Source: http://www.ldnews.com/ci_23716990/googles-breakfast-sundar-pichai-event-live-blog?source=rss_viewed
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Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Google's 'Breakfast with Sundar Pichai' event (live blog)
Join Mercury News tech columnist Troy Wolverton as Sundar Pichai, Google's senior vice president in charge of Android and Chrome, addresses the media in San Francisco. Will Google announce a new Nexus 7 tablet? Or an Android update? Tune in starting at 11:45 a.m. ET Wednesday to find out.
Salford councillor could be jailed over Twitter comment on BNP
Howard Balkind was reported to police by the far-right BNP for tweeting that the party would be ?lucky to get 10 votes? at a by-election last month.
A councillor could be jailed over ?off the cuff? Twitter remarks made during an election count.
Howard Balkind was reported to police by the far-right BNP for tweeting that the party would be ?lucky to get 10 votes? at a by-election last month.
It is alleged that Coun Balkind broke the law by revealing the results of postal votes before polls had closed the Weaste and Seedley ward.
Coun Balkind, a prominent anti-fascist and anti-BNP campaigner in Salford, now faces a wait while the Crown Prosecution Service decided whether to press charges under the Representation of the People Act.
Under the 1983 act, the maximum penalty for making ?any statement relating to the way in which voters have voted at the election? before polls close is six months in prison or a ?5,000 fine.
The BNP?s complaint was made after polling closed, shortly before midnight on Thursday, June 20, over the tweet, posted the previous Tuesday.
Coun Balkind was interviewed by police under caution on the Friday morning after the complaint was lodged with police then passing the file to the CPS to decide whether to prosecute.
Labour?s Paul Wilson eventually won the election with 785 votes while the BNP came fifth, Kay Pollitt polling 74 votes.
The election campaign became mired in controversy after Salford council were legally obliged to supply Ms Pollitt with a room to stage a public meeting, leading to protests joined by Coun Balkind which caused the meeting to be moved at the last minute.
The councillor has now shut down his Twitter account and says he and his family have received ?veiled threats? from the @BNPSalford Twitter account.
BNP leaflets were also stuffed through his letterbox three days in row, Coun Balkind says.
He added that the police are looking into the claims.
Coun Balkind, 61, told the M.E.N. that the remarks were ?off the cuff? and not an attempt to reveal the results of postal voting ? and called the BNP?s complaint ?vexatious?.
He added: ?The whole thing has become ridiculous. The BNP are claiming they suffered because what I tweeted cost them votes but it is their poisonous politics that cost them votes.?
A GMP spokesman said: ?On Thursday 20 June 2013, police were called following allegations of a breach of section 66 of the Representation of the People Act. A man was interviewed under caution at Pendleton police station and enquiries are ongoing.?
A BNP spokesman confirmed that party members had reported Coun Balkind to the police.
He added: ?After legal advice from Salford city council, the Electoral Commission and our own legal team it was established that Mr Balkind acted in a way that breached the secrecy code in regards to the election process by tweeting from his official account, results of the first postal vote opening that he had attended earlier that week, before the close of ballots of the recent Weaste and Seedley by-election.
?We cannot comment any further as a criminal investigation is under way, and for the record the British National Party will press for charges.
?In relation to further claims of harassment, that is nothing more than a smoke screen to cover up the key fact of him breaking the law.?
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New Treatment Option For Prostate Cancer Patients ? CBS St. Louis
ST. LOUIS (KMOX) ? Prostate cancer patients whose disease has moved into their bones now have a new treatment available locally.
Siteman Cancer Center is one of just five in the United States to treat meta-static prostate cancer patients with a newly-approved drug.
The drug is called Xofigo, a radioactive injection designed to extend a patient?s life.
?It actually improves the patients survival?about four months on average,? says Dr. Jeff Michalski, a radiation oncologist at the Siteman Cancer Center. ?However, recognize that some patients will have certainly more benefit of course, others may have less.?
The drug doesn?t cure the disease, but by mimicking calcium, Xofigo helps ease the excruciating pain of cancer to the bones.
Michalski says the drugs improves the quality of a prostate cancer patient?s life by reducing the number of hip and compression fractures.
Source: http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2013/07/23/new-treatment-option-for-prostate-cancer-patients/
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Congress, Obama at odds over new Iran sanctions
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Congress is considering a new series of hard-hitting Iran sanctions on everything from mining and construction to the Islamic republic's already besieged oil industry, despite concern from the Obama administration that the measures could interfere with nuclear negotiations.
House and Senate bills are both advancing at a time President Barack Obama's national security team is gauging whether Iranian President-elect Hasan Rouhani is serious about halting some elements of Tehran's uranium enrichment activity. Those involved in the process said the administration wants to temper Congressional plans until Rouhani takes office in August and has an opportunity to demonstrate whether his government will offer concessions.
The legislation would blacklist Iran's mining and construction sectors, effective next year, because they are seen as heavily linked to Iran's hard-line Revolutionary Guard corps. It also would commit the U.S. to the goal of ending all Iranian oil sales worldwide by 2015, targeting the regime's biggest revenue generator and prime source of money for its weapons and nuclear programs.
U.S. penalties that went into effect last year already have cut Iran's petroleum exports in half, but that still leaves billions of dollars coming in every month from Turkey, China and several other Asian countries.
The House's bill may pass before Congress' August recess. The Senate version won't get a vote until at least September, said Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a leading advocate of tougher Iran sanctions. The Senate Banking Committee, which will put forward the package, is in ongoing consultations with the administration, according to one U.S. official who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk publicly about the sanctions.
John McCain, R-Ariz., said the U.S. should immediately "plow ahead" with greater and tougher measures against Iran. "We're running out of time," he said.
The U.S. and many other countries believe Iran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons. Obama has said Iran has until sometime next year to prove to the world its nuclear program is peaceful. If diplomacy fails, the stage may be set for a military intervention by the U.S. or Israel, which sees an Iranian nuclear weapon as a threat to its very existence.
In a report last week, David Albright and Christina Walrond at the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security concluded that Iran will be able to produce enough weapons-grade uranium for a nuclear explosive without being detected by mid-2014.
Iranians insist their program is solely for energy and research purposes.
The State Department wouldn't comment specifically on new legislation while it said it was waiting for Rouhani to be sworn in. "We will see what he does once in office," spokeswoman Marie Harf said.
A senior U.S. official said the administration's concerns were about the timing and content of the legislation.
If Rouhani is serious about compromise, setting new sanctions in advance of talks risks undercutting him, the official said. Even if the new Iranian leader isn't serious, the oil measures in particular are problematic, turning a potential U.S. diplomatic success into a failure.
If China or Japan, for example, decides to flout the U.S. demand to stop all importing from Iran, the administration would then have to weigh enforcing the law by blacklisting Chinese and Japanese banks and companies at the risk of widespread economic harm ? including for Americans. The likelier result is that the U.S. does nothing, making the sanctions look hollow and eroding international solidarity on pressuring Iran.
Despite wide bilateral support in Congress for tougher sanctions, some Democrats and Republicans are embracing the administration's cautious approach. In a letter last week to Obama, 18 GOP House members joined more than 100 of their Democratic colleagues in urging the president to "reinvigorate U.S. efforts to secure a negotiated nuclear agreement" and give Rouhani a chance.
Rouhani's election clearly has bolstered hope of compromise. A former nuclear negotiator and relatively moderate cleric, Rouhani has suggested a more accommodating approach than his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. However, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has final say on nuclear issues.
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said last week his country would be ready to resume talks once Rouhani, who takes office the first weekend in August, puts together a negotiating team.
World powers want the meeting "as soon as possible," Catherine Ashton, the European Union's foreign policy chief, said last week. Ashton has served as the point of contact for the U.S., Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia since talks with Iran restarted last year. They've yet to make significant headway despite four rounds of discussions.
Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and an adviser to Congress and the administration on Iran sanctions, said moving forward with new measures made sense. "Iran's nuclear ploys continue to beat Western economic pressure," he said. "The administration must go into the next round of negotiations with significant, re-enhanced leverage."
The administration has other options too. It could toughen enforcement of existing restrictions on Iran related to energy, shipping, port management and other sectors the U.S. has blacklisted in recent months. Dubowitz estimated that stamping out gold flows to Iran that already are subject to U.S. penalties could eliminate $20 billion a year in Iranian government revenue alone.
The rough parameters of any larger nuclear deal with Iran are clear. It would have to include the West scaling back some of the sanctions that have crippled Iran's economy over the past few years. In return, the Iranians probably would be allowed to continue producing low-enriched uranium for fuel but would be required to halt production of any higher-enriched material that comes closer to warhead-grade, and send existing stockpiles of such material out of the country for safekeeping. Western powers also would surely demand tougher monitoring of Tehran's nuclear activities.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/congress-obama-odds-over-iran-sanctions-071150782.html
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Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Live Stream: Waiting for William, Kate and Baby at London hospital
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Source: http://myhighplains.com/fulltext?nxd_id=403812
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The True State of the Philippines: Crime in a ... - News Junkie Post
The Philippines government has long been ineffective at solving crimes, many of which are categorized as being heinous. Rampant crime has plagued practically all levels of Philippine society, and their occurrences have largely been attributed to the weak and useless systems that characterize the government, especially those mechanisms within it that are meant to address the crime problem.
The crime problem has taken its toll on the lifeblood of the nation?s socioeconomic situation. Crimes have tremendously affected the country?s economic growth. A large segment of our people has lost confidence in the law-enforcing agencies of government. Many fear that tragedy might suddenly strike them in broad daylight. Stories from the newspapers (particularly the tabloids) are sufficient to send tingles down the spine. One thing is certain: Filipino society is crime-ridden and the government is helpless at effectively checking and containing the already serious and increasingly more serious crime problem in the country.
Common Causes of Criminality
Common causes of criminality can be traced through sociological and behavioral studies of the human condition. It is a fact of life that crimes occur only in the human sphere, and social relations are therefore a major aspect in approaching the issue of criminality. With this point of departure, we can objectively mention some factors that have been identified by professional practitioners engaged in the study of criminality, among whom are psychologists, sociologists, criminologists and others.
1. Poverty. In a society like the Philippines, where poverty is a given, no second thought is needed to ascertain that in one way or another, poverty causes criminality. Crimes are committed in areas where the urban poor live, and their occurrence is quite regular. Poverty may not be strictly identified as a direct cause of crimes but certain circumstances brought forth by and within a situation of poverty cause them.
On the other hand, in the book, The Causes and Cures of Criminality, Eysenck and Gudjonsson claim that: ?Many ? if not most ? sociological theories boil down to what might be called economic theories, i.e., crimes as a result of poverty, whether relative or absolute, deprivation, and similar economic causes. Although such theories have always had appeal, they do not accord with the facts.? This claim, backed up by figures based on thorough research studies, attempts to rebut the ?theory? that poverty is a major cause of criminality. But the research studies were done in the context of an industrialized society where poverty is not prevalent. The fact is, in a society that is not generally poor, poverty cannot really be a major cause of criminality. Hence, the findings stressed by Eysenck and Gudjonsson cannot be applied, across the board, to practically all societies. What we only have to accept is the fact that poverty, in the context of poor countries like the Philippines, is a major cause of criminality. It is illogical, however, to conjecture that poverty is the only cause, considering the fact that other major causes are identifiable, many of which are bred in an environment that is characterized by the sharp features of poverty.
2. Abuse of Power. Another prominent cause of crime in Philippine society is somehow also related to our economic condition. It is not the type of crime perpetrated by people in a situation of poverty but one that terribly affects them. It exploits the economic weakness of the poor, and none but the poor are the unfortunate victims of its ravaging onslaught. This cause of crime is: abuse of power.
Abuse of power is routinely perpetrated by powerful government officials and law enforcers with a mandate to defend the rights of people and protect them from harm. Abuse of power is terribly serious in the Philippines. In most cases, crimes related to the abuse of power are not treated as crimes due to methods of circumventing the laws.
Every day newspaper banners report crimes committed by policemen and military personnel?hold-ups, kidnaps-for-ransom, murders, bank robberies, carjacking, etc. The crimes of these people are even more heinous than those committed by some poor, unknown and desperate criminals. Since the justice system in the country is so discouragingly defective, most of the time, powerful criminals are exonerated of their crimes, even those categorized as heinous. Meanwhile, the unknown, powerless poor suspects in lesser crimes are not given fair trials and thrown immediately in jail.
Effects of Criminality on the Economy
1. Widening Gap Between the Poor and the Rich. In view of the powerful people?s oppressive and exploitative attitude towards the poor and marginalized sectors of the Philippine society, crimes brought about by the abuse of power have tremendously affected the country?s economic situation. Oppression and exploitation in themselves are basically crimes that further manifest themselves as? obvious criminal acts like property grabbing (which is actually robbery), property destruction and murder.
?This country is not only notoriously known for its systemic culture of corruption, but the Aquino administration is also being associated with the pervasive climate of violence.
?Notwithstanding press releases of the Philippine National Police (PNP) citing steady decline in the crime index, the Aquino administration will go down in history as the most crime-ridden government since the declaration of military rule in 1972.?
The crimes perpetrated by the powers that be are intended to perpetuate their status of power and to grab more opportunities for ascendancy and more wealth at the expense of the hapless poor. These crimes have continually concentrated the wealth of the nation in the hands of the small percentage of the Philippine society?s wealthy sector, while the big chunk of the people wallow in poverty. The poor are exploited and oppressed more and more, and the gap between the poor and the rich continues to widen.
2. Inability to Industrialize Nationally. A desperate act of the powers that be in their desire to concentrate more wealth and opportunity into their hands is the utilization of huge capitalization from big foreign investors. By pushing the poor against the wall of further poverty, the powers that be have gained access to the manipulation of the country?s economic resources for the benefit of foreign investors, who in turn have given the local capitalists the upper hand to engineer a devastating blow to national industrialization.
For the interest of foreign business investments, crimes have to be committed to convert and transform farmlands into industrial estates. ?Legal? robbery, which is actually land-grabbing, has to be effected, and stubborn farmers who defy the will of government officials (who act as brokers for foreign capitalists) are summarily executed, i.e., ?salvaged? in the local slang.
Industrialization is basically good, but it has to be initiated and implemented for the national interest. The failure to do so by accommodating the exploitative schemes of foreign interests is a crime worse than treason.
Reasons Why Law Enforcement Institutions are Ineffective at Solving Crime and Controlling the Rising Tide of Criminality
The number of government law enforcement agencies and institutions is simply mind boggling. In theory, crimes should have long been controlled and solved, given the presence of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and its elite Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG); the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI); the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), and the intelligence arms of the major commands of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). In practice, it is disgusting to know that what has been going on is the opposite. Myriads of crimes go unsolved, and the crime situation has never been truly contained. This is basically due to several factors.
1. Corrupt and Incompetent Law Enforcers. Many law enforcers are corrupt and therefore unqualified. They are part and parcel of the corrupt government system. Since they serve the interest of their corrupt patrons, they acquire from the latter the same character of corruption. At worst, they themselves function as criminals in the performance of their duties as protectors of their evil patrons. This is why the people have lost confidence in law enforcers, particularly the police.
2. Lack of Cooperation Between the Public and the Law Enforcers. The situation of corruption has led to a lack of cooperation with law enforcers. The government?s Department of Justice keeps calling on people to cooperate with law enforcement agencies, with the promise and assurance of protection. But the people don?t bite at the idea because of a lack of trust.
3. Confused Roles of Various Law Enforcement Agencies. Even if law enforcement agencies were morally upright, another serious problem would hinder the speedy solution of crimes. When there was not yet a PNP, the NBI was traditionally tasked with criminal cases that cut across provincial borders. With the establishment of the PNP, the jurisdiction to handle criminal cases exactly the same as that of the NBI has likewise been given to the police. This whole arrangement has created a confusing situation that in many instances has put NBI agents and PNP officers in conflicting lines of authority.
4. Government?s Lack of Interest to Solve Crimes. Because of government?s focus on power-base expansion and politicking, it has given the national crime situation a low-priority, and this is a pathetic scenario: solid proof that the government is insincere about its mission to serve and help the people, especially the poor.
Conclusion
This is the true state of the Philippines as a nation. We are governed by corrupt leaders whose major agenda are their own personal vested interests. We have law enforcement agencies and institutions whose major task is to protect and defend the corrupt leaders of the country and in the process perpetuate the system of corruption. Because of these conditions, criminality has proliferated and will continue to proliferate in the next generations. The whole situation has put common Filipinos at great economic disadvantage, and poverty is here to stay ??til kingdom come.? Hopeless? Who holds the key to the most sensible answer?
Editor?s Note: Ruel F. Pepa is a retired university academic in the fields of philosophy and cultural studies. He is currently based in Madrid, Spain. Photographs one, two, four, six and eight by Audio Visual Junkie. Photographs seven, nine, ten and eleven by Joe Sullivan.
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Monday, July 22, 2013
Video: Searching for investment opportunities
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Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/video/cnbc/52546335/
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