Chinese Consumers Scoff At The State-Run Media's Heavy-Handed Swipes Against Apple

Tim Cook has said that China will soon become Apple’s biggest market, but the government is not as besotted as Chinese consumers.?China’s state-run media has taken several swipes at Apple this month, moves which may be?part of a (heavy-handed) public relations strategy to pave the way for locally grown operating systems as the Chinese government seeks to move its IT industry away from Western software. But if popular response to the anti-Apple articles is anything to go by, Chinese consumers and their iOS devices won’t be so easily parted. Earlier this week, People’s Daily, the Chinese government’s official newspaper, published articles calling Apple’s customer-service practices arrogant.?The People’s Daily article followed a story earlier this month by official government press agency Xinhua, which blamed Apple for an increase in high-interest loans taken out by students to buy “fancy electronic products, most Apple devices.” And just a few days prior to the Xinhua story, China Central Television’s investigative program “3.15″ criticized Apple’s warranty practices, saying that the Cupertino company discriminates against Chinese iPhone owners by offering shorter guarantees than in other countries, using refurbished components, and refusing to honor after-sale obligations. China observer Gordon G. Chang wrote in a Forbes opinion piece that “executives in Cupertino should get worried that the 3.15 show is not a one-off.” What’s at stake for the Chinese government is its efforts to decrease dependency on foreign software by upping the profile of locally developed operating systems.?Apple is just one of several foreign tech companies targeted by the Chinese government. Earlier this month, for example, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a white paper declaring that China is?too reliant?on the Android smartphone operating system (though it?overstated Google’s power in China). The Chinese government is?building its own Ubuntu-based open-source OS?in partnership with Canonical and Chinese developers. The Linux-based OS, called “Ubuntu Kylin,” is set for release next month, and a China-specific version of Ubuntu Touch for smartphones and tablets may also be in the works. Most of Huawei and ZTE’s handsets are Android-based, but both Chinese companies are working on their own smartphone operating systems. Huawei Device CEO Wan Biao told Reuters last September that the company is “devoting resources into coming up with a phone operating system based on our current platform in case other companies won’t let us use their system one day.” Though ZTE’s operating system was built with Mozilla, it’s also meant

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/L1lcj_HiIVg/

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The After Math: a million Z10s, the UnCarrier's new plan and a 16-button controller

Welcome to The After Math, where we attempt to summarize this week's tech news through numbers, decimal places and percentages

This week, there's been a mixed bag of interesting news numbers, from T-Mobile's New York event and the company's new perspective on the phone network business, to San Francisco (again) for the Games Developers Conference. We also got to take a look at BlackBerry's first financial results since the name change and its BB10 launch.

Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Sony, Blackberry, T-Mobile

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/M5lkq3Q1v5A/

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Groupon's New Accounting Methods - Business Insider

The Wealth Channel / YouTube

Anthony Catanach

?

Anthony Catanach Jr., an associate professor at the Villanova University School of Business, is a longtime critic of Groupon, and he just renewed his attacks on the daily deal giant.

In August 2011, he predicted on his blog, Grumpy Old Accountants, that the SEC would probe Groupon's numbers ? and it came to pass, seven months later.

This time around, Catanach calls into question a grab-bag of accounting items in Groupon's annual report. He says:

• Groupon is no good at estimating the value of companies it buys.
• Groupon's estimate of the amount of intangible "goodwill" on its balance sheet is ripe for a writedown.
• Groupon's estimate of its deferred tax assets is shaky.
• Groupon uses a non-GAAP accounting method that's "a curious metric that inflates operating performance."

In his post, Catanach says, "Heads up SEC?you too E&Y!"

(We emailed Groupon for comment and we'll update this post if we hear back.)

The backdrop here is that Groupon is struggling to reorient its business away from a dependence on daily email deals toward selling goods directly, and by generally providing a marketing infrastructure for local businesses.

It also recently fired its CEO, Andrew Mason.

Here are a couple of highlights from Catanach's deep-dive into Groupon's numbers:

Remember how the grumpies complained last August about Groupon?s ?unusual? gain on an e-commerce transaction that created second quarter profitability (see Groupon: Still Accounting Challenged)?? This was a gain driven solely by the Company?s own estimates of fair value, the reasonableness of which we questioned at the time.? Well, guess what?? We were right again!? In the fourth quarter (literally at the eleventh hour), the Company revised its value estimate of its F-tuan investment downward by almost 40 percent resulting in a write-down of $50.6 million (2012 10-K, page 84). This turnabout almost completely reverses the pre-tax $56 million gain that Groupon reported in the second quarter of 2012.

... ?In fact, cracks are beginning to appear in the goodwill numbers.? International segment revenue actually declined 15.9 percent in the final quarter of 2012 (2012 10-K, page 38) raising questions about reported international goodwill amounts.

... despite the declines in gross profit percentage, income from operations has turned positive for the first time primarily due to reduced marketing expenses. The dramatic reversals in marketing and selling, general, and administrative (SG&A) expenses may reflect the Company?s changing business model, but given Groupon?s past reporting issues, one wonders if some of this expense volatility is due to the aforementioned decision to reclassify financial statement items.? Just a thought.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/groupons-new-accounting-methods-2013-3

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States answer help wanted ad to be drone test site

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- It's the land where Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier, where the space shuttle fleet rolled off the assembly line and where the first private manned rocketship climbed to space.

Capitalizing on Southern California's aerospace fortunes, two rival groups want to add another laurel: drone test range.

They face crowded competition. In search of an economic boost, more than half the country is looking toward the sky ? expected to be buzzing in the near future with pilotless aircraft.

Before that can become reality, the Federal Aviation Administration last month put out a call to test fly drones at half a dozen to-be-determined sites before they can share the same space as commercial jetliners, small aircraft and helicopters.

Fifty teams from 37 states answered, vying to win bragging rights as a hub for unmanned aerial vehicles.

The military has long flown drones overseas to support troops, spy on enemies and fire missiles. There's a recent clamor to fly them domestically to track the health of crops, fight wildfires in remote terrain, conduct search and rescue after a disaster and perform other chores considered too "dirty, dull or dangerous" for pilots. The expanding use for drones comes amid concerns of a "Big Brother" society.

The untapped civilian market ? estimated to be worth billions ? has created a face-off, with states perfecting their pitch ? ample restricted airspace, industry connections, academic partners ? not unlike what you might read in a tourism brochure.

"It's the chance to get in on the ground floor of what may be the next big business," said Peter Singer, a robotics expert at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington. "The states competing hope it might make them the robotics equivalent of Detroit for automobiles in the 20th century or Silicon Valley for computers."

Winners will play key roles in helping the government seamlessly transition drones, which are controlled remotely by joystick, into the civilian airspace without crashing into other planes or injuring bystanders.

Supporters of a Southern California test site point to an existing drone presence. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., based in the San Diego suburbs, makes the Predator that has circled over Iraq and Afghanistan. Just outside of downtown Los Angeles, AeroVironment introduced the world's first hummingbird spy plane and is developing other tiny drones inspired by biology.

"From start to finish, you can do your UAV work here," said John Rose of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, which co-sponsored a three-day drone conference this week in the Los Angeles area focused on civilian uses.

There are two competing California bids from airport agencies in Ventura County northwest of Los Angeles and Kern County in the Mojave Desert.

"If we are successful, it would be an economic stimulus for the region moving forward," said Bill Buratto of the Ventura County Economic Development Association, which is working with county airport officials on a plan to have drones fly from Point Mugu, the site of numerous Navy training exercises.

Their in-state competitor envisions test flights out of the high desert skies about 150 miles north of Los Angeles and touts its remoteness and access to military and civilian facilities currently doing drone research.

"You kind of want to be in the middle of nowhere. You don't want to risk being close to a populated area," said Eileen Shibley, who leads the effort for the Indian Wells Valley Airport District.

Other states have taken a different tact, putting on a united front or partnering with a neighboring state to pool resources.

Ohio ? the home state of Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong, Mercury astronaut John Glenn and the Wright brothers ? teamed with Indiana to increase both states' odds. Like California, there is budding drone activity in Ohio, most notably the Air Force's sensor research at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

Joseph Zeis of the Dayton Development Coalition doesn't see this as a competition.

"When the test site selection is over, we're all collaborating on a single goal" to safely merge drones into the national airspace, said Zeis, who's spearheading the Ohio-Indiana venture.

The FAA is expected to choose the six drone test sites by year's end.

The specter of thousands of unmanned eyes swarming the sky in the coming years has unnerved privacy advocates, who fear ordinary Americans would be overzealously monitored by law enforcement, considered one of the top users of the technology in the future. As part of the selection process, test site hopefuls must publish a privacy policy and follow existing privacy laws.

The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International does not have a favorite. But the voice for the domestic drone industry acknowledged that states hosting test sites would benefit economically.

In a report published earlier this month, the group said states with an already solid aerospace industry are predicted to gain drone business. But other factors, including location of test sites, will also drive job creation.

That's why California needs to act fast, said state assemblyman Jeff Gorell, who has been pushing for a test site in his district.

"This is a great opportunity for California," he said. "We might be able to recapture some of the golden era of aerospace."

___

Follow Alicia Chang at http://twitter.com/SciWriAlicia

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/states-answer-help-wanted-ad-132616936.html

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Magnetic fingerprints of interface defects in silicon solar cells detected

Mar. 27, 2013 ? Using a highly sensitive method of measurement, HZB physicists have managed to localize defects in amorphous/crystalline silicon heterojunction solar cells. Now, for the first time ever, using computer simulations at Paderborn University, the scientists were able to determine the defects' exact locations and assign them to certain structures within the interface between the amorphous and crystalline phases.

In theory, silicon-based solar cells are capable of converting up to 30 percent of sunlight to electricity -- although, in reality, the different kinds of loss mechanisms ensure that even under ideal lab conditions it does not exceed 25 %. Advanced heterojunction cells shall affront this problem: On top of the wafer's surface, at temperatures below 200 ?C, a layer of 10 nanometer disordered (amorphous) silicon is deposited. This thin film is managing to saturate to a large extent the interface defects and to conduct charge carriers out of the cell. Heterojunction solar cells have already high efficiency factors up to 24,7 % -- even in industrial scale. However, scientists had until now only a rough understanding of the processes at the remaining interface defects.

Now, physicists at HZB's Institute for Silicon Photovoltaics have figured out a rather clever way for detecting the remaining defects and characterizing their electronic structure. "If electrons get deposited on these defects, we are able to use their spin, that is, their small magnetic moment, as a probe to study them," Dr. Alexander Schnegg explains. With the help of EDMR, electrically detected magnetic resonance, an ultrasensitive method of measurement, they were able to determine the local defects' structure by detecting their magnetic fingerprint in the photo current of the solar cell under a magnetic field and microwave radiation.

Theoretical physicists of Paderborn University could compare these results with quantum chemical computer simulations, thus obtaining information about the defects' positions within the layers and the processes they are involved to decrease the cells' efficiency. "We basically found two distinct families of defects," says Dr. Uwe Gerstmann from Paderborn University, who collaborates with the HZB Team in a program sponsored by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG priority program 1601). "Whereas in the first one, the defects are rather weakly localized within the amorphous layer, a second family of defects is found directly at the interface, but in the crystalline silicon."

For the first time ever the scientists have succeeded at directly detecting and characterizing processes with atomic resolution that compromise these solar cells' high efficiency. The cells were manufactured and measured at the HZB; the numerical methods were developed at Paderborn University. "We can now apply these findings to other types of solar cells in order to optimize them further and to decrease production costs," says Schnegg.

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Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. B. M. George, J. Behrends, A. Schnegg, T. F. Schulze, M. Fehr, L. Korte, B. Rech, K. Lips, M. Rohrm?ller, E. Rauls, W. G. Schmidt, U. Gerstmann. Atomic Structure of Interface States in Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells. Physical Review Letters, 2013; 110 (13) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.136803

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/b0247wn1A30/130327104151.htm

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Abs, Smiles & More: Ryan Gosling's Hottest Moments

In honor of his latest film The Place Beyond the Pines (in theaters March 29), we're looking at the Baby Goose's most swoon-worthy pics!

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/ryan-gosling-hot-photos/1-b-368399?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Aryan-gosling-hot-photos-368399

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Herb Wesson On LA NFL Team: City Council President Urges Patience

LOS ANGELES -- City Council President Herb Wesson on Tuesday cautioned against prematurely abandoning support for professional football in Los Angeles, saying he is convinced billionaire Philip Anschutz is sincere in his plans for bring a team to the L.A. Live site.

"I talked with (Anschutz) after he made his decision to not sell AEG and he told me that he is continuing to actively pursue professional football and he has a number of other plans for Los Angeles," Wesson said.

"I think we have to give him some room. Everything he and his company have promised has been accomplished. "

Anschutz earlier this month decided to pull Anschutz Entertainment Group off of the market after bids came in lower than expected.

Wesson said he understands the frustrations expressed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Councilwoman Jan Perry, who want to see plans developed to modernize and expand the Convention Center even without football.

"We do need to improve the Convention Center, but I think we should wait and see how the plans for football develop. There was a great deal of uncertainty (with the NFL) when AEG was up for sale," Wesson said.

"Now, that (Anschutz) is engaged again, we have a billionaire talking with other billionaires. He is the one who will be talking with the NFL and I want us to support him: In my view, we should let him proceed. "

Wesson said that would include the possibility of extending a city deadline of 2014 to have a deal with the NFL and for allowing the Convention Center expansion.

"We haven't got to that point yet," Wesson said. "I would like to hear what our committee on the stadium says about that. We have done a lot of work and we need to try to see this to the end. "

AEG had proposed tearing down the West Hall of the Convention Center to make way for the football stadium. The West Hall would be replaced with a new facility on Pico Boulevard.

AEG officials said they would not comment on Wesson's statements.

After he made his decision to retain the company, Anschutz said in an interview that Los Angeles should look at his decision as positive for the city in its efforts to move forward the process of acquiring an NFL team.

"I'm the only one who has spent $45 million to $50 million out of pocket on this," Anschutz said. "I have made a substantial investment and I will tell you I do not spend money out of the joy of writing checks. Obviously, I think there is a good opportunity here for the city and a good business opportunity for the company. I believe this will get the process moving again. "

There have been a number of efforts over the years to try to convince the NFL to return to Los Angeles. Some of the proposals have won the support of league staffers.

Immediately after the Anschutz announcement, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said he welcomed working with Anschutz and considered his decision to retain the company a positive step.

At the same time, Goodell said Dodger Stadium remained a viable alternative to the downtown location.

Also, real estate magnate Ed Roski has his own proposal for a stadium in the San Gabriel Valley. ___

Earlier on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/27/herb-wesson-la-nfl-team_n_2963135.html

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James Franco understands 'Hathaway haters'

By Us Weekly

James Franco says he made up with Anne Hathaway after hosting the Oscars -- but we'll see if that lasts after his recent appearance on Howard Stern's Sirius XM radio show! The?"Spring Breakers" actor was questioned by Stern on Monday about his relationship with Hathaway after their highly-criticized 2011 Oscar hosting gig.

Michael Yada / EPA file

James Franco and Anne Hathaway hosting the 83rd annual Academy Awards in Hollywood, on Feb. 27, 2011.

"I'm happy to revisit this, but you're going to have to take the lead," Franco, 34, warned Stern. "If you're going to talk about it, you're going to have to give your opinions ... She does not want me talking about this, but OK."

PHOTOS: Oscar hosts' best and worst moments ever

"Everyone sort of hates Anne Hathaway, and I've explained that I do too and I don't know even know why sometimes," Stern explained. "She's just so affected [and] actress-y that even when she wins an award she's out of breath, and then she has the standard joke that sounds like it's [been] written [for her]. And it all seems so scripted and acted.

"She comes off like the goody two-shoes actress and it's just fun to sort of hate her," the radio host added. "Hate is a strong word . . . but [I] dislike her, even though she is a great actress. Is that accurate?"

"I'm not an expert on -- I guess they're called 'Hatha-haters'-- but I think that's what maybe triggers it," Franco agreed.

PHOTOS: Anne Hathaway's style evolution

"Are you still friendly with her?" Stern asked.

"We haven't talked in a while," the "Oz the Great and Powerful"?actor admitted of his relationship with the now Oscar-winning actress. But he later added, "Anne and I made up, by the way. Let's just get that on the record."

"It was a really hard time after the Oscars," Franco added. "She wasn't mad at me, I don't think ... she didn't say she was mad at me for what happened ... The critics were so nasty."

PHOTOS: What all the stars wore to the 2013 Oscars

Franco also addressed reports that he turned down having sex with troubled actress Lindsay Lohan. "I don't want to like brag about it," he said. "I don't know how that got out."

"She was having issues even then, so you feel weird," Franco explained. "Honestly, she was a friend. I've met a lot of people that are troubled and sometimes you don't want to do that."What's his relationship status now? "Let's say I'm dating," he shared. "I'm getting older. I would like a long-term relationship."

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Source: http://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2013/03/26/17475212-james-franco-howard-stern-discuss-why-people-hate-anne-hathaway?lite

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Oscars schedule announced: Awards dodge Olympics broadcast

The Oscars, the SAG awards, and several other awards shows announced their 2014 and 2015 schedules, which were tweaked to avoid conflicting with the next Winter Games.

By Associated Press / March 25, 2013

Daniel Day Lewis and Meryl Streep charm reporters in the press room at the Oscars on Feb. 24, 2013. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today that next year?s Oscar ceremony will be held on March 2, 2014. The 2015 trophies will be handed out Feb. 22.

John Shearer/Invision/AP/File

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Film fans can already mark their calendars for the Academy Awards in 2014 and 2015.

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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Monday that next year's?Oscar?ceremony will be held March 2. The 2015 trophies will be handed out Feb. 22.

Awards shows, including the?Oscars, are juggling their calendars to avoid overlap with the 2014 Winter Olympics, which will be held Feb. 7-23 in Sochi, Russia.

The Screen Actors Guild and the Producers Guild of America each pushed up their 2014 awards ceremonies to the weekend of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, on Jan. 18 and 19, respectively.

The Directors Guild will present its annual awards on Jan. 25, 2014. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has yet to announce when its Golden Globe Awards ceremony will be held.

Nominations for the 86th annual Academy Awards will be announced Jan. 16, 2014, more than six weeks before the ceremony.

The Academy Awards in both 2014 and 2015 will be presented at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles and broadcast live on ABC.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/MrwL-r15Z98/Oscars-schedule-announced-Awards-dodge-Olympics-broadcast

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Pa. groundhog's handler taking blame for forecast

PITTSBURGH (AP) ? An Ohio prosecutor who light-heartedly filed a criminal indictment against the famous Pennsylvania groundhog who fraudulently "predicted" an early spring said he may consider a pardon now that the animal's handler is taking the blame.

Bill Deeley, president of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club's Inner Circle, told The Associated Press on Monday that the animal rightly predicted six more weeks of winter last month, but he mistakenly announced an early spring because he failed to correctly interpret Phil's "groundhog-ese."

"I'm the guy that did it; I'll be the fall guy. It's not Phil's fault," Deeley said.

Butler County, Ohio, prosecutor Mike Gmoser told the AP that he's reconsidering the charges in light of the new evidence and may issue a full pardon.

"Frankly, he is a cute little rascal, a cute little thing," Gmoser said. "And if somebody is willing to step up to the plate and take the rap, I'm willing to listen."

The Groundhog Day celebration in Punxsutawney, a borough about 65 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, attracts worldwide attention each year. But the attention stretched well beyond Feb. 2 when Gmoser last week issued an indictment as winter-like weather continued across much of the nation even as spring began.

"Punxsutawney Phil did purposely, and with prior calculation and design cause the people to believe that spring would come early," Gmoser's indictment said. The penalty? Death, Smoser said, tongue firmly in cheek.

Deeley said this is the second year in a row he's misinterpreted Phil's forecast. "Remember, last year at this time it was 80 degrees and Phil had predicted six more weeks of winter," Deeley said.

Under normal circumstances, Deeley's interpretation of the forecast is infallible, as long as he clings to the gnarly, magical "Arcadian" cane while the rodent whispers the forecast into his ear. Deeley still doesn't know what went wrong, but he said the borough is nonetheless pleased to still be in the news more than six weeks later ? although there's more snow on the ground, and local schools were closed Monday.

"We couldn't have generated this much publicity with a $10,000 ad campaign," he said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pa-groundhogs-handler-taking-blame-forecast-135937251.html

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NJ toenail clippings to be tested for toxic metal spotlighted by Erin Brockovich

Julio Cortez / AP

Wind blows through a tarp hanging from a fence surrounding an industrial site in Garfield, N.J. where toxic chromium was spilled in 1983.

By Noreen O'Donnell, Reuters

Scientists plan to check toenail clippings in Garfield, New Jersey, to determine if residents were exposed to a toxic metal made infamous in California by environmental activist Erin Brockovich.

Chromium, linked to lung cancer, leaked from the now-demolished EC Electroplating Inc. factory and polluted groundwater in a 1983 incident.

Located 12 miles west of New York City, the area is on the federal Superfund list of hazardous waste sites. Some 30,000 people live in Garfield.

"Concentrations in the groundwater, et cetera, are very high," Judith Zelikoff, a professor of environmental medicine at the New York University School of Medicine, told Reuters on Monday.

In the 1983 incident, more than 3,600 gallons of a chemical solution containing chromium were discharged from a tank at the factory, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The solution got into the groundwater, which flows toward the Passaic River, about 2,500 feet west of the site.

The city's drinking water comes from a different source and is not contaminated.

The plume is about three quarters of a mile long and slightly more than an eighth of a mile wide, said Rich Puvogel, a project manager with the EPA.

Detecting chromium in groundwater, soil and homes does not necessarily mean that people were exposed, Zelikoff said.

"We hope to be able to relieve their anxiety," said Zelikoff, noting that scientists will begin recruiting volunteers for the toenail clippings within the next three weeks.

Toenails grow slowly and may help to detect chronic exposure, she said.

Very high levels of chromium were found at the factory - approximately 80,000 parts per billion, Puvogel said. Downstream from the site, the levels drop off by several orders of magnitude, he said. New Jersey sets a limit of 70 parts per billion.

The residents' exposure would have come from inhaling or touching chromium that had seeped into their basements, especially during flooding.

"When the water dries, it also leaves a chromium dust residue," Zelikoff said.

Environmental activist Erin Brockovich and her team of lawyers are working to help Louisiana residents displaced by massive sinkhole. WVLA's Kris Cusanza reports.

Inhaled chromium is a carcinogen that increases the risk of lung cancer, according to the EPA.

Scientists, who became aware of the contamination last year, want to test up to 250 residents, including some who live directly above the plume and a control group living at least three miles away, Zelikoff said.

Residents who agree to submit toenail clippings will receive kits containing stainless-steel clippers and instructions. They must be between 18 and 65 and cannot have taken chromium supplements or be smokers.

Last year the EPA removed more than 753 containers and drums of industrial waste from the factory and 6,100 gallons of chromium-contaminated water. The building was demolished in October.

Next week the agency will start sampling the soil at the site to determine what sources of contamination remain.?

Erin Brockovich, a law firm assistant turned campaigner, rallied residents in a California desert town to sue Pacific Gas & Electric over a pollution incident - a battle that formed the basis for a?2000 movie in her name starring Julia Roberts.

?

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Facebook Messenger iOS app enables free calling feature for UK users

While Americans and Canadians have enjoyed making app-based voice calls to their Facebook contacts since January, their overseas buddies have missed out -- until now. The social network's iOS Messenger app has just doled out the calling feature to the UK and potentially other parts of Europe too, although we haven't yet been able to confirm exactly how far and wide the update reaches. It's worth noting that the feature isn't enabled on the Android iteration yet, either. The new calling service isn't powered by Skype this time, although it works in a similarly uncomplicated way, with the ability to leave voice messages with any busy users. According to Pocket-lint, this is an experimental version, warning that you might experience a few bugs and glitches as you play around with it, but hey, you're getting free calls to (most of) your friends, barring any data charges. We've tested the new feature and it's working for several of our UK editors over both WiFi and 3G, but if you haven't already picked up the messaging app yet, you can grab it at the source below.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Software, Mobile, Apple, Facebook

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/25/facebook-messenger-ios-app-uk-free-calling/

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Police: No hazardous material at Berezovsky site

British police officers cordon off a road near a residence in Ascot, a town 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of London, Saturday, March 23, 2013. Boris Berezovsky, 67, a self-exiled and outspoken former Russian oligarch who had a bitter falling out with Russian President Vladimir Putin, was found dead Saturday in southeast England. Thames Valley police said his death was being treated as unexplained. They would not directly identify him, but when asked about him by name they read a statement saying they were investigating the death of a 67-year-old man at a property in Ascot. A mathematician turned Mercedes dealer, Berezovsky amassed his wealth during Russia's chaotic privatization of state assets in the early 1990's. The one-time Kremlin powerbroker fell out with Putin and sought political asylum in Britain in the early 2000's. He has lived in the U.K. ever since. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

British police officers cordon off a road near a residence in Ascot, a town 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of London, Saturday, March 23, 2013. Boris Berezovsky, 67, a self-exiled and outspoken former Russian oligarch who had a bitter falling out with Russian President Vladimir Putin, was found dead Saturday in southeast England. Thames Valley police said his death was being treated as unexplained. They would not directly identify him, but when asked about him by name they read a statement saying they were investigating the death of a 67-year-old man at a property in Ascot. A mathematician turned Mercedes dealer, Berezovsky amassed his wealth during Russia's chaotic privatization of state assets in the early 1990's. The one-time Kremlin powerbroker fell out with Putin and sought political asylum in Britain in the early 2000's. He has lived in the U.K. ever since. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

FILE - In this Jan. 26, 2000 file photo Russian tycoons Boris Berezovsky, left, and Roman Abramovich, then both lawmakers, walk after the session of the State Duma, parliament's lower house, in Moscow, Russia. United Kingdom police have said that Berezovsky has been found dead Saturday March 23, 2013. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev, File)

British police officers cordon off a road near a residence in Ascot, a town 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of London, Saturday, March 23, 2013. Boris Berezovsky, 67, a self-exiled and outspoken former Russian oligarch who had a bitter falling out with Russian President Vladimir Putin, was found dead Saturday in southeast England. Thames Valley police said his death was being treated as unexplained. They would not directly identify him, but when asked about him by name they read a statement saying they were investigating the death of a 67-year-old man at a property in Ascot. A mathematician turned Mercedes dealer, Berezovsky amassed his wealth during Russia's chaotic privatization of state assets in the early 1990's. The one-time Kremlin powerbroker fell out with Putin and sought political asylum in Britain in the early 2000's. He has lived in the U.K. ever since. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

FILE - A Wednesday, July 18, 2007 photo from files showing Russian exile Boris Berezovsky, a close friend of former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko who was poisoned by Polonium 2-10, speaking to the media in a news conference in London. United Kingdom police have said that Berezovsky has been found dead Saturday March 23, 2013. (AP Photo/Sang Tan, File)

FILE - A Friday, Aug. 31, 2012 photo from files showing Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky talking to the media after losing his case against Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich as he leaves the High Court in London. United Kingdom police have said that Berezovsky has been found dead Saturday March 23, 2013.(AP Photo/Sang Tan, File)

LONDON (AP) ? Chemical and radiation experts found no hazardous materials in their search of the property where Boris Berezovsky's body was found, as British police on Sunday investigated the unexplained death of the self-exiled Russian tycoon who went from Kremlin kingmaker to fiery critic.

Berezovsky, who fled to Britain in the early 2000s after a bitter falling out with Russian President Vladimir Putin, was found dead Saturday at the property in Ascot, a town 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of London. He was 67, and Thames Valley police say his death is being treated as "unexplained."

Police said Sunday that officers specially trained in chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear materials have given the scene the "all clear."

"Officers found nothing of concern in the property and we are now progressing the investigation as normal," a statement from police said, adding that the majority of the cordon put in place around the property has now been lifted.

Berezovsky ? who had survived a number of assassination attempts ? amassed a fortune through oil and automobiles during Russia's chaotic privatization of state assets following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.

Once a member of Russian President Boris Yeltsin's inner circle, Berezovsky fell out with Yeltsin's successor, Putin, and fled Britain in the early 2000s to escape fraud charges that he said were politically motivated.

He became a strident and frequent critic of Putin, accusing the leader of ushering in a dictatorship, and accused the security services of organizing the 1999 apartment house bombings in Moscow and two other Russian cities that became a pretext for Russian troops to sweep into Chechnya for the second war there in half a decade.

Putin's spokesman acknowledged Sunday that the Russian president considered Berezovsky an enemy with clearly stated intentions to fight.

"We know for certain that he spared no expense in support of processes, within Russia and beyond, that could be said to have been directed against Russia and Putin," spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on the independent cable television channel Rain. "He definitely was Putin's opponent, and unfortunately not only his political opponent, but most likely in other dimensions as well."

In recent years, Berezovsky fended off legal attacks that often bore political undertones ? and others that bit into his fortune.

Russia repeatedly sought to extradite on Berezovksy on a wide variety of criminal charges, and the tycoon vehemently rejected allegations over the years that he was linked to several deaths, including that of slain journalist Anna Politkovskaya and ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko.

Berezovsky won a libel case in 2010 against a Kremlin-owned broadcaster that aired a show in which it was suggested he was behind the poisoning of Litvinenko, who had fled Russia with Berezovsky's help after accusing officials there of plotting to assassinate political opponents.

He took a hit with his divorce from Galina Besharova in 2010, paying what was at the time Britain's largest divorce settlement. The figure beat a previous record of 48 million pounds ($73.1 million) and was estimated as high as 100 million pounds, though the exact figure was never confirmed.

Last year, Berezovsky lost a multibillion-pound High Court case against fellow Russian Roman Abramovich and was ordered to pay 35 million pounds ($53.3 million) in legal costs.

Berezovsky had claimed that Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea Football Club, cheated him out of his stakes in the oil group Sibneft, arguing that he blackmailed him into selling the stakes vastly beneath their true worth after he lost Putin's good graces.

But a judge threw out the case in August, ruling that Berezovsky was a dishonest and unreliable witness, and rejected Berezovsky's claims that he was threatened by Putin and Alexander Voloshin, a Putin ally, to coerce him to sell his Sibneft stake.

It also recently emerged that Berezovsky ran up legal bills totaling more than 250,000 pounds in just two months of a case against his former partner, Elena Gorbunova, with whom he had two children and who claimed the businessman owed her millions.

Earlier this week, The Times of London newspaper reported that Berezovsky was selling property ? including an Andy Warhol portrait of the former Soviet Union leader Vladimir Lenin ? to settle his debts and pay expenses owed to lawyers.

News of Berezovsky's death has prompted conspiracy theories along with speculation as to his state of mind, given his recent financial setbacks.

Ilya Zhegulev, a journalist with the Russian edition of Forbes magazine, said he spoke with Berezovsky the day before he died and discussed the tycoon's decision to flee Russia in 2000.

The journalist quoted Berezovsky as saying that during his years in London he had lost the meaning of life.

"I no longer want to be involved in politics," Zhegulev quoted Berezovsky as saying in a story published Saturday on the Forbes.ru website.

He said Berezovsky told him that he wanted nothing more than to return to Russia. The former oligarch said he had changed his views on Russia, saying he now understood that it should not look to Europe as a model.

"I had absolutely, idealistically imagined that it was possible to build a democratic Russia. And idealistically imagined what democracy was in the center of Europe. I underestimated the inertia of Russia and greatly overestimated the West. This took place gradually. I changed my understanding of Russia's path," he quoted Berezovsky as having said.

___

AP writer Lynn Berry in Moscow contributed to this report. Cassandra Vinograd can be reached at http://twitter.com/CassVinograd

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-24-Britain-Berezovsky/id-6bdec1513e774bc199b38322c528ed4e

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PHOTOS: Given to Texas, but will Texans ever explore new parkland?

by Martha Cerna / KENS 5

kens5.com

Posted on March 24, 2013 at 8:20 AM

Updated today at 4:05 PM

Just a short shot from San Antonio and an even shorter skip from Boerne 3,800 acres of Texas wilderness sits waiting to be explored. Will the new park ever be born?

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department received the property in 2011 - a gift from the Albert and Bessie Kronkosky Foundation of San Antonio.

Now TPWD staff is evaluating the Kronkosky State Natural Area to see what's out there.

And there's a lot to see, according to James Rice, the newly-appointed superintendent of the new parkland.

A Peek Inside: Rare and Endangered

Preliminary baseline surveys have turned up habitat for the golden-cheeked warbler, stands of big tooth Maples, and the rare Madrone tree.

But, Rice was most excited about the endangered Sycamore-leaf snowbell. He says the white-tail deer crave the shrub, that sprouts small clusters of delicate white flowers.

What makes this spot choice has a lot to do with the fact that Red Bluff Creek and Pipe Creek both run through it, sometimes underground, other times slipping through the rocky soil to amble along shady creek beds, pooling up from time to time, much to the delight of ring-tailed cats, raccoons, screech owls, coyotes, opossums, and the nefarious feral hog.

Rice also said they are counting up the milkweed plant. Apparently, migrating monarch butterflies have a singular taste for milkweed.

The Kronkosky SNA was originally delivered as ranch land, fronted by a main residence, ranch manager's residence, three garages and two barns, and is located on Hwy. 46, 8 miles southwest of Boerne.

TPWD is about 18 months or so away from completing the master plans that include possible development of campsites, roads, trails, etc. Then come the cost estimates. That's also where the biggest hurdle comes: the money.

If parkland is given to the people and no one ever sees it, is it still a park?

The Texas legislature is considering two bills that would fund the 84 parks currently in operation. And TPWD says there currently are no plans to close parks.

But, there are parks that have not seen the light of day, so to speak. They are undeveloped, like the Kronkosky SNA, and are not open to the public. The list includes: The Davis Hill Natural Area near Houston; Chinati Mountains State Park, between Presidio and Marfa; and Palo Pinto Mountains State Park near Fort Worth. Will Texans ever be able to explore these parks? Some speculate there aren't enough funds to develop and open these properties for use.

State Representative Lyle Larson of San Antonio says the Sporting Goods Sales Tax was supposed to go to Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Texas Historical Commission, but since it was created in 1993 only a small percentage of the revenue has actually been used for parks. The rest, Larson says, went to pay for unrelated budget items.

Larson is proposing legislation to restrict the use of those revenues, and restore funding to Texas parks.

What a great gift that would be for Texans?and a great birthday gift for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, turning 50 on August 23, 2013!

Speaking of which: If you love parks and love sharing the adventure, log onto www.lifesbetteroutside.org - TPWD?s 50th anniversary site. There you can share photos, videos and your story about "what's made life better outside in Texas."
?

?

Source: http://www.kens5.com/news/KRONKOSKY-SNA-199205351.html

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Editors' Choice: Asphalt 7: Heat, Digifit, TV Forecast, and more

Every week, the editors and writers at iMore carefully select some of our favorite, most useful, most extraordinary apps, accessories, gadgets, and websites. This week's selections include a couple word games, a TV guide, a fitness app, a racing game, and an iBook.

4 Pics 1 Word - Ally Kazmucha

I don't play a ton of games on my iPhone and iPad but when I do, strategy and letter games are my absolute favorite. I've been addicted to Letterpress since it came out and am always looking for more word games to play.

4 Pics 1 Word is a little different than traditional word games and makes you think a little more. You'll be presented with 4 photos and you'll have to figure out what word they all have in common. The more you complete the harder they'll get. It makes it the perfect game for when you just need to kill time and don't want to get too involved in a game that will hold your attention for a long time. You can quickly pop in and out as you want to play which is great for short periods of boredom.

• Free - Download Now

TV Forecast - Joseph Keller

Despite the fact that episodes are available on iTunes or through Hulu, I still watch a lot of my favorite shows live. TV Forecast is my favorite app for tracking the shows I watch. For the most part I can keep when each show airs straight, but if it?s a new program, or perhaps one that has been on hiatus for a period of time, it?s helpful to have something to remind you to tune in. I really appreciate the ability to set alerts. TV Forecast will give you the air date of a show no matter how far in the future it is, so long as it is available, and will also provide a synopsis of upcoming episodes. At $0.99, TV Forecast is definitely worth a shot if you?re look for something to keep track of your favorite shows.

• $0.99 - Download Now

Digifit iCardio - Chris Oldroyd

This week I have chosen a fitness app that is working out really well for me. For some reason in the UK the app is called simply iCardio but it is the same as Digifit iCardio in the United States. Digifit is an all in one fitness logging app that lets you log your fitness activities, be that running, walking, hiking, biking or even inside fitness activities.

What I really love about this app is its ability to connect to my Polar H7 Bluetooth heart rate monitor. This allows me to accurately record my workouts and know exactly the amount of calories that I have burned; no more guessing required! I use it for my spinning class and it is a real motivator when you?re finding it tough, just look at the app and see how many calories you have burnt; it really drives you on.

I am a huge user of My Fitness Pal, you can add me as a friend if you like (Username: chrisoldroyd) and this app automatically syncs to My Fitness Pal and adds in your calorie burns from whatever exercise you have chosen. It does it all automatically so that?s one last thing to worry about.

Digifit also has an online account where you can also upload your workouts and see what you have been doing in a lot more detail. All in all this app is a great companion to your fitness programs. The app is free but if you want to enable the sensors, they have to be done through an in-app purchase.

• Free - Download Now

Asphalt 7: Heat - Chris Parsons

I've always been a huge fan of racing simulators and one of the best series of those on iOS has been Asphalt. Asphalt 7: Heat doesn't change that, it remains one of the best racing games out there and is visually incredible all things considered. Sure, it does have quite a few in-app purchases should you decide you need them but thus far I've had no issues with playing through avoiding them. Fast cars, plenty of environments to choose from, great replay value and even controlled support if you need it -- can't really ask much more from a racing game. Asphalt 7: Heat is available for $.99 in the iTunes App Store.

• $0.99 - Download now

Markdown: A MacSparky Field Guide - Rene Ritchie

90% of what I write these days is in Markdown, a plain-text formatting syntax developers by Daring Fireball's John Gruber back in 2004. I've been hand-typing HTML since the 90s, and I can type HTML fast. But with Markdown, I can fly. Where HTML wraps everything in containers, forcing you to think and write in small sets of loops, Markdown wraps things in nothing more than plaintext characters, allowing for a much more linear, more natural flow.

Yet despite using Markdown to write almost every iMore post in the last few years, I remain a very superficial user. Never mind the Merlin Mann's and Bret Terpstra's of the world, I'm barely out of Markdown second grade. Which is why I've just bought and begun reading -- and watching -- Markdown: A MacSparky Field Guide.

Crafted for iPad, and replete with text and screencasts, David Sparks and Eddie Smith, Markdown: A MacSparky Field Guide, covers not only Gruber's Markdown but Fletcher Penny's MultiMarkdown as well. It also includes how to use Markdown on the Mac, Windows, iOS, and the Web.

I don't know how much more Markdown I really need -- part of its appeal is its simplicity -- but I do know I want to understand it better, and Markdown: A MacSparky Field Guide, looks like a great way to do just that.

• $9.99 - Download now

LetterSlider - Leanna Lofte

Like Ally, I'm a huge fan of word games and a new game I've been spending time with is LetterSlider. Remember those puzzles that featured a grid of tiles with an empty space and you had to slide them around to complete the picture or put the numbers in order? Well, LetterSlider is very similar, only you are sliding around the tiles to spell words. Each letter has a point value and there's a double-word and triple-word tile. The goal is to earn as many points as you can in 2 minutes. Because moving the tiles requires a sliding motion and spelling words also requires a sliding motion, these gestures can get a little confusing. Regardless, LetterSlider is still fun.

• $0.99 - Download now

Your choice?

Now that we've chosen our favorites for the week, we want to hear yours! Did you pick up a killer app, accessory, or game this week? Let us know in the comments below!

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/7na-KF4Kgq4/story01.htm

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'NSYNC's 15th Anniversary: 'Five Normal Guys' Hit It Big

MTV News' first interview with the boy band features Justin Timberlake and company on the verge of superstardom back in 1998.
By By Christina Garibaldi

Justin Timberlake in 1998
Photo: MTV News

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1704195/nsync-15th-anniversary.jhtml

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Health reform turns 3, with the hardest part yet to come

Three years ago this weekend, President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law.

Its provisions sound sweeping ? get health insurance to 32 million Americans who don?t have it now, stop insurers from cherry-picking their customers, require basic coverage that?s proven to improve health and lower costs, not to mention initiatives to get doctors to work together in teams. But the law?s written to go into effect in stages, and it?ll be years before all the provisions are up and running.

The federal government has barely met each deadline, and the biggest batches of changes are coming up in the next few months.

Don?t expect it to go smoothly, experts predict.

The next big deadline is Oct. 1, when states are supposed to have the new health insurance marketplaces, called exchanges, up and running. This one?s down to the wire for most states, and it?s still impossible to say what they will look like, how many policies people will have to choose from and how much they will cost.

The 55 percent of Americans who are covered by their employers already know it can be confusing at ?open enrollment? time, when they often have to choose among several plans. Dental or vision coverage? Which prescription plan? If you choose a high co-pay -- an amount paid every time a patient visits a doctors or other caregiver, or fills a prescription -- does the lower premium balance that out? Or will you end up paying more in co-pays if you end up making a lot of doctor visits, or need surgery?

Expect that to be multiplied, a lot, on one of the new exchanges. And most of the people buying on these exchanges will not have much experience in this area.

Lori Dustin, chief marketing officer for HighRoads, a human resources consulting firm, sees more than a few bumps in the road. ?Consumers will be faced with a lack of information to shop for plans,? she predicts. While big states like California and New York are likely to provide many choices, smaller states with a history of limited insurance options may not have much to offer, she says.

?They have to service consumers who are uninsured, who don?t understand what a co-pay is,? she said. ?There are going to be a lot of calls into customer service centers.?

Many people will get sticker shock when they see the premiums they will be charged, Dustin predicts. No premiums are yet set ? insurers have until April 30 to apply to sell a product on the federally run exchanges.

But the new plans will be comprehensive ? the law requires that. So they?ll cost more than some of the bare-bones plans offered in the past. That could scare off younger, healthier customers, Dustin says. ?If the premiums are unreasonable, an uninsured person is going to weigh the difference between paying a penalty and paying premiums that may be enormous,? she says.

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The whole basis of health insurance is to get a wide variety of people paying premiums, so the insurer can pay for the health care of those who need it, while still covering its administrative costs and staff, not to mention making a profit. If healthier people who don?t yet need insurance don?t buy in, then insurers are stuck with a pool of sick customers.

No coverage cap or ban on those with pre-existing conditions
In the past, many insurers would exclude these sickest people whenever possible, even kicking some off the rolls when they started to cost too much. ?Obamacare?, as even the administration now calls it, stops this. Starting in 2014, new policies may not cap coverage and they have to take all comers, even if they are already sick.

But to make this work for the insurers, the new exchanges will have to lure in more healthy payers, too. While the Health and Human Services Department is confident it can, Dustin and some other critics aren?t so sure. In the first year, the fine for not having health insurance will be as low as $95 ? not much of a deterrent.

Dustin also sees technological barriers. The websites that form the basis of the new marketplaces are complex. ?They don?t even propose to test these websites until late summer and open enrollment is October 1,? she said. ?You?d typically want something in place for at least nine months to a year to test quality and usability.?

Jay Angoff of law firm Mehri & Skalet, who oversaw health reform as head of HHS?s Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight office, thinks HHS will meet the deadline and have workable websites.

?It?s a phenomenal accomplishment, when you think about the technology it takes for people to go to the Internet, punch in the answers to a few questions, and get quotes from carriers in their states,? Angoff said in a telephone interview.

The software has to help HHS communicate instantly with other government agencies, for the Internal Revenue Service to the Social Security Administration, to verify what people say and calculate whether they qualify for a federal subsidy to buy the insurance.

But Angoff, an unabashed cheerleader for the effort, admits there may be glitches.

?The administration will be able to say that it has met the deadline. I don?t think everything is going to be elegant in all states,? he said.

Constantly bumping up against deadlines
All along, HHS has met the deadlines set in the law at virtually the last possible moment. ?Why always at deadline? For the same reasons that you and I waited until the last minute to do our term papers in college,? Angoff says.

To be fair, there have been distractions. The Supreme Court was asked to rule on whether the Affordable Care Act was even constitutional, and waited until the very last possible day in June to do so. Then Congress went down to deadline after deadline to decide on the ?sequester? ? the package of mandatory budget cuts imposed in case there was no political deal on the budget. No deal ever came and the sequester?s now in effect, forcing government agencies, including HHS, to scramble almost halfway through the fiscal year to make budget cuts that can include furloughing workers.

HHS has also had to wait for states to decide if they will run their own exchanges, and then approve their plans to do so. HHS will have to do the job for the states that won?t ? at last count, 26 of them.

But however they turn out, exchanges are going to shape the future evolution of health insurance coverage, experts agree. And they will eventually be forced to make it an easier process.

?In time I think you?ll see this market evolve,? says Joel Ario, a former Pennsylvania insurance commissioner who helped direct development of the health insurance exchanges for the Obama administration and who now is a managing director at Manatt Health Solutions.

?The winners are the ones who will make it as simple and easy to navigate as possible.?

Although about 7 million people will initially buy insurance on the public exchanges, according to the Congressional Budget Office, Ario says employers will start moving to exchange-style marketplaces as well. And while states and the federal government are the largest forces running exchanges, private groups are already also designing and marketing exchanges ? to states, public employers and to companies.

And, by the way, lawmakers are going to get a taste of what the rest of the country is feeling. The law requires that starting in 2014, members of Congress and many of their staffers will have to buy their health insurance on the exchanges, unless they?re over 65 and on Medicare. President Barack Obama is also supposed to buy a plan on an exchange ? although he mostly relies on a personal physician at the White House Medical Unit.

Related:

Florida governor expands Medicaid

Few may pay for skipping health insurance

Feds set to run most health insurance exchanges

States get more time for health exchange plans

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/29e80429/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Cid0C512930A0A0A/story01.htm

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White supremacist killed in Texas eyed in Colorado slayings

By Corrie MacLaggan

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - A white supremacist ex-convict who died in a roadside gun battle with Texas police was being investigated for possible links to the murders of a Colorado corrections chief and a pizza delivery man, law enforcement officials said on Friday.

Police said that Evan Spencer Ebel, a 28-year-old parolee from Denver killed by police on Thursday after a high-speed car chase through Decatur, Texas, was being investigated in connection with the death of Tom Clements, executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections.

Clements, 58, was shot to death on Tuesday night when he answered the door at his home in secluded woods near the town of Monument, 45 miles south of Denver.

Denver police have named Ebel as a suspect in the killing of pizza delivery man Nathan Leon in Denver two days earlier.

Ebel was a member of a white supremacist prison gang, the 211 Crew, had served time in Colorado prisons and had been paroled in the Denver area, a law enforcement official said.

The Hornady 9 mm bullets Ebel fired at Texas police on Thursday were the same brand as those used in the slaying of Clements, Denver television station KCNC-TV reported on Friday, citing a search warrant affidavit filed in Texas for police to search Ebel's Cadillac car.

In the car's trunk, there was a pizza deliverer's shirt or jacket, the station reported, citing court documents.

Authorities were also looking for ties between the murder of Clements and the January slaying of Mark Hasse, a prosecutor in the Kaufman County District Attorney's Office. Kaufman County is east of Dallas.

The January 31 murder of Hasse occurred the same day the U.S. Department of Justice revealed that the Kaufman County District Attorney's Office was among the agencies involved in a racketeering case against the Aryan Brotherhood white supremacist group.

"The Dallas and Denver offices of the Federal Bureau of Investigation are comparing the homicides of Mark Hasse and Tom Clements to determine if there is any evidence linking the two crimes," Kaufman Police Chief Chris Aulbaugh said in a written statement.

In Texas on Thursday, Ebel shot and wounded a Montague County sheriff's deputy during a traffic stop and fled. He led police on a car chase that ended only after his car, a Cadillac with Colorado plates, collided with an 18-wheeler truck.

LENGTHY CRIMINAL HISTORY

Ebel died Thursday at a Fort Worth hospital of a single gunshot wound to the forehead, the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office said.

"I do know that he has a lengthy criminal history," said Wise County (Texas) Sheriff David Walker, whose deputies were involved in the car chase.

El Paso County (Colorado) Sheriff's Spokesman Lieutenant Jeff Kramer said investigators looking into the death of Clements went to Decatur, Texas, to examine Ebel's Cadillac.

Shortly after Clements' killing, authorities said they were looking for a "boxy" sedan seen idling near the house.

According to Colorado court records, Ebel was arrested at least seven times between 2003 and 2010 for crimes including burglary, weapons possession, assault, menacing, robbery and trespassing.

"He clearly was a troubled young man, but there was nothing that would have suggested he was capable of these types of incidents," Denver-based attorney Scott Robinson, who represented Ebel in four cases in 2004, told Reuters.

Mark Potok, senior fellow with the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, said the 211 Crew, also known as the Aryan Alliance, was founded in 1995 by Colorado prison inmate Benjamin Davis, who is serving an 108-year sentence after his conviction for racketeering, conspiracy and other charges under the state's Organized Crime Control Act.

"The group started out as a protective group, but quickly morphed into a criminal enterprise," Potok said, adding that the 211s are known for the "harshness" of their discipline, he said.

He said the 211s were a "blood in, blood out" gang, meaning a prospective member must commit a violent act at the direction of one of the gang's higher-ups, or "shot callers."

Once paroled 211 members are on the street they are expected to start earning money, usually through criminal activity, and forward the proceeds to incarcerated gang leaders, Potok said.

Two 211 Crew members were convicted of killing an African immigrant at a Denver bus stop in 1997 and paralyzing a bystander. Potok said the 211s killed the African man for "wearing the enemy's colors" - meaning he had black skin.

(Reporting by Jim Forsyth, Robin Respaut, Alex Dobuzinskis, Dan Whitcomb and Keith Coffman; Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Paul Thomasch, Doina Chiacu and Andre Grenon)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/police-probe-texas-colorado-prison-chief-killing-020226937.html

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Naked Human Bodies Jumping Up and Down in 2000FPS Is Not Flattering

Jiggle. Blubber. Bounce. Gravity's a bitch. It's especially unforgiving if you jump up and down naked while getting filmed at 2000FPS. That sort of slow motion camera work exposes all the extra meat we carry on our bodies. LA video artist Michael Haussman captured naked people in slow motion to show you what you're missing. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/C9WtVMr8XwA/naked-human-bodies-jumping-up-and-down-in-2000fps-is-not-flattering

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