.
* Healthcare: Romney has pledged to undo Obama's healthcare legislation on the first day of his presidency, but has not identified which parts of the legislation he would keep in place. Confusion over changing regulations would likely weigh on the shares of hospitals, insurers and drugmakers in the months to come.
* Technology: Giant tech companies such as Cisco Systems and Microsoft Corp, which each have more than $40 billion in cash overseas, could gain from a Romney victory since he would likely end or reduce the capital repatriation tax, according to UBS.
* Rundown: Under a Republican government the industries most likely to benefit include coal, oil and gas exploration and drilling, diversified financial services, specialty retailers and health insurers, according to a note from LPL Financial.
(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos and David Randall in New York; Editing by Jennifer Merritt and Andre Grenon)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/factbox-implications-different-u-sectors-post-election-182955376.html
The truth is, worrying about the trail of digital footprints and digital dustballs filled with our digital DNA is not just for raving paranoids. Sure, some leaks like the subtle variations in power consumed by our computers are only exploitable by teams of geniuses with big budgets, but many of the simpler ones are already being abused by identity thieves, blackmail artists, spammers, or worse.
Sad news stories are changing how we work on the Web. Only a fool logs into their bank's website from a coffee shop wi-fi hub without using the best possible encryption. Anyone selling a computer on eBay will scrub the hard disk to remove all personal information. There are dozens of sound, preventative practices that we're slowly learning, and many aren't just smart precautions for individuals, but for anyone hoping to run a shipshape business. Sensitive data, corporate trade secrets, confidential business communications -- if you don't worry about these bits escaping, you may lose your job.
Learning how best to cover tracks online is fast becoming a business imperative. It's more than recognising that intelligent traffic encryption means not having to worry as much about securing routers, or that meaningful client-based encryption can build a translucent database that simplifies database management and security. Good privacy techniques for individuals create more secure environments, as a single weak link can be fatal. Learning how to cover the tracks we leave online is a prudent tool for defending us all.
Each of the following techniques for protecting personal information can help reduce the risk of at least some of the bytes flowing over the internet. They aren't perfect. Unanticipated cracks, even when all of these techniques are used together, always arise. Still, they're like deadbolt locks, car alarms, and other security measures: tools that provide enough protection to encourage the bad guys to go elsewhere.
Online privacy technique No. 1: Cookie management
The search engines and advertising companies that track our moves online argue they have our best interests at heart. While not boring us with the wrong ads may be a noble goal, that doesn't mean the relentless tracking of our online activities won't be used for the wrong reasons by insiders or websites with less esteemed ideals.
The standard mechanism for online tracking is to store cookies in your browser. Every time you return to a website, your browser silently sends the cookies back to the server, which then links you with your previous visits. These little bits of personalised information stick around for a long time unless you program your browser to delete them.
Most browsers have adequate tools for paging through cookies, reading their values, and deleting specific cookies. Cleaning these out from time to time can be helpful, although the ad companies have grown quite good at putting out new cookies and linking the new results with the old.?Close 'n Forget, a Firefox extension, deletes all cookies when you close the tab associated with a site.
Standard cookies are just the beginning. Some ad companies have worked hard on burrowing deeper into the operating system. The Firefox extension?BetterPrivacy, for example, will nab the "supercookies" stored by the Flash plug-in. The standard browser interface doesn't know that these supercookies are there, and you can delete them only with an extension like this or by working directly with the Flash plug-in.
There are still other tricks for sticking information in a local computer.?Ghostery, another Firefox extension, watches the data coming from a website, flags some of the most common techniques (like installing single-pixel images), and lets you reverse the effects.
Online privacy technique No. 2: Tor
One of the simplest ways to track your machine is through your IP address, the number the Internet uses like a phone number so that your requests for data can find their way back to your machine. IP addresses can change on some systems, but they're often fairly static, allowing malware to track your usage.
One well-known tool for avoiding this type of tracking is called Tor, an acronym for "The Onion Router." The project, developed by the Office of Naval Research, creates a self-healing, encrypted supernetwork on top of the Internet. When your machine starts up a connection, the Tor network plots a path through N different intermediate nodes in the Tor subnet. Your requests for web pages follow this path through the N nodes. The requests are encrypted N times, and each node along the path strips off a layer of encryption like an onion with each hop through the network.
The last machine in the path then submits your request as if it were its own. When the answer comes back, the last machine acting as a proxy encrypts the Web page N times and sends it back through the same path to you. Each machine in the chain only knows the node before it and the node after it. Everything else is an encrypted mystery. This mystery protects you and the machine at the other end. You don't know the machine and the machine doesn't know you, but everyone along the chain just trusts the Tor network.
While the machine acting as your proxy at the other end of the path may not know you, it could still track the actions of the user. It may not know who you are, but it will know what data you're sending out onto the web. Your requests for web pages are completely decrypted by the time they get to the other end of the path because the final machine in the chain must be able to act as your proxy. Each of the N layers was stripped away until they're all gone. Your requests and the answers they bring are easy to read as they come by. For this reason, you might consider adding more encryption if you're using Tor to access personal information like email.
There are a number of ways to use Tor that range in complexity from compiling the code yourself to downloading a tool. One popular option is downloading?the Torbutton Bundle, a modified version of Firefox with a plug-in that makes it possible to turn Tor on or off while using the browser; with it, using Tor is as simple as browsing the web. If you need to access the internet independently from Firefox, you may be able to get the proxy to work on its own.
Online privacy technique No. 3: SSL
One of the easiest mechanisms for protecting your content is the encrypted SSL connection. If you're interacting with a website with the prefix "https," the information you're exchanging is probably being encrypted with sophisticated algorithms. Many of the better email providers like Gmail will now encourage you to use an HTTPS connection for your privacy by switching your browser over to the more secure level if at all possible.
An SSL connection, if set up correctly, scrambles the data you post to a website and the data you get back. If you're reading or sending email, the SSL connection will hide your bits from prying eyes hiding in any of the computers or routers between you and the website. If you're going through a public wi-fi site, it makes sense to use SSL to stop the site or anyone using it from reading the bits you're sending back and forth.
SSL only protects the information as it travels between your computer and the distant website, but it doesn't control what the website does with it. If you're reading your email with your web browser, the SSL encryption will block any router between your computer and the email website, but it won't stop anyone with access to the mail at the destination from reading it after it arrives. That's how your free web email service can read your email to tailor the ads you'll see while protecting it from anyone else. The web email service sees your email in the clear.
There are a number of complicated techniques for subverting SSL connections, such as poisoning the certificate authentication process, but most of them are beyond the average eavesdropper. If you're using a local coffee shop's wi-fi, SSL will probably stop the guy in the back room from reading what you're doing, but it may not block the most determined attacker.
Online privacy technique No. 4: Encrypted messages
While Tor will hide your IP address and SSL will protect your bits from the prying eyes of network bots, only encrypted mail can protect your message until it arrives. The encryption algorithm scrambles the message, and it's bundled as a string of what looks like random characters. This package travels directly to the recipient, who should be the only one who has the password for decrypting it.
Encryption software is more complicated to use and far less straightforward than SSL. Both sides must be running compatible software, and both must be ready to create the right keys and share them. The technology is not too complicated, but it requires much more active work.
There's also a wide range in quality of encryption packages. Some are simpler to use, which often makes for more weaknesses, and only the best can resist a more determined adversary. Unfortunately, cryptography is a rapidly evolving discipline that requires a deep knowledge of mathematics. Understanding the domain and making a decision about security can require a doctorate and years of experience. Despite the problems and limitations, even the worst programs are often strong enough to resist the average eavesdropper - like someone abusing the system admin's power to read email.
Online privacy technique No. 5: Translucent databases
The typical website or database is a one-stop target for information thieves because all the information is stored in the clear. The traditional solution is to use strong passwords to create a wall or fortress around this data, but once anyone gets past the wall, the data is easy to access.
Another technique is to only store encrypted data and ensure all the encryption is done at the client before it is shipped across the Internet. Sites like these can often provide most of the same services as traditional websites or databases while offering much better guarantees against information leakage.
A number of techniques for applying this solution are described in my book "Translucent Databases." Many databases offer other encryption tools that can provide some or all of the benefits, and it's easy to add other encryption to the Web clients.
In the best examples, the encryption is used to obscure only the sensitive data, leaving the rest in the clear. This makes it possible to use the nonpersonal information for statistical analysis and data-mining algorithms.
Online privacy technique No. 6: Steganography?
One of the most elusive and beguiling techniques is steganography, a term generally applied to the process of hiding a message so that it can't be found. Traditional encryption locks the data in a safe; steganography makes the safe disappear. To be more accurate, it disguises the safe to look like something innocuous, such as a houseplant or a cat.
The most common solutions involve changing some small part of the file in a way it won't be noticed. A single bit of a message, for instance, can be hidden in a single pixel by arranging the parity of the red and green components. If they're both even or both odd, then the pixel carries the message of 0. If one is even and one is odd, then it's a 1. To be more concrete, imagine a pixel with red, green and blue values of 128, 129, and 255. The red value is even, but the green value is odd, meaning the pixel is carrying the message of 1.
A short, one-bit message can be hidden by taking a file, agreeing upon a pixel, and making a small change in either the red or green value so that the pixel carries the right message. A one-bit change will be tiny and almost certainly not visible to the human, but a computer algorithm looking in the right place will be able to find it.
If this technique is repeated long enough, any amount of data can be hidden. An image with 12 megapixels can store a message with 12Mb, or 1.5MB, without changing any pixel by more than one unit of red or green. Judicious use of compression can improve this dramatically. A large message like this article can be snuck into the corners of an average photo floating around the internet.
Tweaking pixels is just one of the ways that messages can be inserted in different locations. There are dozens of methods to apply this approach - for example, replacing words with synonyms or artfully inserting slight typographical mistakes into an article. Is that a misspelling or a secret message? All rely on inserting small, unnoticeable changes.
Steganography is not perfect or guaranteed to avoid detection. While the subtle changes to values like the red and green component may not be visible to the naked eye, clever algorithms can sometimes find the message. A number of statistical approaches can flag files with hidden messages by looking for patterns left behind by sloppy changes. The glare off of glass or chrome in a picture is usually stuffed with pixels filled with the maximum amount of red, green, and blue. If a significant number of these are just one unit less than the maximum, there's a good chance that a steganographic algorithm made changes.
These detection algorithms also have limits, and there are a number of sophisticated approaches for making the hidden messages harder to find. The scientists working on detection are playing a cat-and-mouse game with the scientists looking for better ways to hide the data.
Source: http://cio.co.nz/cio.nsf/tech/security-through-obscurity-how-to-cover-your-tracks-online
Seedcamp was camping in Budapest this week. If you?re a number person, you?ll love their number pitch: 200 applications, 20 selected teams and 2 investments. I had the pleasure to mentor 4 of the 20 startups. These teams came from Budapest, Bucharest, Brescia and Nis. It was a diverse event, carefully selected, quality fruit, strong mentors and a number of very serious investors from Central and Western Europe. The event was hosted in the Corvinus University, a prestigious location, and Peter Zaboji, the organiser amazed us again.
?European entrepreneurial investor of the year?? Klaus Hommels (early investor in Skype, Facebook, Xing and Spotify) has been on stage as key note speaker, mentored teams and was available for chit-chat ? wow ? I say wow because he wasn?t just wondering around in Budapest as a tourist, but he flew here as a friend of Peter (sits on EEF?s Advisory Board) and shared what was in his mind with the Seedcamp guys ? us. I still remember the shock in the room when he has spoken to one of the teams on stage and (I try to quote him) kindly said:
?Your target market is about 10,000 enterprises,
So, if you work super-hard and do your best ever job in the next 4 years,
You?ll hit $ 6 m in revenue, ?Jesus!
If you don?t think big, you?ll never get big?.
Surely shocking and so far away from the Central European reality; I was so glad to see this happening with my own eyes.
Taking it all to the next level, Peter invited us all to his E Liquidity event, sponsored by KoWerk. Here, about 150 people met and mixed, exchanged ideas and business cards or just simply had fun. In case you haven?t been to Peter?s events, he?s doing a great job of filling his friends? calendars with quality events like this, slowly but steadily building a hub or better ? a family ? of entrepreneurs, wannabees and enthusiasts in the region. There are people who drive for hours from Cluj, Ljubjana, Prague or Bratislava to drop by for a few hours, and then drive back home. I look around at these events and can?t believe that this is happening in Budapest. Or in other words, I can?t believe that I?m in Budapest. Something great has started, quality stuff and it?s growing in impact. Once in a fortnight, there?s announcement of $1 m investment into a startup (graduated at EEF?s accelerator course) who has been around, just drinking ros? and chatting on one of these events last week. It?s a true elite club, always quality, always productive and always fun.
Where is all this going? I haven?t a clue. Klaus Hommels said in his pitch something that I see as a steering factor in the European entrepreneur ecosystem though. He compared Europe, China and the USA in terms of startup revenue and average investment size in the light of GDP per capita. His tarot showed Europe and China somewhat in the same range, while they stood by the US column chart like a parking mall by a skyscraper. It?s obvious that startups make their big money in the US and Europe is purely the talent sourcing department ? and you know what? I?m very proud of this. The world has changed and I?m glad to see this rather special part of Europe to open and offer these amazing opportunities to the best talent ? to let them shine where there?s need for sunshine.
Source: http://www.europreneurs.org/2012/10/european-vc-ecosystem-visiting-budapest/
ScienceDaily (Oct. 22, 2012) ? Scientists have long believed that glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most aggressive type of primary brain tumor, begins in glial cells that make up supportive tissue in the brain or in neural stem cells. In a paper published October 17 in Science, however, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have found that the tumors can originate from other types of differentiated cells in the nervous system, including cortical neurons.
GBM is one of the most devastating brain tumors that can affect humans. Despite progress in genetic analysis and classification, the prognosis of these tumors remains poor, with most patients dying within one to two years of diagnosis. The Salk researcher's findings offer an explanation for the recurrence of GBM following treatment and suggest potential new targets to treat these deadly brain tumors.
"One of the reasons for the lack of clinical advances in GBMs has been the insufficient understanding of the underlying mechanisms by which these tumors originate and progress," says Inder Verma, a professor in Salk's Laboratory of Genetics and the Irwin and Joan Jacobs Chair in Exemplary Life Science.
To better understand this process, Verma's team harnessed the power of modified viruses, called lentiviruses, to disable powerful tumor suppressor genes that regulate the growth of cells and inhibit the development of tumors. With these tumor suppressors deactivated, cancerous cells are given free rein to grow out of control.
To do that, Verma and his colleagues attached small RNA molecules, known as short hairpin RNAs, to the modified viruses and injected them directly into very few cells in the brains of genetically engineered mice that express an enzyme known as CRE specifically in neurons, astrocytes or neural stem cells. The modified viruses target two genes -- -neurofibromatosis 1 (NF1) and p53 -- -that, when mutated, are implicated in severe gliomas like GBM. Using sophisticated analytical techniques, they discovered that neurons genetically converted by the lentiviruses that also produce green fluorescent protein (GFP) as a marker to track the progression of tumors are capable of forming malignant gliomas.
Because the origin of glioblastomas from neurons has not been previously reported, the Salk scientists provided further evidence that mature neurons can be transformed by these oncogenes by isolating cortical neurons from genetically engineered mice and transducing them with one of the lentiviruses. The neurons that were transplanted back into the mice developed the same tumors as the ones in the laboratory.
"Our findings," says lead author Dinorah Friedmann-Morvinski, a postdoctoral researcher in the Laboratory of Genetics, "suggest that, when two critical genes -- -NF-1 and p53 -- -are disabled, mature, differentiated cells acquire the capacity to reprogram [dedifferentiate] to a neuroprogenitor cell-like state, which can not only maintain their plasticity, but also give rise to the variety of cells observed in malignant gliomas."
If scientists can block the process of dedifferentiation or proliferation of dedifferentiated neuroprogenitor cells, they may be able to stop tumor progression. That's important in an aggressive disease like GBM because of its high rate of recurrence.
"Our results offer an explanation of recurrence of gliomas following treatment," says Verma, "because any tumor cell that is not eradicated can continue to proliferate and induce tumor formation, thereby perpetuating the cycle of continuous cell replication to form malignant gliomas."
The scientists say the tumors in their mouse model are similar to GBMs that affect humans. Because they have the same pathology and characteristic genetic signature, scientists can study potential therapies in mice that should, theoretically, work in humans. While they may not eradicate GBM, these therapies may slow the progression of the disease and improve patients' quality of life.
Other researchers on the study were Eugene Ke, Yasushi Soda, Tomotoshi Marumoto and Oded Singer of the Salk Institute; and Eric Bushong and Mark Ellisman of the University of California, San Diego.
The work was supported by the National Institutes of Health, Ipsen/Biomeasure, the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, the H.N. and Frances C. Berger Foundation, and the National Center for Research Resources.
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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/FmwsERG8M9g/121022162341.htm
