Microsoft investing $1 billion into games on Xbox One | Joystiq

Microsoft is investing $1 billion into games on the Xbox One, financing not only new studios but also securing exclusives for Microsoft's next-generation console. This is an unprecedented investment for Microsoft, much more than its most expensive game yet, Halo 4.

Xbox One is planned to have 15 exclusives from Microsoft in its first year at retail, including eight new intellectual properties - the product of two years that has seen the formation of new studios in London, Washington and Victoria, British Columbia. Phil Harrison, former Sony exec, was brought on to oversee internal projects; Lionhead's new boss is John Needham, a guy with a heavy MMO background.

Microsoft Studios boss Phil Spencer told OXM Rare is returning to one of its older franchises (Killer Instinct, anyone?) and Black Tusk Studios is hard at work on Microsoft's next big franchise. Lift London is working on smaller cloud-based games, while Microsoft Studios Osaka has a project under way - something Don Mattrick says will illustrate how Microsoft is "committed" to Japan. Finally, Press Play and Twisted Pixel are in Microsoft's bullpen, working on "weird, unique" games for Xbox Live.

And that's not counting the continuing Call of Duty exclusivity deal and games Microsoft did talk about during its Xbox reveal event: Turn 10's Forza Motorsport 5; Remedy Entertainment's Quantum Break; and four games from EA Sports in UFC, Madden 25, FIFA 14 and NBA Live 14. Later, Crytek confirmed its Kinect-powered brawler Ryse is coming to Xbox One.

Xbox One is due later this year, with more to be shown at E3 between June 9 and June 11 in Los Angeles, California.

Source: http://www.joystiq.com/2013/05/29/microsoft-investing-1-billion-into-games-on-xbox-one/

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Michele Bachmann: Yes, it's time to leave Congress (Washington Post)

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'Low sodium diet' key to old age for stars: New observations create major headache for stellar theories

May 29, 2013 ? Astronomers expect that stars like the Sun will blow off much of their atmospheres into space near the ends of their lives. But new observations of a huge star cluster made using ESO's Very Large Telescope have shown -- against all expectations -- that a majority of the stars studied simply did not get to this stage in their lives at all. The international team found that the amount of sodium in the stars was a very strong predictor of how they ended their lives.

The way in which stars evolve and end their lives was for many years considered to be well understood. Detailed computer models predicted that stars of a similar mass to the Sun would have a period towards the ends of their lives -- called the asymptotic giant branch, or AGB [1] -- when they undergo a final burst of nuclear burning and puff off a lot of their mass in the form of gas and dust.

This expelled material [2] goes on to form the next generations of stars and this cycle of mass loss and rebirth is vital to explain the evolving chemistry of the Universe. This process is also what provides the material required for the formation of planets -- and indeed even the ingredients for organic life.

But when Australian stellar theory expert Simon Campbell of the Monash University Centre for Astrophysics, Melbourne, scoured old papers he found tantalising suggestions that some stars may somehow not follow the rules and might skip the AGB phase entirely. He takes up the story:

"For a stellar modelling scientist this suggestion was crazy! All stars go through the AGB phase according to our models. I double-checked all the old studies but found that this had not been properly investigated. I decided to investigate myself, despite having little observational experience."

Campbell and his team used ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) to very carefully study the light coming from stars in the globular star cluster NGC 6752 in the southern constellation of Pavo (The Peacock). This vast ball of ancient stars contains both a first generation of stars and a second that formed somewhat later [3]. The two generations can be distinguished by the amount of sodium they contain -- something that the very high-quality VLT data can be used to measure.

"FLAMES, the multi-object high-resolution spectrograph on the VLT, was the only instrument that could allow us to get really high-quality data for 130 stars at a time. And it allowed us to observe a large part of the globular cluster in one go," adds Campbell.

The results were a surprise -- all of the AGB stars in the study were first generation stars with low levels of sodium and none of the higher-sodium second generation stars had become AGB stars at all. As many as 70% of the stars were not undergoing the final nuclear burning and mass-loss phase [4] [5].

"It seems stars need to have a low-sodium "diet" to reach the AGB phase in their old age. This observation is important for several reasons. These stars are the brightest stars in globular clusters -- so there will be 70% fewer of the brightest stars than theory predicts. It also means our computer models of stars are incomplete and must be fixed!" concludes Campbell.

The team expects that similar results will be found for other star clusters and further observations are planned.

Notes:

[1] AGB stars get their odd name because of their position on the Hertzsprung Russell diagram, a plot of the brightnesses of stars against their colours.

[2] For a short period of time this ejected material is lit up by the strong ultraviolet radiation from the star and creates a planetary nebula.

[3] Although the stars in a globular cluster all formed at about the same time, it is now well established that these systems are not as simple as they once thought to be. They usually contain two or more populations of stars with different amounts of light chemical elements such as carbon, nitrogen and -- crucially for this new study -- sodium.

[4] It is thought that stars which skip the AGB phase will evolve directly into helium white dwarf stars and gradually cool down over many billions of years.

[5] It is not thought that the sodium itself is the cause of the different behaviour, but must be strongly linked to the underlying cause -- which remains mysterious.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/bAxCUTkp1qM/130529133246.htm

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Jeter has boot removed, plays catch at Stadium

NEW YORK (AP) ? Derek Jeter is back in uniform at Yankee Stadium ? but only to play catch.

The injured shortstop was on the field during batting practice Wednesday before the New York Yankees faced the Mets in the Subway Series. Still recovering from offseason ankle surgery, Jeter says he had the protective walking boot removed from his left foot last Friday and was recently cleared to throw.

He says he has a CT scan scheduled for the middle of next week and then hopes to be cleared for additional baseball activities, such as swinging a bat.

Jeter, who turns 39 next month, says he doesn't want to put a timetable on his return. The Yankees have said he will be sidelined until after the All-Star break in mid-July.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jeter-boot-removed-plays-catch-stadium-234409107.html

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Acer Aspire R7 review: a flexible form factor at a reasonable price

If you told us Acer was coming out with an innovative new take on the Windows 8 convertible, we'd probably laugh in your face. After so many months of evaluating slidable, twistable, bendable and detachable machines, we'd (hopefully) be forgiven for believing we'd seen every possible form factor. The Aspire R7 proves that we were wrong, and we're actually kind of glad. With a 15.6-inch display sitting in a unique, flexible "Ezel" hinge, this device lets you switch between four modes, and the panel can even lie nearly flat above the keyboard like an all-in-one desktop. Oh, and Acer switched the positions of the keyboard and touchpad, a setup that definitely takes some getting used to.

Though the R7's form factor sets it apart, it offers the same specs as many Windows 8 convertibles: you get a 1080p screen, a Core i5 processor and 6GB of RAM for $1,000. So does the R7's appeal hinge on its distinctive design? Follow us past the break to find out -- we promise the bad jokes stop here.

Gallery: Acer Aspire R7 review

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Tablets, Acer

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/-OGSHrWAZjM/

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Buddhist mobs spread fear among Myanmar's Muslims

LASHIO, Myanmar (AP) ? It was a terrifying sight: hundreds of angry, armed men on motorcycles advancing up a dusty street with no one to stop them.

Shouting at the top of their lungs, clutching machetes and iron pipes and long bamboo poles, they thrust their fists repeatedly into the air.

The object of their rage: Myanmar's embattled minority Muslim community.

Residents gaping at the spectacle backed away as the Buddhist mob passed. Worried business owners turned away customers and retreated indoors. And three armed soldiers standing in green fatigues on a corner watched quietly, doing nothing despite an emergency government ordinance banning groups of more than five from gathering.

Within a few hours on Wednesday, at least one person was dead and four injured as this region of Myanmar became the latest to fall prey to the country's swelling tide of anti-Muslim unrest.

The violence over the past two days in the northeastern city of Lashio is casting fresh doubt over whether President Thein Sein's government can or will act to contain the racial and religious intolerance plaguing a deeply fractured nation still struggling to emerge from half a century of military rule. Muslims have been the main victims of the violence since it began in western Rakhine state last year, but so far most criminal trials have involved prosecutions of Muslims, not members of the Buddhist majority.

The rioting in Lashio started Tuesday after reports that a Muslim man had splashed gasoline on a Buddhist woman and set her on fire. The man was arrested. The woman was hospitalized with burns on her chest, back and hands.

Mobs took revenge by burning down several Muslim shops and one of the city's main mosques, along with an Islamic orphanage that was so badly charred that only two walls remained, said Min Thein, a resident contacted by telephone.

On Wednesday fires still smoldered at the ruined mosque, where a dozen charred motorcycles lay on the sidewalks underneath its white minarets. Army troops stood guard. The wind carried the acrid smell of several burned vehicles across town, and most Muslims hid in their homes.

When one group of thugs arrived at a Muslim-owned movie theater housed in a sprawling villa, they hurled rocks over the gate, smashing windows. They then broke inside and ransacked the cinema.

Ma Wal, a 48-year-old Buddhist shopkeeper across the street, said she saw the crowd arrive. They had knives and stones, and came in two separate waves.

"I couldn't look," she said, recounting how she had shut the wooden doors of her shop. "We were terrified."

A couple hours later, the mobs were gone and two army trucks and a small contingent of soldiers guarded the villa. "I don't know what to think about it," she said. "More casualties are ... not good for anybody."

The government, which came to power in 2011 promising a new era of democratic rule, appealed for calm.

"Damaging religious buildings and creating religious riots is inappropriate for the democratic society we are trying to create," presidential spokesman Ye Htut said on his Facebook page. "Any criminal act will be dealt with according to the law," he said.

National police said nine people were arrested for involvement in the two days of violence, but didn't say if they were Buddhists or Muslims.

After nightfall, authorities could be heard issuing instructions on loudspeakers across the city, reminding residents a dusk-to-dawn curfew was in effect. The voice bellowing into the night also said: "You are prohibited from carrying sticks or swords or any kind of weapon."

A local freelance journalist, Khun Zaw Oo, said he was hit on the head with an iron pipe as he photographed mobs ransacking shops. He said he managed to flee but a companion also holding a camera was attacked and badly injured.

Myanmar's sectarian violence first flared in western Rakhine state last year, when hundreds of people died in clashes between Buddhists and Muslims that drove about 140,000 others, mostly Muslims, from their homes. Most are still living in refugee camps.

This month, authorities in two areas of Rakhine announced a regulation limiting Muslim families to two children. The policy drew sharp criticism from Muslim leaders, rights groups and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. U.S. State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell on Tuesday said the U.S. opposes coercive birth limitation policies, and called on Myanmar "to eliminate all such policies without delay."

The clashes had seemed confined to the Rakhine region, but in late March, similar Buddhist-led violence swept the town of Meikthila in central Myanmar, killing at least 43 people. Earlier this month, a court sentenced seven Muslims from Meikthila to prison terms for their role in the violence.

Several other towns in central Myanmar experienced less deadly violence, mostly involving the torching of Muslim businesses and mosques.

Muslims account for about 4 percent of Myanmar's roughly 60 million people. Anti-Muslim sentiment is closely tied to nationalism and the dominant Buddhist religion, so leaders have been reluctant to speak up for the unpopular minority.

Thein Sein's administration has been heavily criticized for not doing enough to protect Muslims. He vowed last week during a trip to the U.S. that all perpetrators of the sectarian violence would be brought to justice.

___

Associated Press writers Aye Aye Win in Yangon and Jocelyn Gecker and Grant Peck in Bangkok contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/buddhist-mobs-spread-fear-among-myanmars-muslims-202230892.html

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LuAnn de Lesseps close to finalizing 'Real Housewives of New York' deal

By Jethro Nededog

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - LuAnn de Lesseps is returning to Bravo's "The Real Housewives of New York City" after all.

According to an individual with knowledge of the negotiations, de Lesseps is in the final stages of signing her contract to resume filming on Season 6.

But contrary to other reports, the individual told TheWrap that she isn't signing on for a lesser role on the season.

Bravo declined to comment on negotiations.

Earlier this month, de Lesseps and her castmates held the production hostage while it negotiated for higher salaries. Instead of giving in, Bravo gave them a deadline to sign their contracts or they'd be fired.

In the end, Bravo announced the show had been officially renewed and resumed production with only four housewives: Ramona Singer, Heather Thompson, Carole Radziwill and Sonja Morgan.

Late last week, Aviva Drescher closed her contract, which left de Lesseps as the last one still on the outs.

Like Singer, de Lesseps has starred on the series since it debuted in 2008.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/luann-lesseps-close-finalizing-real-housewives-york-deal-002849615.html

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Baseball: Jeff Thompson Named Golden Spikes Award Finalist

Photo from BigEast.org

?

Louisville pitcher Jeff Thompson was one of 30 semifinalists announced for the 2013 USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award on Tuesday.

Recently named the Big East Pitcher of the Year, Thompson,10-1, is boasting a 2.09 ERA this season with 97 strikeouts in 90.1 innings. At one point this season, Thompson had a stretch in which he had 28 consecutive scoreless innings.

Fans are encouraged to vote for three finalists online at GoldenSpikesAward.com?until May 31st. The three finalists will be announced on June 4th. From June 4th to June 14th, fans are encouraged to vote for the winner of the award. The Golden Spikes Award presentation will air July 19th during The Rundown at 2 pm on the MLB Network. The presentation will be simulcast on GoldenSpikesAward.com?and USABaseball.com.?

Below is the full list of GSA semifinalists:

2013 Golden Spikes Award Semifinalists
Name, Position, Class, School, Conference (in order of last name)
Mark Appel, RHP, Senior, Stanford, Pac-12
Tyler Beede, RHP, Sophomore, Vanderbilt, SEC
David Berg, RHP, Sophomore, UCLA, Pac-12
Alex Bregman, IF, Freshman, Louisiana State, SEC
Kris Bryant, UTIL, Junior, San Diego, West Coast
Kerry Doane, RHP, Senior, East Tennessee State, Atlantic Sun
Hunter Dozier, IF, Senior, Stephen F. Austin, Southland
Kent Emanuel, LHP, Junior, North Carolina, ACC
Thomas Eshelman, RHP, Freshman, Cal State Fullerton, Big West
Zane Evans, C/RHP, Junior, Georgia Tech, ACC
Marco Gonzales, LHP, Junior, Gonzaga, West Coast
Jonathan Gray, RHP, Junior, Oklahoma, Big 12
Eric Jagielo, IF/OF, Junior, Notre Dame, Big East
Mason Katz, IF, Sr, Louisiana State, SEC
Tony Kemp, OF, Junior, Vanderbilt, SEC
Michael Lorenzen, OF/RHP, Junior, Cal State Fullerton, Big West
Kyle McGowin, RHP, Sophomore, Savannah State, Mid-Eastern
Colin Moran, IF, Junior, North Carolina, ACC
Aaron Nola, RHP, Sophomore, Louisiana State, SEC
Justin Parr, OF, Senior, Illinois, Big 10
D.J. Peterson, IF, Junior, New Mexico, Mountain West
Nick Petree, RHP, RS Junior, Missouri State, Missouri Valley
Jimmie Sherfy, RHP , Junior, Oregon, Pac-12
Ryne Stanek, RHP, Junior, Arkansas, SEC
Mike Tauchman, OF, Senior, Bradley, Missouri Valley
Jeff Thompson, RHP, Junior, Louisville, Big East
Trea Turner, IF, Sophomore, NC State, ACC
Bobby Wahl, RHP, Junior, Mississippi, SEC
Jimmy Yezzo, IF, Junior, Delaware, Colonial Athletic
Kevin Ziomek, LHP, Junior, Vanderbilt, SEC

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Source: http://cardinalsportszone.com/2013/05/28/baseball-jeff-thompson-named-golden-spikes-award-finalist/

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Mother Of Chinese Baby Boy Flushed Down Toilet Speaks (VIDEO)

Mother Of Chinese Baby Boy Flushed Down Toilet Speaks (VIDEO)

The mother of the Chinese baby boy that was found lodged in a sewer pipe claimed she became pregnant after a one night stand and could not afford an abortion. The young woman is reportedly the one that alerted the landlord of the noise, watching as firemen spent two hours rescuing the newborn baby. The ...

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Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2013/05/mother-of-chinese-baby-boy-flushed-down-toilet-speaks-video/

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Genco Male Emporium (Chiswick, London, by niranjanthampu)

Week ago had an appointment with Niel for a hair cut. I went to Notting Hill, its their new branch, and very clean and well designed. It is my first time, and Niel spent an hour sorting out my hair. I'd say I never had such an amazing hair cut in my life. It was fantastic, and he is brilliant at his work, he knows exactly what he is doing. Niel was very friendly, and he understand what kind of cut exactly I am looking for. Usually when I go work, I had to spent 10min fighting with my hair but now I only need to spent "a" minute with my hair. It's an amazing experience, and I'd definitely go again.?

Source: http://www.qype.co.uk/review/3815279

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Anti-abortion platform at church in Louth criticised by Labour Senator

Labour Senator Mary Moran criticised her local Catholic church in Louth for giving anti-abortion campaigners the opportunity to speak from the pulpit for the next six weeks.

Ms Moran, who lives in Haggardstown, Dundalk, said that as a practising Catholic and resident organist in the church she was shocked and disappointed by the decision.

?We have had calls from religious people to keep politics out of religion. I ask that this debate be fair and equal.?

Ms Moran said she had respected both sides of the argument in the debate on the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill. She had listened carefully to the arguments and had attended briefings.

Leaflets, she said, were handed out at Mass last Sunday, which stated the Government proposed dangerous and unjust abortion legislation.

?That is an untrue statement,? she added. ?If people are being given the opportunity to stand up and give one side of the argument, I propose that the other side be given equal time.?

Asked by Brian ? Domhnaill (FF) if she wanted to silence the church, Ms Moran replied she did not. ?I ask that the church give both sides.?

Source: http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/oireachtas/anti-abortion-platform-at-church-in-louth-criticised-by-labour-senator-1.1409028

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O.C. crash kills 5 teens: Police release teens' names

The O.C. crash that killed 5 teens involved speed, police say. Two of the 5 teens were sisters.

By Gillian Flaccus,?Associated Press / May 28, 2013

Coroner's officials say five teens died in a fiery California crash. Of the five teenage high school students, two were sisters.

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Orange?County?sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino said Tuesday the?teens?were students in the Irvine Unified School District.

The names of the three girls and two boys were released a day after they were killed in the single-car accident in Newport Beach.

The driver was identified as 17-year-old Abdulrahman Alyahyan, a senior at University High School.

The passengers included 17-year-old Robin Cabrera, a senior at Irvine High School, and her 16-year-old sister Aurora, a sophomore at the same school. Also killed were Cecilia Zamora and Nozad Al Hamawendi, both 17-year-old juniors at Irvine High School.

Police say speed was a factor.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/zrJat-Zqs90/O.C.-crash-kills-5-teens-Police-release-teens-names

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AP Exclusive: Soldier to admit Afghan massacre

SEATTLE (AP) ? The Army staff sergeant charged with slaughtering 16 villagers during one of the worst atrocities of the Afghanistan war has agreed to plead guilty in a deal to avoid the death penalty, his attorney told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Staff Sgt. Robert Bales is scheduled to enter guilty pleas to charges of premeditated murder June 5 at Joint Base Lewis-McChord south of Seattle, said lawyer John Henry Browne. A sentencing-phase trial set for September will determine whether he is sentenced to life in prison with or life without the possibility of parole. The judge and commanding general must approve a plea deal.

Browne previously indicated Bales remembered little from the night of the massacre, but he said the soldier will give a full account of what happened before the judge decides whether to accept the plea.

Bales, an Ohio native and father of two from Lake Tapps, Wash., slipped away from his remote southern Afghanistan outpost at Camp Belambay early on March 11, 2012, and attacked mud-walled compounds in two slumbering villages nearby.

Most of the victims were women and children, and some of the bodies were piled and burned. The slayings drew such angry protests that the U.S. temporarily halted combat operations in Afghanistan. It was three weeks before American investigators could reach the crime scenes.

Bales was serving his fourth tour in a combat zone, and the allegations against him raised questions about the toll multiple deployments were taking on American troops. For that reason, many legal experts believed it that it was unlikely that he would receive the death penalty, as Army prosecutors were seeking. The military justice system hasn't executed anyone since 1961.

Nevertheless, the plea deal could inflame tensions in Afghanistan. In interviews with the AP in Kandahar in April, relatives of the victims became outraged at the notion Bales might escape the death penalty and even vowed revenge.

"For this one thing, we would kill 100 American soldiers," said Mohammed Wazir, who had 11 family members killed that night, including his mother and 2-year-old daughter.

"A prison sentence doesn't mean anything," said Said Jan, whose wife and three other relatives died. "I know we have no power now. But I will become stronger, and if he does not hang, I will have my revenge."

Three of Jan's other family members were wounded, including his 7-year-old granddaughter, who was shot in the head.

___

Johnson can be reached at https://twitter.com/GeneAPseattle

___

AP's special regional correspondent for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Kathy Gannon, contributed from Kandahar.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-05-29-US-Afghanistan-Massacre/id-7579cd5c5f3d4fc59b36037996a16636

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Chicago man pleads guilty in NY hacking case

NEW YORK (AP) ? A self-described anarchist and "hacktivist" from Chicago pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges he illegally accessed computer systems of law enforcement agencies and government contractors.

"As part of each of these hacks, I took and decimated confidential information stored on computer systems websites used by each of the entities," Jeremy Hammond told a judge in federal court in Manhattan. "For each of these hacks, I knew what I was doing was against the law."

Prosecutors had alleged the cyber-attacks were carried out by Anonymous, the loosely organized worldwide hacking group that stole confidential information, defaced websites and temporarily put some victims out of business. Hammond was caught last year with the help of Hector Xavier Monsegur, a famous hacker known as Sabu who later helped law enforcement infiltrate Anonymous.

A criminal complaint had accused Hammond of pilfering information of more than 850,000 people via his attack on Austin, Texas-based Strategic Forecasting Inc., a publisher of geopolitical information also known as Stratfor. He also was accused of using the credit card numbers of Stratfor clients to make charges of at least $700,000. He allegedly bragged he even snared the personal data of a former U.S. vice president and one-time CIA director.

During his guilty plea, Hammond admitted he "took confidential information" from law enforcement agencies and contractors in several states.

Hammond, 28, once rallied against plans to hold the 2016 Olympics in Chicago because he felt it would hurt low-income people; another time, he protested against neo-Nazi groups.

In a 2005 feature article about Hammond's hacking skills, he told the Chicago Reader he could program video games before he was 10. He told the newspaper he was a "hacktivist" who sought to promote causes but never for profit.

A website for supporters, freehammond.com, has described Hammond as "one of the few true electronic Robin Hoods."

But prosecutors called him a menace: In one online chat, regarding Stratfor, Hammond allegedly wrote, "Time to feast upon their (email databases)."

Hammond, who used online aliases such as "crediblethreat" and "yohoho," once described himself as "an anarchist communist," the complaint says.

He has been previously been arrested for marijuana possession and involvement in a protest where an Olympic banner was torn down, according to court papers.

Hammond faces a maximum sentence of more than 15 years at sentencing on Sept. 6.

"Jeremy has taken responsibility for what he's done, but he should not face such a harsh sentence for an act of protest from which he did not personally benefit," the defendant's brother, Jason Hammond, said in a statement. "I'm glad he's moved one step closer to freedom, but today I'm asking for the judge to consider a sentence appropriate to what is nothing other than a nonviolent political protest."

Secret-spilling group WikiLeaks published much of the material Hammond is accused of having stolen. Wikileaks chief Julian Assange responded to the guilty plea Tuesday with a statement saying, "The Obama administration's treatment of Jeremy Hammond is a disgrace."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-05-28-Hacking%20Arrests/id-06a2f7ad0ffc4017bc805e2cd8ef8f6d

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The Candlelight Golf Tournament

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Source: www.psychologytoday.com --- Tuesday, May 28, 2013
A story of a journey with a young man experiencing an extreme state of mind. read more ...

Source: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/extreme-states-mind/201305/the-candlelight-golf-tournament

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Hot Bodies! Olivia Wilde & Jason Sudeikis Hit the Beach

The engaged duo soaks up the sun in Hawaii! Check out more pics of Hollywood's tightest twosomes

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LA Kings hope home is sweet in Game 7 vs Sharks

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) ? Home ice meant little to the Los Angeles Kings last season when they stormed through the postseason as an eighth seed to win the Stanley Cup.

They're hoping Staples Center means everything in Game 7 of an exhausting playoff with the San Jose Sharks. The Kings host the Sharks on Tuesday night in the finale to a second-round matchup featuring six straight home victories.

Los Angeles has won 13 consecutive home games over the past two months and seven straight home playoff games dating to last year's Cup clincher.

This all-California series is ending just as both teams expected before it began two weeks ago. Neither team can pull away, with goaltending and special teams largely deciding each game.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/la-kings-hope-home-sweet-game-7-vs-212902705.html

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US intelligence embraces debate in security issues (The Arizona Republic)

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Seeing Relationship Red Flags For What They Are - Since My Divorce

Many of the people I?ve interviewed have told me there were relationship red flags from the beginning, even before they were married. It?s not that they didn?t see the red flags at the time but more that they underestimated the impact they?d have on the relationship and the marriage.

My current guest Sandy was married for over twenty years and she too says there were red flags about her relationship from very early on:

?I married what I thought was safe, because of my own heart being broken by men who were unsafe and not knowing myself well enough to know that I could feel incredible love for somebody and attraction for somebody and feel safe.

That didn?t ever happen in my life prior, so I married somebody that I didn?t feel that kind of attraction for, but I thought he had the good values that I needed. And he really loved me, he was very devoted to me. I thought that was a safe formula.

The red flags were his mom, his devotion to his family. That showed up very, very early on. He?s a comedian and he was doing a performance in Toronto on a TV show and his father had a kidney stone, which it wasn?t major. He was in the hospital, he had many kidney stones and my husband left his job to go be with his father, even though his father didn?t want him there.

On one hand I was thinking, ?Oh, this is so nice. He has such a nice family relationship,? and on the other hand, I said, ?His job, he left a job and it wasn?t an emergency.? So there was this confusion that I had about that, but it struck a cord in me, that this was extreme.

He included his parents in everything. We actually took them on our honeymoon.

We went about six months after our marriage. We went to Israel, Holland and Italy. His parents had never been to Israel. Neither had he, I think. He asked me if they could come for two weeks, because this would probably be their only chance. That they would never go on their own. I said, ?This is our honeymoon. This is not supposed to be with parents.? I?m like, ?No, no, no,? and he said, ?Oh, come on.? He was really persuasive and they ended up coming with us. That was challenging.

Throughout the marriage basically his mother would bring him closer and push me away. Whenever we?d have a problem, it was, ?Poor baby, bad wife,? and I didn?t realize until much later, how toxic that was. It felt bad. One of the first things she said to me was, ?I hold grudges, so don?t ever cross me.? That?s such a welcoming statement, isn?t it? And also, ?We don?t babysit by the way, so don?t ever ask us.? There were a lot of things like that.

I?m so looking forward to my kids having kids. I can?t wait to be there for them, but I?m not going to move in with them and I?m not going to tell my daughter that her husband is a bad boy, because she?s having marital issues. I?m going to encourage her to work things out and be independent. There?s a lot of co-dependency in not healthy relationships.

What else was a red flag? There was a an extremism. He fell for me in five minutes. He was really dying to get married and I remember saying to him, ?What do you love about me,? because I didn?t really feel seen.

I?ve talked to other women who?ve told me the same thing. There?s a lot of talk about love, but the actual demonstration of love in it?s true sense, where somebody really respects you and talks out issues and gets you gifts that you want, not that he wants and gets you the ice cream cake that?s in your favorite flavor and not his for your birthday is missing. All of those things were signs of him really not seeing me, but seeing what he wanted to see.

I know that he cared deeply about me, but it?s very different when you feel that true connection, where somebody really gets you and you get them.

Also our connection to Judaism was never the same. Even though we were both Observant, he was only two years into it when I met him and he was fanatical as he was with many things. He?s very black and white. That was also a red flag.

He would have conversations with God. He?d say, ?God just told me this,? and I?d think ?That?s weird but OK, he?s really into it.?

My connection was much more intellectual and spiritual and his was very emotional and very different. I think that was important too.

There could be some outside signs that look good on paper, but when it comes to the practicality of it or the truth of it, it?s very different. I think that?s an important place to look in a relationship.

The value of going back and looking for these red flags isn?t to beat yourself up about why you ignored them or didn?t act on them. The value comes from using these to stop yourself from making the same choices again. It?s less about the other person and more about you.

This means digging deeper and asking what was it about your own development that made you willing to accept the behavior. Then you have to ask yourself what changes you?ve made or that you?re going to work on so you won?t accept the same behavior in the future.

Sometimes the red flags are less about behavior and more about a fundamental difference in values. These are valuable insights you can take with you when you?re ready to start dating again and they?ll help you decide what is and what is not a dealbreaker.

What do you see now as red flags from your relationship with your STBX? What have you learned from them?
Sandy Weiner?is a dating coach at?Last First Date?where she blogs about dating and offers coaching services for completing your online dating profile. You can also sign up for her free report:?Top 3 Mistakes Midlife Daters Make.

Photo Credit: 2013? Jupiter Images Corporation

Source: http://www.sincemydivorce.com/seeing-relationship-red-flags-for-what-they-are/

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U.S. report says major weapons designs compromised by Chinese

WASHINGTON/CANBERRA (Reuters) - Designs for more than two dozen major U.S. weapons systems have been compromised by Chinese hackers, a U.S. report said on Monday, as a news report in Australia said Chinese hackers had stolen the blueprints for Australia's new spy headquarters.

Citing a report prepared for the Defense Department by the Defense Science Board, the Washington Post reported that compromised U.S. designs included combat aircraft and ships, as well as missile defenses vital for Europe, Asia and the Gulf.

Among the weapons listed in the report were the advanced Patriot missile system, the Navy's Aegis ballistic missile defense systems, the F/A-18 fighter jet, the V-22 Osprey, the Black Hawk helicopter and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

The report did not specify the extent or time of the cyber-thefts or indicate if they involved computer networks of the U.S. government, contractors or subcontractors.

But the espionage would give China knowledge that could be exploited in a conflict, such as knocking out communications and corrupting data, the Post said. It also could speed Beijing's development of Chinese defense technology.

In a report to Congress earlier this month, the Pentagon said China was using espionage to modernize its military and that its hacking was a serious concern. It said the U.S. government had been the target of hacking that appeared to be "attributable directly to the Chinese government and military." China dismissed the report as groundless.

China has dismissed as groundless both the Pentagon report and a February report by the U.S. computer security company Mandiant, which said a secretive Chinese military unit was probably behind a series of hacking attacks targeting the United States that had stolen data from 100 companies.

AUSTRALIAN SPY HQ PLANS STOLEN

In Australia, a news report said hackers linked to China stole the floorplans of a A$630 million headquarters for the Australia Security Intelligence Organisation, the country's domestic spy agency.

The attack through the computers of a construction contractor exposed not only building layouts, but also the location of communication and computer networks.

Australia security analyst Des Ball told the ABC in the report that such information made the yet to be completed spy headquarters vulnerable to future cyber attacks.

"You can start constructing your own wiring diagrams, where the linkages are through telephone connections, through wi-fi connections, which rooms are likely to be the ones that are used for sensitive conversations, how to surreptitiously put devices into the walls of those rooms," said Ball.

The building is designed to be part of a global electronic intelligence gathering network which includes the United States and the UK, but its construction has been plagued by delays and cost blowouts, with some builders blaming late design changes on cyber attacks.

The ABC report said the Chinese hacking was part of a growing wave of cyber attacks against business and military targets in the close U.S. ally.

It said the hackers also stole confidential information from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which houses the overseas spy agency the Australian Secret Intelligence Service and had targeted local companies, including steel-manufacturer Bluescope Steel, and military and civilian communications manufacturer Codan Ltd.

The influential Greens party said the hacking was a "security blunder of epic proportions" and called for an inquiry, but the government refused to confirm the breach.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the reports were "inaccurate", but declined to say how.

Australian officials, like those in the United States and other Western nations, have made cyber attacks a security priority following a growing number of attacks of the resource rich country, mostly blamed on China.

Despite being one of Beijing's major trade partners, the country is seen by China as the southern fulcrum of the U.S. military pivot to the Asia-Pacific and in 2011 agreed to host thousands of U.S. Marines in near-permanent rotation.

Australia is a major buyer for U.S. weapons systems and is one of the largest overseas customers for the Lockheed Martin manufactured F-35, as well as for Boeing's F/A-18 Super Hornet and associated weapons systems.

Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei was last year barred from bidding for construction contracts on a new Australian high-speed broadband network amid fears of cyber espionage.

The Reserve Bank of Australia said in March that it had been targeted by cyber attacks, but no data had been lost or systems compromised amid reports the hackers had tried to access intelligence on Group of 20 wealthy nations negotiations.

(Writing by Bill Trott in WASHINGTON and Rob Taylor in CANBERRA; Editing by Michael Perry)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-report-says-major-weapons-designs-compromised-chinese-033726944.html

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Listen To Music Through Your Cheekbones While You Swim Laps

It's hard to listen to music while you're swimming because even waterproof earbuds that actually stay on try to conduct sound through air to reach your eardrums, and there's not a lot of air underwater. The FINIS Neptune works on this issue by sending sound waves straight into your face. Total bombardment. In a good way.

The Neptune speakers rest on your cheek and make the bone vibrate so that the vibrations can be relayed to your cochlea, allowing you to hear music. The process is called "bone conduction," and is also used by some marine mammals. Since the music is going straight into your head, you don't have to deal with anything in your ears while you're trying to swim.

The Neptune is an updated version of FINIS's years-old SwiMP3, which had 128MB of memory and sold for $180. Now at 4GB, the Neptune costs $160. A quick PSA, though: Just because you feel the music in your bones, does not mean you should engage in any type of swim-singing or swim-dancing unless you are totally sure no one is watching. Use the sick beats to motivate your workout, not to make you the subject of unfortunate Vines. [Werd]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/listen-to-music-through-your-cheekbones-while-you-swim-509940269

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Marketers Analyze Tweets For Personality - Business Insider

IN AMERICA alone, people spent $170 billion on "direct marketing"--junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties--last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result.

If the bumf arrived electronically, the take-up rate was 0.1%. And for online adverts the "conversion" into sales was a minuscule 0.01%. That means about $165 billion was spent not on drumming up business, but on annoying people, creating landfill and cluttering spam filters.

Which might, in the modern, privacy-free world of sliced and diced web-browsing analysis, come as something of a surprise. Marketing departments gather terabytes of data on potential customers, spend fortunes on software to analyse their spending habits and painstakingly "segment" the data to calibrate their campaigns to appeal to specific groups. And still they get it almost completely wrong.

A group of researchers at IBM's Almaden Research Centre in San Jose, California, however, is here to help. According to Eben Haber, the group's leader, the problem is that firms are trying to understand their customers by studying their "demographics" (age, sex, marital status, dwelling place, income and so on) and their existing buying habits. That approach, he believes, is flawed. What they really need is a way to discover the "deep psychological profiles" of their customers, including their personalities, values and needs. And he and his team think they can provide it.

Modern psychology recognises five dimensions of personality: extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness to experience. Previous research has shown that people's scores on these traits can, indeed, predict what they purchase. Extroverts are more likely to respond to an advert for a mobile phone that promises excitement than one that promises convenience or security. They also prefer Coca-Cola to Pepsi and Maybelline cosmetics to Max Factor. Agreeable people, though, tend to prefer Pepsi, and those open to experience prefer Max Factor.

People are, of course, unlikely to want to take personality tests so that marketing departments around the world can intrude even more on their lives than happens already. But Dr Haber thinks he can get around that--at least for users of Twitter. He and his team have developed software that takes streams of "tweets" from this social medium and searches them for words that indicate a tweeter's personality, values and needs.

The personality-profiling part of the software is based on a study published in 2010 by Tal Yarkoni of the University of Colorado, Boulder. Dr Yarkoni recruited a group of bloggers and correlated the frequencies of certain words and categories of word that they used in their blogs with their personality traits, as established by questionnaire.

Some of the relations he found were commonsensical. Extroversion correlated with "bar", "restaurant" and "crowd". Neuroticism correlated with "awful", "lazy" and "depressing". But there were also unforeseen patterns. Trust (an important component of agreeableness), for example, correlated with "summer", and co-operativeness (another element of agreeableness) with "unusual".

Inspired by Dr Yarkoni's findings, Dr Haber and his team are conducting research of their own, matching word use with two sets of traits not directly related to personality. These are people's values (things they deem to be good, beneficial and important, such as loyalty, accuracy and self-enhancement) and their needs (things they feel they cannot live without, such as excitement, control or acceptance).

In a test of the new system, Dr Haber analysed three months' worth of data from 90m users of Twitter. His software was able to parse someone's presumptive personality reasonably well from just 50 tweets, and very well indeed from 200.

At the moment the system is being tested by a financial-services company. If all goes well, Dr Haber hopes to launch it commercially by the end of the year. He says the new software has the potential to serve people as individuals rather than "vague demographic blurs". Whether they will actually wish to be "served" in this way, when the price of such service is having strangers build up intimate psychological profiles of them, remains to be seen.

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Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/marketers-analyze-tweets-for-personality-2013-5

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