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Source: http://www.wpsdlocal6.com/news/local/Quinn-says-pension-debt-growing-at-slower-pace-213702311.html
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By Manuel Mogato
(Reuters) - Malaysia urged Myanmar on Sunday to take stronger action to prevent persecution of Muslims and bring the perpetrators to justice, the latest sign that the inter communal violence is straining ties in Southeast Asia.
Thousands of ethnic Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar to escape the violence and worsening living conditions, many of them making their way by boat or overland to Muslim-majority Malaysia.
Anti-Muslim violence in Buddhist-dominated Myanmar erupted in western Rakhine State last year and has spread into the central heartlands and areas near the old capital, Yangon.
"Myanmar has to address the problem," Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman told reporters at a meeting of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) ministers in Brunei, making a rare intervention in another member's internal affairs.
"I know it's complex but they have to address the problem in a transparent manner so that we can see what actions had been taken ... I think the perpetrators have to be brought to justice and so that it does not occur again."
Anifah said he had been satisfied by his Myanmar counterpart's response that the government was taking the issue seriously.
Myanmar Buddhists and Rohingya have clashed in violent incidents in Malaysia and Indonesia in recent weeks, adding to concerns that the violence could spill over into the region.
The U.N. refugee agency says about 28,000 Rohingyas are registered as refugees in Malaysia, but groups representing them say the real number of Myanmar Muslim immigrants is much higher and has surged this year because of the violence.
Critics say the Myanmar government has done little to bring instigators of the violence to justice or to stem a growing anti-Muslim movement in the country, which returned to democracy in 2011 after a half century of military rule.
Anifah said the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) had voiced concern that ASEAN's Muslim-majority nations were not doing more to resolve the problem. Malaysia's Bernama news agency also reported that Anifah had asked Myanmar to allow an OIC contact group to visit the country and be given full cooperation.
(Writing by Stuart Grudgings; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/malaysia-urges-myanmar-stem-anti-muslim-violence-123648333.html
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13 hours ago
Darrin Zammit Lupi / Reuters
Jessie J. performing at the Malta concert where she stopped a fight.
They say music soothes the savage breast, but at British singer Jessie J.'s "Isle of MTV" performance in Malta on Wednesday, music didn't keep two concertgoers from breaking out into a fight.
The singer was in the middle of her song, "Rainbow," which ironically is about how people are all similar and should get along, when she noticed the altercation between two fans near the stage. "Stop the music, stop the music," she shouted to her band in a video captured by a fan and posted to You Tube. (The fighting fans can't clearly be seen in the video.)
"OK, so, you guys in the front, guys ... see I don't perform when people are fighting," the singer announced, as the audience applauded her words.
"OH MY GOD!" another fan could be heard saying.
"OK, so here's the deal right?" Jessie J. continued. "Music is about bringing people together. You don't need that angriness in your lives, OK? So kiss and make up and let's party."
"Jes-sie! Jes-sie!" fans chanted in appreciation.
"Let's go, let's go again," the singer told her band, before delivering one more word to the fighters. "Look at me, come on, look at me. Are we good? Sort it out, bro."
Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/singer-jessie-j-stops-fight-during-her-concert-6C10485346
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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? The lead plaintiffs in the U.S. Supreme Court case that overturned California's same-sex marriage ban tied the knot at San Francisco City Hall on Friday, about an hour after a federal appeals court freed same-sex couples to obtain marriage licenses for the first time in 4 1/2 years.
State Attorney General Kamala Harris presided at the wedding of Kris Perry and Sandy Stier, of Berkeley, as hundreds of supporters looked on and cheered. The couple sued to overturn the state's voter-approved gay marriage ban along with Jeff Katami and Paul Zarrillo, of Burbank, who planned to marry Friday evening at Los Angeles City Hall.
"By joining the case against Proposition 8, they represented thousands of couples like themselves in their fight for marriage equality," Harris, who had asked the appeals court to act swiftly, said during Stier and Perry's brief ceremony. "Through the ups and downs, the struggles and the triumphs, they came out victorious."
Harris declared Perry, 48, and Stier, 50, "spouses for life," but during their vows, they took each other as "lawfully wedded wife." One of their twin sons served as ring-bearer.
Although the couple have fought for the right to wed for years, their wedding came together in a flurry when a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a brief order Friday afternoon dissolving, "effective immediately," a stay it imposed on gay marriages while the lawsuit challenging the ban advanced through the courts.
Sponsors of California's same-sex marriage ban called the appeals court's swift action "outrageous."
"The resumption of same-sex marriage this day has been obtained by illegitimate means. If our opponents rejoice in achieving their goal in a dishonorable fashion, they should be ashamed," said Andy Pugno, general counsel for a coalition of religious conservative groups that sponsored Proposition 8.
"It remains to be seen whether the fight can go on, but either way, it is a disgraceful day for California," Pugno said.
The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Wednesday that Proposition 8's sponsors lacked authority to defend the measure in court once Harris and Gov. Jerry Brown, both Democrats, refused to do so.
The decision lets stand a trial judge's declaration that the ban, approved by voters in November 2008, violates the civil rights of gay Californians and cannot be enforced.
Under Supreme Court rules, the losing side in a legal dispute has 25 days to ask the high court to rehear the case. The court said earlier this week that it would not finalize its ruling in the Proposition 8 case until after that time had elapsed.
It was not immediately clear whether the appeals court's action would be halted by the high court, but Gov. Jerry Brown directed California counties to start performing same-sex marriages immediately in the wake of it.
A memo from Brown's Department of Public Health said "same-sex marriage is again legal in California" and ordered county clerks to resume issuing marriage licenses to gay couples.
Given that word did not come down from the appeals court until mid-afternoon, most counties were not prepared to stay open late to accommodate potential crowds. The clerks in a few counties announced that they would stay open a few hours later Friday.
A jubilant San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee announced that same-sex couples would be able to marry all weekend in his city, which is hosting its annual gay pride celebration this weekend.
___
Associated Press writers Jason Dearen, Paul Elias and Mihir Zaveri contributed to this story.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/plaintiffs-calif-gay-marriage-case-wed-sf-235831059.html
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We've made it to the big three-five-oh! Watch out, HD Podcast, we're closing in on your 355 episode mark. Although the week in tech news wasn't terribly exciting, Brian was so pumped he ran nine blocks in the blistering heat straight to our studio. As such, this episode is relatively short -- might we suggest you check out Distro on your favorite tablet with all that extra time?
Hosts: Tim Stevens, Peter Rojas, Brian Heater
Producer: Joe Pollicino
Hear the podcast:
Filed under: Podcasts
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/wJHMoQV7ps0/
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Google announced that users who participate in its?Gmail and Google.com search field trial?are now able to also see results from their Gmail contacts from Search. This, the company explains, means you'll be able to ask Search things like "what's?Brittney's?address?" or you can simply say "Joanna's phone number," for instance, in order to query your address book from Google.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/XOWrTHnVn6I/
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12 hours ago
As more and more customers are using their mobile devices to make deposits or pay bills, the banks are looking for ways to charge them for the service.
While fees for using mobile apps may be inevitable, the banks differ only over how to levy that charge.
Some banks believe it should be a fixed cost per transaction, others believe fees should only come on products that present risks to the bank and provide unique services to the customer, such as Regions Financial for immediate funds, and Wells Fargo for emergency bill pay.
Still others ? who asked not to be identified because the strategy hasn't been announced ? have lobbied for a model resembling "Amazon Prime," where customers pay a flat fee for unlimited transactions.
Birmingham, Ala.-based Regions Financial rolled out its mobile banking app this spring with a tiered fee structure, based on when the customer needed access to funds deposited digitally. For immediate availability, which is a risk to the bank because it then doesn't have time to verify the fees, customers must pay $5, or a percentage of the deposit?whichever is higher. For access two days later, once the funds are verified, the fee is 50 cents?the same fee Minneapolis-based US Bank introduced for all mobile deposits in 2010. It was the first bank to initiate such fees.
"This is just the beginning of the creative ways banks will try to compensate in a low-rate, low-growth environment," said Todd Hagerman, senior research analyst at Sterne Agee. "They have to look for alternative ways to improve their fee income stream."
Customers like Al Falussy, a sales executive on Long Island, NY, are not happy. He is a frequent user of his mobile banking app to get balance alerts, send money to employees and family, and deposit money from places where no branches are nearby.
But if Falussy's bank of choice?JP Morgan Chase?started charging to use the app? He'd switch banks.
"They're making money on my money," Falussy said of the deposits he keeps with the bank. "So for them to actually go there would be kind of petty."
Falussy and other consumers might not like it, but fees for mobile banking are set to become the norm. Slowly but surely, banks are experimenting with ways to build charges into the apps' features and as apps get higher-tech, too, a simple convenience could become costly.
(Read More: Banks Still Raising Fees?and Hiding Them: Study)
Richard Hunt, president of the Consumer Bankers Association, said banks can't afford to give customers all services free of charge, especially because of increased regulatory and legislative pressure. For one example, "checking accounts were often provided at no cost to the customer, but there is a cost to the bank providing them." Innovation on mobile, Hunt said, will fall into that category.
(Read More: Overdraft Protection Will Cost You, But How Much?)
Dave Kaminsky, a senior analyst at Mercator Advisory Group, a research firm focused on the payments industry, explained that users perceive mobile banking's offerings as worth the cost. "Customers tend to look at remote deposit capture or expedited processing as an additional value, so they're willing to pay for it?at least for now."
Customers seem to be embracing mobile banking fees so far. US Bank, a source said, hasn't experienced many customer defections since the fee was introduced in 2010. And even though Regions has the steepest fees yet, CEO Grayson Hall said on the company's last earnings call that mobile "continues to be a rapid growth channel." Perhaps one reason is that mobile, as a platform, is still surging in growth: The number of web-savvy consumers who bank only on their app jumped 55 percent in the last year, according to digital measurement outfit comScore.
Still, customer sensitivity to fees looms large as many big banks are hesitant to be the "first mover" in the space?and potentially lose customers to their competitors. JPMorgan Chase currently offers all its mobile features for free and will continue to do so, according to a person familiar with the matter.
"Deposits will eventually move from ATMs entirely to mobile," said an executive familiar with the strategy. "You want to capture that business, not turn it away." No direct fees are levied for ATM deposits.
Wells Fargo has been the only major bank to experiment with fees thus far. The bank refuses to charge for remote check deposit, which totaled 1.4 million checks in May alone, because it considers the service basic. Instead, it has chosen to charge for what it considers to be premium mobile services, like bank-to-bank transfers and emergency bill pay.
Features like emergency bill pay and immediate availability of funds are risky for banks, since it takes time to verify that the funds exist on the end of the check writer. Because banks must pay for insurance in case the money isn't there, a fee to have the money available immediately would simply cover that insurance. For that reason, at least three big banks have lobbied regulators like the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, according to people familiar with the talks, to discuss options to verify funds without having to charge customers.
At a time when consumers feel buried in fees by their banks, one more charge tacked on to services could prompt more consumers to follow Falussy's game plan to hang up on their bank.
? 2013 CNBC LLC. All Rights Reserved
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If you?re under the impression that Android is just for smartphones and tablets, think again. According to?The Wall Street Journal, Google is working on its own video game console powered by Android, which would go head-to-head with the next Apple TV. The device could also spell serious trouble for the Kickstarter-funded Ouya.
The newly launched Ouya, now available at Best Buy, GameStop, Target and Amazon, is a $99 set-top box powered by a Nvidia quad-core processor running Android. The most alluring aspect for gamers is the idea that players can try out games for free before purchasing them. However,??one analyst says Ouya likely won?t survive against Google in the gaming space.
MORE: 25 Worst Gadget Flops of All Time
?The problem is, if Google decides it wants to big and bring the full weight of its capabilities to bear, the Ouya is going to be facing a very large uphill battle,? said Scott Steinberg, CEO and lead analyst at technology and video game industry consulting firm TechSavvy. ?Even if it takes Google a year or two to bring the console to market, the Ouya needs to hit hard and hit fast, and it needs to score a resounding blow.?
Being the source behind Android, Google already has a solid foundation of developer relationships and can promote its gaming console alongside its established Google Play store and services. It has the ability to reach a mass audience, not just gamers, as Steinberg notes.
?Google will do everything in its power to leverage its weight,? Steinberg said. ?Maybe it won?t be a first round knockout [against Ouya or competitors], but it?ll see the battle through and make sure there?s a TKO in the end.?
There?s no doubt that the Ouya has garnered some attention in the gaming community, potentially representing a new wave of mainstream gaming that brings mobile titles to bigger screens. ?The Ouya raised ?more than $8 million on Kickstarter without a hitch, and sold out in GameStop and Amazon following its launch.
Despite this popularity, the console may have to work outs its kinks?before becoming a big hit. Early reviews of the system have been lukewarm thus far, with critics lambasting its sluggish game performance with certain titles and mediocre controller.
When it comes to competing with Google, it also remains unclear?if the upstart can compete with the company?s extensive resources and funding.
?For a big and sprawling company, a console is just a drop in the bucket,? Steinberg said. ?Whereas for Ouya, as a startup, it?s a race against time.?
The Journal?s sources also mentioned that Google plans to re-launch its ill-fated Nexus Q, which was unveiled at Google I/O 2012. The orb-shaped device allows users to stream media from mobile devices to nearby speakers and TVs, but was quickly yanked from the market.
Although rumors suggest the Nexus Q could make a comeback, Google isn?t likely to re-brand it as a gaming device, according to Steinberg. ?I think they would go big with branding on the console,? Steinberg said, ?giving the product its own identity.?
Follow Lisa Eadicicco on Twitter and Google+. Follow LAPTOPMAG on Twitter, Google+ or Facebook.
Source: http://blog.laptopmag.com/google-gaming-console-vs-ouya
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By William James
LONDON (Reuters) - The government promised on Thursday to upgrade roads and carry out what it said was the biggest rail investment in more than 100 years in a strategy to get the economy growing while keeping spending tight.
A day after Chancellor George Osborne announced the latest round of budget cuts, his deputy, Danny Alexander, detailed 100 billion pounds in capital investment plans, calling them "the most comprehensive, ambitious and long-lasting" ever.
Britain's economy is still struggling to generate growth to help narrow one of Europe's biggest budget deficits. Living standards suffered their biggest drop in a generation at the start of 2013, data showed on Thursday.
Alexander said 28 billion pounds would be spent by the government on improving roads from 2014 to 2020 - including enough cash to resurface 21,000 miles - and that it would support 30 billion pounds in rail investments.
A long-awaited announcement of a guaranteed electricity price for renewable energy investors was aimed at making investments in technologies such as wind power and biomass more attractive and less risky to private operators.
The government also announced a guarantee to help build a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point in the south-west of England, for which French utility group EDF won planning permission in March.
The overall spending plan put some flesh on the bones of 300 billion pounds in capital spending commitments set out until 2020. Thursday's announcement was not a new injection of cash; the significance was in the details of where it would be spent.
The Conservative party, which dominates the ruling coalition, wants to persuade voters it is not just focused on spending cuts as it prepares for the 2015 general election. Its tough austerity drive has been criticised by the International Monetary Fund while two of the three main credit rating agencies have downgraded Britain's prized triple-A status.
PRIVATE INVESTMENT
Much of Thursday's announcement was aimed at drawing in private sector investment, a key tenet of Conservative plans to get maximum economic benefit out of scarce public cash.
But it did not clear up doubts about how quickly Britain could start to get new projects up and running.
"The construction industry and the broader economy will be disappointed in today's announcement as we will only see an economic boost when the shovels hit the ground on these projects," said Nick Prior, head of infrastructure at business advisory firm Deloitte.
The opposition Labour party, which has called for more short-term spending to revive the economy but has been wary about committing itself to increased borrowing, said no investment had been brought forward to 2013 or 2014.
"When is the government going to pull its finger out and actually start to build some of these things?" said Chris Leslie, a Labour spokesman for economic issues.
The government also promised an injection of 3 billion pounds into building new affordable housing - enough, it said, for 165,000 new homes - along with a 12-year rent guarantee to encourage private housing associations to build new projects.
Alexander said 16 billion pounds from 2015 onwards had been earmarked for rail expenditure, including the government's flagship high-speed rail project, designed to improve links between London, the Midlands and the north of the country.
On Wednesday, Britain's transport secretary said the cost of the rail project had risen by almost 10 billion pounds, highlighting the pitfalls of long-term capital projects.
(Additional reporting by William Schomberg and Rosalba O'Brien Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/government-pledges-invest-roads-boost-power-101016515.html
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BOSTON (AP) ? Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev downloaded bomb-making instructions from an al-Qaida magazine, gathered online material on Islamic jihad and martyrdom, and later scrawled anti-American messages inside the boat where he lay wounded, a federal indictment charged Thursday.
The 30-count indictment contains the bombing charges, punishable by the death penalty, that were brought against the 19-year-old Tsarnaev in April.
But prosecutors added charges covering the slaying of an MIT police officer and the carjacking of a motorist during the getaway attempt that left Tsarnaev's older brother, Tamerlan, dead.
"Tamerlan Tsarnaev's justice will be in the next world, but for his brother, accountability will begin right here in the district of Massachusetts," Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley, whose jurisdiction includes Boston, said at a news conference with federal prosecutors.
Three people were killed and more than 260 wounded by the two pressure-cooker bombs that went off near the finish line of the marathon on April 15.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured four days later, hiding in a boat parked in a backyard in Watertown, Mass.
According to the indictment, he scrawled messages on the inside of the vessel that said, among other things, "The U.S. Government is killing our innocent civilians," ''I can't stand to see such evil go unpunished," and "We Muslims are one body you hurt one you hurt us all."
The Tsarnaev brothers had roots in the turbulent Russian regions of Dagestan and Chechnya, which have become recruiting grounds for Islamic extremists. They had been living in the U.S. about a decade.
But the indictment made no mention of any larger conspiracy beyond the brothers, and no reference to any direct overseas contacts with extremists. Instead, the indictment suggests the Internet played an important role in the suspects' radicalization.
Before the attack, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev downloaded onto his computer the summer 2010 issue of Inspire, an online English-language magazine published by al-Qaida, according to the indictment. The issue detailed how to make bombs from pressure cookers, explosive powder extracted from fireworks, and lethal shrapnel.
He also downloaded extremist Muslim literature, including "Defense of the Muslim Lands, the First Obligation After Imam," which advocates "violence designed to terrorize the perceived enemies of Islam," the indictment said.
Another tract downloaded included a foreword by Anwar al-Awlaki, an American propagandist for al-Qaida who was killed in a U.S. drone strike, federal prosecutors said.
U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz of Massachusetts said it will be up to Attorney General Eric Holder to decide whether to pursue the death penalty against Tsarnaev.
The indictment assembled and confirmed details of the case that have been widely reported over the past two months, and added new pieces of information.
For example, it confirmed that Tamerlan Tsarnaev bought 48 fireworks mortar shells containing about eight pounds of explosive powder from a Seabrook, N.H., fireworks store. It also disclosed that he used the Internet to order electronic components that could be used in making bombs.
The papers detail how the brothers then placed knapsacks containing shrapnel-packed bombs near the finish line of the 26.2-mile race.
The court papers also confirm that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev contributed to his brother's death by accidentally running him over with a stolen vehicle during a shootout and police chase.
The charges cover the slaying of Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier, who authorities said was shot in the head at close range in his cruiser by the Tsarnaevs during their getaway attempt. The brothers tried to take his gun, prosecutors said.
In addition, prosecutors said that during the carjacking, the Tsarnaev brothers forced the motorist to turn over his ATM card and his password, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev withdrew $800 from the man's account.
At the same time the federal indictment was announced, Massachusetts authorities brought a 15-count state indictment against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev over the MIT officer's slaying and the police shootout.
___
Tom Hays reported from New York.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/feds-boston-suspect-downloaded-bomb-instructions-195945432.html
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14 hours ago
Family, friends and fans of James Gandolfini gathered in New York Thursday for a final remembrance of the actor known for his role as the tough-guy mob boss on "The Sopranos." Co-stars from that series -- usually recognized for their stoicism -- embraced one another with trembling lips and sorrowful faces as they entered the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine.
Gandolfini, 51, died of a heart attack in Rome on June 19. His 90-minute funeral was led by The Very Reverend Dr. James A Kowalski. Gandolfini?s wife, Deborah Lin Gandolfini, provided the first of four remembrances. In brief but emotional remarks, she spoke tearfully of her late husband as a great father to his children, 13-year-old Michael and 9-month-old Liliana. She called him an ?honest, kind and loving man? who ?ironically, was extremely private.?
Andrew Burton / Getty Images
The casket carrying James Gandolfini is carried out after his funeral at The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in New York on Thursday.
Two close friends of Gandolfini?s spoke next: Thomas Richardson and Susan Aston. Richardson talked of being in Rome with Gandolfini, lighting a candle in a cathedral and praying at the statue of St. Francis. ?Jim grew each and every day because he was open,? said Richardson, who added that with Gandolfini, ?every day was an adventure.?
Aston was not just a friend; she had worked with Gandolfini for decades. On ?The Sopranos? she served as his dialogue coach. She remembered the two of them working together in the 1980s and recalled how Gandolfini once shored up her courage before going onstage by saying, ?What?s the worst that can happen? We suck??
At one point, she dropped yet another nickname for the actor, referring to him as ?Buck.?
David Chase, creator and executive producer of ?The Sopranos,? wrapped up the remembrances with his own, which took the form of a letter. ?Dear Jimmy,? he began, then addressed the eulogy directly to the late actor. He said he wanted to get some laughs, that?s what all the advice he heard said he should do, but ?I?m too sad and full of despair.?
Nonetheless, Chase?s remembrance did elicit some laughs, particularly when he said he was ?scared? to speak at the service, and considered running away for four days, a reference to the time Gandolfini vanished from production on ?Sopranos? early in the show?s run.
He spoke of working with Gandolfini, who took his role to heart. One scene they filmed involved the actor slamming a refrigerator door in irritation repeatedly, even though the script didn?t specifically call for him to do that -- he ultimately broke the refrigerator. ?This role, this role, the places it takes me to,? Chase said the actor muttered about that event.
Later, Chase noted, ?Sometimes you tried too hard. The refrigerator is one example."
D Dipasupil / Getty Images
David Chase, center, creator of "The Sopranos," attends Thursday's funeral.
But Chase revealed much about how he saw Gandolfini and the character of Tony Soprano with an anecdote that also came from the show. It was a hot day of filming, and he caught Gandolfini sitting in a lawn chair in black socks and shoes, pants rolled up, a wet handkerchief on his head to help him stay cool. Chase said he saw that and ?was filled with love, because I knew I was in the right place.? He said that was precisely what his own relatives used to do on a hot day, working in construction (?What is it about Italians and concrete,? quipped Chase) in New Jersey. ?I was so proud of our heritage,? he said, choking up.
Chase also recalled a time when Gandolfini told him, "I just want to be a man."
"The paradox with you I always felt was I was seeing a young boy, because you are boyish. ... That is why you were an amazing actor, that child inside,? Chase said.
He ended his ?letter? by relating a scene they never shot, but one he had mapped out: Tony Soprano is stranded in the Meadowlands with nothing in his pockets except some change, no crew around him, and has to board a bus to get home like everyone else. The idea was the episode would end with Tony?s face on the bus as Joan Osborne?s ?What if God Was One of Us? played (and its lines ?what if God was one of us/just a slob like one of us/just a stranger on the bus/trying to make His way home?), as the credits rolled.
Chase then ended his speech with the same letter format: ?Love, David.?
Among others who attended the service were Gandolfini's ?Sopranos? co-stars Edie Falco, Dominic Chianese, Joe Pantoliano, Aida Turturro and Julianna Margulies. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was also in attendance.
Gandolfini was also remembered Wednesday at a private, invitation-only wake held in Park Ridge, N.J. Gandolfini?s wife and daughter were among the first to arrive, according to the New York Daily News.
"It's a nightmare for the whole family," Bob Price, whose wife is a Gandolfini cousin, told the paper. "It's a horrible, horrible thing. Everybody is just devastated."
Stan Honda / AFP - Getty Images
Actress Edie Falco, right, best known as Carmela Soprano in "The Sopranos," arrives at the church.
Stan Honda / AFP - Getty Images
Actor Dominic Chianese, left, who played Uncle Junior in "The Sopranos."
Julio Cortez / AP
Actor Joe Pantoliano, who starred as Ralph Cifaretto on "The Sopranos."
Richard Drew / AP
Actor Steve Schirripa, who played Bobby Baccalieri on "The Sopranos."
Mike Coppola / Getty Images
Actress Jamie Lynn Sigler, who starred as Tony Soprano's daughter, Meadow.
Richard Drew / AP
Michael Gandolfini, left, the 13-year-old son of James Gandolfini, who was vacationing with his father when he died.
Mike Coppola / Getty Images
Actors Steve Buscemi, left, star of HBO's "Boardwalk Empire," embraces actor Michael Imperioli, who played Christopher Moltisanti on "The Sopranos."
Stan Honda / AFP - Getty Images
Actress Lorraine Bracco, right, best known for her role as Dr. Jennifer Melfi on "The Sopranos."
Julio Cortez / AP
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie paid his respects to a Jersey icon.
Richard Drew / AP
Actress Julianna Margulies and actor Chris Noth attended the services. Margulies played Julianna Skiff on "The Sopranos."
Richard Drew / AP
Actor Vincent Pastore, left, who played Salvatore Bonpensiero, and actress Aida Turturro, who played Janice Soprano.
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JOS, Nigeria (AP) ? Community leaders say 32 people died Thursday and many were injured in tribal clashes sparked by cattle rustling in Nigeria's volatile central Plateau state.
Langtang South committee chairman Nanman Garko said men believed to be Fulani herdsmen attacked Tarok farmers in reprisal for cattle thefts in the area some 200 kilometers (125 miles) from state capital Jos.
Community leader Salihu Jauro denied the attackers were Fulani though his people are angry about the theft of 300 cows by suspected Taroks.
The Fulani are Muslim and the Taroks Christian but violence here is a complex mix of religion, tribe, politics and land rights. Thousands have been killed since 1999.
Military spokesman Mustapha Salisu said five people died in similar violence last week in Wase district, 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Jos.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/32-killed-ethno-religious-clashes-nigeria-193254545.html
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With Windows 8.1, Microsoft has pushed out a revamped version of Internet Explorer that is supposed to be significantly faster than its predecessor, not to mention the fact that it claims to be easier on battery life. Fortunately, it appears that the company fully intends to make IE11 available to Windows 7 users as well. While Microsoft opened up about this fact, it wasn't so keen to offer up any timing expectations. Thus, it's quite possible that we may not see it show up on Win7 until after it's had some time to bedazzle those who are already packing the latest and greatest version of Windows.
Filed under: Desktops, Internet, Software, Microsoft
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/g9P99Fi8boA/
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ecuador said on Wednesday the United States must "submit its position" regarding Edward Snowden to the Ecuadorean government in writing as it considers the former U.S. spy agency contractor's request for asylum.
Ecuador, in a statement from its embassy in Washington, said it would review the request "responsibly."
"The legal basis for each individual case must be rigorously established, in accordance with our national Constitution and the applicable national and international legal framework. This legal process takes human rights obligations into consideration as well," the statement said.
"This current situation is not being provoked by Ecuador," the embassy said.
Snowden, 30, a former employee of the U.S. contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, appears to be still in hiding at a Moscow airport awaiting a ruling on his asylum request from the tiny South American nation's leftist government.
He fled to the Russian capital from Hong Kong on Sunday, evading a U.S. request that he be extradited to face charges that he stole and leaked details of secret U.S. government surveillance programs.
Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa has not flinched in the past from taking on western powers.
His government is already embroiled in a dispute with Britain and the United States over its sheltering of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange at its embassy in London.
In its statement on Wednesday, the embassy said it "strongly rejects" statements made by U.S. government officials that it said contained detrimental, untrue and unproductive claims about Ecuador. It did not elaborate on those statements.
Ecuador, the statement said, has signed human rights agreements and is committed to the rule of law and the fundamental principles of international law.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Susan Heavey; Editing by Vicki Allen)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ecuador-tells-u-send-position-snowden-writing-135130759.html
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WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Senate has passed historic immigration legislation offering the hope of American citizenship to millions, while promising a military-style surge to secure the border.
The vote was 68-32, far more than the majority needed to send the measure to the House. Prospects there are not nearly as good and many conservatives are opposed.
Vice President Joe Biden presided, and senators cast their votes from their desks, both steps reserved for momentous votes.
The bill, a priority for President Barack Obama, would amount to the most sweeping changes in decades to the nation's immigration laws.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senate-passes-immigration-bill-203027013.html
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Pearl House Restaurant specializes in making Taiwanese food and bubble tea. They are located just off of Kingsway in South Burnaby.
I stopped by for a quick lunch to fill my insatiable need for noodles and bubble tea.
I ordered a taro slush with pearls ($5). This was my first time ever trying a taro bubble tea drink. I didn?t really know what to expect from it, but I ended up loving it. Although this isn?t a reason to order the drink, I also thought the colour was very pretty.
I?m not sure exactly how to describe taro flavour, but it was mild and sweet. This drink also had a thick texture, almost like a milkshake.
For lunch I had the beef sirloin with regular noodles in soup ($7.50). Everything about this soup was excellent.
The noodles were nice and chewy and there was a good-sized portion of them (enough to fill you up and a good noodle to broth ratio). The beef sirloin was tender and it pulled apart easily. The broth had a rich beef flavour and a hint of spice.
I had a great meal at Pearl House and everything was affordable and filling. Pearl House made one of the better Taiwanese beef noodle soups that I have had, so I would recommend trying it.
Recommendation:
Yes, for great Taiwanese beef noodles and bubble tea.
Source: http://thefoodqueen.com/2013/06/26/pearl-house-restaurant/
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A placebo is simply something used in research to act as a treatment equivalent, so as to not bias either the research subjects or the researchers themselves in how they perceive and react to the experimental treatment. In research on drugs, this often means giving one group of patients pills that look just like the medicine being studied, but lacking any active ingredient.
In recent years, new research has emerged looking solely at the studies that were used to gain FDA approval of antidepressant medications (some of which were never published). When taken together, the studies found that antidepressant medications may not be as effective as previously thought (but what any patient who?s ever tried them could?ve told us decades ago). This recent research found effect sizes of just 0.31.
Which got some researchers to wonder? If antidepressant drug treatment effect sizes might be lower than we had thought, could the same be true for psychotherapy effect sizes too?
Could, in fact, a sugar pill offer as much change in one?s depression as months or years of intensive psychotherapy?
A research study?s effect sizes tell us how different the treatment group is from the control group ? the folks taking placebos. A larger effect size means the treatment really worked, a small effect size tells us the treatment isn?t that much different from a sham treatment.
The studies re-examing the data on antidepressants demonstrated new effect sizes that were smaller than we thought they would be. We thought antidepressants had an effect size of anywhere from 0.60 to 0.40. Now we find out their effect size might be as little as 0.31 ? a significant difference.
This means that antidepressants ? as a class of drugs ? simply aren?t as effective as most of us once thought.
?C?mon Doc? Surely psychotherapy ? which seeks to make real changes to a person?s thoughts and belief processes ? couldn?t fare any worse when compared to a sugar pill, could it??
Answering this question is tricky, because there are so few studies that have been conducted comparing psychotherapy treatment with a pill placebo control group. That?s because a pill isn?t really equivalent to psychotherapy as a treatment method. It?s like comparing apples to oranges, so in psychotherapy research, the control group is most often what?s called a ?wait list? control group.
But you can look at studies that examined an antidepressant medication, a pill placebo, and a psychotherapy treatment group. And there just so happens to be a few such studies out there.
Cuijpers et al. (2013) combed the psychological and psychiatric research literature and found ten studies that compared psychotherapies with pill placebo. In total, 1,240 patients were included in these studies. They pooled the data and ran their statistical meta-analyses on the resulting data.
Here?s what they found:
At the end of clinical trials, the effect size for psychotherapy compared to pill placebo was g = 0.25.
If we translate that into practical terms of Number Needed to Treat (NNT), 7.14 psychotherapy patients had to be treated in order to get assured of getting one who did better than getting a pill placebo.
Patients in the psychotherapy conditions scored 2.66 points lower on the Hamilton depression rating scale than those assigned to pill placebo. These differences are well within the range of the differences found between antidepressants and pill placebo in the FDA registered trials.
Essentially, when compared to pill placebo, psychotherapy did as well or, if you?d like, as poorly as an antidepressant. So, inferring that psychotherapy is the preferred treatment based simply on the basis of the small differences between antidepressants and pill placebos is not warranted.
In other words, when we look at what limited data we have ? and 10 studies of just over 1,000 patients over the course of 20 years isn?t a lot ? psychotherapy doesn?t really come out ahead of antidepressant medications.
In fact, according to this one study, it?s actually worse than antidepressants (0.25 versus 0.31), and really not much better than a person taking a sugar pill for treatment (because these effect sizes are so small, they suggest there?s not a significant difference between the placebo and treatment groups).
James Coyne suggests, ?both sides should recognize that neither psychotherapy nor meidcation [sic] have the efficacy that we would like to obtain from them in treating depression.? No new antidepressant medication breakthroughs are on the horizon, he notes, nor have any new psychotherapies taken hold in the past twenty or thirty years.
Which leaves us with the knowledge that while the treatments we have may not be as effective as we would like them to be, they remain the best tools we have to combat depression. What research can?t capture or comment upon is the amount of trial-and-error effort that goes into finding the right, effective treatment for each individual. A process that ? while frustrating ? usually results in the person suffering from depression to find some relief and hope.
?
For a very lengthy, in-depth discussion of these issues, see: Is psychotherapy for depression any better than a sugar pill?
Reference
P. Cuijpers, E. H. Turner, D. C. Mohr, S. G. Hofmann, G. Andersson, M. Berking and J. Coyne. Comparison of psychotherapies for adult depression to pill placebo control groups: a meta-analysis. Psychological Medicine, available on CJO2013. doi:10.1017/S0033291713000457.
Footnotes:?
Dr. John Grohol is the founder & CEO of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.Like this author?
Catch up on other posts by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. (or subscribe to their feed).
????Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 26 Jun 2013
????Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.
APA Reference
Grohol, J. (2013). What If a Sugar Pill Was Just as Effective As Psychotherapy?. Psych Central. Retrieved on June 27, 2013, from http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2013/06/26/what-if-a-sugar-pill-was-just-as-effective-as-psychotherapy/
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Mornings are rough. And depending how many special adult beverages you imbibed the night before, mornings can be very, very rough. Which is exactly why we love Morning for iPad. It gives you a bright, friendly look at all the info you need to start your day, so you can be prepared even when you feel like crap.
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Last night, the moon came as close to the Earth as its elliptical orbit will take it. That means we didn't get just any old moon?we got a ginormous, glowing supermoon
The supermoon happens once a year when two cycles converge. Here's a good explainer from NASA that gives a little more background on how that works. One thing we know? The biggest, brightest moon of the year makes for some great skywatching and fantastic photos. Show us yours below.
Image credit: Flickr
Source: http://gizmodo.com/show-us-your-photos-of-last-nights-giant-supermoon-559556701
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June 25, 2013 ? More than 10,000 asteroids and comets that can pass near Earth have now been discovered. The 10,000th near-Earth object, asteroid 2013 MZ5, was first detected on the night of June 18, 2013, by the Pan-STARRS-1 telescope, located on the 10,000-foot (convert) summit of the Haleakala crater on Maui. Managed by the University of Hawaii, the PanSTARRS survey receives NASA funding.
Ninety-eight percent of all near-Earth objects discovered were first detected by NASA-supported surveys.
"Finding 10,000 near-Earth objects is a significant milestone," said Lindley Johnson, program executive for NASA's Near-Earth Object Observations Program at NASA Headquarters, Washington. "But there are at least 10 times that many more to be found before we can be assured we will have found any and all that could impact and do significant harm to the citizens of Earth." During Johnson's decade-long tenure, 76 percent of the NEO discoveries have been made.
Near-Earth objects (NEOs) are asteroids and comets that can approach the Earth's orbital distance to within about 28 million miles (45 million kilometers). They range in size from as small as a few feet to as large as 25 miles (41 kilometers) for the largest near-Earth asteroid, 1036 Ganymed.
Asteroid 2013 MZ5 is approximately 1,000 feet (300 meters) across. Its orbit is well understood and will not approach close enough to Earth to be considered potentially hazardous.
"The first near-Earth object was discovered in 1898," said Don Yeomans, long-time manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Over the next hundred years, only about 500 had been found. But then, with the advent of NASA's NEO Observations program in 1998, we've been racking them up ever since. And with new, more capable systems coming on line, we are learning even more about where the NEOs are currently in our solar system, and where they will be in the future."
Of the 10,000 discoveries, roughly 10 percent are larger than six-tenths of a mile (one kilometer) in size -- roughly the size that could produce global consequences should one impact the Earth. However, the NASA NEOO program has found that none of these larger NEOs currently pose an impact threat and probably only a few dozen more of these large NEOs remain undiscovered.
The vast majority of NEOs are smaller than one kilometer, with the number of objects of a particular size increasing as their sizes decrease. For example, there are expected to be about 15,000 NEOs that are about one-and-half football fields in size (460 feet, or 140 meters), and more than a million that are about one-third a football field in size (100 feet, or 30 meters). A NEO hitting Earth would need to be about 100 feet (30 meters) or larger to cause significant devastation in populated areas. Almost 30 percent of the 460-foot-sized NEOs have been found, but less than 1 percent of the 100-foot-sized NEOs have been detected.
When it originated, the NASA-instituted Near-Earth Object Observations Program provided support to search programs run by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory (LINEAR); the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NEAT); the University of Arizona (Spacewatch, and later Catalina Sky Survey) and the Lowell Observatory (LONEOS). All these search teams report their observations to the Minor Planet Center, the central node where all observations from observatories worldwide are correlated with objects, and they are given unique designations and their orbits are calculated.
"When I began surveying for asteroids and comets in 1992, a near-Earth object discovery was a rare event," said Tim Spahr, director of the Minor Planet Center. "These days we average three NEO discoveries a day, and each month the Minor Planet Center receives hundreds of thousands of observations on asteroids, including those in the main-belt. The work done by the NASA surveys, and the other international professional and amateur astronomers, to discover and track NEOs is really remarkable."
Within a dozen years, the program achieved its goal of discovering 90 percent of near-Earth objects larger than 3,300 feet (1 kilometer) in size. In December 2005, NASA was directed by Congress to extend the search to find and catalog 90 percent of the NEOs larger than 500 feet (140 meters) in size. When this goal is achieved, the risk of an unwarned future Earth impact will be reduced to a level of only one percent when compared to pre-survey risk levels. This reduces the risk to human populations, because once an NEO threat is known well in advance, the object could be deflected with current space technologies.
Currently, the major NEO discovery teams are the Catalina Sky Survey, the University of Hawaii's Pan-STARRS survey and the LINEAR survey. The current discovery rate of NEOs is about 1,000 per year.
NASA's Near-Earth Object Observations Program manages and funds the search for, study of and monitoring of asteroids and comets whose orbits periodically bring them close to Earth. The Minor Planet Center is funded by NASA and hosted by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, MA. JPL manages the Near-Earth Object Program Office for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. More information about asteroids and near-Earth objects is available at: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/, http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch and via Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/asteroidwatch .
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/YH3ceC95U68/130625112104.htm
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WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Internal Revenue Service's screening of groups seeking tax-exempt status was broader and lasted longer than has been previously disclosed, the new head of the agency said Monday.
In a conference call with reporters, Danny Werfel said that after becoming acting IRS chief last month, he discovered wide-ranging and improper terms on lists screeners were still using to choose groups for careful examinations. He did not specify what terms were on the lists, but said he suspended the use of all such lists immediately.
"There was a wide-ranging set of categories and cases that spanned a broad spectrum" on the lists, Werfel said. He added that his aides found those lists contained "inappropriate criteria that was in use."
Werfel's comments suggest the IRS may have been targeting groups other than tea party and other conservative organizations for tough examinations to see if they qualify. The agency has been under fire since last month for targeting those groups.
His comments also indicate that the use of inappropriate terms on such lists lasted longer than has been revealed previously. A report last month by a Treasury Department inspector general said agency officials abolished targeting of conservative groups with those lists in May 2012.
Werfel said preliminary results of an examination he has conducted of his agency have so far found no indication of improper screening beyond the IRS offices that examines groups seeking tax-exempt status.
He said he believes there was "insufficient action" by IRS managers to prevent and disclose the problem involving the screening of certain groups, but has discovered no specific clues of misconduct.
"We have not found evidence of intentional wrongdoing by anyone in the IRS or involvement in these matters by anyone outside the IRS," he told reporters.
The IRS has provided congressional committees investigating the agency documents related to the screening problems. He said work was continuing on removing sensitive taxpayer information from those documents, and he said he expects them to be released soon.
___
AP reporter Stephen Ohlemacher contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/irs-chief-inappropriate-screening-broad-193026105.html
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Evan Agostini / AP
Paul Giamatti.
There was a time when Cora (Elizabeth McGovern) was the lone Yank on "Downton Abbey," but those days are long gone.
Last season, her mother, Martha (Shirley MacLaine), arrived on the scene -- much to the displeasure of the Dowager Countess (Maggie Smith) -- and next season, the American invasion will continue.
The next non-Brit on his way to the Abbey is Cora's brother, and if Lady Violet cringed at every Americanism out of Martha's mouth, she's bound to be positively apoplectic about Harold, as played by the oh-so-modern American Paul Giamatti.
Yes, that's right. The man who once played Kenny "Pig Vomit" Rushton in Howard Stern's "Private Parts" is joining the show.
At first the actor might seem like an odd fit for the "Dowton" ensemble, but fans can take heart. Giamatti already mastered the art of the perfect period piece performance in HBO's "John Adams," for which he won an Emmy, and it's not like he'll be channeling any of his past crude, nerdy or neurotic on-screen personas for his "Downton" role. In fact, according to TVLine, Giamatti's Harold is a "maverick, playboy" type.
Executive producer Gareth Neame told TVLine that Harold would be "free spirited," and that he -- along with mom Martha -- holds the promise of upsetting "the Grantham apple cart" by the end of season four.
But there's still a long wait for the beginning of season four -- at least for Harold's fellow Americans. "Downton Abbey" returns to PBS Jan. 5, 2014.
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Sony Music Unlimited is still a relative newbie on the iOS scene, but users will soon find a new revision that brings high-quality streaming and offline playback to the fold. According to Sony, version 1.3 of Music Unlimited for iOS is just around the bend, which will bring the ability to download entire albums or single tracks that can later be accessed within the app's offline mode. Also new in the latest update, you'll find high-quality streaming of 320 Kbps AAC files, which can be enabled in the app's settings. Sadly, you can't download high-quality files for offline playback, but at least iOS users can take solace in parity with the Android version.
Filed under: Internet, Software, Sony
Via: 9to5Mac
Source: Sony Entertainment Network
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So long Google Reader, hello... Facebook? The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Zuckerberg and co are working on a service that "displays content from Facebook users and publishers in a new visual format tailored for mobile devices".
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