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Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Wimbledon 2013 Day 1: Roger Federer, Maria Sharapova Among Players To Watch On Monday
LONDON -- Five things to watch at Wimbledon on Monday, Day 1 of the grass-court Grand Slam tennis tournament:
1. FEDERER, MURRAY, NADAL GET STARTED: Three of the men who comprise what's often referred to as tennis' Big Four are scheduled to play Monday. Seven-time Wimbledon champion Roger Federer, who won the 2012 title, is up against Romania's Victor Hanescu in the first match of the year on Centre Court. Andy Murray, last year's runner-up, renews his bid to give Britain its first male champion in 77 years by taking on Germany's Benjamin Becker (best known, if at all, for beating Andre Agassi in the American's last professional match, at the 2006 U.S. Open). And Rafael Nadal, twice the champion at Wimbledon, plays his first match at the All England Club since last year's surprising second-round loss, facing Belgium's Steve Darcis. The No. 2-seeded Murray, No. 3 Federer and No. 5 Nadal all wound up on the same half of the draw, which is why they all start on the same day, prompting this wisecrack from No. 1 Novak Djokovic, safely ensconced on the other half: "Well, I think it's going to be a great Monday for tennis."
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2. SHARAPOVA LETS RACKET DO THE TALKING: Two of the women other than top-seeded Serena Williams given any chance of winning Wimbledon this year are 2004 champion Maria Sharapova and two-time Australian Open winner Victoria Azarenka. Sharapova will follow Federer onto Centre Court for a first-round match against 37th-ranked Kristina Mladenovic of France. Sharapova, seeded third, helped add some extra juice to the tournament with a verbal jab in response to comments attributed to Williams in a recent magazine story. Azarenka, seeded second, opens the Court 1 schedule against 106th-ranked Maria Joao Koehler of Portugal, who is making her Wimbledon debut and only has won two main-draw, tour-level matches anywhere.
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3. YOUNG AMERICANS FACE OFF: There are two matches that both pit a pair of young American women against each other. The most intriguing is 17th-seeded Sloane Stephens (who beat Williams en route to the Australian Open semifinals in January) against 25th-ranked Jamie Hampton (who beat 2011 Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova to reach the French Open's fourth round this month). Stephens is 20; Hampton is 23. While their match is last on Court 18, the last match on Court 10 is 70th-ranked Christina McHale against 147th-ranked Alexa Glatch. McHale is 21; Glatch is 23.
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4. OLD CHAMP IN ACTION: The last man other than Federer (seven titles in the last 10 years), Nadal (two) and Djokovic (one) to win Wimbledon was Lleyton Hewitt in 2002. The former No. 1-ranked Hewitt also won the 2001 U.S. Open, beating Pete Sampras in the final. Hewitt is now 32, and ranked 70th, after a series of injuries derailed his career. But Hewitt knows his way around a grass court: His seven tournament titles on the surface are tied with Boris Becker for the fifth-most in the 45-year Open era and second to Federer's 13 among active men. Hewitt could present some problems on Court 1 for 11th-seeded Stanislas Wawrinka.
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5. NADAL'S NEMESIS AND OTHERS TO KEEP AN EYE ON: With such a full slate scheduled for Monday ? all told, 64 singles matches ? there are plenty of places to find something interesting. The guy who shocked the tennis world a year ago by eliminating Nadal in five sets under Centre Court's closed roof, Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic, will be out on Court 19. John Isner, the 18th-seeded American forever linked to his all-sorts-of-records-breaking 70-68 fifth-set victory over Nicolas Mahut at Wimbledon in 2010, is in action on Court 14. And Mahut ? whose first ATP title came at the age of 31 by beating Wawrinka in the final at Rosmalen, Netherlands, on Saturday ? will be on Court 5.
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Follow Howard Fendrich on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HowardFendrich
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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/24/wimbledon-2013-day-1-schedule-federer_n_3489203.html
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Colorado school discriminated against transgender girl: report
By Keith Coffman
DENVER (Reuters) - A Colorado school district discriminated against a 6-year-old transgender girl when it barred her from using the girls' lavatory, according to a report by the state's civil rights division released by the family's attorney on Sunday.
Coy Mathis, who was born male but has identified as a female since an early age, attended Eagleside Elementary School, south of Colorado Springs, as a girl since kindergarten.
She was allowed to use the girls' restroom until late 2012, when the principal informed the parents that Coy would have to use the boys' restroom or a gender-neutral staff lavatory.
Her parents withdrew Coy from the school. In February, they filed a complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights Division.
The division's report, signed by its director, Steven Chavez, said the Fountain-Fort Carson School District violated a state law that extends protections to transgender people.
"Given the evolving research into the development of transgender persons, compartmentalizing a child as a boy or girl solely based on their visible anatomy is a simplistic approach to a difficult and complex issue," the report said.
The report criticized school officials for forcing Coy to "disregard her identity" when using the bathroom.
"It also deprived her of the social interaction and bonding that commonly occurs in girls' restrooms during these formative years, i.e., talking, sharing and laughter," the report said.
Michael Silverman, executive director of the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, which filed the complaint, said, "this ruling sends a loud and clear message that transgender students may not be targeted for discrimination and that they must be treated equally in school."
A lawyer for the school district could not be immediately reached for comment.
In a statement issued at the time the case surfaced, the district said the family was unwilling to meet with school officials to discuss "reasonable proposals" to resolve the dispute.
"The parents consistently indicated ... that they would file a discrimination charge if the district did not completely acquiesce to their demands," the statement said.
The school district can appeal the report's findings, Silverman said, but he said he hoped that school officials would accept the findings.
The Mathis family has moved to the Denver area, but Silverman said the ruling should serve as a model for schools nationwide on how to deal with transgender students.
The girl's mother, Kathryn Mathis, who has home-schooled her daughter since the dispute arose, said Coy is eager to return to school.
"All we ever wanted was for Coy's school to treat her the same as other little girls," she said. "We are extremely happy that she now will be treated equally."
(Reporting by Keith Coffman; Editing by Mary Wisniewski and Stacey Joyce)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/colorado-school-discriminated-against-transgender-girl-report-051137070.html
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Monday, June 24, 2013
Alt-week 6.22.13: The LRO's fourth moon-year, a 3D brain and alien telegrams (video)
The moon is far from old hat. In fact, after exactly four years on the job, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is just scratching its jagged surface. The dearth of info on our celestial neighbor isn't stopping us from trying to send personal space messages to a far-flung star system, though. Why? Blame it on our huge brains, which we've now mapped in detailed 3D. Yes, this is alt-week.
Filed under: Science
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CSN: Rockies rock Haren, kick start rout of Nats
With three straight wins heading into Saturday?s matchup against the Colorado Rockies, the Nationals saw whatever momentum they had dissipate and quickly. As he has almost all season, starter Dan Haren immediately found trouble and left his team little chance at all in a 7-1 blowout.
Haren?s day was rough from the beginning with a solo home run by the Rockies? second batter, D.J. LaMahieu. Three innings and five more earned runs later for the 32-year-old Haren and his day was done. He walked off the mound after recording just ten outs with many in the crowd of 35,787 letting him hear it with boos.
For a pitcher with Haren?s resume, it?s not often he?s heard this type of reaction from a home crowd. But given his outing and season overall ? he?s now worst the majors with a 6.15 ERA - Haren feels it is deserved.
?No one wants to be booed. I'd probably boo myself, too,? Haren said. ?I'm not doing well and the fans have a right to express how they feel. I wish I could perform better for them.?
Another unfortunate start for Haren and he?s now allowed 20 earned runs in his last 18 1/3 innings pitched. It is the worst stretch Haren can remember going through as a major league pitcher.
?I've never gone through this stuff in my career,? he said. ?It's definitely a battle to stay confident. There's self-doubt that obviously creeps in for everybody whenever they're not doing well and obviously I've been struggling for a while now.?
Haren?s day was so ugly, it may force the Nationals to make a change. Manager Davey Johnson said he will have to talk with the veteran on Monday after his scheduled bullpen session, and that pulling him from his next start is an option, especially if something physical is discovered.
?I?m a little concerned about him,?Johnson said. ?I?m going to have a talk with him next time he throws and see if we can?t do something to make things better for him. I don?t want to speculate on what I?m thinking about right here, but we have some concerns.?
Haren gave up a total of seven hits, but walked none and struck out five Rockies batters. It has been the story of his season, he strikes guys out but sees his mistakes capitalized on consistently.
Fellow veteran Adam LaRoche has tried talking to Haren to offer any advice he can, but he himself is baffled.
?He?s not walking anybody. I don?t know. It seems like bad luck right now,? LaRoche said.
?You can be that good, still strike out a bunch of guys, and any time you miss it?s getting hit.? I talked to him a little bit about it. I know he?s trying to find ways to be more consistent too, so I don?t know what it is.?
To replace Haren in the fourth inning, Johnson called on right-hander Ross Ohlendorf who had a solid start on June 12 against the Rockies in Colorado. If this was any sort of audition to take Haren?s spot in the rotation, Ohlendorf did all he could. The 30-year-old tossed 4 2/3 innings with just four hits and an earned run allowed.?
But as Ohlendorf kept the Rockies off the board and the Nationals? other relievers on the bench, Washington?s bats continued to stay cold. They left a total of 11 men on base after recording six hits, their only run coming on a Ryan Zimmerman solo homer in the ninth inning.?
Rockies starter Jhoulys Chacin was unhittable for much of the day, throwing seven scoreless innings with just five hits and a walk. Johnson said getting behind early played a role in the Nats? scoring troubles.
?Us getting behind three runs in the first inning was a big part of it,? Johnson said. ?And then he just made a lot of good pitches, with both his fastball and his breaking stuff.?
After their three runs in the first, the Rockies added three more in the fourth inning. Wilin Rosario led off with a single and was pushed to third on a Corey Dickerson double. Rosario then scored on a wild pitch and Dickerson came home on a single by Chacin. Haren threw two wild pitches and also hit a batter.
The Nats will try and complete the series win on Sunday with Ross Detwiler (2-5, 3.34 ERA) on the mound. Pitching for the Rockies is fellow lefty Jorge De La Rosa (7-4, 3.21).
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Sunday, June 23, 2013
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Huawei Ascend P6 solves 4 x 4 Rubik's Cube in 50 moves, considers meaning of life (video)
Okay, it might not be the fastest phone-cubing you've ever seen (or the funkiest,) but it's likely some of the shrewdest. Using an Ascend P6 at its heart, "MultiCuber 3" is the latest contraption from serial cube-coder (and ARM Engineer) David Gilday which combines Lego Mindstorms, algorithms and "because it's there" style optimism in equal measures. A custom app snaps the unsolved cube from all sides, to understand the starting point, then figures out the quickest path to color-coded harmony. Gilday claims that most human cubers would take about 120 moves to solve the 4 x 4 puzzle, making MultiCuber 3's 50 somewhat impressive. Watch the whole thing unfold in the video past the break, complete with appropriately euphoric soundtrack.
Via: Phone Arena
Source: ARMflix (YouTube)
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/11DC6kFLQoU/
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No word from Hong Kong on Snowden's return
The front cover of a local magazine shows Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee who leaked top-secret documents about sweeping U.S. surveillance programs, in Hong Kong Saturday, June 22, 2013. Hong Kong was silent Saturday on whether the former National Security Agency contractor should be extradited to the United States now that he has been charged with espionage, but some legislators said the decision should be up to the Chinese government. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
The front cover of a local magazine shows Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee who leaked top-secret documents about sweeping U.S. surveillance programs, in Hong Kong Saturday, June 22, 2013. Hong Kong was silent Saturday on whether the former National Security Agency contractor should be extradited to the United States now that he has been charged with espionage, but some legislators said the decision should be up to the Chinese government. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
This photo provided by The Guardian Newspaper in London shows Edward Snowden, who worked as a contract employee at the National Security Agency, in Hong Kong, Sunday, June 9, 2013. The man who told the world about the U.S. government?s gigantic data grab also talked a lot about himself. Mostly through his own words, a picture of Edward Snowden is emerging: fresh-faced computer whiz, high school and Army dropout, independent thinker, trustee of official secrets. And leaker on the lam. (AP Photo/The Guardian) MANDATORY CREDIT
A security guard stands in front of the Police headquarters in Hong Kong Saturday, June 22, 2013. Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, believed to be holed up in Hong Kong, has admitted providing information to the news media about two highly classified NSA surveillance programs. It is not known if the U.S. government has made a formal extradition request to Hong Kong, and the Hong Kong government had no immediate reaction to the charges against Snowden. Police Commissioner Andy Tsang, when was asked about the development, told reporters only that the case would be dealt with according to the law. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
David Medine, chairman of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, is seen in front of the White House in Washington, Friday, June 21, 2013. President Barack Obama held his first meeting Friday with the board in the White House Situation Room. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Edward Snowden, the former government contractor who says he revealed that the National Security Agency collects Americans' phone records and Internet data from U.S. communication companies, now faces charges of espionage and theft of government property.
Snowden is believed to be in Hong Kong, which could complicate efforts to bring him to a U.S. federal court to answer charges that he engaged in unauthorized communication of national defense information and willful communication of classified communications intelligence information.
In addition to those charges, both brought under the Espionage Act, the government charged Snowden with theft of government property. Each crime carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
Hong Kong was silent Saturday on whether Snowden should be extradited to the United States now that he has been charged, but some of Hong Kong's legislators said the decision should be up to the Chinese government.
The one-page criminal complaint against Snowden was unsealed Friday in federal court in Alexandria, Va., part of the Eastern District of Virginia where his former employer, government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, is headquartered, in McLean.
The complaint is dated June 14, five days after Snowden's name first surfaced as the person who had leaked to the news media that the NSA, in two highly classified surveillance programs, gathered telephone and Internet records to ferret out terror plots.
It was unclear Friday whether the U.S. had yet to begin an effort to extradite Snowden from Hong Kong. He could contest extradition on grounds of political persecution. In general, the extradition agreement between the U.S. and Hong Kong excepts political offenses from the obligation to turn over a person. Hong Kong could consider the charges under the Espionage Act political crimes.
Hong Kong had no immediate reaction to word of the charges against Snowden.
The Obama administration has now used the Espionage Act in seven criminal cases in an unprecedented effort to stem leaks. In one of them, Army Pfc. Bradley Manning acknowledged he sent more than 700,000 battlefield reports, diplomatic cables and other materials to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks. His military trial is underway.
Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, welcomed the charges against Snowden.
"I've always thought this was a treasonous act," he said in a statement. "I hope Hong Kong's government will take him into custody and extradite him to the U.S."
But the Government Accountability Project, a whistle-blower advocacy group, said Snowden should be shielded from prosecution by whistle-blower protection laws.
"He disclosed information about a secret program that he reasonably believed to be illegal, and his actions alone brought about the long-overdue national debate about the proper balance between privacy and civil liberties, on the one hand, and national security on the other," the group said in a statement.
Michael di Pretoro, a retired 30-year veteran with the FBI who served from 1990 to 1994 as the legal liaison officer at the American consulate in Hong Kong, said "relations between U.S. and Hong Kong law enforcement personnel are historically quite good."
"In my time, I felt the degree of cooperation was outstanding to the extent that I almost felt I was in an FBI field office," di Pretoro said.
The U.S. and Hong Kong have a standing agreement on the surrender of fugitives. However, Snowden's appeal rights could drag out any extradition proceeding.
The success or failure of any extradition proceeding depends on what the suspect is charged with under U.S. law and how it corresponds to Hong Kong law under the treaty. In order for Hong Kong officials to honor the extradition request, they have to have some applicable statute under their law that corresponds with a violation of U.S. law.
Hong Kong lawmakers said Saturday that the Chinese government should make the final decision on whether Snowden should be extradited to the United States.
Outspoken legislator Leung Kwok-hung said Beijing should instruct Hong Kong to protect Snowden from extradition before his case gets dragged through the court system.
Leung urged the people of Hong Kong to "take to the streets to protect Snowden."
In Iceland, a business executive said Friday that a private plane was on standby to transport Snowden from Hong Kong to Iceland, although Iceland's government says it has not received an asylum request from Snowden.
Business executive Olafur Vignir Sigurvinsson said he has been in contact with someone representing Snowden and has not spoken to the American himself. Private donations are being collected to pay for the flight, he said.
"There are a number of people that are interested in freedom of speech and recognize the importance of knowing who is spying on us," Sigurvinsson said. "We are people that care about privacy."
Disclosure of the criminal complaint came as President Barack Obama held his first meeting with a privacy and civil liberties board and as his intelligence chief sought ways to help Americans understand more about sweeping government surveillance efforts exposed by Snowden.
The five members of the little-known Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board met with Obama for an hour in the White House Situation Room, questioning the president on the two NSA programs that have stoked controversy.
One program collects billions of U.S. phone records. The second gathers audio, video, email, photographic and Internet search usage of foreign nationals overseas, and probably some Americans in the process, who use major Internet service providers, such as Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Yahoo.
___
Associated Press writer Jenna Gottlieb in Reykjavik, Iceland, contributed to this report.
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Heat, LeBron securing places in history
MIAMI (AP) ? Dwyane Wade was walking down the hallway toward the Miami Heat locker room in the wee hours of Friday morning, still in uniform and fussing with the new championship hat atop his head as his team and their families were in the midst of partying the night away.
He stopped briefly and assessed the celebration.
"We're getting pretty good at these," Wade said.
That's understandable, the Heat are getting plenty of practice at throwing themselves end-of-season parties. Four trips to the NBA Finals since 2006, three championships in that span and with the last two titles coming consecutively, it's making the decisions that the Heat and LeBron James made three summers ago look pretty smart.
By topping San Antonio in Game 7 of a back-and-forth NBA Finals on Thursday, the Heat became the sixth franchise in league history to win consecutive championships. It's their third title overall; only four clubs have more. And for James, it capped two seasons where he won all he could ? two regular-season MVPs, two titles, two Finals MVPs, even an Olympic gold medal.
"It feels great. This team is amazing. And the vision that I had when I decided to come here is all coming true," James said. "Through adversity, through everything we've been through, we've been able to persevere and to win back to back championships. It's an unbelievable feeling. I'm happy to be part of such a first-class organization."
James said winning his first title was the toughest thing he's ever done.
It's now the second-toughest. Defending the crown, he said, was even more arduous. He was exhausted when it was over ? and still scored 37 points in the finale, more than he posted in any other postseason game this season.
"Believe in LeBron," Heat President Pat Riley said.
Miami did, all the way to the end.
The Heat rolled past Milwaukee in a first-round sweep, needed five games to oust Chicago in the second round, but then went to the seven-game limit against Indiana in the Eastern Conference finals and then to the last game again against the Spurs, who actually were 21 seconds away from ending the series in six games before James and the Heat engineered a huge rally.
Without that comeback, a championship-or-bust season would have gone bust.
Instead, legacies were enhanced, more trophies were hoisted, and Miami's place atop the NBA landscape was cemented.
"To be in the championship three years in a row, to win two of those three, is unbelievable," Wade said. "Everybody can't get to the Finals and win six in a row, like win six and not lose one like Michael Jordan. Everyone don't do that. But we are excited about the future of this organization. We are still a good team. And we're going to do everything we can to make sure that we can stay competitive."
Moves will be made, of course. The Heat have some luxury-tax concerns to address, and it would be a shock if they didn't try to get even better through a trade or free agency.
"All it's about now is what's in front of us," Riley said.
Then again, if James keeps getting better, Miami's place in history will probably only rise.
At 6-foot-8 and 250 pounds, James has a combination of size, speed and strength that seems unmatched in the NBA world. After Miami lost the 2011 finals to Dallas, James decided to improve his post play by working with Hakeem Olajuwon. Last season, his focus was on enhancing his mid-range jumper, something he continued working on throughout the season with Ray Allen.
So with about a half-minute left and the Heat up by two points, it was that mid-range jumper that sealed Miami's title. James delivered with 27.9 seconds left to make it a two-possession game. Not long afterward, he had the Larry O'Brien Trophy in one arm, the Finals MVP trophy in the other, ready for a well-deserved break from basketball.
"I want to be, if not the greatest, one of the greatest to ever play this game," James said. "And I will continue to work for that, and continue to put on this uniform and be the best I can be every night."
James has already put himself in that best-ever conversation.
"We all know his work ethic," said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, who spent part of his first day as a two-time champion coach at Jim Larranaga's basketball camp at the University of Miami. "It's probably unique for a guy who has been the best in the game since he was in seventh grade. Usually you wouldn't have the type of work ethic that would match that type of talent."
Jordan won six titles, James only has two. But if that's the sole standard, then Jordan isn't even close either, considering Bill Russell won 11 rings in his Boston career. Russell was there for the Heat title clincher, served as part of the on-court trophy presentations, then retreated to a small room not far from the Miami locker room as players meandered in for one of the immediate perks of winning a title ? a photo shoot with the trophy.
James posed for hundreds of photos during his time in there. Camera clicks were a constant sound for about 10 minutes when he was in the room. And before he left, he and Wade waved for Russell to come join them for some more snapshots.
"Get the legend up here," James shouted.
Russell walked to the front of the room as a few people, mostly Heat employees and family members, clapped. He shook hands with the Heat stars, then turned around to face the cameras and said something to James that was barely audible to those even a few feet away.
"You earned this one," Russell said.
James' grin became even broader, and camera shutters kept on whirring. Suddenly, that oft-mocked, oft-replayed "not two, not three, not four" answer James gave during the Heat celebration of their free agency coup in 2010 doesn't look like such a punch line anymore.
"I always felt that when he got up to five, six, seven that he was joking a little bit, but the media decided to take him very seriously," Heat managing general partner Micky Arison said. "I think right now he's real happy with two and next year he'll be worried about three."
James has played 10 seasons now. Including playoffs, his scoring average is 27.6, third-best in league history behind only Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain. Since the league began charting plus-minus (the point differential when a player is on the court), James' teams have outscored opponents by 3,861 points with him in regular-season and playoff games. Second-best on that list? Wade, at 2,301 points. That gap is simply huge.
With an average season next year, he'll move into the Top 25 in all-time regular-season scoring. He got more rebounds per game this season than ever before, shot the 3-pointer better than ever before, punctuating that by making five in Game 7 of the finals. And here's what might be truly frightening for opponents: For the sixth straight year, James' shooting percentage got better.
"Hopefully people will leave him alone a little more now," Heat forward Shane Battier said. "He takes a lot of heat, I think undeservedly. He's the best player on the planet. And hopefully now with two titles, he'll get more the benefit of the doubt. But, you know, he's the best. He's the best right now."
So are the Heat. And that can't be argued.
The Celtics, Lakers and Bulls are the only franchises to win three straight titles. That will be the challenge for the Heat next year, to take a great run and make it a truly elite run.
For now, though, James wants no part of that conversation. He's going to enjoy this one for a good long while.
"It's the ultimate," James said. "I don't want to think about next year right now, what our possibilities are next year. Got to take full advantage of this one. It's an unbelievable moment for our team."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/heat-lebron-securing-places-history-212916314.html
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Saturday, June 22, 2013
UFO over Stonehenge? Britain releases its last big batch of X-Files
British National Archives
A "discoid shape" is circled in a picture taken at Stonehenge and submitted to the British Ministry of Defense in 2009. The ministry said trying to identify the speck would be an "inappropriate use of defence resources."
By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News
Britain's Ministry of Defense finished up its release of almost 60 years' worth of UFO sighting reports on Friday with a bang: a 4,300-page cache of documents that describe strange sights over Stonehenge and Parliament, and lay out the reason why the ministry shut down its UFO desk three and a half years ago.
Thanks in part to the proliferation of camera phones, the number of UFO reports in the U.K. doubled in 2008, to 208 reports for the year, said David Clarke, a UFO historian who reviewed the latest files in a YouTube video. Then, in 2009, the pace of sightings tripled, to a running total of 643 reports by November of that year.
"That really did put a strain on the resources that the MoD had committed to this subject, and really led up to their decision to finally pull the plug on Britain's X-Files, simply because they just didn't have the resources to investigate these sightings, or to look at them in any detail," Clarke said. "So they just tended to be filed away."
That was basically what happened to the Stonehenge sighting: In January 2009, the ministry received several photographs that showed a speck in the sky over the millennia-old monument in Wiltshire. "I didn't see anything in the sky at the time, because I was focusing upon the stones," the witness wrote in an archived email. "Upon uploading them to my computer, though, I spotted the discoid shapes in the background. ... I'm sure you get this kind of thing every day! However, I'm very fond of my UFOs so needed to share them!"
The ministry wrote back, saying that it doesn't try to identify the source of UFO sightings "unless there is evidence of a potential threat to the United Kingdom." Trying to explain every sighting would be an "inappropriate" use of defense resources, the ministry said. A similar reply was sent to a witness who reported seeing "a craft that had green, red and white lights" hovering over the Houses of Parliament in February 2008.
UFO historian David Clarke discusses highlights from Britain's final batch of X-Files.
Clarke said many of the mobile-phone snapshots sent in between late 2007 and late 2009, the period covered by Friday's document release, were of such poor quality that it was hard to tell what was going on. The "vast majority" of cases turned out to have down-to-earth explanations, he said. Here's a sampling of the highlights:
- A police helicopter crew in Wales reported seeing a cluster of small, rotating objects in the sky in June 2008 ? and when word got out about the sighting, the tabloid Sun newspaper heralded it as an "ALIEN ARMY." The ministry concluded that they were Chinese lanterns floating up from a nearby wedding party.
- The Sun also trumpeted a story about a damaged wind turbine in North Lincolnshire in January 2009, quoting witnesses who reported that bright spheres of light were flashing in the sky when the turbine broke. "UFO HITS WIND TURBINE," The Sun proclaimed. The ministry declined to investigate, but a journalist at The Guardian said the lights were actually fireworks set off nearby to celebrate her father's 80th birthday. Experts said the turbine probably broke due to an unrelated mechanical failure.
- A woman in Dorset reported seeing a "bright white fireball" come through her kitchen window in August 2009. She said the fireball fell into a carrier bag and disappeared in a flash of "blinding white sheet lightning." Clarke said the report matches the classic description of ball lightning, an electrical phenomenon that is not yet fully understood.?
- A schoolgirl in Altrincham sent the ministry a letter in January 2009, describing a set of small objects that she and her father saw flying over the family's garden. At the bottom of the letter, she drew a picture of an alien waving goodbye from a flying saucer. "Please send a letter telling me the answer. ... I have the right to know," she wrote. The UFO desk reported that the girl was sent a bag of goodies from the Royal Air Force.
British National Archives
A schoolgirl's letter includes a drawing of an alien in a flying saucer.
"We have now come to the end of this program of release for the UFO files, and it is often said about UFOs that 'the truth is out there,'" Clarke said in the video, which was recorded amid the ministry's filing cabinets. "In my opinion, the truth is actually in here, in these files."
The latest batch of files, as well as previously released X-Files, can be downloaded via the British National Archives website.
More of Britain's X-Files:
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the NBC News Science Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with NBCNews.com's stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
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Sony teases new smartwatch announcement for next week
Sony's got us waiting on a super-sized Xperia smartphone, but it could have a new wearable to show Mobile Asia Expo attendees in Shanghai next week. In recent days, its Sony Xperia account has been tweeting cryptically about its existing Smartwatch, the demand for smart devices and (well, it is Sony) the company's portable tech heritage. Sony is set to host a Shanghai-based media event on Tuesday next week, and we'll be there to cover it.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wearables, Mobile, Sony
Via: Xperia Blog
Source: Sony Xperia (Twitter) (1), (2)
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/RHZ_1LNa_6Q/
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Friday, June 21, 2013
Irish Economy 2013: Bad loans ratio at 25% in Ireland and Greece ...
Irish Economy 2013: The ratio of bad or non-performing loans as a percentage of total private sector credit in Ireland is at 25% - a similar level to Greece's and the ratio is at 11% in Spain.
However, the Irish ratio excludes the transfers to NAMA (National Assets Management Agency): NAMA acquired 12,000 toxic property loans (secured by approximately 56,000 individual property units) involving about 800 debtor connections. Par debt at acquisition was approximately ?74bn. It paid the Irish banks ?31.8bn -- a discount of 57%. ?Last month NAMA confirmed the sale of properties with an initial value at ?810m to a Starwood Capital-led consortium structured with just under 60% vendor finance provided by NAMA over five years. It was reported that the properties were sold for around ?200m, which would reflect a 75.3% discount. NAMA has a 20% interest in the consortium.
The IMF's latest review [pdf] says that at 24.8% of total loans, nonperforming loans are a drain on market confidence, cash flows, and a source of operational costs that hinder capacity to lend. "A lack of resolution progress also undermines the reliability of assessments of loan values."
We reported last April that half of all lending to Irish SME (small and medium enterprises) business are in arrears, according to the Central Bank. Fiona Muldoon, the director of credit institution supervision at the bank said that of the ?50bn lent to the sector by the domestic banks, some ?25bn was impaired.
The IMF said that the breadth of financial distress is evident in 15.8% of mortgages on primary dwellings being over 90 days in arrears, and? 26.9% of buy-to-let mortgages. "The SME sector is particularly hurt by domestic demand weakness with impaired loans rising to 25% of SME and corporate loans. Banks have largely responded with a combination of forbearance and rejections of SME loan applications -- the latter is the highest in the EU. Banks remained loss making in 2012 even before provisioning, and are only beginning to resolve NPLs (non-performing loans), now reported at a quarter of gross loans."
The Irish Central Bank said in April that loans issued to Irish residents were valued at ?327bn in January 2013; ?131bn was outstanding from non residents, giving a total value of ?458bn.
PricewaterhouseCoopers estimated the banks' coverage ratio for losses at 56% in 2011.
The IMF says that in 2012, Irish banks ran losses before provisions of ?0.8bn, or 0.2% of average assets. Benefiting from the phasing out of ELG (state guarantee) and improving interest margins, "by end 2013 PCAR (Prudential Capital Assessment Review) banks project ?1.1bn in profits before provisions or 0.4% of average assets. While this improvement is welcome, profitability would still fall short of covering normal provisioning, and would not build capital to support new lending. Tracker mortgages, at some 30% of net loans, are a key drag on bank profitability, and PTSB?s (PermanentTSB)? especially high exposure to these mortgages contributes to its inability to break even until 2016?17."
In the Eurozone, total NPLs (including property) as a percentage of banks? total loans increased from 5.6% in 2011 to 6.8% in 2012. This year, the Eurozone?s economy is expected to contract slightly, and, based on Oxford Economics research, NPLs will reach a euro-era high of ?932bn, amounting to 7.6% of total loans of ?12.2tn, according to Ernst & Young.? As economic conditions improve in 2014, NPLs are expected to drop to 5.6% of ?12.5tn of outstanding loans, or the same percentage as in 2011. However, the Eurozone?s growth is expected to be modest, averaging about 1.3% annually for the rest of this decade.
Non performing loans at Spanish banks are projected to rise further in the coming months as the economy continues to struggle, the IMF said on Wednesday.
"NPLs typically are lagging indicators. I wouldn't be surprised if they would continue to increase in the medium term," James Daniel, the head of the IMF mission in Spain, said at a news conference following the release of the fund's annual assessment of the Spanish economy.
Spanish banks' bad loans as a percentage of total credit rose to 10.9% in April from 10.5% in March, Bank of Spain data showed on Tuesday.
Check out our subscription service, Finfacts Premium , at a low annual charge of ?25.
Source: http://www.finfacts.ie/irishfinancenews/article_1026159.shtml
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Academy: 3 midshipmen charged with sexual assault
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) ? The U.S. Naval Academy on Wednesday charged three midshipmen ? all current or former football players ? with sexually assaulting a female student at an off-campus house in Annapolis more than a year ago.
The academy said in a news release that the male midshipmen are being charged with two violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. One charge involves rape, sexual assault or other sexual misconduct. The other is for making a false official statement.
The academy did not identify the three male students, and it was not immediately clear if they have an attorney.
Two of the students were football players this past season, but they are not on the team anymore. Another is still on the team, but he has been suspended pending the outcome of the case.
"The case is still in the pre-trial phase, so any further comment on this ongoing investigation would be inappropriate," Cmdr. John Schofield, an academy spokesman, said in a statement.
The case has brought renewed focus to how the nation's military academies handle reports of sexual assaults. The service academies have struggled for years with sexual assault and harassment allegations, and a string of sexual assault cases has recently drawn attention in Congress and at the Pentagon and The White House. Many of the assault cases involve alcohol.
President Barack Obama addressed the sexual assault problem when he spoke at the academy's commissioning ceremony last month. The president said those who commit sexual assault threaten the trust and discipline that make the military strong.
The alleged assault occurred in April 2012. The woman's attorney, Susan Burke, has said the woman woke up with bruises after a night of heavy drinking and later learned from friends and social media that three football players she considered friends were claiming to have had sex with her while she was intoxicated and blacked out.
"My client and I are cautiously optimistic that justice will finally prevail in this case," Burke said in a statement Wednesday. "Even if this case is successfully prosecuted, the larger problem remains: rape cases in the military are controlled by untrained and biased commanders whose career interests may be served by covering up incidents like this one. The Naval Academy's handling of this case raises troubling questions about how the victim and the football players were treated. This case reflects why rape victims are fearful and skeptical of the military justice system."
Burke has noted that the academy closed an investigation into the same allegations last year without charges.
The woman reported the allegations to Navy criminal investigators and was disciplined for drinking while the athletes, one of whom discouraged her from cooperating, were permitted to continue playing, Burke has said. The female midshipman remains a student in good standing.
The Navy agreed to reopen the investigation this year after the woman sought legal help, Burke said. The new investigation involved wiretapped conversations that Burke said further substantiated her client's account.
Burke said the scheduled graduation of one of the three students was put on hold because of the allegations, while the other two were not scheduled to graduate this year.
The academy announced on Monday that Vice Adm. Michael Miller, the academy's superintendent, had decided to forward the case to Article 32 proceedings, which are held to determine if there is enough evidence for a court-marital.
Schofield said earlier this week that the initial Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigation into the case had been completed and reviewed.
U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski recently wrote to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel that she is "deeply troubled by the lackluster response from the superintendents to increasing rates of sexual assault within their academies."
Mikulski, D-Md., is a member of the U.S. Naval Academy's Board of Visitors, which acts as a board of trustees for the Annapolis military college.
"If we are going to end sexual assault in the military, we must start by changing the culture in the service academies where future leaders are created," Mikulski wrote.
Other Navy football players have faced assault allegations in the past.
In 2006, Lamar Owens Jr., the team's starting quarterback, was acquitted of rape but found guilty of lesser charges in a military court. He was expelled from the school. Another one-time member of the team, Kenny Ray Morrison, was convicted in 2007 of sexually assaulting a female classmate at a Washington hotel. He was sentenced to two years in the Navy brig.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/academy-3-midshipmen-charged-sexual-assault-000620425.html
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