Washington (AFP) - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Wednesday that a deal had been reached with Republican leaders to end a fiscal impasse that has threatened the United States with default.
Reid, speaking from the Senate floor, said the agreement called for reopening the federal government with a temporary budget until January 15 and to extend US borrowing authority until February 7.
"The compromise we reached will provide our economy with the stability it desperately needs," Reid said.
Senator Mitch McConnel, the top Republican, followed, confirming the agreement, which has to be approved by both the Senate and the Republican-controlled House.
US borrowing authority is on track to expire at midnight, and without an agreement the United States runs the risk of a default with potentially devastating consequences.
NYU-Poly professors win Google Faculty Research Awards
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
16-Oct-2013
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Contact: Kathleen Hamilton hamilton@poly.edu 718-260-3792 Polytechnic Institute of New York University
Juliana Freire and Thanasis Korakis recognized for work in big data, improving home wireless performance
Brooklyn, New York Two faculty members from the Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly) are among the latest recipients of the Google Faculty Research Awardsone-year grants supporting cutting-edge research in various disciplines of computer science and engineering.
Juliana Freire, professor of computer science and engineering, and Thanasis Korakis, research assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, are among the 100 university engineers and scientists from around the globe recognized by the web search giant.
Freire's research tackles one aspect of a major hurdle facing urban planners and policymakers at a time when more people than ever are living in cities: how to analyze extremely complex data sets to better understand the dynamics of cities, assess their service needs, and ensure that they are met. In this project, Freire is exploring data from a central element of urban life in New York Citytaxi cab ridesas a model for a new framework for analyzing spatio-temporal data.
With information provided by the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission, Freire used data from more than 540 million taxi cab rides over a three-year period to create a prototype visual exploration system that enables scientists and lay people to analyze data involving time and location on a scale that is currently impossible. Taxi rides are a rich source of information about urban life, providing insight into many aspects of New York City, including identifying areas that are most popular at certain times of day, neighborhoods underserved by taxis, and traffic patterns. These can in turn be used to better understand economic activity, human behavior, and mobility patterns.
"Tremendous amounts of data are available, but making sense of it is very challenging," Freire explained. "Social scientists and decision-makers are limited by the current tools for analysis, which can't handle large data sets. They can analyze slices of data, but it's much harder to appreciate the full picture," she said.
Freire's model will unify data selection and visual analysis to allow even lay users to explore large data sets through visual queries; for example, a user could explore taxi service in different neighborhoods at a certain time of day by selecting the regions and time frame on a map. The query results would present highly complex information in a simple visual format. Freire and her collaborators also plan to incorporate other data sets, including data from New York City's bike share program, Citi Bike.
Thanasis Korakis is developing a solution for a problem nearly every computer user has faced: slow broadband performance. As broadband access has become ubiquitous and wi-fi technology has been widely adopted, home wireless local networks (WLAN) have soared in popularity. The result, especially in densely populated urban areas, is extreme network congestion resulting in poor quality of service that is nearly impossible for users to address or solve on their own.
"Most home computer users don't have the expertise to diagnose and resolve local network issues, and they end up blaming their Internet service or content provider," said Korakis.
His fix, currently in development, is an app-based method to diagnose the cause of poor home WLAN performance, as well as a tool that can implement these diagnostics. Currently, there are several consumer products to aid troubleshooting of wired networks, but in the wireless space, detecting and remedying connectivity issues is considerably more complex.
Korakis will create extensive simulations of scenarios that can result in wireless access delay, and gauge the specific impact of each on quality of service. These include traffic congestion, overlapping channels, competition from older wi-fi-enabled devices, and low signal-to-noise ratio. Along with his students and collaborators, Korakis will devise classifications of so-called "wireless pathologies" based on the symptoms they create, ultimately arriving at a diagnostic tool that can determine the cause of WLAN problems. A complementary tool will then offer suggestions for home WLAN users to solve the problem through simple configuration changes.
As part of their grants, both Freire and Korakis will plan visits to Google to present their findings to the company's research teams.
###
The Polytechnic Institute of New York University (formerly the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and the Polytechnic University, now widely known as NYU-Poly) is an affiliated institute of New York University, and will become its School of Engineering in January 2014. NYU-Poly, founded in 1854, is the nation's second-oldest private engineering school. It is presently a comprehensive school of education and research in engineering and applied sciences, rooted in a 159-year tradition of invention, innovation and entrepreneurship. It remains on the cutting edge of technology, innovatively extending the benefits of science, engineering, management and liberal studies to critical real-world opportunities and challenges, especially those linked to urban systems, health and wellness, and the global information economy. In addition to its programs on the main campus in New York City at MetroTech Center in downtown Brooklyn, it offers programs around the globe remotely through NYUe-Poly. NYU-Poly is closely connected to engineering in NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai and to the NYU Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) also at MetroTech, while operating two incubators in downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn. For more information, visit http://www.poly.edu.
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NYU-Poly professors win Google Faculty Research Awards
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
16-Oct-2013
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Contact: Kathleen Hamilton hamilton@poly.edu 718-260-3792 Polytechnic Institute of New York University
Juliana Freire and Thanasis Korakis recognized for work in big data, improving home wireless performance
Brooklyn, New York Two faculty members from the Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly) are among the latest recipients of the Google Faculty Research Awardsone-year grants supporting cutting-edge research in various disciplines of computer science and engineering.
Juliana Freire, professor of computer science and engineering, and Thanasis Korakis, research assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, are among the 100 university engineers and scientists from around the globe recognized by the web search giant.
Freire's research tackles one aspect of a major hurdle facing urban planners and policymakers at a time when more people than ever are living in cities: how to analyze extremely complex data sets to better understand the dynamics of cities, assess their service needs, and ensure that they are met. In this project, Freire is exploring data from a central element of urban life in New York Citytaxi cab ridesas a model for a new framework for analyzing spatio-temporal data.
With information provided by the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission, Freire used data from more than 540 million taxi cab rides over a three-year period to create a prototype visual exploration system that enables scientists and lay people to analyze data involving time and location on a scale that is currently impossible. Taxi rides are a rich source of information about urban life, providing insight into many aspects of New York City, including identifying areas that are most popular at certain times of day, neighborhoods underserved by taxis, and traffic patterns. These can in turn be used to better understand economic activity, human behavior, and mobility patterns.
"Tremendous amounts of data are available, but making sense of it is very challenging," Freire explained. "Social scientists and decision-makers are limited by the current tools for analysis, which can't handle large data sets. They can analyze slices of data, but it's much harder to appreciate the full picture," she said.
Freire's model will unify data selection and visual analysis to allow even lay users to explore large data sets through visual queries; for example, a user could explore taxi service in different neighborhoods at a certain time of day by selecting the regions and time frame on a map. The query results would present highly complex information in a simple visual format. Freire and her collaborators also plan to incorporate other data sets, including data from New York City's bike share program, Citi Bike.
Thanasis Korakis is developing a solution for a problem nearly every computer user has faced: slow broadband performance. As broadband access has become ubiquitous and wi-fi technology has been widely adopted, home wireless local networks (WLAN) have soared in popularity. The result, especially in densely populated urban areas, is extreme network congestion resulting in poor quality of service that is nearly impossible for users to address or solve on their own.
"Most home computer users don't have the expertise to diagnose and resolve local network issues, and they end up blaming their Internet service or content provider," said Korakis.
His fix, currently in development, is an app-based method to diagnose the cause of poor home WLAN performance, as well as a tool that can implement these diagnostics. Currently, there are several consumer products to aid troubleshooting of wired networks, but in the wireless space, detecting and remedying connectivity issues is considerably more complex.
Korakis will create extensive simulations of scenarios that can result in wireless access delay, and gauge the specific impact of each on quality of service. These include traffic congestion, overlapping channels, competition from older wi-fi-enabled devices, and low signal-to-noise ratio. Along with his students and collaborators, Korakis will devise classifications of so-called "wireless pathologies" based on the symptoms they create, ultimately arriving at a diagnostic tool that can determine the cause of WLAN problems. A complementary tool will then offer suggestions for home WLAN users to solve the problem through simple configuration changes.
As part of their grants, both Freire and Korakis will plan visits to Google to present their findings to the company's research teams.
###
The Polytechnic Institute of New York University (formerly the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and the Polytechnic University, now widely known as NYU-Poly) is an affiliated institute of New York University, and will become its School of Engineering in January 2014. NYU-Poly, founded in 1854, is the nation's second-oldest private engineering school. It is presently a comprehensive school of education and research in engineering and applied sciences, rooted in a 159-year tradition of invention, innovation and entrepreneurship. It remains on the cutting edge of technology, innovatively extending the benefits of science, engineering, management and liberal studies to critical real-world opportunities and challenges, especially those linked to urban systems, health and wellness, and the global information economy. In addition to its programs on the main campus in New York City at MetroTech Center in downtown Brooklyn, it offers programs around the globe remotely through NYUe-Poly. NYU-Poly is closely connected to engineering in NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai and to the NYU Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) also at MetroTech, while operating two incubators in downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn. For more information, visit http://www.poly.edu.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Mark Rainery knows how to ride his snowboard. Check out his full part from last season. It's clean, and full of hairy but fun-looking lines, filmed in Montana and Alaska. Well done, Mark.
Amid all the tussling over the government shutdown and the debt ceiling, a couple of bombshells went off in the blogosphere that may prove of more enduring importance.
They suggest that there is a nontrivial possibility that Obamacare may implode.
The first bombshell went off on Tuesday, from Ezra Klein of the Washington Post's Wonkblog.
Klein was one of those young writers who formed JournoList a few years ago so that like-minded Obama fans could coordinate their lines of argument. It was like one of those college sophomore clubs, not really necessary in an age of ready contact through email, but it shows him as a guy inclined to play team ball. So it's noteworthy when he writes, "So far, the Affordable Care Act's launch has been a failure. Not 'troubled.'
Not 'glitchy.' A failure."
Klein notes that the rollout of the Medicare prescription drug program was also rocky two weeks into the process. But later it got smoothed out.
Klein fears Obamacare won't. It's not just a problem of overloaded servers. Everyone knew there would be lots of traffic in a nation of 312,000,000 people. Information technology folks say it's easy to add servers.
It's harder to get software systems to communicate. And as Klein quotes insurance consultant Robert Laszewski, "the backroom connection between the insurance companies and the federal government is a disaster."
The reconciliation system isn't working and hasn't even been tested, Klein reports. Insurers are getting virtually no usable data from the exchanges.
Bloomberg.com columnist Megan McArdle, who unlike most Obamacare architects actually worked at an IT firm for a couple of years, sees the possibility of even more trouble ahead.
She points out that the administration delayed writing major rules during the 2012 campaign to avoid giving Republicans campaign fodder.
The biggest contractor did not start writing software code until spring 2013. They were still fiddling with the healthcare.gov website in September.
Instead of subcontracting the responsibility for integrating the software of the multiple contractors, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services decided to do it in-house -- "a decision," she writes, "equivalent to someone who has never even hung a picture deciding they should become their own general contractor and build a house."
"If the exchanges don't get fixed soon," she writes, "they could destroy Obamacare." You need the exchanges to enroll enough young healthy people to subsidize those who are sick and old, which is one of the central features of Obamacare.
Otherwise, premiums shoot up and up, pushing others out of the system -- a death spiral that can continue year after year.
"At what point," she asks, "do we admit that the system just isn't working well enough, roll it back and delay the whole thing for a year?" She suggests that if the system can't enroll 50 percent of its users by November 1, such a hugely drastic step would be in order.
That sounds like a nightmare of the first order -- for individuals, for insurers, for employers and for the Obama administration. A far worse nightmare than when Congress in 1989 repealed the Medicare prescription drug plan it passed the year before because of widespread dissatisfaction.
Of course it's possible this nightmare will not happen. Things will get ironed out somehow.
But if they don't, who's responsible? First, a president who is not much interested in how government works on the ground. As a community organizer he never did get all the asbestos removed from the Altgeld housing project.
Politico reports that his "universal heath care" promise was first made when his press secretary and speechwriter needed a rousing ending to a 2007 campaign speech to a liberal group.
Second, lawmakers and administrators who assume that, in an Information Age, all you have to do is to assign a task to an IT team and they will perform it. Cross your fingers, and it gets done.
Third, government IT procurement rules are kludgy. Apple didn't bid on this. The IT work went to insider firms that specialize in jumping through the hoops and ladders of government procurement rules.
Unfortunately, the consequences of a meltdown are enormous when a system is supposed to be used by everybody. If a private firm's software fails, it can go bankrupt. No one else much cares.
But if Obamacare's software crashes, the consequences will be catastrophic -- for the nation and for the Democratic Party.
Michael Barone is Senior Political Analyst for the Washington Examiner, co-author of The Almanac of American Politics and a contributor to Fox News.
This isn't the motorcycle you need. It's the motorcycle you deserve. You'll be able to conquer Bane and the morning rush hour commute aboard this insane Harley V-Rod mod. And yes, those are dual flamethrowers and shotguns up front.
Washington Capitals right wing Tom Wilson, left, ducks a punch by New York Rangers defenseman Justin Falk as they fight in the first period of an NHL hockey game, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Washington Capitals right wing Tom Wilson, left, ducks a punch by New York Rangers defenseman Justin Falk as they fight in the first period of an NHL hockey game, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Washington Capitals right wing Troy Brouwer, left, boards New York Rangers defenseman Marc Staal in the first period of an NHL hockey game, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
New York Rangers defenseman Marc Staal, left moves to clear the puck as goalie Henrik Lundqvist, right, of Sweden, looks for it, with Washington Capitals right wing Joel Ward advancing, in the first period of an NHL hockey game, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Henrik Lundqvist earned his 46th NHL shutout, Brad Richards assisted on two New York goals less than two minutes apart in the second period, and the Rangers beat familiar postseason foe Washington 2-0 on Wednesday night to end a three-game losing streak.
Richards helped set up goals by Ryan Callahan and John Moore, and Lundqvist made the limited offense hold up in a 22-save performance against the Capitals. It was his first shutout during what has been a poor start to the season. By game's end, some Rangers fans were chanting his name.
The Rangers won for only the second time in six games under first-year coach Alain Vigneault. Their season-opening road swing still has three more stops.
Unable to generate much offense, even with their formidable power play, three-time NHL MVP Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals fell to 2-5.
These teams have met in four of the past five postseasons, splitting those series. The Rangers eliminated the Capitals in the first round in May, with Lundqvist getting shutouts in Games 6 and 7.
He was just as good Wednesday, earning chants of "Hen-reek!" late in the third period. His teammates got to Capitals goalie Braden Holtby with a couple of quick scores.
New York dominated the second period, outshooting Washington 21-6.
Moore scored his first goal of the season 12:05 into that period during 4-on-4 play, after Ovechkin was sent to the penalty box for slashing Derek Stepan during a short-handed breakaway. Callahan then knocked in his third of the season — and third in two games — by cutting across the crease to beat Ovechkin and defenseman John Carlson to Richards' centering pass.
The Capitals entered the night having been outscored 9-4 in the first period this season. While they again were outplayed at times, and outshot 11-8, over the first 20 minutes, they didn't fall behind right away.
New York took seven of the game's first nine shots, but Washington had some strong chances to score, including during 55 seconds of a 5-on-3 power play in the first period after hooking calls on Anton Stralman and then Taylor Pyatt.
One chance went awry when Ovechkin snapped his stick in two while trying to get off a shot. Another was wasted when some tic-tac-toe passing set up Joel Ward for a close-range, backdoor try, but he pushed the puck against the side of the net.
The shot differential was even more pronounced at the start of the second period, with New York taking nine of the first 10. The best opportunity among those came when Callahan sent a backhander to Richards out front, but the center's shot clanged off the post.
When Richards became the facilitator moments later, New York was able to get the puck in the net. He has four goals and three assists the past five games.
The Capitals entered the night second in the NHL on the power play, at better than 35 percent, but went 0 for 4.
Notes: New York lost its preceding three games by a combined 20-5. ... Rangers D Michael del Zotto was scratched because of illness. ... Capitals F Jason Chimera played his first game since being fined nearly $4,500 by the NHL for boarding Edmonton Oilers defenseman Justin Schultz in the first period of Washington's 4-2 victory Monday. ... The Rangers won't play their first home game until Oct. 28 against the Montreal Canadiens, New York's latest home opener in a non-lockout season since 1947. ... New York LW Rick Nash missed a third consecutive game because of a head injury from a hit by San Jose's Brad Stuart last week. Stuart was given a three-game suspension by the NHL. ... Washington D John Erskine sat out for a third game in a row, too.
___
Follow Howard Fendrich on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HowardFendrich
The 2013 AFI Fest will include the world premiere of Peter Berg's Lone Survivor on Tuesday, Nov. 12, it was announced today. The showcase also announced additional gala and special screenings of awards hopefuls like August: Osage County (Friday, Nov. 8), SpikeJonze's Her and Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.
There will also be a gala screening of BernardoBertolucci's The Last Emperor 3D on Sunday, Nov. 10.
The showcase will also include special screenings of Ralph Fiennes' The Invisible Woman, Stephen Frears' Philomena, Errol Morris' documentary The Unknown Known: The Life and Times of Donald Rumsfeld, FrankPavich's Jodorowsky's Dune and AsgharFarhadi's The Past (Le Passe).
The AFI Fest previously announced that it would open with the North American premiere of Disney's Saving Mr. Banks, starring Tom Hanks, and close with a gala screening of the Coen brothers' Inside Llewyn Davis. Other previously announced centerpiece galas include the world premiere of Out of the Furnace (Saturday, Nov. 9), a screening of Alexander Payne's Nebraska with a tribute to Bruce Dern (Monday, Nov. 11) and a screening of Ben Stiller's The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (Wednesday, Nov. 13).
The 2013 AFI Fest runs from Nov. 7-14 in Los Angeles.
EE may have rethought its contract plans, but it's also added a new option for those who don't want to commit to two years of bills. On top of the SIM-only pay-as-you-go options already available, the traditional PAYG handset model is launching on the network October 30th. All the LTE-friendly ...
MIAMI (AP) — Salsa overtaking ketchup as America's No. 1 condiment was just the start. These days, tortillas outsell burger and hot dog buns; sales of tortilla chips trump potato chips; and tacos and burritos have become so ubiquitously "American," most people don't even consider them ethnic.
As immigrant and minority populations change American demographics, the nation's collective menu is reflecting this shift, as it always has.
With Hispanics making up more than a quarter of the U.S. population today — and growing fast — experts say this change is dramatically flavoring the American experience. A consumer research firm says Hispanic foods and beverages were an $8 billion market in the last year. By 2017, that number may reach $11 billion.
EDITOR'S NOTE _ "America at the Tipping Point: The Changing Face of a Nation" is an occasional series examining the changing cultural mosaic of the U.S. and its historic shift to a majority-minority nation.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors willing to bet on Twitter Inc will have to overlook mounting losses and slowing user growth - and have faith that the eight-year-old Internet messaging company can transform a household name into advertising dollars.
Fund managers who were optimistic about Twitter's financial prospects shrugged off its latest $65 million quarterly loss as standard for startups chasing growth, pointing instead to revenue growth that more than doubled.
But others warned of the risks of investing in a company with a management that has yet to prove it can generate a profit.
"It's worth having exposure to a name like Twitter, although you have to take a conceptual leap of faith with regard to valuation, and say it's a unique franchise that isn't likely to go away," said Karl Mills, president and chief investment officer for private investment adviser firm Jurika, Mills & Keifer in San Francisco.
"Like Twitter, Amazon was in investment mode for a long time. They still are, so that doesn't worry me."
Twitter's latest IPO filings showed its net loss in the September quarter tripled to almost as much as it lost in all of 2012.
As Twitter races toward the year's most highly anticipated tech offering, memories of Facebook Inc's disappointing 2012 debut threaten the eight-year-old online messaging service's own splashy coming-out party.
Like Facebook, Twitter enjoys strong brand recognition, which typically translates to outsized retail investor interest. That was one of the reasons Facebook was able to raise its IPO price to $38 a share, from an initial range of $24 to $35 a share. That gave the company a valuation of about $100 billion, or about 99 times its 2011 earnings.
Facebook shares promptly plummeted on their first day of trade. They didn't regain their IPO valuation until more than a year later, in August of 2013.
Twitter, which is expected to go public in November, has yet to determine pricing, but investors say it might come under pressure from financial backers to go high. Analysts expect the company to seek a valuation of at least $10 billion.
Unlike Twitter, however, Facebook and professional social network LinkedIn Corp both were profitable when they debuted. Twitter's still cloudy outlook makes some investors nervous.
"I want something to be generating income. If they can't make the transition from capturing market share to generating income, they're going to run out of money eventually," said Brian Frank, portfolio manager for Frank Capital Partners in New York. "But at the same time, if they stop investing in growth, they're going to lose users and risk people not staying engaged with the brand."
"The Twitter IPO could mean the top of the social media peak," he added.
PEAKED?
Financial advisers are managing clients' expectations.
"I am telling clients to give it some time at the IPO and see how it does first," said Alan Haft, a financial adviser with California-based Kelly Haft Financial. "If they are gamblers and want to make a few bucks out of the gate, fine, but if they are investors they should hold off."
The potential demand from retail investors remains unclear. But several investment advisers interviewed by Reuters said they had already received calls from interested clients - though not on the level seen when Facebook became one of the first of the social media giants to go public.
Nancy Caton, managing director of Carson Wealth Management Group's San Francisco Bay office, was surprised about how little interest clients have shown in investing in Twitter, given the frenzy she saw around Facebook.
"With Facebook, it was crazy…we were flooded with calls," she said. "Maybe they learned a lesson."
But Twitter does not have the same presence among Caton's clients, who are mostly in their 60s, she said. "A lot of grandparents are on Facebook, that's how they get pictures of their grandkids," she said. "But I might have one client that uses Twitter."
Still, Twitter has no shortage of believers, including SunTrust Robinson Humphrey analyst Robert Peck, the first to slap a "buy rating" on the stock and who on Wednesday echoed his previous optimism about the company.
Twitter's fledgling advertising model is centered around the "promoted tweet" and massive marketing campaigns built around television-viewing. The promoted-tweet tactic has since been replicated by rivals like Facebook.
Its more nascent second-screen approach has also won favor among media and entertainment executives because they encourage audience interaction on mobile devices and open a new channel for advertising as well.
"Twitter has a mobile strategy, and it seems like they're ahead of Facebook in mobile," said Dan Veru, chief investment officer at Palisade Capital Management LLC in New Jersey, with $4.5 billion of assets under management.
In fact, says one Silicon Valley investor, growing losses may just be good business.
"Increasing losses is not a problem if the unit economics are sound. With profitable unit economics, it is financially irresponsible NOT to run losses, assuming you have access to capital," said David Cowan at Bessemer Venture Partners, whose investments include LinkedIn Corp. "Having said that, I have not examined Twitter's financials to assess the unit economics."
(Additional reporting by Sarah McBride in San Francisco; Editing by Ken Wills)
On the heels of CarolineManzo's revelation that she's leaving The Real Housewives of New Jersey comes word that three new "housewives" are joining the show.
Twin sisters Nicole and Teresa Napolitano and their friend AmberMarchese will be joining the Bravo reality show in its sixth season, sources confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter.
On Sunday, Manzo made the announcement of her departure on Twitter and on her blog on Bravo's website after the final part of the RHONJ reunion show aired.
"I've always prided myself on giving you the truth of who I really am, the good, the bad and the ugly," she wrote. "Over the past few years my outlook on the show has changed from something I couldn't wait to show my future grandchildren to something I hope my future grandchildren never see. I've always prided myself on being a good example for my children and my decision to leave is based on advice I've always given them: 'Be true to yourself and be proud of who you are, you are born with a name and you die with a name, don't dirty it up.'
"Going back to film another season of Housewives would only make me a hypocrite. For me, peace and integrity cannot be bought with money or fame. I practice what I preach, and as I said on the reunion, I'm done. I simply feel that my role has run its course and I have nothing more to give."
She is currently at work on a pilot for Bravo titled Manzo'd With Children that she wrote will "give the viewers a very different look into the world of the Manzo family."
The most recent season of RHONJ focused heavily on the ongoing feud between TeresaGiudice's family and her brother JoeGorga's family.
It's been rumored that original star DinaManzo, who has been embroiled in her own public feud with sister Caroline, is eyeing a return to the show. She recently said she had received an offer to return to the series and that she's "considering" it.
There also is speculation that JacquelineLaurita, another original RHONJ star, will be departing the show as well.
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's Conservative government on Wednesday highlighted a populist, pro-consumer approach ahead of a 2015 election, but says it will continue to push for more jobs and economic growth.
Addressing members of his Conservative caucus ahead of a policy speech that will outline government priorities for the second half of its 4-1/2-year mandate, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the government planned moves on "choice, fair treatment, competitive prices."
"We know Canadians have to make tough financial choices when spending their hard-earned dollars," he said in a prepared text of his remarks to the caucus.
The government has already said that the policy speech, to be delivered in Parliament after 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT), will include measures to cut roaming costs for Canadian wireless customers, give consumers more choice on television stations they receive by cable, and increase high-speed broadband networks in rural areas.
But the government has given few details on any new approach to boost employment, except to say it will soon complete negotiations on a free trade pact with the European Union and to repeat plans for a balanced budget with no new taxes.
Among other populist moves clearly designed to shore up electoral support, Industry Minister James Moore spoke at the weekend about ways to prevent airline overbooking, and the Globe and Mail newspaper said the government would try to narrow the price gap between Canada and the United States on consumer products.
Consumer goods are often costlier in Canada than in the United States, to the irritation of domestic shoppers.
In his speech to the Conservative caucus, Harper was quick to claim credit for the one million net new jobs created since the depth of the recession, which he said was the best record in the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations.
However, opposition New Democratic Party legislator Nathan Cullen said Canadians would not be impressed. "They see a government that's run out of ideas and has lost its way," he told reporters as he headed into an NDP caucus meeting.
(Reporting by Randall Palmer and David Ljunggren; Editing by David Brunnstrom)
Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, with House GOP leaders, speaks with reporters following a Republican strategy session, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013. Behind Speaker Boehner are House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., the Republican Conference chair. House GOP leaders Tuesday pitched a plan to fellow Republicans to counter an emerging Senate deal to reopen the government and forestall an economy-rattling default on U.S. obligations. But they stopped short of promising a vote later in the day after the plan got mixed reviews from the rank and file. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, with House GOP leaders, speaks with reporters following a Republican strategy session, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013. Behind Speaker Boehner are House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., the Republican Conference chair. House GOP leaders Tuesday pitched a plan to fellow Republicans to counter an emerging Senate deal to reopen the government and forestall an economy-rattling default on U.S. obligations. But they stopped short of promising a vote later in the day after the plan got mixed reviews from the rank and file. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, is followed by reporters as he leaves Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013, in Washington. The partial government shutdown is in its third week and less than two days before the Treasury Department says it will be unable to borrow and will rely on a cash cushion to pay the country's bills. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
From left to right, Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif., Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., Rep. Joseph Crowley, D-N.Y., and Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., speaking with members of the media outside the West Wing of the White House following their meeting with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013, in Washington. The partial government shutdown is in its third week and less than two days before the Treasury Department says it will be unable to borrow and will rely on a cash cushion to pay the country's bills. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate leaders are optimistic about forging an eleventh-hour bipartisan deal preventing a possible federal default and ending the partial government shutdown after Republican divisions forced GOP leaders to drop efforts to ram their own version through the House.
Pressured by the calendar, financial markets and public opinion polls, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., were hoping to shake hands on an agreement Wednesday and, if possible, hold votes later in the day.
Driving their urgency were oft-repeated Obama administration warnings that the government would exhaust its borrowing authority Thursday and risk a federal default that could unhinge the world economy. Lawmakers feared that spooked financial markets would plunge unless a deal was at hand and that voters would take it out on incumbents in next year's congressional elections — though polls show the public more inclined to blame Republicans.
"People are so tired of this," President Barack Obama said Tuesday in an interview with Los Angeles TV station KMEX.
Feeding concerns were a warning Tuesday from the Fitch credit rating agency that due to the budget impasse it was reviewing its AAA rating on U.S. government debt for possible downgrade. Stock markets gave negative reviews as well, with the Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor's 500 index both dropping Tuesday by nearly 1 percent.
Aides to Reid and McConnell said the two men had resumed talks, including a Tuesday night conversation, and were hopeful about striking an agreement that could pass both houses.
It was expected to mirror a deal the leaders had neared Monday. That agreement was described as extending the debt limit through Feb. 7, immediately reopening the government fully and keeping agencies running until Jan. 15 — leaving lawmakers clashing over the same disputes in the near future.
It also set a mid-December deadline for bipartisan budget negotiators to report on efforts to reach compromise on longer-term issues like spending cuts. And it likely would require the Obama administration to certify that it can verify the income of people who qualify for federal subsidies for medical insurance under the 2010 health care law.
But that emerging Senate pact was put on hold Tuesday, an extraordinary day that highlighted how unruly rank-and-file House Republicans can be, even when the stakes are high. Facing solid Democratic opposition, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, tried in vain to write legislation that would satisfy GOP lawmakers, especially conservatives.
Boehner crafted two versions of the bill, but neither made it to a House vote because both faced certain defeat. Working against him was word during the day from the influential group Heritage Action for America that his legislation was not conservative enough — a worrisome threat for many GOP lawmakers whose biggest electoral fears are of primary challenges from the right.
The last of Boehner's two bills had the same dates as the emerging Senate plan on the debt limit and shutdown.
But it also blocked federal payments for the president, members of Congress and other officials to help pay for their health care coverage. And it prevented the Obama administration from shifting funds among different accounts — as past Treasury secretaries have done — to let the government keep paying bills briefly after the federal debt limit has been reached.
Boehner's inability to produce a bill that could pass his own chamber likely means he will have to let the House vote on a Senate compromise, even if that means it would pass with strong Democratic and weak GOP support. House Republican leaders have tried to avoid that scenario for fear that it would threaten their leadership, and some Republicans worried openly about that.
"Of all the damage to be done politically here, one of the greatest concerns I have is that somehow John Boehner gets compromised," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a former House member and Boehner supporter.
With the default clock ticking ever louder, it was possible the House might vote first on a plan produced by Senate leaders. For procedural reasons, that could speed the measure's trip through Congress by removing some parliamentary barriers Senate opponents might erect.
The strains of the confrontation were showing among GOP lawmakers.
"It's time to reopen the government and ensure we don't default on our debt," Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash., said in a written statement. "I will not vote for poison pills that have no chance of passing the Senate or being signed into law."
___
Associated Press writers David Espo, Andrew Taylor, Charles Babington, Stephen Ohlemacher, Henry C. Jackson and Donna Cassata contributed to this report.
--RELIEF FOR MEXICO, HEARTBREAK FOR PANAMA IN WORLD CUP QUALIFIERS
Two stoppage-time goals from the United States destroy Panama's World Cup dream and grant a reprieve for Mexico, which holds onto a spot in the two-game playoff against New Zealand.
http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_268750
--TEARS THEN PARTY TIME FOR BOSNIA
Bosnia-Herzegovina qualifies for World Cup for first time, as tears on the pitch quickly give way to party time in Sarajevo.
http://apne.ws/1gIrYsu
--BRITISH RACING DRIVER EDWARDS KILLED IN CRASH
Promising British race driver Sean Edwards killed in training crash in Australia
Graham Nash has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice — once in 1997 as a member of Crosby, Stills and Nash, and once in 2010 as a member of the Hollies.
Eleanor Stills/Courtesy of Crown Archetype
Graham Nash has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice — once in 1997 as a member of Crosby, Stills and Nash, and once in 2010 as a member of the Hollies.
Eleanor Stills/Courtesy of Crown Archetype
Graham Nash first came to the United States as part of the British Invasion with his band The Hollies, which got its start at the same time as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, and shared bills with both bands in England. But Nash later helped to define a kind of West Coast sound, singing harmonies as part of Crosby, Stills & Nash. Nash wrote some of the most famous songs by the powerhouse group (who would add Neil Young to its roster in 1969), including "Our House," "Teach Your Children" and "Marrakesh Express."
In a new memoir called Wild Tales: A Rock n Roll Life, Nash touches on those memories and many others. He recently spoke with Fresh Air's Terry Gross, just a few hours before Crosby, Stills & Nash performed at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
"I was about 15 years old; Allan [Clarke, founding member of The Hollies] and I were attending a catholic schoolgirls' dance on a Saturday evening. I remember going down the stairs and giving the young lady our tickets. 'You Send Me' by Sam Cooke had just stopped playing, and of course that was a slow dance where every boy and girl were feeling each other up and getting close and the teachers were trying to separate them. So, the song finished and the ballroom floor cleared, and Allan and I saw a friend across the way that we both wanted. And we got halfway across the floor and 'Bye Bye Love' by The Everly Brothers came on — and it stopped us in our tracks. We sang together, so we knew what two-part harmony was, but this sounded so unbelievably beautiful. They're brothers, of course, and they're from Kentucky and have these beautiful accents. They could harmonize unbelievably, very much like The Louvin Brothers, who they probably learned from. And ever since that day, I decided that whatever music I was going to make in the future, I wanted it to affect people the same way The Everly Brothers' music affected me on that Saturday night."
"Buddy Holly was one of us. He was an ordinary-looking kid, wore big thick glasses. He wasn't shakin' his hips and being sexy — he was actually one of us. We could be Buddy Holly. It was very hard to be Elvis; only Elvis was Elvis. But with Buddy Holly, he was one of us and he touched our hearts in a very simple way. What a lot of people don't realize is that the kid only recorded for less than two years before he was tragically killed with the Big Bopper and Richie Valens ... He was very dear to us. His music was very simple: Everybody could play it if you knew three chords. It had great energy, great simplicity. I often wonder what Buddy Holly would be doing with today's technology."
On his early infatuation with America
"Coming to America was amazing to me. The phone rang exactly as it did in John Wayne movies. You could get a real hamburger — because in England at the time there were only these things called 'wimpy burgers,' and they were like shoe leather. You could get food brought in! Unheard of in England. I loved America from the moment I set foot on it, I really did. When we actually got a chance to go and fly to Los Angeles I climbed the nearest palm tree and I told Allan Clarke that there was no way I was going back."
On how marijuana use changed his song-writing style
"I think alcohol is a depressive drug, whereas marijuana is not. I never got depressed when I smoked dope at all; it was a joyful experience. I'm not condoning my drug use. ... I go into great detail in the book about Crosby's spiraling down into cocaine madness, but at that time, smoking dope wasn't that big of a deal. Quite frankly, I loved it. It expanded my mind, it made me think about more profound issues. The Hollies were great at creating a two-and-a-half-minute pop song, to be played right before the news. ... In hanging out with David [Crosby] and Stephen [Stills] and Neil [Young] and Joni [Mitchell], I began to realize that you could write catchy melodies that would attract people but you could talk about real things. I began to change the way I wrote songs. I was trained to write good pop songs, and I took that sensibility and talked about what I considered to be deeper, more profound subjects."
On how adding Neil Young changed Crosby, Stills & Nash
"It's more difficult to sing four-part [harmonies]; you've got to start shifting parts around and stuff. Neil brings a darker edge to our music, and I don't mean that in a negative way. ... It's more intense. That first album of Crosby, Stills & Nash is kind of summery: lots of palm trees in it feeling, a cool-breeze-through-the-canyons kind of music. Actually, Jimi Hendrix, when asked what he thought of Crosby, Stills & Nash, looked at the interviewer and said, 'That's Western sky music.' And I thought, 'Wow. That's brilliant.' The point is that Neil brings a different kind of musical intensity to the band, and the music of Crosby, Stills & Nash and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young is very, very different."
App launchers typify the Android phone experience: don't like the way your home screen looks? Tinker around with it! But while plenty of launchers offer deep visual customization, in the end they're all basically elaborate paint jobs. Aviate, launching in beta today, doesn't give you as many tweaks for your home screen, but it makes your phone morph with your daily activity.
Aviate gives you five different home screens—Morning, Going Somewhere, Work, Restaurants, and Nighttime—that pop up automatically based on time and your activity (or when manually chosen by swiping right from the home screen). Each screen populates with the information and apps Aviate considers relevant: weather report, the day's calendar, and news apps in the morning; navigation apps when you're on the move; Alarm Clock and Do Not Disturb (and in my case, Kindle) when it's late and you're at home, and presumably ready for bed. Every screen keeps your top 10 most used apps in a swipe-up drawer.
What Aviate promises is to dress your phone in different outfits throughout the day. At work the look is business professional, with Google Docs and Dropbox apps highlighted, and one-touch buttons for email and calendar, but not a social media button in site. At a restaurant, your home screen slips into something casual, offering up camera and check-in buttons, suggesting apps like Foursquare and OpenTable, and giving you tips and reviews from Yelp.
S
What you'll see swiping to either side of the homescreen (in this case, my work screen)
I took Aviate for a spin overnight to see how it works. It's pretty good about using context clues to suggest apps and activities. Once you've entered your home and work addresses, when it senses you're en route to either it'll give you navigation and traffic updates automatically. It senses when you're near a restaurant or shop and gives you a custom screen that's usually relevant—though when I went to a coffee shop in my neighborhood it swore I was at Victoria's Secret next door. The Google Reviews it offered me weren't very relevant to my coffee.
Aside from curating your apps based on what you're doing, Aviate organizes your full app list in two ways: Collections, one swipe left from the home screen, which groups your apps by category (social, work, music, etc.), or an alphabetized list one swipe further left. You can drag and drop apps that didn't automatically appear on one of the home screens, or add widgets if that's your kind of thing.
You can't, however, make major rearrangements—unlike "customize everything" app launchers, Aviate keeps your choices pretty tightly confined within the five home screens. Android users who love to crawl around under the hood might find this disappointing. This is a set-it-and-forget-it launcher: Once you've got it optimized, there's really not much else to fiddle with.
If you've got lots of apps, but you don't like digging through them all to find the ones you usually use at work, on the train, or on the town, Aviate's dynamic system and low-clutter design might be what you're looking for. Private beta opens up today, and the folks at Aviate are offering 500 downloads for Gizmodo readers with the redemption code GIZMODO. [Google Play]
In March 1966, at the height of 1960s optimism about America’s future in space, Robert Riedesel and John Wall, respectively Project Manager and Chief Engineer of the Future Systems Department at Douglas Aircraft Company, presented a paper in which they discussed the many constraints which they believed made a piloted Mars mission unlikely before 1981. Though the specifics have changed, the general constraints on mission planning they listed nearly half a century ago are the same ones planners of costly piloted space missions face today.
Their first group of constraints, those deriving from the natural phenomena in the Solar System, included the cycle of minimum-energy Mars launch opportunities and the 11-year solar activity cycle. Minimum-energy Mars launch opportunities occur about every 26 months, the Douglas engineers noted. The less energy needed to reach Mars, the fewer propellants would be required. The fewer propellants required, the fewer costly heavy-lift rockets would be needed to launch Mars spacecraft propellants and tanks into Earth orbit.
Riedesel and Wall noted that not all minimum-energy opportunities are created equal; the amount of energy required to reach Mars follows a roughly 15-year cycle because the planet has a relatively elliptical orbit about the Sun. The year 1971 would present the most favorable minimum-energy opportunity since 1956. Unfavorable opportunities would occur in 1977 and 1979, they wrote, then opportunities would improve in 1981, 1984, and 1986. The year 1988 would see the most favorable Mars launch opportunity since 1971.
The 11-year solar cycle would reach maximum intensity in 1981, then would decline to a minimum in 1986-1987. The potential for “giant” solar flares during solar maximum meant that astronauts traveling to Mars in 1981 would need a massive radiation shelter. Riedesel and Wall recommended that NASA launch its first Mars expedition in 1986, when the solar minimum and a highly favorable Earth-Mars transfer opportunity would coincide.
Some of Wall and Riedesel’s schedule constraints were based on the accumulation of spaceflight experience that they believed would be necessary before humans could make the grand leap to Mars. Before engineers could develop a piloted Mars spacecraft, they would, to cite two examples, need more data on the martian surface environment and the effects on humans of long exposure to space conditions (for example, weightlessness). Riedesel and Wall expected that planned Voyager automated Mars explorers and astronaut stays on board an Earth-orbiting space station would provide the necessary data as early as 1973. They cited Apollo spacecraft development experience when they estimated that Mars spacecraft development would require at least seven years after the needed data became available. This would mean that the first Mars expedition could set out no earlier than the 1981 launch opportunity.
Economics would also shape the piloted Mars mission schedule. Riedesel and Wall cited published Mars program cost estimates ranging from $40 billion to $100 billion. Their own estimate – $62 billion, or about 2.5 times the cost of Apollo – included the cost of automated precursor probes, an Earth-orbiting space station, a heavy-lift rocket more powerful than the Saturn V, and eight piloted test missions leading to one piloted Mars landing.
The Douglas engineers assumed that NASA’s budget would remain at its Apollo peak value of about $5 billion per year, with $3 billion of that going toward piloted spaceflight. This meant that, in the 15-year period between 1966 and their earliest piloted Mars mission opportunity in 1981, the sum available for a piloted Mars mission would total only $45 billion. It would total $60 billion if the expedition departed in 1986. They concluded that, if astronauts were to set foot on Mars in the 1980s, then either a “major increase” in the space agency’s budget or “a less expensive approach to interplanetary exploration” would be necessary.
Finally, they looked at the political issues in which any piloted Mars program would necessarily become embroiled. Although the names have changed, the politics of the Presidential election cycle vis-a-vis spaceflight have altered little since 1966. Riedesel and Wall predicted that, if President Lyndon B. Johnson won reelection in 1968, then he would have little incentive to commit funds and political capital to a piloted Mars program that would not succeed until long after he left office. The Mars program might start when Johnson’s successor took office in January 1973. The new president would, however, find no personal political benefit in championing a Mars expedition, even if he initiated it immediately after he took office. This was because it would leave Earth no earlier than the 1981 launch opportunity, which would commence 10 months after his second term ended in January 1981.
If, on the other hand, President Johnson were not reelected in 1968, then his successor could initiate the automated Mars probe and space station programs in 1969 with a good chance of seeing them succeed before his second term ended. Commitment to a piloted Mars expedition would probably have to wait until another president took office in January 1977, however. Given the time required for hardware development, this would, Riedesel and Wall estimated, postpone launch of the first U.S. piloted Mars expedition until at least 1984.
Reference:
“Scheduling Constraints on Manned Exploration of Mars,” Robert Riedesel and John Wall, A Volume of Technical Papers Presented at the AIAA/AAS Stepping Stones to Mars Meeting, pp. 99-106; paper presented in Baltimore, Maryland, March 28-30, 1966.
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EE may have rethought its contract plans, but it's also added a new option for those who don't want to commit to two years of bills. On top of the SIM-only pay-as-you-go options already available, the traditional PAYG handset model is launching on the network October 30th. All the LTE-friendly ...
