Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan lashed out at President Barack Obama on Sunday, saying the commander in chief does not have a full grasp of the budget problems facing the U.S. economy.
"I don't think that the president actually thinks we have a fiscal crisis," Ryan said on NBC's "Meet The Press" in his first live interview since the 2012 presidential campaign, when he was Mitt Romney's running mate. "He's been reportedly saying to our leaders that we don't have a spending problem, we have a healthcare problem. That leads me to conclude that he just thinks we ought to have more government-run healthcare and rationing."
Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman, told David Gregory that while Democrats may have gotten higher taxes on the wealthy as part of the New Year's deal to avoid the fiscal cliff, that's all they'll get.
"The president got his additional revenues," Ryan said. "So that's behind us."
"Are we for raising revenues? No we're not," he continued. "If you keep raising revenues, you're not going to get decent tax reform."
Ryan also offered outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a compliment while bashing Obama.
"Look, if we had a Clinton presidency, if we had Erskine Bowles, chief staff of the White House or president of the United States, I think we would have fixed this fiscal mess by now," Ryan said. "That's not the kind of presidency we're dealing with."
The former vice presidential candidate also addressed a pair politically-divisive issues: immigration reform and gun control.
"It's a system that's broken that needs fixing," Ryan said of current U.S. immigration laws. "Look, immigration's a good thing. We're here because of immigration. That's what America is. It's a melting pot. We think this is good. We need to make sure that it works."
On gun control, Ryan said he was open to universal background checks, but stopped short of embracing a ban on assault weapons. "Let's go beyond just this debate and make sure we get deeper," he said. "What's our policy on mental illness? What's going on in our culture that produces this kind of thing?"
And as far as his political aspirations for 2016 are concerned, Ryan said it's too early for him to talk about.
"I think it's just premature. I've got an important job to do," Ryan said. "I'll decide later about that."
LONDON (Reuters) - The Bank of England does not need to give more guidance on the direction of monetary policy, and suspending its inflation target could be justified only "in exceptional circumstances", a senior policymaker said on Monday.
David Miles, an external member of the Monetary Policy Committee, played down the need for the Bank to adopt the kind of longer-term guidance favoured by the Bank of Canada, whose governor, Mark Carney, will take the top job at the Bank in July.
"I think we are able in the current framework to give plenty of guidance about our thinking and how we see the economy evolving," he told the Evening Standard newspaper.
"I don't think it would be helpful for the MPC to say here is where policy is going to be for the next several months. If we did that there wouldn't be any point in having monthly meetings," he added.
Miles said that a growth target for the Bank - another idea that has been associated with Carney in the past - could only ever be an emergency measure.
"As a temporary measure in exceptional circumstances there may be things to be said for it. I think I would need to be convinced that there were obvious advantages it gave you that you couldn't have with what I would describe as our current regime of flexible inflation targeting," he said.
(Reporting by David Milliken and Olesya Dmitracova)
WASHINGTON???The hacker-activist group Anonymous says it hijacked the website of the U.S. Sentencing Commission to avenge the death of Aaron Swartz, an Internet activist who committed suicide. The FBI is investigating.
The website of the commission, an independent agency of the judicial branch (http://www.ussc.gov), was taken over early Saturday and replaced with a message warning that when Swartz killed himself two weeks ago "a line was crossed."
The hackers say they've infiltrated several government computer systems and copied secret information that they now threaten to make public.
Family and friends of Swartz, who helped create Reddit and RSS, say he killed himself after he was hounded by federal prosecutors. Officials say he helped post millions of court documents for free online, and that he illegally downloaded millions of academic articles from an online clearinghouse.
The FBI's Richard McFeely, executive assistant director of the agency's?Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch, said in a statement that "we were aware as soon as it happened and are handling it as a criminal investigation. We are always concerned when someone illegally accesses another person's or government agency's network."
Hours after the hijacking, pages on the USSC.gov website were available only sporadically.
This report was updated by NBC News.
? 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) ? A top international finance official is warning banks to be cautious about the prices of investments that have gone up sharply because of current low interest rates.
Jaime Caruana told The Associated Press in an interview that the low interest rates may have made it difficult to assess their true value and that banks "should be vigilant on the prices of some of these assets."
He is the managing director of the Bank for International Settlements, a global organization of central banks.
Investments such as riskier U.S. corporate bonds have gone up as investors search for higher interest yields. Those investments could fall when central banks eventually start raising rates as the economy recovers.
Caruana spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
(Reuters) - After four years of belt-tightening, American companies are good at squeezing more profit out of every dollar of sales - a skill that chief executives regard as critical in the face of an uncertain economy.
While the headline-making cuts of the last recession - when companies shed tens of thousands of workers as they scrambled to lower costs - have mostly passed, they have kept their focus on finding lots of small steps to improve earnings.
For some companies, the changes are relatively simple. McDonald's Corp was able to beat Wall Street's profit forecasts by keeping its locations open on Christmas and rolling out the cult favorite McRib sandwich in December.
For others, pumping up the results involves a more complicated dance, keeping costs down while still spending enough on research and development to ensure they have a steady stream of new products to rely on.
Toothpaste and detergent maker Procter & Gamble Co reported a 12 percent rise in fourth quarter earnings on 2 percent sales growth, reflecting both cost controls - it cut more than 5,000 jobs last year - and new products, said Chief Executive Bob McDonald.
"You've got to do both at the same time. You have to do innovation and productivity at the same time," McDonald said in an interview.
Conglomerate Honeywell International Inc, which reported a 6 percent rise in profit on 1 percent sales growth, faced a similar challenge.
"We want to be able to do everything right and fast," said CEO David Cote. "In a slow-growth global economy, this becomes especially important for margin rate growth."
More broadly, companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 index <.spx> that have reported quarterly results so far this earnings season have averaged a 7.7 percent rise in profit on 5.2 percent revenue growth.
Management consultants say that is due, in part, to a renewed focus on spending to grow.
"I'm seeing organizations being very, very disciplined. They are willing to invest, but they are only willing to invest where they see tangible returns," said David Axson, a managing director in Accenture's finance and enterprise performance consulting group who works with Fortune 100-level CFOs. "Profit opportunities are very transitory at the moment.
LITTLE FAT TO TRIM
Corporate America has become far more selective in its cutting, largely because it has already become so lean.
"They have done a phenomenal job of becoming more efficient," said JJ Kinahan, chief derivatives strategist at TD Ameritrade in Omaha. "There's not a company now that can actually survive with any fat on the bones."
Honeywell's focus on margin improvement is constant and extends across most of the company - from tweaking manufacturing processes to make products with less waste, to focusing on newer products that face less competition and can command higher prices, said Chief Financial Officer Dave Anderson.
"It's not just squeezing," Anderson said in a telephone interview. "Anybody can do that on a short-term basis, but you can't sustain it."
Companies have continued to find fat to trim, though.
Lockheed Martin Corp, the Pentagon's biggest supplier, is facing huge defense spending cutbacks that could trim sales as much as 6 percent this year. But still, it forecast profits would rise as much as 9 percent in 2013, even without layoffs, as it takes steps to reduce pension costs by pre-funding to reduce future liabilities.
Diversified manufacturer 3M Co said it would cut about 300 workers as it merges its security and traffic safety businesses. That is a relative drop in the bucket for a company that employs some 84,000 people worldwide, but is a key part of CEO Inge Thulin's plan to fix or sell underperforming parts of the company.
Thulin, who took the reins at the maker of Post-It notes and film used in television screens, has identified a handful of units where he has similar concerns. He is also raising the company's research and development budget to 6 percent of sales this year from 5.5 percent in 2012.
One analyst said companies need to cut costs, but also need to ensure they are cutting the right ones and not expenses such as research and development that will lead to future growth.
"There is a generation of managers out there that experienced the recession, understand what the ramifications are of carrying too much cost into one of these cycles and, as a result, are very focused on margins," said Daniel Holland, equity analyst at Morningstar in Chicago, who covers big industrial companies. "That's a mark of management post the recession."
LOWERED BAR
The continued success of companies has boosted investor confidence and helped send the S&P 500 up almost 5 percent since the start of the year. Investors had been very conservative about their expectations for earnings growth because of such things as wrangling in Washington over the "fiscal cliff" of drastic tax increases and budget cuts.
"The bar was so low and that was because of things that happened in the fourth quarter, particularly Hurricane Sandy and its impact, and the fiscal cliff impact, and I think things are not turning out as bad as analysts anticipated," said Paul Mendelsohn, chief investment strategist at Windham Financial Services in Charlotte, Vermont.
"You're seeing some individual stocks get hammered because expectations were unrealistic and you're seeing other stocks rally because expectations were set much too low."
Amid all the cost-cutting, there is also a sense among some companies that the situation in Europe is not as dire as it had been, an added bonus in year-end results.
Of course, there are still problems: Top U.S. auto parts supplier Johnson Controls Inc warned that lower European auto production would hurt results this quarter, news that overwhelmed a strong fourth-quarter profit.
But for others, it is clear that Europe is, at a minimum, less of a headache.
"We have seen signs of stabilization, particularly in Europe," said Greg Hayes, chief financial officer at United Technologies Corp , which has also benefited from the recent strengthening of the euro against the dollar, which raises the value of its dollar sales in the eurozone.
China, meanwhile, was a big boost for many companies. 3M notched its best quarter in a year in China, reporting 16 percent growth in organic sales. P&G reported "high single digit" percentage growth and Starbucks Corp saw China/Asia-Pacific sales rise 11 percent.
However, be it cutting costs, or restructuring operations, or any other means in the executive tool kit, the laser focus on margins reflects CEOs who remain wary of the economy souring again.
"I see very little downside in being prepared for the downside," Honeywell's Cote added.
(Additional reporting by Jessica Wohl in Chicago and Caroline Valetkevitch in New York; Editing by Andre Grenon)
Fort Myers, FL (January 25, 2013) ? Keith W. Trowbridge, Ph.D., President and CEO of Executive Quest, Inc., executive headhunters in the timeshare, vacation ownership, and fractional industry, http://www.execq.com/keith.htm, reports the company has been busy even with the pressures of today?s economy. ?Executive Quest?s international presence has been a strong contributor to its success this past year,? said Trowbridge. He has a team with in depth knowledge of and optimistic expectations concerning the timeshare industry?s executive employee needs. This, and Executive Quest?s business practices and standards of conduct continue to strengthen the company?s position worldwide.
Much of Executive Quest?s headhunting strength now lies in its international presence with timeshare executive employee searches last year in such places as Australia, New Zealand, Dubai, Russia, the Caribbean, Dominican Republic, Mexico, the US, and Canada. Executive positions in these searches included directors, vice presidents, senior vice presidents in finance, HR, sales/marketing, property management, as well as project directors and call center managers, executive housekeepers, and national account executives.
Executive Quest soon will be starting its annual executive timeshare/vacation ownership/fractional salary study for 2012, http://www.execq.com/salarystudy.htm, which is free to all salary study participants as well as to members of Executive Quest?s resume management services program http://www.execq.com/store.htm.
Trowbridge writes a free monthly on-line newsletter with a subscription of better than 22,000 timeshare industry professionals that includes a calendar of upcoming industry conferences and events along with other timely industry articles. To subscribe, go to http://www.execq.com and click on the green ?Subscribe? button.
About Executive Quest, Inc.
Keith Trowbridge, Ph.D., who spent 35 years in the vacation ownership business as a developer, has spent the last 18 years in the head hunting business with his company, Executive Quest, Inc., a timeshare/fractional/ vacation ownership/ hospitality industry executive search firm with clients worldwide.
Inquiries can be made to http://www.execq.com, to Keith Trowbridge by phone at 239-454-1100 or keith@execq.com, or to Jim Perkins at 936-856-3983 or? jim@execq.com
Why the hell would he do such a braindead thing? Or is this a case of pre-typing his comment in Word, which mangles it, before copy-pasting it back into the browser. Or does Internet Exploder now also do "smart-quotes" (smart minus?)
As I said in one other comment, the minus sign is in all character sets, even the oldest one, because it is a sign for an arithmetic operation. And arithmetic signs were present in character sets since the dawn of the computing age, since computation was their primary purpose b
For a time this game held the official world record for the most swears in a video game, notching up an impressive 189 f**ks. The vast majority of those effs came courtesy of Detective Washington, whose mouth was seemingly stuck on ?foul?. When asked by his partner, Agent G, if he ever felt like cutting back on all the profanity, Agent Washington?s reply is characteristically succinct and without ambiguity: ?F**k that motherf**ker!?
Despite the sterling work of Washington, the ?most swears in a game? record is currently held by the next commendable proponent of expletives on our list...
Quote: ?I?m gonna rip your motherf**king balls off!?
A Dutch architect has designed a building that will be a single large piece from floor to ceiling, and plans to build it using a giant 3-D printing system.
The "Landscape House" was designed by Janjaap Ruijssenaars, of Universe Architecture, and is built on the principle of M?bius strips. Created by twisting a two-dimensional?surface (like a strip of paper) slightly and then connecting the ends, these enigmatic structures effectively have only one side.
Walk along the floor, and you'll soon find yourself on the ceiling, then the roof, then the underside. Or, at least, you would if you could, and if Ruijssenaars hadn't built stairs and walkways into the structure. As you can see in the diagram, the building's footprint is roughly triangular and folds on itself in a way that makes it difficult to visualize how it would?appear in real life.
Regardless of how confusing it seems on paper, it's structurally sound and the firm plans to build it?using the innovative "D-Shape" industrial printing method. D-Shape is essentially a huge?additive 3-D printer that lays?down layers of a sand-based, "marble-like" material.
The inventor of the process, Enrico Dini, claims that the resulting compound is superior to common cement and does not require reinforcement, although Landscape House's unconventional shape and size will in fact need it. It will also have to be produced in a few pieces and assembled, though the end result will be a single continuous structure.
The D-Shape machinery is precise to within 5 to?10 millimeters, meaning large objects like stairs and walls can be easily formed, but finer structures will have to be adjusted by hand. Smaller 3-D printers, on the other hand, are good enough that they can nearly reproduce the sound of a vinyl record.
The cost for each building, presumably not including furnishings, plumbing, and wiring, is around $5 million to $6 million.?Ruijssenaars told the BBC that there is already interest among museums and private individuals; the first is planned for completion in 2014.
Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBCNews Digital. His personal website is?coldewey.cc.
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LONDON (AP) ? Lionel Messi and Barcelona have fallen from the top of the Associated Press Global Football Rankings this week, replaced by rivals Cristiano Ronaldo and Real Madrid.
Messi dropped to fifth place Tuesday and Barcelona out of the list altogether after a 3-2 loss to Real Sociedad, the team's first league defeat of the season.
Ronaldo was masterful in Madrid's 5-0 rout of a powerful Valencia team that is still in the Champions League. He scored twice and was influential in the other goals.
Ronaldo earned 115 points in the vote by the 15-member panel, which awards 10 points for its top player and team in the separate polls. Real Madrid teammate Angel di Maria made his first appearance in the top 10, in sixth position.
UT Dallas researchers awarded $4.3 million to create next-generation technologiesPublic release date: 22-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Lakisha Ladson LaKisha.Ladson@UTDallas.edu 972-883-4183 University of Texas at Dallas
Teams studying alternatives to silicon in integrated circuits and robust new computer networks
Two teams of researchers from The University of Texas at Dallas have been chosen to help a $194 million national network create the technologies of the next generation.
One UT Dallas team will evaluate materials to replace silicon in integrated circuits, with the goal of creating faster electronics that use dramatically less power. The other team will help design a computer architecture that allows the many types of computers used in everyday life to seamlessly communicate with one another, making it possible to build systems to avoid traffic accidents or to lock down an area in the case of an emergency.
The Semiconductor Technology Advanced Research Network, known as STARnet, is administered by the Semiconductor Research Corporation and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency . STARnet is made up of six centers with professors and graduate students from nearly 40 universities, including researchers in UT Dallas' Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science.
"The top programs in the nation want to partner with us in two different areas of technology to help our country continue to lead in microelectronics," said Dr. Mark W. Spong, dean of the Jonsson School. "Our researchers are on par with top-tier research universities, and our participation shows that other academicians recognize this and seek us out."
Dr. Kyeongjae "K.J." Cho, Dr. Moon Kim, and Dr. Robert "Bob" Wallace, all professors of materials science and engineering at UT Dallas, are participating in STARnet's Center for Low Energy Systems Technology (LEAST) to solve the problem of finding a replacement for silicon in integrated circuits. Dr. Roozbeh Jafari, assistant professor of electrical engineering and Dr. Carl Sechen, professor of electrical engineering at UT Dallas, are involved in STARnet's TerraSwarm Research Center to create the architecture for seamlessly integrated computer systems.
LEAST: Reinventing Electronics
As the physical limits of integrated circuits currently made of silicon transistors are reached, LEAST researchers are looking to replace conventional 3-D silicon with nanoscale substances that increase the speed of computing done in electronics while also using less energy. Integrated circuits are used in nearly all modern electronics, such as computers, cellphones and tablets.
The UT Dallas LEAST team, which will receive about $3.4 million over five years, will explore a 2-D class of materials known as dichalcogenides, which are atomically thin but allow electrical current to be controlled as it moves through the material.
"The key for future transistor applications will be combining these 2-D materials with other types of materials such as insulators and metals used in integrated circuits to find the most powerful and efficient combination," Wallace said.
The UT Dallas team is conducting research on the interfaces of these materials.
"The ability to control the surfaces and interfaces in these types of material systems is the most important aspect of future device operations."
Besides conducting research in LEAST, Wallace, holder of the Erik Jonsson Distinguished Chair, is also a center coordinator. His previous discovery that hafnium silicates and oxides could be used in transistors to enable smaller nanoscale devices revolutionized the computer industry. Hafnium-based transistors are now used in processor chips in desktop and laptop computers, iPads and cellphones.
Cho is an expert in multiscale computer modeling related to new materials, and Kim is an expert in nanoscale electron microscopy advanced techniques that allow atom-to-atom modeling and chemical mapping of materials. The team will use this expertise in the surface and interface studies.
The world-class facilities housed in the $85 million Natural Science and Engineering Research Laboratory (NSERL) are an important factor in what enabled the UT Dallas team to be part of LEAST, Wallace said.
"UT Dallas has the state-of-the art equipment needed to contribute to LEAST and determine which materials will be used for the next generation of electronics," he said.
TerraSwarm: Linking Cyber-Worlds to the Physical World
The other UT Dallas team is developing revolutionary technology as part of STARnet's TerraSwarm Research Center.
Sensors and computers can be found in nearly all aspects of modern life, from pacemakers to air conditioners to sensors in vehicles that can tell when a driver is distracted.
TerraSwarm researchers are working toward shared data collected from the millions of individual smart sensors and other types of computers used in energy, health, environmental and personal applications.
The potential of sensor-based systems in monitoring applications goes far beyond what has been accomplished so far, Jafari said. When realized in full, these technologies can seamlessly integrate the cyber world, centered today in the cloud, with the physical/biological world, effectively blurring the gap between the two. The emerging global cyber-physical network is called the TerraSwarm, meaning that it encompasses many billions of sensors and actuators deployed across the earth.
"The possibilities of this type of shared sensing platform will revolutionize society," said Jafari, lead investigator for the UT Dallas TerraSwarm team, which will receive more than $900,000 over five years. "A fully integrated cyber-physical world presents limitless opportunities."
The key to enabling this type of technology is creating self-powered sensors and computers, and creating a networked architecture for thousands of smart sensing devices - similar to the World Wide Web - that is accessible from multiple types of electronic devices available to users.
Jafari, director of the Embedded Systems and Signal Processing Lab and a member of the Texas Analog Center of Excellence (TxACE), has experience creating wearable computers and wireless systems that monitor different aspects of human, health, behavior and thought.
"One strength we have is that we not only build the theories, but also implement them," he said.
Sechen, the other member of the UT
Dallas TerraSwarm team, is an expert in building ultra-low power digital circuits.
Jafari said TerraSwarm research includes funding to create this new architecture while also protecting individual privacy.
###
The LEAST Center is led by the University of Notre Dame, and the TerraSwarm Research Center is led by the University of California, Berkeley.
Industry partners of STARnet include Applied Materials, GLOBALFOUNDRIES Inc., IBM, Intel Corp., Micron Technology Inc., Raytheon Co., Texas Instruments Inc. and United Technologies Corp.
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?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
UT Dallas researchers awarded $4.3 million to create next-generation technologiesPublic release date: 22-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Lakisha Ladson LaKisha.Ladson@UTDallas.edu 972-883-4183 University of Texas at Dallas
Teams studying alternatives to silicon in integrated circuits and robust new computer networks
Two teams of researchers from The University of Texas at Dallas have been chosen to help a $194 million national network create the technologies of the next generation.
One UT Dallas team will evaluate materials to replace silicon in integrated circuits, with the goal of creating faster electronics that use dramatically less power. The other team will help design a computer architecture that allows the many types of computers used in everyday life to seamlessly communicate with one another, making it possible to build systems to avoid traffic accidents or to lock down an area in the case of an emergency.
The Semiconductor Technology Advanced Research Network, known as STARnet, is administered by the Semiconductor Research Corporation and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency . STARnet is made up of six centers with professors and graduate students from nearly 40 universities, including researchers in UT Dallas' Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science.
"The top programs in the nation want to partner with us in two different areas of technology to help our country continue to lead in microelectronics," said Dr. Mark W. Spong, dean of the Jonsson School. "Our researchers are on par with top-tier research universities, and our participation shows that other academicians recognize this and seek us out."
Dr. Kyeongjae "K.J." Cho, Dr. Moon Kim, and Dr. Robert "Bob" Wallace, all professors of materials science and engineering at UT Dallas, are participating in STARnet's Center for Low Energy Systems Technology (LEAST) to solve the problem of finding a replacement for silicon in integrated circuits. Dr. Roozbeh Jafari, assistant professor of electrical engineering and Dr. Carl Sechen, professor of electrical engineering at UT Dallas, are involved in STARnet's TerraSwarm Research Center to create the architecture for seamlessly integrated computer systems.
LEAST: Reinventing Electronics
As the physical limits of integrated circuits currently made of silicon transistors are reached, LEAST researchers are looking to replace conventional 3-D silicon with nanoscale substances that increase the speed of computing done in electronics while also using less energy. Integrated circuits are used in nearly all modern electronics, such as computers, cellphones and tablets.
The UT Dallas LEAST team, which will receive about $3.4 million over five years, will explore a 2-D class of materials known as dichalcogenides, which are atomically thin but allow electrical current to be controlled as it moves through the material.
"The key for future transistor applications will be combining these 2-D materials with other types of materials such as insulators and metals used in integrated circuits to find the most powerful and efficient combination," Wallace said.
The UT Dallas team is conducting research on the interfaces of these materials.
"The ability to control the surfaces and interfaces in these types of material systems is the most important aspect of future device operations."
Besides conducting research in LEAST, Wallace, holder of the Erik Jonsson Distinguished Chair, is also a center coordinator. His previous discovery that hafnium silicates and oxides could be used in transistors to enable smaller nanoscale devices revolutionized the computer industry. Hafnium-based transistors are now used in processor chips in desktop and laptop computers, iPads and cellphones.
Cho is an expert in multiscale computer modeling related to new materials, and Kim is an expert in nanoscale electron microscopy advanced techniques that allow atom-to-atom modeling and chemical mapping of materials. The team will use this expertise in the surface and interface studies.
The world-class facilities housed in the $85 million Natural Science and Engineering Research Laboratory (NSERL) are an important factor in what enabled the UT Dallas team to be part of LEAST, Wallace said.
"UT Dallas has the state-of-the art equipment needed to contribute to LEAST and determine which materials will be used for the next generation of electronics," he said.
TerraSwarm: Linking Cyber-Worlds to the Physical World
The other UT Dallas team is developing revolutionary technology as part of STARnet's TerraSwarm Research Center.
Sensors and computers can be found in nearly all aspects of modern life, from pacemakers to air conditioners to sensors in vehicles that can tell when a driver is distracted.
TerraSwarm researchers are working toward shared data collected from the millions of individual smart sensors and other types of computers used in energy, health, environmental and personal applications.
The potential of sensor-based systems in monitoring applications goes far beyond what has been accomplished so far, Jafari said. When realized in full, these technologies can seamlessly integrate the cyber world, centered today in the cloud, with the physical/biological world, effectively blurring the gap between the two. The emerging global cyber-physical network is called the TerraSwarm, meaning that it encompasses many billions of sensors and actuators deployed across the earth.
"The possibilities of this type of shared sensing platform will revolutionize society," said Jafari, lead investigator for the UT Dallas TerraSwarm team, which will receive more than $900,000 over five years. "A fully integrated cyber-physical world presents limitless opportunities."
The key to enabling this type of technology is creating self-powered sensors and computers, and creating a networked architecture for thousands of smart sensing devices - similar to the World Wide Web - that is accessible from multiple types of electronic devices available to users.
Jafari, director of the Embedded Systems and Signal Processing Lab and a member of the Texas Analog Center of Excellence (TxACE), has experience creating wearable computers and wireless systems that monitor different aspects of human, health, behavior and thought.
"One strength we have is that we not only build the theories, but also implement them," he said.
Sechen, the other member of the UT
Dallas TerraSwarm team, is an expert in building ultra-low power digital circuits.
Jafari said TerraSwarm research includes funding to create this new architecture while also protecting individual privacy.
###
The LEAST Center is led by the University of Notre Dame, and the TerraSwarm Research Center is led by the University of California, Berkeley.
Industry partners of STARnet include Applied Materials, GLOBALFOUNDRIES Inc., IBM, Intel Corp., Micron Technology Inc., Raytheon Co., Texas Instruments Inc. and United Technologies Corp.
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?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
LONDON (Reuters) - Introducing laws banning smoking in enclosed public places can lead to swift and dramatic falls in the number of children admitted to hospital suffering asthma attacks, according to a study in England published on Monday.
Researchers at Imperial College London found there was a 12.3 percent fall in hospital admissions for childhood asthma in the first year after laws against smoking in enclosed public places and workplaces came into effect in July 2007.
Similar anti-smoking legislation has been introduced in many other countries, including in the United States where it has also been linked to a reduction in childhood asthma emergencies.
"The findings are good news ... and they should encourage countries where public smoking is permitted to consider introducing similar legislation," said Christopher Millett from Imperial's school of public health, who led the study.
Asthma affects more than 300 million people worldwide and is the world's most common children's chronic illness. Symptoms include wheezing, shortness of breath, coughing and chest tightness. In Britain, it affects one in every 11 children.
Before the ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces was implemented in England, hospital admissions for children suffering a severe asthma attacks were increasing by 2.2 percent a year, peaking at 26,969 in 2006/2007, the researchers found.
That trend reversed immediately after the law came into effect, with lower admission rates among boys and girls of all ages. There were similar reductions among children in wealthy and poor neighborhoods, both in cities and in rural areas.
The effect was equivalent to 6,802 fewer hospital admissions in the first three years after the law came into effect, the team wrote in a study in the journal Pediatrics.
"There is already evidence that eliminating smoking from public places has resulted in substantial population health benefits ... and this study shows that those benefits extend to ... childhood asthma," Millett said in a statement.
A study published in 2009 also found the ban on smoking in public places in England led to a swift and significant drop in the number of heart attacks, saving the national health service 8.4 million pounds ($13.3 million) in the first year.
"Previous studies have also suggested that the smoke-free law changed people's attitudes about exposing others to second-hand smoke and led more people to abstain from smoking voluntarily at home and in cars," Millett said.
(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Louise Ireland)
Geminid meteor shower: Last night's annual meteor shower was a crowd pleaser. The Gemind meteor shower comes from debris shed by a 3-mile-wide? asteroid called 3200 Phaethon.
By Mike Wall,?Space.com / December 14, 2012
The annual Geminid meteor shower peaked overnight last night (Dec. 13), dazzling skywatchers around the world with a bounty of brilliant shooting stars.
Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition
The Geminids' peak was supposed to be good this year, as it occurred in a sky left dark by the new moon. Experts had predicted that viewers in rural areas might see 100 meteors per hour early Friday morning (Dec. 14) ? and perhaps even more.
Judging by the reactions of some SPACE.com readers, the Geminids did not disappoint.
"What an incredible show we had here!" Sean Parker, who watched the shower early Friday just west of Tucson, Ariz., told SPACE.com via email. "I was able to see about 50 per hour." [Photos: Geminid Meteors of 2012]
Parker constructed a gorgeous composite image of about 30 frames, which captured dozens of shooting stars streaking through the skies above a saguaro-studded desert mountain.
"This image took a lot of work, as I had to scroll through about 400 frames and find which frames had shooting stars in them, then cut out every meteor and blend," Parker said.
Skywatchers on the other side of the world were enthralled by the Geminids as well.
"Awesome experience," said Mumbai, India-based Swaroop Hangal, who also captured a photo of a fast-moving meteor.
"Today, I had planned to see 50 streaks and then quit with or without a pic," Hangal said. "Had almost lost hope when I could capture the 50th one, just between Betelgeuse at the bottom & Alhena in the Gemini constellation."
The Geminids? so named because they appear to emanate from the constellation Gemini (The Twins) ? are one of the most dependably impressive annual meteor showers.
They result when Earth plows through debris shed by a 3-mile-wide (5 kilometers) asteroid called 3200 Phaethon. These tiny particles burn up in our planet's atmosphere, leaving bright streaks in the sky to commemorate their passing.
The Geminids' source is unusual for?meteor showers, which are typically caused by streams of sloughed-off comet particles. Debris streams from the famous Halley's Comet, for example, produce the Orionids every October and the Eta Aquarids, which peak in early May.
If you missed the Geminid peak last night, don't fret; you still have a few days to catch the shower this year. The Geminids should linger until Sunday (Dec. 16) or so before fizzling out completely.
Editor's Note: If you take a photo of this year's Geminids that you'd like to share with SPACE.com for a possible story or gallery, please send it, along with your comments, to spacephotos@space.com.
Follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall?or SPACE.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook?and?Google+.?
Copyright 2012 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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West Virginia Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller?s decision not to run for a sixth term is boon to Republican chances of picking up a seat that hasn?t been in GOP hands since the 1950s, because of a strong Republican candidate who is already in the running, and the overall tilt of the state.
(J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R) announced her decision to run late last year, giving Republicans a competitive chance in the race, even if Rockefeller had decided to run. Capito comes from a well-known political family, and Republican strategists have been hopeful she would run for some time.
Without Rockefeller, Democrats must fill the gap left by a well-known pol with a famous last name and the advantages of incumbency. Rockefeller, 75, was first elected to the Senate in 1984 in a competitive race. Since then, he?s won reelection with at least 60 percent of the vote. In 2008, he carried 64 percent of the vote en route to a fifth term.
The state of play in West Virginia makes an already tough 2014 Senate map for Democrats even more challenging. With more Democrats than Republicans defending seats, and a large number of red or swing state Democrats set to face voters, Republicans have a chance to make gains. Counting Independents who caucus with the Democrats, the party has a 55-45 advantage in the Senate right now.
While it?s been a long time since West Virginia has sent a Republican to the Senate and Democrats have a?strong?registration?advantage in the state, West?Virginia?s?been tilting heavily Republican at the?presidential?level. Mitt Romney carried the state by about 17 points in 2012.
The state?s junior senator, Democrat Joe Manchin, has retained his popularity by carefully sticking to a moderate profile in the Senate and bucking the Obama Administration on energy issues.?Two of the state?s three House members are Republicans.
?Senator Rockefeller?s decision not to seek reelection makes West Virginia an even stronger pickup opportunity for Republicans in 2014,? said National Republican Senatorial Committee Executive Director Rob Collins in a statement.
Republican strategists have been bullish?about?Capito ? whose father, Republican Arch Moore, beat Rockefeller in the 1972 governor?s race, before losing to him in 1980 ? for some time. While a pair of conservative groups expressed displeasure at her record on spending, neither group could name a more conservative candidate they would like to see run against her.
Rep. David McKinley (R) is not ruling out his own Senate run, though he says he likes what he is seeing from Capito.
For Democrats, the challenge is now to find a recruit that can match Capito?s name ID and congressional resume. Rockefeller?s decision shouldn?t come as a major surprise to his party; the senator stoked chatter about his possible?retirement?in the summer of 2012 with a speech in which he offered tough talk for the coal industry, a dominant force in West Virginia.
The crowded 2011 Democratic gubernatorial primary may offer hints about which Democrats are likely to take the plunge in the Senate race. The runners up to current Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin include Secretary of State Natalie Tennant, state House Speaker Rick Thompson, and state Treasurer John Perdue, among others. The state?s only Democrat in the House delegation Rep. Nick Rahall, is another possibility, as is former senator Carte Goodwin, who served for a brief stint in 2010.
Rockefeller?s decision to bow out early gives Democrats time to find?suitable?candidates to take his place. It?s much better for his party that he do this now, and not 6-12 months down the road.
?I am confident we can elect an independent-minded Democrat to [Rockefeller's] seat next November,? said?Democratic?Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Michael Bennet (Co.) in a statement. ?Democrats maintain nearly a two to one voter registration advantage over Republicans in West Virginia and I know there are a number of leaders there who will consider taking this next step to serve their state.?
But make no mistake: The GOP is licking its chops at the prospect of picking up West Virginia. And Democrats will face a real challenge holding the seat.
Eric Rudder, chief technical strategy officer of Microsoft, holds a prototype Windows smartphone with a flexible OLED display during Samsung's keynote address at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Eric Rudder, chief technical strategy officer of Microsoft, holds a prototype Windows smartphone with a flexible OLED display during Samsung's keynote address at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
LAS VEGAS (AP) ? By showing off a phone with a flexible screen, Samsung is hinting at a day when we might fold up our large phone or tablet screens as if they were maps.
The Korean electronics company provided a glimpse of such a device at a keynote speech Wednesday at the International CES gadget show in Las Vegas. It's an annual showcase of the latest TVs, computers and other consumer-electronic devices.
WHAT IT IS: Brian Berkeley, head of Samsung Electronics Co.'s display lab in San Jose, Calif., demonstrated a phone that consists of a matchbox-sized hard enclosure, with a paper-thin, flexible color screen attached to one end. The screen doesn't appear flexible enough to fold in half like a piece of paper, but it could bend into a tube.
The company also showed a video of a future concept, with a phone-sized device that opens up like a book, revealing a tablet-sized screen inside.
HOW IT WORKS: The screen uses organic light-emitting diodes, or OLEDs. Only a thin layer of these chemicals is needed to produce a bright, colorful screen. They're used in many Samsung phones already, though with glass screens. For the bendable phone, Samsung laid the chemicals over thin plastic instead of glass. That's a trick you can't pull off with liquid crystals in standard displays.
WHY YOU'D WANT IT: You could pack a bigger screen in your pocket. In a more conventional application, Berkeley demonstrated a phone with a display that's rigid, but bent around the edges of the device, so it can show incoming messages even with a cover over the main screen. In short, OLEDs free designers to make gadgets with curved screens.
WHY IT MIGHT NOT WORK: It's tough to use a touch screen if it bends away from your finger. Flexible OLED screens have been demonstrated for years, but the OLED chemicals are extremely sensitive to oxygen, so they need to be completely sealed off from the air. Volume production of flexible displays that remain airtight has so far stumped engineers. Samsung's screens aren't yet flexible enough to fold, just bend.
AVAILABILITY: Samsung didn't say anything about when flexible displays might be commercialized.
"The concept of the flexible screen has been around for some time, but it finally looks as if Samsung is really going to deliver on that technology," said Steve Bell, a technology consultant and president of KeySo Global.
A Palestinian rescue worker helps a boy cross a flooded street in Rafah southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013. In Gaza, civil defense spokesman Mohammed al-Haj Yousef said storms have cut electricity powering thousands of homes and rescuers were sent to evacuate dozens of people. (AP Photo/Eyad Baba)
A Palestinian rescue worker helps a boy cross a flooded street in Rafah southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013. In Gaza, civil defense spokesman Mohammed al-Haj Yousef said storms have cut electricity powering thousands of homes and rescuers were sent to evacuate dozens of people. (AP Photo/Eyad Baba)
JERUSALEM (AP) ? A Gaza health official says a Palestinian man was electrocuted after being struck by a power cable snapped loose by ferocious winter winds, while a rare snowstorm paralyzed traffic in Jerusalem, its suburbs and the nearby West Bank.
Ashraf al-Kidra says the 24-year-old died late Wednesday in the accident, which left four others injured. While heavy rains have subsided, wind gusts continue to wreak havoc with the territory's electrical supply, and power has been cut off this week for up to 14 hours a day.
On Thursday, several inches of snow piled up in Jerusalem, its environs and the West Bank for the first time in five years, shuttering schools and crippling transportation.
Written by Meron Tekleberhan Wednesday, 09 January 2013 10:19
Ethiopian Business News - Construction
The Ethiopian Railway Corporation is to terminate its consultancy agreement with Swedish National Road Consulting according to sources.
The subsidiary of the Swedish Transport Administration officially stopped operations on the Sebeta-Mei?so-Dewale railway project it was learned.
The consultancy agreement was terminated on the basis of the corporation?s agreement with Chinese Import-Export Bank, which is financing the project according to Debo Tunka, Deputy Chief Executive of the Infrastructure Division of ERC. The ERC was forced to terminate the contract it had with the Swedish company because the financier had the right to nominate the consultant according to the financing agreement he explained.
The agreement with Swedish National Road Consulting had been reached before the financing agreement was secured from the Chinese EXIM bank noted Debo.
The ERC denied allegations that it terminated its agreement with the Swedish company primarily due to disagreements which arose with the Chinese contractor of the project.
China International Civil Engineering Consulting has already begun operations to replace the Swedish consultant according to Debo. The new consultant is in the process of evaluating the site to support its services he said.
It is to be remembered that the China Export-Import Bank is financing 85 percent of the railway project while the Ethiopian government is making up the difference.
Source: Capital
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Tune in to listen to Season 2, Episode 2 of Verses and Flow with Luke James, and spoken word by Omar Holmon, Tasha Jones and Javon Johnson. Brought to you by Lexus.
WAFCA film critic Travis Hopson is joined by Flixist's Matthew Razak to discuss the newly announced Academy Awards nominations. Plus, the Cinema Siren joins in to talk about Kathryn Bigelow's controversial 'Zero Dark Thirty'.
On-Air with Douglas celebrates their ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY with special guest, Tracey Bregman (Lauren Fenmore Baldwin, The Young and the Restless) and other surprise guests including eight other soap stars. Sit back and enjoy this reunion for soap fans.
Join hosts Linda Lombardo and Tammy Hibler with Jennifer Louden, best-selling author with media appearances on Oprah, Later Today, and MS-NBC. How do we bring our gifts to savor and serve the world toward global change with self-love and world care.
Big Blend Radio Rants, Raves & Rocks with Marty Casey, frontman of LOVEHAMMERS about their 7th album 'Set Fire'. They've headlined their own International Tours and supported bands like Nickelback, INXS, Slash, Chevelle, KISS, Cake, The Wallflowers.
Tash is a pop singer/songwriter who is best known for her song, California Eyes, that was featured in the TeenNick drama, Hollywood Heights. She stops by Jammin Jukebox Radio Show to chat about her new webseries and upcoming projects.
Muhsin Muhammad, former Chicago Bears and Carolina Panthers Pro Bowl WR, joins Thursday Night Tailgate. He'll talk about his 14 year career, playing in the 2004 Super Bowl, his charity M2 Foundation for Kids and assisting impoverish women's shelters.
The Voice contestant, Diego Val, and Black Eyed Peas guitarist, George Pajon Jr. join On-Air with Douglas as they talk about Val's experience on "The Voice" plus their new project, Sons of Mariel, as they wrap up their debut EP, and take fans calls as well.
LIVE interview from Nashville, Tennessee with professional Bass player John Billings. Fans are encouraged to call in. John Billings will share with us the ins-outs of business...Do you have what it takes to turn pro...listen in and find out
Join Grind Hard Radio for an exclusive interview with Flesh N Bone from the legendary Rap Group "Bone Thugs and Harmony" as he talks about his upcoming musical projects for 2013
This week on the BIG show, with one month to go before the 13th Annual Black Reel Awards, host Tim Gordon sits down with two nominees, director Victoria Mahoney (Yelling to the Sky) and composer Kathryn Bostic (Middle of Nowhere).
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Fort Myers, FL (January 25, 2013) ? Keith W. Trowbridge, Ph.D., President and CEO of Executive Quest, Inc., executive headhunters in the timeshare, vacation ownership, and fractional industry, http://www.execq.com/keith.htm, reports the company has been busy even with the pressures of today?s economy. ?Executive Quest?s international presence has been a strong contributor to its success this past year,? said Trowbridge. He has a team with in depth knowledge of and optimistic expectations concerning the timeshare industry?s executive employee needs. This, and Executive Quest?s business practices and standards of conduct continue to strengthen the company?s position worldwide.
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Public release date: 22-Jan-2013
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