Sunday, March 31, 2013

Kenya mostly calm after vote ruling; minor clashes in west

By Edmund Blair and Hezron Ochiel

NAIROBI/KISUMU, Kenya (Reuters) - Kenyan police clashed on Sunday with a few dozen protesters angry at a court's confirmation of Uhuru Kenyatta as president-elect, but the unrest was minor compared with the nationwide bloodshed after the last disputed election.

There was little sign of violence beyond Kisumu, a city in the west of Kenya where there is strong backing for Prime Minister Raila Odinga, loser in the presidential election.

Kisumu and other regions were devastated by deadly riots after the vote in 2007.

Even in Kisumu, where two people were killed by gunfire and shops were looted on Saturday after the Supreme Court declared Kenyatta had won in a fair race, most areas had cooled down on Sunday and the latest trouble was limited to the outskirts.

Many Kenyans had said they were determined to avoid a repeat of the violence five years ago that killed more than 1,200 people and hammered east Africa's biggest economy.

Kenyans said the calmer atmosphere this time was in part because of far greater trust in the reformed judiciary that ruled on the disputed March 4 vote, and also because Odinga was swift to fully accept the verdict despite his disappointment.

Kenyatta is expected to be sworn in on April 9.

"Our leader has conceded defeat, who are we to take to the streets?" said Elijah Onyango, 27, delivery man in Kisumu.

"Life has to continue with or without Raila. We are just poor citizens who must struggle to put food on the table."

In Nairobi, police were called in to defuse a bomb left in a minibus in a residential suburb, a Reuters witness and police officer said. It was unclear if there was any link to the vote. A blast hit another area of the city a day after the election.

The peaceful voting and an orderly legal challenge has helped restore Kenya's image as one of Africa's most stable democracies. Western states were anxious that cool heads prevail in their ally in the regional fight against militant Islam.

As in past ballots, tribal loyalties tended to trump political ideology at the ballot box. Odinga, a Luo, and Kenyatta, from the largest Kikuyu tribe, relied heavily on their ethnic supporters. But tensions between rival groups have not so far boiled over in the way they did after the 2007 vote.

THE HAGUE DETERRENT

Kenyatta's indictment in the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, based on charges he helped organize violent gangs after the last election, may have swollen the turnout for him and running mate William Ruto, also charged.

"It certainly helped Kenyatta and Ruto," said one European diplomat in Nairobi, but added: "The presence of the court is major deterrent to any politician who otherwise may have been tempted to hire some youths to get into a big fight."

That was echoed by Boniface Odhiambo, a 33-year-old who sells mattresses in Kisumu. "Politicians have realized that inciting people to violence will land them in The Hague and nobody wants to go there," he said.

Kenyatta and Ruto have both denied the charges and promised to clear their names.

Western states have said the charges will complicate relations because of their policy of having only "essential contacts" with indictees.

But diplomats said there could be latitude in how to define that if Kenyatta and his deputy continue to cooperate with the court. Western nations, including the United States, congratulated him on his victory.

The White House welcomed Kenya's "commitment to uphold its international obligations, including those with respect to international justice", a reference to comments along those lines made by Kenyatta in his victory speech on March 9.

JUSTICE

The unrest in Kisumu appeared to reflect spontaneous anger among Odinga supporters, worried they might be marginalized by a Kenyatta government.

Traditionally, Kenyans expect elected rulers to put their own ethnic group first. The country came third in the 2012 Transparency International bribery index which ranks countries in the region in order of the prevalence of corruption.

"They have stolen our votes and are now killing us," shouted one protester in Sunday's clashes. "We want justice for our leader. The courts were corrupted to rule in their favor."

Police fired tear gas at dozens of stone-throwing youths in a Kisumu suburb. But other areas of the city had largely calmed down.

Kenyatta, the son of Kenya's founding president and whose family controls a vast business empire, promised in a televised address after the ruling to work for all Kenyans, including those who challenged the validity of his election.

"I want to assure Kenyans that our government will be as inclusive as possible and will reflect the face of our great country," he told the nation.

Many Kenyans in places that were flashpoints five years ago, such as Kibera slum in Nairobi, or other Odinga strongholds such as Mombasa, said they wanted to move on.

"People were tired. Life has already gone back to normal since the election," said Brian Kiogora, 32, a restaurant owner in Mombasa. "Emotions were much lower, so violence was most unlikely, even with the outcome of the petition."

(Additional reporting by Joseph Akwiri in Mombasa and Thomas Mukoya and Humphrey Malalo in Nairobi; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Jon Boyle)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kenya-mostly-calm-vote-ruling-minor-clashes-west-102824031.html

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How to disable lock screen notifications for specific Passbook cards

How to disable lock screen notifications for specific Passbook cards

If you use Passbook frequently on your iPhone, you may have noticed that certain passes use your location in order to give you easy access on your lock screen to a specific pass when you're within the vicinity. Some of those passes may contain personal information or allow for someone to charge an item to a gift card or account.

If you'd like to prevent unauthorized access to your passes, you can easily do so within Passbook. Follow along and we'll show you how.

  1. Launch the Passbook app on the Home screen of your iPhone.
  2. Find the pass that uses location services to show on your lock screen and bring it up.
  3. Tap the Info button that is represented by a lowercase "i" in the bottom right hand corner to flip the pass over.
  4. You'll see an option for Show On Lock Screen. Turn this setting to Off.

That particular pass will no longer show up on your lock screen when you're within the vicinity. Alternately, you can always disable access to Passbook from the lock screen to take care of any concerns you may have with unauthorized use.



Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/ETRWL1COla0/story01.htm

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Saturday, March 30, 2013

15th Annual Spartan Golf Outing and Dinner Auction - in Brookfield ...

The Westmoor Country Club is one of the most premier country clubs, featuring a golf course designed by expert golf architects. The club offers an olympic-sized swimming pool, tennis courts and a banquet and dining area. The executive chef and staff design delicious and creative cuisine that will make every occasion a special one.? Westmoor Country club is located across from the Brookfield Square mall, just off the I-94 interchange.

Source: http://brookfield-wi.patch.com/events/15th-annual-spartan-golf-outing-and-dinner-auction

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3 of 4 reptiles stolen from Calif. museum found

(AP) ? A Central California science museum has recovered three of four reptiles stolen in a burglary caught on surveillance video, and arrested a suspect in the heist.

The Discovery Center's education coordinator Ian Goudelock says a 3 1/2-foot savannah monitor lizard, red-tailed boa constrictor and a ball python are back at the Fresno museum on Friday. A 3-foot-long ball python remains missing.

The suspect broke into the museum on Wednesday night or Thursday morning, smashed the tanks that held the four reptiles and made off with them in a garbage bag. The suspect also went into the center's gift shop and stole children's toys, the phone system and the security monitor.

Fresno police says they made an arrest on suspicion of the burglary, but the suspect's name was not immediately available.

___

Information from: The Fresno Bee, http://www.fresnobee.com

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/aa9398e6757a46fa93ed5dea7bd3729e/Article_2013-03-29-Reptiles%20Stolen/id-5f8bf82f45064db8a442040dcedff2d9

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Friday, March 29, 2013

Common gene variants explain 42% of antidepressant response

Mar. 28, 2013 ? Antidepressants are commonly prescribed for the treatment of depression, but many individuals do not experience symptom relief from treatment. The National Institute of Mental Health's STAR*D study, the largest and longest study ever conducted to evaluate depression treatment, found that only approximately one-third of patients responded within their initial medication trial and approximately one-third of patients did not have an adequate clinical response after being treated with several different medications. Thus, identifying predictors of antidepressant response could help to guide the treatment of this disorder.

A new study published in Biological Psychiatry now shares progress in identifying genomic predictors of antidepressant response.

Many previous studies have searched for genetic markers that may predict antidepressant response, but have done so despite not knowing the contribution of genetic factors. Dr. Katherine Tansey of Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London and colleagues resolved to answer that question.

"Our study quantified, for the first time, how much is response to antidepressant medication influenced by an individual's genetic make-up," said Tansey.

To perform this work, the researchers estimated the magnitude of the influence of common genetic variants on antidepressant response using a sample of 2,799 antidepressant-treated subjects with major depressive disorder and genome-wide genotyping data.

They found that genetic variants explain 42% of individual differences, and therefore, significantly influence antidepressant response.

"While we know that there are no genetic markers with strong effect, this means that there are many genetic markers involved. While each specific genetic marker may have a small effect, they may add up to make a meaningful prediction," Tansey added.

"We have a very long way to go to identify genetic markers that can usefully guide the treatment of depression. There are two critical challenges to this process," said Dr. John Krystal, Editor of Biological Psychiatry. "First, we need to have genomic markers that strongly predict response or non-response to available treatments. Second, markers for non-response to available treatments also need to predict response to an alternative treatment. Both of these conditions need to be present for markers of non-response to guide personalized treatments of depression."

"Although the Tansey et al. study represents progress, it is clear that we face enormous challenges with regards to both objectives," he added. "For example, it does not yet appear that having a less favorable genomic profile is a sufficiently strong negative predictor of response to justify withholding antidepressant treatment. Similarly, there is lack of clarity as to how to optimally treat patients who might have less favorable genomic profile.."

Additional research is certainly required, but scientists hope that one day, results such as these can lead to personalized treatment for depression.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Elsevier, via AlphaGalileo.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. Katherine E. Tansey, Michel Guipponi, Xiaolan Hu, Enrico Domenici, Glyn Lewis, Alain Malafosse, Jens R. Wendland, Cathryn M. Lewis, Peter McGuffin, Rudolf Uher. Contribution of Common Genetic Variants to Antidepressant Response. Biological Psychiatry, 2013; 73 (7): 679 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2012.10.030

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/mind_brain/mental_health/~3/z5l4WA6eDzU/130328091730.htm

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Swarming robots could be the servants of the future

Mar. 28, 2013 ? Swarms of robots acting together to carry out jobs could provide new opportunities for humans to harness the power of machines.

Researchers in the Sheffield Centre for Robotics, jointly established by the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University, have been working to program a group of 40 robots, and say the ability to control robot swarms could prove hugely beneficial in a range of contexts, from military to medical.

The researchers have demonstrated that the swarm can carry out simple fetching and carrying tasks, by grouping around an object and working together to push it across a surface.

The robots can also group themselves together into a single cluster after being scattered across a room, and organize themselves by order of priority.

Dr Roderich Gross, head of the Natural Robotics Lab, in the Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering at the University of Sheffield, says swarming robots could have important roles to play in the future of micromedicine, as 'nanobots' are developed for non-invasive treatment of humans. On a larger scale, they could play a part in military, or search and rescue operations, acting together in areas where it would be too dangerous or impractical for humans to go. In industry too, robot swarms could be put to use, improving manufacturing processes and workplace safety.

The programming that the University of Sheffield team has developed to control the robots is deceptively simple. For example, if the robots are being asked to group together, each robot only needs to be able to work out if there is another robot in front of it. If there is, it turns on the spot; if there isn't, it moves in a wider circle until it finds one.

Dr Gross said: "We are developing Artificial Intelligence to control robots in a variety of ways. The key is to work out what is the minimum amount of information needed by the robot to accomplish its task. That's important because it means the robot may not need any memory, and possibly not even a processing unit, so this technology could work for nanoscale robots, for example in medical applications."

This research is funded by a Marie Curie European Reintegration Grant within the 7th European Community Framework Programme. Additional support has been provided by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3e12RicAy1Q

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Sheffield.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/t0u6bm1TWas/130328125325.htm

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The Telegraph erects paywall for UK readers

The Telegraph erects paywall for UK readers

The Telegraph has had a paywall in place for international readers since November, and now its spreading the subscription model to folks in the UK. Despite the slow rollout, the price tiers are staying the same: £1.99 a month nets unlimited access to the newspaper's website and mobile apps, while £9.99 per month grants the same perks, plus use of its tablet editions. Each subscription comes with a free trial before you're charged, but you could keep your wallet shut and skate by on 20 free articles every month. If you're already subscribed to the dead tree version of the publication, however, you'll be able to reap the benefits of its digital incarnations without spending any extra pennies pence.

[Image credit: Pleasance, Flickr]

Filed under:

Comments

Source: The Telegraph

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/28/the-telegraph-uk-subscriptions/

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PFT: Raiders to cut ties with DT Kelly

Andrus+Veerpalu+Men+15KM+Free+Event+FIS+Nordic+d65c8_K8S1VxGetty Images

The 2011 labor agreement included an important provision:? HGH testing is coming to the NFL.? Nearly 20 months later, HGH testing is no closer than it was before the agreement was signed.

The latest evidence comes from the case of Andrus Veerpalu, an Estonian skier whose three-year suspension was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.? Naturally, the NFL and the NFLPA disagree as to the meaning of the ruling, and the incident has caused Albert Breer of NFL Network to learn that the two sides have scrapped an agreement to conduct a so-called ?population study? aimed at gauging the permissible natural levels of HGH in football players.

The details don?t matter, because neither the NFL nor Congress is willing to do anything more than huff and puff about the union?s refusal to honor the agreement to submit to HGH testing.? As a result, the perception is that neither the NFLPA nor the NFL truly want HGH testing.

Since the day the NFL banned the use of HGH, the prohibition has been enforced via the honor system.? The problem with the honor system? ? It works roughly as well as the rhythm method.? So with no way to test for HGH, players will get caught only if a vial of HGH falls out of their letterman jackets, or if the player?s name pops up in the records of an HGH supplier the government is prosecuting.

Surely, the NFL and the NFLPA realize that, if/when HGH testing begins, plenty of players will be caught.? Which will reduce the supply of healthy players.? In turn, players who quit using HGH will not recover as quickly from injuries, likewise reducing the supply of healthy players.

And it won?t be good for the game if players are busted for using HGH, even though most fans presume that they?re using something to get big, to stay big, and/or to rebound from big hits applied by other big men.

If the NFL truly wanted to force the issue on HGH testing, wouldn?t the league unleash the legal hounds and push the issue in court or via an arbitration?? The players already have agreed to submit to testing, and the NFL has more than enough ammunition to argue that the NFLPA deliberately is dragging its feet.? The idea that the NFL doesn?t want to force players to the needle by court order only goes so far.? At some point, the NFL needs to do more than complain about the NFLPA?s refusal to proceed, or the NFLPA will continue to refuse to proceed.

Likewise, Congress has proven to be impotent on the topic, periodically issuing hollow threats but never taking action.Through it all, the delay has given those who use HGH an opportunity to find better masking agents ? or to develop the next wave of substances that work like HGH but for which testing doesn?t yet exist.

The best news for the NFL, the NFLPA, and Congress is that neither the media nor the fans seem to care that the NFL and the NFLPA have struck a deal to abandon the honor system, but that the honor system has continued to be used for two seasons, and counting.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/03/27/raiders-to-release-tommy-kelly/related/

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Thursday, March 28, 2013

Home hot water temperatures remain a burn hazard for young and elderly

Home hot water temperatures remain a burn hazard for young and elderly [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 28-Mar-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Natalie Wood-Wright
nwoodwri@jhsph.edu
410-614-6029
Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health

Home hot water heater temperatures are too high, warns a team of researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Despite the adoption of voluntary standards by manufacturers to preset hot water heater temperature settings below the recommended safety standard of 120F, temperatures remain dangerously high for a significant proportion of homes, presenting a scald hazard for young children and the elderly. The report is published in the March 2013 issue of Journal Of Burn Care Research.

In the U.S., tap water burns cause an estimated 1,500 hospital admissions and 100 deaths per year and the economic burden stemming from these burns is tremendous. According to the researchers, human exposure to hot water at 140F can lead to a serious burn within 3 seconds, and at 120F a serious burn can occur in about 10 minutes. Young children and older adults have thinner skin which burns more quickly putting them at increased risk.

"Hot water temperatures above the Consumer Product Safety Commission's recommended 120F were observed in 41 percent of homes we surveyed, including 27 percent of homes with temperatures at or above 130F. We also found renters were less likely to have safe hot water temperature than homeowners," said Wendy Shields, MPH, lead author of the study and an assistant scientist with the Bloomberg School's Department of Health Policy and Management. "Delivering hot water at a consistent temperature is difficult. As a hot water tank is depleted, replenished and reheated, water temperature will not be constant throughout the tank. In addition, water heater thermostats are not designed to provide precise estimates of water temperatures, making it difficult for residents to assess the exact temperature."

In a community trial to improve home safety, researchers examined the temperature of hot water using a candy thermometer and recorded the characteristics of the hot water heater including the type, date of manufacture, capacity and descriptors used on the temperature gauge in 708 Baltimore city homes. Demographic data such as the household size, income and home ownership status was also documented. Researchers found that despite the fact that 99 percent of the water heaters examined in the study were purchased after the voluntary standard was implemented, hot water temperatures remained dangerously high for 4 out of 10 homes. Gas water heaters were less likely to have safe temperatures and water heaters that held fewer gallons per person were more likely to be above the recommended 120F.

"Given the limitations of reducing tap water temperature through current thermostat technology alone, other existing strategies should be prioritized," said Shields. "One potential solution is to equip faucets with anti scald devices, such as thermostatic mixer valves, anti-scald aerators or scald guards, but until engineering solutions can be implemented on a large-scale, attention must be paid to educational messages. To prevent scald burns, families should be encouraged to test hot water temperatures after adjusting gauges to insure that a safe temperature is achieved."

###

"Still too hot: Examination of water temperature and water heater characteristics 24 years after manufacturers adopt voluntary temperature setting," was written by Wendy C. Shields, Eileen McDonald, Shannon Frattaroli, Jeffrey Zhu, Elise C. Perry and Andrea C. Gielen.

This research was supported by in the National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share 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.


Home hot water temperatures remain a burn hazard for young and elderly [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 28-Mar-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Natalie Wood-Wright
nwoodwri@jhsph.edu
410-614-6029
Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health

Home hot water heater temperatures are too high, warns a team of researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Despite the adoption of voluntary standards by manufacturers to preset hot water heater temperature settings below the recommended safety standard of 120F, temperatures remain dangerously high for a significant proportion of homes, presenting a scald hazard for young children and the elderly. The report is published in the March 2013 issue of Journal Of Burn Care Research.

In the U.S., tap water burns cause an estimated 1,500 hospital admissions and 100 deaths per year and the economic burden stemming from these burns is tremendous. According to the researchers, human exposure to hot water at 140F can lead to a serious burn within 3 seconds, and at 120F a serious burn can occur in about 10 minutes. Young children and older adults have thinner skin which burns more quickly putting them at increased risk.

"Hot water temperatures above the Consumer Product Safety Commission's recommended 120F were observed in 41 percent of homes we surveyed, including 27 percent of homes with temperatures at or above 130F. We also found renters were less likely to have safe hot water temperature than homeowners," said Wendy Shields, MPH, lead author of the study and an assistant scientist with the Bloomberg School's Department of Health Policy and Management. "Delivering hot water at a consistent temperature is difficult. As a hot water tank is depleted, replenished and reheated, water temperature will not be constant throughout the tank. In addition, water heater thermostats are not designed to provide precise estimates of water temperatures, making it difficult for residents to assess the exact temperature."

In a community trial to improve home safety, researchers examined the temperature of hot water using a candy thermometer and recorded the characteristics of the hot water heater including the type, date of manufacture, capacity and descriptors used on the temperature gauge in 708 Baltimore city homes. Demographic data such as the household size, income and home ownership status was also documented. Researchers found that despite the fact that 99 percent of the water heaters examined in the study were purchased after the voluntary standard was implemented, hot water temperatures remained dangerously high for 4 out of 10 homes. Gas water heaters were less likely to have safe temperatures and water heaters that held fewer gallons per person were more likely to be above the recommended 120F.

"Given the limitations of reducing tap water temperature through current thermostat technology alone, other existing strategies should be prioritized," said Shields. "One potential solution is to equip faucets with anti scald devices, such as thermostatic mixer valves, anti-scald aerators or scald guards, but until engineering solutions can be implemented on a large-scale, attention must be paid to educational messages. To prevent scald burns, families should be encouraged to test hot water temperatures after adjusting gauges to insure that a safe temperature is achieved."

###

"Still too hot: Examination of water temperature and water heater characteristics 24 years after manufacturers adopt voluntary temperature setting," was written by Wendy C. Shields, Eileen McDonald, Shannon Frattaroli, Jeffrey Zhu, Elise C. Perry and Andrea C. Gielen.

This research was supported by in the National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share 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.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/jhub-hhw032813.php

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An Easter treat: Spring's first full moon

Greg Diesel Walck

The 2013 March full moon hangs bright over the Bodie Island Lighthouse in Outer Banks, N.C., in this photo from Greg Diesel Walck.

By Joe Rao
Space.com

The first full moon of the new spring season comes Wednesday night (March 27), and it plays a surprisingly important role for the upcoming Easter Sunday.

The moon officially turned full at 5:27 a.m. EDT (2:27 a.m. PDT), but your first view of the full moon at night will likely come later this evening. Traditionally, the March full moon is known as "Worm Moon," supposedly because when the ground softens, the earthworm casts reappear, inviting the return of the robins. But because of its association with Easter, it's also known as the Paschal Moon.?

Other lunar monikers for this month include "Crow Moon," (when the cawing of crows signals the end of winter), "Crust Moon," (because the snow cover becomes crusted from thawing by day and freezing at night) and "Sap Moon," (marking the time of tapping maple trees).

Traditional names for the full moons of the year are found in some publications such as The Farmers' Almanac. We also published the full list of full moon names?here on Space.com earlier this year. The origins of these names have been traced back to Native Americans, though they may also have evolved from old England or, as Guy Ottewell, editor of the annual publication "Astronomical Calendar" suggests, "writer's fancy." [10 Suprising Moon Facts You May Not Know]

The first full moon of spring is also sometimes referred to as the Paschal Full Moon, because it is the moon used to set the date of Easter in a given year. This year, if you have not already noticed, Easter will arrive a bit on the early side, on March 31. The earliest Easter in our lifetimes came five years ago, on March 23 (the last time that Easter fell this early in the calendar was 1913, and before that, in 1856).

Which leads us to ask the question, exactly just how is the date of Easter determined?

Equinox and the full moon
Traditionally, Easter is observed on the Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon. If the Paschal Moon occurs on a Sunday, Easter is the following Sunday.

Following these rules, we find that Easter can fall as early as March 22 and as late as April 25 in any given year. Pope Gregory XIII decreed this in 1582 as part of the Gregorian calendar.

This year the Paschal Full Moon falls Wednesday, so according to the current ecclesiastical rules, Easter is to be celebrated four days later, on Sunday.

Interestingly however, these rules also state that the vernal equinox is fixed on March 21, even though at European longitudes from the years 2008 through 2101 it actually will occur no later than March 20.

Hence, there can sometimes be discrepancies between the ecclesiastical and astronomical rules for dating Easter. In the year 2038, for instance, the equinox falls on March 20, with a full moon the next day, so astronomically speaking, Easter should fall on March 28 of that year. In reality, however, as mandated by the rules of the Church, Easter in 2038 will be observed as late as it can possibly come, on April 25!

Adding additional confusion is that there is also an "ecclesiastical" full moon, determined from ecclesiastical tables and whose date does not necessarily coincide with the "astronomical" full moon, which is based solely on astronomical calculations. In 1981, for example, the full moon occurred on Sunday, April 19, so Easter should have occurred on the following Sunday, April 26. But based on the ecclesiastical full moon, Easter occurred on the same day of the full moon, April 19.

So in practice, the date of Easter is determined not from astronomical computations, but rather from other religious formulas such as Epachs and Golden Numbers. In 2013, we are in Epach 17 and the Golden Number is 19. [Who Observes Easter? (Infographic)]

Since the beginning of the 20th century, a proposal to change Easter to a fixed holiday rather than a movable one has been widely circulated, and in 1963 the Second Vatican Council agreed, provided a consensus could be reached among Christian churches. The second Sunday in April has been suggested as the most likely date.

Changeable weather too
Interestingly, the fact that Easter occurs at a time of the year when weather patterns are transitioning from winter to spring, means a wide variation in the type of weather that can be expected, depending upon just when the holiday falls in a given year. Ask somebody what type of weather immediately comes to mind when Christmas is mentioned, and likely the answer will be cold and snowy. For the Fourth of July, it's probably sunny and hot.?

Yet Easter can feature both of these extremes!?

In 1970, Easter fell on March 29. In that year, a snowstorm hit the northeastern United States. In New York City, the famous Easter Parade had to be canceled, as four inches of snow fell, with as much as a foot of it?in the northern suburbs.

And yet, just six years later, in 1976, Easter fell on April 18, which ended up going down in New York weather annals as the hottest Easter on record. Not only was the 96-degree Fahrenheit reading that day the hottest temperature recorded in Central Park that year, it was also the very first (and only time) that New York held the distinction of being the hottest location in the United States!??

Editor's note:?If you have an amazing picture of the full moon or any other night sky view that?you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, send photos, comments and your name and location to Managing Editor Tariq Malik at?spacephotos@space.com.

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for The?New York Times and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, N.Y.?Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook?and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

Copyright 2013 Space.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653377/s/2a109ca2/l/0Lscience0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A30C270C174898980Ean0Eeaster0Etreat0Esprings0Efirst0Efull0Emoon0Dlite/story01.htm

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Wednesday, March 27, 2013

How hard is it to 'de-anonymize' cellphone data?

Mar. 27, 2013 ? The proliferation of sensor-studded cellphones could lead to a wealth of data with socially useful applications -- in urban planning, epidemiology, operations research and emergency preparedness, among other things. Of course, before being released to researchers, the data would have to be stripped of identifying information. But how hard could it be to protect the identity of one unnamed cellphone user in a data set of hundreds of thousands or even millions?

According to a paper appearing this week in Scientific Reports, harder than you might think. Researchers at MIT and the Universit? Catholique de Louvain, in Belgium, analyzed data on 1.5 million cellphone users in a small European country over a span of 15 months and found that just four points of reference, with fairly low spatial and temporal resolution, was enough to uniquely identify 95 percent of them.

In other words, to extract the complete location information for a single person from an "anonymized" data set of more than a million people, all you would need to do is place him or her within a couple of hundred yards of a cellphone transmitter, sometime over the course of an hour, four times in one year. A few Twitter posts would probably provide all the information you needed, if they contained specific information about the person's whereabouts.

The first author on the paper is Yves-Alexandre de Montjoye, a graduate student in the research group of Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Science Sandy Pentland. He's joined by C?sar Hidalgo, an assistant professor of media arts and science; Vincent Blondel, a visiting professor at MIT and a professor of applied mathematics at Universit? Catholique; and Michel Verleysen, a professor of electrical engineering at Universit? Catholique.

Focusing the debate

Hidalgo's group specializes in applying the tools of statistical physics to a wide range of subjects, from communications networks to genetics to economics. In this case, he and de Montjoye were able to use those tools to uncover a simple mathematical relationship between the resolution of spatiotemporal data and the likelihood of identifying a member of a data set.

According to their formula, the probability of identifying someone goes down if the resolution of the measurements decreases, but less than you might think. Reporting the time of each measurement as imprecisely as sometime within a 15-hour span, or location as imprecisely as somewhere amid 15 adjacent cell towers, would still enable the unique identification of half the people in the sample data set.

But while its initial application may be discouraging, de Montjoye and Hidalgo hope that their formula will provide a way for researchers and policy analysts to reason more rigorously about the privacy safeguards that need to be put in place when they're working with aggregated location data.

"Both C?sar and I deeply believe that we all have a lot to gain from this data being used," de Montjoye says. "This formula is something that could be useful to help the debate and decide, OK, how do we balance things out, and how do we make it a fair deal for everyone to use this data?"

Everybody's different

In the data set that the researchers analyzed, the location of a cellphone was inferred solely from that of the cell tower it was connected to, and the time of the connection was given as falling within a one-hour interval. Each cellphone had a unique, randomly generated identifying number, so that its movement could be traced over time. But there was no information connecting that number to the phone's owner.

The researchers randomly selected a representative sampling from the set of 1.5 million cellphone traces and, for each trace, began choosing points at random. For 95 percent of the traces, just four randomly selected points was enough to distinguish them from all other traces in the database. In the worst (or, from another perspective, best) case, 11 measurements were necessary.

"There's a concern with this data, to what extent can we preserve anonymity," says Luis Bettencourt, a professor at the Santa Fe Institute who studies social systems. "What they are showing here, quite clearly, is that it's very hard to preserve anonymity."

But for Bettencourt, the uniqueness of people's trajectories through cities is itself precisely the type of information that analysis of cellphone data is meant to uncover. "This is interesting, from a scientific point of view, to understand how people use urban space," Bettencourt says. "It shows what kind of social systems cities are."

The researchers suspect that similar relationships might hold for other types of data. "I would not be surprised if a similar result -- maybe requiring more points -- would, for example, extend to web browsing," Hidalgo says. "The space of potential combinations is really large. When a person is, in some sense, being expressed in a space in which the total number of combinations is huge, the probability that two people would have the same exact trajectory -- whether it's walking or browsing -- is almost nil."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The original article was written by Larry Hardesty.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. Yves-Alexandre de Montjoye, C?sar A. Hidalgo, Michel Verleysen, Vincent D. Blondel. Unique in the Crowd: The privacy bounds of human mobility. Scientific Reports, 2013; 3 DOI: 10.1038/srep01376

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/computers_math/information_technology/~3/VTffQuQWigw/130327132547.htm

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Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Learning to "Lean In" from Our 19th-Century Ancestors | Excuse Me ...

By?Ellen Gruber Garvey, PhD

EllenGruberGarvey

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Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg [author of Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead] says women ?hold ourselves back? when we should be advocating for ourselves and??leaning in.??If only she had known Caroline Healey Dall! With other feminists one hundred fifty years ago, Dall spoke up for herself. Early feminists advocated for each other, too. Their tools and methods for smashing through and stepping over barriers may still be sharp and effective.

Dall?s first public speech in 1855 at the Women?s Rights convention in Boston, which she gave on Massachusetts laws, made her very nervous. Women?s speaking in public, especially to mixed audiences, was barely proper. But she was so thrilled by her speech?s reception that she clipped pages of newspaper accounts of the talk for her scrapbook. She recorded friends? and strangers? praise of it in the?extraordinary diary?she began at age 15 and kept for 75-years?such persistence as a diarist shows she thought her ideas mattered. Beginning with obligatory self-deprecation, she went on to treasure up admiration and acknowledgment, relishing the comparison to eminent orator Daniel Webster:

My report . . . had a most unmerited success. E.P. Whipple said it was the ablest thing done in the Convention, some?stupid?person that it would have done Dan. Webster credit.! ?! . . .? Several pressed my hand silently or said ?I am glad you belong to Boston.? Miss Hunt said, ?How brave and beautiful you have been.? Mrs. Severance, with her clear true face, ?Noble words!?

CarolynDallAnd pages more. She had learned from other women who stuck up for themselves. As a teenager, she?d taken notes at Margaret Fuller?s ?conversations,? where Fuller developed transcendental philosophy and earned money to support her family. Dall had confidently spoke up in sessions attended by Ralph Waldo Emerson, even when her mentor, Elizabeth Peabody, told her she was too bold.

Economic need spurred her next moves. Her husband, a minister, had suffered a nervous breakdown and sailed off to missionary work in India, leaving her to support two children essentially as a single mother. Attending a lecture by a male friend suggested a career direction. She was heartened by how mediocre his lecture was. Evidently, the bar was lower than she?d believed. Perhaps she recognized that, as Sandberg explains, men apply for jobs that they?re only 60 percent qualified for, while women hold back unless they?re 100 percent. Dall guessed at the fee her friend had received, and then took her public speaking the next, more daring step: speaking to public mixed audiences of men and women for pay.

She?d been wise to stockpile appreciation for her public speaking, since her family was happy to tear her down: A sister scolded her for wanting to lecture in public, and her mother planted further doubts.

When Dall gave her first paid speech, ?The Dignity of Woman,? the Boston?Evening Traveller?published a brief account. It was not to her liking. The paper said she differed with most other women?s rights activists and she worried that this description would cost her speaking engagements. So Dall wrote a spirited eight-paragraph analysis of their article, pointing out its sexist assumptions and errors?with style. Long before Sandberg noted that in positions of authority ?the word ?female? implies a bit of a surprise,? Dall got? in a dig at the assumption that ?male? equals normal:

?Lecture by a female.? Female what? Parrot, popinjay, or monkey? This phrase does not hurt me on my own account, but I confess that I am weary of this popular coarseness. ? If, after a brilliant political dinner, you were to see this caption?Fine speech by a male?what should you think? That your compositor had gone crazy, I am sure.

After thus parlaying her rebuttal into more newspaper publicity for her talks, she sent her reply around, seeking more speaking engagements. If digital social networking had been around, she would have been sharing that post on all her friends? timelines and tweeting it like mad. Dall spoke back to the media and through it to readers, teaching them that it was wrong and even crazy to assume that speakers were naturally male.

After her exchange with the?Traveller, Dall did not leave her reputation to chance. She pulled in favors from male allies?something men rarely accord to women, according to Sandberg?and lined them up to write about her talks. Their articles appeared anonymously, as was common. But her notes on her scrapbook clippings let her remember that it was William Lloyd Garrison who called her a ?superior lecturer,? or that popular orator Thomas Starr King regarded her as ?amply qualified by abilities, by faithful preparation, and enthusiasm for her subject, to do justice to the themes she will treat.?

She had learned to advocate for herself and to gather her supporters.?At this juncture in contemporary America, when Sheryl Sandberg tells women to act more like men, the history we review during Women?s History Month should remind us that examples of how to stand up for ourselves come from ancestors who never set foot in a corporate boardroom.

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

Ellen Gruber Garvey, a professor of English at New Jersey City University,?is the author of?Writing with Scissors: American Scrapbooks from the Civil War to the Harlem Renaissance?(Oxford University Press, 2013) which contains information on many more women?s rights scrapbooks.

This essay was originally published by George Mason University?s History News Network.

Photo credit: The Smithsonian Archives

Source: http://www.kbgressitt.com/2013/03/25/feminism/learning-to-lean-in-from-our-19th-century-ancestors/

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Oscar-Winning 'Amour' Provides Unflinching Look at Aging, Dying

Mar 25, 2013 5:27pm

ht amour mi 130325 wblog Oscar Winning Amour Provides Unflinching Look at Aging, Dying

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Sarah Putnam reports:

Now that ?Amour? has won the Oscar for best foreign-language film, let us pause for a moment to consider the significance of the Academy?s nominating such a film for one of the most prestigious awards in Hollywood.

In ?Amour,? the French, who seem to have an innate cultural clarity and ability to talk about subjects that tie Americans in knots ? think sex, food and political shenanigans ? show us how to take an unflinching look at dying.

If the Academy of Motion Pictures has taken the unusual step of bestowing an Oscar to a French-language about aging and dying, could that mean that we are finally ready as a country to begin talking about such difficult issues?

It?s refreshing to see the Academy?s? giving a vote of confidence to the cultural change that we at ABC News and The Conversation Project believe in.

Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke frames this end-of-life story in a context of deep intimacy and emotional richness, even as he never sidesteps the grimness of decline. The extraordinary performances of veteran actors Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva as Georges and Anne take us step by step, detail by poignant detail, through the unraveling of the lives of this elegant elderly couple.

?Amour? is unquestionably, as its title declares, a love story. But it is also a portrayal of isolation amplified by pride, by reticence, by family dysfunction. Throughout the movie, this isolation becomes increasingly and unbearably, and quite literally, suffocating.

The story of Georges and Anne can be seen as a cautionary tale, provoking essential questions that all must face.

How do we cope with end of life? How do we best manage the challenges ? physical, emotional, logistical ? of this universal life passage? How can we alleviate the burdens dying imposes on our loved ones, on our survivors, on ourselves?

Sarah Putnam is a visual storyteller whose work as a photojournalist, both nationally and internationally, has been commissioned by magazines, corporations, and non-profits. Putnam has been involved with The Conversation Project since its inception.

SHOWS: World News

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2013/03/25/oscar-winning-amour-provides-unflinching-look-at-aging-dying/

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Monday, March 25, 2013

More heartache for Myles Neuts' family | Local | News | The London ...

CHATHAM?-?

The family of Myles Neuts was shocked to discover medical officials disposed of his organs before the family had a chance to claim them.

In 1998, 10-year-old Neuts was found hanging from a coat hook in a washroom stall door at St. Agnes Catholic School in Chatham. The Grade 5 pupil died six days later, after being taken off of life support, and a coroner?s inquest was held into the death,

His parents, Mike and Brenda Neuts, recently saw a newspaper notice from the Ontario Forensic Pathology Service saying it?s reaching out to families to return organs of family members whose deaths involved a coroner?s investigation and autopsy before June 14, 2010.

Mike Neuts knew Myles? pituitary gland had been removed during the autopsy, but when he asked for more information he was shocked to learn his son?s brain and spinal cord had also been removed.

Those details were in an autopsy report and transcripts from the inquest, but Neuts said he overlooked them because he was still distraught.

Neuts also found out the hospital that performed the autopsy had already disposed of his son?s organs.

Dr. Michael Pollanen, chief forensic pathologist for Ontario, said practices in forensic pathology have changed

and organs no longer need to be kept as often,

He said medical ethics about sharing potentially-distressing news with families has also changed over the years.

?The ethical imperatives now have changed to full disclosure, as opposed to non-disclosure.? Pollanen said,

Neuts said he favours full disclosure, but personally contacting families would have been the better route to go, if organs were available.

?I wonder how many people like me have applied and there?s nothing there for us to get out, especially some of us who didn?t know (organs) were gone,? he said.

Pollanen said more than 2,000 individuals have contacted his office about the issue.

Pollanen said there is now a two-year time limit on retaining organs, which wasn?t the case in the past.

Neuts has been critical of the coroner?s inquest process over the years, but said the efforts of Pollanen give him hope that real changes are happening.

?When I got past my raw emotion and took a look at it . . . I need to be fair and say, ?You know what, they?re trying to clean it up and that?s why this happened,?? he said.

--- --- ---

MORE INFORMATION

? To obtain the organs of a family member whose death involved a coroner?s investigation and autopsy, call 1-855-564-4122 or go online to Ontario.ca/OrganRetention.

? Affected families can request organs be sent to a funeral home for cremation or burial and expenses will be covered by the province.

Source: http://www.lfpress.com/2013/03/24/more-heartache-for-myles-neuts-family

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Sunday, March 24, 2013

Rebels enter Central African Republic capital

BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) ? Hundreds of rebels penetrated the capital of Central African Republic on Saturday, posing the gravest threat to President Francois Bozize's government in a decade.

The rebels, who signed a peace agreement in January that was to allow Bozize to stay in power until 2016, have threatened to overthrow the country's leader unless he meets their demands.

The rebels come from several different armed groups that have long challenged the government. They are now accusing Bozize of failing to abide by the terms of the latest deal signed two months ago, with the help of mediators from neighboring countries.

Fighters rapidly seized a dozen towns in December and January but never entered the capital of Bangui before agreeing to negotiations.

Guy Moussa, who lives in the PK12 neighborhood on the north side of the city, told The Associated Press that hundreds of rebels had entered the city around 6 p.m.

Panicked residents cowered in their homes, many shrouded in darkness after rebels took out a power station supplying parts of Bangui.

Earlier in the afternoon, non-essential United Nations personnel taking a bus to the airport were stopped by a group of angry youths.

"No one leaves this country. You will stay here. If we die, we all die together," the youths shouted, according to U.N. employee Debonheur Deotar.

The unrest is the latest threat to the stability of Central African Republic, a desperately poor nation of 4.5 million that has long been wracked by rebellions and power grabs. The president himself took power in 2003 following a rebellion, and his tenure has been marked by conflict with myriad armed groups.

Bozize's whereabouts late Saturday were not immediately known. On Friday, state radio announced that he had returned from South Africa where he was meeting with that country's president, Jacob Zuma.

South Africa has sent troops and equipment to support Central African Republic forces.

The rebels insist the foreign troops leave, and, as part of their demands, they want their own fighters integrated into the national army.

On Friday, the rebels seized Damara, which had been the boundary line drawn up by regional forces before the January peace accord was signed.

The move marked a serious escalation by the rebels, who went on to take the town of Bossembele early Saturday, said military spokesman Lt. Evrard Tekremoyen.

The insurgents then drove to the neighboring town of Boali and took control of three power plants that serve the town and the capital, residents said.

The rebels also cut off the electrical grid, plunging some of Bangui into darkness, Elisabeth Kofio, the director of Central African Republic Energy, said on the radio.

Earlier in the week, Bozize had offered to release some political prisoners, but the rebels said the gestures were too little, too late.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rebels-enter-c-african-republic-capital-181734866.html

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Jane Goodall apologizes for plagiarizing in new book

Jane Goodall apologizes: The famous primate researcher apologizes because her some passages were lifted from elsewhere. Jane Goodall and the publisher of "Seeds of Hope" announced a delay in the book's release.

By Hillel Italie,?Associated Press / March 23, 2013

Primatologist Jane Goodall during a news conference at the Mobile World Congress in La Casa de Libro, Barcelona last month. Separately, Goodall apologized that some passages from her upcoming book "Seeds of Hope" were copied and not properly credited.

REUTERS/Gustau Nacarino

Enlarge

The next book by primatologist Jane Goodall has been postponed because some passages were lifted from online sources and not properly credited.

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Hachette Book Group announced Friday that no new release date has been set for Goodall's "Seeds of Hope," originally scheduled for April 2. Goodall said in a statement that she agreed to delay the book and "correct any unintentional errors."

Goodall also apologized.

"During extensive research I spoke to as many experts as possible," Goodall said in a statement released by the Jane Goodall Institute. "I also visited numerous websites dedicated to celebrating, protecting and preserving the plants of the world. This was a long and well researched book, and I am distressed to discover that some of the excellent and valuable sources were not properly cited, and I want to express my sincere apologies."

"It is important to me that the proper sources are credited, and I will be working diligently with my team to address all areas of concern," said Goodall, who has written or co-written more than 20 books.

Hachette said excerpts that appeared this month in Smithsonian magazine did not contain questionable material.

Goodall, 78, co-authored "Seeds of Hope" with Gail Hudson, who has written for Nature, Good Housekeeping and other publications. The book is being billed as a study of "the critical role that trees and plants play in our world."

Earlier this month, a Washington Post freelance reviewer alerted the paper to numerous similarities between material in "Seeds of Hope" and passages on Wikipedia and on websites for organic tea and the history of tobacco.

"My goal is to ensure that when this book is released it is not only up to the highest of standards, but also that the focus be on the crucial messages it conveys," Goodall said. "It is my hope that then the meaningful conversation can resume about the harm we are inflicting on our natural environment and how we can all act together to ensure our children and grandchildren inherit a healthy planet."

Other authors in recent years have used Internet material without attribution, including Chris Anderson, whose 2009 book "Free: The Future of a Radical Price" contained passages taken verbatim from Wikipedia.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/lNbEyn8DICM/Jane-Goodall-apologizes-for-plagiarizing-in-new-book

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The After Math: Engadget Expand SF special

Welcome to The After Math, where we attempt to summarize this week's tech news through numbers, decimal places and percentages.

The After Math Engadget Expand special

Last weekend, we wrapped up our inaugural Expand event, and while several of our international editors (yours truly included) are still battling an unhappy combo of jet lag and the sniffles, we've pulled together some numbers that should offer at least a glimpse at how the weekend in San Francisco all went down. What if you missed out on all the tech, discussions, Engadget editors and giveaways this time? We wouldn't worry. Next stop, New York.

Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/22/the-after-math-engadget-expand-special/

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Saturday, March 23, 2013

'Croods' stars cringe at sound of their own voices (Providence Journal)

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

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/293918207?client_source=feed&format=rss

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S. Korea misidentifies China as cyberattack origin

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? In an embarrassing twist to a coordinated cyberattack on six major South Korean companies this week, investigators said Friday they wrongly identified a Chinese Internet Protocol address as the source.

A joint team of government and private experts still maintains that hackers abroad were likely to blame, and many analysts suspect North Korea. But the error raises questions about investigators' ability to track down the source of an attack that shut down 32,000 computers Wednesday and exposed big Internet security holes in one of the world's most wired, tech-savvy countries.

South Korean investigators said Thursday that a malicious code that spread through the server of one of the hackers' targets, Nonghyup Bank, was traced to an IP address in China. Even then it was clear that the attack could have originated elsewhere because hackers can easily manipulate such data.

But the state-run Korea Communications Commission said Friday that the IP address actually belonged to a computer at the bank. The IP address was used only for the company's internal network and happened to be identical to a public Chinese address.

"We were careless in our efforts to double-check and triple-check," KCC official Lee Seung-won told reporters. He blamed the error on investigators' rush to give the public details on the search for a culprit.

Yonhap news agency, in an analysis Friday, called the blunder "ridiculous" and said the announcement is certain to undermine government credibility.

Yonhap criticized officials for failing to dispel public anxiety in a country where people's lives are closely interwoven with services provided by media and financial institutions.

An initial assumption that the attack came from abroad may have made investigators jump to conclusions, said Lee Kyung-ho, a cybersecurity expert at Seoul's Korea University.

"They rushed," he said. "They should've investigated by checking the facts step by step."

The investigation will take weeks. Investigators have said the attacks appeared to come from "a single organization" and suspect the hackers were from outside the country. Lee Seung-won, the KCC official, discounted the possibility that the attack could have come from within South Korea, but he didn't elaborate.

Lee Kyung-ho and many other South Korean experts suspect North Korea is behind the attack on broadcasters YTN, MBC and KBS, as well as Nonghyup and two other banks.

While there are many possible explanations, he said, including a homegrown hacker, the culprits are most likely to be North Koreans angry over ongoing U.S.-South Korean military drills. Lee said Pyongyang is well aware that an attack on financial institutions and media companies would create lots of publicity and turmoil in South Korea's vibrantly capitalistic society.

North Korea has issued many threats against the South and the U.S. in recent days, but by Friday it had yet to mention the South Korean computer crashes in state-run media.

South Korean officials say they have no proof of Pyongyang's involvement. The country is preparing to deal with more possible attacks, presidential spokesman Yoon Chang-jung told reporters earlier Friday. He didn't elaborate.

Determining who's behind a digital attack is often difficult, but North Korea is a leading suspect for several reasons.

It has unleashed a torrent of threats against Seoul and Washington since punishing U.N. sanctions were imposed for Pyongyang's Feb. 12 nuclear test. It calls ongoing routine U.S.-South Korean military drills a threat to its existence. Pyongyang also threatened revenge after blaming Seoul and Washington for a separate Internet shutdown that disrupted its own network last week.

Seoul alleges six previous cyberattacks by North Korea on South Korean targets since 2009.

Wednesday's cyberattack did not affect South Korea's government, military or infrastructure, and there were no initial reports that customers' bank records were compromised. But it disabled cash machines and disrupted commerce.

All three of the banks that were hit were back online and operating regularly Friday. It could be next week before the broadcasters' systems have fully recovered, though they said their programming was never affected.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/skorea-misidentifies-china-cyberattack-origin-071506659.html

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