Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/06/sophia-grace-video-released-disturbing/
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Monday, June 3, 2013
Judge orders Google to turn over data to FBI
Google
14 hours ago
A federal judge has ruled that Google Inc. must comply with the FBI's warrantless demands for customer data, rejecting the company's argument that the government's practice of issuing so-called national security letters to telecommunication companies, Internet service providers, banks and others was unconstitutional and unnecessary.
FBI counter-terrorism agents began issuing the secret letters, which don't require a judge's approval, after Congress passed the USA Patriot Act in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The letters are used to collect unlimited kinds of sensitive, private information, such as financial and phone records and have prompted complaints of government privacy violations in the name of national security. Many of Google's services, including its dominant search engine and the popular Gmail application, have become daily habits for millions of people.
In a ruling written May 20 and obtained Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston ordered Google to comply with the FBI's demands.
But she put her ruling on hold until the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals could decide the matter. Until then, the Mountain View, Calif.-based company must comply with the letters unless it shows the FBI didn't follow proper procedures in making its demands for customer data in the 19 letters Google is challenging, she said.
After receiving sworn statements from two top-ranking FBI officials, Illston said she was satisfied that 17 of the 19 letters were issued properly. She wanted more information on two other letters.
It was unclear from the judge's ruling what type of information the government sought to obtain with the letters. It was also unclear who the government was targeting.
The decision from the San Francisco-based Illston comes several months after she ruled in a separate case brought by the Electronic Frontier Foundation over the letters. She ruled in March that the FBI's demand that recipients refrain from telling anyone ? including customers ? that they had received the letters was a violation of free speech rights.
Kurt Opsah, an attorney with the foundation, said it could be many more months before the appeals court rules on the constitutionality of the letters in the Google case.
"We are disappointed that the same judge who declared these letters unconstitutional is now requiring compliance with them," Opsah said on Friday.
Illston's May 20 order omits any mention of Google or that the proceedings have been closed to the public. But the judge said "the petitioner" was involved in a similar case filed on April 22 in New York federal court.
Public records show that on that same day, the federal government filed a "petition to enforce National Security Letter" against Google after the company declined to cooperate with government demands.
Google can still appeal Illston's decision. The company declined comment Friday.
In 2007, the Justice Department's inspector general found widespread violations in the FBI's use of the letters, including demands without proper authorization and information obtained in non-emergency circumstances. The FBI has tightened oversight of the system.
The FBI made 16,511 national security letter requests for information regarding 7,201 people in 2011, the latest data available.
? 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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2 Mexico kidnap victims sons of drug traffickers
MEXICO CITY (AP) ? It started to rain last Saturday night and the temperature dropped. So 19-year-old Said Sanchez Garcia stopped home to get a sweater. He'd been gone all afternoon and now he and his friend, Jerzy Ortiz, 16, were headed out clubbing on Jerzy's motor scooter.
"The only thing I said was, 'Son, it's raining, you shouldn't be going out,'" said Josefina Garcia. It was the last time she saw him.
By late Sunday she was calling Jerzy's mother, Leticia Ponce, to see if she knew where the boys were. By Tuesday, both mothers were at the Mexico City prosecutor's office with other distraught relatives. The boys disappeared from an after-hours bar in central Mexico City on Sunday morning along with nine others, kidnapped by masked men with large guns and SUVs in broad daylight, according to the story of one man who got away.
Nearly a week later, the two mothers found themselves denying that the brazen abduction had anything to do with their sons.
Both acknowledged that the boys' fathers are serving prison sentences for drug-related crimes. But Ponce tearfully pleaded with reporters on Friday not to criminalize her son, Jerzy. His father has been in jail for 10 years.
"If somebody wanted to do something to us, they would have already kidnapped us," said Ponce, shaking with sobs.
Authorities have been searching desperately for motives in the bizarre crime that left no clues. It followed the May 9 beating death of Malcolm Shabazz, grandson of the late Malcolm X, in a fight over a bill at another rough Mexico City bar. Two waiters have been arrested in that killing.
After scouring available surveillance tapes in the kidnapping and searching the bar, Mexico City Attorney General Rodolfo Rios said Saturday that so far they so far have found no evidence that a heavily armed command abducted the young people.
"We have found no signs of violence inside or outside the place," he told a press conference.
Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said authorities were not eliminating any line of investigation but could not act on assumptions because of some of the victims' fathers. When asked if the city could be facing an increase in organized crime attacks, he said "Mexico City has its security guaranteed."
The family members have met with city and federal prosecutors, and have demanded to see tapes from the office buildings that tower over the narrow side street just off the city's leafy Paseo de la Reforma. The bar is also a short walk from the federal police building and the U.S. Embassy.
Employees in nearby businesses say they had noticed for some time strange activity and loud music at the building with the sign Bicentenario, some calling it a narco-bar for the expensive cars that came and went. Several said they would cross the street to work to avoid the drunks who would hang out on the sidewalk, still partying in the early morning. The after-hours club, called "Heaven," had been operating for about a year, neighbors estimated.
It was running with a different name than the one listed on a license that expired in 2009 and was never renewed. Still, it stayed open. Humberto Huerta, a spokesman for the city borough office that is responsible for inspecting bars and other businesses, noted his office only has 16 inspectors to oversee 60,000 businesses.
But no one saw anything Sunday around 10 a.m. when the abduction supposedly happened, nearly unbelievable given that nearby Reforma was full of people that day ? for a 5-kilometer foot race, the city's weekly urban bike ride and an international culture fair that had just opened the day before.
Amid the lack of an explanation, speculation emerged that it was a retaliation crime relating to the fathers of the two boys.
The spokesman for the city's penitentiary system said Sanchez's father, Alejandro Sanchez, was sentenced in October 2004 to 23 years in prison for extortion, organized crime, homicide and robbery. He is serving time in a maximum security prison in the city.
Jerzy's father Jorge Ortiz, known as "the Tank," was arrested the same day as Sanchez and was sentenced to the same crimes and for the same number of years. He was transferred to a federal maximum security prison in 2009 because he is considered a high-risk criminal.
"My husband has been locked up for many years," Garcia said. "He doesn't have any problems with anybody, he doesn't mess with anybody. So that would be a long time for that to keep having consequences, right?"
Others accused authorities of stigmatizing the kidnap victims because they hail from Tepito, one of Mexico City's most dangerous neighborhoods and the main clearinghouse for millions of dollars of contraband, from guns and drugs to counterfeit handbags.
In the winding, narrow streets of the 150-block area, stalls selling knock-off sneakers and pirated CDs block access for most cars. Youths ride motorbikes, often two to a bike, as the main form of transport. Garbage is piled on street corners, and warehouses full of auto parts of dubious origin spill their contents.
Alma, a 21-year-old student who didn't want to give her last name, said it's common to see kids as young as 10 hanging out on the streets at all hours of the night, and noted that their role models are the men with flashy motorcycles and cars and no visible means of income.
Rumors also spread that the abductions might be the result of one of Mexico's major drug cartels trying to break into the lucrative black market of Tepito, traditionally controlled by local mafias and families.
Officials have said that Mexico's major drug cartels sometimes move money or drugs through Mexico City, but don't really base themselves or operate from the capital, in part because the crowded streets and 70,000-member police force make it hard to do business. As a result, the city until now has been largely spared from the mass abductions and killings going on in other parts of Mexico, where the cartels are at war.
But street crime is bad in Tepito, where strangers can't enter without local guides for fear of being robbed. Local businessmen now fund a 17-member security force made up largely of tattooed ex-cons, who patrol the streets looking for thieves. Once caught, suspects are turned over to police.
Miguel Barcenas, an imposing ex-cop dressed in black, heads the force, which is armed only with radios. He said he's heard rumors about cartels such as La Familia Michoacana or the Zetas coming in, but he thinks Tepito is probably too tough even for them.
"The people here are very united, very war-like," Barcenas said.
Family members deny that the disappeared were involved in any illicit trade.
Garcia said her son helped her sell purses and cleaning products. Another of the disappeared, Jennifer Robles, 23, was a single mother. She posted a message on Facebook about 8:30 a.m. Sunday, just before she disappeared, saying she was dancing.
_____
Associated Press writer Olga R. Rodriguez contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/2-mexico-kidnap-victims-sons-drug-traffickers-202159507.html
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How to view mini calendars in the Calendars app for Mac
If you use the default Calendars app on your Mac running OS X Mountain Lion, mini calendars are back. Apple took them away for a period of time, which was irritating since mini calendars always were able to show me things at a quick glance without having to manually click through months.
If you've never used mini calendars before or don't know how to view them, follow along and we'll show you how.
- Launch the Calendars app on your Mac.
- In the bottom left you'll see a month preview calendar. This is a mini calendar. To expand that view, position your cursor directly above the date and you'll get an anchor.
- Drag upwards to expand the view to more months. I like the two month view but you can drag further up if you'd like to show even more months to jump to.
While mini calendars aren't a hidden feature or a knockout one, they do make it easier to quickly jump to things. I find them extremely useful when I'm nearing the end of the month and I need to see what I have planned for the following week. I no longer have to toggle between months in calendar view in order to do that. I'm glad Apple brought them back after their brief disappearance.
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/G91UqTkAmwQ/story01.htm
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Cyto-megalovirus might speed brain-cancer growth | ScienceBlog.com
A virus that infects most Americans but that usually remains dormant in the body might speed the progression of an aggressive form of brain cancer when particular genes are shut off in tumor cells, new research shows.
The animal study by researchers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center ? Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC ? James) and at Dana Farber Cancer Institute suggests that cytomegalovirus (CMV) might significantly accelerate the development and progression of glioblastoma, a deadly form of brain cancer.
The virus by itself does not cause cancer, the study suggests, but it might influence tumor development when changes occur that silence two genes called p53 and Nf1 in tumor cells. These genes are protective ?tumor suppressor? genes that normally cause cells to die before they become malignant. But cancer-related changes can silence them, enabling malignant cells to survive, multiply and form tumors.
The findings are published in the journal Cancer Research. Some 50 to 80 percent of Americans become infected with CMV by age 40. The virus is transmitted by contact with infected saliva and other body fluids, and through sexual contact. Most people are infected early in life and then the virus remains dormant.
?CMV has been detected in many cancer types, suggesting that it might be reactivated when cancer occurs in the body,? says co-corresponding author and researcher Dr. Chang-Hyuk Kwon, assistant professor of neurological surgery, at the OSUCCC ? James and at the Dardinger Center for Neuro-oncology and Neurosciences.
The researchers also learned that CMV stimulates tumor-cell proliferation by activating a biochemical cell pathway called STAT3. In healthy cells, STAT3 plays an important role in controlling cell proliferation.
?Our data indicate that CMV contributes to glioblastoma when already-mutated cancer cells proliferate using the STAT3 signaling pathway,? Kwon says. ?We believe that CMV?s action occurs in the tumor?s cells of origin early in tumor initiation.?
The findings raise questions about how cancer is studied, says co-corresponding author Dr. E. Antonio Chiocca, chairman of neurosurgery at the Brigham and Women?s Hospital and surgical director for the Center for Neuro-oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
?First, we usually study cancer in models that are virus-free, but our findings suggest that CMV might play a significant role in human cancers,? he says.
?Secondly, anti-viral therapy against CMV might now be justified for human cancers, and immune responses to such cancer-modulating viruses should be carefully studied,? Chiocca says.
About 18,500 new cases of glioblastoma multiforme are expected annually in the U.S., and 12,760 Americans are expected to die of the disease.
- MCMV-infected mice with genetic mutations in p53 and NF1 in their brain cells that predisposed them to spontaneous glioblastoma had shorter survival than non-MCMV-infected mice with the same mutations;
- Implanting human gliomas into the brains of MCMV-infected animals significantly shortened their survival compared with controls;
- MCMV infection increased levels of activated STAT3 in neural stem cells, the cells in which glioblastoma is thought to originate;
- Human CMV increased STAT3 activation and proliferation of patient-derived glioblastoma cells; a STAT3 inhibitor reversed this effect in cell and animal models.
Source: http://scienceblog.com/63508/cytomegalovirus-might-speed-brain-cancer-growth/
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Sunday, June 2, 2013
Frogs fading? Amphibian census may guide recovery leaps
CREDIT: ? Conservation International-Colombia/Photo by Marco Rada
By Karen Lips, Live Science
Karen Lips, an amphibian ecologist and tropical biologist, is an associate professor at the University of Maryland in College Park. She contributed this article to LiveScience's?Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.
It was a dark and steamy night and clouds of insects were biting our faces and hands as we carefully examined a tiny emerald glass frog. I was with my team of researchers in the middle of the jungle in the mountains of Panama. We were standing on slippery rocks in the middle of a stream doing our annual census of amphibians and reptiles in Parque Nacional Omar Torrijos. Every year since 1998, we've been following individually marked frogs to see how long they live, where they live, and how many frogs are in this population.
We used to spend hours every night capturing and marking dozens of these glass frogs, but in 2004, a pathogenic fungus called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) invaded this site and wiped out hundreds and hundreds of amphibians.
The emerald glass frog survived, but it is much less abundant today and it takes us only an hour to run the same transect. Because we marked animals before the epidemic and after the epidemic, we can compare how many infected frogs live as long as uninfected frogs. This can tell us why some populations persist, but are not recovering; it tells us why some populations continue to decline; and it can tell us how fast or slow those populations are changing. It might help us figure out whether the problem is the death of adults, or lack of survival in young stages, and it can help identify habitats where populations are improving and places where they are doing worse. [ In Photos: 40 Freaky Frogs ]
A really good example of the importance of population studies is a recent paper featuring research from the Australian tropics. Those scientists showed that after two decades of coexisting with Bd, populations of the common mist frog continue to decline, even though the scientists never found any dead frogs. They were able to link the decline in population abundance to intensity of infection by Bd. This is really important, because Bd is now found across the globe, and in hundreds of species of amphibians, but dead frogs are detected only occasionally. This paper shows us that just because we do not see die-offs does not mean amphibians are not dying and that population declines are not happening. [ Frog Fungus Causes Grisly Death by Dehydration ]
A few weeks ago, a group of scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey published a paper that described slow, but steady, population declines in 48 species from 34 sites across the United States. What was most concerning was that even widespread species we thought were relatively stable were declining. This matches with the many stories I hear from concerned citizens who say that they don't see or hear as many frogs in their backyards as they used to. Because those scientists spent the time to count amphibians, they were they able to detect the slow loss in those populations.
We need more studies like these that can go beyond the distribution of threats and can show us how amphibian populations respond to disease so that we can design appropriate conservation and management actions to protect those species.
For example, if population declines are slow and steady, we might have time to experiment with different management practices; but if populations are declining quickly, we might need to establish captive assurance colonies or take tissues for cryopreservation to protect evolutionary lineages.
Likewise, we need to know which age class, sex or subpopulation might be the limiting step in population recovery. If the problem is in the tadpole stage and none survive to become adults, then we might want to design a reintroduction program that adds more adults to the system. If adults are very rare, we might do better to add hundreds of eggs, tadpoles or juveniles to jumpstart recovery.
Numbers are also important because they are the currency of conservation. The IUCN Redlist makes decisions on the level of species endangerment based on the number of individuals and the number of populations, and how quickly those numbers are going up or down. The official listing of species is the first step in prioritizing research and conservation efforts to address those threats, and is used to dedicate funding and other resources.
Today, anybody can contribute data to online databases of plants and animals (e.g., http://www.inaturalist.org), or participate in research projects through citizen scientist programs. Whether the frogs are increasing or decreasing, we need to know: Just how many frogs are there?
So count with me: one frog, two frog, red frog, blue frog.
Follow Lips on Twitter @ kwren88.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This article was originally published on LiveScience.com .
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V3 Gaming Traverse
Balancing the potential performance of an elite gaming PC with the need to still afford things?like rent and car payments?the small form-factor V3 Gaming Traverse offers some impressive hardware in a small form-factor chassis. As mid-range gaming desktops go, the V3 Traverse does a great job of giving you plenty of bang for your buck.
Design and Features
Looking at the V3 Traverse's case, a Prodigy small form-factor chassis from Bit Fenix, I just don't know what to think about this design. We've seen it before (on the AVADirect Mini Gaming PC Core i5 Z77) but I still can't figure out why this design is even being used. Is there something about improving airflow by putting it up off of the desk or floor? Is it about providing handles? Regardless, I personally think the roll-cage design looks (and feels) bizarre. And the handles and risers flex considerably whenever you pick up the tower or set it down, which feels pretty insecure.
Despite the shaky handles and risers, the tower has a fairly compact design, measuring 15.5 by 9.6 by 13.9 inches (HWD). The white and black color scheme is a nice change of pace from the usual black boxes festooned with glowing LED accents, but the stormtrooper look is getting a little tired as well?we've seen it on the iBuypower Revolt R770, the Digital Storm Bolt, not to mention the same-chassis doppelganger AVADirect Mini Gaming PC Core i5 Z77.
On the front of the tower is a tray-loading optical drive?a combination Blu-ray reader and DVD-writer in this configuration?and a handful of ports on the right-hand side of the tower front, with two audio jacks (for headphone out and microphone input) and two USB 3.0 ports. On the back of the tower you'll find far more connectivity options, like another six USB ports (two 3.0, four 2.0), Gigabit Ethernet, two HDMI outputs, a DisplayPort, three DVI outputs, along with S/PDIF digital audio and a handful of audio outputs. An internal 802.11n Wi-Fi connection gives you connectivity as well, for those times you don't want to snake an Ethernet cable to the back of the tower.
Open up the case, and you'll find the Traverse outfitted with a Zotac Z77ITX A-E Mini ITX motherboard. Our configuration included an Intel Core i5-3570K (normally 3.4GHz, but overclocked up to 4.6GHz), an Nvidia GeForce GTX 690 graphics card, which offers SLI-grade performance on a single card thanks to a dual-GPU design. A 600W Corsair power supply provides enough power for everything and even an upgrade or two, though there's not a lot of room for upgrades to be made?the PCI slots are filled, and the position of the motherboard in the compact tower makes it hard to access anything anyway. There are, however, two open drive bays, and an unused internal SATA port, so you can expand the storage in that way.
For storage you get both a 1TB, 7,200rpm hard drive and a 120GB Corsair Force GT solid-state drive (SSD). This combination provides both storage and speed, with plenty of capacity for games and media files, with zippy performance thanks to the SSD. The Windows 8 operating system is preinstalled, but there's no bloatware to speak of?there's nothing beyond GPU drivers included on the PC. V3 Gaming covers the Traverse with a generous three-year service warranty, with lifetime labor and tech support.
Performance
The Nvidia GeForce GTX 690 is actually a single-card SLI, the equivalent of two GTX 680s, with 4GB of dedicated memory. As such, it offered some of the best graphics performance we've seen in this price range. It cranked through our gaming tests with competition-crushing scores, leading in Alien vs. Predator with 308 frames per second at 1,366-by-768 and 98 fps at 1920-by-1080 and high detail settings. Similarly, it produced top results in Heaven (232 fps at 1366-by-768 and 107 at 1920-by-1080 and high detail settings).
While the chassis design might leave me scratching my head, there's no denying that V3 Gaming has built a solid gaming PC in this small form-factor case. With an overclocked Core i5 and Nvidia's single-card SLI graphics processing, the V3 Gaming Traverse offers a level of performance that belies the PC's mid-range price tag. If you want to experience elite gaming without the $5,000-$7,000 price tag, the V3 Gaming Traverse is a smart pick, provided you don't have your heart set on easy maintenance and upgrades.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/8D9qn_lyWYw/0,2817,2419674,00.asp
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