What is Instagram for if not bragging oh so subtly about the stuff you're doing. It's true for rich kids on fancy vacations
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Wednesday, July 3, 2013
TSA Is Instagramming the Crazy Stuff It Confiscates at Checkpoints
Get all the Call of Duty your Mac can handle with this great offer!
This one isn't around for long, but until the end of today you can get yourself a pretty stunning looking Call of Duty bundle for your Mac for just $39.99. So, what do you get? Call of Duty 2, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: Black Ops, and Black Ops expansion packs Rezurrection and Annihilation and Escalation.
Thats around a $130 value bundle, so a great saving to be had if you're looking for some first-person shooter action for your Mac. So, they're not the latest and greatest, but they're all still a lot of fun to play. You will need a Steam account to take advantage of this offer, and do check the system requirements before you buy. Anyone interested?
via TUAW
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/sQKKGgsR0Ok/story01.htm
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Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Investigators launch probe into death of 19 Arizona firefighters
By Tim Gaynor
PRESCOTT, Arizona (Reuters) - Fire investigators in central Arizona launched a probe on Monday into how wind-driven flames closed in on and killed 19 specially trained firemen in a tragedy that marked the greatest loss of life among firefighters in a U.S. wildland blaze in 80 years.
The precise circumstances surrounding Sunday's deaths of all but one of a 20-member elite "hotshots" firefighting team remained unclear a day after they perished while battling a blaze that has destroyed scores of homes and forced the evacuation of two towns.
But fire officials said the young men fell victim to a volatile mix of erratic winds gusting to gale-force intensity, low humidity, a sweltering heat wave, and thick, drought-parched brush that had not burned in some 40 years.
The doomed firefighters had managed to deploy their personal fire shelters, tent-like safety devices designed to deflect heat and trap breathable air, in a last-ditch effort to survive that ultimately proved futile, officials said.
Peter Andersen, a former local Fire District chief who assisted in the early firefighting efforts, told Reuters some of the men on the ground made it into their shelters and some did not, according to an account relayed by a ranger helicopter crew flying over the area.
"There was nothing they (helicopter crew) could do to get to them," he said.
Still, conditions faced by the "hotshots," a ground crew that fights flames at close range with hand tools and serves as the shock troops in a firefighting force, were typical for the wildfires they are trained to battle, fire officials said.
Standard safety protocols followed by such crews appeared to be in place, and investigators are trying to determine exactly what went wrong in this instance, they said.
"It had to be a perfect storm in order for this to happen. Their situational awareness and their training was at such a high level that it's unimaginable that this has even happened," Prescott Fire Department spokesman Wade Ward told ABC's "Today" program.
STARTED BY LIGHTNING
The blaze was ignited on Friday by lightning near the town of Yarnell, about 80 miles northwest of Phoenix, and by Monday was still raging unchecked after scorching some 8,400 acres of tinder-dry chaparral and grasslands.
Authorities ordered the evacuation of Yarnell and the adjoining town of Peeples Valley. The two towns are southwest of Prescott and home to roughly 1,000 people.
A Yavapai County Sheriff's Office spokesman said on Sunday at least 200 structures had been destroyed, most of them in Yarnell, a community consisting largely of retirees. And fire officials said most of the building lost were homes.
Authorities on Monday said that figure was a rough estimate and that a more accurate assessment of property losses was expected later.
The so-called Yarnell Hills blaze was one of dozens of wildfires in several western U.S. states in recent weeks. Experts have said the current fire season could be one of the worst on record.
Sunday's disaster in Arizona marks the highest death toll among firefighters from a U.S. wildland blaze since 29 men died battling the Griffith Park fire of 1933 in Los Angeles, according to the National Fire Protection Association.
The association lists seven incidents in the United States during the past century that killed as many or more firefighters than on Sunday in Arizona. The costliest saw the deaths of 340 firefighters in the September 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center in New York.
Arizona Forestry Commission spokesman Mike Reichling said one member of the 20-man crew had been driving in a separate location and survived unhurt. Eighteen of the dead were members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots team, assigned to the Prescott Fire Department, and the 19th victim belonged to another crew who was working with the fallen team, Reichling said.
WARNING FROM A BOW HUNTER
Evacuee Rick McKenzie, 53, a bow hunter and ranch caretaker, said the fire had "exploded" on Sunday, with flames 30 to 40 feet high racing across an area of oak and brush and that he had warned the Hotshots about the dense oak woods where they would be working.
"I said, ?If this fire sweeps down the mountain to the lower hills where all this thick brush is, it's going to blow up, guys, you need to watch it,'" said McKenzie, who had taken refuge at a Red Cross shelter at Yavapai College.
The Hotshots were highly trained firefighters with rigorous fitness standards. All were required to take an 80-hour critical training course and refresher yearly, according to the group's website.
"Our common bond is our love of hard work and arduous adventure," the website said.
Scorching heat is expected to last for the first part of the week, meteorologists said.
The deaths brought an outpouring of tributes on Sunday from political leaders, including from President Obama, who is on an official trip to Africa.
In a statement, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer called the deaths "one of our state's darkest, most devastating days."
She ordered state flags flown at half staff from Monday through Wednesday.
Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican, said in a statement: "This devastating loss is a reminder of the grave risks our firefighters take every day on our behalf in Arizona and in communities across this nation. Their sacrifice will never be forgotten."
(Writing by Steve Gorman; Additional reporting by David Schwartz; Editing by Dina Kyriakidou and Sofina Mirza-Reid)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/19-firefighters-unaccounted-battling-arizona-wildfire-023551408.html
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Gross, Here Are 5 Toxic Chemicals in Your Food
You know what I hate about eating? The constant conversation on whether this food is good for you or bad for you. It seems to change everyday! New reports say this will cause cancer. Other reports say the same thing can prevent it. Even awful food that contains arsenic and other toxic chemicals can be somehow reasoned to be not as bad for you. This video by BuzzFeed shows you what's toxic inside the food you eat (birthday cake! chicken!) but how it isn't all that bad for you either. Let's just either eat what's delicious or not eat at all! [BuzzFeed Video]
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US defends intelligence sweep as same as allies
A demonstrator protests with a poster against espionage programs in Hanover, Germany, 29 June 2013. A coalition for action consisting of representatives from politcs, unions and Blockupy and Anonymous activists protests against NSA espionage PRISM as well as the surveillance practices of British Secret Service GCHQ. Photo by: Peter Steffen/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images
A demonstrator protests with a poster against espionage programs in Hanover, Germany, 29 June 2013. A coalition for action consisting of representatives from politcs, unions and Blockupy and Anonymous activists protests against NSA espionage PRISM as well as the surveillance practices of British Secret Service GCHQ. Photo by: Peter Steffen/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The U.S. says it gathers the same kinds of intelligence as other nations to safeguard against foreign terror threats, pushing back on fresh outrage from key allies over secret American surveillance programs that reportedly installed covert listening devices in European Union offices.
Facing threatened investigations and sanctions from Europe, U.S. intelligence officials plan to discuss the new allegations ? reported in Sunday's editions of the German newsweekly Der Spiegel ? directly with EU officials.
But "as a matter of policy, we have made clear that the United States gathers foreign intelligence of the type gathered by all nations," concluded a statement issued Sunday from the national intelligence director's office.
It was the latest backlash in a nearly monthlong global debate over the reach of U.S. surveillance that aims to prevent terror attacks. The two programs, both run by the National Security Agency, pick up millions of telephone and Internet records that are routed through American networks each day. Reports about the programs have raised sharp concerns about whether they violate public privacy rights at home and abroad.
The concerns came as the former head of the CIA and NSA urged the White House to make the spy programs more transparent to calm public fears about the American government's snooping.
Several European officials ? including in Germany, Italy, France, Luxembourg and the EU government itself ? said the new revelations could scuttle ongoing negotiations on a trans-Atlantic trade treaty that, ultimately, seeks to create jobs and boost commerce by billions annually in what would be the world's largest free trade area.
"Partners do not spy on each other," said EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding. "We cannot negotiate over a big trans-Atlantic market if there is the slightest doubt that our partners are carrying out spying activities on the offices of our negotiators. The American authorities should eliminate any such doubt swiftly."
European Parliament President Martin Schulz, said he was "deeply worried and shocked about the allegations of U.S. authorities spying on EU offices." And Luxembourg Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Jean Asselborn said he had no reason to doubt the Der Spiegel report, and rejected the notion that security concerns trump the broad U.S. surveillance authorities.
"We have to re-establish immediately confidence on the highest level of the European Union and the United States," Asselborn told The Associated Press.
According to Der Spiegel, the NSA planted bugs in the EU's diplomatic offices in Washington and infiltrated the building's computer network. Similar measures were taken at the EU's mission to the United Nations in New York, the magazine said. It also reported that the NSA used secure facilities at NATO headquarters in Brussels to dial into telephone maintenance systems that would have allowed it to intercept senior officials' calls and Internet traffic at a key EU office nearby.
The report in Der Spiegel cited classified U.S. documents taken by NSA leaker and former contractor Edward Snowden that the magazine said it had partly seen. It did not publish the alleged NSA documents it cited, nor say how it obtained access to them. But one of the report's authors is Laura Poitras, an award-winning documentary filmmaker who interviewed Snowden while he was holed up in Hong Kong.
The Guardian newspaper also published an article Sunday alleging NSA surveillance of the EU offices, citing classified documents provided by Snowden. The Guardian said one document lists 38 NSA "targets," including embassies and missions of U.S. allies like France, Italy, Greece, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, India and Turkey.
In Washington, the statement from the national intelligence director's office said U.S. officials planned to respond to the concerns with their EU counterparts and through diplomatic channels with specific nations. It did not provide further details.
NSA Director Keith Alexander last week said the government stopped gathering U.S. citizens' Internet data in 2011. But the NSA programs that sweep up foreigners' data through U.S. servers to pin down potential threats to Americans from abroad continue.
Speaking on CBS' "Face the Nation," former NSA and CIA Director Mike Hayden downplayed the European outrage over the programs, saying they "should look first and find out what their own governments are doing." But Hayden said the Obama administration should try to head off public criticism by being more open about the top-secret programs so that "people know exactly what it is we are doing in this balance between privacy and security."
"The more they know, the more comfortable they will feel," Hayden said. "Frankly, I think we ought to be doing a bit more to explain what it is we're doing, why, and the very tight safeguards under which we're operating."
Hayden also defended a secretive U.S. court that weighs whether to allow the government to seize the Internet and phone records from private companies. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court is made up of federal judges but does not consider objections from defense attorneys in considering the government's request for records.
Last year, the government asked the court to approve 1,789 applications to spy on foreign intelligence targets, according to a Justice Department notice to Congress dated April 30. The court approved all but one ? and that was withdrawn by the government.
Critics have derided the court as a rubber stamp approval for the government, sparking an unusual response last week in The Washington Post by its former chief judge. In a statement to the newspaper, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly disputed a draft NSA inspector general's report that suggested the court collaborated with the executive branch instead of maintaining judicial independence. Kollar-Kotelly was the court's chief judge from 2002 to 2006, when some of the surveillance programs were underway.
Some European counties have much stronger privacy laws than does the U.S.
In Germany, where criticism of the NSA's surveillance programs has been particularly vocal, Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger likened the spying outlined in the Der Spiegel report to "methods used by enemies during the Cold War." German federal prosecutors are examining whether the reported U.S. electronic surveillance programs broke German laws.
Green Party leaders in the European Parliament called for an immediate investigation into the claims and called for existing U.S.-EU agreements on the exchange of bank transfer and passenger record information to be canceled. Both programs have been labeled as unwarranted infringements of citizens' privacy by left-wing and libertarian lawmakers in Europe.
The dispute also has jeopardized diplomatic relations between the U.S. and some of it its most unreliable allies, including China, Russia and Ecuador.
Snowden, who tuned 30 last week, revealed himself as the document leaker in June interviews in Hong Kong, but fled to Russia before China's government could turn him over to U.S. officials. Snowden is now believed to be holed up in a transit zone in Moscow's international airport, where Russian officials say they have no authority to catch him since he technically has not crossed immigration borders.
It's also believed Snowden is seeking political asylum from Ecuador. But Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa signaled in an AP interview Sunday that it's unlikely Snowden will end up there. Correa portrayed Russia as entirely the masters of Snowden's fate, and the Kremlin said it will take public opinion and the views of human rights activists into account when considering his case. That could lay the groundwork for Snowden to seek asylum in Russia.
Outgoing National Security Adviser Tom Donilon said U.S. and Russian law enforcement officials are discussing how to deal with Snowden, who is wanted on espionage charges. "The sooner that this can be resolved, the better," Donilon said in an interview with CNN's Fareed Zakaria.
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi has a different take on what to do with Snowden. "I think it's pretty good that he's stuck in the Moscow airport," Pelosi, D-Calif, said on NBC's "Meet the Press." ''That's OK with me. He can stay there, that's fine."
___
Jordans reported from Berlin. Associated Press writers Raf Casert in Brussels, Greg Keller in Paris, Frances D'Emilio in Rome, Jovana Gec in Zabgreb, Croatia, Lynn Berry in Moscow and Michael Weissenstein in Portoviejo, Ecuador, contributed to this report.
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Lara Jakes and Frank Jordans can be reached on Twitter at https://twitter.com/larajakesAP and http://www.twitter.com/wirereporter
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Palmynira
This is the auto-generated OOC topic for the roleplay "Palmynira"
You may edit this first post as you see fit.
My love for you knows no bounds. Unfortunately you just can't realize that about me. So please listen when I say it if not believe it.
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Japan's MUFG agrees to buy $5.61 billion stake in Thai lender
By Taiga Uranaka and Denny Thomas
TOKYO/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) has agreed to buy a controlling stake in Thailand's Bank of Ayudhya Pcl
MUFG's purchase of up to 75 percent of Thailand's fifth largest lender would be the biggest acquisition by a Japanese bank in Southeast Asia. It also ends General Electric Co's
The deal requires approval from Thailand's finance ministry as foreign ownership in domestic banks is capped at 49 percent. MUFG told a briefing it believes Bangkok would "take a favorable view" and said it was considering merging its Thai operations with Ayudhya to comply with Thailand's single presence policy on bank ownership.
MUFG has sizable operations in Japanese corporations in Thailand, where Toyota Motor Corp and other conglomerates own manufacturing plants.
Under the terms of the deal, MUFG will make a tender offer priced at 39 baht per share, allowing GE to sell its entire 25.33 percent stake in the Thai bank. Thailand's Ratanarak Group, which founded the bank in 1945, has agreed to retain a 25 percent stake in Ayudhya.
MUFG is paying a price-to-book ratio of 2.02 times for March 2013, which represents a 46 percent premium to the average P/B ratio of Thai banks, according to Thomson Reuters data.
The tender offer is expected to start in early November and end in December, the statement added.
GE's sale of its stake in Ayudhya is being closely watched by ING
APPETITE FOR SOUTHEAST ASIA
MUFG's acquisition of Ayudhya comes less than two months after rival Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group's bought a $1.5 billion stake in Indonesia's Bank Tabungan Pensiunan Nasional Tbk PT
Japanese banks and insurers have this year launched deals worth $8.15 billion in Southeast Asia, attracted by the region's strong growth prospects, but their operations have been mostly limited to corporate banking. MUFG's acquisition of Ayudhya marks its first foray into Asian retail banking outside Japan.
GE acquired a roughly 33 percent holding in Bank of Ayudhya in 2007 for 22.3 billion baht, or $626 million based on the exchange rate at the time. It recouped most of its investment when it sold a 7.6 percent stake for $466 million in September.
MUFG was one of several bidders for GE's stake, but sources said the Japanese lender was the most aggressive and had also won the support of the Ratanarak Group.
Morgan Stanley advised GE, while Bank of America Merrill Lynch advised MUFG, sources told Reuters. ($1= 99.7450 Japanese yen)
(Additional reporting by Khettiya Jittapong; Editing by Miral Fahmy)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/japans-mufg-agrees-buy-5-61-billion-stake-124708890.html
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