Largely forgotten social network Bebo may have shut down today. Bebo users certainly seem to think that this is the end. The Bebo website is down, and as a result there's a steady stream of sad tweets using the "#bebo" and "#ripbebo" hashtags. And if it's a false alarm, the company isn't doing much to combat that impression ? the most recent posts on both the Bebo and Team Bebo Twitter accounts date from November.
Can't part with your phone even when you're in the bathroom? You're in good company. About 75% of Americans admit they use their phones in the bathroom, according to a new study.
[More from Mashable: 6 Ways to Give Your App a Leg Up on the Competition]
A report by marketing agency 11mark found that three in four people are texting, emailing and even talking on the phone while in the bathroom. In fact, about 25% of Americans said they always bring their phone into the restroom.
However, the survey -- conducted among 1,000 Americans -- revealed that Android users are slightly more likely to use their phones in the bathroom compared to other device owners. About 87% of Android users have used their phone while going to the bathroom compared with 84% of BlackBerry users and 77% of iPhone users.
[More from Mashable: Apple Introduces New Reservation System for iPhone Purchases in China [VIDEO]]
SEE ALSO: 5 Products to Keep Your Tech Germ-Free
Meanwhile, BlackBerry owners (75%) are most likely to answer a call in the bathroom, compared with 67% of Android and 60% of iPhone users. As for accessing social networks and apps in the bathroom, Android and iPhone users come out on top.
"The writing is on the stall," Nicole Burdette of 11mark said in a statement. "This study confirms what we all know -- that the last private place is no longer private. And that the 'mobile-everywhere' phenomenon is flushing out a host of new opportunities for savvy communicators."
Not surprisingly, millennials (91%) are most likely to use their phones while in the restroom. However, older generations aren't too far behind -- about 80% of Gen X mobile users said they use the phone in the bathroom, as well as 65% of baby boomers.
The study also revealed that both men (74%) and women (76%) almost equally confess that they have used their phone while in the bathroom. However, men admit to doing more work from there, as 20% have made work-related calls from the bathroom, compared to 13% of women.
Texting was the most popular phone-related bathroom activity, as 67% have read texts. About 38% have surfed the Internet from the bathroom.
Do you think it's socially acceptable to use the phone in the bathroom now? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) ? Jack White is releasing his first solo album "Blunderbuss" on April 24.
White released a single, "Love Interruption," from the record Monday and was expected to make it available for sale Monday night on iTunes.
The album is the former White Stripes frontman's first record since he announced the breakup of that pioneering rock duo last year. White also is a member of The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather.
White offered few details about the new album in a news release Monday. He said the songs were "written from scratch, had nothing to do with anyone or anything else but my own expression, my own colors on my own canvas."
There are lots of concerns to be asked before embarking upon a career of investment. The first and foremost question nevertheless should be regardless of whether you are truly focused on making real estate do the job. This is not really a business for your faint of cardiovascular. In order to truly turn a profit you must be occasionally ruthless when handling buyers and sellers but ethical to a fault with regards to the work that has to often be done to acquire a property with sellable condition.
The reason a significant commitment is needed in order to make real estate meet your needs is simple. There will be fluctuations along the way. The stock industry experiences rises and falls all the time. Just as you can?t dump all of your stock over just one bad day the identical holds true more so in your realm of real estate property investing. Property values on the whole rise gradually as time passes. This means that even though the values in the community falter chances are that they will eventually recover.
People that bank about the slow and steady growth inside value are termed as buy and carry investors. These investors are truly dedicated to their investment. Some of them elect to hold the property being a vacation property while some opt to earn income on the residence by renting the idea out to other families or visitors, whatever their choice could possibly be. This is an easy way for many people to enjoy the luxury of your vacation property without absorbing the many expenses involved in having a vacation property since the rentals will help compensate a lot of the costs when the actual owners (investors) aren?t in residence. This is a reasonably common practice in popular tourist areas through which people often take pleasure in vacationing. These types regarding investors are what some people refer to as serious real-estate investors though all real estate property investors need to look at their purchases seriously.
People who personal rental properties also needs to be committed in order to making their investments work for them. Rental properties are not a ?hands off? kind of investment, as they will likely need to be maintained as a way to remain in need by tenants. You must also make constant efforts to maintain these properties been able and filled as well as remaining certain that you are collecting your rent every month and that this properties aren?t falling right into a state of disrepair or even abuse by tenants.
Several investors retain the services of property or home management agencies in order to handle the minutia of month-to-month details and collections. This is a great idea whether you have got one lone rental property or possibly a vast portfolio connected with rental properties. Even better nonetheless, is the idea that if you maintain rental properties with reasonable repair throughout the years they can become liquid assets on time. In other terms, they may actually spend on themselves once or twice over if you invest for that long-term rather than working on the moment. No matter the type of real estate investment you want to have it is essential that you are prepared for making the commitment in order to profit or profitability that is necessary in order that your venture to be deemed a good results.
In order to learn more about mark quinones and his suggestions about investing in real-estate, go to http://www.allvoices.com/news/9475429-realtypartner-reports-show-foreign-buyers-take-advantage-of-the-cheap-us-homes-for-sale-market-in-2011 right this moment!
OAKLAND, Calif. ? Oakland police used tear gas and "flash" grenades Saturday to break up hundreds of Occupy protesters after some demonstrators started throwing rocks and flares at officers and tearing down fencing.
Three officers were hurt and 19 people were arrested, the Oakland Police Department said in a release. No details on the officers' injuries were released.
Police said the group started assembling at a downtown plaza Saturday morning, with demonstrators threatening to take over the vacant Henry Kaiser Convention Center. The group then marched through the streets, disrupting traffic.
The crowd grew as the day wore on, with afternoon estimates ranging from about 1,000 to 2,000 people.
The protesters walked to the vacant convention center, where some started tearing down perimeter fencing and "destroying construction equipment" shortly before 3 p.m., the release said.
Police said they issued a dispersal order and used smoke and tear gas after some protesters pelted them with bottles, rocks, burning flares and other objects.
Most of the arrests were made when protesters ignored orders to leave and assaulted officers, the release said. By 4 p.m., the bulk of the crowd had left the convention center and headed back downtown.
The demonstration comes after Occupy protesters said earlier this week that they planned to move into a vacant building and turn it into a social center and political hub. They also threatened to try to shut down the port, occupy the airport and take over City Hall.
In a statement Friday, Oakland City Administrator Deanna Santana said the city would not be "bullied by threats of violence or illegal activity."
Interim police Chief Howard Jordan also warned that officers would arrest those carrying out illegal actions.
Oakland officials said Friday that since the Occupy Oakland encampment was first established in late October, police have arrested about 300 people.
The national Occupy Wall Street movement, which denounces corporate excess and economic inequality, began in New York City in the fall but has been largely dormant lately.
Oakland, New York and Los Angeles were among the cities with the largest and most vocal Occupy protests early on. The demonstrations ebbed after those cities used force to move out hundreds of demonstrators who had set up tent cities.
In Oakland, the police department received heavy criticism for using force to break up earlier protests. Among the critics was the mayor, who said she wasn't briefed on the department's plans. Earlier this month, a court-appointed monitor submitted a report to a federal judge that included "serious concerns" about the department's handling of the Occupy protests.
For many younger football fans, the name ?Joe Namath? doesn?t conjure memories of Broadway Joe or Super Bowl III but a drunken pass at ESPN sideline reporter Suzy Kolber during a December 2003 edition of Sunday Night Football.? His ?I wanna kiss you? moment became the stuff of TV legend, even making its way into an epic auto-tune mash-up from D.J. Steve Porter, who coincidentally now crafts similar projects for the four-letter network.
In an HBO documentary on Namath?s life, which debuted at 9:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, Kolber addresses the incident for the first time.? Without saying ?don?t blame us, we didn?t know Joe was drunk,? she seems to try a little too hard to offer up not-so-subtle excuses for not knowing Joe was drunk, even though perhaps everyone involved should have known, or at least suspected, that Joe was drunk.
Especially once he started talking.
?Joe was escorted onto the field by a number of Jets personnel,? Kolber says of the subject of her eventual interview.? ?And what I recall is that he and I never really had a chance to chat, because he wouldn?t stand still.?
Kolber creates the impression that she didn?t have any opportunity to observe his behavior (Namath admits that he?d been drinking all day and night) until the interview started.? ?When we were really getting to close to when our producer wanted to have him on, I took his arm because I just didn?t want him to walk away,? Kolber says.
And even when the interview began, Kolber explains (with her trademark perky nonchalance) that no one thought anything was amiss as he gave a stumbling, incomprehensible answer to the first question:? ?What impresses you about Chad [Pennington]??
?I believe that anything anyone else has watched Chad play impresses me the same thing impresses them,? Namath said at the time, clumsily and awkwardly.
She attributed his off-kilter behavior to, yes, the weather.? ?When we first started talking and he was slow and deliberate in his speech,? Kolber says, ?what was going through my head was, ?Maybe it?s just really cold.??
But here?s the kicker from Kolber, the thing that made me think for the first time that ESPN adroitly has been able to avoid for more than eight years the question of how they put him on the air in the first place, and why they didn?t kill the interview after his initial rambling response.? ?None of the executives in the truck were alarmed either, because nobody said, ?Stop,?? Kolber says.? ?The direction in my ear was, ?Keep going.??
None of this changes the fact that Namath was at fault for drinking too much and agreeing to go on camera and then acting like a jerk by saying ?I wanna kiss you,? not once but twice.? But I?ve been involved in the TV side of this business long enough now to realize that there are (or at least should be) layers of folks who when trouble pops up can make good decisions in the blink of an eye, or even faster.? Still, until seeing Kolber?s roundabout effort to help ESPN continue to sidestep shrapnel for allowing the ?I wanna kiss you? moment to happen by not ending the interview (or by never doing it in the first place), I never made the connection.? Joe was always the bad guy, and ESPN and Kolber were always without blame of any kind.
After hearing Kolber?s explanation, I?m starting to think that maybe a few tougher questions should have been asked back in late 2003.? It?ll be interesting to see if any of those questions are asked now.
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) ? It was only two weeks ago that Twitter was protesting online censorship in the form of anti-piracy bills SOPA and PIPA. Now the social networking site faces a surge of opposition to its own censorship practices.
Twitter announced in a blog post Thursday that it will now block specific tweets on a country-by-country basis should the messages violate the laws of those countries.
One of the worries is that Twitter has been a powerful tool in the protest movements that have surfaced across the globe in the past year, whether in the Arab Spring or the anti-austerity protests in Europe.
The fear is that the new policy will limit its utility in such instances.
Users have responded by promising to boycott the site on Saturday, and the media has blasted the company for what it views as blatant censorship.
Forbes' writer Mark Gibbs dubbed the move "social suicide" and many others have chimed in to voice their objection.
The boycott of Twitter is being promulgated by the hashtag #TwitterBlackout -- not all that different from the #SOPABlackout tweets from earlier this month. In another case of overlap with the SOPA/PIPA fight, hacking network Anonymous seems to oppose the move. Not known yet is whether it will act.
It's doubtful that enough people will stop using the service to have an impact, nor would a brief Twitter shutdown damage its business. However, the threats are clearly more about sending a message than crippling the now ubiquitous messaging platform.
The site's reasoning for the change was stated in its blog post: "As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression. Some differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there."
Observers see this as Twitter caving to the power of oppressive and restrictive foreign governments. They don't want to anger those countries too much, lest they block Twitter.
To some, this is appalling. To others, it's just business.
Either way, Twitter finds itself on the other end of the censorship fight for one of the first times.
Nuclear fusion, like flying cars, is one of those transparent, dangling carrots that've been stymying the scientific community and tickling our collective noses for decades. But recent research out of the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory might help us inch a few baby steps closer to that Jetsonian future. The experiment, conducted by a group of Oxford University scientists, utilized the DOE's Linac Coherent Light Source -- an X-ray laser capable of pulsing "more than a billion times brighter" than current synchrotron sources -- to transmute a piece of aluminum foil heated to 3.6 million degrees Fahrenheit (or 2 million degrees Celsius) into a cube of solid plasma. So, why go to such lengths to fry a tiny piece of metal at that extreme temperature? Simple: to replicate conditions found within stars and planets. Alright, so it's not that easy and we're still a ways off from actually duping celestial bodies, but the findings could help advance theories in the field and eventually unlock the powers of the Sun. Until that fateful day arrives, however, we'll just have to let these pedigreed pyros continue to play with their high-tech toys.
TOKYO (Reuters) ? The owner of Japan's stricken nuclear reactor, Tokyo Electric Power Co, will agree to be taken over by the government in a near-$13 billion bailout, sources said on Thursday, even as the country debates the future of nuclear power.
The injection of 1 trillion yen ($12.8 billion) in public funds would effectively nationalize Tepco (9501.T), supplier of power to almost 45 million people including Tokyo residents, in one of the world's biggest bailouts outside the banking sector.
Tepco has been dragging its feet over a proposal for the state-backed Nuclear Damage Liability Facilitation Fund to take at least a two-thirds stake in the company, which has been swamped by liabilities associated with the earthquake and tsunami which ruined its Fukushima nuclear power plant in March.
"If the government has a two-thirds stake, they have a right to control management, so naturally, Tepco doesn't like that," said one source familiar with the matter.
Tepco's future as an independent firm has been in doubt since the disaster, which triggered the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years and left the utility with huge compensation payments, cleanup costs and rising fuel bills as public concerns over safety make it hard to restart other off-line reactors.
Its plight has become emblematic of problems facing Japan's entire nuclear power industry, much of which has been idled since the disaster while authorities work to regain some public trust in an industry that had provided a third of Japan's power.
Tepco's fate is also being watched for clues as to whether Japan will deregulate its system of monopolistic regional utilities that both generate and distribute electricity.
Tepco's share price soared on the news, jumping 8 percent in heavy trade to 219 yen.
Tepco, which together with the fund is drafting a business reconstruction plan to be unveiled in March, is also seeking about 1 trillion yen in additional bank loans, sources said.
Under the plan, the utility is expected to swing to profit in fiscal 2014 and resume issuing bonds two years later, the Nikkei business newspaper reported.
The plan calls for government control to end in six or seven years, the Nikkei added, though other reports have said it might last about a decade.
According to the plan, Tepco is expected to post a parent-only net loss of about 580 billion yen in the year ending March 31 and next fiscal year, followed by a net profit of 37.7 billion yen in fiscal 2013, largely on the sale of real estate, the Nikkei said. Tepco is also expected to generate a pretax profit of 159.1 billion yen in fiscal 2014, it added.
The projection for improved earnings is based on the assumption Tepco will increase household electricity rates by 10 percent in October and reduce fuel costs by restarting reactors at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant in fiscal 2013 -- moves the utility will find difficult to execute, the daily said.
Tepco shareholders will need to approve an increase in its authorized share capital at an annual meeting in June before the nationalization plan could go ahead.
(Reporting by Ashutosh Pandey in Bangalore, Osamu Tsukimori and Nobuhiro Kubo in Tokyo; Editing by Chris Gallagher and Mark Bendeich)
Two and a Half Men is one of the top 10 most-watched shows on television.
But Charlie Sheen either doesn't know this or doesn't care, because he made his feelings on the sitcom well known during a press conference in Miami this week.
"I don’t think it should go on past this year," the actor said. "I just think that people are there because there’s nowhere else to go."
Of course, Sheen plans to change that with his FX sitcom, Anger Management. Proving that he's not an entirely changed man, the star promised the series - which will start casting in March and premiere this summer - "will not disappoint," adding:
"It’s going to be an absolute f-ckin' rocket ship to the moon."
Sheen was quick to say "hats off" to Ashton Kutcher for doing all he can on Two and a Half Men, instead laying the blame for its supposed demise on old pal Chuck Lorre.
"[Kutcher] and Jon [Cryer] and Angus [T. Jones] deserve better material," he said.
Whose version of Two and a Half Men do YOU prefer?
This video shows the navigation path of Costa Concordia, the ship that ran aground in Italy. Lots of things went wrong after it hit the first rock, but her path reveals that they may have been a steering system failure before that. More »
'Dateline NBC,' the signature broadcast for NBC News in primetime, premiered in 1992. Since then, it has been pioneering a new approach to primetime news programming. The multi-night franchise, supplemented by frequent specials, allows NBC to consistently and comprehensively present the highest-quality reporting, investigative features, breaking news coverage and newsmaker profiles.
I just read and enjoyed Reinventing Discovery: The New Era of Networked Science, a new book by Michael Nielsen, recently reviewed by Bora Zivkovic. The book tells how science is undergoing a revolution where new global online collaborations face off against secretive old-school researchers and profit-hungry journal publishers. It urges scientists to fight for open access and open science?a call to action made more poignant by recent events. For example, this December, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney and Congressman Darrell Issa introduced a bill into the House of Representatives that would effectively revert the NIH?s Public Access Policy that allows taxpayer-funded research to be freely accessible online. Reinventing Discovery will help you form a strong opinion of this bill.
But though its call to political action is compelling and clear, Reinventing Discovery left me pondering a puzzle. A key obstacle to open science discussed in the book comes from within: from scientists, ourselves. Established, senior scientists?maybe the ones who are not on Facebook yet?are often painted as fearing the open science movement or trying to block it. But ironically, it may be up-and-coming scientists trying to build careers that perennially have good reasons to be secretive, reasons that the age of networking will never negate. I?ll call this puzzle the open science paradox.
As an example of how scientists themselves can be obstacles to open science, Nielsen describes how Galileo carefully concealed his discoveries from his scientific rivals. And Galileo took it devilishly further than that; he sent letters to Kepler, his rival, teasing him with announcements of his findings encoded in anagrams. That way, if someone else (e.g. Kepler) claimed to discover them first, Galileo would be able to prove that he?d beaten him by decoding the anagrams.
Now I have a permanent job, and I?m an open science acolyte. But when I was a postdoc, I felt and acted much more like Galileo in this example. This kind of secretiveness and competitiveness is a way of life for many of the postdocs and other young scientists I know.
Nielsen does not shy away from this problem. He suggests some potential long-term remedies that senior scientists and funding agency staff could push for. For example, maybe we more senior folks could implement new ways of measuring scientific output. When we?re judging a job applicant?s CV, instead of counting publications, we could count citations of his online preprints or downloads of his software.
But I would like to place on the table the likely possibility that this obstacle to open science will stand forever. That?s because I claim that to get a good job in science, you must brand yourself to compete on the job market. And there will always be young scientists striving to get jobs.
Let?s talk about branding for a moment: the art of making an indelible good impression on as many people as you can. To a marketing guru, branding is associated with getting to the market first, being the first name in everyone?s mind. For example, Al Ries and Jack Trout worked in the advertising department of General Electric and wrote a string of classic, best-selling books on marketing and branding together. As Ries and Trout point out in The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk!, we all know Charles Lindbergh, but who was the second person to fly solo across the Atlantic? You have to get there first and you have to let everyone know you did it.
Galileo concealed his discoveries, as Nielsen points out, to buy time during which he could capitalize upon them. That?s a branding strategy. It?s just like when Science or Nature place an embargo on a paper so they can have time to work up a press release and carefully time it. It makes a bigger splash if you make the announcement simultaneously via many news outlets with full color graphics and video than if you just go to your local newspaper with a half-baked story. Every MBA knows that you only get one chance to make a first impression, and a bigger splash means a stronger brand.
So maybe we will never create a completely open science environment for ourselves. Maybe attempts to enforce a completely open science environment would only turn into an arms race, with young scientists forced to develop new ways of branding themselves. I believe we will succeed in opening science wider with new policies and legislation and that we will all learn to embrace more networked approaches to problem solving. But the open science paradox stems from a truth that seems likely to be eternal: old scientists remember their first kiss more than their second, and young scientists know it.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates ? The last time Iran's nuclear envoys held talks with the U.S. and other world powers, the negotiations limped along until a parting shot by the Islamic Republic: Its labs boosted the enrichment levels of uranium in reply to demands for a full-scale freeze.
Since then, the standoff has only become tenser. The European Union on Monday joined the U.S. with new sanctions targeting Iran's critical oil exports. Authorities in Tehran fired back with another threat to block tankers in the Persian Gulf ? even while offering to restart international talks after a one-year gap.
Yet one thing hasn't changed since the last round of meetings in January 2011. The chances of Iran agreeing to stop enriching uranium ? the core dispute between Tehran and its foes ? still appear slim.
Iran portrays its ability to make nuclear fuel as akin to a patriotic cause: showcasing the country's technological advances, elevating its international stature and proudly defying Western nuclear controls like other nations in the past ? including North Korea since the 1990s and China in the 1960s.
Iran strongly denies that it seeks nuclear weapons and says it only wants to enrich uranium to fuel reactors for energy and research. But Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has linked control of the entire nuclear cycle to part of Iran's "national identity."
"Iran's right for uranium enrichment is nonnegotiable," said conservative Iranian lawmaker Ali Aghazadeh. "There is no reason for Iran to compromise over its rights. But Iran is open to discussions over concerns about its nuclear program."
The bloc on the other side of the negotiating table ? the five permanent Security Council members plus Germany ? has not publicly spelled out any clear strategies if talks resume in Turkey as a proposed venue. It's highly unlikely, however, that they would back off the insistence that Iran suspend uranium enrichment, which Washington and others fear could lead to weapons-grade nuclear material.
The potential dead ends are clearly marked even before any agreement to reopen dialogue.
Iranian officials hammer the point that halting uranium enrichment is off the agenda. Some in the West, meanwhile, question whether Iran's outreach is simply another tactic to buy time for its nuclear program under pressure from cyberattacks and targeted killings that Tehran has blamed on Israel and its allies.
In Paris last week, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said the European Union has made specific proposals for dialogue with Iran, but "unfortunately the country has not committed in a transparent and cooperative way in this process of talks."
On Monday in Brussels, the EU's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton urged Tehran to offer "some concrete issues to talk about."
"It is very important that it is not just about words; a meeting is not an excuse, a meeting is an opportunity and I hope that they will seize it," she said as the EU adopted its toughest measures yet on Iran with an oil embargo and freeze of the country's central bank assets.
Iranian lawmaker Aghazadeh snapped back: "The West is not seeking a genuine dialogue."
"It's unlikely that any new round of talks will bring any understanding," he added. "There is lack of trust on both sides. Iran won't retreat from its position."
The situation carries strong echoes the last talks in January 2011. When the main talks foundered, Brazil and Turkey tried their hand by reviving proposals to provide Iran with reactor fuel rods from 20 percent enriched uranium in exchange for suspending the enrichment work.
It fell apart when Iran pushed ahead with a pilot program to make its own 20 percent enriched uranium. That's still far below the level needed for a warhead, but it boosts Iran's stockpile of higher-grade nuclear material and was seen as a powerful snub to Western demands.
In a news conference on Saturday, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast, used the word "justice" to describe what Tehran hopes to achieve from any possible talks.
It covers a lot of ground in explaining Iran's views.
Tehran considers its nuclear program as fully within U.N. rules ? which permit enrichment with oversight ? although U.N. watchdogs and other question how much of Iran's work is secret. Tehran also seeks to shift the nuclear spotlight onto Israel, which is believed to have an atomic arsenal despite its policy of neither confirming nor denying its military capabilities.
But, above all, the Islamic Republic sees its nuclear advancement as an integral part of its self-declared goal of becoming the Muslim world's answer to Western military and technological dominance.
Iran has announced sweeping plans for upgrades to its armed forces, including new warships and surveillance drones similar to the unmanned CIA spy craft captured last month. Iran's state media has claimed aerospace engineers have launched objects into orbit and are working on sending an astronaut into space.
"The nuclear program is a huge part of what's shaping Iran's world view," said Mehrzad Boroujerdi, an Iranian affairs expert at Syracuse University. "Khamenei sees it as part of his legacy. In a way, it's like the nationalization of the Suez Canal for Egypt. It's a defining issue and one of major national importance."
It also is one of the few patches of common ground in a country deeply divided since the clashes and crackdowns after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in 2009. Even opposition groups that rail against the ruling theocracy often support the nuclear program as a point of pride.
"The issue is protecting national interests," said Iranian political analyst Davoud Hermidas Bavand.
Yet he believes that talks ? even if they at first appear ill-fated ? are the only option to avoid deeper tensions that could lead to a military conflict in the Gulf.
"Talks offer a window to get out of the current impasse," he said.
The question still circles back to whether it could bring some concessions from Iran on uranium enrichment.
Meir Javedanfar, an Iranian-born analyst based in Israel, described Khamenei as stuck between "Obama and a hard place."
Khamenei cannot easily roll back the Iranian nuclear program, but is hit with increasing blows from sanctions that have isolated and eroded Iran's economy.
"Should he ignore it, the Iranian economy, the health of which is crucial to the survival of the regime, could collapse," he wrote in a Sunday commentary.
Keeping the ruling system in place, however, could also drive Iran's nuclear advances closer toward weapons, others contend.
"They perceive the whole nuclear issue as an insurance policy of sorts," said the analyst Boroujerdi. "There are those who say, 'If we are a nuclear power then the West wouldn't dare touch us.' And this, in their mind, helps ensure the survival of the system."
___
Associated Press writer Ali Akbar Dareini in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.
Last week, the internet breathed a sigh of relief as the team at GreenPois0n finally released an untethered jailbreak for Mac users with an iPhone 4S or iPad 2 running iOS 5.0.1. Today, they quietly released a Windows version of GreenPois0n Absinthe, so PC users can get in on the fun too. Hit the link to download the tool, and see our always up-to-date guide for a full walkthrough on how to use it to jailbreak your device. [GreenPois0n]
The winner of this week's Android Central photo contest is Travis Detweiler with his picture of sunrise over Tampa Bay. Taken with his HTC EVO 3D while heading out into the gulf to catch a few Amberjack and Grouper. Travis says he didn't use any particular camera app or effects, just the camera as-is on his 3VO. He captured the theme and framed the perfect shot. Congrats, Travis!
We had well over a thousand entries, and while it took a while to look through them all it was quite enjoyable -- you guys and gals can take some awesome pictures. We've collected the 10 runners-up for you to enjoy as well, hit the break to see them. Don't forget, we're starting up a new round tomorrow, so keep an eye out.
In solar cells, tweaking the tiniest of parts yields big jump in efficiencyPublic release date: 20-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Charlotte Hsu chsu22@buffalo.edu 716-645-4655 University at Buffalo
Company led by university researchers employs charged quantum dots to increase the efficiency of solar cell technology
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- By tweaking the smallest of parts, a trio of University at Buffalo engineers is hoping to dramatically increase the amount of sunlight that solar cells convert into electricity.
With military colleagues, the UB researchers have shown that embedding charged quantum dots into photovoltaic cells can improve electrical output by enabling the cells to harvest infrared light, and by increasing the lifetime of photoelectrons.
The research appeared online last May in the journal Nano Letters. The research team included Vladimir Mitin, Andrei Sergeev and Nizami Vagidov, faculty members in UB's electrical engineering department; Kitt Reinhardt of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research; and John Little and advanced nanofabrication expert Kimberly Sablon of the U.S. Army Research Laboratory.
Mitin, Sergeev and Vagidov have founded a company, OPtoElectronic Nanodevices LLC. (OPEN LLC.), to bring the innovation to the market.
The idea of embedding quantum dots into solar panels is not new: According to Mitin, scientists had proposed about a decade ago that this technique could improve efficiency by allowing panels to harvest invisible, infrared light in addition to visible light. However, intensive efforts in this direction have previously met with limited success.
The UB researchers and their colleagues have not only successfully used embedded quantum dots to harvest infrared light; they have taken the technology a step further, employing selective doping so that quantum dots within the solar cell have a significant built-in charge.
This built-in charge is beneficial because it repels electrons, forcing them to travel around the quantum dots. Otherwise, the quantum dots create a channel of recombination for electrons, in essence "capturing" moving electrons and preventing them from contributing to electric current.
The technology has the potential to increase the efficiency of solar cells up to 45 percent, said Mitin, a SUNY Distinguished Professor. Through UB's Office of Science, Technology Transfer and Economic Outreach (STOR), he and his colleagues have filed provisional patent applications to protect their technology.
"Clean technology will really benefit the region, the state, the country," Mitin said. "With high-efficiency solar cells, consumers can save money and providers can have a smaller solar field that produces more energy."
Mitin and his colleagues have already invested significant amounts of time in developing the quantum dots with a built-in-charge, dubbed "Q-BICs." To further enhance the technology and bring it to the market, OPEN LLC is now seeking funding from private investors and federal programs.
###
The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, a flagship institution in the State University of New York system and its largest and most comprehensive campus. UB's more than 28,000 students pursue their academic interests through more than 300 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs. Founded in 1846, the University at Buffalo is a member of the Association of American Universities.
Related Stories:
Vladimir Mitin Among Three UB Faculty Members Named SUNY Distinguished Professors: http://www.buffalo.edu/news/9243
A photo of Mitin is available here: http://www.buffalo.edu/news/13138
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
In solar cells, tweaking the tiniest of parts yields big jump in efficiencyPublic release date: 20-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Charlotte Hsu chsu22@buffalo.edu 716-645-4655 University at Buffalo
Company led by university researchers employs charged quantum dots to increase the efficiency of solar cell technology
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- By tweaking the smallest of parts, a trio of University at Buffalo engineers is hoping to dramatically increase the amount of sunlight that solar cells convert into electricity.
With military colleagues, the UB researchers have shown that embedding charged quantum dots into photovoltaic cells can improve electrical output by enabling the cells to harvest infrared light, and by increasing the lifetime of photoelectrons.
The research appeared online last May in the journal Nano Letters. The research team included Vladimir Mitin, Andrei Sergeev and Nizami Vagidov, faculty members in UB's electrical engineering department; Kitt Reinhardt of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research; and John Little and advanced nanofabrication expert Kimberly Sablon of the U.S. Army Research Laboratory.
Mitin, Sergeev and Vagidov have founded a company, OPtoElectronic Nanodevices LLC. (OPEN LLC.), to bring the innovation to the market.
The idea of embedding quantum dots into solar panels is not new: According to Mitin, scientists had proposed about a decade ago that this technique could improve efficiency by allowing panels to harvest invisible, infrared light in addition to visible light. However, intensive efforts in this direction have previously met with limited success.
The UB researchers and their colleagues have not only successfully used embedded quantum dots to harvest infrared light; they have taken the technology a step further, employing selective doping so that quantum dots within the solar cell have a significant built-in charge.
This built-in charge is beneficial because it repels electrons, forcing them to travel around the quantum dots. Otherwise, the quantum dots create a channel of recombination for electrons, in essence "capturing" moving electrons and preventing them from contributing to electric current.
The technology has the potential to increase the efficiency of solar cells up to 45 percent, said Mitin, a SUNY Distinguished Professor. Through UB's Office of Science, Technology Transfer and Economic Outreach (STOR), he and his colleagues have filed provisional patent applications to protect their technology.
"Clean technology will really benefit the region, the state, the country," Mitin said. "With high-efficiency solar cells, consumers can save money and providers can have a smaller solar field that produces more energy."
Mitin and his colleagues have already invested significant amounts of time in developing the quantum dots with a built-in-charge, dubbed "Q-BICs." To further enhance the technology and bring it to the market, OPEN LLC is now seeking funding from private investors and federal programs.
###
The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, a flagship institution in the State University of New York system and its largest and most comprehensive campus. UB's more than 28,000 students pursue their academic interests through more than 300 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs. Founded in 1846, the University at Buffalo is a member of the Association of American Universities.
Related Stories:
Vladimir Mitin Among Three UB Faculty Members Named SUNY Distinguished Professors: http://www.buffalo.edu/news/9243
A photo of Mitin is available here: http://www.buffalo.edu/news/13138
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
FRIDAY, Jan. 20 (HealthDay News) -- Patients with depression and type 2 diabetes showed more improvement when they received simultaneous treatment for both conditions, researchers report.
Their 12-week study of 180 patients found that nearly 61 percent of those who received integrated care combined with a brief program to help them adhere to their medication regimens achieved improved blood sugar test results, and almost 59 percent had a reduction in depression symptoms.
Among patients who received usual primary care for the two conditions, nearly 36 percent had improved blood sugar test results and about 31 percent had a reduction in depression symptoms, said the researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
The study appears in the January/February issue of the journal Annals of Family Medicine.
There is a link between depression and diabetes, the researchers noted. Depression is a risk factor for diabetes, and diabetes also increases the risk of depression. Depression is common in diabetes patients and contributes to poor adherence to diabetes medication regimens, which can lead to poorer diabetes management.
In the integrated treatment group, care managers worked with participants to increase their adherence to both diabetes and depression medications, addressing barriers such as medicine costs and lack of social support.
"Though research demonstrates the link between depression and diabetes, few integrated programs are being implemented in practice," study lead author Dr. Hillary Bogner, an assistant professor of Family Medicine and Community Health in the Perelman School of Medicine, said in a university news release.
"Our results demonstrate that integrated treatment for both conditions, combined with a brief program focused on adherence for primary care patients with type 2 diabetes and depression can result in a significant improvement in clinical outcomes. We hope the findings will encourage the adoption of adherence programs aimed at improving outcomes," Bogner added.
More information
The U.S. National Institute of Mental Health has more about depression and diabetes.
McLEAN, Va. ? One of the world's most popular file-sharing sites was shuttered Thursday, and its founder and several company officials were accused of facilitating millions of illegal downloads of films, music and other content.
An indictment accused Megaupload.com of costing copyright holders at least $500 million in lost revenue. The indictment was unsealed one day after websites including Wikipedia and Craigslist shut down in protest of two congressional proposals intended to make it easier for authorities to go after websites with pirated material, especially those with overseas headquarters and servers.
Megaupload is based in Hong Kong, but some of the alleged pirated content was hosted on leased servers in Ashburn, Va., which gave federal authorities jurisdiction, the indictment said.
The Justice Department said in a statement said that Kim Dotcom, 37, and three other employees were arrested Thursday in New Zealand at the request of U.S. officials. Three other defendants are at large.
Before Megaupload was taken down, it posted a statement saying allegations that it facilitated massive breaches of copyright laws were "grotesquely overblown."
"The fact is that the vast majority of Mega's Internet traffic is legitimate, and we are here to stay. If the content industry would like to take advantage of our popularity, we are happy to enter into a dialogue. We have some good ideas. Please get in touch," the statement said.
The indictment may have prompted a response from the loose affiliation of hackers known as "Anonymous," which claimed credit for attacking the Justice Department's website. The site was inaccessible Thursday evening.
A spokesman for the Motion Picture Association of America said in an emailed statement Thursday that the group's site had been hacked, although it appeared to be working later Thursday evening.
"The motion picture and television industry has always been a strong supporter of free speech," the spokesman said. "We strongly condemn any attempts to silence any groups or individuals."
Megaupload was unique not only because of its massive size and the volume of downloaded content, but also because it had high-profile support from celebrities, musicians and other content producers who are most often the victims of copyright infringement and piracy. Before the website was taken down, it contained endorsements from Kim Kardashian, Alicia Keys and Kanye West, among others.
The company listed Swizz Beatz, a musician who married Keys in 2010, as its CEO. He was not named in the indictment and declined to comment through a representative.
According to the indictment, Megaupload was estimated at one point to be the 13th most frequently visited website on the Internet. Current estimates by companies that monitor Web traffic place it in the top 100.
The five-count indictment, which alleges copyright infringement as well as conspiracy to commit money laundering and racketeering, described a site designed specifically to reward users who uploaded pirated content for sharing, and turned a blind eye to requests from copyright holders to remove copyright-protected files.
For instance, users received cash bonuses if they uploaded content popular enough to generate massive numbers of downloads, according to the indictment. Such content was almost always copyright protected.
The site boasted 150 million registered users and about 50 million hits daily. The Justice Department said it was illegal for anyone to download pirated content, but their investigation focused on the leaders of the company, not end users who may have downloaded a few movies for personal viewing.
A lawyer who represented the company in a lawsuit last year declined comment Thursday. Efforts to reach an attorney representing Dotcom were unsuccessful.
Megaupload is considered a "cyberlocker," in which users can upload and transfer files that are too large to send by email. Such sites can have perfectly legitimate uses. But the Motion Picture Association of America, which has campaigned for a crackdown on piracy, estimated that the vast majority of content being shared on Megaupload was in violation of copyright laws.
The website allowed users to download some content for free, but made money by charging subscriptions to people who wanted access to faster download speeds or extra content. The website also sold advertising.
The indictment was returned in the Eastern District of Virginia, which claimed jurisdiction in part because some of the alleged pirated materials were hosted on leased servers in Ashburn, Va. Prosecutors there have pursued multiple piracy investigations.
Steven T. Shelton, a copyright lawyer at the Cozen O'Connor firm in New York, said opponents of the legislation are worried the proposals lessen the burden for the government to target a wide variety of websites. Shelton said he expects to see the government engage in more enforcement in the future, as technology makes it easier to catch and target suspected pirates.
"I think we'll be seeing more of this," he said. "This is just the beginning."
Dotcom, a resident of both Hong Kong and New Zealand, and a dual citizen of Finland and Germany, made more than $42 million from the site in 2010 alone, according to the indictment.
Dotcom had his name legally changed. He was previously known as Kim Schmitz and Kim Tim Jim Vestor. He is founder, former CEO and current chief innovation officer of Megaupload.
Officials estimated it could be a year or more before Dotcom and the others arrested in New Zealand are formally extradited.
The others arrested were Finn Batato, 38, a citizen and resident of Germany, the company's chief marketing officer; Mathias Ortmann, 40, a citizen of Germany and resident of both Germany and Hong Kong, who is the chief technical officer, co-founder and director; and Bram van der Kolk, aka Bramos, 29, a Dutch citizen and resident of both the Netherlands and New Zealand, who oversees programming.
Still at large are Julius Bencko, 35, a citizen and resident of Slovakia, the site's graphic designer; Sven Echternach, 39, a citizen and resident of Germany, head of business development; and Andrus Nomm, 32, a citizen of Estonia and resident of both Turkey and Estonia, head of the development software division.
Several sister sites were also shut down, including one dedicated to sharing pornography files.
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) ? Gunmen killed five European tourists and kidnapped two further foreigners and two Ethiopians in northern Ethiopia's remote Afar region where separatist rebels have operated, the government said on Wednesday.
Ethiopian government spokesman Bereket Simon said two Germans, two Hungarians and an Austrian died in the dawn attack Tuesday in an arid area prone to banditry.
Wednesday afternoon, 11 tired-looking survivors still dressed in trekking clothing arrived by plane in the capital, Addis Ababa.
Several hid their faces from the awaiting television cameras. One was pushed through the airport in a wheelchair, his knees and arms bruised, before the group was taken away in diplomatic vehicles.
Ethiopia blamed its neighbor and arch-foe Eritrea for the attack, saying it had trained and armed the gunmen. Ethiopia also blamed an Afar rebel movement for kidnapping five Westerners in the region in 2007.
The incident risked raising tensions in the volatile region, as Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's government threatened "whatever action necessary to stop the activities of the Eritrean regime once and for all" if foreign powers failed to step in.
"The Ethiopian government's tolerance toward a regime that openly supports terrorist activity is inevitably wearing thinner by the day," Ethiopia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
It is the first time Addis Ababa has warned of action since March last year when it accused Asmara of trying to destabilize Ethiopia by backing rebels, and also supporting Islamist militants in Somalia.
Eritrea's envoy to the African Union, Girma Asmerom, rejected Ethiopia's latest allegation. "This is pathetic, an absolute lie," he told Reuters.
There was confusion over who had been hurt in the attack, and their nationalities. Addis Ababa initially said a Hungarian and an Italian had been wounded, but Rome later denied one of its citizens had been hurt.
Hungarian authorities confirmed one of their nationals was wounded. Belgium's Foreign Ministry spokesman said a Belgian and a citizen of another country who lived in Brussels had been injured and had been taken to a hospital in Mekele, northeastern Ethiopia's biggest city.
A VERITABLE LAND OF DEATH
Afar has some of the earth's harshest terrains. The highest average annual temperature ever recorded was in Afar's Danakil Depression at 34.4 Celsius (94 degrees Fahrenheit) with levels regularly exceeding 50 celsius in the summer.
Afar province's rock-strewn hills give way to vast deserts below sea level, and dry river-beds and acacia thorn-trees dot the landscape. Banditry is widespread in a region once described by the late British explorer Wilfred Thesiger as a "veritable land of death."
Foreigners who venture out into the area usually include researchers, aid workers and about 500 adventure tourists each year visiting geographical wonders such as the Danakil Depression, with ancient salt mines and volcanoes.
"The attack occurred at 5 a.m. Tuesday, in which Eritrean-trained groups also kidnapped four. Two of them are foreigners, one is a driver and the other a policeman," Bereket said.
Ethiopian state media said the victims were part of a 27-member party that included U.S. and Australian citizens.
A German Foreign Ministry spokesman said Berlin was working with its embassy in Addis Ababa to clarify what had happened.
BITTER ENEMIES
Ethiopia said the four hostages might have been taken across the frontier into Eritrea.
In 2007, gunmen seized five Europeans and eight local people in Afar. The Europeans were handed to the Eritrean authorities less than two weeks later and Britain said Asmara had helped to secure their release. The eight locals were freed a few weeks later.
Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a 1998-2000 border war that killed 70,000 people, and the dispute still festers.
Addis Ababa routinely accuses Asmara of supporting Ethiopian separatist groups, while Eritrea says the accusations are lies designed to tarnish its reputation.
"It has become a trend for Ethiopia to fabricate sensational news against Eritrea whenever the summit is nearing," Girma told Reuters, referring to an African Union summit which begins in Addis Ababa next week.
Ethiopia accused Eritrea of plotting to bomb targets and disrupt an AU meeting in January last year.
(Additional reporting by Richard Lough in Nairobi, Fredrik Dahl in Vienna, Krisztina Than in Budapest and Ben Deighton in Brussels; writing by David Clarke and Richard Lough; editing by David Stamp)
(Reuters) - The FBI is in the process of arresting Anthony Chiasson, who co-founded the Level Global Investors hedge fund, and others as part of the government's sweeping probe into insider trading, a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
Only on msnbc.com
Wiki
Wikipedia goes dark on piracy bill protest day
EPA
Syria's 'Big Brother' looms over a tense capital
New weapon aimed at Occupy: lynching charge
Venue for Obama's convention speech draws criticism
Protesters underwhelmed by senator's staff
Romney pegs his tax rate at around 15 percent
Scott Noble / RIT
Scientists unite to capture a black hole
Level Global is one of several firms that were raided by the FBI in late 2010 in the probe. The source declined to be named because of a lack of authority to speak about the expected arrests.
A lawyer for Chiasson did not immediately return a request for comment.
More than 50 people have been arrested or charged in overlapping probes that were first unveiled in October 2009. Most of these people have pleaded guilty or been convicted.
(Reporting by Matthew Goldstein, Basil Katz and Jonathan Stempel in New York and Svea Herbst-Bayliss in Boston; editing by John Wallace)
Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
Largely forgotten social network Bebo may have shut down today. Bebo users certainly seem to think that this is the end. The Bebo website is down, and as a result there's a steady stream of sad tweets using the "#bebo" and "#ripbebo" hashtags. And if it's a false alarm, the company isn't doing much to combat that impression ? the most recent posts on both the Bebo and Team Bebo Twitter accounts date from November.
I just read and enjoyed Reinventing Discovery: The New Era of Networked Science, a new book by Michael Nielsen, recently reviewed by Bora Zivkovic. The book tells how science is undergoing a revolution where new global online collaborations face off against secretive old-school researchers and profit-hungry journal publishers. It urges scientists to fight for open access and open science?a call to action made more poignant by recent events. For example, this December, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney and Congressman Darrell Issa introduced a bill into the House of Representatives that would effectively revert the NIH?s Public Access Policy that allows taxpayer-funded research to be freely accessible online. Reinventing Discovery will help you form a strong opinion of this bill.
Last week, the internet breathed a sigh of relief as the team at GreenPois0n finally released an untethered jailbreak for Mac users with an iPhone 4S or iPad 2 running iOS 5.0.1. Today, they quietly released a Windows version of GreenPois0n Absinthe, so PC users can get in on the fun too. Hit the link to download the tool, and see our always up-to-date guide for a full walkthrough on how to use it to jailbreak your device. [GreenPois0n]
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uaS7GliX08Vvm93WrzZbIBinDiQ85hSnpzCcH2CUThBYXZXTIzN36LuRvH8AQTc07_mydDUB4DyruvYH7q-e5YNmy1wJtc-rvglBe0WY8=s0-d){kind=small}
Public release date: 20-Jan-2012
Share ] 
