Motorhome Republic has launched ?comparison view,? a new technology which allows renters to directly compare prices and features of rental motorhomes in a side-by-side format. Launched on their two Australasian sites, campervanhiresalefinder.com.au and campervanhiresalefinder.co.nz, this new way of searching makes it simple for customers to navigate the often confusing features of the vast array of motorhomes on offer, and make an informed rental decision.
Searches on the websites now give the option to display rental results in a traditional list view or in the new comparison view. Comparison view lines up the components of each vehicle side by side. Prices and basic features are displayed, and the customer can expand the vehicle specifications, other features, price inclusions and insurance options for a more in-depth comparison.
The customer can also choose to rank the search results by price, vehicle age or customer rating. Vehicles can be shortlisted and again the top choices viewed in direct comparison for the final decision.
Doug Brown, sales manager for Motorhome Republic, says, ?we?re always looking to simplify the decision making process for customers when they are searching for a rental vehicle. This new feature has had a fantastic response from our customers, and they are voting with their wallets and booking more vehicles on our websites.?
On campervanhiresalefinder.co.nz, there are over 400 models of campervan which can be compared with the new comparison view format, and more than 250 on campervanhiresalefinder.com.au. Motorhome Republic has the buying power to attract second-to-none deals from a wide range of suppliers, which means that both sites carry options from all of the major and many of the minor campervan rental suppliers in each location.
?Comparison view is the most comprehensive side-by-side search in the industry, furthering Motorhome Republic?s goal of easy, efficient and affordable campervan rental for customers,? says Brown.
Motorhome Republic is part of the Online Republic group ? a leading online travel agent specializing in motorhome rentals in 25 countries, car rental worldwide via its airportrentals.com brand, and cruise reservations in Australasia through its brands cruisesalefinder.com.au and cruisesalefinder.co.nz.
Turns out that spectacular Photos Every Day ad Apple released last month was just the first in a new series, as today they've introduced Music Every Day and it's every bit as terrific. Like the previous spot, Music Every Day shows people using the iPhone to enjoy music. Many and different people in many and different ways.
It's not caricatures feuding at a wedding, or acting stupidly at a pool party, or rushing to do something or be somewhere they won't even remember a week later. It's people living their lives, and those lives made better in small, constant ways by Apple.
Like Every Day Photos, Every Day Music shot just as beautifully, mixed just as subtly, but this time highlights the iPhone as every bit the inheritor of the iPod, and cultural icon it's become.
I might be overly predisposed to love this spot at the moment, what with all the bitter Apple-is-doomed BS of the last few months, and the cheery but forgettable ads that predated this series, but with both those things as palette cleansers, these last two ads come off especially sweet.
This is an Apple returned to their marketing savvy of old, once again at the height of their commercial powers. Hopefully they keep it up.
When Verizon Cloud launched last month, it would only back up a few Android devices -- not quite the cross-platform utopia that the carrier had in mind. Today's launch of the Verizon Cloud iOS app should get the company (and subscribers) closer to the original vision. Like its mobile counterpart, the iPhone-focused release syncs or streams documents and media from every platform that Verizon supports, including PCs. Just don't expect a wide safety net, though, as the iOS app won't back up call logs, contacts or messages. Still prefer Android? You're covered as well -- Verizon has expanded the compatibility list to include more Google-powered hardware, such as the Droid DNA and the Galaxy S 4. As long as you're inclined toward Verizon Cloud in the first place, the source links should get all your devices working in harmony.
Darkmatter's portable open source Xbox 360 project may have hit Kickstarter with bad timing, but it looks to be drawing crowds all the same. The laptop-like console is available in fully finished or kit form for the Xbox 360, thanks to a 3D-printed, laser cut casing, 15.6-inch 720P widescreen LED display, capacitive Arduino-based touch interface, a headphone jack and support for all native features, like WiFi, 4GB storage and DVD compatibility. Addressing concerns about the lame duck console it's working with, the group said in an update that it should be able to adapt the Xbox One's motherboard as well, though it's obviously never laid a hand on it yet. Any future-proofing concerns didn't dismay those who saw the device at Maker Faire, however, as most seemed enthusiastic about the project, including Ben Heck, who's been known to mod a device or two75. You can pledge $499 for a full DIY kit (without the required Xbox 360 Slim 4GB), while a fully assembled and tested Darkmatter Xbox Laptop will run $999. Check the video after the jump or hit the Kickstarter page at the source link to ante up.
Click Image To Visit SiteIf you?d like to Quit Smoking without drugs, Eliminate Cravings and Reduce Stress, then this might be the most important letter you?ll ever read. Here?s why: You are guaranteed to quit smoking or your money back!
Now, I know you?re probably skeptical. That?s normal and healthy. Let me give you three good reasons we can back up what we claim: Three Reasons To Believe What I Say
Reason one: This is what I used, personally to quit smoking in 2005. After trying other methods like hypnosis, nicotine gum and cold turkey I always ended up going back to smoking.
Reason two: When I used it to quit smoking I didn?t even really know what I was doing. Someone originally taught me this technique to help reduce stress. Then a few years later I decided to use it to help me quit smoking.
Since then I have been trained in how to use this technique to help people (and myself) overcome many different types of traumas, addictions, pain and limiting beliefs.
Reason three: I have helped family members and complete strangers to quit smoking using this method. It is called Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). It is also referred to as Acupoint Tapping and Meridian Tapping.
You can master it in 5 minutes or less. Nothing complicated or time consuming. It?s so easy 5 year old children do it.
But without the needles! All the benefits of a 5000 year old healing system at your fingertips (literally)
Isn?t that why you smoke? To help you cope with stress? You will discover a new way to handle your stress.
Making the experience about YOU and your habits, beliefs and experiences is what makes this system so successful. You have to address your own personal issues? Read more?
Contact: Susan Hagen susan.hagen@rochester.edu 585-576-4061 University of Rochester
IQ predicted by ability to filter motion
A brief visual task can predict IQ, according to a new study.
This surprisingly simple exercise measures the brain's unconscious ability to filter out visual movement. The study shows that individuals whose brains are better at automatically suppressing background motion perform better on standard measures of intelligence.
The test is the first purely sensory assessment to be strongly correlated with IQ and may provide a non-verbal and culturally unbiased tool for scientists seeking to understand neural processes associated with general intelligence.
"Because intelligence is such a broad construct, you can't really track it back to one part of the brain," says Duje Tadin, a senior author on the study and an assistant professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester. "But since this task is so simple and so closely linked to IQ, it may give us clues about what makes a brain more efficient, and, consequently, more intelligent."
The unexpected link between IQ and motion filtering was reported online in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on May 23 by a research team lead by Tadin and Michael Melnick, a doctoral candidate in brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester.
In the study, individuals watched brief video clips of black and white bars moving across a computer screen. Their sole task was to identify which direction the bars drifted: to the right or to the left. The bars were presented in three sizes, with the smallest version restricted to the central circle where human motion perception is known to be optimal, an area roughly the width of the thumb when the hand is extended. Participants also took a standardized intelligence test.
As expected, people with higher IQ scores were faster at catching the movement of the bars when observing the smallest image. The results support prior research showing that individuals with higher IQs make simple perceptual judgments swifter and have faster reflexes. "Being 'quick witted' and 'quick on the draw' generally go hand in hand," says Melnick.
But the tables turned when presented with the larger images. The higher a person's IQ, the slower they were at detecting movement. "From previous research, we expected that all participants would be worse at detecting the movement of large images, but high IQ individuals were much, much worse," says Melnick. That counter-intuitive inability to perceive large moving images is a perceptual marker for the brain's ability to suppress background motion, the authors explain. In most scenarios, background movement is less important than small moving objects in the foreground. Think about driving in a car, walking down a hall, or even just moving your eyes across the room. The background is constantly in motion.
The key discovery in this study is how closely this natural filtering ability is linked to IQ. The first experiment found a 64 percent correlation between motion suppression and IQ scores, a much stronger relationship than other sensory measures to date. For example, research on the relationship between intelligence and color discrimination, sensitivity to pitch, and reaction times have found only a 20 to 40 percent correlation. "In our first experiment, the effect for motion was so strong," recalls Tadin, "that I really thought this was a fluke."
So the group tried to disprove the findings from the initial 12-participant study conducted while Tadin was at Vanderbilt University working with co-author Sohee Park, a professor of psychology. They reran the experiment at the University of Rochester on a new cohort of 53 subjects, administering the full IQ test instead of an abbreviated version and the results were even stronger; correlation rose to 71 percent. The authors also tested for other possible explanations for their findings.
For example, did the surprising link to IQ simply reflect a person's willful decision to focus on small moving images? To rule out the effect of attention, the second round of experiments randomly ordered the different image sizes and tested other types of large images that have been shown not to elicit suppression. High IQ individuals continued to be quicker on all tasks, except the ones that isolated motion suppression. The authors concluded that high IQ is associated with automatic filtering of background motion.
"We know from prior research which parts of the brain are involved in visual suppression of background motion. This new link to intelligence provides a good target for looking at what is different about the neural processing, what's different about the neurochemistry, what's different about the neurotransmitters of people with different IQs," says Tadin.
The relationship between IQ and motion suppression points to the fundamental cognitive processes that underlie intelligence, the authors write. The brain is bombarded by an overwhelming amount of sensory information, and its efficiency is built not only on how quickly our neural networks process these signals, but also on how good they are at suppressing less meaningful information. "Rapid processing is of little utility unless it is restricted to the most relevant information," the authors conclude.
The researchers point out that this vision test could remove some of the limitations associated with standard IQ tests, which have been criticized for cultural bias. "Because the test is simple and non-verbal, it will also help researchers better understand neural processing in individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities," says co-author Loisa Bennetto, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Rochester.
###
Bryan Harrison, a doctoral candidate in clinical and social psychology at the University of Rochester is also an author on the paper. The research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Contact: Susan Hagen susan.hagen@rochester.edu 585-576-4061 University of Rochester
IQ predicted by ability to filter motion
A brief visual task can predict IQ, according to a new study.
This surprisingly simple exercise measures the brain's unconscious ability to filter out visual movement. The study shows that individuals whose brains are better at automatically suppressing background motion perform better on standard measures of intelligence.
The test is the first purely sensory assessment to be strongly correlated with IQ and may provide a non-verbal and culturally unbiased tool for scientists seeking to understand neural processes associated with general intelligence.
"Because intelligence is such a broad construct, you can't really track it back to one part of the brain," says Duje Tadin, a senior author on the study and an assistant professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester. "But since this task is so simple and so closely linked to IQ, it may give us clues about what makes a brain more efficient, and, consequently, more intelligent."
The unexpected link between IQ and motion filtering was reported online in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on May 23 by a research team lead by Tadin and Michael Melnick, a doctoral candidate in brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester.
In the study, individuals watched brief video clips of black and white bars moving across a computer screen. Their sole task was to identify which direction the bars drifted: to the right or to the left. The bars were presented in three sizes, with the smallest version restricted to the central circle where human motion perception is known to be optimal, an area roughly the width of the thumb when the hand is extended. Participants also took a standardized intelligence test.
As expected, people with higher IQ scores were faster at catching the movement of the bars when observing the smallest image. The results support prior research showing that individuals with higher IQs make simple perceptual judgments swifter and have faster reflexes. "Being 'quick witted' and 'quick on the draw' generally go hand in hand," says Melnick.
But the tables turned when presented with the larger images. The higher a person's IQ, the slower they were at detecting movement. "From previous research, we expected that all participants would be worse at detecting the movement of large images, but high IQ individuals were much, much worse," says Melnick. That counter-intuitive inability to perceive large moving images is a perceptual marker for the brain's ability to suppress background motion, the authors explain. In most scenarios, background movement is less important than small moving objects in the foreground. Think about driving in a car, walking down a hall, or even just moving your eyes across the room. The background is constantly in motion.
The key discovery in this study is how closely this natural filtering ability is linked to IQ. The first experiment found a 64 percent correlation between motion suppression and IQ scores, a much stronger relationship than other sensory measures to date. For example, research on the relationship between intelligence and color discrimination, sensitivity to pitch, and reaction times have found only a 20 to 40 percent correlation. "In our first experiment, the effect for motion was so strong," recalls Tadin, "that I really thought this was a fluke."
So the group tried to disprove the findings from the initial 12-participant study conducted while Tadin was at Vanderbilt University working with co-author Sohee Park, a professor of psychology. They reran the experiment at the University of Rochester on a new cohort of 53 subjects, administering the full IQ test instead of an abbreviated version and the results were even stronger; correlation rose to 71 percent. The authors also tested for other possible explanations for their findings.
For example, did the surprising link to IQ simply reflect a person's willful decision to focus on small moving images? To rule out the effect of attention, the second round of experiments randomly ordered the different image sizes and tested other types of large images that have been shown not to elicit suppression. High IQ individuals continued to be quicker on all tasks, except the ones that isolated motion suppression. The authors concluded that high IQ is associated with automatic filtering of background motion.
"We know from prior research which parts of the brain are involved in visual suppression of background motion. This new link to intelligence provides a good target for looking at what is different about the neural processing, what's different about the neurochemistry, what's different about the neurotransmitters of people with different IQs," says Tadin.
The relationship between IQ and motion suppression points to the fundamental cognitive processes that underlie intelligence, the authors write. The brain is bombarded by an overwhelming amount of sensory information, and its efficiency is built not only on how quickly our neural networks process these signals, but also on how good they are at suppressing less meaningful information. "Rapid processing is of little utility unless it is restricted to the most relevant information," the authors conclude.
The researchers point out that this vision test could remove some of the limitations associated with standard IQ tests, which have been criticized for cultural bias. "Because the test is simple and non-verbal, it will also help researchers better understand neural processing in individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities," says co-author Loisa Bennetto, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Rochester.
###
Bryan Harrison, a doctoral candidate in clinical and social psychology at the University of Rochester is also an author on the paper. The research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
After dropping the last two presidential elections and the last three US Senate races, Virginia Republicans had good reason for optimism heading into this fall's elections: Terry McAuliffe, the former Democratic National Committee chair who bragged about nearly missing his child's birth so he could party with a gossip columnist, is at the top of the Democratic ticket. Things should be looking up for the Virginia GOP. Instead, the party?s activists have resisted calls for moderation and swerved hard to the right quicker than you can say transvaginal ultrasound.
Ken Cuccinelli, the Republican party's nominee for governor, once cited Martin Luther King Jr. as justification for his argument that sexual relations between two people of the same gender should be illegal. E.W. Jackson, the party's nominee for lieutenant governor, believes that gays are "degenerate" and "spiritually darkened" and will eventually destroy America. Mark Obenshain, the party's nominee for attorney general, recently attempted to require women to contact the police within 24 hours of a miscarriage.
The immediate cause is obvious. Virginia Republicans don't select their executive ticket via primary. Instead, they chose their slate last Saturday at a one-day nominating convention packed with grassroots activists. Jackson, a Baptist preacher who finished in the low single digits in last year's US Senate primary, was able to win on the first ballot by virtue of well-received speech typified by lines like, "I am not an African-American, I am an American!"
"Conventions are not representative of the party," says Tom Davis, a former Republican congressman from Northern Virginia, referring to Jackson's nomination. "When you get a convention, this is what you get."
What Virginia got, specifically, was this: Jackson previously warned that President Obama is either an atheist or a Muslim, but definitely an "evil presence." He compared Planned Parenthood to the KKK. He alleged that the Obama are communist sympathizers. He said that gays are turning their backs on black women, "sexualizing children" and just generally a "poison" to society. He said that a vote for him is a vote for God. He wants Don't Ask, Don't Tell to be reinstated. He said that the Democratic party's agenda is "worthy of the Antichrist." He also filmed a video in which he smashes watermelons (representing Obama?s policies) with an American-flag axe.
Next to Jackson, Obenshain is comparatively conventional. He walked out of the Virginia Senate chamber rather than vote to confirm an openly-gay judge. In January. Of 2013. He opposes a non-discrimination policy against LGBT employees. In his own office. That?s to say nothing of his now-notorious 2009 attempt to criminalize un-reported miscarriages, a policy his spokesman conceded ?was far too broad, and would have had ramifications that neither he nor the Commonwealth's attorney's office ever intended.? Now he wants to be the state's highest-ranking attorney.
Almost immediately after Saturday convention, reporters began speculating whether the nomination of Jackson and, to a lesser extent, Obenshain, might be be bad for Cuccinelli. But from a policy perspective, Cuccinelli doesn?t differ very sharply from either of the two?which helps to explain why he had no problem touring the state by airplane with both Obenshain and Jackson on Sunday, and reiterating his support for the beleaguered lieutenant general nominee on Tuesday.
Cuccinelli has attempted to block private companies from providing health insurance to gay couples. He thinks same-sex marriage is a serious problem that should be statutorily prohibited. He repeatedly defended the state's now-defunct ban on oral sex. And he?s compared?over and over and over again?the fight against reproductive rights to the fight against slavery. Up until this week, Cuccinelli's office even maintained that he was immune from public records laws. (The same can't be said for climate scientists at the University of Virginia, whom he has has used his office to target on the basis that climate change is a hoax perpetrated by university researchers in an attempt to defraud the public.)
This wouldn't be the first time a Virginia GOP slate is undermined by its own nominating convention. The best previous examples came in the early 1990s, when Senate nominee Oliver North and lieutenant governor nominee Michael Farris flopped at the polls in consecutive years despite otherwise strong performances by the party. Both North, a key player in Iran?Contra, and Farris, a homeschooling activist, were disavowed by then-GOP Sen. John Warner.
But there have been no public disavowals of the slate this year?at least not yet. I reached out to the offices of Virginia?s eight (male) GOP congressmen to see if they were supporting Jackson?s candidacy. Only one responded?Rep. Frank Wolf, whose spokesman confirmed that he endorsed the entire ticket.
Davis is voting for Jackson anyway, for a simple reason: "It's control of the state Senate. The lieutenant governor doesn't vote on anything. I certainly don't agree with his comments, but I don't agree with some of Cuccinelli's comments either...And frankly just to tell you, what E.W. was saying isn't much different from what most of the others were saying."
"This is where the party is gonna go,? Davis said. "I would marginalize myself in the future if I come out here and don?t support the ticket. So we support it. I mean, how active I?m gonna be remains to be seen."
iPhone and iPad accessory maker Otterbox has announced that they're buying iPhone and iPad accessory maker LifeProof. "OtterProof" -- as I'm sure someone will be calling them since "LifeBox" is probably taken? -- CEO Brian Thomas had this to say:
The joining of OtterBox and LifeProof is a way to combine two great brands and provide customers with even more great products, services and choices for smartphone accessories. Both companies are successful because we foster an environment where everyone takes pride in being part of a culture that knows how to identify opportunities and grow them quickly. Our goal in this acquisition is to create more value for our customers than we ever could have generated while operating individually.
I love both companies' products, and we our accessory division sells both companies' products in the iMore store so here's hoping they become greater than the sum of their parts and put out even more spectacular products post-merger.
Anyone else looking forward to a sleeker, slimmer, even more rugged OtterProof Defender? Or are you already lamenting the deal?
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Obama administration acknowledged for the first time Wednesday that four American citizens have been killed in drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen since 2009. The disclosure to Congress comes on the eve of a major national security speech by President Barack Obama in which he plans to pledge more transparency to Congress in his counterterrorism policy.
It was already known that three Americans had been killed in U.S. drones strikes in counterterrorism operations overseas, but Attorney General Eric Holder disclosed details that had remained secret and also that a fourth American had been killed.
In a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, Holder said that the government targeted and killed U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki and that the U.S. "is aware" of the killing of three others who were not targets of counterterror operations.
Al-Awlaki, a radical Muslim cleric, was killed in a drone strike in September 2011 in Yemen. The other two known cases are Samir Khan, who was killed in the same drone strike as al-Awlaki and al-Awlaki's 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman, a Denver native, who also was killed in Yemen.
The newly revealed case is that of Jude Kenan Mohammed, one of eight men indicted by federal authorities in 2009, accused of being part of a plot to attack the U.S. Marine Corps base at Quantico, Va. Before he could be arrested, Mohammad fled the country to join jihadi fighters in the tribal areas of Pakistan, where he was among those killed by a U.S. drone.
"Since entering office, the president has made clear his commitment to providing Congress and the American people with as much information as possible about our sensitive counterterrorism operations," Holder said in his letter to Leahy, D-Vt. "To this end, the president has directed me to disclose certain information that until now has been properly classified."
"The administration is determined to continue these extensive outreach efforts to communicate with the American people," Holder wrote.
A move to gradually shift responsibility for the bulk of U.S. drone strikes from the CIA to the military has already begun. And, according to an administration official speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly, the move would largely divide the strikes on a geographical basis, with the CIA continuing to conduct operations in Pakistan, while the military takes on the operations in other parts of the world.
The White House said Obama's national security speech Thursday coincides with the signing of new "presidential policy guidance" on when the U.S. can use drone strikes, though it was unclear what that guidance entailed and whether Obama would outline its specifics in his remarks.
Obama "believes that we need to be as transparent about a matter like this as we can, understanding that there are national security implications to this issue and to the broader issues involved in counterterrorism policy," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters Wednesday.
"He thinks (this) is an absolutely valid and legitimate and important area of discussion and debate and conversation, and that it is his belief that there need to be structures in place that remain in place for successive administrations," Carney said. "So that in the carrying out of counterterrorism policy, procedures are followed that allow it to be conducted in a way that ensures that we're keeping with our traditions and our laws."
Obama's speech Thursday at the National Defense University is expected to reaffirm his national security priorities ? from homegrown terrorists to killer drones to the enemy combatants imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay ? but make no new sweeping policy pronouncements. The White House has offered few specifics on what the president will say to address long-standing questions that have dogged his administration for years and, critics say, given foreign allies mixed signals about U.S. intentions in some of the world's most volatile areas.
Obama will try to refocus an increasingly apathetic and controversy-weary U.S. public on security issues. His message will also be carefully analyzed by an international audience that has had to adapt to what counterterror expert Peter Singer described as the administration's "disjointed" and often "shortsighted" security policies.
Obama is also expected to say the U.S. will make a renewed effort to transfer detainees out of the Navy-run detention center for terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to other countries. Obama recently restated his desire to close Guantanamo, a pledge he made shortly after his inauguration in January 2009.
That effort, however, has been stymied because many countries don't want the detainees or are unwilling or unable to guarantee that once transferred detainees who may continue to be a threat will not be released.
There are currently about 166 prisoners at Guantanamo, and 86 have been approved for transfer as long as security restrictions are met.
Obama is also expected to make the case that the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan has decimated al-Qaida's core, even as new threats emerge elsewhere.
In his letter, the attorney general said the decision to target Anwar al-Awlaki was subjected to extensive policy review at the highest levels of the government. Senior U.S. officials briefed the appropriate committees of Congress on the possibility of using lethal force against Anwar al-Awlaki.
The administration informed the relevant congressional oversight committees that it had approved the use of lethal forces against Anwar al-Awlaki in February 2010, well over a year before the operation, Holder said.
Officials suggest that the CIA strikes into Pakistan have been successful, and point to the agency's ability to gather intelligence there. So, there is less of an inclination to change that now.
In other countries, such as Yemen, Somalia or portions of North Africa, the Defense Department will handle the drone strikes as regular military operations.
In March, the Senate confirmed John Brennan to be CIA director after the Obama administration agreed to demands from Republicans and stated explicitly there are limits on the president's power to use drones against U.S. terror suspects on American soil.
Laura Murphy, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Washington legislative office, said the administration should "produce the legal rationale that allows him to unilaterally decide when drones can be used ... and we would like him to clarify why he feels he has the authority to use drones outside of the battlefield and how he's going to constrain that authority."
Frank Cilluffo, White House domestic security adviser to President George W. Bush, said Wednesday that the fact that the U.S. targeted al-Awlaki and killed three other U.S. citizens in drone strikes should have been part of the public discourse all along.
He said there had been a lingering narrative that Awlaki was an inspirational leader, while in reality he had a key role in multiple operations targeting Americans. "The fact that they are making this public provides justification for the actions they took," said Cilluffo, now director of a homeland security studies program at George Washington University.
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Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor and Julie Pace in Washington, and Michael Biesecker in Raleigh, N.C., contributed to this report.
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Follow Lara Jakes on Twitter at https://twitter.com/larajakesAP
WASHINGTON (AP) ? A federal judge apologized Wednesday for an 18-month delay in unsealing documents in a case involving an alleged leak of classified information to a reporter.
The documents include two warrants and related materials for the email accounts of Stephen Kim, a State Department adviser who faces charges of leaking secret information about North Korea to Fox News reporter James Rosen.
The warrants and materials, which had originally been ordered unsealed in November 2011, will be unsealed this week. Royce Lamberth, the chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Washington, said that a "series of administrative errors by the court's staff" caused the delay.
A third search warrant, along with an affidavit for some of Rosen's private emails, had also been ordered unsealed in November 2011, but those weren't unsealed until last week. Those materials showed that as part of the Kim investigation, the government tracked Rosen's comings and goings from the State Department, and an FBI agent said there was probable cause to believe the reporter broke the law. Rosen wasn't charged.
There was also a delay in unsealing Lamberth's 2010 order that the government wasn't required to notify Rosen that his emails had been the subject of a warrant. Although that order was posted on the court's website, it was not available on the public docket until now.
"The clerk's office has been unable to explain why none of these errors were discovered as a result of our 'quality control' efforts to double-check docket entries and orders daily," Lamberth wrote in an opinion unsealing the records.
The judge said the court will review performance of personnel involved as well as the court's administrative processes.
"The court apologizes to the public and the media for the administrative errors made by the court's staff in these matters," he wrote.
The clerk's office declined to comment.
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Follow Fred Frommer on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ffrommer
TOKYO (AP) ? A steady fall in the value of the yen is proving a godsend for exporters such as Toyota. The cheaper yen is making their products more affordable overseas.
Japan's trading partners are generally pleased, too, even though the lower yen makes their exports relatively more expensive. As many see it, other nations ? from China to Britain to the United States ? stand to benefit from a more vibrant Japanese economy, the world's third-largest.
Then there are entrepreneurs like Thamonwan Thawornthaweewong. They have a more sour view. Thamonwan sells imported goods in Japan, like Angry Bird fish balls, squid rings and other products. The lower yen makes such goods cost more in Japan.
"It's affecting us because Japanese customers need to pay more," she says.
Even Japanese policymakers who favor a cheaper yen to help energize Japan's long-stagnant economy wonder if the currency's fall could go too far.
The yen slipped past 100 to the U.S. dollar this month. It's hovering near 102 yen per dollar ? more than 20 percent weaker relative to the dollar and the euro than it was six months ago.
Gyrations in exchange rates can erode business confidence and investment. The yen's decline has also raised the risk of a currency war in which nations manipulate their currencies' values as economic weapons.
News of weaker-than-expected growth in Thailand in the first quarter of the year, for example, intensified pressure on its central bank to curb the rise of its currency, the baht. If other countries countered by devaluing their own currencies, any benefit Japan has enjoyed could be reversed. Though the Bank of Thailand hasn't intervened, Tokyo can't expect its trading partners to hold out indefinitely for an eventual payoff from a Japanese economic rebound.
Japanese officials say their goal isn't to devalue the yen. Rather, they say the currency's slide is a byproduct of the economic stimulus policies embraced this year by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration. Under Abe's direction, Japan has embarked on an aggressive campaign to lift consumer prices, encourage borrowing and spending and improve Japan's economic competitiveness ? a program dubbed "Abenomics."
As part of that effort, Japan's central bank is flooding its financial system with money ? action that has helped shrink the value of the yen.
The Abenomics blend of fiscal and monetary stimulus and pledges of reforms helped boost Japan's economic growth to an annual pace of 3.5 percent in the January-March quarter.
As the yen's value has sunk, travel budgets of tourists from Thailand and elsewhere have been stretching further. Yet for Thamonwan, whose company earns about a tenth of its sales in Japan, it's a headache. Some Japanese aren't willing to pay for higher-priced imports.
"We are now seeing a slight decline in orders from Japan," she says.
Particularly in Asia, Japan's frequent trading partners could lose a competitive edge because their goods now cost more relative to Japan's. China's, the world's second-largest economy after the United States, is among them.
Yet China is "not particularly worried," about the weaker yen, says Kenneth S. Courtis, an investment banker and former Goldman Sachs vice chairman. Courtis pointed out that a lower-valued yen reduces the cost of factory equipment and oil imported from Japan.
A separate challenge for Japan is that economies throughout the world are struggling, and many consumers aren't inclined to spend more ? even for lower-priced Japanese goods. In Europe, for example, the euro alliance is in the midst of its longest-ever recession. Many economists warn of a lost decade ahead for the eurozone similar to the one Japan endured.
And the U.S. economy, the world's largest, is thought to be growing at a subpar annual rate of about 2 percent in the current April-June quarter. Growth has been slowed by a still-weak job market and across-the-board government spending cuts that began taking effect March 1.
What's more, Courtis notes that "the last time there was such an aggressive currency devaluation like the yen's, it blew up Asia," referring to the Asian financial bust of the late 1990s. That crisis erupted after diminished confidence in Thailand's economy forced the country to devalue its currency.
To some extent, Australia's "billabong bonds" as its government debt is dubbed, have replaced Japan's government bonds as a haven for global investors now that the Bank of Japan is soaking up 70 percent of Tokyo's bond sales.
Australia's central bank this month cut its key interest rate by a quarter percentage point to a record low 2.75 percent. The goal is to boost growth and counter damage from a strengthening Australian dollar.
South Korea's central bank also cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point to 2.5 percent. India and Europe have also reduced key interest rates.
And New Zealand's central bank intervened in the currency market this month for the first time in five years, seeking to curb a 12 percent rise in the Kiwi dollar since the middle of last year. The Philippine central bank is also thought to be intervening in the foreign exchange market by buying dollars to curb the peso's rise.
Apart from the risks of escalating devaluations, such tactics may be the wrong medicine for economies such as Indonesia and the Philippines that already are awash with cash, says Rob Subbaraman, chief Asia economist for Nomura.
Some worry that Japan's aggressive drive to reduce interest rates, paired with similar programs in the West and China's efforts to spur lending, could inflate dangerous bubbles in assets like stocks or real estate. On Wednesday, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke signaled his belief that it's too soon for the Fed to curtail its stimulus programs, which are intended to encourage borrowing and spending.
The 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations recently voiced such concern in a joint statement with the Asian Development Bank that noted potentially "excessive risk taking and leverage, credit expansion and asset bubbles."
Apart from overheating property markets, economists see signs of trouble in corporate and consumer debt. Such debt has jumped 67 percent in the past five years in Asia outside Japan to $1.66 trillion, according to Euromonitor International.
"I worry about the debt buildup," Subbaraman says. "Frothy property markets from China to Hong Kong to Mumbai to Manila."
Until recently, Asian financial markets had seemed sturdier than those in wealthier Western countries. "They are not as strong as they were before the global crisis," Subbaraman says.
Double-digit gains in share prices in many regional stock markets, where price-to-earnings ratios used to judge value are veering higher, are another worrisome sign, says Rajiv Biswas, an economist with IHS in Singapore.
In Japan, Abenomics is so far having a mixed effect. Automakers and electronics makers are enjoying higher profits. But energy-intensive steel mills and utilities are struggling with surging costs for fuel and other key commodities when valued in yen.
Utility rates and prices of basic necessities, such as noodles, flour and oil are also rising. Pay has risen only modestly and only for some workers. And long-term interest rates that the Bank of Japan is maneuvering to try to keep low have risen. Mortgage lenders have tweaked their own rates higher.
As the yen has fallen, investors in Japan and elsewhere have begun shifting assets into shares and into overseas investments in search of higher yields. Japan's net overseas portfolio investments, including equity securities, bonds and money market instruments rose to nearly 2.5 trillion yen ($24.4 billion) in March from minus 1.87 trillion yen (minus $18.2 billion) in September.
The search for higher returns by Japan's megabanks and insurers, and other investors, is keeping brokerage AB Capital Securities in Manila, the Philippines, busy.
"We've managed to be in the spotlight of most fund managers who are looking for high yields," says Jose Vistan, its head of research. "A lot of money that would have gone to the major markets has been coming here to the Philippines, and a testament to that would be the record high levels of the equities market."
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Associated Press writers Thanyarat Doksone in Bangkok and Teresa Cerojano in Manila contributed to this report.
WibiData, the enterprise data management startup co-founded by Cloudera founder Christophe Bisciglia and Aaron Kimball, has raised $15 million in a Series B funding led by Canaan Partners with participation from existing investors, including NEA and Google Chairman Eric Schmidt.
"Plaza (Towers Elementary School) did the best they could. That's all they have. I'm big on the schools need shelters. They need storm cellars, something where these kids can go and we're not picking through rubble to try and find our kids." ? Mikki Davis, mother of 8-year-old Oklahoma tornado victim Kyle Davis.
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"We have suffered these attacks before, we have always beaten them back. We will not be cowed, we will never buckle." ? British Prime Minister David Cameron after two attackers hacked a man to death in a daylight London attack, raising fears of terrorism.
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"She enjoys seeing everything and having the wind blow in her ears, especially being an indoors cat. This is really her only time outside. On the shoulder, she loves it. She's in total zen mode." ? Bike courier Rudi Saldia, who buzzes around Philadelphia with his year-old feline Mary Jane perched on his shoulder.
The U.S. teen birth rate fell 25 percent over five years to a record low of 31 births per 1,000 teens ages 15 to 19, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The teen birth rate per 1,000 by state in 2011, and percentage decline since 2007:
By Agence France-Presse Tuesday, May 21, 2013 13:47 EDT
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The political appointee who headed the IRS during the US tax agency?s abusive treatment of conservative groups insisted on Tuesday that he was not involved in the scandal.
US senators grilled retired IRS boss Douglas Shulman about what he readily acknowledged was ?inexcusable? behavior by agents who, from 2011, singled out right-leaning groups for excessive scrutiny.
The IRS actions have become one of a series of alleged abuses of executive power that have cast a shadow over President Barack Obama?s second term, and Tuesday?s hearing was not the first into the case.
Last week, House lawmakers questioned outgoing IRS chief Steven Miller, who Obama had forced to resign in the wake of the revelations.
?I was dismayed and I was saddened to read the inspector general?s conclusions that actions had been taken creating the appearance that the IRS was not acting as it should have,? Shulman told the Senate finance committee.
?The actions outlined in that report have justifiably led to questions about the fairness of the approach taken here.?
Shulman, who retired from the IRS in November, described a vast agency tasked with overseeing tax-exempt groups and carefully scrutinizing those applying for such non-profit status.
But, while he said the targeting occurred between 2010 and June 2011, he insisted that ?in June of 2011 I was not aware of this.?
The Finance Committee chairman, Democrat Max Baucus, blasted the IRS and accused Shulman and Miller of essentially being asleep at the switch.
?The IRS abandoned good judgment and lost the public?s trust,? Baucus said.
Top committee Republican Orrin Hatch insisted there was ?more than a hint of political bias? by IRS agents who put conservative groups with words like ?Tea Party? or ?Patriot? in their names under burdensome review.
But Hatch expressed frustration with the IRS officials? refusal to say who knew about the centralizing of the groups in its early stages, and how far up the chain of command it went.
?One way or another, we?re going to learn the facts about what went on here,? Hatch said.
Obama has said he knew nothing about the abuse until the internal IRS report leaked this month.
The White House acknowledged Monday it was told in April that an inspector general was finalizing an audit into Internal Revenue Service abuses, but stressed that Obama aides made no attempt to intervene or influence findings.
Attention turned to portions of tax law that delineate non-profit status, and discrepancies between the federal statute and the IRS regulations in determining what are known as ?501(c)(4) organizations.?
Such groups, which are not required to reveal their donors, spent millions of dollars to political activity in 2012, with some critics saying they played outsized roles in shaping the presidential campaign.
Baucus noted that under a decades-old federal statute, such groups must ?exclusively? be engaged in social welfare or community good, while the IRS regulations say the groups must be only ?primarily? engaged in social welfare.
?Clearly a Mack truck is being driven through a 501(c)(4) loophole,? Baucus said, arguing that once the immediate scandal clears the law itself should be reformed to make it clearer which groups should qualify.
[Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) via Center for American Progress Action Fund / Flickr]
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Michael Jackson's doctor was not the only person working on the singer's ill-fated "This Is It" tour without a fully executed contract, a corporate attorney for concert promoter AEG Live LLC testified Monday.
The tour's director Kenny Ortega was being paid based on an agreement laid out solely in emails, AEG General Counsel Shawn Trell told jurors.
Jackson's mother is trying to show AEG was negligent in hiring Conrad Murray, the doctor who was later convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's June 2009 death.
Katherine Jackson claims AEG failed to properly investigate Murray before hiring him to serve as her son's tour physician, and that the company missed or ignored red flags about the singer's health before his death. AEG denies it hired Murray.
In court, attorneys for Katherine Jackson displayed emails sent a month before the death of her son in which Murray's contract terms were laid out.
Trell said those emails did not demonstrate an employment relationship ? a key element of the case that will be decided by a jury of six men and six women.
Trell acknowledged, however, that Ortega was paid for his work on the shows despite working under terms laid out only in a series of emails.
"Kenny Ortega is different from Conrad Murray," Trell testified.
Michael Jackson died before signing a $150,000 a month contract for Murray to serve as his doctor on the "This Is It" tour. AEG's attorneys say Jackson's signature was required to finalize Murrays' contract.
An email displayed in court showed Murray's contract terms. Other documents indicated AEG budgeted $300,000 to pay Murray for his work with Jackson in May and June of 2009.
Another email said executive Paul Gongaware informed others that Murray would be "full time" on the tour by mid-May.
Plaintiff's attorney Brian Panish asked Trell to agree with a statement that Murray was working for AEG.
"I would totally disagree with that statement," Trell said, noting that Ortega and Murray were considered independent contractors.
Trell was the second AEG executive to testify in the trial, which is entering its fourth week. AEG attorneys have yet to question him.
He also testified that the company obtained an insurance policy that covered the possible cancellation of some of the "This Is It" shows after a physician evaluated the singer.
Trell testified that five days before Jackson's death, top AEG executives were informed the singer was in poor health. By that point, Ortega had sent executives an email titled "Trouble at the front" detailing Jackson's problems.
"There are strong signs of paranoia, anxiety, and obsessive-like behavior," Ortega wrote to AEG Live CEO Randy Phillips. Jackson's symptoms were reminiscent of behavior that led to the cancellation of an HBO concert earlier in the decade. Ortega wrote.
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Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP
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Public release date: 23-May-2013
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