Thursday, February 28, 2013

Trailer for Sunset Film Festival- Los Angeles | Filmfestivals.com

MISSION:? The mission is simple: Promote filmmakers and screen writers.

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL:? Lots of films are rejected at film festivals. One of the reasons is that there are too many submissions. Producing a film is one thing.? The next step is submitting your film to film festivals. Then you realize that nothing is really happening. The Sunset Film Festival is different. Giving filmmakers and screenwriters the opportunity to be noticed is our priority. Distributors love films screened at Festivals. They love them even better when they are awarded.


FOUNDER:? The festival is brought to you by Mark Mos, Kodak Entertainment Imaging Awarded filmmaker and Film Premieres organizer. Mark has organized pre-premiere film?presentations such as: ?Gladiator? (Russell Crowe), ?Mission Impossible 2? (Tom Cruise), ?Gone in 60 seconds? (Nicholas Cage, Angelina Jolie),??How the Grinch Stole Christmas? (Jim Carrey), and much more. He was in charge of the 5th Youth and Children Film Festival. Mark Mos is also a filmmaker; he has?master?s degree in TV and Film Production. His films were shown on film festivals in cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago or Salt Lake City and also European countries:?Hungary, Poland and Romania.

IMPORTANT:? 100% of submission fees go directly to promote festival and rent auditorium for screenings. Submit your film with Sunset Film Festival.?This is the key to go further with your passion.


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Source: http://www.filmfestivals.com/blog/sunset_film_festival_los_angeles/trailer_for_sunset_film_festival_los_angeles_0

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TransAlta profit rises on lower maintenance costs

(Reuters) - Canadian power generation company TransAlta Corp reported a 58 percent rise in fourth-quarter profit, helped in part by lower maintenance costs.

TransAlta, which has plants in Canada, the United States and Australia, said it expects costs to fall by C$25-C$30 million by 2013. The company did not provide total cost figures for 2012 or 2013.

Net earnings attributable to common shareholders for the quarter ended December 31 rose to C$38 million ($37 million), or 15 Canadian cents per share, from C$24 million, or 11 Canadian cents per share, a year earlier.

Comparable earnings increased to 21 Canadian cents per share from 13 Canadian cents per share.

The Calgary-based company said comparable earnings were driven by the acquisition of the 125 megawatt dual-fuel Solomon power station, which is in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

The company said in September the acquisition was expected to generate unlevered after-tax returns in the low double digits and pre-financing cash flows of about C$40 million per year.

TransAlta's revenue in the fourth quarter fell 6 percent to C$661 million.

Funds from operations for the company -- whose energy sources are coal, natural gas, hydro, wind and geothermal -- rose 8 percent to C$205 million.

The company said in October it expects to incur a one-time after-tax charge of C$10 million-C$15 million in the fourth quarter related to about 165 job cuts.

TransAlta had said most of the cuts would be in its Calgary office and would extend over six months.

TransAlta shares closed at C$16.37 on Tuesday on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The stock has fallen about 23 percent in the past 12 months.

($1 = 1.0287 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Bhaswati Mukhopadhyay in Bangalore; Editing by Maju Samuel)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/transalta-profit-rises-lower-maintenance-costs-130751622--finance.html

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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Silver and Gold Prices: With the Gold Price Fulfilling it's Confirmation ...

Gold Price Close Today : 1615.20
Change : 29.00 or 1.83%

Silver Price Close Today : 29.260
Change : 0.273 or 0.94%

Gold Silver Ratio Today : 55.202
Change : 0.481 or 0.88%

Silver Gold Ratio Today : 0.01812
Change : -0.000159 or -0.87%

Platinum Price Close Today : 1615.40
Change : -4.20 or -0.26%

Palladium Price Close Today : 739.40
Change : -9.65 or -1.29%

S&P 500 : 1,496.94
Change : 9.09 or 0.61%

Dow In GOLD$ : $177.90
Change : $ 7.50 or 4.40%

Dow in GOLD oz : 8.606
Change : 0.363 or 4.40%

Dow in SILVER oz : 475.06
Change : -0.47 or -0.10%

Dow Industrial : 13,900.13
Change : 115.96 or 0.84%

US Dollar Index : 81.65
Change : -0.240 or -0.29%

Metals wasted no time today the GOLD PRICE rose $29 (1.83%) to close Comex at $1,615.20. Silver jumped 27.3c (0.94%) to end at 2926 cents.

The GOLD PRICE fulfilled my first hurdle for confirmation by closing above $1,600, and added fifteen bucks for good measure. This is the behavior gold must exhibit to convince watchers that last week was a spike or V-bottom, but it can't stop there. Above it must batter down the $1,630 door, the 20 DMA at $1,637.90, and $1,670. All this ought to happen quickly without any relapse below $1,600.

The SILVER PRICE shows an attack from the bears abut 10:00. It took silver almost two hours to beat that back and recover, but recover it did, climbing above 2900c and over resistance about 2920c.

It's a good step, but silver must keep on rising and shouldn't close again below 2900c.

I bought more silver and gold today. Premium on US 90% has risen to 80c over spot at wholesale, a sign of strength generally. Can hardly find a wholesaler willing to sell 90%, because they're afraid they won't be able to cover it.

Nobody believes an old natural born fool from Tennessee, but I reckon y'all will believe a certified Central Banker wearing a suit and pointy-toe shoes. The Dallas Fed President, Dick Fisher, said in an interview that recent gains in the stock market have not come through improvements in corporate fundamentals or sustainable economic recovery, but instead through the artificial manipulation by the Fed in the markets themselves. Primary cause for the 30% stock rally has been the Fed's continuous inflow of new money.

I bet y'all will believe it now. (I don't really KNOW whether he wears pointy-toed shoes, but I'll bet he does wear a suit. For all I know he wears Birkenstocks, but the prez of the Dallas Fed sure enough is a Central Banker.)

Y'all may wonder what has kept me wrong so long about silver and gold, over and over expecting their correction to end. How about the Fed pouring a zillion dollars into the stock market, sucking up all the money in the world?

Doesn't matter, if it wasn't the Fed, it'd be stray dogs. There's always some distraction to fool you and trick you out of your bull market position in silver and gold.

Stock market did NOT follow through yesterday's first half of a key reversal by closing lower today. Dow gained back 115.96 points (up 0.84%) of the 216.40 it lost yesterday. Must have kept those Nice Government Men up all night just a-buying and a-buying those stock market futures to jack that price up. It did rise back to the inside the Jaws of Death -- waiting for 'em to snap shut again.

Nothing hurts as bad as disappointed hopes. You go to the mailbox day after day, waiting for that notification from the Publishers' Sweepstakes that you've won the life changing lottery, but find there only cobwebs. After a while, you commence to get mad.

I've travelled this road of a Broadening Top or Jaws of Death before. 'Tis the pattern stocks followed at their bull market top in 2000. They fall, but then they rise again, just enough to raise hopes. Then they fall again, to a lower low, disappointing hopes. That continues until at last, they fall out of the Jaws for an undeniable failure. Before that, though, the Jaws feed on disappointed hopes.

Dow rose 115.,96 to close at 13,900.13 but the S&P500 couldn't quite make it over the morale-building 1,500 and gained only 9.09 (0.61%) to close 1,496.94.

I have just enough bad taste and bad manners to flip the page over to the Dow in Gold and Dow in Silver charts and observe that the breakdown there was NOT gainsaid by any bogus rise today. Both are about as broken as a market can be, and I take great heart from that for silver and gold. Those two indicators have been almost infallible over the last 17 years I've been watching them.

US Dollar index backed off 24 basis points (0.31%) today to 81.49. It hit the internal resistance line that marks the shoulder-tops of the head and shoulders it formed from March 2012 - November 2012. Seems to have stopped cold there at 82. RSI is way overbought, which, if the NGM weren't behind the green curtain, would mean it will decline. With them back there working the smoke machine, there's just no telling.

Euro at $1.3060 and Yen at 108.71 were basically flat today. All the talking Nerds -- WHOA!, make that talking heads -- on National Proletarian Radio were frothing and nattering today about how awful and irresponsible it is that the Italians gave a big percentage of their vote to the new block headed by comedian Beppe Grillo. Personally, I think it plainly illustrates how seriously Italians take their politics. Well, no, not that way, but it shows that they understand that politics is nothing but entertainment for us mushrooms anyway, so they might as well be entertained by somebody funny. Hey, if he were alive I'd vote for Jonathan Winters for president in a minute! And he could make George Carlin Chairman of the Fed.

US$1=Y91.99=E0.7657=0.034176 oz Ag=0.006191 oz Au.

Speaking of comedians, today Ben Bernanke told a congressional committee that he believe he is helping the economy by holding down long term interest rates and that ought to be sustained. No, seriously. He said that. Ain't he one heck of a comedian? Yuck, yuck.

On 26 February 1974 Gold hit a new record high of US$188 an ounce in Paris.

Argentum et aurum comparenda sunt -- -- Gold and silver must be bought.

- Franklin Sanders, The Moneychanger
The-MoneyChanger.com
1-888-218-9226
10:00am-5:00pm CST, Monday-Friday

? 2013, The Moneychanger. May not be republished in any form, including electronically, without our express permission.

To avoid confusion, please remember that the comments above have a very short time horizon. Always invest with the primary trend. Gold's primary trend is up, targeting at least $3,130.00; silver's primary is up targeting 16:1 gold/silver ratio or $195.66; stocks' primary trend is down, targeting Dow under 2,900 and worth only one ounce of gold; US$ or US$-denominated assets, primary trend down; real estate bubble has burst, primary trend down.

WARNING AND DISCLAIMER. Be advised and warned:

Do NOT use these commentaries to trade futures contracts. I don't intend them for that or write them with that short term trading outlook. I write them for long-term investors in physical metals. Take them as entertainment, but not as a timing service for futures.

NOR do I recommend investing in gold or silver Exchange Trade Funds (ETFs). Those are NOT physical metal and I fear one day one or another may go up in smoke. Unless you can breathe smoke, stay away. Call me paranoid, but the surviving rabbit is wary of traps.

NOR do I recommend trading futures options or other leveraged paper gold and silver products. These are not for the inexperienced.

NOR do I recommend buying gold and silver on margin or with debt.

What DO I recommend? Physical gold and silver coins and bars in your own hands.

One final warning: NEVER insert a 747 Jumbo Jet up your nose. No, I don't.

Source: http://silver-and-gold-prices.goldprice.org/2013/02/with-gold-price-fulfilling-its.html

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Baller Dennis Rodman Arrives in North Korea (Voice Of America)

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Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Vatican: Retired Pope Benedict XVI will be called 'emeritus pope,' will continue to wear white

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican has answered some of the outstanding questions about Pope Benedict XVI's future once he's retired, saying he'll be known as "emeritus pope," and continue to wear a white cassock.

The Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said Tuesday that Benedict himself made the decisions.

The pope's title and what he would wear has been a major question ever since Benedict stunned the world and announced he would resign on Thursday. While he will no longer wear his trademark red shoes, Benedict has taken a liking to a pair of hand-crafted brown loafers made for him by artisans in Leon, Mexico and presented to him during his 2012 visit. He will wear them in retirement.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/vatican-retired-pope-benedict-xvi-called-emeritus-pope-121411564.html

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LG shows off Wireless Ultra HD video streaming from phone to TV at MWC

LG shows off Wireless Ultra HD video streaming from phone to TV at MWC

LG is all about product synergy at MWC 2013, demoing the ability to beam 4K resolution video from a phone to an Ultra HD television -- no wires necessary. There's no specifics mentioned about the technology in use other than that it uses "ubiquitous" WiFi connections, but LG claims its technique uses less than half the power others require. That's achieved by reducing the drain on the phone's CPU and other hardware, but we'll have to wait for a hands-on opportunity to learn more about how this works -- and to save up enough money to buy one of those Ultra HDTVs.

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Source: LG

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/x46PpjDQ89U/

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Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2


The Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2 combines touch, all-day battery life, and ThinkPad styling to the Windows 8 Slate tablet market. It's not a bad first effort, but rivals currently have the upper hand. It can be your all-day companion running from meeting to meeting, and you can get work done with the help of accessories when you finally get back to your desk. Taken alone, it's a very good tablet. Unfortunately, other rivals have better battery life, connections to keyboards, and overall differentiating features.

Design and Features
The Tablet 2 looks professional, with a black PolyCarbonate/ABS plastic cover over a magnesium internal frame. The tablet measures about 7 by 10.5 by 0.34 inches (HWD) and weighs a scant 1.21 pounds alone. Add the optional Bluetooth keyboard ($120) and fitted sleeve ($40), and you're talking a 2.63-pound travel weight. One plus that the Tablet 2 has over its rivals is its built-in slot to carry its included stylus. The Wacom-style stylus has a right-click button, but lacks the eraser tip that rivals like the Dell Latitude 10 and Microsoft Surface Pro have. Weighing less than 1.25 pounds and with its built-in stylus holder, it is a very good handheld PC for running around the office park or for a full day of client meetings.

The Tablet 2 has a few ports and switches on its sides: a micro-USB port for charging, a low-power USB 2.0 port, MicroSD and a SIM slot under a shared door, headset jack, volume, power, rotate lock, a docking port, and a mini-HDMI out port. The SIM slot supplies authentication to an optional WWAN radio, which wasn't in our review unit. The docking connector is mainly for the $100 enterprise-level docking station, since the Bluetooth keyboard and stand lacks a docking port.

The Bluetooth keyboard is very comfortable and has a built-in optical TrackPoint and the usual ThinkPad mouse buttons. But there is no room for a palm rest, and the keyboard has no retention mechanism aside from gravity and friction from the slot carved in its surface. This means that the keyboard stand works fine on a tabletop, but if you use the combo on your lap, the Tablet 2 is likely to slide out if you shift your weight during you work session. Both the keyboard and Tablet 2 fit in a tailor-made fitted sleeve, so the combo can work part-time. The Bluetooth keyboard has its own battery for operation, but it doesn't supply auxiliary power like the keyboard docks for the HP Envy X2 or Acer Iconia W510-1422.

The Tablet 2 charges off of its micro-USB port, which is a plus for the road warrior. Most non-iPhone smartphones use micro-USB to charge, so you can get by only carrying a single charger. The Tablet 2 comes with a 2A USB adapter and a USB to micro USB cable, which you can use with your smartphone or tablet. This also makes it more convenient for the multi-device user, since he can charge the Tablet 2 off of a PC with the USB cable as well. Lenovo also sells a $20 USB vehicle charger so you can charge your tablet on the road.

The Tablet 2's regular USB 2.0 port is problematic. It is full-size, so it will work with all sorts of peripherals like printers, keyboards/mice, and USB memory keys. But the USB port only supplies a few watts of power, so it won't run a large-capacity external hard drive. This shortcoming is a large detriment to getting work done if all you have with you are bus-powered external hard drives. The Dell Latitude 10 and most ultrabook-class tablets have full-power USB ports. The Tablet 2 can connect to 2.4GHz and 5GHz 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 is supported. GPS is included.

The Tablet 2's screen is a 10.1-inch IPS display with a 1,366-by-768 resolution. This means that you can playback 720p HD content natively, but 1080p content will be scaled down. The system's Wacom-style digitizer and stylus back up the five-point touch screen. When the tip of the stylus comes close to the screen, the capacitive touch sensors turn off, so you aren't making marks with your palm when you're actually drawing on the screen with the stylus. The screen is bright, with a wide angle of view from all sides, and an accelerometer makes sure that screen elements point up at all times.

The Tablet 2 comes with an Intel Atom Z2760 processor, 2GB of memory, and a 64GB of flash storage. When we first turned the Tablet 2 on, it came with 33.4 GB of 50GB free. This is a bit less than the "36.8 GB of 52.2GB free" reported by the Editors' Choice Dell Latitude 10. No doubt much of the used space is the recovery partition plus a selection of pre-installed apps. The Tablet 2 came with Lenovo Companion, Skitch Touch, Evernote Touch, Lenovo Support, a Lenovo Settings app, Accuweather, QuickSnip (a clipping/screenshot utility), Amazon Kindle, Skype, rara.com, Intel AppUp, Lenovo Cloud Storage (SugarSync), and Norton Studio (security). Lenovo also included their QuickLaunch app, which replaces the functions of the Windows 7 Start menu. It's not the most heinous use of space, but since Tablet 2's current options for storage are 64GB only, every bit of storage space is precious. You can of course add storage with the microSD slot. The Tablet 2's front webcam is 2MP and the rear is 8MP with a LED flash. The Tablet 2 has a one-year standard warranty.

Performance
Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2 The Intel Atom Z2760 processor in the Tablet 2 ensures Windows 8 32-bit compatibility, so the tablet will work with all your enterprise apps and corporate network protocols. It also means that you can use the browser and plug-ins standardized at your business instead of being limited to Internet Explorer (as you would be on a Windows RT system).

However, while the Atom means that the Tablet 2 has 10-hour battery life (10 hours 11 minutes), it also means that it doesn't perform too well on our multimedia benchmark tests. The Tablet 2 was one of the slowest systems we've ever tested on our Handbrake test (13:27 vs. 1:28 on a Core i5 system like the Microsoft Surface Pro). The Tablet 2 also lagged Atom-powered rivals like the Dell Latitude 10 and Acer W510 on the Handbrake test. On day-to-day tasks, the Tablet 2 put in a passable 1,410 point score on PCMark 7. Basically, if you have a need for corporate information retrieval and media playback all day, the Tablet 2 is fine, but if you need to work on graphics creation on a deadline, you're better off with a more powerful system with an Intel Core processor.

The Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2 is a decent Windows 8 Slate tablet. It doesn't win any of the performance tests, but is competitive with its Atom-powered rivals. It's a simple work-based tablet that has a good set of ThinkPad accessories that make it a good fit if you're transitioning ThinkPad users to something a lot more portable. However, for the ultimate in battery life, other systems like the Editors' Choice Dell Latitude 10 and keyboard docking tablets like the Acer Iconia Tab W510 are better choices if battery life is paramount. And let's face it, you're looking at an Atom-based tablet because of its combination of Windows 8 Pro compatibility and phenomenal battery life, right?

BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2 with several other laptops and tablets side by side.

More laptop reviews:
??? Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2
??? Dell XPS 10
??? Dell Latitude 10
??? MSI GT70 One-609US Dragon Edition
??? Microsoft Surface Windows 8 Pro
?? more

laptop

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/LTl5Jskijnw/0,2817,2415773,00.asp

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Monday, February 25, 2013

Tiger Sharks Relationships | Use Male Enhancement Product And ...

In a certain point of your time everybody feels the of sexual fulfillment. But , there are lots of people in this world who are suffering through the inability of satisfying the complete satisfaction of the partner. Sex problem is a significant common problem plus it prevents through having the total satisfaction at the time of sexual activity or even masturbation. Sexual dysfunction not only leads to physical dissatisfaction, but it also gives rise to psychological issues. But timely medication and a healthy lifestyle can surely help you overcome the problem and you will also lead a normal life like other people.

The most common problem how the male experiences while having intercourse is keeping an erection, reaching climax rapidly and finding this difficulty in achieving the orgasm. The issue can only be understood by the person who is experiencing it and in order to eliminate this, the person must have a healthy existence. As well as individuals who have a different sexual desire and it is important not to confuse using the people who absence the ability to fulfill sexual desire. Sex difficulties among men can even decrease the closeness. When one of the partners offers low desire then both the partners are discomfort while having intercourse which can produce a distance within the connection.

There are different ways of male enhancement through which you will get a pleased sexual existence:
? Male enhancement surgery is one of the choices that you can go for. However it is regarded as probably the most painful process and might not be able to functionality your penis properly till the place gets healed. It is taken as the last step when all of those other option fails to carry out.

? You are able to choose the male enhancement pills that can help you eliminate such issues. But , there are various products available in the market plus it becomes nearly impossible on your part to find the best overall product that matches your problem. Wrong selection can even have side effects and can cause serious damage to you. It is best to ask your loved ones physician about the pills that you will be deciding to intake.

? You can also apply male organ extenders that helps to stretch the penis as well as allowing it to repair. This stretching enables to unlock the areas that are among the cells and with the continue make use of you can boost the number of the number of new tissues in that particular area. But , you should find the most effective device.

Male enhancement is a remedy that can help you get the sexual satisfaction and in order to do this you should find the suitable product for yourself. There are several sexual enhancement products that can be found in the market. These items actually boost the blood flow as well as improves the blood blood circulation. It can help to improve the growth associated with sperms and enable in order for you to an extended sex experience. Natural sexual enhancement products are quite user-friendly and are regarded as the most efficient remedy.

In a certain point of your time everybody feels the of sexual fulfillment. But , there are lots of people in this world who are suffering through the inability of satisfying the complete satisfaction of the partner. Sex problem is a significant common problem plus it prevents through having the total satisfaction at the time of sexual activity or even masturbation. Sexual dysfunction not only leads to physical dissatisfaction, but it also gives rise to psychological issues. But timely medication and a healthy lifestyle can surely help you overcome the problem and you will also lead a normal life like other people.

There are different techniques that you can adopt in the event of male enhancement. Surgical procedures, pills as well as extenders are a few of the ways that you can implement in order to experience the large size of the male organ. Learn more about ? Sex enhancement.

Source: http://tigersharkswimclub.com/use-male-enhancement-product-and-improve-your-sexual-life/

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Ron Thorne, Brigette Chism, Anja Trevino and 8 more joined Alternative Energy dot Com

There are many times when people need to find reliable financial resources but never seem to locate one that suits them. If you find yourself in this type of situation and need money now, but cannot find lenders to your liking, then you'll be able find a solution by utilizing fast bad credit loans. These types of loans were designed to provide you with quick cash when you need it. This way of money lending is very beneficial to the borrower, as it is one way to over come any financial?See More

Source: http://alternativeenergycom.ning.com/profile/RonThorne?xg_source=activity

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Fujitsu Stylistic S01 hands-on: a smartphone even grandma can use

Fujitsu Stylistic S01 handson a smartphone even grandma can use

Not every smartphone needs to have piles of RAM an inhumanly fast quad-core CPU and a comically large 1080p display. For some niches of the market those things are not only unnecessary, but potentially a huge negative. Fujitsu's Stylistic S01 is one of those phones that eschews high-end specs for practical features aimed at a particular segment of the market -- namely, your grandparents. The four-inch WVGA display and dual-core 1.4GHz Snapdragon would have been par for the course a year or two ago, now they're getting a bit dated. But that's ok, they're serve up the heavily skinned Ice Cream Sandwich here just fine.

The UI has large buttons and simplified widgets that are carefully crafted to be easy to manipulate for those with less dexterity in their digits. And, unlike most phones, a glancing touch wont be enough to accidentally launch the camera or maps. While an initial touch wil temporarily select an option, you'll have to actually press just a bit harder than you're accustomed to in order to confirm your selection. In addition to minimizing accidental app launches, it also gets a little bit closer to recreating the tactile sensation of dialing on a physical numeric pad.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/25/fujitsu-stylistic-s01-hands-on-a-smartphone-even-grandma-ca/

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Sunday, February 24, 2013

Hardware options for highly available Windows Server 2012 systems using shared, directly-attached storage

Highly available Windows Server 2012 systems using shared, directly-attached storage can be built using either Storage Spaces or a validated clustered RAID controller.

?

Option 1 ? Storage Spaces

You can build a highly available shared SAS system today using Storage Spaces.

Storage Spaces works well in a standalone PC, but it is also capable of working in a Windows Server Failover Clustering environment.?

For implementing Clustered Storage Spaces, you will need the following Windows Server 2012 certified hardware:

  • Any SAS Host Bus Adapter or HBA (as long as it?s SAS and not a RAID controller, you should be fine)
  • SAS JBODs or disk enclosures (listed under the ?Storage Spaces? category on the Server catalog)
  • SAS disks (there?s a wide variety of those, including capacity HDDs, performance HDDs and SSDs)

You can find instructions on how to configure a Clustered Storage Space in Windows Server 2012 at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/clustering/archive/2012/06/02/10314262.aspx.

A good overview of Storage Spaces and its capabilities can be found at http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/15198.storage-spaces-overview.aspx

There's also an excellent presentation from TechEd that covers Storage Spaces at http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2012/WSV315

?

Option 2 ? Clustered RAID Controllers

The second option is to build a highly available shared storage system using RAID Controllers that are designed to work in a Windows Server Failover Cluster configuration.

The main distinction between these RAID controllers and the ones we used before is that they work in sets (typically a pair) and coordinate their actions against the shared disks.

Here are some examples:

  • The HP StoreEasy 5000 cluster-in-a-box uses Clustered RAID controllers?that HP sources and certifies. You can find details at the HP StoreEasy product page.
  • LSI is working on a Clustered RAID controller with Windows Server 2012 support. This new line of SAS RAID Controllers is scheduled for later this year. You can get details?on?availability dates from LSI.

?

Both options work great for all kinds of Windows Server 2012 Clusters, including Hyper-V Clusters, SQL Server Clusters, Classic File Server Clusters and Scale-Out File Servers.

You can learn more about these solutions in this TechEd presentation: http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/Europe/2012/WSV310

Source: http://blogs.technet.com/b/josebda/archive/2013/02/23/hardware-options-for-highly-available-windows-server-2012-systems-using-shared-directly-attached-storage.aspx

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Giants Coach Tom Coughlin Not Planning to Retire Yet

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Source: www.nytimes.com --- Friday, February 22, 2013
Giants Coach Tom Coughlin made it clear that he is not close to calling it a career in the N.F.L. ...

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/23/sports/football/giants-coach-tom-coughlin-not-planning-to-retire-yet.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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The Lede: Reeva Steenkamp, Steve Biko and the Quest for Justice in South Africa

LONDON ? The title of the presiding judge 35 years ago was the same, chief magistrate of Pretoria, and the venue for the hearing, a converted synagogue, was not far from the modern courthouse seen on television screens around the world in recent days as Oscar Pistorius, the gold medal-winning Paralympic athlete, fought for bail in the killing of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

The case that unfolded in the last weeks of 1977, like the one featuring Mr. Pistorius, centered on a death that captured global attention. Then, too, it was the role of the chief magistrate, a jurist of relatively minor standing in South Africa?s legal system, to weigh whether it was a case of murder or mishap. Then, too, there were constituencies, inside the courtroom and beyond, that clamored passionately for their version of the truth.

The similarities ? and dissimilarities ? will have pressed in on anyone who was present in the Pretoria courtroom those decades ago, when the proceeding involved was an inquest, and the death that of Steve Biko, a 30-year-old black activist who was a popular youth leader of the anti-apartheid movement. By the miserable manner of his dying, alone, naked, and comatose on the floor of a freezing prison cell, Mr. Biko became, in death still more than in life, a powerful force for an end to South Africa?s institutionalized system of racial repression.

A British television report from South Africa in 1977, eight days after Steve Biko, an anti-apartheid activist, was beaten to death in police custody.

The two cases, of course, will find widely different places on history?s ladder. Mr. Pistorius, awarded bail on Friday after a hearing that was sensational for what it revealed of his actions in shooting Ms. Steenkamp, and for the raw emotions the athlete displayed in the dock, became a global celebrity in recent years for his feats as the Blade Runner, a track star who overcame the disability of being born with no bones in his lower legs.

But for all that it has been a shock to the millions who have seen his running as a parable for triumph in adversity, Mr. Pistorius?s tragedy ? and still more, Ms. Steenkamps?s ? has been a personal one. Mr. Biko?s death was considered at the time, as it has been ever since, as a watershed in the history of apartheid, a grim milestone among many others along South Africa?s progress towards black majority rule, which many ranked as the most inspiriting event in the peacetime history of the 20th-century when it was finally achieved in 1994.

Still, for a reporter who covered the Biko inquest for the Times as the paper?s South Africa correspondent through the turbulent years of the 1970?s, there were strong resonances in the week?s televised proceedings in Pretoria. Among them was the sheer scale of the media coverage, and the display of how live-by-satellite broadcasting and the digitalization of the print press, with computers, cellphones and Twitter feeds, have globalized the news business.

Oscar Pistorius facing the media during his bail hearing this week in Pretoria.

For the Pistorius hearing, there was a frenzied, tented camp of television crews outside the court, a crush among reporters struggling to get into the hearing, and platoons of studio commentators eager to have their say.

The crush among reporters outside the bail hearing for Oscar Pistorius this week in Pretoria.

On each of the 13 days the Biko inquest was in session, I had no trouble finding myself a seat in the airy courtroom. I took my lunch quietly with members of the Biko family?s legal team, and loitered uneasily during adjournments in an outside passageway, eavesdropping on the policemen who were Mr. Biko?s captors in his final days as they fine-tuned the testimony they were to give in court.

In the Pistorius case, the police again emerged poorly, having, as it seemed, bungled aspects of the forensic investigation in ways that could complicate the prosecution?s case that Ms. Steenkamp?s death was a case of premeditated murder ? and having assigned the case to an officer who turned out to be under investigation in a case of attempted murder himself. But nothing in that bungling could compare with the sheer wretchedness of the security police officers in the Biko case, who symbolized, in their brutal and callous treatment of a defenseless man, and in the jesting about it I heard in that courtroom passageway, just how far below human decency apartheid had descended.

There was, too, the extraordinary contrast in the deportment of the magistrates in their rulings in the two cases, and what that said about the different South Africas of then and now. Desmond Nair, presiding at the Pistorius hearing, took more than two hours to review the evidence in the killing of Ms. Steenkamp, swinging back and forth in a meandering ? and often bewildering ? fashion between the contending accounts of Ms. Steenkamp?s death offered by Mr. Pistorius?s legal counsel and those put forward by the police.

Marthinus J. Prins, the chief magistrate in the Biko inquest, took an abrupt three minutes to deliver his finding, a numbing, 120-word exculpation of the policemen and government doctors who ushered Mr. Biko to his death on the stone-flagged floor of the Pretoria Central Prison. ?The court finds the available evidence does not prove the death was brought about by any act or omission involving any offense by any person,? Mr. Prins said, reading hurriedly from a prepared statement before leaving the courtroom and slipping away by a rear door.

In finding that nobody was to blame in the black leader?s death, the magistrate brushed aside testimony suggesting what the policemen and doctors involved acknowledged many years later to have been true, when they petitioned for amnesty under the Truth and Reconciliation Commission process that sought to heal the wounds of apartheid: that Mr. Biko had been beaten in police custody, suffering a severe brain injury that was left untreated until he died.

The utter lack of compassion, and of anything resembling justice, was expressed in the dull-eyed satisfaction of Mr. Prins when I caught up with him an hour or so after the verdict in his vast, dingy office a few blocks from the courtroom.

?To me, it was just another death,? he said, pulling off his spectacles and rubbing his eyes. ?It was just a job, like any other.?

Mr. Prins, who rose to his position through the apartheid bureaucracy, without legal training, appeared at that moment, as he had throughout the inquest, to be disturbingly sincere, yet utterly blinded. Faithful servant of the apartheid system, he had given it the clean bill of health it demanded, and freed the police to continue treating black political detainees as they chose. Among the country?s rulers, the verdict was embraced as a triumphal vindication, while those who chose to see matters more clearly understood it to be a tolling of history?s bell.

Listening to Mr. Nair delivering his ruling in the Pistorius case, there will have been many, in South Africa and abroad, who will have found his monologue on Friday confusing, circular in its argument, and numbingly repetitive. As an exercise in jurisprudence, it was something less than a stellar advertisement for a South African legal system that, at its best, is a match for any in the world, as it was back in 1977.

Sydney Kentridge, lead counsel for the Biko family at the inquest, moved seamlessly to England in the years that followed, and became, by widespread reckoning among his peers, Britain?s most distinguished barrister, still practicing in London now, at 90.

In the 2011 Steve Biko Lecture at the University of Cape Town, Sydney Kentridge spoke about the inquest into his death in 1977.

A host of other South African expatriates who fled apartheid have made outstanding careers as lawyers and judges in Britain, the United States, and elsewhere in the English-speaking world, but many others stayed at home, and continue to serve a court system that has fared rather better, in recent years, than many other institutions in the new South African state.

But even if Mr. Nair, in granting Mr. Pistorius bail, seemed no match in the elegance of his argument for South Africa?s finest legal minds, he nonetheless did South Africa proud. In the chaotic manner of his ruling, which sounded at times like a man grabbing for law books off a shelf, he was, indisputably, doing something that Mr. Prins, all those years before, had not even attempted: looking for ways to steer his course to justice. People will disagree whether Mr. Pistorius deserved the break he got in walking free from that courtroom, but nobody could reasonably contest that what we saw in his case was the working of a legal system that strives for justice, and not to rubber-stamp the imperatives of the state.

This post was revised to make it clear that Sydney Kentridge, the lawyer who represented Steve Biko?s family in 1977 and practiced law well into his 80s, is now 90.

Source: http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/23/reeva-steenkamp-steve-biko-and-the-quest-for-justice-in-south-africa/?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Saturday, February 23, 2013

Facebook to put old, rarely viewed photos into 'cold storage'

If a photo is on Facebook and no one looks at it, was it ever even uploaded?

Poor attempt at a joke aside, there's something with which we need to come to terms: There are a lot of photos on Facebook that just sit around, taking up precious data storage space. The social network can't exactly delete these photos just because no one's looking, but it can store them in a more cost-effective and energy-efficient way.

According to the Oregonian's Mike Rogoway, Facebook's testing moving what he describes as "archival posts that people don?t need every day" into cold storagein the social network's data center in Prineville, Oregon.

As fun as it might be to imagine a gigantic meatlocker full of servers, cold storage refers to a data center in which most of the computers are asleep, with a few keeping watch ? and able to wake the others ? for incoming requests to view older items. Compare that to a hot storage data center in which all the computers are wide-awake and ready to show you the information you request almost instantly. (Of course, the difference in the time it takes to grab something from cold storage versus the time it takes to grab something from hot storage is so slight that a typical user could never even tell the difference. Think second or millisecond delays, rather than anything more dramatic.)

Facebook says, according to Rogoway, that "82 percent of its traffic is focused on just 8 percent of its photos." Given that detail, it's not exactly tough to understand why the company's considering cold storage data centers ? especially since they will cost the social network about a third less than standard data centers, offer eight times more storage, and run five times more energy efficiently.

Want more tech news or interesting links? You'll get plenty of both if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/facebook-put-old-rarely-viewed-photos-cold-storage-1C8485605

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Maybe a laptop with a touchscreen like an iPad?

People test the the Google Chromebook Pixel, Google?s attempt o outshine personal computers running on software made by rivals Microsoft and Apple.

Maybe a laptop with a touchscreen like an iPad?

Google is adding a new and more expensive touch to its line of Chrome laptops in an attempt to outshine personal computers running on software made by rivals Microsoft and Apple.

The Chromebook Pixel unveiled Thursday includes a nearly 13-inch display screen that responds to the touch or swipe of a finger. That duplicates a key feature in Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 8, a dramatic makeover of the world's leading operating system for PCs.

The Pixel's high-resolution screen displays 239 pixels per inch, slightly more than Apple Inc.'s MacBooks with high-resolution Retina displays. A MacBook Pro with a screen that measures 13.1 inches diagonally can handle 227 pixels per inch, while the 15.4-inch model is at 220 pixels per inch.

LUXURY LAPTOP: Google is entering the high end of the laptop market with a machine that features a high-resolution display screen that can controlled by touch commands. The laptop, called the Chromebook Pixel, runs on an operating system revolving around Google Inc.'s Chrome Web browser.

TARGET MARKET: The Pixel is aimed at "power users" who are willing to pay more money for laptops that have features lacking in less expensive models. That thrusts Pixel into competition against Apple Inc.'s MacBook line and laptops running on the Windows operating system.

HEFTY PRICETAG: Google began selling the Pixel on Thursday for $1,299 and $1,499, depending on the model.

Critical thinking challenge: Why is Google making computers and glasses instead of focusing on its search engine at Google.com?


- Posted on February 22, 2013

Source: http://tweentribune.com/tween/laptop-ipad-chromebook-pixel

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Speaking Wednesday, February 27 About SPA apps and WebAPI in Mountain View Microsoft Office

Posted by: peterkellner.net, on 22 Feb 2013 | View original | Bookmarked: 0 time(s)

?ASP.NETs WebAPI and SPAs (single page apps) are all the rage!In our brave new world, many web apps are now Single Page Applications written in JavaScript. Basically, this means that instead of having lots of static and/or dynamic pages generating lots of HTML, we now often have an html page that has just a few [...]

Source: http://www.pheedcontent.com/click.phdo?i=fd9c7b091a9319d8ef1f52317b24d1bf

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Friday, February 22, 2013

N. Korea: Nuclear test will keep 'hostile' US at bay

KCNA via Reuters

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspects a Korean People's Army Unit in this undated picture released by the official KCNA news agency on Thursday.

By David Chance, Reuters

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea has bolstered its defenses against a "hostile" United States with its third nuclear test, it said on Thursday, noting that countries that had bowed to U.S. pressure to abandon their nuclear plans had suffered "tragic consequences."

Pyongyang?carried out its largest nuclear test to date last week, in defiance of U.N. resolutions, prompting warnings of tougher sanctions for the isolated and impoverished state and its young ruler, Kim Jong Un.

Libya abandoned its nuclear program in 2003 in a bid to mend relations with the United States and later saw leader Moammar Gadhafi overthrown in an uprising that was eventually supported militarily by Washington.

North Korea releases a new propaganda video calling the U.S. hostile and showing images of President Obama superimposed with flames. Meanwhile, residents line the streets of Pyongyang celebrating the country's recent nuclear test. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

In apparent reference to Libya, North Korea said it never backed down.

"The tragic consequences in those countries which abandoned halfway their nuclear programs... clearly prove that the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) was very far-sighted and just when it made the (nuclear) option," North Korea's KCNA news agency said.

Kim staged the latest test in response to tighter U.N. sanctions imposed in January after the country launched a long-range rocket last year in a move that critics said was designed to prove technology for an intercontinental ballistic missile.

North Korea has recently stepped up its rhetoric against South Korea, threatening to destroy its rich, democratic neighbor.

Most military assessments suggest that North Korea would lose any war against the U.S.-backed South and that its leaders would not risk a major conflict.

Related:

North Korea propaganda video shows an?American city in flames

North Korea's propaganda poets stay true to their muse despite world's laughter

PhotoBlog: Kim Jong Un inspects army unit

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/21/17043709-nuclear-test-protects-country-from-hostile-us-north-korea-says?lite

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Japan's Abe: China Schools Teach Anti-Japan Sentiment

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is accusing China of using its state-run school system to encourage anti-Japan sentiment, thereby worsening the two countries' territorial disputes.

On the eve of his visit to Washington, Prime Minister Abe said, in an interview with the Washington Post, that China has a "deeply ingrained" need for conflict with Japan and its other neighbors. He says Beijing uses the disputes to maintain strong domestic support. Because of this, he says it is not likely the differences will be resolved anytime soon.

During his meeting Friday with President Barack Obama, Abe is expected to seek expanded defense cooperation with Washington to help counter perceived threats from China's territorial claims.

Japan-China ties have sunk to their lowest level in years because of a worsening dispute about a group of remote East China Sea islands that lie near strategic fishing grounds and potential oil deposits. Both countries claim the islands.

Japan purchased some of the uninhabited islands from their private Japanese landowner late last year, prompting official condemnation from Beijing and days of violent anti-Japan protests throughout China.

Since then, China has conducted regular patrols near the islands, in what is seen as an attempt to challenge Japan's administration of the disputed territory. Both countries have also sent fighter jets to the islands, raising fears of a conflict between the two Asian powers.

Abe told the Post that U.S. presence in Asia is "critical" to prevent China from taking similar steps against other countries with which it has maritime disputes. He says it is important to make China realize they cannot "change rules" or "take away" someone's territory "by coercion or intimidation."

The 58-year-old leader, who began his second turn as prime minister in December, has promised to get tough on China and is known for his nationalistic views. He says such views in China are dangerous, arguing that teaching patriotism in China is equivalent to "teaching anti-Japanese sentiment."

Source: http://www.voanews.com/content/japans-abe-china-schools-teach-antijapan-sentiment/1607807.html

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Harry Styles: Baking for Charity!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/02/harry-styles-baking-for-charity/

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Thursday, February 21, 2013

Zero Motorcycles: Customize the Performance of Your Electric BIke

If you have one of Zero Motorcycles electric bikes, you now have a smartphone app to go with it, and it might help you get a little more juice out of your bike. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/RvCffo2oM0A/zero-motorcycles-customize-the-performance-of-your-electric-bike

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Wal-Mart outlook gives glimpse of economy

In this Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2012, photo, Eva Cevallos with her eleven-month daughter, Quinn, shop during the Thanksgiving Pre-Black Friday event at the Walmart Supercenter store in Rosemead, Calif. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. offered a weak business outlook Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013, as new economic challenges for its low-income U.S. shoppers start to take a toll. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

In this Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2012, photo, Eva Cevallos with her eleven-month daughter, Quinn, shop during the Thanksgiving Pre-Black Friday event at the Walmart Supercenter store in Rosemead, Calif. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. offered a weak business outlook Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013, as new economic challenges for its low-income U.S. shoppers start to take a toll. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

(AP) ? As the fortunes of many Americans go, so goes Wal-Mart, so goes the economy.

Even as the world's largest retailer on Thursday reported an 8.6 percent rise in fourth quarter profit during the busy holiday shopping season, it offered a weaker forecast for the coming months. The problem? The poor and middle-class Americans Wal-Mart caters to ? and who are big drivers of spending in the U.S. ? are struggling with rising gas prices, delayed income tax refunds and higher payroll taxes.

Melanie M. Burkhardt, a mother of two teenagers who shops at Wal-Mart, is one of those people. Burkhardt, a Waycross, Ga., resident, said she's been hit with a double whammy: the payroll tax hike, which has cut her household monthly income by $260, and higher gas prices.

"We had to do a flip on our budget," said Burkhardt, a legal assistant who plans to cut back on her trips to Wal-Mart. "This is money we used for things like going to a movie or splurging at Olive Garden. Not anymore."

It's widely known that Americans in the lower income brackets continue to struggle even as higher earners benefit from improved housing and stock markets, but Wal-Mart's results signal that matters may be getting worse for the nation's poor and middle-class. Wal-Mart is the latest in a string of big-name companies from Burger King to Zale to say those Americans are being squeezed by new challenges. But since Wal-Mart accounts for nearly 10 percent of nonautomotive retail spending in the U.S., it is a bellwether for the economy.

"Wal-Mart moms are the barometer of the U.S. household," said Brian Sozzi, chief equities analyst at NBG Productions who follows Wal-Mart. "Right now, they're afraid of higher taxes and inflation."

Indeed, while wealthier households have seen their stock portfolios grow, poor and middle-class Americans have struggled to regain their financial footing since the recession ended more than 3 ? years ago.

Stocks have roughly doubled since June 2009. Dividends and capital gains from stocks, which disproportionately benefit higher-income Americans, are taxed at lower rates compared with ordinary income

And while incomes for most Americans have failed to keep pace with inflation since the recession, that's been particularly true for middle and lower-income earners.

Median household income, adjusted for inflation, fell 1.5 percent to $50,054 in 2011 compared with 2010, the latest periods for which figures are available, according to the Census Bureau. That was down 8.1 percent from 2007, just before the recession began. (The median is the point halfway between the highest and lowest levels.)

But lower and middle-income households fared worse: The share of overall income earned by the bottom 80 percent of households shrank in 2011, while the income for the top 20 percent grew. And in 2012, inflation-adjusted hourly pay barely rose, inching up 0.3 percent.

Another hurdle for lower- and middle-income Americans has been the jump in gas prices since mid-January. The average price for a gallon of gas rose 47 cents in the past month to $3.78 on Thursday, according to AAA.

Tax changes also have hit the nation's lowest earners especially hard. On Jan. 1, Social Security payroll taxes rose 2 percentage points after a temporary tax cut expired. That sliced about $1,000 from the take-home pay of a household earning $50,000. Since the Social Security tax is levied against income only up to $114,000, it disproportionately affects middle- and lower-income households.

An even larger challenge for many lower-income Americans has been the government's delay in processing income taxes and paying refunds. That's because income tax rates weren't set until a last-minute deal between the White House and Congress on Jan. 1. So the IRS pushed back the start of tax-filing season to Jan. 30, two weeks later than usual.

As a result, by Feb. 14 the government had paid only $55 billion in refunds, down from $77 billion at the same time last year, according to an estimate by UBS. That drop of $22 billion is more than twice the impact of the higher payroll tax. Refunds have accelerated recently and will eventually be paid out, but the impact still can be felt by many taxpayers: About 78 percent of taxpayers receive refunds, and the figure rises to 82 percent for those reporting income below $50,000.

Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Ark., said while its business has been volatile since December, the month of February, in particular, has been "slower than planned" largely due to the tax refund delay. The company said that resulted in Wal-Mart customers cashing about $1.7 billion in income tax refunds year to date, compared with $3 billion for the same period a year ago.

Bill Simon, president of Wal-Mart's U.S. namesake division, said shoppers used their refund money last year to buy TVs ahead of the Super Bowl. This year, the retailer said it isn't sure how customers will use the additional money when they get it, but some analysts say the most likely scenario is that they'll save it.

Wal-Mart said it's also unclear how the payroll tax will affect customers' spending habits, although Simon said shoppers are "talking about it." JP Morgan estimates that the payroll tax increase will equate to $70 a month less in take home pay for Wal-Mart shoppers, assuming an average annual income of $42,500. As a result, Wal-Mart is offering smaller packaging and less expensive products.

Wal-Mart earned $5.6 billion, or $1.67 per share, during the fourth quarter that ended Jan. 31, up from $5.16 billion, or $1.50 per share, a year earlier. Results were helped by a lower tax rate, which was 27.7 percent, compared with the rate of 30.9 percent a year ago. Net sales rose 3.9 percent to $127.1 billion.

Earnings topped Wall Street estimates of $1.57 per share, but sales fell short of the $127.8 billion analysts were expecting.

During the current quarter, Wal-Mart says it expects earnings to range from $1.11 to $1.16 per share, below the $1.18 per share analysts polled by FactSet are expecting. For its namesake U.S. business, Wal-Mart expects first-quarter revenue at stores open at least a year, a measure of a retailer's health, to be unchanged from a year ago. The pace of revenue growth has slowed in recent quarters, and some analysts believe Wal-Mart's forecast could be too optimistic.

For the year, Wal-Mart expects earnings of between $5.20 and $5.40 per share, while analysts expect $5.38 per share.

Despite the subdued forecast, investors were bracing for a weaker report after Bloomberg published a story Friday that leaked an email from an executive characterizing the first two weeks of February as "a total disaster." Shares fell that day, but investors appeared to be relieved on Thursday that Wal-Mart's outlook wasn't worse. Shares rose about 1 percent, or $1.05 per share, on Thursday to close at $70.26.

------

D'Innocenzio reported from New York. Rugaber reported from Washington, D.C.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-02-21-Earns-Wal-Mart/id-231841ab20d143f18bca2fccd328a448

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Rover drills first sample of gray Martian rock

NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS

This image from NASA's Curiosity rover shows the first tablespoon of powdered rock extracted by the rover's drill. The image was taken after the sample was transferred from the drill to the rover's scoop.

By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

The scientists and engineers behind NASA's Curiosity rover say they're thrilled to see the first tablespoon of rock dust drilled from the interior of a rock on Mars?? and they're intrigued by the fact that it's gray, not red.

"We're seeing a new coloration for Mars here, and it's exciting for us," Joel Hurowitz, sampling system scientist for the Curiosity mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told reporters during a teleconference on Wednesday.

Things could get more exciting in the next few days, when Curiosity's sampling system drops dollops of the dust into the rover's onboard chemistry labs, known as CheMin (which stands for Chemistry and Mineralogy) and SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars). The main goal of the $2.5 billion mission is to find organic compounds on Mars, and scientists suspect that the gray interior of rocks could preserve those organics better than the red, highly oxidized surface.


"All things being equal, it's better to have a gray color than a red color," said Caltech's John Grotzinger, the mission's project scientist, "just simply because oxidation ... is something that we know destroys organic compounds."

The rover has spent several weeks at a rock formation known as John Klein in preparation for this first drilling operation, six months into what's expected to be a two-year primary mission. Some scientists and engineers have been working for years in anticipation of Wednesday's first sight of ground-up rock in Curiosity's sampling cup.

"For the sampling team, this is the equivalent of the landing team going crazy after the successful touchdown," said JPL's Scott McCloskey, drill systems engineer for the Curiosity mission.

The sample came from a 2.5-inch-deep hole that Curiosity drilled into the Martian bedrock on Feb. 8. One of McCloskey's colleagues at JPL, sample system chief engineer Louise Jandura, noted that this was the first time a rover has drilled samples out of a rock on another planet. Earlier missions have used grinders to scrape off the top layer of a Martian rock, but none has gone down as deeply as Curiosity did.

"In the five-decade history of the Space Age, this is indeed a rare event," she said.

Grotzinger said getting the samples represented the final milestone in the commissioning process for the rover. Last week marked the "passing of the keys to the rover" from the engineering team to the science team, he noted. "It's a real big turning point for us," Grotzinger said.?

NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS

At the center of this image from NASA's Curiosity rover is the hole in a rock called "John Klein" where the rover conducted its first sample drilling on Mars. The drilling took place on Feb. 8. Several preparatory activities with the drill preceded this operation, including a test that produced the shallower hole on the right two days earlier.

NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS

This image from October 2012 shows the location of a sieve screen on the Curiosity rover that is used to remove large particles from samples before delivery to science instruments. Scientists say problems that came to light on a test unit on Earth have led them to change their procedures for sifting Martian samples.

Going through glitches
It will take a few more days to start analyzing the ground-up rock: Some of the material in the cup is being used to clear out the plumbing in the rover's sample delivery system. Once scientists back on Earth see imagery confirming that everything is working as expected, they'll give the go-ahead for more of the material to be shaken through a sieve and then deposited into CheMin and SAM for analysis.

A software glitch delayed the sampling operation, McCloskey said, but the team found a work-around that allowed the task to continue with no loss of functionality. "It didn't end up being a significant roadblock to getting this done," he said.

Another concern arose when engineers found that the sieve on one of the test items back on Earth started coming loose after about 60 shaking operations, also known as "thwacks." That was a signal to the rover team that there was "reason to be cautious," said JPL's Daniel Limonadi, lead systems engineer for Curiosity's surface sampling and science system.

The team decided to reduce the shaking time from 60 minutes to 20 minutes at a time, which should be long enough for most samples. If it isn't, the rover will just keep shaking the stuff until the job is done, Limonadi said.

What the rocks may reveal
Hurowitz said the evidence so far suggests that Curiosity is looking at a sedimentary rock formation that was "more likely deposited in water." Veins of whitish material appear to consist of calcium sulfate, which could provide additional clues to the formation's aqueous origins. He said about 25 separate analyses have been conducted with Curiosity's Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer, more than 100 images have been recorded by the Mars Hand Lens Imager, and the ChemCam instrument has taken 12,000 laser shots at the rock.

The gray color of the rock dust suggests that the interior of Martian rocks may reflect ancient geological processes that are significantly different from the current weathering process on the Red Planet, Hurowitz told NBC News.

"This is something that the science team is really excited about ? the fact that the tailings from our drill operation aren't the typical rusty orange red that we associate with just about everything on Mars," he said. "You can probably bet that when things turn orange, it's because there's a rusting process of some kind going on that oxidizes the iron in the rock. So the fact that these rocks aren't that color may be telling us that these rocks didn't go through that process that usually turns things to rust on Mars. It may preserve some indication of what iron was doing in these samples without the effect of some later oxidative process."

Eventually, Curiosity will be commanded to retrace its route and head for a 3-mile-high (5-kilometer-high) mountain known as Aeolis Mons or Mount Sharp. But Grotzinger emphasized that the mission was "discovery-driven"?? and that the rover team was in no hurry to have the rover make its mountain trek.

"We're going to take it one step at a time," Grotzinger said.

More about Mars:


Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter?and adding the?Cosmic Log page?to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other 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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Source: http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/20/17033668-nasas-curiosity-rover-works-on-first-sample-drilled-from-gray-mars-rock?lite

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