Square's point-of-sale technology and iPad-powered register, Square Register is getting a big update today targeted at better serving restaurants. New features in the release include custom order modifiers and customizable kitchen tickets that allow restaurants to make taking orders and serving food more efficient.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/tz-0xBxwGqo/
This photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows Syrian fire fighters extinguishing burning cars after a car bomb exploded in the capital's western neighborhood of Mazzeh, in Damascus, Syria, Monday, April. 29, 2013. State-run Syrian TV says the country's prime minister has escaped an assassination attempt when a bomb went off near his convoy. The TV says Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi was unhurt in the attack in the capital's western neighborhood of Mazzeh. (AP Photo/SANA)
This photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows Syrian fire fighters extinguishing burning cars after a car bomb exploded in the capital's western neighborhood of Mazzeh, in Damascus, Syria, Monday, April. 29, 2013. State-run Syrian TV says the country's prime minister has escaped an assassination attempt when a bomb went off near his convoy. The TV says Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi was unhurt in the attack in the capital's western neighborhood of Mazzeh. (AP Photo/SANA)
This photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows Syrian fire fighters extinguishing burning cars after a car bomb exploded in the capital's western neighborhood of Mazzeh, in Damascus, Syria, Monday, April. 29, 2013. State-run Syrian TV says the country's prime minister has escaped an assassination attempt when a bomb went off near his convoy. The TV says Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi was unhurt in the attack in the capital's western neighborhood of Mazzeh. (AP Photo/SANA)
This photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows Syrian fire fighters extinguishing burning cars after a car bomb exploded in the capital's western neighborhood of Mazzeh, in Damascus, Syria, Monday, April. 29, 2013. State-run Syrian TV says the country's prime minister has escaped an assassination attempt when a bomb went off near his convoy. Syrian TV says Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi was unhurt in the attack in the capital's western neighborhood of Mazzeh. (AP Photo/SANA)
This photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows a Syrian man reacts after a car bomb exploded in the capital's western neighborhood of Mazzeh, in Damascus, Syria, Monday, April. 29, 2013. State-run Syrian TV says the country's prime minister has escaped an assassination attempt when a bomb went off near his convoy. Syrian TV says Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi was unhurt in the attack. (AP Photo/SANA)
EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT -- This photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows Syrians carrying a charred body after a car bomb exploded in the capital's western neighborhood of Mazzeh, in Damascus, Syria, Monday, April. 29, 2013. State-run Syrian TV says Prime Minister Wael al-Halqir has escaped unhurt in an assassination attempt when a bomb went off near his convoy. (AP Photo/SANA)
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) ? Syria's prime minister escaped an assassination attempt Monday when a bomb exploded near his convoy in Damascus, state media reported, in the latest attack to target a top government official.
Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi was not hurt in the explosion in the capital's western neighborhood of Mazzeh, state TV said. The TV showed video of heavily damaged cars and debris in the area as firefighters fought to extinguish a large blaze set off by the blast.
A government official said two people were killed and 11 wounded, while the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights activist group said the explosion killed at least five, including two of al-Halqi's bodyguards and one of the drivers in his convoy.
The government official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give official statements to reporters.
As evidence that the prime minister was unhurt, the state-run Al-Ikhbariya station said al-Halqi went into a regular weekly meeting with an economic committee just after the bombing. The station broadcast video of the prime minister sitting around a table in a room with several other officials.
But in the recorded comments after the meeting, al-Halqi made no reference to the bombing, nor was he asked about it by reporters, leaving doubt as to whether the video was shot before or after the bombing.
The state news agency quoted al-Halqi as saying that the assassination attempt exposed how armed groups "are bankrupt" after the latest advances made by Syrian troops around the country.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Monday's suicide attack. Such bombings have been a trademark of Islamic extremists fighting in the rebel ranks, raising concerns about their role in Syria's civil war.
Syria's conflict started with largely peaceful anti-government protests in March 2011 but eventually turned into a civil war that has so far killed more than 70,000 people, according to the United Nations.
State TV quoted Syria's Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi as saying that targeting al-Halqi, who is in charge of carrying out the political program to end Syria's crisis, shows that some in the opposition "reject a political solution."
In January, al-Halqi formed a ministerial committee for dialogue with opposition groups. The dialogue is part of a peace plan, including a national reconciliation conference, that Assad outlined in a speech that month.
The opposition insists it will not accept anything less than Assad's departure, and no progress has been reported from the dialogue since it was announced.
A Syrian government official told The Associated Press that an improvised explosive device was placed under a car that was parked in the area and was detonated as al-Halqi's convoy passed. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.
The attack in the highly secure Mazzeh neighborhood took place only about 100 meters (yards) from the Swiss ambassador's residence. The posh area also is home to a major military air base. Security forces sealed off the area, allowing only pedestrians to get near the scene of the bombing.
Damaged cars, their seats soaked with blood, were surrounded by debris. A blackened shell of a school bus was left standing. A man told state TV that none of the students on board were hurt because the explosion went off shortly after they had left the bus and entered the school.
Later Monday, the Observatory reported that nine people, including four fighters and three civilians, were killed in government airstrikes on al-Halqi's home village of Jassem in the southern province of Daraa.
The attack was just the latest targeting a senior official in the Syrian capital during the past year.
On July 18, a blast at Syria's national security building in Damascus during a meeting of Cabinet ministers killed top four officials, including the defense minister and his deputy, who was Assad's brother-in-law. That attack also wounded the interior minister.
In December, a car bomb targeted the Interior Ministry in Damascus, killing several people and wounding more than 20, including Interior Minister Mohammed al-Shaar. Initially, Syrian state media said al-Shaar was not hurt in the Dec. 12 blast. News of his wounds emerged a week later, after he was taken to neighboring Lebanon to be treated for a serious back injury.
This month, Ali Ballan, head of public relations at the Ministry of Social Affairs and a member of Syria's relief agency, was shot dead while dining in a restaurant in Mazzeh.
Al-Halqi, a senior member of Assad's ruling Baath party, took office last year after his predecessor, Riad Hijab, defected to Jordan. Al-Halqi was Syria's health minister before taking the post.
Elsewhere in Syria, the Observatory reported fighting Monday near the Damascus International Airport south of the capital. The group said there were also clashes in the northern neighborhood of Barzeh and shelling of the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk, south of Damascus.
The Observatory and another activist group, the Local Coordination Committees, reported clashes and air raids around the military helicopter base of Mannagh near the border with Turkey in the northern province of Aleppo.
Also Monday, a new jihadi group calling itself the "Ahrar al-Bekaa Brigades" announced its establishment and warned the pro-Syrian Lebanese militant Hezbollah group to stop intervening in the Syrian civil war or face attacks in Lebanon.
According to the SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks Islamist extremist messages, the statement was distributed on pro-Syrian revolution Facebook pages Sunday.
In the statement, the previously unheard of group claimed that Hezbollah is acting on Iran's orders to "slaughter" the Syrian people. It pledged to prevent Hezbollah's intervention "with all means and ways, even if we have to move the fight to the inside of the Lebanese territory."
The Shiite Muslim Hezbollah is known to be backing regime fighters in Shiite villages near the Lebanon border against the mostly Sunni rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad. The Syrian opposition accuses Hezbollah of taking part in the Syrian military crackdown.
___
Associated Press writers Barbara Surk and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed.
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By Angela Moon
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock futures rose on Monday, buoyed by the formation of a broad coalition government in Italy which ended two months of political uncertainty and boosted an appetite for risky assets, as investors braced for major economic news this week.
Wall Street was boosted by European shares, which edged up on Monday after Italy finally formed a government, although analysts saw the gains petering out in the near term. <.eu/>
Feeding risk into markets, the U.S. dollar fell against a major basket of currencies, while commodities like spot gold <.xau> rose.
"The market is moving up as the Italian political situation is finally unlocked and that's offering some hope. You can see that boosting risk trade here," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital in New York.
In macroeconomic news, personal income and outlays, due at 8:30 a.m. EDT will be in focus after last week's disappointing first quarter gross domestic product numbers. Economists polled by Reuters forecast personal spending growth was flat last month, after rising 0.7 percent in February.
Pending home sales data is due at 10:00 a.m. EDT and Dallas Federal Manufacturing Survey index is scheduled at 10:30 a.m. EDT.
The all-important nonfarm payrolls report is due on Friday.
"We have key economic data, especially the employment report later in the week, and we are also going to hear from the ECB and the Fed later, so earnings takes a back seat this week," Cardillo said.
S&P 500 futures rose 5.4 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration of the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 50 points and Nasdaq 100 futures added 11.5 points.
Wall Street was poised to start the last week of April higher. So far, the S&P 500 is up 0.8 percent this month.
Weak U.S. growth data has raised expectations the Federal Reserve will keep its pace of bond buying at $85 billion a month during the FOMC meeting announcement on Wednesday, while the European Central Bank (ECB) is widely expected to announce an interest rate cut when it meets on Thursday.
On Monday, hotel, energy and financial services conglomerate Loews Corp
Shares of online retailer Amazon.com Inc posted the largest daily drop in 15 months after the company reported results Thursday and was Friday's biggest drag on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq indexes. The stock was off 0.2 percent in premarket trading Monday.
U.S. stocks dipped in thin volume on Friday, though the market had a strong week overall.
(Reporting by Angela Moon; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stock-futures-higher-ahead-data-corporate-results-115148731.html
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In my opinion ? and personal results that back it up -- article marketing is still a very effective online marketing strategy, even in 2013. Following are three reasons why.
3 Reasons I Increased My Article Marketing Efforts This Year
I. Content Marketing: The hot new thing in internet marketing these days is "content marketing." You can't read practically anything that talks about how to market on the web without running into this phrase. Proof?
Spending on content marketing, video marketing, and social media content creation will increase by 15.1 percent in 2013 to total $118.4 billion, according to eMarketer. What does that mean? It means more and more marketers are allocating their budgets toward content, and there is no sign of its slowing down. [Source: 24 Stats about the Importance of Content Marketing]Well, guess what? Article marketing is just another form of content marketing.
II. Article Marketing Works: This is the number reason I've doubled down on this form of online marketing this year. I've used it since 2002 ? very effectively. Proof?
I own an SEO writing company, have written eBooks on SEO writing, and also teach online SEO writing classes. Hence, a keyword phrase I strive to rank well for is . . . "SEO writing." And guess where I am? On the first page of Google for the keyword phrase, "what is SEO writing."
Not only am I on the first page ? I'm on the first page in two spots as of this writing and one of those spots is an article that appears in an article directory (ie, What is SEO Article Writing? SEO Copywriting Explained, on EzineArticles, which is in the #6 spot as of this writing).
III. Article Marketing Works ? For Years! Piggybacking on the last point, article marketing drives traffic for years. Proof? The EzineArticles article referenced above was written by me in 2009. And it's been on the first page of Google ? for years ? in various spots. Once it was #1 (for quite a while); it's also been #8; recently it was #9.
What I Promote Using Article Marketing
I promote everything from my online writing services, to my eBooks, to my online freelance writing classes ? all with article marketing. And I'm a busy freelance writing / self-publishing professional; I don't waste my time on methods that don't work.
Conclusion: Why Many Say Article Marketing Doesn't Work
There's practically no other form of online marketing that is as effective as article marketing ? that's free. ?I think many WISH that it wasn't as effective because they don't like to write. Also, search engines have gotten much more persnickety about the type of content they reward with good search engine ranking.
They want substantive content that is well written and well researched by authorities in their niches. In short, you can't just throw together a keyword-stuffed, 200 or 300 word article and expect to rank high. This used to be the case.
But it takes time to write quality content ? and to do it on a consistent basis. Many just don't want to invest this time of time in their online marketing efforts. So instead, they move on to the next quick fix, all the while saying, "Article marketing doesn't work."
I'm here to tell ya, it does ? if you invest the time needed to produce quality content.
Hope this insight helps. Learn more about why I've increased my article marketing efforts this year, and how to do it more effectively.
About the Author
Yuwanda Black heads New Media Words, an SEFO writing company. She's also the author of over 50 eBooks, which cover topics such as freelance writing, SEO writing, self-publishing and online / affiliate marketing. They can be found on her freelance writing website, Inkwell Editorial. She promotes all of her ventures marketing with articles. Learn more about how to effectively use internet article marketing to earn four figures ? or more ? per month.
Source: http://www.e-junkie.info/2013/04/article-marketing-3-reasons-its-still.html
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ROME (AP) ? Reports say two paramilitary police officers were shot and wounded outside the Italian premier's office as the new leader was sworn in about a kilometer (half-mile) away.
An AP television producer reported seeing one officer lying on the pavement, with blood pouring out of his neck. The Italian news agency ANSA said the assailant, described in reports as a man dressed in a suit and tie, had been detained by police.
The shooting came as Enrico Letta and his Cabinet took their oaths Sunday in the Quirinal presidential office, after he nailed down a coalition agreement between his center-left forces and the conservative bloc of ex-Premier Silvio Berlusconi.
It was unclear if there was any connection between the events, but political tensions have been running high in Italy.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/reports-cops-shot-outside-italian-premier-office-100457952.html
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WASHINGTON (AP) ? The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee said Sunday that the FBI is investigating in the United States and overseas to determine whether the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing received training that helped them carry out the attack.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, is charged with joining with his older brother, Tamerlan, who's now dead, in setting off the shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs. The bombs were triggered by a remote detonator of the kind used in remote-control toys, U.S. officials have said.
U.S. officials investigating the bombings have told The Associated Press that so far there is no evidence to date of a wider plot, including training, direction or funding for the attacks.
A criminal complaint outlining federal charges against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev described him as holding a cellphone in his hand minutes before the first explosion.
The brothers are ethnic Chechens from Russia who came to the United States about a decade ago with their parents.
"I think given the level of sophistication of this device, the fact that the pressure cooker is a signature device that goes back to Pakistan, Afghanistan, leads me to believe ? and the way they handled these devices and the tradecraft ? ... that there was a trainer and the question is where is that trainer or trainers," said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, on "Fox News Sunday."
"Are they overseas in the Chechen region or are they in the United States?" McCaul said. "In my conversations with the FBI, that's the big question. They've casted a wide net both overseas and in the United States to find out where this person is. But I think the experts all agree that there is someone who did train these two individuals."
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said he thought it's "probably true" that the attack was not linked to a major group. But, he told CNN's "State of the Union," that there "may have been radicalizing influences" in the U.S. or abroad. "It does look like a lot of radicalization was self-radicalization online, but we don't know the full answers yet."
On ABC's "This Week," moderator George Stephanopoulos raised the question to the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee about FBI suspicions that the brothers had help in getting the bombs together.
"Absolutely, and not only that, but in the self-radicalization process, you still need outside affirmation," responded Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich.
"We still have persons of interest that we're working to find and identify and have conversations with," he added.
At this point in the investigation, however, Sen. Claire McCaskill said there was no evidence that the brothers "were part of a larger organization, that they were, in fact, part of some kind of terror cell or any kind of direction."
The Missouri Democrat, who's on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, told CBS' "Face the Nation" that "it appears, at this point, based on the evidence, that it's the two of them."
Homemade bombs built from pressure cookers have been a frequent weapon of militants in Afghanistan, India and Pakistan. Al-Qaida's branch in Yemen once published an online manual on how to make one.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev was an ardent reader of jihadist websites and extremist propaganda, officials have said. He frequently looked at extremist sites, including Inspire magazine, an English-language online publication produced by al-Qaida's Yemen affiliate.
In recent years, two would-be U.S. attackers reported receiving bomb-making training from foreign groups but failed to set off the explosives.
A Nigerian man was given a mandatory life sentence for trying to blow up a packed jetliner on Christmas Day 2009 with a bomb sewn into his underwear. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had tried to set off the bomb minutes before the Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight landed.
The device didn't work as planned, but it still produced smoke, flame and panic. He told authorities that he trained in Yemen under the eye of Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical American-born cleric and one of the best-known al-Qaida figures.
A U.S. drone strike in Yemen killed al-Awlaki in 2011.
In 2010, a Pakistani immigrant who tried to detonate a car bomb in New York's Times Square also received a life sentence. Faisal Shazad said the Pakistan Taliban provided him with more than $15,000 and five days of explosives training.
The bomb was made of fireworks fertilizer, propane tanks and gasoline canisters. Explosives experts said the fertilizer wasn't the right grade and the fireworks weren't powerful enough to set off the intended chain reaction.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lawmaker-fbi-checking-training-angle-bombing-154952300.html
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A group of bodybuilding criminals fumble their way through mayhem in this "visual extravaganza."
Pain & Gain is rated R and runs 129 minutes. It is now playing at?Aurora Cineplex and Studio Movie Grill. For more theater information, show times and pricing, click the links above.
Here's what the critics are saying:
"This weekend, "Pain and Gain" opens nationwide, for both muscle-building juiceheads and those of us who try to make it to yoga a couple of times a week because we want to age gracefully, like Helen Mirren. The true-life story of kidnapping and murder stars Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as a pair of criminals who were part of what was known as the Sun Gym gang ?- bodybuilders whose criminal activity eventually extended into kidnapping, extortion, and murder." Drew Taylor, Moviefone. Full Review
"Memo to director Michael Bay: Stick to movies with massive pyrotechnics and minimally developed characters. Blending sharp wit and brutality is a tough proposition. Best to leave such a feat in the nimbler hands of Quentin Tarantino, the Coen brothers, Guy Ritchie and Martin McDonagh. Bay's Pain & Gain is a badly constructed, blood-spattered caper that comes unglued early on." Claudia Puig, USA TODAY. Full Review
"[Bay's] big-budget popcorn productions like Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, and the Transformers films have always strained to give audiences an excess of bang for their buck, but you never got the sense that he could tell a joke. If anything, Bay seemed like the type of guy who was incapable of figuring out whether audiences were laughing with him or at him. But with Pain & Gain, his surprising true-crime comedy, Bay has finally decided to lighten up a bit." Chris Nashawaty, EW.com. Full Review
Do you plan on seeing this movie? Leave a review of the film with a comment below after you do.
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OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) ? Stephen Curry played through a sprained left ankle to score 29 points and hand out 11 assists and the Golden State Warriors beat the Denver Nuggets 110-108 on Friday night to take a 2-1 series lead.
Jarrett Jack added 23 points and seven assists, and Harrison Barnes and Carl Landry each scored 19 points to help the Warriors rally from 13 points down in the third quarter. Golden State still had to sweat out Andre Iguodala's missed 3-pointer as the buzzer sounded, setting off a gold-confetti celebration throughout the announced sellout crowd of 19,596.
Ty Lawson had a career playoff-high 35 points to go with 10 assists, and reserve Corey Brewer scored 16 points as Denver dropped its second straight game ? and its grip on the best-of-seven series.
Game 4 is Sunday night in Oakland.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/curry-leads-warriors-past-denver-game-3-054133559.html
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APThe Jets used a high second-round pick on quarterback Geno Smith.? G.M. John Idzik said that this development has only one meaning for Mark Sanchez.
?What this means for Mark is competition,? Idzik told the media on Friday night.
But are there plans to cut him, as reported by Adam Schefter of ESPN?
?There are plans to let him compete,? Idzik said.
Still, Idzik declined to say that this means Sanchez will get a chance to compete in training camp.? ?I look at that one day at a time,? Idzik said.
That?s a message Sanchez possibly hasn?t gotten from Idzik, because Idzik said the Jets haven?t talked to Sanchez on Friday, either before or after drafting a quarterback in round two.? (This directly conflicts with comments from Sanchez?s brother/agent, Nick, to Sal Paolantonio of ESPN.)
So the incumbent starting quarterback once again has been undermined via the acquisition of a new quarterback.? And the General Manager won?t commit to Sanchez being on the team when camp opens.
This may not end well, but it sure feels like, sooner than later, Sanchez?s time in New York will end.
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Apr. 26, 2013 ? Drive technology has an electric future -- of this Fraunhofer research scientists are in no doubt. At the Sensor + Test measurement fair in Nuremberg from May 14 -16, they will use an electric racing car to present novel solutions for battery management and electronic sensor systems together with an industry partner. The scientists are following a new trend, as even FIA, the governing body for world motor sport, federation of the world's leading motoring organizations and organizer of Formula 1, is planning a racing series for electric vehicles.
From 0 to 100 in 3.6 seconds -- we're not talking about the rapid acceleration of a Porsche Carrera or Ferrari Scaglietti, but of EVE, a racing car with a very quiet engine. EVE is powered by two electric motors, one for each rear wheel. With a maximum output of 60 kilowatts, they get the e-racer going at 4500 rotations per minute. The sprinter can reach a top speed of 140 km/h, and has a range of 22 km thanks to two lithium polymer batteries, with a combined capacity of 8 kWh. Electrical engineering students from the e-racing team at the Hochschule Esslingen University of Applied Sciences designed the 300 kg car as a voluntary project alongside their studies, and they have already competed in it at the international Formula Student Electric (FSE) race in Italy. From May 14-16, the racing car will be on show at the Sensor + Test measurement fair in Nuremberg at the joint Fraunhofer trade show booth (Hall 12, Booth 537). Scientists from the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS in Erlangen developed the entire electronic sensor system in close collaboration with Seuffer GmbH & Co.KG, an industry partner with whom the institute has been working for over 11 years. Seuffer GmbH & Co.KG is based in Calw in Baden-W?rttemberg, southern Germany, and sponsors the students of the E.Stall racing team.
"Electromobility as a topic is becoming ever more important. The racing car serves as a showcase for us to demonstrate novel sensor solutions as well as battery and energy management concepts," says Klaus-Dieter Taschka, an engineer at Fraunhofer IIS. Besides wheels, brakes, damper unit, batteries and electric motors, EVE is equipped with numerous sensors. These include braking pressure, crash, temperature and acce- leration sensors as well as sensors that monitor the accelerator and brake pedals, speed, steering angle, wheel speed and power. These last six functions could all be performed by HallinOne? sensors developed by Fraunhofer IIS, 3D magnetic-field sensors that are already a standard feature in washing machines, where they are used to determine the position and orientation of the drum.
Electronic sensors determine charge state of the battery
The two electronic sensors attached at the sides of the batteries use 3D magnetic-field sensor technology developed by Fraunhofer IIS to measure the magnetic field generated by the flow of electrical current and thus to determine the battery's level of charge. What's special about this is that the contactless sensors measure both the current that flows from the battery to the engine and the current that flows back again when the vehicle brakes. The integrated sensor system is able to eliminate disturbances and foreign magnetic fields, thus guaranteeing very precise measurements. A further advantage is that the system is also able to measure other aspects of the battery such as its voltage and temperature. The data is collected and sent to the power control unit (PCU) and the battery management system (BMS), which controls the charging and discharging processes.
Intelligent battery management system extends battery life
Battery running times and battery life are limiting factors for all electric vehicles. The BMS developed by Fraunhofer IIS in Nuremberg tackles this problem by determining the impedance spectrum of all battery cells and constantly testing whether the cells are functioning properly. This allows cells' condition, current capacity and potential service life to be ascertained and running times to be predicted more accurately.
As individual battery cells age, they are able to store less and less energy. The challenge lies in optimizing cell utilization. "Until now, a battery system was able to provide only as much energy as was available in its weakest cell. The energy stored in other cells remained unused. Our BMS has an active cell balancing system that moves energy between stronger and weaker cells. This means that all cells share the load equally, allowing the maximum capacity of the battery as a whole to be utilized," explains Dr.-Ing. Peter Spies, group manager at Fraunhofer IIS in Nuremberg. Actively balancing out the cells during the charging and discharging process extends the battery's service life and range. "EVE's current BMS is a system developed in house by E.Stall, but our solution could take its place," says Spies.
Polarization camera detects cracks in bodywork
EVE's compact design is built on a tubular steel space frame housed within a carbon fiber body. Racing around the track puts a great deal of stress on the plastic fibers, and this can lead to tiny cracks developing in the material. Fraunhofer IIS in Erlangen has developed POLKA, a polarization camera that can detect such damage at an early stage by measuring stresses within unpainted surfaces of the carbon structure. This compact camera makes any scratches visible by registering properties of light that are imperceptible to the human eye: polarization. Material stresses in the plastic cause changes in polarization. POLKA is able to collect all the polarization information for each pixel in a single shot at speeds of up to 250 frames per second. Using real-time color coding, the dedicated software translates the information collected about the intensity, angle and degree of polarization into a visual display that is accessible to the human eye. The system will also be presented at the joint Fraunhofer booth.
"We are convinced that EVE's innovative technology will allow the vehicle to perform very well while demonstrating excellent environmental awareness," says Rolf Kleiner, group manager of the battery technology department at Seuffer. And the students of team E.Stall will soon have a chance to prove it: This year EVE will be in the lineup for the Formula Student race in Italy, Spain and Czechia.
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Apr. 26, 2013 ? A NASA-funded sounding rocket mission will launch from an atoll in the Pacific in the next few weeks to help scientists better understand and predict the electrical storms in Earth's upper atmosphere These storms can interfere with satellite communication and global positioning signals.
The mission, called EVEX, for the Equatorial Vortex Experiment, will launch two rockets for a twelve-minute journey through the equatorial ionosphere above the South Pacific. The launch window for the mission from the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands is from April 27 to May 10, 2013.
The ionosphere is a crucial layer of charged particles surrounding our planet. This layer serves as the medium through which high frequency radio waves -- such as those sent down to the ground by global positioning system (GPS) satellites or, indeed, any satellite communicating with Earth -- travel. The ionosphere begins about 60 miles above the ground and is filled with electrons and ions, alongside the more familiar extension of our electrically neutral atmosphere. Governed by Earth's magnetic field, high-altitude winds, and incoming material and energy from the sun, the ionosphere can be calm in certain places or times of day, and quite turbulent at others.
This area of the ionosphere is known for calm days and tempestuous nights, times when the ionosphere becomes rippled like a funhouse mirror, disturbing radio signals, and introducing GPS errors of a half mile or more. The two rockets will measure events in two separate regions of the ionosphere to see how they work together to drive the ionosphere from placid and smooth to violently disturbed. Such information could ultimately lead to the ability to accurately forecast this important aspect of space weather.
"We're looking at the two highest regions of the equatorial ionosphere, called the E- and F- regions," says Erhan Kudeki, the principal investigator for the mission at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. "Violent ionospheric storms can occur in the equatorial F-region a few hours after sunset and if we can better understand what causes these storms, we'll be able to better mitigate their effects on communication and navigation systems."
The mission team will wait for the first signs of turbulence developing before launching both rockets. The research goal is to study whether turbulence at sunset in the E-region of the ionosphere could serve as a warning of storms in the higher F-region an hour or two later, so the team plans to launch on an evening when ground based radar shows the necessary turbulence in the E-region.
When the conditions are just right, the team will launch a rocket to travel up to a height of 220 miles. They will launch the second rocket two minutes later that will travel up to 120 miles. By staggering the timing of the launches, the two rockets will be able to gather data simultaneously at two altitudes through the ionosphere as they travel their independent trajectories. Before they splash down into the ocean, the two rockets will record data about the electric fields and the density of the charged particles in the region.
Each rocket will also release a stream of lithium or trimethylaluminum (TMA) that can be seen from the ground. When TMA is exposed to the air it turns into aluminum oxide, carbon dioxide and water vapor, all three of which occur naturally in the atmosphere Groups of scientists at various locations on the atoll will observe the lithium and TMA as it blows in the wind. Together, the observations can be triangulated to show how the neutral wind moved during the flight.
"Neutral winds are one of the hardest things to study," says Doug Rowland, an EVEX team member at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "One can't physically see the wind, and it is difficult to measure from the ground, so we use the TMA as a tracer."
The neutral winds are believed to be an important part of what causes the ionosphere storms. A mission called EQUIS-2 (Equatorial Ionospheric Study) held in Kwajalein in 2004, gathered data that hinted at a correlation between these neutral winds and the upper ionosphere. The theory is that near sunset, strong eastward neutral winds through the F-region, which begins at 120 miles up, may cause fine scale turbulence in the E-region as well as a strong current and vortex-like circulation in the F-region, leading one to two hours later to a kind of ionospheric storm called "spread F." The movement of spread F throughout the charged ionosphere involves bubbles of material rising up through the atmosphere, not unlike the way colored blobs move upward through a lava lamp due to differences in heat and density.
It is just these moving blobs that can disrupt communications from satellites, so scientists would like to find a simple advance warning in the atmosphere that can be detected from the ground. Vortexes in the E-region can be spotted with the radar and could serve as an efficient telltale for radio-disturbing turbulence above -- if observations from a mission like EVEX show that they are, in fact, correlated. "Using radar and sounding rockets simultaneously as in this mission is the only way to gather complete information needed to understand the conjectured couplings of perturbations in these two regions of the equatorial ionosphere," says Kudecki. "There are plenty of radar data about these types of ionospheric storms, but the additional in-situ data to be provided by the EVEX rockets will be crucial in sorting out which theoretical models work best to explain what is really going on during these ionospheric storms."
With two sounding rockets, a multitude of ground radar sites, and instruments to measure a suite of information about both charged and neutral particles, scientists using EVEX data will be able to study the equatorial ionosphere as a system -- understanding how one characteristic effects another -- in a way that has never been done before.
To find out more about NASA's sounding rocket missions, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sounding-rockets/
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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/UOAsEojbr4c/130426115659.htm
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By Serajul Quadir and Ruma Paul
DHAKA (Reuters) - Two factory bosses were arrested in Bangladesh on Saturday, 72 hours after the deadly collapse of a building where low-cost garments were made for Western brands, as the death toll rose to 325 and angry workers protested on the streets of the capital.
The owner of the eight-storey building that fell like a pack of cards around more than 3,000 workers was still on the run.
Police said two of his relatives had been detained to compel him to hand himself in, and an alert had gone out to airport and border authorities to prevent him from fleeing the country.
Officials said the Rana Plaza, on the outskirts of the capital, Dhaka, had been built illegally without the correct permits, and the workers were allowed in on Wednesday despite warnings the previous day that it was structurally unsafe.
The owner and managing director of the largest of the five factories in the complex, New Wave Style, surrendered to the country's garment industry association during the night and they were handed over to police.
The factory, which listed many European and North American retailers as its customers, occupied upper floors of the building that officials said had been added illegally.
"Everyone involved - including the designer, engineer, and builders - will be arrested for putting up this defective building," junior internal affairs minister Shamsul Huq told reporters.
Anger over the working conditions of Bangladesh's 3.6 million garment workers - most of whom are women - has grown since the disaster, triggering protests and clashes with police. Hundreds were on the streets again on Saturday morning, smashing and burning cars.
Miraculously, people were still being pulled alive from the rubble, seven in all since daybreak on Saturday.
Frantic efforts were under way to extract 15 people trapped under the mound of broken concrete who were being supplied with dried food, bottled water and oxygen.
About 2,500 people have been rescued, at least half of them injured, from the remains of the building in the commercial suburb of Savar, about 30 km (20 miles) from Dhaka.
WRONG PERMIT, ILLEGAL FLOORS
Emdadul Islam, chief engineer of the state-run Capital Development Authority (CDA), said on Friday the owner of the building had not received the proper building consent, obtaining a permit for a five-storey building from the local municipality, which did not have the authority to grant it.
"Only CDA can give such approval," he said. "We are trying to get the original design from the municipality, but since the concerned official is in hiding we cannot get it readily."
Furthermore, another three storeys had been added illegally, he said. "Savar is not an industrial zone, and for that reason no factory can be housed in Rana Plaza," Islam told Reuters.
Dhaka District police chief Habibur Rahman identified the owner of the Rana Plaza building as Mohammed Sohel Rana, a leader of the ruling Awami League's youth front.
"People are asking for his head, which is quite natural. This time we are not going to spare anybody," said H.T. Imam, an adviser to the prime minister.
Wednesday's collapse was the third major industrial incident in five months in Bangladesh, the second-largest exporter of garments in the world. In November, a fire at the Tazreen Fashion factory on the outskirts of Dhaka killed 112 people.
Such incidents have raised serious questions about worker safety and low wages, and could taint the reputation of the poor South Asian country, which relies on garments for 80 percent of its exports.
Sixty percent of Bangladesh's garment exports go to Europe. The United States takes 23 percent and Canada takes 5 percent.
North American and European chains, including British retailer Primark and Canada's Loblaw, said they were supplied by factories in the Rana Plaza building.
(Writing by John Chalmers; Editing by Paul Tait)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/two-arrested-bangladesh-building-toll-rises-325-043614507.html
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Amazon's Q1 for 2013 was a bit of a mixed bag. The company saw net income drop 37 percent year-over-year to $82 million, though its net sales were up 22 percent to $16.1 billion. The sequential drop in profits was small (from $97 million) considering Q4's holiday inflation. Product sales accounted for the vast majority of that income, with its various branded services only pulling in $2.8 billion. The United States is still the company's biggest market, with $9.4 billion of that sales revenue coming from here. The rest of the globe only accounted for $6.7 billion, though media was particularly strong in those markets. Media sales were $2.55 billion over seas and just $2.51 billion in the US. Looking over the numbers, its clear that Amazon has a steady stream of reliable income that is continuing to grow. In fact, the company expects another quarter of double-digit growth year-over-year for Q2. But, as we've learned, there are also huge expenses involved. And guidance for next quarter tops out at $10 million in net income -- and a potential loss of up to $340 million (though such a steep fall seems unlikely). Unfortunately, there are no specific numbers for its various kindle products buried in the report (which you'll find after the break), but hopefully the 5PM ET call will offer a comprehensive breakdown. Updates from which you'll find after the break.
Source: Amazon
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/qWCfbsc5TsI/
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Next up, is a budgie - or parakeet - that can balance on a tennis ball! Dogs aren't the only ones who love their balls. I think it's pretty cool how he is able to get his ball out from under the table all by himself.
And finally, I watched a video of a Senegal parrot that knows how to do lots of different tricks. Here's a video of Kili the Senegal parrot playing dead.?
So which trick is your favorite??
Source: http://www.mypawsitivelypets.com/2013/04/these-tricks-are-for-birds.html
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Visitors operate Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S4 smartphones at a showroom of its headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 26, 2013. Samsung Electronics Co. said Friday its first-quarter net income jumped to a record high because sales growth in smartphones continued even before the launch of the Galaxy S4 during a typically slow season for the electronics market. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Visitors operate Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S4 smartphones at a showroom of its headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 26, 2013. Samsung Electronics Co. said Friday its first-quarter net income jumped to a record high because sales growth in smartphones continued even before the launch of the Galaxy S4 during a typically slow season for the electronics market. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Banners advertising Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S4 smartphones are displayed at a showroom of its headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 26, 2013. Samsung Electronics Co. said Friday its first-quarter net income jumped to a record high because sales growth in smartphones continued even before the launch of the Galaxy S4 during a typically slow season for the electronics market. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? Samsung Electronics Co. said Friday its first quarter profit jumped to a record high as smartphone sales remained strong despite the impending launch of an updated version of its flagship Galaxy phone.
Sales of consumer electronics usually slow in the first three months of the year after the holiday shopping season, an effect that analysts thought would be compounded by the April release of the Galaxy S4 smartphone since many delay buying until the newest model is available. Apple Inc. has cited the upcoming release of a new iPhone model as a reason for a slowdown in sales of older models.
Samsung began sales of the S4 in its home South Korean market Friday and starts U.S. sales on Saturday. Analysts expect Samsung's profits to reach new highs in the second and third quarters if S4 sales are strong. Lee Don-Joo, head of sales and marketing at Samsung's mobile division, said sales of the S4 will outdo its predecessor, the Galaxy S III.
Samsung said January-March net profit surged 42 percent to 7.2 trillion won ($6.5 billion) from 5 trillion won a year earlier. That increase was despite booking a one-time charge against earnings related to settlement of its intellectual property battle with Apple. Analysts estimated the charge at $600 million.
Sales rose 17 percent to 52.9 trillion won. Operating profit was up 54 percent to 8.8 trillion won, in line with its preliminary results released earlier this month.
Profit was up 2 percent from the previous quarter's result, beating market expectations for a fall. Sales of the S III smartphone and the oversized handset called the Galaxy Note remained strong and shored up profit, Samsung said. It also spent less on marketing its mobile devices than it did in the previous quarter when competition heated up.
Samsung's IT and Mobile Communications division that makes smartphones, tablets, PCs and cameras reported 6.51 trillion won in operating income for the first quarter, up 56 percent from a year earlier and its highest since Samsung reorganized the division to merge PC and handset departments.
Samsung capitalized on global demand for smartphones with a range of mobile devices that come in a variety of screen sizes and prices, outpacing rivals including Apple Inc. and Nokia Corp.
As the S4 goes on sales several months before rival Apple introduces a new version of iPhone, analysts said Samsung's streak of record-setting profit will not stop any time soon.
"You can say it is like a snowball is rolling," said James Song, head of technology at Daewoo Securities. Song forecast Samsung's second quarter operating income to surpass 10 trillion won ($9 billion).
Market research firm IDC estimated that Samsung shipped 70.7 million smartphones during the first quarter, up 61 percent over a year earlier and capturing 33 percent market share. Apple, the second-largest smartphone maker, sold 37.4 million iPhones. Its market share fell to 17 percent from 23 percent a year earlier, IDC said.
The company's strong performance in the mobile market helped offset sluggish demand for TVs and a still weak recovery in display panel sales.
Samsung, based in Suwon, South Korea, is also the world's largest maker of memory chips, televisions, mobile handsets and liquid crystal display panels.
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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? North Korea's military, founded 81 years ago Thursday, is older than the country itself. It began as an anti-Japanese militia and is now the heart of the nation's "military first" policy.
Late leader Kim Jong Il elevated the military's role during his 17-year rule, boosting troop levels to an estimated 1.2 million soldiers, according to the South Korean government. The military's new supreme commander, Kim Jong Un, gave the Korean People's Army a sharpened focus this year by instructing troops to build a "nuclear arms force."
The secretive army divulges few details about its operations, but here is an assessment from foreign experts of its strengths and weaknesses:
___
ARTILLERY
North Korea provided a chilling reminder of what its artillery is capable of when it showered a front-line South Korean island with shells, killing four people in November 2010 and underscoring the threat that its artillery troops pose at the disputed sea border.
South Korea says North Korea has more than 13,000 artillery guns, and its long-range batteries are capable of hitting the capital Seoul, a city of more than 10 million people just 30 miles (50 kilometers) from the border.
"North Korea's greatest advantage is that its artillery could initially deliver a heavy bombardment on the South Korean capital," Mark Fitzpatrick, a former U.S. State Department official now with the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said in an email.
South Korea's defense minister estimates that 70 percent of North Korean artillery batteries along the border could be "neutralized" in five days if war broke out. But Sohn Yong-woo, a professor at the Graduate School of National Defense Strategy of Hannam University in South Korea, said that would be too late to prevent millions of civilian casualties and avert a disastrous blow to Asia's fourth-largest economy.
___
SPECIAL FORCES
Experts believe guerrilla warfare would be the North's most viable strategy in the event of conflict, since its conventional army suffers from aging equipment and a shortage of firepower.
Seoul estimates North Korea has about 200,000 special forces, and Pyongyang has used them before.
In 1968, 31 North Korean commandos stormed Seoul's presidential Blue House in a failed assassination attempt against then-President Park Chung-hee. That same year, more than 120 North Korean commandos sneaked into eastern South Korea and killed some 20 South Korean civilians, soldiers and police officers.
In 1996, 26 North Korean agents infiltrated South Korea's northeastern mountains after their submarine broke down, sparking a manhunt that left all but two of them dead, along with 13 South Korean soldiers and civilians.
"The special forces' goal is to discourage both the United States and South Korea from fighting with North Korea at the earliest stage of war by putting major infrastructure, such as nuclear plants, and their citizens at risk," said Kim Yeon-su, a professor at Korea National Defense University in Seoul. "The North's special forces are a key component of its asymmetric capabilities along with nuclear bombs, missiles and artillery. Their job is to create as many battlefronts as possible to put their enemies in disarray."
___
ON LAND, BY SEA AND IN THE AIR
In March 2010, 46 South Korean sailors died in a Yellow Sea attack on their warship that Seoul blamed on a North Korean submarine. Pyongyang denies involvement. Separately, since 1999, North and South Korean navies have fought three bloody skirmishes near their disputed western maritime border. Experts say those battles show while the South has an edge in naval firepower and technology, the North relies on the element of surprise.
North Korea has 70 submarines while South Korea has 10, according to Seoul's Defense Ministry. The most menacing threats from the North's navy are small submarines that would deposit commando raiders along the South Korean coast, said John Pike, head of the Globalsecurity.org think tank.
North Korea also has 820 warplanes, more than South Korea, though Seoul is backed up by American air power. The South says most of the North's aircraft are obsolete. North Korea also suffers chronic fuel shortages that have forced its air force to cut sorties, experts say.
"North Korea would not be able to prosecute a full-fledged war for very long," Fitzpatrick said. "Its biggest problem is that North Korea would quickly lose control of the skies because of the vastly superior (South Korean) and U.S. air forces. The reported number of North Korean aircraft is meaningless, because many of them cannot fly, and North Korean pilots have little training in the air."
The U.S. stations 28,500 U.S. troops in South Korea and has recently flown nuclear-capable stealth B-2 bombers and F-22 fighter jets during joint drills in a show of force aimed at deterring North Korea.
Logistics and supplies are another issue. Heavy equipment deployed by naval and air forces requires extensive repairs, especially on rugged terrain like the Korean Peninsula. South Korea's Defense Ministry estimates North Korea's wartime resources, mostly stored underground, would last only two to three months.
"North Korea's only chance of winning any war depends on how quickly it can end one," Sohn said.
North Korea could try to compensate for its lack of effective equipment with sheer manpower. North Korea, a country of about 25 million, has an estimated 7.7 million reserves.
___
MISSILES AND NUCLEAR WEAPONS
North Korea says it needs to develop nuclear weapons as a deterrent against U.S. aggression. It has conducted three underground nuclear tests since 2006, the most recent in February.
Pyongyang is believed to have enough weaponized plutonium for four to eight nuclear bombs, according to Siegfried Hecker, a nuclear expert with Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation.
But he doubts Pyongyang has mastered the technology to tip a missile with a nuclear warhead. "I don't believe North Korea has the capacity to attack the United States with nuclear weapons mounted on missiles and won't for many years," he said on the website of Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies this month.
Bruce Bennett, a Rand Corp. expert, said earlier this month that it's very unlikely the North has a nuclear missile capable of hitting the U.S. but said there is a "reasonable chance" that Pyongyang has short-range nuclear missile capability.
___
CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS
North Korea denies it runs any chemical and biological weapons programs. South Korea claims that Pyongyang has up to 5,000 tons of chemical weapons.
The IISS says that although the figures are "highly speculative," the North probably does possess chemical and biological arms programs.
"Whatever the actual status of North Korea's chemical and biological capabilities, the perception that it has, or likely has, chemical and biological weapons contributes to Pyongyang's interest in creating uncertainties in Washington, Seoul and Tokyo and raises the stakes to deter or intimidate potential enemies," it said on its website. North Korea is not a signatory to the Chemical Weapons Convention, but it has acceded to the non-binding Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention.
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Follow Sam Kim on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/samkim_ap
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