SKorea: North Korea moved missile to east coast

A South Korean security guard works to turn back vehicles as they were refused to enter to Kaesong, North Korea, at the customs, immigration and quarantine office in Paju, South Korea, near the border village of Panmunjom, Thursday, April 4, 2013. North Korea on Wednesday barred South Korean workers from entering a jointly run factory park just over the heavily armed border in the North, officials in Seoul said, a day after Pyongyang announced it would restart its long-shuttered plutonium reactor and increase production of nuclear weapons material. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A South Korean security guard works to turn back vehicles as they were refused to enter to Kaesong, North Korea, at the customs, immigration and quarantine office in Paju, South Korea, near the border village of Panmunjom, Thursday, April 4, 2013. North Korea on Wednesday barred South Korean workers from entering a jointly run factory park just over the heavily armed border in the North, officials in Seoul said, a day after Pyongyang announced it would restart its long-shuttered plutonium reactor and increase production of nuclear weapons material. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel speaks at the National Defense University at Fort McNair in Washington, Wednesday, April 3, 2013. Hagel labeled North Korea's rhetoric as a real, clear danger and threat to the U.S. and its Asia-Pacific allies. He said the U.S. is doing all it can to defuse the situation, echoing comments a day earlier by Secretary of State John Kerry. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

South Korean drivers wait to head the North Korea's city of Kaesong, at the customs, immigration and quarantine office in Paju, South Korea, near the border village of Panmunjom, Thursday, April 4, 2013. North Korea on Wednesday barred South Korean workers from entering a jointly run factory park just over the heavily armed border in the North, officials in Seoul said, a day after Pyongyang announced it would restart its long-shuttered plutonium reactor and increase production of nuclear weapons material. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

In this Sept. 21, 2012 photo, North Korean workers assemble Western-style suits at the South Korean-run ShinWon Corp. garment factory inside the Kaesong industrial complex in Kaesong, North Korea. On Wednesday, April 3, 2013, North Korea refused entry to South Koreans trying to cross the Demilitarized Zone to get to their jobs managing factories in the North Korean city of Kaesong. Pyongyang had threatened in recent days to close the border in anger over South Korea's support of U.N. sanctions punishing North Korea for conducting a nuclear test in February. (AP Photo/Jean H. Lee)

In this Sept. 21, 2012 photo, a North Korean worker handles wires at a South Korean-run factory inside the Kaesong industrial complex in Kaesong, North Korea. On Wednesday, April 3, 2013, North Korea refused entry to South Koreans trying to cross the Demilitarized Zone to get to their jobs managing factories in the North Korean city of Kaesong. Pyongyang had threatened in recent days to close the border in anger over South Korea's support of U.N. sanctions punishing North Korea for conducting a nuclear test in February. (AP Photo/Jean H. Lee)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? North Korea has moved a missile with "considerable range" to its east coast, South Korea's defense minister said Thursday, but he added that it is not capable of hitting the United States and there are no signs that Pyongyang is preparing for a full-scale conflict.

The report came hours after North Korea's military warned that it has been authorized to attack the U.S. using "smaller, lighter and diversified" nuclear weapons. It was the North's latest war cry against America in recent weeks, with the added suggestion that it had improved its nuclear technology.

South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin dismissed reports in Japanese media that the missile could be a KN-08, which is believed to be a long-range missile that if operable could hit the United States.

Kim told lawmakers at a hearing that the missile's range is considerable but not far enough to hit the U.S. mainland. He said he did not know the reasons behind the missile movement, saying it "could be for testing or drills."

Experts say North Korea has not demonstrated that it has missiles capable of long range or accuracy. Some suspect that long-range missiles unveiled by Pyongyang at a parade last year were actually mockups.

"From what we know of its existing inventory, North Korea has short- and medium-range missiles that could complicate a situation on the Korean Peninsula (and perhaps reach Japan), but we have not seen any evidence that it has long-range missiles that could strike the continental US, Guam or Hawaii," James Hardy, Asia Pacific editor of IHS Jane's Defence Weekly, said in a recent analysis.

Kim said the South Korean military has spotted no signs that North Korea is preparing for a full-scale conflict. Those signs include the mobilization of a number of units, including supply and rear troops, but South Korean military officials have found no such preparations in North Korea, he said.

"(North Korea's recent threats) are rhetorical threats. I believe the odds of a full-scale provocation are small," he said. But he added that there is still the possibility of North Korea mounting a localized, small-scale provocation against South Korea. He cited the 2010 shelling of a South Korean island, an attack that killed four people, as a possible example of such a provocation.

Pyongyang has been railing against joint U.S. and South Korean military exercises taking place in South Korea and has expressed anger over tightened U.N. sanctions for its February nuclear test. At times it has gone beyond rhetoric.

For a second day Thursday, North Korean border authorities denied entry to South Koreans who manage jointly run factories in the North Korean city of Kaesong. A North Korean government-run committee threatened to pull out North Korean workers from Kaesong as well.

On Tuesday, Pyongyang announced it would restart a plutonium reactor it had shut down in 2007. A U.S. research institute said Wednesday that satellite imagery shows that construction needed for the restart has already begun.

North Korea's military statement Thursday said its troops had been authorized to counter U.S. "aggression" with "powerful practical military counteractions," including nuclear weapons.

"We formally inform the White House and Pentagon that the ever-escalating U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK and its reckless nuclear threat will be smashed by the strong will of all the united service personnel and people and cutting-edge smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear strike means," an unnamed spokesman from the General Bureau of the Korean People's Army said in a statement carried by state media, referring to North Korea by its formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "The U.S. had better ponder over the prevailing grave situation."

The Pentagon announced that it will deploy a missile defense system to the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam to strengthen regional protection against a possible attack.

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Washington is doing all it can to defuse the situation, echoing comments a day earlier by Secretary of State John Kerry.

"Some of the actions they've taken over the last few weeks present a real and clear danger and threat to the interests, certainly of our allies, starting with South Korea and Japan, and also the threats that the North Koreans have leveled directly at the United States regarding our base in Guam, threatened Hawaii, threatened the West Coast of the United States," Hagel said Wednesday.

South Korea's Defense Ministry said its military is ready to deal with any provocation by North Korea. "I can say we have no problem in crisis management," deputy ministry spokesman Wee Yong-sub told reporters.

This spring's annual U.S.-South Korea drills have incorporated fighter jets and nuclear-capable stealth bombers, though the allies insist they are routine exercises. Pyongyang calls them rehearsals for a northward invasion.

The foes fought on opposite sides of the Korean War, which ended in a truce in 1953. The divided Korean Peninsula remains in a technical state of war six decades later, and Washington keeps 28,500 troops in South Korea to protect its ally.

North Korea's nuclear strike capabilities remain unclear.

Pyongyang is believed to be working toward building an atomic bomb small enough to mount on a long-range missile. Long-range rocket launches designed to send satellites into space in 2009 and 2012 were widely considered covert tests of missile technology, and North Korea has conducted three underground nuclear tests, most recently in February.

"I don't believe North Korea has the capacity to attack the United States with nuclear weapons mounted on missiles, and won't for many years. Its ability to target and strike South Korea is also very limited," nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker, a senior fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University, said this week.

"And even if Pyongyang had the technical means, why would the regime want to launch a nuclear attack when it fully knows that any use of nuclear weapons would result in a devastating military response and would spell the end of the regime?" he said in answers posted to CISAC's website.

In Seoul, a senior government official said Tuesday it wasn't clear how advanced North Korea's nuclear weapons capabilities are. But he also noted fallout from any nuclear strike on Seoul or beyond would threaten Pyongyang as well, making a strike unlikely. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly to the media.

North Korea maintains that it needs to build nuclear weapons to defend itself against the United States. On Monday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un led a high-level meeting of party officials who declared building the economy and "nuclear armed forces" as the nation's two top priorities.

Hecker has estimated that North Korea has enough plutonium to make several crude nuclear bombs. Its announcement Tuesday that it would restart a plutonium reactor indicated that it intends to produce more nuclear weapons material.

The U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies has analyzed recent commercial satellite imagery of the Nyongbyon nuclear facility, where the reactor was shut down in 2007 under the terms of a disarmament agreement. A cooling tower for the reactor was destroyed in 2008.

The analysis published Wednesday on the institute's website, 38 North, says that rebuilding the tower would take six months, but a March 27 photo shows building work may have started for an alternative cooling system that could take just weeks. Experts estimate it could take three months to a year to restart the plant.

___

Lee reported from Seoul. Associated Press writers Matthew Lee in Washington and Hyung-jin Kim and Youkyung Lee in Seoul contributed to this report. Follow AP's Korea bureau chief at www.twitter.com/newsjean.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-04-04-Koreas-Tension/id-38aed22f5f644ba78143fb4d1b5ab0fc

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New bird flu strain causes fifth death in China

BEIJING (AP) ? A middle-aged man who transported poultry for a living and another unidentified person have died from a new strain of bird flu, bringing the death toll to five among 14 confirmed cases in China, the government and state media reported Thursday.

The 48-year-old man, who died in Shanghai, is one of several among the infected believed to have had direct contact with fowl. Until recently, the virus, called H7N9, was not known to infect humans.

The official Xinhua News Agency did not identify the fifth fatality, but said that person also died in Shanghai on Wednesday.

It said the Ministry of Agriculture confirmed on Thursday that the H7N9 virus had been detected in pigeons at a market selling agricultural products in Shanghai.

It is not known how people are becoming sick with the virus, and health officials and scientists caution that there are no indications it can be transmitted from one person to another. Scientists who have studied the virus's genetic sequence said this week that the virus may have mutated, spreading more easily to other animals and potentially posing a bigger threat to humans.

Guidelines issued Wednesday by the national health agency identify butchers, breeders and sellers of poultry, and those in the meat processing industry as at higher risk.

Experts only identified the first cases on Sunday. Some among the 14 confirmed cases fell ill several weeks ago but only now are being classified as having H7N9.

Xinhua said six cases have been confirmed in Shanghai, four in Jiangsu, three in Zhejiang and one in Anhui.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bird-flu-strain-causes-fifth-death-china-152705123.html

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Roger Ebert Dies at 70: See Celebrity Twitter Reactions

World-renowned film critic Roger Ebert has died on April 4 after a long battle with cancer, confirms his long-time employer, the Chicago Sun-Times. He was 70 years old.

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/roger-ebert-dead-cancer-see-celebrity-twitter-reactions/1-a-532315?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Aroger-ebert-dead-cancer-see-celebrity-twitter-reactions-532315

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Samsung woos less affluent phone users to beat seasonal gloom

By Miyoung Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, the iPhone's main adversary, is expected to post a 46 percent jump in first-quarter earnings as sales of mid-tier smartphones helped tide the South Korean giant over the off-peak season.

Samsung, due to release its January-March earnings guidance early on Friday, likely increased its quarterly operating profit to 8.3 trillion won ($7.5 billion), a survey of 42 analysts by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S showed. That would be 6 percent less than the record 8.84 trillion won earned in October-December.

The Galaxy S and Note series have fuelled Samsung's record-breaking earnings growth and made it the No.2 player in the global premium smartphone segment after Apple Inc. But as the high-end market swarms with new offerings, Samsung is turning to less affluent customers in emerging markets, offering cheaper models such as the Rex and Galaxy Pop, analysts said.

"Increasing sales of mid-tier products on top of the usual solid sales of its flagship models of the Galaxy S and Note probably helped Samsung fare better than its peers," said Lee Sun-tae, an analyst at NH Investment & Securities.

"The first quarter will be the bottom of its earnings cycle for this year, and things will only get better from here as it rolls out new mobile products."

Samsung capitalised on its 30-plus smartphone models that cover nearly all price points to boost shipments to a record in the first quarter while the post-year end holiday season dulled sales at Apple, analysts said.

The South Korean firm likely shipped 68-70 million smartphones, up from 63 million in the December quarter, according to five analysts.

By comparison, Apple's iPhone shipments likely slumped some 30 percent to the 30 million range from 47.8 million in the previous quarter, they said.

Shares in Samsung, worth around $220 billion, fell 3 percent over the past three months, exceeding a 2 percent drop in the wider market. Apple lost 19 percent in the same period.

END OF RECORD QUARTERS

The 8.3 trillion won estimated operating profit for January-March will mark the end of five record quarters.

But analysts said Samsung will likely mint a fresh all-time high of 9.7 trillion won in the current quarter as the Galaxy S IV hits the market later this month.

Of the 42 analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S, four predicted Samsung might surprise with a record first-quarter profit of up to 9.0 trillion won after the firm slashed spending on marketing from 12.8 trillion won in the fourth quarter.

Samsung's mobile devices division alone is estimated to have earned 5.8-6.4 trillion won in the first quarter, eclipsing the entire 5.7 trillion won that Samsung earned in the year-earlier period from all its businesses.

JPMorgan, the most bullish, estimates Samsung will report a 6.7 trillion won profit from the mobile division alone.

Samsung, which gets 70 percent of its overall profit from its mobile devices business, is due to release its final first-quarter earnings results by April 26.

Soaring smartphone sales are increasingly becoming a major pillar just when parts supplies to Apple slow.

Lee at NH Investment & Securities estimates that Samsung's microchip production rate fell to 80 percent of capacity due to reduced orders from Apple as its biggest mobile processing chip client struggles with weak sales of iPad tablets.

"Reduced microchip sales to Apple is a major drag for its chip business, although recovery in computer memory chip prices eased the Apple impact on the overall bottom line," said Seo Won-seok, an analyst at Korea Investment & Securities, slashing the first-quarter earnings forecast for Samsung's chip business by 11 percent.

Samsung pushed back construction of a new chip plant late last year, and said it would keep this year's investment flexible as Apple diversifies away from Samsung in component purchases.

(Reporting by Miyoung Kim; Editing by Ryan Woo)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/samsung-woos-less-affluent-phone-users-beat-seasonal-210824688--finance.html

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5 ways to cope with hoarding | Offbeat Home

I didn't expect hoarding to impact my life in such a big way. I grew up in a house that made constant donations to whatever organization would come by our front door ? at least three garbage bags each month, minimum. Stuff came in, stuff went out. This was my normal.

And then I met the man who would one day become my husband. And then I met his parents. And now hoarding is a very real and stressful part of my life.

My husband, A, is not a hoarder. He admits it would have been very easy to have gone down that path, as collecting and storing and hoarding was the norm in his childhood. He's in a sort of recovery mode ? he has hoarding tendencies, but nothing that would warrant a therapist, home organizer, or public-health intervention. But hoarding affects our lives, day in and day out. Here are some of the challenges, and how we cope with them:

1. Be patient but firm about giving things away.

When I first met A, he had over sixty t-shirts. I would guess maybe five or six of them actually fit, and only three of those looked good. I tried to convince him that he didn't really need sixty t-shirts, that maybe a two-week supply was a better idea. Getting him to part with the extras was an extremely slow process ? it took the better part of a year to whittle his collection down to size. The same went for old text books, housewares, gifts ? it didn't matter if it wasn't being used, or if we didn't have the space, or if it was worn-out? "We might need it." "It has sentimental value." "But it was a gift."

The switch from "keep" mode to "donate" mode has been a very long process. We would use cut-off dates (if the shirt isn't worn in the next six months it gets donated), and small increases (this month I will donate five items, next month I will donate ten) to increase A's comfort level with giving things away ? which also helped my stress levels.

2. Get proactive about food.

Once upon a time I decided to clean out A's fridge, and found seven jars of mayonnaise along with a packet of deli meat that had turned into a trippy swirl of turquoise and purple. A also likes to keep food odds and ends: the remaining handful of chips or cereal, that last tortilla or slice of bread. Problem is, these things tend to sit in our cupboards or refridgerator, and also lead to other issues such as mold or pests. Yuck.

Learning about food spoilage and food waste has helped us to deal with this aspect of hoarding. I took over shopping and cooking once we moved in together, so I've been able to assume a greater deal of control in the kitchen and go by the "when in doubt, throw it out" rule, but this will depend on your personal living arrangements.

3. Have a plan for giving and receiving gifts.

My husband's parents love to shop and can't resist a bargain. This means that Christmas, birthdays, and other major holidays tend to get just a wee bit excessive. Meaning, come Christmas morning, it looks like an outlet store exploded in our living room. While I can appreciative the generosity, it comes with a problem: the majority of the gifts are things we do not want or need, nor do we have the storage space.

This has led us to be rather brutal when it comes to gifts: most of what comes in is passed along. We can't tell A's parents to stop buying for us, but they can't tell us what we have to keep in our house. We also tend to ask for gift cards or experiences (tickets to the circus, a family museum pass) rather than stuff, but we still get the pile'o'presents to contend with come Christmas Day. I do not expect my husband's parents to change, so the onus is on us to have a family policy for unwanted presents.

On the flip side of receiving gifts is giving gifts. What do you give a person when their house is full to bursting? Or when you find past gifts still in their original packaging, shoved in a plastic storage bin? We try to keep the gifts we give small but memorable, and have learned the hard way that handmade or heartfelt gifts are a bad idea, because they tend to get lost in the chaos. Giftcards are our other major solution, although I still worry that the card will also be lost.

4. Establish boundaries with others.

Visits to A's childhood home are always stressful. The house makes us ill, there isn't any privacy, the food is questionable, and then there's the constant fear of being swallowed by stuff.

When we visit, we come prepared with medications for allergies and headaches, try to eat out as much as possible or buy our own groceries, and try to limit the amount of time we actually spend in the house. We're also now planning on staying in a hotel, or with friends, despite the fact that this may cause a fair amount of friction between the two families. We have also had to make the rule that our daughter cannot stay for overnights due to health and safety concerns. This sucks, big time. I don't want to keep her from her grandparents, but it's not safe for her to stay in their house. I'm not looking forward to that particular conversation, but perhaps it will be the cause for change and a mass clean-up. I hope so.

5. The serenity prayer works!

I cannot force my in-laws to change, and neither can A. I don't know if they will ever seek help for their problem, or if they would be willing to stop shopping, collecting, keeping, hoarding. It is their life, and their house. I do not have control over this situation. But I do have control over my own situation, over the things we prioritize and over how A and I choose to lead our lives.

Our house is our own oasis, and has its own rules. We can choose what comes into our house, and what stays in our house. We can choose to recognize when behaviours are problematic, and find ways to address issues such as storage, donations, presents, and travel. It's not an easy task, and often leads to difficult conversations and tough decisions. We control our own lives and our own house, and while hoarding certainly affects our lives, it does not control it, and will not overwhelm us.

Source: http://offbeathome.com/2013/04/5-ways-to-cope-with-hoarding

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Australia's gun controls a political template for the U.S.

By James Grubel

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard wore a bullet proof vest under his suit when he addressed an angry crowd of gun owners in 1996, telling them he was going to ban automatic and semi-automatic weapons for the safety of all Australians.

At other rallies, effigies of his deputy prime minister Tim Fischer were hanged by opponents of gun control.

The battle for gun control in Australia, after the country's worst massacre in which 35 people were shot dead, was risky both personally and politically. Howard alienated a large part of his conservative, rural base and was almost thrown from office.

But the gun reforms made Australia a safer place, with fewer homicides and suicides, and both Howard and Fischer are now urging U.S. President Barack Obama to take his gun control campaign to the people, just as they did, to gain a consensus.

"I knew that I had to use the authority of my office to curb the possession and use of the type of weapons that killed 35 innocent people. I also knew it wouldn't be easy," Howard wrote in the New York Times earlier this year.

"Penalizing decent, law-abiding citizens because of the criminal behavior of others seemed unfair...I understood their misgivings. Yet I felt there was no alternative," wrote Howard, adding he hoped his example would contribute constructively to the U.S. gun debate.

Obama wants to ban military assault rifles and high capacity ammunition clips after a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at a school in Newtown, Connecticut, in December. But his plans appear to be losing momentum ahead of debate in the U.S. Senate this month.

BRUTAL GUN POLITICS

Six weeks after Howard won office in 1996, Martin Bryant, a psychologically disturbed man, used semi-automatic rifles to kill 35 people in Port Arthur, Tasmania.

Fischer, a Vietnam war veteran, farmer and gun owner, said the politics of gun control in Australia were brutal.

"It was a battle royal, and John Howard laid down a template that was worth defending and taking to the public square, taking to the people, and shifting the tectonic plates in the process. And the result ... 200 less coffins a year on a conservative estimate," Fischer told Reuters.

"It was the right thing to do, but people had to be persuaded of it. And this is why our friends in the United States ... should now consider seriously taking it in a big way to the public square."

In Australia, gun owners were compensated when they handed in previously legal weapons. Almost 700,000 guns were destroyed, halving the number of homes with a gun. That would be equal to taking 40 million guns out of action in the United States.

But the reforms angered many constituents of Fischer's rural-based National Party, who vented their anger two years later at the ballot box. The pro-gun One Nation party won almost one million votes and the government narrowly avoided defeat.

Australia had 13 gun massacres in the 18 years before the 1996 gun reforms, but has not suffered any mass shootings since.

Studies found a marked drop in gun-related homicides, down 59 percent, and a dramatic 65 percent drop in the rate of gun-related suicides, in the 10 years after the weapons crackdown.

But some Australian gun owners, like hunter Stephen O'Donnell, still oppose Howard's gun control laws, arguing they have simply created paperwork not made Australia safer.

O'Donnell, a license kangaroo shooter, can only use a single shell, bolt-action rifle, limiting his ability to control mobs of kangaroos and feral pests which can wreak havoc on farms.

"If I could have a semi-automatic, that would be a much more efficient way of doing it. You could take multiple targets a lot quicker," he said.

(Editing by Robert Birsel and Michael Perry)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/australias-gun-controls-political-template-u-101053180.html

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Zynga NY studio chief leaves after mobile games disappointment

By Gerry Shih

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The head of Zynga Inc's New York studio has left the social gaming company a year after its $180 million purchase of his mobile game start-up failed to produce the expected results.

Dan Porter, the former chief executive of OMGPOP, will be succeeded by Sean Kelly, an executive formerly in charge of Zynga's smash hit "CityVille," the company said in a statement on Tuesday. Zynga's New York office focuses on developing games for mobile devices, a top priority for the company.

Zynga did not say where Porter, who was vice president and general manager of Zynga's New York operations, would go next.

Porter joined Zynga last March when it bought OMGPOP, known for its popular Pictionary-like game, "Draw Something," in its largest acquisition to date. His departure comes shortly before the highly anticipated global launch of the sequel, "Draw Something 2."

"Draw Something" began losing users soon after Zynga's purchase and OMGPOP struggled to replicate its previous success, leading Wall Street analysts to question the deal.

OMGPOP's integration into Zynga was challenging in other ways. Porter, a colorful and outspoken executive, publicly apologized to his Zynga colleagues last month after Quartz, a business news website, quoted him as saying that the company copies other publishers' games.

Zynga eventually wrote off $95 million in relation to OMGPOP last fall.

Despite Porter's rocky tenure, Colin Sebastian, an analyst at R.W. Baird, said Zynga's OMGPOP purchase helped signal the company's shifting emphasis toward mobile game development.

"I certainly can't say that he has been able to string together a long line of hit titles, but that's not necessarily his fault," Sebastian said. "In bringing some of that mobile perspective to Zynga and at least one key game, that mission was accomplished even if the price tag was deemed to be very pricy."

Zynga's stock plummeted 80 percent in 2012 from a high of $12.90 last March, but has rebounded in recent months. The shares fell 2 percent to $3.09 late Tuesday.

(Reporting by Gerry Shih; Editing by Richard Chang)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/zynga-ny-studio-chief-leaves-mobile-games-disappointment-205337916--finance.html

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Lollapalooza 2013 Lineup: Released!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/lollapaloooza-2013-lineup-released/

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Pincam (for iPhone)

When Twitter's video sharing app Vine launched last month to great fanfare, what you often heard was that it was "like Instagram for video." (Around the same time, Twitter actually stopped allowing Instagram photos to show up on users' streams.) But the comparison doesn't flesh out very well, since a big part of Instagram is its ability to enhance your mobile photos with effect filters and retro looks.

Pincam, a recent free iPhone app from the South Korean firm SK Planet, steps in to give us a closer video analog for Instagram, complete with filters and direct uploading to YouTube and Facebook. This is in spite of the app's frequent use of the term "pin," which would suggest a tie-in with Pinterest. Even the app's logo resembles that social network's, but I found no real tie-ins or resemblances. In any case, the video pinning you do with Pincam, though initially somewhat perplexing, can definitely provide moments of enjoyment with your iPhone's video camera.

Interface
Pincam's initial interface is pretty spare. Its most prominent element is a big, universally understood, red Record button. Other controls grace the corners of the screen: At the top you see Settings and Flash on the left, and switch camera on the right.? The most interesting button is at lower-right?Filters. This lets you see effects like Blue Vintage, Vanilla Sky, Dotty, Mozaic, Tooner, and Sketchbook. The last two are pretty impressive, letting you see and record drawing-like versions of your scene in real time. In all, there are a baker's dozen of effects to choose from.

Recording Video
When you hit that big Record button, a progress bar starts running along the bottom and large Pinterest-like button appears in the right side of the screen. Pressing the latter starts an on-screen timer counting down from three seconds, with the word "Highlight!" superimposed on the recording video.

In some ways, I prefer Vine's ability to let you press the screen to choose when recording should happen. That way, you can easily create clever stop-motion effects. But then there's Vine's stingy six-second limit?.Pincam has you start recording, and then pick the best three-second intervals. You can keep the camera rolling as long as you like, but when you stop it by hitting Record again, you'll see an Encoding message and progress bar. When you then watch the final product, you'll see that Pincam has edited your footage to just the Highlighted sections, with one second added to the start, since it's likely that you missed the very beginning of the interesting bits before hitting the button.

You can't do trimming at specific points in the video, but the Highlight button handles that for you. You can open previously recorded video from your Camera Roll, but only to select and edit down to Hightlights in the clip?you can't add one of Pincam's effects.

My results were more impressive if less pithy than what I'd been able to do with Vine. The filters are a definite plus, and it will be interesting to see whether the app can do for mobile video what Instagram did for mobile photos.

Sharing
After signing into a YouTube account and giving permission for Pincam to access it, you'll be able to add a text caption, which by default just says "via Pincam." I didn't appreciate that you can't choose whether the viddy should be public or private, or choose a category before uploading. After a few minutes, a message informed me that my five-second test upload was Successful! The category was set to Entertainment, and the privacy to Public. Again, I wish I'd been able to choose those before uploading. Facebook uploading is even more streamlined, and my video showed up with an HD viewing option.

A Pincam representative told me that SK Planet would be adding its own online sharing service, so the app will become an even more accurate analog to Instagram. The new service will allow private sharing and have a Facebook tie-in.

Stick a Pin in It
Pincam solved the problem of recording video with monotonous sections you want to ditch. And its cool live filter effects go beyond what you get in Vine, as does its longer time limit. But using Pincam is a bit trickier than shooting with Vine or Lightt, and for that reason, I'd be less likely to use it often. I'd probably prefer a post-shooting video editor such as Apple iMovie for iOS, but video editing on phones remains problematic. Pincam's sharing abilities are reasonable, but I look forward to seeing the app's own upcoming online service. For its superior image capabilities, I give Pincam a higher rating than Vine, but for now the PCMag Editors' Choice is still up for grabs in this still emerging category.

When Twitter's video sharing app Vine launched last month to great fanfare, what you often heard was that it was "like Instagram for video." (Around the same time, Twitter actually stopped allowing Instagram photos to show up on users' streams.) But the comparison doesn't flesh out very well, since a big part of Instagram is its ability to enhance your mobile photos with effect filters and retro looks.

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Pincam, a recent free iPhone app from the South Korean firm SK Planet, steps in to give us a closer video analog for Instagram, complete with filters and direct uploading to YouTube and Facebook. This is in spite of the app's frequent use of the term "pin," which would suggest a tie-in with Pinterest. Even the app's logo resembles that social network's, but I found no real tie-ins or resemblances. In any case, the video pinning you do with Pincam, though initially somewhat perplexing, can definitely provide moments of enjoyment with your iPhone's video camera.

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Interface

Pincam's initial interface is pretty spare. Its most prominent element is a big, universally understood, red Record button. Other controls grace the corners of the screen: At the top you see Settings and Flash on the left, and switch camera on the right.? The most interesting button is at lower-right?Filters. This lets you see effects like Blue Vintage, Vanilla Sky, Dotty, Mozaic, Tooner, and Sketchbook. The last two are pretty impressive, letting you see and record drawing-like versions of your scene in real time. In all, there are a baker's dozen of effects to choose from.

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Recording Video
When you hit that big Record button, a progress bar starts running along the bottom and large Pinterest-like button appears in the right side of the screen. Pressing the latter starts an on-screen timer counting down from three seconds, with the word "Highlight!"ighlight" superimposed.

Hit the Record button again and? another progress bar with the text Encoding

?superimposed on the recording video.

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In some ways, I prefer Vine's ability to let you press the screen to choose when recording should happen. That way, you can easily create clever stop-motion effects. But then there's Vine's stingy six-second limit?.Pincam has you start recording, and then pick the best three-second intervals. You can keep the camera rolling as long as you like, but when you stop it by hitting Record again, you'll see an Encoding message and progress bar. When you then watch the final product, you'll see that Pincam has edited your footage to just the Highlighted sections, with one second added to the start, since it's likely that you missed the very beginning of the interesting bits before hitting the button.

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You can't do trimming at specific points in the video, but the Highlight button handles that for you. You can open previously recorded video from your Camera Roll, but only to select and edit down to Hightlights in the clip?you can't add one of Pincam's effects.

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My results were more impressive if less pithy than what I'd been able to do with Vine. The filters are a definite plus, and it will be interesting to see whether the app can do for mobile video what Instagram did for mobile photos.

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Sharing
After signing into a YouTube account and giving permission for Pincam to access it, you'll be able to add a text caption, which by default just says "via Pincam." I didn't appreciate that you can't choose whether the viddy should be public or private, or choose a category before uploading. After a few minutes, a message informed me that my five-second test upload was Successful! The category was set to Entertainment, and the privacy to Public. Again, I wish I'd been able to choose those before uploading. Facebook uploading is even more streamlined, and my video showed up with an HD viewing option.

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A Pincam representative told me that SK Planet would be adding its own online sharing service, so the app will become an even more accurate analog to Instagram. The new service will allow private sharing and have a Facebook tie-in.

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Stick a Pin in it

Pincam solved the problem of recording video with monotonous sections you want to ditch. And its cool live filter effects go beyond what you get in Vine, as does its longer time limit. But using Pincam is a bit trickier than shooting with Vine or Lightt, and for that reason, I'd be less likely to use it often. I'd probably prefer a post-shooting video editor such as Apple iMovie for iOS, but video editing on phones remains problematic. Pincam's sharing abilities are reasonable, but I look forward to seeing the app's own upcoming online service. For its superior image capabilities, I give Pincam a higher rating than Vine, but for now the PCMag Editors' Choice is still up for grabs in this still emerging category.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/8rF7PaHV-1A/0,2817,2417201,00.asp

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Suspicion in DA death shifts to white supremacists

KAUFMAN, Texas (AP) ? Suspicion in the slayings of a Texas district attorney and his wife shifted Monday to a violent white supremacist prison gang that was the focus of a December law enforcement bulletin warning that its members might try to attack police or prosecutors.

The weekend deaths of Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, who were found fatally shot in their home, were especially jarring because they happened just a couple of months after one of the county's assistant district attorneys, Mark Hasse, was killed near his courthouse office.

And less than two weeks ago, Colorado's prison chief was shot to death at his front door, apparently by a white supremacist ex-convict who died in a shootout with deputies after fleeing to Texas.

The Aryan Brotherhood of Texas has been in the state's prison system since the 1980s, when it began as a white supremacist gang that protected its members and ran illegal activities, including drug distribution, according to Terry Pelz, a former Texas prison warden and expert on the gang.

The group, which has a long history of violence and retribution, is now believed to have more than 4,000 members in and out of prison who deal in a variety of criminal enterprises, including prostitution, robbery and murder.

It has a paramilitary structure with five factions around the state, Pelz said. Each faction has a general, who is part of a steering committee known as the "Wheel," which controls all criminal aspects of the gang, according to court papers.

Four top leaders of the group were indicted in October for crimes ranging from murder to drug trafficking. Two months later, authorities issued the bulletin warning that the gang might try to retaliate against law enforcement for the investigation that also led to the arrest of 30 other members.

At the time, prosecutors called the indictments "a devastating blow to the leadership" of the gang. Pelz said the indictments might have fragmented the gang's leadership.

Hasse's death on Jan. 31 came the same day as the first guilty pleas were entered in the indictment. No arrests have been made in his killing.

McLelland was part of a multi-agency task force that investigated the Aryan Brotherhood with help from the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and police in Houston and Fort Worth. McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, were found shot to death Saturday in their rural home just outside the town of Forney, about 20 miles from Dallas.

Detectives have declined to say if the Aryan Brotherhood is the focus of their investigation, but the state Department of Public Safety bulletin warned that the group is "involved in issuing orders to inflict 'mass casualties or death' to law enforcement officials involved in the recent case."

Killing law enforcement representatives would be uncharacteristic of the group, Pelz said.

"They don't go around killing officials," he said. "They don't draw heat upon themselves."

But Pelz, who worked in the Texas prison system for 21 years, said the gang has a history of threatening officials and of killing its own members or rivals.

The 18-count indictment accused gang members of being involved in three murders of rival gang members, multiple attempted murders, kidnappings, assaults and conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and cocaine.

Some of the attempted murders in the indictment involved gang members who were targeted for not following orders or rules or who were believed to be cooperating with law enforcement. The indictment also alleges that gang members discussed killing a police officer in 2008 and allegedly ordered a subordinate gang member to kill a prospect "and to return the victim's severed finger as a trophy."

Meanwhile, law enforcement agencies throughout Texas were on high alert, and steps were being taken to better protect DAs and their staffs.

In Kaufman County, deputies escorted some employees into the courthouse Monday after the slayings stirred fears that other public employees could be targeted. Law enforcement officers were seen patrolling outside the courthouse, one holding a semi-automatic weapon, while others walked around inside.

Over the last century, 14 prosecutors have been killed in the U.S., according to news reports and statistics kept by the National District Attorneys Association.

Deputies were called to the McLelland home by relatives and friends who had been unable to reach the pair, according to a search warrant affidavit. When they arrived, investigators found the couple had been shot multiple times. Cartridge casings were scattered near their bodies, the affidavit said.

Authorities have not discussed a motive.

The slayings also called to mind the death of Colorado's corrections director, Tom Clements, who was killed March 19 when he answered the doorbell at his home outside Colorado Springs. Two days later, Evan Spencer Ebel, a white supremacist and former Colorado inmate suspected of shooting Clements, died in a shootout about 100 miles from Kaufman. On Monday, judicial officials acknowledged Ebel was freed four years early because of a paperwork error.

In an Associated Press interview shortly after the Colorado killing, McLelland himself raised the possibility that Hasse was gunned down by a white supremacist gang.

After that attack, McLelland said, he carried a gun everywhere around town, even when walking his dog. He figured assassins were more likely to try to attack him outside. He said he had warned all his employees to be constantly on the alert.

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Lozano reported from Houston. Associated Press Writer Angela K. Brown in Fort Worth also contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/suspicion-da-death-shifts-white-supremacists-223215989.html

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Researchers find immunity protein that ramps up inflammation, and agents that can block it

Mar. 31, 2013 ? Scientists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have discovered a new biological pathway of innate immunity that ramps up inflammation and then identified agents that can block it, leading to increased survival and improved lung function in animal models of pneumonia.

They reported their findings today in Nature Immunology.

Pneumonia and other infections sometimes provoke an inflammatory response from the body that is more detrimental than the disease-causing bacteria, said senior author Rama Mallampalli, M.D, professor and vice chair for research, Department of Medicine, and director of the Acute Lung Injury Center of Excellence at Pitt.

"In our ongoing studies of pneumonia, we found infecting bacteria activate a previously unknown protein called Fbxo3 to form a complex that degrades another protein called Fbxl2, which is needed to suppress the inflammatory response," said Dr. Mallampalli, who is also chief of the pulmonary division of the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System. "The result is an exaggerated inflammatory response that can lead to further damage of the lung tissue, multi-organ failure and shock."

The research team, led by Bill B. Chen, Ph.D., associate professor, Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine, conducted experiments in which mice that lacked the ability to make Fbxo3 were infected with a strain of Pseudomonas bacteria, and found that they had better lung mechanics and longer survival than mice that still made the protein.

Research team members Bryan J. McVerry, M.D., and Yingze Zhang, Ph.D., both of the Acute Lung Injury Center of Excellence, found that blood samples from 16 people who had sepsis, a condition of systemic inflammation, revealed higher levels of Fbxo3 and other inflammatory proteins and lower levels of Fbxl2 than samples from seven patients who did not have sepsis or lung infection.

Based on the structure of Fbxo3, the researchers developed a family of small molecules with the aim of inhibiting its activity. Administration of one of them, called BC-1215, led to reduced inflammatory markers and improved lung mechanics in mouse models of pneumonia and sepsis.

"The key is to find ways to help the body temper its inflammatory response so that it's able to kill the infectious agent without causing injury to healthy tissue," Dr. Mallampalli said.

"The F-box protein Fbxo3, and other related proteins, represent ideal targets for treatment of acute lung injury, because it controls the innate immune response, is upstream of important inflammatory signaling pathways, and is more selective than traditional drugs that regulate protein turnover," noted Mark T. Gladwin, M.D., chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine, Pitt School of Medicine.

The team is beginning to study the effects of BC-125 on other conditions of systemic inflammation, such as colitis and arthritis.

Co-authors of the paper include Tiffany A. Coon, Jennifer R. Glasser, Jing Zhao, Ph.D., Yutong Zhao, M.D, Ph.D., Chunbin Zou, Ph.D, Bryon Ellis, and Frank C. Sciurba, M.D., all of the Acute Lung Injury Center of Excellence, University of Pittsburgh.

The study was funded by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; National Institutes of Health grants HL096376, HL097376, HL098174, HL116472, HL01916, and P50HL084948; and the American Heart Association.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Bill B Chen, Tiffany A Coon, Jennifer R Glasser, Bryan J McVerry, Jing Zhao, Yutong Zhao, Chunbin Zou, Bryon Ellis, Frank C Sciurba, Yingze Zhang, Rama K Mallampalli. A combinatorial F box protein directed pathway controls TRAF adaptor stability to regulate inflammation. Nature Immunology, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/ni.2565

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/_Z7ZSjqW9jo/130331165601.htm

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