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Replicon, the developer of a cloud time tracking and expense management application, has raised $20 million Series A funding led by The Social + Capital Partnership and Emergence Capital Partners. This is actually the first time in the company?s 17-year history of raising money from institutional investors.
Co-founders Raj Narayanaswamy and Lakshmi Raj have largely bootstrapped the SaaS company on their own since its inception in 1996. Replicon?s products allow you to track project time and expenses, client billing, employee work schedules, and employee time and attendance. The company was originally founded in Canada but moved to Silicon Valley three years ago.
TimeSheet Project & Billing allows users to track project time and costs and create reports based off of this data. Managers can monitor project/task progress, actual vs. estimated hours/cost, and billing amounts. Users can track hours worked for both salaried and hourly employees, manage time off, set accrual policies, manage overtime rules, run attendance and payroll reports, and integrate with other payroll software.
Additionally managers can track employee expenses in multiple currencies, attach expense receipts, automatically calculate taxes such as VAT or GST, and monitor expense reimbursements. In terms of scheduling, the software allows you to track employee work schedules, make on-the-fly adjustments, and track actual work against the set schedule.
Quietly, Replicon, which is profitable, has accumulated more than 1.2 million users in 60 countries worldwide, with clients including Ernst & Young, Cornell University, Health Canada, Shell, Verizon, Ferrari and Amazon. The company says that it is projecting 60 to 80 percent growth by 2015.
It?s not that often you come across companies raising the first round of outside funding after 17 years of business. But Raj said the new capital is really focused on accelerating growth, and not being constrained with the expense on the balance sheet. The money will be primarily used towards sales and marketing, international expansion and hiring.
Replicon, Inc. is the market leader in Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) based time and expense management software. Replicon?s products allow you to track project time and expenses, client billing, employee work schedules, and employee time and attendance. Founded in 1996, Replicon, Inc. powers companies of all sizes to maximize profitability and productivity and has more than 1.2 million users in 60 countries worldwide. Replicon???s clients include Ernst & Young, Cornell University, Health Canada, Shell, Verizon, Ferrari and Amazon. Replicon???s product suite includes Web...
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LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Scrutiny by paparazzi has made it more difficult for the children of Michael Jackson to grieve for their dead father, a family cousin who serves as co-guardian of the singer's children told a jury on Thursday.
TJ Jackson said the three children don't like the attention, and he supports any legislative effort to curb photographers from pursuing images of the sons and daughters of celebrities.
"In my opinion, I know it's making everything harder for the kids to grieve and recover and progress," Jackson said.
The comments came as Jackson testified during a civil trial involving the death of the pop star about his relationship with his famous uncle and the singer's parenting of his children.
He cited remarks made Tuesday by Halle Berry in Sacramento as the Legislature considers a bill that would change the definition of harassment to include photographing or recording a child without the permission of a legal guardian.
Anyone convicted of a first offense could spend between 10 days and a year in jail.
TJ Jackson said he had to consider whether Michael Jackson's youngest son Blanket should attend martial arts classes on Tuesday because photographers would be interested in getting a shot of the 11-year-old on the fourth anniversary of his father's death.
TJ Jackson is Tito Jackson's son and a member of the musical group 3T with two of his brothers.
___
Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP .
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/testimony-jackson-case-focuses-paparazzi-200124296.html
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If you look at a chart of post-graduate salaries, the liberal arts don't look very appealing. But that doesn't tell the whole story.
If you study and set out to find a job in a narrow academic area, you're going to have a hard time.?But if you're smart about it and do something like what Logitech CEO Bracken Darrell suggests and supplement the major with in-demand skills, you're a member of an "endangered species" who can think and write well, and for whom there's a surprising amount of demand.?
That demand is well warranted, so here's 10 reasons why you should ignore the haters and major in liberal arts.?
For those of you who have already graduated, it's never too late to hit the books again.?
Even students at the top colleges in the country can be surprisingly deficient when it comes to writing. That's because teaching writing isn't as mechanical as computer science. It comes with time studying the way other people think and write, writing a lot yourself, and a deep knowledge of culture and history. You don't get that from one class, or a pure engineering degree.
There are enough poorly written emails in the world already. ?
As grim as things are made to sound for humanities majors, right out of college, things aren't quite as disastrous as they're made out to be, a Georgetown survey of recent college graduates finds.?
The average unemployment rate for new graduates across all of the humanities is 9%, right on par with computer science and math (9.1%) and not too far off all majors combined (7.9%). There's some data missing from the survey, but it doesn't paint nearly as bleak a picture as one might expect.?
When it comes to underemployment, those who major in the humanities don't stick out as badly as many seem to think. The most underemployed major is actually business, because there are a ton of them and not that many jobs for those without an MBA.
An increasing proportion of the world's jobs, the ones that can't be outsourced overseas, are the ones that require interaction with people. Humanities majors, usually people- and word-friendly, have something of an advantage over many math and engineering majors.
And as highly valued as coders and data crunchers are right now, some argue that the trend may be towards fewer of those jobs in the future, not more, says SUNY New Paltz Chemistry professor Daniel Jelski.
He argues that there are three laws of future employment. Law 1 ? jobs come from things that computers can't do. Law 2 ? a global marketplace means that there will be lower pay and opportunity in many careers. Law 3- professional people are more likely to be freelancers in the future.?
The humanities are a good bet because the things that are hardest to computerize or outsource are going to be all about skills that emphasize human interaction. Empathy, sociability, writing, analyzing, and reacting to people ? all things more likely to come from the humanities than hard sciences.
The humanities are the study of people. Regardless of whether it's history or literature. It's one of the best ways to figure out how to understand and relate to people, and use language to convince them of your viewpoint. A brilliant technical mind isn't always enough.?
Of the skills most valued in high-demand, high-compensation jobs, according to the Georgetown Center on ?Education and the Workforce, is people focus.?
As Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini puts it,?"I?ve seen many an actuary and many an engineer who are brilliant,?but they fail in their ability to communicate or commercialize an idea because they can?t relate to the people they?re dealing with."?
Companies like Google are realizing that specific degrees, GPA, and quantitative brainteasers don't matter all that much. Exactly what and how you did in college doesn't correlate at all with success two years out of school. It's about data and skills.?
Some companies are starting to measure and seek out things like adaptability and social and emotional intelligence, particularly in managers, which will be to the benefit of humanities majors.??
As for the skills part, people who are sufficiently motivated can learn to code on their own or from myriad online tools. And there's nothing that says that a humanities major means you never take a science class. And a lot has to do with the ability to learn and adapt on the job, which doesn't come from a tech background. ?
Many people don't stay with their first career forever. Or their second. In fact, most people switch a number of times during their life. So skills that persist, like the ability to reason and write, may be a better bet over the long term than something narrowly tailored.?
Also, humanities degrees are one of the biggest feeders to graduate programs, which helps reduce the salary gap with STEM folks.?
People inevitably respond to financial pressure. With large and highly publicized demand for STEM graduates, many perfectly rational college students are going to go in that direction. Over time, there may be a glut, just like we've seen over the past few years in law.
Also, combining the liberal arts with a degree of technical know-how helps. A journalist, marketer, or manager who can code, or at least speak the language, stands out a lot more than yet another new developer hire.
Harvey Mudd, the American college with the highest return on investment according to Payscale, is very much an engineering and science school. But it's also very much a liberal arts school, and produces more well-rounded graduates.
Even the hard core engineers take a class in their freshman year deliberately focused on developing their writing and analysis skills, plus 10 more in the humanities, social sciences, or arts before graduation. The job market certainly seems to like it.?
Online courses are exploding, both in quality and popularity. They're particularly well suited to teaching things like biology or computer science, often taught in large lectures, with tests and problem sets that have a right answer and can be graded by computers.?
There's a reason that the first full-blown, degree-granting online masters program will be a computer science degree offered by Georgia Tech.?
Online courses are particularly poorly suited to replicate the best, most important parts of a liberal arts education: long papers on complex topics, graded by a human being, and intense discussion of ideas.?
Former IBM CEO Sam Palmisano was an English major at Johns Hopkins. American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault majored in history at Bowdoin. George Soros was a philosophy major. There are countless other examples. ?
You might know people who are a bit too free with philosophical or literary quotes and references. That gets irritating. But there's definitely a time and place.
And there's something satisfying about catching someone when they get one wrong, even if you're too gentlemanly or ladylike to call them out, of course.?
The above advice comes with a caveat. If immediate employability and student loans are the biggest issue, liberal arts aren't necessarily the best choice. When starting salary is the biggest concern, there are better options. But here are some of the excellent reasons to ignore the pressure from parents and employers and go for the humanities.?
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/11-reasons-to-major-in-the-humanities-2013-6
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Stocks were sharply higher on Thursday, thanks to better-than-expected reports on unemployment, home sales and consumer spending, as well as reassuring comments from Federal Reserve policymakers, who said markets had overreacted to the Fed's recent policy statements.
(Read More: US Economy Could Grow 5% in Late 2014: Fund Manager)
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was 130 points higher in early afternoon trading, regaining its footing above the psychologically-significant 15,000-point level and looking to log its first three-day rally since late April. The blue-chip index has seen triple-digit moves in 15 of the 19 trading sessions in the month of June, the most in a month since October 2011.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were also sharply higher. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, slid below 17.
All key S&P sectors were in positive territory, led by telecoms and financials.
Upbeat economic data from China also helped bolster sentiment. Industrial profits unexpectedly rose 15 percent in May year-on-year, defying expectations of a slowdown. Japan's Nikkei rallied nearly 3 percent, logging its biggest percentage gain in 13 sessions, while the Shanghai Composite Index finished flat.
"Any China data carries significant weight these days as investors are desperate for signs that the world's second biggest economy is still ticking along," wrote Stan Shamu, market strategist at IG.
On the economic front, weekly jobless claims fell 9,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 346,000, according to the Labor Department, largely in line with expectations. The four-week moving average for new claims fell 2,750 to 345,750. And consumer spending rebounded 0.3 percent in May, matching estimates, after a revised 0.3 percent decline in the prior month, according to the Commerce Department.
Treasury prices extended their gains as yields tumbled to session lows following the data.
(Read More: Why All the Bond Selling Hysteria May Be Overdone)
"I think it makes the Fed even more confident that they're doing the right thing," said Drew Matus, senior U.S. economist and managing director at UBS. "And if you look at these numbers, they suggest that the second quarter's going to be better than the first quarter."
Also, pending home sales for May soared 6 percent to hit a six-year high, according to the National Association of Realtors.
New York Fed president William Dudley said the central bank's asset purchases would be more aggressive than the timeline Chairman Ben Bernanke outlined last week if economic growth and the labor market turn out weaker than expected.
Dudley added that the recent market forecasts for an earlier rate gain are "quite out of sync" with the statements and expectations of the policy-making Federal Open Market Committee. Dudley is a voting member of the FOMC.
Fed Board Governor Jerome Powell agreed that markets over-reacted to the central bank's statements on tapering off its stimulus package.
"Market adjustments since May have been larger than would be justified by any reasonable reassessment of the path of policy," Powell said in a speech. "To the extent the market is pricing-in an increase in the federal funds rate in 2014, that implies a stronger economic performance than is forecast either by most FOMC participants or by private forecasters."
Markets have been fixated on Fed commentary this week, after Bernanke said last week that the central bank could begin to wind down its $85 billion monthly bond purchases before the end of the year. That sent already rising yields higher and sent stocks on a roller-coaster ride.
Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart was also expected to speak later on Thursday.
In addition, the Treasury will auction $29 billion in 7-year notes later. The auction follows a $35 billion 5-year auction Wednesday and a $35 billion 2-year auction Tuesday, both with anemic results.
"The results for the 2- and 5-year do not bode well for the 7-year tomorrow," said Ian Lyngen, senior Treasury strategist at CRT Capital, speaking on Wednesday. "There's limited risk appetite ahead of the end of the quarter."
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Westerns missions and a host of institutions here issued a joint statement today saying that the path is now clear for the approval of four key bills that would pave the way for local government elections and urging all parties and civil society to take the process to conclusion.
It was the first time that the missions and the local organisations have collaborated on a joint statement on the long-awaited local government elections.
Those who subscribed to the statement were the British High Commission, the Delegation of the European Union to Guyana, the Embassy of the United States of America, the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Guyana Association of Women Lawyers, the Guyana Bar Association, the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association, the Guyana Trades Union Congress, the High Commission of Canada, the Private Sector Commission and Transparency Institute Guyana Inc.
The statement will add to the pressure on the PPP/C government to quickly pilot the four bills which were recently worked on by a Select Committee of Parliament. This committee was chaired by a representative of the opposition and some of the amendments to the bills were approved despite objections by representatives of the government on the committee. The government has frequently signalled that bills presented to the House without its approval will not be passed with their approval or assented to by President Donald Ramotar if passed with the one-seat opposition majority.
The statement issued by the US Embassy today said in part:
?At the start of 2013, political party leaders, civil society, private sector representatives, and members of the diplomatic community all expressed confidence that this would be the year in which Guyana would move forward to ensure that its citizens benefit from strong and effective local governance.? We are now midway through the year and, with a concerted effort, local government elections ? and the safer, more prosperous, and more democratic communities they can help build ? are within reach.
?After months of debate, hard work, and compromise, the parliamentary Select Committee on Local Government has forged agreement on the four bills necessary to establish a more modern and effective system of local governance.? This is a significant and positive step forward.? We welcome this action on the part of Guyana?s elected representatives to come together in the national interest.
?The path is now clear for approval of these four bills in the National Assembly before the upcoming annual recess.? We encourage all parties, with the support of civil society, to build on the constructive progress and goodwill thus far achieved to complete these vital pieces of legislation in the coming days so that technical preparations for local government elections can begin as soon as possible.
?Building on our established record of constructive engagement and support for effective and responsive democratic institutions, we look forward to supporting the Guyana Elections Commission, the Government of Guyana and civil society organizations as they move forward to prepare for local government elections this year.? There is much work ahead to boost public knowledge of the local government election process, the role of local government, and the rights and responsibilities of citizens and elected officials.?
?Guyana?s constitution states that `Local Government is a vital aspect of democracy and shall be organised so as to involve as many people as possible in the task of managing and developing the communities in which they live.? All of Guyana?s political parties have consistently affirmed their commitment to holding local elections and reinvigorating local government entities.? The Private Sector Commission, Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Guyana Trades Union Congress and many other stakeholders have likewise raised their voice to reinforce this national consensus.? This consensus is so broad because stakeholders recognize that elected local government puts power into the hands of the citizens, giving them a vital framework to participate directly in building their communities.? It also makes possible the active civic participation that leads to better services, increased investment, and greater accountability and transparency, all of which contribute to better governance and stronger communities.
?The path is now clear for the restoration of effective democratic local governance in 2013.? That is good news for the citizens in every community in Guyana.?
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There is a moment between when you click on a video and when it starts playing. That moment is the worst part of your day. The agony of waiting! The torture of anticipation! YouTube understands that, and on a visit to YouTube HQ in San Bruno, CA, we got a look at what's coming to make that awful moment pass before you know it happened.
According to John Harding, YouTube's core engineering team leader, if a user can click a video and it starts to play within 200 milliseconds, the user will perceive it as being essentially instant. That's the goal. With a service like Netflix or HBO Go, users don't mind waiting a minute or so for a video to cache (aka "start loading up"), because they're about to watch something longer anyway. YouTube, where the average video length is much shorter, can't afford that to have users waiting like that. So, here's what the King Kong of internet video is doing to abolish lag.
One recent change, which you may have already noticed, is the way in which videos are broken up for delivery. In ye olde days of YouTube (like, early last year), an uploaded video would be copied into different resolutions, such as 360p, 480p, 720p, and 1080p. Each of those was one, big, whole file. You'd click the video, and your computer would start downloading that file, and hopefully your internet connection was fast enough that the streaming wouldn't catch up with the downloading, which would result in that dreaded pause for rebuffering. You could toggle between resolutions, but you were still downloading files in one big chunk.
Things have worked differently now ever since YouTube integrated a technique it calls Sliced Bread back in April of 2012. Now, when someone uploads a video, it still gets copied into different resolutions, but each copy is like a loaf of bread which has been sliced. So you've got your 360p loaf, your 720p loaf, your 1080p loaf, etc. This enables YouTube to serve up your video one slice at a time, and it can change the quality of the next slice of video dynamically, depending on what's happening with your internet connection.
For example, when you first click the video it might start you with a couple slices from the 480p loaf, just to get your video playing right away. Once YouTube sees that you've got a steady and fast internet connection, the next slices could come from the 1080p loaf, giving you a boost in video quality. Then, suddenly, your significant other starts download some four terabyte PDF file and you lose a bunch of bandwidth; the next few slices could come at 720p. Ideally, the transitions are seamless. You might notice variation in the resolution, but there won't be any pauses, if everything works correctly.
Sliced Bread has been a success, so far, reducing the rebuffering of videos by 40 percent, YouTube claims. But it's what's coming down the pipe that should really kick things into high gear.
Harding explains this very clearly at the white board in the video above, but here's a summary for those of you at work. Currently, when you click on a YouTube video, first the watch page loads (the webpage that the video sits on). Then the javascript that controls that page is downloaded, then the video player, and then the video itself starts downloading. Once that happens streaming can start, but your newborn has also gotten its drivers license by then. So it's being sped up on three pillars.
Parallel. The first step to speeding up playback is doing more of the above-mentioned steps in parallel so that the process takes less time. You click the video, you still download the page, but then it will start downloading the javascript, the CSS, and the player simultaneously. Then it requests the video, and starts playing it back. Better, but we're not talking about a huge amount of time savings here.
Do Less. It's when you transition from one video to another that you start to see significant reductions. If you've already watched a video, and in doing so downloaded the video player and all of that other stuff, why download it all over again? That's how it works now, and it's a total waste of time, The YouTube of the very near future knows that. So, instead, when you click over to another video, it will download the page, and immediately request the video and begin streaming because the player is already loaded up. Now we're cooking with gas.
Preloading Content. YouTube claims that people don't generally just watch one video and leave. They have a tendency to click the related/suggested videos. Since YouTube thinks you're likely to click on one of those videos next, it will pre-download the first slices (remember "Sliced Bread") of some related videos. So, when you click over to one of those videos it has started caching, it should load almost instantly. In the video above, you can see it working in a prototype version of new YouTube. The video, which took one and a quarter seconds to load in the current software, began playback in less than half a second in the prototype software. This was on Google's super fast office network, but the improvement should be even more stark with consumer home internet speeds.
Now, it's important to mention that this last step hinges on the idea that YouTube can accurately predict what you're going to click next. Personally, I probably click on the Suggested videos mmmmaaaybe four percent of the time, but it does happen, and I'm sure it happens more for other people. Luckily, the Suggested results will get better if you're within a channel, assuming you're interested in watching other videos by the same content creator.
It's also worth mentioning that the biggest gap between hitting play and watching you video?preroll ads?aren't going away any time soon. Still, faster is as faster does.
All these speedy changes would be even more appreciated if they were on mobile devices, where data speeds can often be slow and unreliable, and thankfully that's just what's happening. Users of YouTube's Android app may have already noticed this, but in the settings there is now a page for Preloading. Tick those boxes and new videos from your subscribed channels and videos you add to your Watch Later list will download to your device behind the scenes. So, later, when you pull out your phone and fire up one of the videos with the little green arrows on it, it will begin to play almost instantly, and in full HD, no matter how slow you connection is. You can even jump around within the video and no reloading is required.
This is a fantastic feature. The only problem is that you need to have some kind of internet connection to play the videos back. It would be even better if you could load up the video at night while on your home Wi-Fi network, and then watch them while you're on the subway in the morning. But no, YouTube needs to check to make sure the content is still available and accessible to you, so it needs to perform at least a little tiny check in. Plus, and not insignificantly, it needs the internet to serve you ads. Hopefully they'll find a way around this soon.
On the mobile side of things, preloading is currently only available on Android, but it should be coming to iOS soon. The desktop magic is very sooner. We were told it could be rolling out as early as Thursday of this week, or possibly closer to July 4th. We'll update when we hear it's gone live.
These are all steps in the right direction. Naturally, home network speed affects this stuff a lot, but all things being equal, the speed is one of the major determining factors of the quality of user experience. It's good to see that things are happening behind the scenes to move us toward the dream of honest-to-goodness instant.
Big thanks to Google's John Harding and Matt McLernon for their time.
Source: http://gizmodo.com/inside-youtubes-master-plan-to-kill-lag-dead-563844525
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Officially, the HTC One Google Play edition exists for tinkering with an unfettered Android experience. Owners need the code to do that, of course -- and HTC has quickly followed up by posting the kernel source code for its Sense-free phone. The release helps developers optimize their apps for the hardware, modify its vanilla Android 4.2 build and produce custom firmware. If you have one of those goals in mind, the kernel source is ready to download at HTC's developer portal.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, HTC
Source: HTCdev
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By Euan Rocha
TORONTO (Reuters) - BlackBerry launched a service on Tuesday allowing government agencies and corporate clients to secure and manage devices powered by Google Inc's Android platform and Apple Inc's iOS operating system.
The long-anticipated offering, which BlackBerry had said would come out around mid-year, could help the company sell high-margin services to its large clients even if many, or all, of their workers are using smartphones made by its competitors.
The new Secure Work Space feature will be managed through BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES) 10, a new back-end system launched at the start of this year that allows BlackBerry's clients to control mobile devices on their internal networks.
The company, a one-time pioneer in the smartphone arena, is now fighting to regain ground lost to Apple's iPhone and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's Galaxy devices. To compete, it has rolled out a trio of devices powered by its new BlackBerry 10 operating system.
It hopes to win back users with the Z10, Q10 and Q5 devices that were unveiled during the first half of this year. The first comprehensive look at the success of its turnaround plan will likely emerge when it reports quarterly results on Friday.
At the same time, it has indicated a shift in emphasis from smartphones to services.
"With an integrated management console, our clients can now see all of the devices they have on their network, manage those devices and connect to them securely," David Smith, the head of enterprise mobile computing at BlackBerry, said in an interview.
"We now also have a secure work space on Android and iOS that allows our clients to secure and manage the data on those devices as well."
BlackBerry has installed some 18,000 BES 10 servers since the system was launched in January, up from a little more than 12,000 servers one month ago, and more than 60 percent of U.S. Fortune 500 companies are testing or using the system.
The feature, when used to manage Android and iOS devices, will allow IT managers to fence off corporate email, calendars, contacts, tasks, memos, Web browsing and document editing from personal apps and content, which could be less secure.
(Reporting by Euan Rocha; Editing by Edmund Klamann)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blackberry-launches-manage-android-apple-devices-040438480.html
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By Jeff Mason and Roberta Rampton
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House pressed Russia on Monday to exercise all options to expel Edward Snowden and slammed China for allowing the former U.S. spy agency contractor who disclosed government surveillance secrets to leave Hong Kong.
White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters it was the U.S. assumption that Snowden was still in Russia and he dismissed suggestions that the decision to allow Snowden to depart Hong Kong was a technical one.
"We are just not buying that this was a technical decision by a Hong Kong immigration official," Carney said.
"This was a deliberate choice by the government to release a fugitive despite a valid arrest warrant, and that decision unquestionably has a negative impact on the U.S.-China relationship," he said.
Snowden, who had worked at a U.S. National Security Agency facility in Hawaii, had been hiding in Hong Kong, a former British colony that returned to China in 1997, since leaking details about secret U.S. surveillance programs to news media.
He was allowed to leave Hong Kong on Sunday for Moscow. Julian Assange, the founder of anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks which is assisting Snowden, said the 30-year-old en route to Ecuador, where he hoped to gain asylum.
Carney said that U.S. officials had been in contact with Hong Kong authorities since June 10, urging them to honor Washington's request that he be arrested. Hong Kong acknowledged receipt of the U.S. request on June 17 and requested additional information about the U.S. charges and evidence on June 21, Carney said.
"The U.S. had been in communication about these inquiries and we were in the process of responding to the request when we learned that Hong Kong authorities have allowed the fugitive to leave," he said.
President Barack Obama referred detailed questions on the issue to the Justice Department.
"What we know is that we're following all the appropriate legal channels and working with various other countries to make sure the rule of law is observed," Obama told reporters at an unrelated event on immigration reform.
Carney noted that individuals with felony arrest warrants were subject to having their passports revoked.
He said he could not comment specifically on Snowden's passport for privacy reasons but said Hong Kong officials were advised of Snowden's travel document status in plenty of time to have prohibited his departure.
Carney, who in recent weeks has studiously avoided mentioning Snowden by name, let loose from the White House podium on Monday, criticizing the former contractor for the countries he had potentially chosen for refuge.
"Mr. Snowden's claim that he is focused on supporting transparency, freedom of the press and protection of individual rights and democracy is belied by the protectors he has potentially chosen - China, Russia, Ecuador, as we've seen," Carney said.
"His failures to criticize these regimes suggests that his true motive throughout has been to injure the national security of the United States, not to advance Internet freedom and free speech."
(Additional reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/white-house-presses-russia-expel-snowden-sharp-words-185327151.html
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DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland's opposition called for a full inquiry into the collapse of Ireland's financial system on Monday, after a newspaper published recordings of talks between Anglo Irish Bank executives about a bailout.
Rescuing indebted banks helped push Ireland to an 85 billion euro ($111 billion) IMF/EU bailout in 2010 and the topic provokes widespread anger in a country that is still enduring austerity and whose economy is struggling to gain traction.
The Irish Independent released transcripts of what it said were conversations between Anglo's head of capital markets John Bowe and consumer banking chief Peter Fitzgerald in September 2008, at the height of Ireland's financial meltdown.
According to the newspaper, Fitzgerald asked Bowe how the bank had come up with a figure of 7 billion euros for the government to rescue Anglo.
The bank eventually cost taxpayers some 30 billion euros during the financial crisis.
"If they (the central bank) saw the enormity of it up front, they might decide they have a choice. You know what I mean? They might say the cost to the taxpayer is too high," the Irish Independent quoted Bowe as saying.
"Yeah and that number is seven, but the reality is that actually we need more than that", it quoted Bowe as telling Fitzgerald, who responded: "They've got skin in the game and that's the key."
In statements to national broadcaster RTE, the two executives denied any wrongdoing and any intention to mislead the central bank. The two men did not deny the conversation in the excerpts of the statements that RTE read out.
Reuters did not have the executives' full statements and the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, the wind-down vehicle for liquidated Anglo, declined to comment.
Fianna Fail, in government at the time of a financial crisis that eventually forced Ireland to an IMF/EU bailout and now the largest opposition party, said the tapes should be referred to the police and corporate regulators.
"Any suggestion that the taxpayer was lured into bailing out Anglo Irish Bank under a false impression about the state of the bank's financial condition is deeply disturbing and has to be fully investigated by the authorities," said Fianna Fail finance spokesman Michael McGrath.
The tapes were "shocking to the core", said a second opposition party, Sinn Fein, joining calls for a probe.
Prime Minister Enda Kenny said he understood voters' "rage and anger" over bank bailouts and the government was seeking to finalize legislation to allow for an inquiry before parliament's summer recess. ($1 = 0.7637 euros)
(Reporting by Sam Cage; editing by Ron Askew)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/irish-opposition-calls-bank-inquiry-tapes-leak-174612810.html
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For Sharpest Views, Scope The Sky With Quick-Change Mirrors
Source: NPR
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/128755/For_Sharpest_Views__Scope_The_Sky_With_Quick_Change_Mirrors
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So I just got an iPad case in the mail. It's for the iPad 5. That model is not out yet. But you can have this case anyway. Of course I have no way of knowing if this will, for an absolute fact, fit the next iPad, but the chances are good.?At best, you'll win a case for the next iPad. Or, likewise, you could win a fun conversation piece.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/k1S9m8Gt35w/
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Sara Errani of Italy returns the ball to Monica Puig of Puerto Rico in their Women's first round singles match at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships in Wimbledon, London, Monday, June 24, 2013. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
Sara Errani of Italy returns the ball to Monica Puig of Puerto Rico in their Women's first round singles match at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships in Wimbledon, London, Monday, June 24, 2013. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
Groundsmen make final preparations on the outside courts backdropped by Centre Court, for the start of the Wimbledon tennis championships in London, Sunday, June 23, 2013. The Wimbledon Championships start Monday, with defending men's champion Roger Federer of Switzerland attempting to win the title for the eighth time. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
In this photo taken on Sunday, June 23, 2013 and made available by The All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club Wimbledon, defending women's champion Serena Williams of the United States speaks to the media during a press conference at Wimbledon. The Championships start Monday, with Serena Williams attempting to win the title for the sixth time. (AP Photo/Jon Buckle/AELTC)
In this photo taken on Sunday, June 23, 2013 and made available by The All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club Wimbledon, defending women's champion Serena Williams of the United States speaks to the media during a press conference at Wimbledon. The Championships start Monday, with Serena Williams attempting to win the title for the sixth time. (AP Photo/Jon Buckle/AELTC)
Maria Sharapova of Russia is watched by a coach during a training session at the Wimbledon tennis championships in London, Sunday, June 23, 2013. The Championships start Monday, with Serena Williams attempting to win the title for the sixth time. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
LONDON (AP) ? Fifth-seeded Sara Errani of Italy has been eliminated in straight sets by Puerto Rican teenager Monica Puig in an early upset on the opening day of Wimbledon.
Errani, runner-up at last year's French Open, lost 6-3, 6-2 to the 65th-ranked player on Monday in the first match on Court 18 of the grass-court Grand Slam.
The 19-year-old Puig, playing her first grass-court tournament as a pro, had 38 winners. She squandered five match points before hitting a forehand winner to close out the match, dropping her racket to the turf and covering her face in her hands.
Errani, who had reached the semifinals or better at three of the last five Grand Slams, withdrew from last week's grass-court warmup at Eastbourne with a leg injury.
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18 hours ago
Carin Baer / AMC
Don Draper: Dark, mysterious and oh so fascinating!
When it came time for this season?s Monday morning water-coolering of ?Mad Men,? a common theme erupted nearly every week: ?Don Draper is soooooo boring.?
Should we interpret the show?s opening of a man falling as Don?s descent into dullsville? The people who feel Don didn?t say enough, feel enough or do enough this season might think so.
But if you?re part of a very select minority, it?s fair to respond to that notion with a resounding, ?COME ON.?
While the leading man has been one of few words and has spent many scenes scowling, sneering and often sweating, he?s been less than boring when you consider the sum of the parts.
Draper, having spent the bulk (if not all) of season five as doting husband to Megan, has finally gone back to his old ways -- cheating ways that is, bedding another woman countless times over the course of season six. But it?s not just any woman he?s taken up with: It?s his neighbor Sylvia Rosen (played so well by Linda Cardellini). Meeting any random woman and taking her back to her place? Boring. Having something resembling a relationship with your neighbor, whose husband is also a friend? Not boring at all.
And speaking of the ?relationship? between Don and Sylvia, that pretty much hit the skids in another entirely not-boring way. Linda?s husband, Arnold, or Don?s wife, Megan, potentially busting either guilty party was a tension that hung over the entire affair, but in the end it was Sally (poor Sally!) who ended up walking in on Dad ?comforting? their neighbor. Don?s relationship with Sally turns on a dime and changes probably forever. That?s not boring, and did we forget to mention? Neither is the fact that Don hooked up with Betty while they were both visiting Bobby at summer camp.
Most of these OMG moments did culminate in a sad Don Draper, or at a minimum, a very drunk one, and sure, that?s repetitive and tiresome at times. But in between, viewers also learned more of Don?s childhood this year. (So damaged! So relevant?) Fans witnessed seriously bad behavior (even for Don) at Roger?s mom?s funeral, and was it not fun to watch him make Ken completely flustered all season -- without really even doing much?
Yes, not doing much is what the ?Don is boring? camp will settle on, but when the season finale airs Sunday, true fans of the show might do right to keep in mind what ?Mad Men? creator Matthew Weiner has done all along each week: His episodes aren?t meant to be snapshots -- they?re all parts of one big story.
This season?s tale didn?t move along as quickly as others, but that doesn?t make it -- or the main character -- boring. Just more demanding.
Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/mad-mens-don-draper-boring-not-so-fast-6C10411622
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Tawny crazy ants are invading ecosystems and homes in states including Texas and Florida, wiping out other ant species and overwhelming homeowners. Weekend Edition Saturday host Scott Simon talks to Texas A&M research scientist Robert Puckett, who says the ants are "ecological steamrollers" that reproduce so fast they are nearly impossible to get rid of.
Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=194523225&ft=1&f=1007
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5 hours ago
Ethan Miller / Getty Images
Bret Michaels.
Bret Michaels is one lucky guy.
After a string of health scares and another bus accident back in 2009, the singer has escaped serious injury again, after his tour bus hit several deer on the way to his show in Biloxi, Miss., Friday morning.
NEWS: Bret Michaels talks trashing a hotel room with Charlie Sheen
"Except for some bumps and bruises I am thankful there were no serious injuries," Michaels told Celebuzz. "It is unfortunate for the deer, but thankfully due to modern RV technology and a steel firewall we are all OK. I have every intention to make tonight's show in Biloxi and the tour will continue."
The former Poison frontman only sustained minor cuts and bruises, according to the site.
This is just the latest in a series of scares for Michaels.
PHOTOS: Bret Michaels tweets Eva Longoria birthday greetings with a picture of Kim Kardashian
In 2010, he was hospitalized for appendicitis, a stroke, and a brain hemorrhage, which he suffered after banging his head at the Tony Awards in 2009.
And in 2011, he underwent surgery after doctors found a hole in his heart.
Just call him Mr. Unbreakable.
PHOTOS: Check out Bret Michaels' big moments!
Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/bret-michaels-survives-bus-crash-minor-injuries-6C10418979
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Neither of Sony's two previous smartwatches were runaway hits, but that doesn't seem to have stopped the Japanese electronics giant from taking another crack at the concept. A slew of tweets hash-tagged #itstime started appearing on the official SonyXperia account the other day, and they hinted heavily that the company is preparing to show off yet another smartwatch at the Mobile Asia Expo in Shanghai next week.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/UTKZXGOBpV4/
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WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama is preparing to unveil his long-awaited national plan to combat climate change in a major speech, he announced on Saturday.
"There's no single step that can reverse the effects of climate change," Obama said in an online video released by the White House. "But when it comes to the world we leave our children, we owe it to them to do what we can."
People consulting with White House officials on Obama's plan, to be unveiled Tuesday at Georgetown University, say they expect him to put forth regulations on heat-trapping gases emitted by existing coal-fired power plans. They were not authorized to disclose details about the plan ahead of the announcement and requested anonymity.
Environmental groups have been pleading with Obama to take that step, but the administration has said it's focused first on controls on new power plants. The Environmental Protection Agency, using its authority under the Clean Air Act, has already proposed controls on new plants, but the rules have been delayed ? to the chagrin of states and environmental groups threatening to sue over the delays.
An administration official said last week that Obama was still weighing whether to include existing plants in the climate plan. The official wasn't authorized to comment by name and requested anonymity.
The White House wouldn't disclose any details Saturday about what steps Obama may call for. But his senior energy and climate adviser, Heather Zichal, said last week that controls on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants would be a major focus. She also said the plan would boost energy efficiency of appliances and buildings, plus expand renewable energy.
Putting a positive spin on a contentious partisan issue, Obama said the U.S. is uniquely poised to deal with the serious challenges posed by climate change. He said American scientists and engineers would have to design new fuels and energy sources, and workers will have to adapt to a clean energy economy.
"We'll need all of us, as citizens, to do our part to preserve God's creation for future generations," Obama said.
Environmental groups have for months been pushing Obama to make good on a threat he issued to lawmakers in February in his State of the Union address: "If Congress won't act soon to protect future generations, I will." Obama's move to take the matter into his own hands appears to reflect a growing consensus that opposition in Congress is too powerful for any meaningful, sweeping climate legislation to pass anytime soon.
"They shouldn't wait for Congress to act, because they'll be out of office by the time that Congress gets its act together," Rep. Henry Waxman, the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said in an interview.
Environmental groups applauded the announcement that Obama was finally releasing a plan for executive action, but made clear they want to see firm proposals ? including controls for existing power plants.
"Combating climate change means curbing carbon pollution ? for the first time ever ? from the biggest single source of such dangerous gases: our coal-fired power plants," said Frances Beinecke, president of the National Resources Defense Council. "We stand ready to help President Obama in every way we can."
Another key issue hanging over the announcement ? but unlikely to be mentioned on Tuesday ? is Keystone XL, a pipeline that would carry oil extracted from tar sands in western Canada to refineries along the Texas Gulf Coast. A concerted campaign by environmental activists to persuade Obama to nix the pipeline appears to be an uphill battle. The White House insists the State Department is making the decision independently.
Obama's speech on Tuesday will come the day before he leaves for a weeklong trip to three African nations.
___
Online:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcL3_zzgWeU
___
Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP
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FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) ? Iraqis in two Sunni-dominated provinces voted Thursday in provincial elections marked by tight security that left streets in former insurgent strongholds largely deserted for much of the day.
The country is confronting its worst outbreak of violence in years and relations between Iraq's Sunni and Shiite Muslims remain fraught.
The two provinces where the voting was taking place ? Anbar and Ninevah ? have seen some of the largest rallies in a months-long wave of Sunni protests against the Shiite-led government.
Authorities imposed a vehicle ban in major cities in the two provinces to protect against car bombings as voting got underway for candidates who will serve on provincial-level councils. Thousands of policemen and soldiers were deployed to secure the vote.
In Fallujah, 65 kilometers (40 miles) west of the Iraqi capital, security forces sealed off the city with checkpoints that prevented cars from getting in. Streets in the morning were empty except for ambulances, police and army vehicles, and a small number of cars permitted by electoral authorities.
Voters trickling into polling centers were searched twice before being allowed in. Police offered some voters rides to the polls in pickup tricks, as did political parties using minibuses emblazoned with pictures of candidates.
Fallujah voter Fuad Enad Mohammed, 26, said he wanted to see change for his Sunni sect in Anbar.
"With these elections, we will try to bring officials better than the ones in the previous council who didn't offer anything and were not real defenders of Sunnis," he said.
Local authorities eventually lifted the vehicle bans in the afternoon, apparently to encourage people to head to the voting centers by car instead of walking under the scorching sun.
Iraqis voted in 12 of Iraq's 18 provinces two months ago. Officials had delayed elections in Anbar and Ninevah because of what they said were security concerns, though some Iraqis questioned that rationale and dismissed it as a political ploy related to the unrest in the provinces.
Some 2.8 million Iraqis are eligible to vote in more than 1,200 polling centers the two provinces. That figure includes nearly 100,000 members of the security forces, many of whom voted in special elections on Monday so they could be on hand to secure the balloting.
Hundreds of candidates from 28 political blocs in Ninevah and 16 in Anbar are hoping to secure seats. There are 39 seats up for grabs in Ninevah and 30 in Anbar.
Among the groups hoping for a strong showing are Sunni parliament speaker Osama al-Nujaifi's United bloc, Deputy Prime Minister Saleh Al-Mutlaq's Arab Iraqiya coalition and the secular but Sunni-dominated Iraqiya bloc headed by Shiite politician Ayad Allawi.
The provincial councils have some say over regional security matters and have the ability to negotiate local business deals and allocate government funds. But provincial council members frequently complain that they are hamstrung by restrictions from federal authorities over how to spend the money.
The councils also choose provincial governors and have the right under Iraq's constitution to call for a referendum to organize into a federal region ? a move that could give them considerable autonomy from the central government in Baghdad.
Some protesters and political leaders in Sunni areas, including Anbar and Ninevah, have been agitating for the creation of an autonomous Sunni region, though it is unclear if they could generate broad support for such a move.
Muhieddin Abid, a 45-year old supermarket owner and father of two, cast his vote while wearing the traditional white Arabic shirtdress in Fallujah.
He said he hoped to "prevent the corrupt politicians, the thieves and the officials who care only about their personal interests" from winning seats on the next provincial council.
The April vote was Iraq's first election since the U.S. military withdrawal, and was carried out without major bloodshed on voting day. But insurgents have tried to undermine the electoral process by killing candidates.
A total of 17 candidates have been assassinated ahead of this year's election, with the bulk of them from Ninevah, according to Jose Maria Aranaz, the chief electoral adviser at the United Nations mission to Iraq.
No major violence was reported Thursday morning.
But police and hospital officials said seven people were killed and 24 were wounded when two bombs exploded simultaneously on a soccer field the previous night while teenagers and young adults were playing. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release information.
Iraq's largely autonomous northern Kurdish region, which comprises three provinces, will hold its own local elections in September. No vote is scheduled in the ethnically disputed province of Kirkuk, which has not had a chance to elect local officials since 2005 because residents cannot agree on a power-sharing formula there.
Results from Thursday's vote are not expected for several days.
___
Schreck reported from Baghdad. Associated Press writer Sinan Salaheddin contributed reporting.
___
Follow Adam Schreck on Twitter at http://twitter.com/adamschreck
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iraqis-vote-2-sunni-dominated-provinces-054640423.html
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