Friday, 1 November 2013
Magnetic 'force field' shields giant gas cloud during collision with Milky Way
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Iraqi PM: Terror 'got a second chance' in Iraq
WASHINGTON (AP) — Terrorists "found a second chance" to thrive in Iraq, the nation's prime minister said Thursday in asking for new U.S. aid to beat back a bloody insurgency that has been fueled by the neighboring Syrian civil war and the departure of American troops from Iraq two years ago.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told a packed auditorium at the U.S. Institute of Peace that he needs additional weapons, help with intelligence and other assistance, and claimed the world has a responsibility to help because terrorism is an international concern.
"They carry their bad ideas everywhere," al-Maliki said of terrorists. "They carry bad ideas instead of flowers."
The new request comes nearly two years after al-Maliki's government refused to let U.S. forces remain in Iraq, after nearly nine years of war, with legal immunity that the Obama administration insisted was necessary to protect troops. The administration had campaigned on ending the war in Iraq and took the opportunity offered by the legal dispute to pull all troops out.
Al-Maliki will meet Friday with President Barack Obama in what Baghdad hopes will be a fresh start in a complicated relationship that has been marked both by victories and frustrations for each side.
Within months of the U.S. troops' departure, violence began creeping up in the capital and across the country as Sunni Muslim insurgents, angered by a widespread belief that Sunnis had been sidelined by the Shiite-led government, lashed out. The State Department says at least 6,000 Iraqis have been killed in attacks so far this year, and suicide bombers launched 38 strikes in the last month alone.
"So the terrorists found a second chance," al-Maliki said — a turnabout from an insurgency that was mostly silenced by the time the U.S. troops left.
Al-Maliki largely blamed the Syrian civil war for the rise in Iraq's violence. In Syria, rebels — including some linked to al-Qaida — are fighting to overthrow President Bashar Assad.
Al-Maliki said he will ask Obama for new assistance to bolster Iraq's military and fight al-Qaida. The Iraqi ambassador to the U.S. said that could include speeding up the delivery of U.S. aircraft, missiles, interceptors and other weapons, and improving national intelligence systems among other things.
Iraqi Ambassador Lukman Faily did not rule out the possibility of asking the U.S. to send military special forces or additional CIA advisers to Iraq to help train and assist counterterror troops, but noted that if the U.S. doesn't provide the help, Iraq will go where they can, including China or Russia, which would be more than happy to increase their influence in Baghdad at U.S. expense.
The two leaders also will discuss how Iraq can improve its fractious government, which so often is divided among sectarian or ethnic lines, to give it more confidence with a bitter and traumatized public.
The ambassador said no new security agreement would be needed to give immunity to additional U.S. advisers or trainers in Iraq. And he said Iraq would pay for the additional weapons or other assistance.
A senior Obama administration official said Wednesday that U.S. officials were not planning to send U.S. trainers to Iraq and that Baghdad had not asked for them. The administration official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters by name.
U.S. officials were prepared to help Iraq with an approach that did not focus just on military or security gaps, the administration official said. The aid under consideration might include more weapons for Iraqi troops who do not have necessary equipment to battle al-Qaida insurgents, he said.
Administration officials consider the insurgency, which has rebranded itself as the Islamic State of Iraq in the Levant, a major and increasing threat both to Iraq and the U.S., the official said.
U.S. and Iraqi officials see a possible solution in trying to persuade insurgents to join forces with Iraqi troops and move away from al-Qaida, following a pattern set by so-called Awakening Councils in western Iraq that marked a turning point in the war. Faily said much of the additional aid — including weapons and training — would go toward this effort.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who opposed the U.S. troop withdrawal in 2011, said Iraq likely would not get the aid until al-Maliki, a Shiite, makes strides in making the government more inclusive to Sunnis. "The situation is deteriorating and it's unraveling, and he's got to turn it around," McCain said Wednesday after a tense meeting on Capitol Hill with al-Maliki.
Al-Maliki's plea for aid is somewhat ironic, given that he refused to budge in 2011 on letting U.S. troops stay in Iraq with legal immunity Washington said they must have to defend themselves in the volatile country. But it was a fiercely unpopular political position in Iraq, which was unable to prosecute Blackwater Worldwide security contractors who opened fire in a Baghdad square in 2007, killing at least 13 passersby.
James F. Jeffrey, who was the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad when the U.S. troops left, called it a "turnabout" by al-Maliki. He said Iraq desperately needs teams of U.S. advisers, trainers, intelligence and counterterror experts to beat back al-Qaida.
"They could mean all the difference between losing an Iraq that 4,500 Americans gave their lives for," said Jeffrey, who retired from the State Department after leaving Baghdad last year.
Nearly 4,500 U.S. troops were killed in Iraq between the 2003 invasion and the 2011 withdrawal. More than 100,000 Iraqi were killed in that time.
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Follow Lara Jakes on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/larajakesAP
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Despite government cuts, tech spending overall shows signs of life
Though the shutdown and spending cuts by the U.S. government are taking a toll on IT sales this year, market surveys and financial results from the likes of Apple and Facebook this week show some positive signs for tech.
"In Forrester's semi-annual US tech market update, we conclude that the Federal budget sequestration, the two-week Federal government shutdown, and the fallout from threats to not raise the Federal debt ceiling have shaved about two percentage points of growth from business and government spending on technology goods and services in 2013," said Forrester chief economist Andrew Bartels in a blog post Sunday.
[ Also on InfoWorld: Enterprise software revenue growth suggests recovery under way. | For quick, smart takes on the news you'll be talking about, check out InfoWorld TechBrief -- subscribe today. | Find out what topics and issues affect tech's biggest names and news makers in the IDGE Insider CEO interview series. | Read Bill Snyder's Tech's Bottom Line blog for what the key business trends mean to you. ]
As a result, Forrester this week reduced its 2013 forecast for U.S. business and government purchases of ICT (information and communications technology) goods and services to 3.9 percent from its 5.7 percent growth forecast earlier this year.
The market research firm sees weakness in computer equipment, IT outsourcing and telecom services. Its revised forecast, however, continues to show strong growth in software, especially, SaaS (software as a service) and analytical and collaboration apps; IT consulting and systems integration services; and communications equipment.
For its part, IDC said this week that big data analytics, content applications and system software drove enterprise software growth in the first half of the year.
IDC said that for the first half of 2013, the worldwide software market grew 5.5 percent year over year, reaching a total market size of $179 billion, which is close to the company's forecast of 5.7 percent growth for the full year. It's also slightly higher than 5.1 percent growth experienced in the first half of 2012, IDC pointed out, noting that this could be interpreted as a sign of recovery following a period of uncertainty caused by turmoil in the eurozone. IDC expects this moderately positive scenario to continue for several more years.
"Enterprises are seeing new opportunities to drive new and improved products and services by leveraging information. Therefore, it stands to reason that software to manage, access, and share information (structured and unstructured) continues to be a priority for competing in today's economy and a driver of software market growth," said IDC analyst Henry D. Morris in the report.
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Iran launches its first submarine for tourists
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran has launched its first submarine for tourists in the Persian Gulf waters, an all-Iranian-made undersea vehicle.
State TV says the sub has been dubbed Morvarid, or Pearl in Farsi, and has the capacity to carry four people per voyage. It says the vessel is four meters (13 feet) long and three meters (9.8 feet) in both width and height.
Friday's report says the submarine will serve tourists in Kish Island, Iran's prime tourist spot in the Gulf.
Morvarid has been entirely designed and manufactured by Iranian experts. The TV also says it has a speed of up to 12 knots, has a diesel generator but can be electrically-powered for up to six to 10 hours.
Iran's Navy has several Russian-made and smaller Iranian-built submarines in service.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iran-launches-first-submarine-tourists-095826226.htmlSimilar Articles: amber alert big bang theory houston texans
More Foreign Firms Look To Make It In The USA
Acura MDX sport utility vehicles roll off the assembly line at a Honda plant in Lincoln, Ala., in May. Overseas investors have U.S. assets totaling nearly $4 trillion, including auto plants, banks and mines.
Joe Songer/AL.com/Landov
Acura MDX sport utility vehicles roll off the assembly line at a Honda plant in Lincoln, Ala., in May. Overseas investors have U.S. assets totaling nearly $4 trillion, including auto plants, banks and mines.
Joe Songer/AL.com/Landov
When many Americans hear the word "globalization," they think: "jobs going overseas."
And sometimes it does mean just that.
But as globalization knits nations closer together, foreign companies increasingly are creating jobs in the United States, not luring them away. Despite the Great Recession, slow recovery and political dysfunction in Washington, the United States remains a top destination for the world's wealth.
Overseas investors have U.S. assets totaling nearly $4 trillion, including auto plants, banks, mines and more. U.S. affiliates of foreign companies employ about 5.6 million people in this country.
On Thursday, President Obama highlighted those investments, and urged foreign business leaders — packed into a Washington, D.C., hotel ballroom — to build more plants and offices in this country.
"There is no better place in the world to do business," Obama said.
The administration welcomed 1,200 participants from roughly 60 countries, and urged them to learn more about an initiative called SelectUSA. Under the program, the U.S. State Department works closely with the Commerce Department to help foreign companies set up shop here.
U.S. ambassadors in 32 countries will now add "economic development" to their list of chores, according to the Commerce Department. The goal is to have local, state and federal officials in all departments working together to smooth the way for foreign direct investments.
Obama told the foreign guests "when you bet on America, that bet pays off," thanks to this country's many economic advantages, including cheap energy, an educated workforce, intellectual-property protections, a sophisticated financial system and much more.
"There are a whole lot of reasons you ought to come here," he said. "We are the land of opportunity. That is not a myth; it's a proven fact. "
U.S. business leaders who spoke at the gathering raised concerns about this country's ability to continue to be attractive to investors. For example, Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, a global investment management firm based in New York City, said he has become "alarmed" by Washington's political dysfunction, which he says unnerved many foreign investors.
Speaking on a panel about investing opportunities, Fink said that when some Republican lawmakers used the U.S. debt ceiling deadline as a lever to try to win concessions a couple of weeks ago, they endangered the country's status as a stable place to invest.
"I am very bullish about America," he said. But "it's important that we drop the conversation about default," he added.
Despite any reputational harm done by the October government shutdown and debt-ceiling threat, foreign executives didn't seem deterred about investing in the United States.
"It's very easy to do business here," said Leonardo Figueiro, vice president of the WTC Business Club in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He says that in Brazil, he faces "lots of costs and bureaucracy."
But in the United States, people want to close on real estate deals and open clubs. "We always want to do business in this market," he said. "We built a building in Miami, and now we're looking forward to investing more."
That upbeat assessment could be heard again and again among the foreigners visiting the exhibit booths set up by cities and states.
At the Ohio booth, representatives handed out chocolates shaped like buckeye nuts. At the Carmel, Ind., booth, a large sign made sure visitors knew more about "A City to Experience." Many guests were impressed with the pitches.
"The United States is definitely the leading economy in the world — it's the most stable and progressive," said Hiten Parekh, CEO for the Americas operations of Waaree Energies Ltd., based in India. "This is the No. 1 country in the world for investing."
Blair King, an economic development manager for Alabama Power Co., stood in his state's booth, talking up business opportunities. He said foreigners are impressed with U.S. energy abundance.
When it comes to electric power, "they want to know what it costs," he said. And they often find it's cheaper here, he said.
Speakers at the two-day gathering include Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker and Secretary of State John Kerry. Top executives from Wal-Mart, Caterpillar, Dow Chemical and other U.S.-based companies are participating in panel discussions that end Friday.
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Sly Stallone likes Karl's 'natural humility'
In this Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013 photo, Sylvester Stallone, left, who played Rocky Balboa in the 1976 film "Rocky," poses with Andy Karl, who will play Rocky Balboa in the upcoming Broadway musical "Rocky," in New York. (Photo by Dan Hallman/Invision/AP)
In this Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013 photo, Sylvester Stallone, left, who played Rocky Balboa in the 1976 film "Rocky," poses with Andy Karl, who will play Rocky Balboa in the upcoming Broadway musical "Rocky," in New York. (Photo by Dan Hallman/Invision/AP)
In this Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013 photo, Sylvester Stallone, left, who played Rocky Balboa in the 1976 film "Rocky," poses with Margo Seibert, center, who will be playing the role of Adrian, and Andy Karl, who will play Rocky Balboa in the upcoming Broadway musical "Rocky," in New York. (Photo by Dan Hallman/Invision/AP)
In this Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013 photo, Sylvester Stallone, left, who played Rocky Balboa in the 1976 film "Rocky," poses with Andy Karl, who will play Rocky Balboa in the upcoming Broadway musical "Rocky," in New York. (Photo by Dan Hallman/Invision/AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — Picking the guy who will play Rocky Balboa onstage was no easy task. Just ask Sylvester Stallone, who helped cast Broadway veteran Andy Karl.
"Having gone through literally hundreds, maybe thousands, of prospects, Andy was one of our first choices and he just had it," Stallone said last month during a sit-down with the actor who will be playing his most famous character.
"He has what it takes — there's no arrogance, there's a natural humility about him, and that's what is important," Stallone said.
"No matter how threatening he may look, you're going to like him, it just comes through. And that's not so easy to find. Tough guys are a dime a dozen; a sensitive tough guy, pretty rare."
The musical "Rocky" will open on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre in March 2014. Based on the Oscar-winning 1976 film by Stallone, the musical features a score by "Ragtime" veterans Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, and a story by Thomas Meehan, who wrote "The Producers" and "Hairspray."
Karl's Broadway credits include "The Mystery of Edwin Drood," ''Jersey Boys," ''9 to 5," ''Legally Blonde," ''The Wedding Singer" and "Saturday Night Fever." Margo Seibert, making her Broadway debut, will star as Adrian, Balboa's love interest.
The musical stays close to the film, which charted the rise and romance of amateur boxer and debt collector Rocky Balboa, who gets his shot against undefeated heavyweight champion Apollo Creed.
The film made famous the image of Balboa running up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the quote "Yo, Adrian!" The trumpet-laden funky theme "Gonna Fly Now" and the anthem "Eye of the Tiger" will be in the Broadway version.
The director is Alex Timbers, who directed Broadway's "The Pee-wee Herman Show" and directed and wrote the book for "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson." The boxing choreography is being done by Steven Hoggett, who choreographed "American Idiot," ''Peter and the Starcatcher" and "Once."
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Online: http://www.rockybroadway.com
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-10-31-Theater-Sylvester%20Stallone/id-a6e1c55da6d9423399871b703d7a345aCategory: allen iverson Cameron Douglas september 11 kobe bryant Lady Gaga
Box Office Preview: 'Ender's Game' Eyeing $25 Million-Plus North American Debut
Sci-fi epic Ender's Game is poised to win the North American box-office race this weekend with a solid $25 million or more opening, hoping to reverse a disturbing downturn in movie adaptations of young-adult books. Overseas, the film has already opened in the U.K., where it is doing softer-than-expected business.
The big headline internationally this weekend will be Disney and Marvel Studios' sequel Thor: The Dark World, which began rolling out Wednesday in the U.K., France and a handful of other markets, grossing north of $8 million and pacing ahead of the first Thor. On Thursday and Friday, Thor 2, with Chris Hemsworth returning in the title role, opens in a number of other major markets before hitting theaters in North America on Nov. 8.
PHOTOS: 'Ender's Game' Premiere Invades Hollywood With Harrison Ford, Asa Butterfield
Ender's Game, a co-production between Summit Entertainment, OddLot Entertainment and Digital Domain, will need to do substantial business worldwide in order to make up its $110 million budget. The action-adventure is based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Orson Scott Card, whose anti-gay comments have riled many (though he has said Ender's Game isn't a YA property, it has been made widely available in schools).
Directed by Gavin Hood, Ender's Game stars Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, Viola Davis, Hailee Steinfeld and Abigail Breslin. The film should be boosted by a run in Imax theaters.
Outside of the Hunger Games and Twilight film franchises, YA properties have struggled at the box office. This year, The Host, Beautiful Creatures and Mortal Instruments: City of Bones all flopped.
Set in the near future, Ender's Game revolves around a young boy (Butterfield) who is recruited by the military to stop an alien race from destroying the world.
PHOTOS: 25 of Fall's Most Anticipated Movies
Ender's Game is a sizeable gamble for Gigi Pritzker's OddLot, which financed much of the movie and dispatched sister company Sierra/Affinity to sell the movie internationally. Last weekend, Ender's Game debuted at No. 5 in the U.K. with just under $2 million, but the film could make up ground as it continues to roll out in additional foreign markets.
Relativity Media and Reel FX's animated 3D pic Free Birds is getting an early jump on Thanksgiving by rolling out now. The movie -- about a pair of turkeys who travel back in time to prevent their kind from becoming the traditional holiday meal -- should benefit from being the only new family entry in the market and hit $20 million in its debut (Entertainment One is distributing in Canada), although Relativity insiders are expecting a figure more in the $16 million to $19 million range. The voice cast is led by Owen Wilson, Woody Harrelson and Amy Poehler.
Free Birds, costing $55 million to make, marks Relativity's first foray into the animation business. The company could use a box-office win after suffering a string of disappointments.
CBS Films' sexagenarian comedy Last Vegas, the weekend's third new nationwide entry, is looking at a more modest opening in the $14 million range. Directed by Jon Turteltaub, the film's high-profile cast -- Robert De Niro, Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline -- should result in strong legs, however. A geezer version of The Hangover, Last Vegas stars four friends in their 60s who travel to Las Vegas for a bachelor party. Mary Steenburgen also stars.
Older moviegoers rarely rush to see a film on its opening weekend. CBS Films believes Last Vegas will serve as strong counterprogramming throughout the month. In August 2012, Hope Springs, starring Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones, opened to a modest $14.7 million on its way to earning $63.5 million domestically and a hearty $114.3 million globally.
The specialty box office sees a number of high-profile debuts, including awards contender Dallas Buyers Club, which Focus Features opens in six theaters in New York and Los Angeles, and Diana, the biopic of Princess Diana starring Naomi Watts. Entertainment One is opening Diana in 38 markets.
Dallas Buyers Club has drawn raves for its performances by Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto.
Universal also releases Richard Curtis' romantic fantasy-comedy About Time, starring Rachel McAdams opposite Tom Hollander, in the U.S. From Working Title Films, About Time is only opening in 175 theaters domestically. Overseas, the film has grossed $32 million from 40 markets, with 17 countries still left to go.
On the documentary side, Tom Donahue's acclaimed documentary Casting By -- which laments the fact that casting directors are snubbed by the Academy Awards -- opens in one theater to New York. In a rare letter to Hollywood that appeared in the The Hollywood Reporter timed to the film's opening, Woody Allen extolled the work of the casting director he has worked with over the years.
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Jimmy Fallon Shares Sleepy Halloween Shot of Winnie
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It's Easy To Clean Under This Levitating Bed

Scientists claim there are no black holes close enough to harm our solar system. But they're clearly not acknowledging the black holes that exist under every bed, sucking in and trapping dropped items, random clothing, and seemingly every last speck of dust in a room. There's a solution, though, in the form of Letti Bolzan's clever Iorca bed, which lifts your mattress to turn that under-bed void into tons of easily accessible storage space.
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Thursday, 31 October 2013
Google's Coming to the Rescue on HealthCare.gov

The "tech surge" that President Obama promised to fix the very broken HealthCare.gov portal just got a lot more tech-savvy. According to Bloomberg, companies like Google, Oracle and Red Hat are now swooping in to lead the recovery effort. But is it enough?
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Whole bevy of official Nexus 5 cases also available in Google Play

Stylish (and expensive) ways to protect your new Nexus 5
Along with the announcement of the Nexus 5 on Google Play, Google is rolling out an assortment of different cases for the phone. There's both a "bumper" case available for $34.99 (£24.99 in the U.K.) and "QuickCover" for $49.99 (£34.99). The bumper isn't much of a bumper at all, and actually covers the back of the phone as well. it is made of a "hard outer shell and soft rubber lining," and is offered in black, grey, red and yellow — while it seemed to actually be on sale for a moment, it is dropped to "coming soon" in all colors.
The QuickCover case is much the same, but has a flap that covers the screen as well. Both black and white varieties are "coming soon" at this point in the US, with the black version currently shipping in the U.K.
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NSA's Accumulo data store has strict limits on who can see the data
With its much-discussed enthusiasm for collecting large amounts of data, the NSA naturally found much interest in the idea of highly scalable NoSQL databases.
But the U.S. intelligence agency needed some security of its own, so it developed a NoSQL data store called Accumulo, with built-in policy enforcement mechanisms that strictly limit who can see its data.
At the O’Reilly Strata-Hadoop World conference this week in New York, one of the former National Security Agency developers behind the software, Adam Fuchs, explained how Accumulo works and how it could be used in fields other than intelligence gathering. The agency contributed the software’s source code to the Apache Software Foundation in 2011.
“Every single application that we built at the NSA has some concept of multi-level security,” said Fuchs, who is now the chief technology officer of Sqrrl, which offers a commercial edition of the software.
The NSA started building Accumulo in 2008. Much like Facebook did with its Cassandra database around the same time, the NSA used the Google Big Table architecture as a starting point.
In the parlance of NoSQL databases, Accumulo is a simple key/value data store, built on a shared-nothing architecture that allows for easy expansion to thousands of nodes able to hold petabytes worth of data. It features a flexible schema that allows new columns to be quickly added, and comes with some advanced data analysis features as well.
Accumulo's killer feature
Accumulo’s killer feature, however, is its “data-centric security,” Fuchs said. When data is entered into Accumulo, it must be accompanied with tags specifying who is allowed to see that material. Each row of data has a cell specifying the roles within an organization that can access the data, which can map back to specific organizational security policies.
It adheres to the RBAC (role-based access control) model. This approach allowed the NSA to categorize data into its multiple levels of classification—confidential, secret, top secret—as well as who in an organization could access the data, based on their official role within the organization. The database is accompanied by a policy engine that decides who can see what data.
This model could be used anywhere that security is an issue. For instance, if used in a health care organization, Accumulo can specify that only a patient and the patient’s doctor can see the patient’s data. The patient’s specific doctor may change over time, but the role of the doctor, rather than the individual doctor, is specified in the database.
The NSA found that the data-centric approach “greatly simplifies application development,” Fuchs said.
Because data today tends to be transformed and reused for different analysis applications, it makes sense for the database itself to keep track of who is allowed to see the data, rather than repeatedly implementing these rules in each application that uses this data.
“Since the applications in this model can push down the security model into the database and companion components, you don’t have to solve that in the application,” Fuchs said. As a result, “it is a lot cheaper to build that application,” Fuchs said.
This is not the NSA’s first foray into releasing open-source applications built on the role-based access model. In 2000, the agency released SELinux (Security-Enhanced Linux), which allows administrators to create policies that dictate what actions each program on a computer can execute, based on the user’s role. SELinux was subsequently rolled into the mainline Linux kernel.

Joab Jackson , IDG News Service
Joab Jackson covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for the IDG News Service.
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Lauren Conrad Wears Handmade Tooth Fairy Costume, Shows Off Engagement Ring: Halloween 2013 Picture
The prettiest tooth fairy of them all! Lauren Conrad got in the Halloween spirit this year by once again making her very own costume. On Oct. 31, the newly engaged Paper Crown fashion designer revealed how she created her pale blue tooth fairy costume via laurenconrad.com.
PHOTOS: Lauren's romantic history
"Every Halloween, I have so much fun making my own costumes from scratch. This year I decided to dress up as the tooth fairy," the 27-year-old bestselling author wrote alongside pictures of the hand-making process. "I bought all of my supplies the week before (including yards and yards of tulle) and spent a few hours crafting my costume on a dress form. I was quite pleased with the end result!"
PHOTOS: Lauren's best hairstyles ever!
Indeed, the Hills alum shared a final picture on the blog wearing the finished product. Conrad wore a nude slip for the costume and used tulle fabric for wings. She also swept her blonde locks up in a bun and carried a tooth bag for the photo-op. (Another photo also gave a close-up look at her stunning new engagement ring!)
This isn't the first time the former Laguna Beach star revealed her fairy outfit. Last week, the Sweet Little Lies author debuted the costume while attending Matthew Morrison's Halloween party at Hollywood hotspot Warwick on Oct. 26 with her fiance William Tell.

Lauren Conrad showed off her stunning engagement ring from fiance William Tell as she shared photos of her handmade Tooth Fairy Halloween costume via her personal site laurenconrad.com
Credit: Courtesy of laurenconrad.com
PHOTOS: Peek inside LC's new home!
"They sat in a booth in the back with friends most of the time," an insider revealed to Us Weekly about the couple's time at the party. "She was showing off her ring but there was no wedding talk."
Conrad announced she was engaged to the 33-year-old Something Corporate rocker turned law student via Twitter on Oct. 13. "I am very excited to share with you guys that William and I got engaged over the weekend," she wrote at the time. "I am beyond thrilled! Get ready for lots more wedding content here on LaurenConrad.com as we begin the planning process."
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Tina Fey to write, produce new comedy for NBC
FILE - This Feb. 18, 2013 file photo shows actress Ellie Kemper at the Vanity Fair and Juicy Couture Celebration for the 2013 Vanities Calendar at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles. NBC has ordered 13 episodes of a new singlecam comedy from multiple Emmy Award winners Tina Fey and Robert Carlock. Ellie Kemper is set to star. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - This Feb. 18, 2013 file photo shows actress Ellie Kemper at the Vanity Fair and Juicy Couture Celebration for the 2013 Vanities Calendar at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles. NBC has ordered 13 episodes of a new singlecam comedy from multiple Emmy Award winners Tina Fey and Robert Carlock. Ellie Kemper is set to star. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — NBC says it's ordering 13 episodes of a new comedy created by Tina Fey and starring Ellie Kemper of "The Office."
The network says Kemper will play a woman who flees a doomsday cult and begins a new life in New York city. The actress had joined "The Office" as Erin the receptionist in the show's 2009 season.
NBC says Fey created the new series with Robert Carlock, who was an executive producer on her Emmy-winning series "30 Rock." The pair will join in writing the new comedy and serve as executive producers along with David Miner.
NBC says the new show, as yet untitled, is scheduled to debut in fall 2014.
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-10-31-TV-NBC-Tina%20Fey/id-d6bcb9d95b784a27b0e5bf6e0fc3525eTags: Ed Sheeran tina fey broncos Scott Eastwood Christopher Lane
Sly Stallone likes Karl's 'natural humility'
In this Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013 photo, Sylvester Stallone, left, who played Rocky Balboa in the 1976 film "Rocky," poses with Andy Karl, who will play Rocky Balboa in the upcoming Broadway musical "Rocky," in New York. (Photo by Dan Hallman/Invision/AP)
In this Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013 photo, Sylvester Stallone, left, who played Rocky Balboa in the 1976 film "Rocky," poses with Andy Karl, who will play Rocky Balboa in the upcoming Broadway musical "Rocky," in New York. (Photo by Dan Hallman/Invision/AP)
In this Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013 photo, Sylvester Stallone, left, who played Rocky Balboa in the 1976 film "Rocky," poses with Margo Seibert, center, who will be playing the role of Adrian, and Andy Karl, who will play Rocky Balboa in the upcoming Broadway musical "Rocky," in New York. (Photo by Dan Hallman/Invision/AP)
In this Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013 photo, Sylvester Stallone, left, who played Rocky Balboa in the 1976 film "Rocky," poses with Andy Karl, who will play Rocky Balboa in the upcoming Broadway musical "Rocky," in New York. (Photo by Dan Hallman/Invision/AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — Picking the guy who will play Rocky Balboa onstage was no easy task. Just ask Sylvester Stallone, who helped cast Broadway veteran Andy Karl.
"Having gone through literally hundreds, maybe thousands, of prospects, Andy was one of our first choices and he just had it," Stallone said last month during a sit-down with the actor who will be playing his most famous character.
"He has what it takes — there's no arrogance, there's a natural humility about him, and that's what is important," Stallone said.
"No matter how threatening he may look, you're going to like him, it just comes through. And that's not so easy to find. Tough guys are a dime a dozen; a sensitive tough guy, pretty rare."
The musical "Rocky" will open on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre in March 2014. Based on the Oscar-winning 1976 film by Stallone, the musical features a score by "Ragtime" veterans Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, and a story by Thomas Meehan, who wrote "The Producers" and "Hairspray."
Karl's Broadway credits include "The Mystery of Edwin Drood," ''Jersey Boys," ''9 to 5," ''Legally Blonde," ''The Wedding Singer" and "Saturday Night Fever." Margo Seibert, making her Broadway debut, will star as Adrian, Balboa's love interest.
The musical stays close to the film, which charted the rise and romance of amateur boxer and debt collector Rocky Balboa, who gets his shot against undefeated heavyweight champion Apollo Creed.
The film made famous the image of Balboa running up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the quote "Yo, Adrian!" The trumpet-laden funky theme "Gonna Fly Now" and the anthem "Eye of the Tiger" will be in the Broadway version.
The director is Alex Timbers, who directed Broadway's "The Pee-wee Herman Show" and directed and wrote the book for "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson." The boxing choreography is being done by Steven Hoggett, who choreographed "American Idiot," ''Peter and the Starcatcher" and "Once."
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Online: http://www.rockybroadway.com
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-10-31-Theater-Sylvester%20Stallone/id-a6e1c55da6d9423399871b703d7a345aTags: last minute halloween costumes Battlefield 4 beta will ferrell Gta V Cheats houston texans
Alessandra Ambrosio Takes the Family to Mr. Bones
Stepping out for some Halloween fun, Alessandra Ambrosio and her family stopped by Mr. Bones Pumpkin Patch in West Hollywood on Wednesday (October 30).
The 32-year-old supermodel and her kids Anja and Noah enjoyed a few activities while making their rounds to find the perfect pumpkin for the spooky holiday.
Meanwhile, Miss Ambrosio faces drama surrounding the 2013 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show after one of the Angels started causing a few issues.
According to the New York Post, Erin Heatherton might be removed from the rosters as she been declared as being too "difficult to work with."
This is the second Angel that has been removed from the fashion show this year for bad work ethics. Miranda Kerr was also kicked off the line for having a "difficult" reputation and not being considered a big seller.
Stay linked for GossipCenter for more info on this year's Victoria's Secret Fashion Show!
Source: http://celebrity-gossip.net/alessandra-ambrosio/alessandra-ambrosio-takes-family-mr-bones-952833
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Apple censors Lawrence Lessig's discussion of iOS 7 Wi-Fi problems
October 31, 2013
Just when you thought Apple couldn't get more censorious or heavy-handed, it surprises you and takes things to a whole new level.
Creative Commons founder Lawrence Lessig found himself being thrown into Apple's memory hole this week when he tried to draw attention to a way in which some Apple users could regain Wi-Fi functionality in the wake of iOS 7's problems with same.
According to Violet Blue at ZDNet, some Apple users who upgraded to iOS 7 have been plagued with malfunctioning Wi-Fi, and since September have had their questions consistently ignored on Apple's official forums. Lessig was one of those bitten by this bug.
Lessig found that for U.K. users at least, one possible form of redress might be available in the form of returning the device under warranty laws in the U.K. Almost immediately after posting that comment on Apple's forums, it vanished. Lessig reposted the comment, only to have it deleted once again -- and this time, Lessig received a warning from Apple that "these posts are not allowed on our forums."
Astounded, Lessig wrote about his experiences on his blog, and expressed dismay at the way comments were being scrubbed from the forums for no defensible reason. "When did it become inappropriate to inform people about legally protected rights related to technical issues?" he declared. "Is talking about legal rights the new porn?"
Lessig also echoed a complaint others have made about Apple: The company remains frustratingly tight-lipped about most every issue raised. "Unlike really helpful companies which try to reward people who spend time making community boards the best source for technical support by engaging with posts, and at least acknowledging the problems," Lessig wrote, "Apple’s policy seems to be a 'never comment' policy. Which leads its users -- and again, people who are volunteering their time to help lower Apple’s customer support cost -- to express increasing exasperation at the unanswered problems."
Since his experience, other posts in the same vein also have been deleted, according to Lessig.
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Owen Wilson on Iconic SoCal Artist Ed Ruscha
This story first appeared in the Nov. 8 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.
When Owen Wilson was in his 20s and in Los Angeles to film scenes for his breakout 1996 movie Bottle Rocket, he went to The Ivy at the Shore and saw a painting by Ed Ruscha, famed for his landscape and text-based works that cast a deadpan eye on Southern California's man-made environment.
"Me and my brothers and Wes [Anderson] would go to The Ivy at the Shore when my parents came to visit," recalls Wilson, "and they had a great big painting that said, 'Brave Men Run in My Family.' We all loved that, my dad in particular. That always stuck in my mind."
LIST: Hollywood's Top 25 Art Collectors
Within a few years, the actor, who next appears in Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel, fell into the art world's gravitational pull, becoming friends with New York gallerist and artist Tony Shafrazi, hitting the Art Basel Miami Beach art fair regularly and collecting works by Cady Noland, Donald Judd and Andy Warhol. Wilson met Ruscha through Shafrazi, and the actor not only has acquired three of his works, but the two have become friends. (Ruscha and his wife, Danna, got Wilson into Breaking Bad.)
One of his Ruscha pieces, a painting of a mountain, is called The Celluloid Light Projection, a Ruscha-ism for a movie. Once, says Wilson, "Ed knew I was going off to make a movie and he said, 'Good luck on your celluloid light projection.' I always thought that was a funny thing to call a movie."
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Phones 4u to carry pink Samsung Galaxy Note 3

Pink Note 3 arriving from Nov. 1 exclusively at Phones 4u
UK retailer Phones 4u has announced that it'll soon be offering the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 in its "blush pink" color option. The pink Note 3, which we saw at IFA 2013 in Berlin a couple of months back, swaps out the handset's monochrome front and back panels in favor of a more colorful tone. It's even bundled with a stylish pink S Pen, too.
To sweeten the deal, Phones 4u will throw in a free wireless speaker, valued at £120, to those buying the Note 3 in any color. Phones 4u will begin carrying the pink Galaxy Note 3 from Nov. 1 from all of its brick-and-mortar stores. On-contract prices start at £47 per month for a free Note 3.
For a closer look at the "blush pink" Galaxy Note, check out our photo gallery from IFA 2013.
More: In Pictures: The pink Galaxy Note 3
Source: Phones 4u
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