This one's coming straight from the horse's mouth. Amazon is acknowledging a "known issue" with version 3.6.1 of its Kindle app for iOS -- the company is recommending that current users avoid the latest update, which hit the App Store today. According to TUAW, the new version may completely erase a user's book library. How this passed the e-book giant's QA team is anyone's guess, but until a revision hits the cloud, we suggest you stay away.
Update: Amazon has reached out to clarify this issue. The update causes the app to "deregister," and as a result, items are removed from the smartphone or tablet. All of your content remains in the cloud, however, and can be re-downloaded after you re-register the device with Amazon. The update has been re-submitted to Apple and should appear soon. Consider us re-lieved. You'll find the official word below:
We have identified an issue with the app update that may cause your app to become deregistered. To register, enter your Amazon account e-mail address and password and all your Amazon content will be available in the cloud. We have submitted an update fix for this issue and are working with Apple to release.
Update 2: As of Wednesday afternoon, the app has been replaced with version 3.6.2, with listed improvements including "Fix for Registration Issue." The source link will now direct you to that latest version, which, presumably, won't make all your books disappear.
The Senate has confirmed Jack Lew, a former budget director and chief of staff to the president, as the next secretary of the treasury.
The vote was 71 to 26.
Lew's critics said he failed to adequately explain why he received a hefty severance package when he voluntarily left his job as an executive vice president at New York University.
Lew left the school in 2006 to take a position at Citigroup Inc., a post that some said made him too cozy with big banks.?
But foes failed to muster enough opposition to prevent the wonky former Office of Management and Budget chief from ascending to the Treasury Department job -- one that sits at the center of debate over the nation's spending and debt.
By a vote of 19 to 5, the Senate Finance Committee voted Tuesday to recommend Lew for a full Senate vote.
All five of the votes against him came from Republican committee members; six Republicans on the committee supported him.
Lew, a native of New York City, began his career in Washington in 1973 serving as a legislative aide. He went on to spend nine years as chief domestic policy adviser to House Speaker Tip O'Neill.
He most recently served as the president's chief of staff, a post he took in January 2012.
Lew accumulated minor Twitter fame for his cartoonishly illegible signature, which by law will appear on U.S. bills.
The president himself poked fun at Lew's penmanship upon making the nomination, saying that his pick had promised to make at least one letter of his signature legible "in order not to debase our currency."
This story was originally published on Wed Feb 27, 2013 6:09 PM EST
Some 50,000 were invited and thousands more came to Pope Benedict XVI's final audience. NBC's Keir Simmons reports.
By Alastair Jamieson, Staff writer, NBC News
Pope Benedict XVI assured a huge, cheering crowd at the Vatican Wednesday that he was not abandoning the Catholic Church, saying he would remain at its service through prayer.
"I ask each of you to pray for me," he told tens of thousands who gathered in the sunshine to watch his?final general audience before Thursday's abdication.
Referring to the many turbulent moments of his papacy, he acknowledged its moments of joy but also difficulty when "It seemed like the Lord was sleeping."
"There were moments when the waters were choppy and there were headwinds," he said.
He said he was not "coming down from the cross" despite renouncing his office, saying his decision was taken "in full awareness of its gravity and rarity but also with profound serenity of spirit."
Greg Burke, a spokesman for the Vatican who was with Pope Benedict XVI just hours earlier, talks about the pope's final audience and his upcoming abdication.
Earlier, pilgrims and onlookers from around the world cheered as Benedict arrived and made a circuit of the square on his "popemobile."
Benedict waved as he swept through the crowd, pausing briefly several times to bless babies, before heading to a platform in front of St. Peter?s Basilica to make his address.
Among the audience was New Yorker Elise O'Donnell-Tixon, who is now living in Rome. "I'm sad because this will likely be the last time I see him," she said. "I was lucky, because my husband and I were blessed by the pope at an audience last Christmas. We got front-row seats."
At the end of the speech, the crowd stood to applaud.
Vatican communications adviser Greg Burke told TODAY that Pope Benedict had appeared to be calm during the speech, despite the emotion of the occasion.
"He has always been very serene," Burke said. "Above all else, he showed he has faith. His message was that it's not our church, it's not my church, it's the church of Christ."
Gabriel Bouys / AFP - Getty Images
The pope delivers his final audience in St. Peter's Square as he prepares to stand down.
Vatican organizers said?more than 50,000 had applied for official tickets for Wednesday?s event ? eight times the usual number of applications. An estimated total of 200,000 were expected in square and surrounding streets.
The size of the event means there was not expected to be any kissing of the pontiff?s hand as is traditional after papal audiences.
Young members of the Catholic group Opus Dei served as stewards at the entrance to the square, managing the queues of people filing in past metal detectors, AFP correspondent Gildas Le Roux reported.
Not all of them supported Benedict's resignation, Le Roux said, quoting one of the stewards, Leonardo Rossi, as saying: "I do not share the pope's decision to step down. It is not a fitting time, with all the problems the church is going through."
Many in the crowd waved flags and banners wishing the pope well, although the overall tone of the event remained sombre.
Sister Carmela, who lives north of Rome, traveled to the square with her fellow nuns and members of her parish, Reuters said.
"He did what he had to do in his conscience before God," she told Reuters. "This is a day in which we are called to trust in the Lord, a day of hope. There is no room for sadness here today. We have to pray, there are many problems in the Church but we have to trust in the Lord."
Tens of thousands had been in the square since early Wednesday in the hope of securing a good place from which to see the audience.
Among them was a marching band from Pope Benedict?s native Germany. Balthasar Bauer, 23, from Bavaria, who was in traditional dress, lederhosen, said: "This will likely be the last Bavarian pope, so I had to come here to see him for one last time."
After the address, the Pope's Twitter account, @Pontifex, posted a message that said: "If only everyone could experience the joy of being Christian, being loved by God who gave his Son for us!"
Pope Benedict's full 17-minute sermon in Italian, with English translation.
Pope Benedict will leave his residence inside the Vatican and travel by helicopter to his summer residence at Castel Gandolfo, about 15 miles south-east of Rome at about 4.55 p.m. local time (10:55 a.m. ET) Thursday. His papacy will officially end at 8 p.m. local time (2 p.m. ET).
After stepping down, the pope will keep his name, His Holiness Benedict XVI, but get a new official title, "Emeritus Pope." The Vatican on Tuesday said he would wear a simple white cassock and swap his traditional red shoes for a pair of brown leather loafers he was given on his trip to Leon in Mexico last year.
Meanwhile, the Vatican said Wednesday that the date of the conclave to elect Benedict's successor may not be known until after Monday.
Father Federico Lombardi told the Catholic News Service that cardinals eligible to take part cannot set a start date for the conclave until they have met at the Vatican, and that invitations for them to meet will not be sent out by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals, until Friday.
NBC News' Carlo Angerer and Andy Eckardt and Reuters contributed to this report.
Related:
Vatican's Greg Burke: Benedict won't be doing any book tours
Papal historian: Cardinals likely to choose an 'extrovert'
'Amateur hour': Vatican conclave drama is one for the history books, experts say
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This story was originally published on Wed Feb 27, 2013 4:16 AM EST
Ikea furniture stores also sell typical Swedish food.
By Juergen Baetz and Karel Janicek, The Associated Press
Traces of horse have been found in meatballs labeled as beef and pork for Swedish global furniture giant Ikea, according to authorities in the Czech Republic.
The horse meat was found in one-kilogram packs of frozen meat balls made in Sweden and shipped to the Czech Republic for sale in Ikea stores there, the Czech State Veterinary Administration said.
It is the latest discovery in a deepening scandal over the discovery of horse meat in ready meals sold as beef in supermarkets in Ireland, the UK and other European countries.
A total of 1,675 pounds of the meatballs were stopped from reaching the shelves.
Ikea's furniture stores feature restaurants and also sell food typical of the company's home country, including the so-called Kottbullar meat balls.
It was not immediately clear whether Ikea exported the same product to other countries. Calls seeking comment from Ikea in Sweden were not immediately returned Monday.
The Czech authority also found horse meat in beef burgers imported from Poland during random tests of food products.
Authorities across Europe have started doing random DNA checks after traces of horse meat turned up in frozen supermarket meals such as burgers and lasagna beginning last month.
From lasagna and burgers to children's sweets containing gelatin, horse meat has been discovered in a wide variety of "beef" products, leaving Europeans to wonder what they're really eating. NBC's Keir Simmons reports.
The European Union's agriculture ministers gathered in Brussels Monday to discuss the widening scandal's fallout, with some member states pressing for tougher rules to regain consumer confidence.
The 27-nation bloc must agree on binding origin disclosures for food product ingredients, starting with a better labeling of meat products, German agriculture minister Ilse Aigner said.
"Consumers have every right to the greatest-possible transparency," she insisted.
The scandal began in Ireland in mid-January when the country's announced the results of its first-ever DNA tests on beef products. It tested frozen beef burgers taken from store shelves and found that more than a third of brands at five supermarkets contained at least a trace of horse. The sample of one brand sold by British supermarket kingpin Tesco was more than a quarter horse.
Such discoveries have spread like wildfire across Europe as governments, supermarkets, meat traders and processors began their own DNA testing of products labeled beef and have been forced to withdraw tens of millions of products from store shelves.
More than a dozen nations have detected horse flesh in processed products such as factory-made burger patties, lasagnas, meat pies and meat-filled pastas. The investigations have been complicated by elaborate supply chains involving multiple cross-border middlemen.?
Related:
Horse meat in the US? Unlikely, but tests are rare
'Fraud on a massive scale': Europe's horse meat scandal keeps on growing
'Criminal conspiracy' blamed for European horse-in-burger scandal
? 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
SYDNEY?? Elephant seals wearing head sensors and swimming deep beneath Antarctic ice have helped scientists better understand how the ocean's coldest, deepest waters are formed, providing vital clues to understanding its role in the world's climate.
The tagged seals, along with sophisticated satellite data and moorings in ocean canyons, all played a role in providing data from the extreme Antarctic environment, where observations are very rare and ships could not go, said researchers at the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystem CRC in Tasmania.
Science news from NBCNews.com
Relatives add drama to King Richard III saga
Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: Nine distant relatives issue a demand calling for King Richard III's remains to be buried in York rather than in Leicester, where they were dug up.
Mauritian beaches hold clues to a lost continent
This new dinosaur had chicken-size young
Yes, Spider-Man's web would stop a?train
Scientists have long known of the existence of "Antarctic bottom water," a dense, deep layer of water near the ocean floor that has a significant impact on the movement of the world's oceans.
Three areas where this water is formed were known of. The existence of a fourth area was suspected for decades, but the area had been far too inaccessible. Now, thanks to the seals, scientists are able to study the new frontier.
"The seals went to an area of the coastline that no ship was ever going to get to," said Guy Williams, ACE CRC Sea Ice specialist and co-author of the study.
"This is a particular form of Antarctic water called Antarctic bottom water production, one of the engines that drives ocean circulation," he told Reuters. "What we've done is found another piston in that engine."
Southern Ocean Elephant seals are the largest of all seals, with males growing up to 20 feet (6 meters) long and weighing up to 8,800 pounds (4,000 kilograms).
Twenty of the seals were deployed from Davis Station in east Antarctica in 2011 with a sensor, weighing about 100 to 200 grams (3.5 to 7 ounces), on their head. Each of the sensors had a small satellite relay that transmitted data on a daily basis during the five- to 10-minute intervals when the seals surfaced.
"We get four dives worth of data a day, but they're actually doing up to 60 dives," he said.
"The elephant seals ... went to the very source and found this very cold, very saline dense water in the middle of winter beneath a polynya, which is what we call an ice factory around the coast of Antarctica," Williams added.
Previous studies have shown that there are 50-year-long trends in the properties of the Antarctic bottom water, and Williams said the latest study will help better assess those changes, perhaps providing clues for climate change modeling.
"Several of the seals foraged on the continental slope as far down as 1,800 meters (1.1 miles), punching through into a layer of this dense water cascading down the abyss," he said in a statement. "They gave us very rare and valuable wintertime measurements of this process."
More about Antarctica's seals:
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The bones of Richard III, who reigned for two years, have been discovered in Leicester, England, and they indicate that his spine was twisted by scoliosis and that he received eight head wounds in battle. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.
By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News
Nine distant relatives of King Richard III are demanding that the British government reverse its decision to have his skeleton reburied at Leicester Cathedral, near the parking lot where it was found, and give it a resting place in York instead.
The open letter, published late Sunday by British newspapers such as The Telegraph and the Daily Mail, is just one of several efforts seeking a burial at York Minster for the more than 500-year-old remains, which were discovered last year by researchers from the University of Leicester. This month, the researchers said DNA analysis and other forensic tests proved "beyond reasonable doubt" that the skeleton was that of Richard III.
The English monarch reigned for just two years before he was killed in battle in 1485, but he was immortalized in William Shakespeare's play, "Richard III," in which he was portrayed as a hunchbacked villain. Richard III's legions of modern-day fans say he wasn't really all that bad ? and the row over what to do with his bones has added a new twist to the drama.
"We, the undernamed, do hereby most respectfully demand that the remains of King Richard III, the last Plantagenet King of England and our mutual ancestor, be returned to the city of York for formal, ceremonial reburial," the statement from his relatives says. "We believe that such an interment was the desire of King Richard in life and we have written this statement so that his wishes may be fully recognised and upheld. King Richard III was the last King of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty which had ruled England since the succession of King Henry II in 1154.
"We, the undernamed blood descendants, unreservedly believe that King Richard is deserving of great recognition and respect and hereby agree to dutifully uphold his memory.
"With due humility and affection, we are and will remain His Majesty?s representatives and voice."
The statement was signed by nine individuals who have traced their ancestry back to Richard III's siblings. The nine signers are?Charles E. Brunner, Stephen Guy Nicolay, Vanessa Maria Roe, Jacob Daniel Tyler, Paul Tyler, Raymond Torrence Bertram Roe, Linda Jane Roe, Eleanor Bianca Lupton and Charlotte Jane Lupton. Richard died childless and thus has no direct-line descendants.
Even before the remains were found, the British Ministry of Justice granted a license putting the University of Leicester in charge of the parking-lot dig and the disposition of any remains found there."The University of Leicester specified in its application that reinterment would occur in Leicester Cathedral if the remains were proved to be those of King Richard III," the institution said in a statement.
The university is currently working with the cathedral and Leicester's city council on plans for his reburial by August 2014. In the meantime, researchers are continuing to study the remains.
The long lead time means that the tug of war between Leicester and York, two cities that are 100 miles (160 kilometers) from each other, could continue for months. There are even those who want to see the remains interred in London's Westminster Abbey. But the nine relatives behind this week's open letter have no more standing than the other descendants of Richard III's family, who doubtless number in the thousands by now.
In that light, Leicester seems to have the strongest case, by virtue of legal grounds as well as the less rigorous "finders, keepers" rule and the dictum that possession is nine-tenths of the law. Do you disagree? Feel free to weigh in with your comments below.
More about Richard III:
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's?Facebook page, following?@b0yle on Twitter?and adding the?Cosmic Log page?to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out?"The Case for Pluto,"?my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) ? Mozilla, the non-profit foundation behind the popular Firefox Web browser, is getting into phones. But it's not stopping at Web browsers ? it's launching a whole phone operating system.
The Firefox OS will land in a crowded environment, where many small operating systems are trying to become the "third eco-system," alongside Apple's iOS and Google's Android. Together, those two account for 91 percent of smartphone sales, according to research firm IDC.
Mozilla has an ally in phone companies, who are interested in seeing an alternative to Apple and Google. Thirteen phone companies around the world have committed to supporting Firefox phones, Mozilla says, including Sprint Nextel in the U.S. Phones are expected this summer in countries like Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Poland, and Spain.
HAVANA -- It's been more than 54 years since someone not named "Castro" led Cuba, and it will likely be five more.
But now islanders and exiles alike have finally been given a date for when the sun will set on brothers Fidel and Raul's longtime rule: 2018.
In accepting a new presidential term on Sunday, the 81-year-old Raul Castro announced that it would be his last. And for the first time, he tapped a rising young star, Miguel Diaz-Canel, to be his top lieutenant and possible successor.
"This will be my last term," Castro said, his voice firm.
Castro also said he hopes to establish two-term limits and age caps for political offices including the presidency, though he didn't specify what age.
As the new first vice president of the ruling Council of State, the 52-year-old Diaz-Canel is now a heartbeat from the presidency and has risen higher than any other Cuban official who didn't directly participate in the heady days of the 1959 revolution.
In his 35-minute speech, Castro hinted at other changes to the constitution, some so dramatic that they will have to be ratified by the Cuban people in a referendum. Still, he scotched any idea that the country would soon abandon socialism, saying he had not assumed the presidency in order to destroy Cuba's system.
"I was not chosen to be president to restore capitalism to Cuba," he said. "I was elected to defend, maintain and continue to perfect socialism, not destroy it."
Castro fueled interest in Sunday's legislative gathering after mentioning on Friday his possible retirement and suggesting lightheartedly that he had plans to resign at some point.
It's now clear that he was serious when he promised that Sunday's speech would have fireworks, and would touch on his future in leadership.
Cuba is at a moment of "historic transcendence," Castro told lawmakers in speaking of his decision to name Diaz-Canel to the No. 2 job, replacing the 81-year-old Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, who fought with the Castros in the Sierra Maestra.
Castro praised Machado Ventura and another aging revolutionary for offering to leave their positions so that younger leaders could move up.
Their selflessness is "a concrete demonstration of their genuine revolutionary fiber ... That is the essence of the founding generation of this revolution."
Castro said that Diaz-Canel's promotion "represents a definitive step in the configuration of the future leadership of the nation through the gradual and orderly transfer of key roles to new generations."
"Our greatest satisfaction is the tranquility and serene confidence we feel as we deliver to the new generations the responsibility to continue building socialism," he added.
On the streets of Havana, where people often express a jaded skepticism of all things political, there was genuine excitement.
"This is the start of a new era," said Roberto Delgado, a 68-year-old retiree walking down a street in the leafy Miramar neighborhood. "It will undoubtedly be a complicated and difficult process, but something important happened today."
"I'm mesmerized," added Regla Blanco, 48. "You thought that with all these old men, it would never end. I am very satisfied with what Raul said. He is keeping his promise."
Since taking over from Fidel in 2006, Castro has instituted a slate of important economic and social changes, expanding private enterprise, legalizing a real estate market and relaxing hated travel restrictions.
Still, the country remains ruled by the Communist Party and any opposition to it lacks legal recognition.
Indeed, several dozen anti-government protesters were detained across the island Sunday and held for a few hours for public disorder before being released, according to Elizardo Sanchez, a dissident who monitors human rights in Cuba.
Castro has mentioned term limits before, but he has never said specifically when he would step down, and the concept has yet to be codified into Cuban law.
If he keeps his word, Castro will leave office no later than 2018. Cuban-American exiles in the United States have waited decades for the end of the Castro era, although they will likely be dismayed if it ends on the brothers' terms.
Nevertheless, the promise of a change at the top could have deep significance for U.S.-Cuba ties. The wording of Washington's 51-year economic embargo on the island specifies that it cannot be lifted while a Castro is in charge.
In Florida, home to hundreds of thousands of Cuban exiles, some were skeptical that Castro's eventual retirement will change much.
"First we have to see if he lives another five years, and after we have to see what happens," said Raul Lopez Mola, an 81-year-old who abandoned Cuba in 1966 for a new life in Miami. "No one can predict what will happen in five years. For me, I don't think it has great importance."
"It would be more meaningful if Fidel Castro died," Lopez Mola added.
Fidel Castro is 86 and retired, and has appeared increasingly frail in recent months. He made a surprise appearance at Sunday's gathering, receiving a thunderous ovation from lawmakers.
Some analysts have speculated that the Castros would push a younger member of their family into a top job, but there was no hint of that Sunday.
While few things are ever clear in Cuba's hermetically sealed news environment, rumblings that Diaz-Canel, an electrical engineer by training and ex-minister of higher education, might be in line for a senior post have grown.
In recent weeks, he has frequently been featured on state television news broadcasts in an apparent attempt to raise his profile.
He also traveled to Venezuela in January for the symbolic inauguration of Hugo Chavez, a key Cuban ally who had been re-elected president but was too ill to be sworn in.
The 612 lawmakers sworn in Sunday also named Esteban Lazo as the National Assembly's first new chief in 20 years, replacing Ricardo Alarcon.
Lazo, who turns 69 on Tuesday, is a vice president and member of the Communist Party's ruling political bureau. Parliament meets only twice a year and generally passes legislation unanimously without visible debate.
The legislature also named as vice presidents of the ruling Council Machado Ventura; comptroller general Gladys Bejerano; second Vice President Ramiro Valdes; Havana Communist Party secretary Lazara Mercedes Lopez Acea; and Salvador Valdes Mesa, head of Cuba's labor union.
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Associated Press writers Anne Marie-Garcia and Paul Haven in Havana, and Christine Armario in Miami, contributed to this report.
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Peter Orsi on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Peter_Orsi
Pope Benedict's legacy may be a willingness to let liberal Catholics leave in favor of a more orthodox church in the US and Europe.
By Robert Marquand,?Staff writer / February 11, 2013
Pope Benedict XVI delivers his message during a meeting of Vatican cardinals, at the Vatican, Monday. Pope Benedict announced Monday that he would resign at the end of the month - the first pontiff to do so in nearly 600 years.
Courtesy of L'Osservatore Romano/AP
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Pope Benedict resigns later this month after arguably being the single most influential figure inside the Roman Catholic Church for three decades, dating to the early 1980s.
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A shy but brilliant scholar whose consistent vision has been to reinstitute the grand authority held by the Vatican in the Middle Ages, Benedict has, often single-handedly, redirected his church away from the liberal experiments and sometimes amateurish enthusiasms of the Vatican II period of the 1960s, which conservatives saw as a dangerous diversion. He has also, over years, instituted doctrines, individuals, and orders consistent with his theological view of the Catholic Church as the true and only authentic one.
While not as widely beloved as his predecessor John Paul II, the popular Polish pope who helped crack the Soviet hold on eastern Europe and attracted global crowds, Benedict arguably has had more influence inside the church ??even as he often irritated Protestants who he said were not "authentic" Christians, angered Muslims by put-downs of Islamic figures, or unsettled Jewish-Catholic relations by rehabilitating a fringe religious society with a bishop who denied the severity of the Nazi holocaust.
Benedict's chief occupation as pope has been, observers say, to purify his church.?
To do so, Benedict crushed the liberation theology movements of the?third world, put a slammer hold on efforts to ordain women and question celibacy, put earlier ecumenical impulses on the back burner, and, instead, has greatly empowered more hardcore orders like Opus Dei, Legions of Christ, and other orthodox wings, largely on the idea that the church must first cherish its most ardent believers.
Yet, while Benedict has won many battles inside the church, he is also widely seen as having lost many larger wars that he either instituted or took part in.
Benedict?s effort to reinstitute Christianity in its European context has largely failed to generate enthusiasm on a continent increasingly secular. While in pursuit of liberal priests and nuns who he implied were polluting the church with wrong doctrines, Benedict has appeared to many Europeans to be too inattentive to priests who sexually abused minors, of whom there are an estimated 8,000. The revelations of sexually abusive priests in Germany, Ireland, Belgium, and Austria two years ago brought a change to the story line that such problems were restricted to the United States.?
For fully believing Catholics, the Roman church is a divine, not a human institution; its leader, the pope, is the ?vicar of Christ,? the direct spiritual descendant of Jesus Christ and his disciple Peter. The kingdom of heaven on earth that Jesus asked his followers to pray for, must, in orthodox Catholic doctrine, come through the Catholic Church and the pope, also known as the Holy Father.
For many modern-thinking or non-literal Catholics, particularly after the long-running church self-examination known as Vatican II, those orthodox doctrines of the identity of the church and the pope were put in question and thrown open for new interpretation.
Vatican II lead, though often quite indirectly, to a massive re-evaluation of things like the operation of the spirit in the church, the possibility of women being ordained as priests, a faint questioning of the doctrine, only adopted in pre-medieval Europe, of celibacy, and of more "democracy"?or power by the laity or non-clergy members in matters of church governance.
For a rising college theology professor named Joseph Ratzinger, these new interpretations were viewed with increasing horror. They often lacked seriousness, were sloppy, and seemed chaotic and undignified.
As then-Cardinal Ratzinger, Benedict took office in 1982 as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the same office that earlier conducted or oversaw heresy trials. Yet while that office has a five-year term and most predecessors held it for 10 years at most, Ratzinger stayed 24 years, only leaving to become pope in 2005.
Now, as Catholics think through their future they will do so with a set of cardinals, bishops, priests, and church authorities that have largely been vetted through the orthodox filter set up by the Bavarian-born pontiff.
Indeed, a church hierarchy carefully pruned of liberal and ecumenical impulses may be one of Benedict?s enduring legacies, though it has brought the current pontiff into serious disagreements with powerful orders, like the Jesuits, that previously saw themselves as the main defenders of Rome.
NUEVA YORK, Nueva York.- La ceremonia de entrega de los premios Oscar har? historia este a?o tras la nominaci?n por primera vez de un documental realizado por un director palestino. ?Cinco c?maras rotas? fue filmado y dirigido por Emad Burnat, que vive en la localidad de Bil?in en los territorios palestinos ocupados de Cisjordania, junto con su colega israel? Guy Davidi. ?Qu? vestir? un campesino palestino en la alfombra roja de Hollywood? Por poco no nos enteramos, ya que Burnat, su esposa y su hijo de 8 a?os fueron detenidos en el Aeropuerto Internacional de Los ?ngeles, donde amenazaron con deportarlos. A pesar de tener una invitaci?n formal de la Academia de Artes y Ciencias Cinematogr?ficas como realizador nominado al Oscar, Michael Moore, el documentalista ganador del Oscar y actual miembro de la junta directiva de gobernadores de la Academia tuvo que intervenir junto con los abogados de la Academia para que Burnat y su familia pudieran ingresar a Estados Unidos.
?Cinco c?maras rotas? compite en los premios Oscar con el documental israel? ?The Gatekeepers?, que muestra entrevistas a seis ex directores de la Shin Bet, el servicio secreto de seguridad interna de Israel, que es una especie de h?brido entre el FBI y la CIA de Estados Unidos. En la pel?cula, los seis entrevistados condenan las actuales pr?cticas israel?es de ocupaci?n y de expansi?n de asentamientos.
Se trata de un caso notable de la vida que imita al arte: mientras las celebridades se re?nen para la mayor gala cinematogr?fica del a?o, el conflicto entre Israel y Palestina se est? desarrollando en las calles de Tinseltown.
Horas despu?s de recuperar su libertad, Burnat emiti? una declaraci?n que dec?a: ?Anoche, cuando viajamos de Turqu?a a Los ?ngeles, California, mi familia y yo fuimos detenidos por el servicio de inmigraci?n de Estados Unidos durante casi una hora. Nos interrogaron acerca del prop?sito de nuestra visita. Los funcionarios de inmigraci?n nos solicitaron pruebas de que yo estaba nominado a los Premios de la Academia por el documental ?Cinco c?maras rotas? y me dijeron que si no pod?a probar el motivo de mi visita, mi esposa Soraya, mi hijo Gibreel y yo ser?amos enviados de regreso a Turqu?a ese mismo d?a?.
Emad Burnat cuenta: ?Cuando llegu? [a Estados Unidos] ayer, me interrogaron y me pidieron m?s documentos y m?s papeles. Ten?a la visa, ten?a los documentos y ten?a la invitaci?n. Ten?a todo. Sin embargo, me pidieron que les diera m?s documentos?. En su declaraci?n escrita el cineasta Emad Burnat dijo: ?Despu?s de cuarenta minutos de preguntas y respuestas, Gibreel me pregunt? por qu? a?n est?bamos aguardando en aquella peque?a habitaci?n. Le dije la pura verdad: ?Quiz? tengamos que regresar?. Pude sentir su congoja?. El nacimiento de Gibreel en 2005 fue la motivaci?n de la pel?cula. Emad Burnat adquiri? una c?mara en ese momento para filmar el crecimiento de su cuarto hijo. En aquel entonces, el gobierno de Israel hab?a comenzado a construir el muro de separaci?n a lo largo de Bil?in, lo que dio lugar a una campa?a de resistencia no violenta por parte de los residentes palestinos y quienes los apoyaban. Mientras Burnat filmaba las protestas, una a una sus c?maras fueron destruidas o da?adas por la violenta respuesta del ej?rcito israel? y de los colonos israel?es armados.
Dror Moreh es el director israel? del documental ?The Gatekeepers?. Moreh me dijo: ?Los asentamientos son el mayor obst?culo para la paz. Si hay algo que evitar? la paz son los asentamientos y sus colonos. Creo que se trata del mayor y m?s influyente grupo en la pol?tica israel?. B?sicamente han dictado la pol?tica de Israel de los ?ltimos a?os. Creo que para los palestinos los asentamientos son definitivamente el peor enemigo para el logro de su patria. Al ver c?mo crecen los asentamientos en todas partes como los hongos despu?s de la lluvia, ahora en el ?rea de Judea y Samaria, ven c?mo se reduce su pa?s?.
Tanto ?Cinco c?maras rotas? como ?The Gatekeepers? compiten en los Oscar con otros pesos pesados como ?C?mo sobrevivir una plaga?, sobre la epidemia del SIDA; ?La guerra invisible?, acerca de la violaci?n end?mica e impune en las fuerzas armadas estadounidenses; y ?Searching for Sugar Man?, acerca de la reaparici?n de un m?sico que hac?a tiempo se cre?a muerto.
Emad Burnat cerr? la declaraci?n sobre su detenci?n en el Aeropuerto Internacional de Los ?ngeles: ?A pesar de que fue una experiencia desagradable, esto le ocurre a diario a los palestinos, todos los d?as, en Cisjordania. Hay m?s de 500 puestos de control israel?es, carreteras bloqueadas y otras barreras al libre movimiento en nuestros territorios y todos hemos sufrido la experiencia que mi familia y yo experimentamos ayer. El nuestro fue tan solo un peque?o ejemplo de lo que los palestinos tienen que soportar a diario?.
M?s all? de cu?l sea el documental ganador, los premios Oscar de 2013 marcar?n un cambio hist?rico en el di?logo p?blico acerca del conflicto entre Israel y Palestina, un cambio postergado durante mucho tiempo del que ser?n testigos 40 millones de televidentes.
Daytona 500 pole sitter Danica Patrick, right, talks to crew chief Tony Gibson during a practice for the Daytona 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race Friday, Feb. 22, 2013, at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
Daytona 500 pole sitter Danica Patrick, right, talks to crew chief Tony Gibson during a practice for the Daytona 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race Friday, Feb. 22, 2013, at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
Daytona 500 pole sitter Danica Patrick, right, talks to a crew member after a practice for the Daytona 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race Friday, Feb. 22, 2013, at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
Tony Stewart waits in his car in his garage before going out on the track during a practice session for the NASCAR Daytona 500 Sprint Cup Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
Jeff Gordon laughs with crew members in his garage after a practice session for the NASCAR Daytona 500 Sprint Cup Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) ? The big boys brought their little girls to see NASCAR's shining star.
Jeff Gordon, Carl Edwards and Jimmie Johnson all took their daughters to meet Danica Patrick this week at Daytona International Speedway.
It was the ultimate backstage pass.
Patrick dropped to one knee, wrapped her right arm around Ella Gordon's waist and posed for pictures as the 5-year-old flashed an endless smile in Victory Lane last week. Every day since, Patrick's crew has handed out dozens and dozens of lugnuts to little girls clamoring for souvenirs. Annie Edwards wore GoDaddy green shoes for the special occasion. Evie Johnson recognizes only two cars, her Dad said ? his and the green one.
"Carl was saying it's good that she sees me in real life and in person because 'To her, you are like some mythical creature that doesn't exist,' " Patrick said. "Then after qualifying, Jimmie Johnson brought his little girl over. That's three pretty big drivers who have little girls that wanted to meet me."
Danicamania is in full bloom at Daytona ? and with a brand new audience.
The first woman in history to earn the top starting spot in a race at NASCAR's elite Sprint Cup Series, Patrick will bring new eyeballs to Sunday's season-opening Daytona 500. She'll lure in casual sports fans, women who don't know a muffler from a manifold, and little girls in awe of the glamorous driver and her fast green car.
It's an ambassador role Patrick has played since her 2005 debut at the Indianapolis 500, where she became the first woman to lead laps in the biggest race in the world. But it's so much more now.
"You can only lead by example and I don't necessarily want my example to step outside the box and be a girl in a guy's world. That's not what I am trying to say," Patrick said. "But if you have a talent for something, do not be afraid to follow through with it and not feel different. Do not feel like you are less qualified or less competent to be able to do the job because you are different. Ignore that and let it be about what your potential is."
And right now, she believes her potential is to win "The Great American Race."
Patrick starts first on Sunday, next to four-time champion Gordon, and after running 32 laps in Friday's practice and mixing it up with NASCAR's biggest stars, she was more convinced than ever that she can be a player in the race.
"Can I win? Yeah. Absolutely," Patrick said. "I feel comfortable in this kind of race situation. I feel comfortable in the draft. I feel comfortable that the speeds are not a problem. I know I am inexperienced. I know I am rookie out there. I will do the best job I can to win. I do believe I have a chance to win. I do believe experience would help, but that doesn't mean I don't have a chance to win."
Crew chief Tony Gibson was even more convinced he's got a winner for Sunday. He was part of Derrike Cope's improbable 1990 victory, when Cope inherited the win when the late Dale Earnhardt blew a tire on the final lap.
" She has got the talent," Gibson said. "She's already proven in the Nationwide Series, from what I've seen on the speedway stuff, she definitely gets the respect. People know she's fast. She can draft. She knows how the air works. She gets a lot of that from IndyCar. So I have 100 percent confidence she can win the Daytona 500.
"I remember Derrike Cope, nobody gave him a chance, either, but I saw him in Victory Lane. I know it can be done."
But the Daytona 500 is a pressure-packed race unlike anything except the Indy 500. Some of the best drivers never win it ? it took seven-time champion Earnhardt 20 tries to finally get his lone win ? and Tony Stewart, Patrick's teammate and car owner, goes into Sunday's race seeking his first victory in 15 tries.
He's been quiet all week, except, of course, for the nine-car accident he started in an exhibition race last weekend. He lamented afterward, "That is why I haven't won a Daytona 500 yet. I'm not quite sure exactly which move to make."
Don't be fooled, though, by the three-time NASCAR champion. Stewart might just like being out of the spotlight as he heads into one of the few races missing from his resume, and being the favorite for the 500 has never worked out for him before.
He wrapped up his practice with one final run Friday to test his race engine and wound up on top of the speed chart. It was Stewart's intention to sit out Saturday's final day of practice.
"I'm excited we've made it through the whole week without a scratch on the car," he said. "We are as ready as you can get for the 500. I feel like we've got a car capable of winning the race. It's just a matter of whether the driver does a good job with the steering wheel."
The title of favorite this year goes to Kevin Harvick, who has two wins in two races so far at Speedweeks. The driver has dominated in his Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, led 63 of a possible 135 laps and didn't even bother to take the cover off his car in Friday's two practice sessions.
Harvick, the 2007 race winner, has come into the year with both focus and some inner peace after a pair of life-changing moments. His first child, son Keelan, was born after last July's race at Daytona. Then, in November, Harvick made the difficult decision to leave RCR after his 13th season with the organization that brought him into NASCAR and gave him his Cup ride the week after Earnhardt was killed in the 2001 Daytona 500.
He'll drive for Stewart next season at Stewart-Haas Racing, but is determined to make this last year with RCR count.
"Everybody is just working toward the same goal, that's winning the races," Harvick said. "We have to be professional anyway, whether it's lame duck or not. You can call it whatever you want. We're going to have a helluva lot of fun racing, having a good time, doing our jobs."
The 500 will be the first with a full 43-car field racing NASCAR's new Gen-6 car, which was designed all last season with input from teams, drivers and the manufacturers.
Part of the intent was to design a car that more closely resembled what the automakers sell in the showrooms, and NASCAR succeeded in that area. But NASCAR also needed a car that produced better on-track racing, and the verdict is not in yet.
There are a lot of unknowns with the Gen-6 heading into Sunday, partly because drivers spent Speedweeks learning as much as they can about how it handles on the track. All three races so far have been largely uneventful, resembling something closer to a long parade rather than a high-speed spectacle.
If not for Kyle Busch's win in a Toyota in the second of Thursday's twin qualifying races, it would so far be a Chevrolet rout with Harvick taking the new SS to Victory Lane twice and Patrick winning the pole in her Chevy.
All bets could be off on Sunday, Busch warned.
"It might be we all ran single file because we were scared to run side-by-side," Busch said after Thursday's win. "I don't know. I was ready to put on a show, but I didn't have enough people around me to make one happen."
Yes, you can fix that smashed iPhone on demand now. That means no visits to the Apple store, or intensive DIY efforts. A YC alum called iCracked launched a real-time, iPhone or iPad repair service a little over a month ago. Think of it like an “Exec” or an “Uber” for your broken iPhone that you can order straight to your door. With hardly any publicity at all, the service is blowing up: it boosted iCracked’s number of monthly customers by about 250 percent and the company tells me the business is eyeing “eight figures” in revenue for this year. The changes add iCracked to a growing class of startups like Exec, Uber, Zimride’s Lyft, Instacart and Postmates that are all trying to solve the logistical issues of delivering products and services in real-time in urban cities. “We want to be the ‘AAA’ for your device,” explains AJ Forsythe, the company’s CEO. “We’re doing on-demand repair and buyback for just about every major city in the U.S.” He shared some of the maps above and below with us, showing actual completed repairs in the last 30 days. Above is the San Francisco Bay Area, and just for good measure to show that this isn’t a Silicon Valley-only phenomenon, he showed us a map of South Florida (below). “We’re trying to get to a place where we can get someone to them in the shortest amount of time at the click of a button,” he said. He partnered with a 20-year-old from the U.K. named Martin Amps, who had built a dispatch system just months ago. Amps never implemented it because it was so specialized, but Forsythe found him on a Hacker News posting and thought the system could be of use to iCracked. Up until then, iCracked’s three-prong business model worked similarly. But it didn’t operate in real-time. Customers would have to mail-in their devices or schedule appointments with iTechs. iCracked earns revenue in three ways: it does 1) repairs, 2) buybacks and 3) sells do-it-yourself kits (pictured right) for people who want to fix phones themselves. The company has more than 350 “iTechnicians,” who work as contractors and are trained to quickly fix broken iPhones and iPads. They earn decent salaries of between $70,000 and $100,000 a year. Forsythe says he’s selective and he only ends up hiring about 2 to 3 percent of iTech applicants. While these “iTechs”
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and British Defense Secretary Philip Hammond lead their delegations during a bilateral meeting at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Defense Ministers Meetings, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013, at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. Panetta and his NATO counterparts are considering leaving 8,000 to 12,000 troops in Afghanistan after 2014, but a dispute arose Friday between the U.S. and German defense officials over whether that contingent would be an international force or an American one. (AP Photo/Chip Somodevilla, Pool)
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and British Defense Secretary Philip Hammond lead their delegations during a bilateral meeting at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Defense Ministers Meetings, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013, at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. Panetta and his NATO counterparts are considering leaving 8,000 to 12,000 troops in Afghanistan after 2014, but a dispute arose Friday between the U.S. and German defense officials over whether that contingent would be an international force or an American one. (AP Photo/Chip Somodevilla, Pool)
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, third from right, and U.S. Ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Ivo Daalder, fifth from right, arrive for the second day of the NATO Defense Ministers Meetings, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013, at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. Panetta and his NATO counterparts are considering leaving 8,000 to 12,000 troops in Afghanistan after 2014, but a dispute arose Friday between the U.S. and German defense officials over whether that contingent would be an international force or an American one. (AP Photo/Chip Somodevilla, Pool)
German Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere arrives at the airport of Adana, Turkey, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013 after attending a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels, Belgium, earlier in the day. De Maiziere told reporters Panetta had informed him at the Brussels meeting that the United States would leave between 8,000 and 10,000 troops in Afghanistan at the end of 2014. But Panetta, speaking to reporters later, called de Maiziere's comments inaccurate. (AP Photo/dpa, Rainer Jensen)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The U.S. and its NATO allies revealed Friday they may keep as many as 12,000 troops in Afghanistan after the combat mission ends next year, largely American forces tasked with hunting down remnants of al-Qaida and helping Afghan forces with their own security.
Patience with the 11-year-old war has grown thin in the U.S. and Europe, yet Washington and its allies feel they cannot pick up and leave without risking a repeat of what happened in Afghanistan after Soviet troops withdrew in 1989: Attention turned elsewhere, the Taliban grabbed power and al-Qaida found refuge.
In disclosing that he and his NATO counterparts were discussing a residual force of between 8,000 and 12,000 troops in Afghanistan beyond 2014, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said most allied defense ministers assured him they are committed to remaining part of a U.S.-led coalition.
"I feel very confident that we are going to get a number of nations to make that contribution for the enduring presence," Panetta told a news conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels at the conclusion of a defense ministers meeting.
The U.S. and its allies have managed to stick together throughout the war, despite differing views. The Europeans have seen the military mission as mainly aimed at promoting stable governance; the Americans have viewed it as mainly combat. Some allies, including France, have already pulled out their combat troops.
The Obama administration has not said how many troops or diplomats it intends to keep in Afghanistan after 2014; it is in the early stages of negotiating a bilateral security agreement with Kabul that would set the legal parameters. There currently are 66,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, down from a 2010 peak of 100,000.
In addition to targeting terrorists, the post-2014 missions are expected to be defined as training and advising a still-developing Afghan army and police force and providing security for the U.S. and allied civilian and military presence, officials said.
The largely unspoken assumption on which the post-2014 plan is built is that Afghanistan's own forces will be strong enough to hold off the Taliban on their own starting in 2015 and to prevent the country's relapse into civil war. The worry is that if the Taliban regained power they would allow al-Qaida to return in large numbers, defeating the original purpose of the U.S. military action in 2001.
It's a touchy topic at this stage of a still-unfolding war, with Afghans fearful of being abandoned by their foreign partners and Washington and its NATO allies wary of committing too heavily to a corrupt Kabul government facing an uncertain future.
Budget pressures in the U.S. and Europe also complicate the outlook.
"There's no question in the current budget environment, with deep cuts in European defense spending and the kind of political gridlock that we see in the United States now with regards to our own budget, is putting at risk our ability to effectively act together," Panetta said. "As I prepare to step down as secretary of defense, I do fear that the alliance will soon be, if it is not already, stretched too thin."
Panetta is expected to retire as soon as his successor is confirmed. The Senate could vote on the confirmation of former Sen. Chuck Hagel as the next Pentagon chief as early as Wednesday. Panetta is leaving just as Gen. Joseph Dunford is settling in as the successor to Gen. John Allen as commander of U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan.
Another source of anxiety among the allies is Afghanistan's 2014 presidential election; President Hamid Karzai, who has run the country since U.S. forces toppled the Taliban in late 2001, is not running and there is no obvious successor.
Just last week President Barack Obama announced in his State of the Union address that by this time next year 34,000 U.S. troops will have left, with the rest of the combat force to depart by the end of 2014, along with their counterparts from NATO and other partner countries. Obama did not say how many troops he was willing to commit to a post-2014 mission in Afghanistan, but he is believed to be weighing options that range from about 3,000 to about 9,000.
At the Brussels meeting, German Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere caused an initial stir by telling reporters that Panetta had said the U.S. would keep 8,000 to 10,000 troops in Afghanistan after 2014. Panetta denied that, saying he was talking about a combined U.S. and NATO force of 8,000 to 12,000, and de Maiziere later said his own comments to reporters were "misleading."
Panetta said officials are planning to leave troops in all sectors of the country as well as in Kabul. Currently, Italy is leading the allied security presence in western Afghanistan, Germany in the north and the U.S. in the east and the south.
The Obama administration also is considering a plan to underwrite the cost of maintaining an Afghan security force of 352,000 for the next five years as part of an effort to maintain security and help convince Afghans that they will not be abandoned.
Last May, NATO agreed that the Afghan force would be reduced to about 230,000 after 2014. A force of that size would cost about $4.1 billion a year, compared to $6.5 billion this year for the bigger force of 352,000. The U.S. pays about $5.7 billion of that $6.5 billion bill.
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Associated Press writers Don Melvin and Julie Pace contributed to this report. Baldor reported from Brussels.
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Robert Burns can be followed on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/robertburnsAP and Lolita C. Baldor is at http://www.twitter.com/lbaldor
Feb. 21, 2013 ? Each fall millions of monarch butterflies from across the eastern United States begin a southward migration in order to escape the frigid temperatures of their northern boundaries, traveling up to 2,000 miles to an overwintering site in a specific grove of fir trees in central Mexico. Surprisingly, a new study by scientists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School published in Current Biology, suggests that exposure to coldness found in the microenvironment of the monarch's overwintering site triggers their return north every spring. Without this cold exposure, the monarch butterfly would continue flying south.
These findings help explain why monarch butterflies transverse such long distances to overwinter at a relatively small region roughly 300 square miles in size atop frost-covered mountains. Upon arrival in November, the monarchs begin to congregate in tightly packed clusters in a few isolated locations in the high altitude coniferous forests. Both the clustering and the forest cover provide a microenvironment that protects against environmental extremes -- the temperature remains low enough to keep metabolic demands low but not cold enough to cause freezing -- and ultimately triggers their return north in the spring.
It also suggests that these delicate creatures may be influenced by and vulnerable to global climate changes, say researchers. "The temperature of the microenvironment at the overwintering sites is a critical component for the completion of the migration cycle," said Steven M. Reppert, MD, professor of neurobiology and senior author of the study. "Without this thermal stimulus, the annual migration cycle would be broken, and we could have lost one of the most intriguing biological phenomena in the world."
Though accomplished in a single calendar year, it takes at least three generations of monarch butterflies to complete a single migratory journey. The monarchs that return to Mexico each year have never been to the overwintering sites before, and have no relatives to follow on their way. The biological and genetic mechanisms underlying their incredible journey have intrigued scientists for generations.
Earlier work by Reppert's group found that monarchs rely on a time-compensated sun compass to direct their navigation south. Their new research shows that those same systems are responsible for guiding them north each spring.
This alone, however, didn't explain what was triggering the change in direction each spring. To find out, Patrick Guerra, a postdoctoral fellow in Reppert's lab at UMass Medical School and first author on the Current Biology study, collected wild monarchs at the start of their migration in the fall and subjected the monarchs to the same temperature and light levels they would experience in their overwintering ground in Mexico. When the monarchs were studied in a flight simulator 24 days later, instead of resuming their southward journey, the butterflies headed north.
Further study confirmed that changes in temperature alone altered the flight direction of the monarch butterflies. Those subjected to cold oriented north; monarchs who were protected from the cold would continue to orient south.
These findings, coupled with newly available genetic and genomic tools for monarchs, will lead to new insights about the biological processes underlying their remarkable migratory journey.
"The more we learn, the clearer it becomes that the monarch migration is a uniquely fragile biological process," said Reppert. "Understanding how it works means we'll be better able to protect this iconic system from external threats such as global warming."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Massachusetts Medical School, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
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Journal Reference:
Patrick A. Guerra, Steven M. Reppert. Coldness Triggers Northward Flight in Remigrant Monarch Butterflies. Current Biology, 2013 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2013.01.052
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Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
After having broken the German transfer record last summer, the Bayern Munich president says it?s improbable that they will be forking out for the Brazilian starlet
Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness has ruled out the signing of Brazilian starlet Neymar.
The Santos forward will be out of contract after the 2014 World Cup but is expected to pen a new deal with the club before departing, and Hoeness says it is unlikely the Bavarian club will spash the cash to capture the 21-year-old.
"I do notthink that in the next few years we will buy a player thatis more expensive than[Javi] Martinez," he told tz-online.de.
The Bundesliga leaders broke the German transfer fee record last summer when they triggered a buy-out clause of??40 million in Martinez's?Athletic Bilbao contract and have no plans to spend big again.Amid a deluge of transfer speculation surrounding the Brazilian international, sources close to Neymar seem to write off Bayern's chances of pulling off the coup, with the player's agent responding to questions from Le10Sport about a potential move to Germany by saying, "Ido not think so,no, this isa complicated topic."
FORT ERIE ? The full scope of a debit-card skimming scam that affected countless Fort Erie residents is still not known.
Niagara Regional Police say about a half dozen people filed complaints with them after noticing unauthorized transactions appear on their bank account statements during the past weekend.
But that?s likely just the tip of the iceberg, say investigators, as most people reported the incidents directly to their financial institutions.
Det. Sgt. Paul Spiridi, of the NRP?s central fraud unit, say they are still waiting for the financial institutions to complete their own investigations, after which they will bring send a package of information about the incidents to the police agency best suited to conduct the investigation.
What?s known at this point, said Spiridi, is that the incidents involve unauthorized transactions made possible by use of stolen debit card information, as opposed to customers? online accounts being hacked.
?This is clearly a skim,? said Spiridi.
The information used to access the accounts was likely gained by way of a skimming-device attached to a debit or ATM machine somewhere in Fort Erie.
Just when this happened is not known, but the information needed to skim accounts could have been gathered weeks or months ago.
Such activities are most often the work of sophisticated organized crime groups outside of Niagara.
Information used to siphon money from accounts is sometimes sold to other groups.
There?s likely nothing the cardholders could have done to prevent their information from being compromised as it?s difficult if not impossible for someone using a machine to know if it has been compromised, he said.
?You can?t tell by looking,? said Spiridi.
Spiridi said he?s not yet certain how many accounts were affected or the total dollar loss.
The financial institutions are covering the losses and reimbursing the accounts of their customers, he said.
The cases he knows of involve only Fort Erie residents, but there could be others ? people who used a compromised machine while visiting the area or passing through on the way to the United States.
Spiridi said it?s important for people to regularly monitor their account transactions and immediately report any suspicious activity to their bank or credit union, which is exactly what many of the people in this case did.
Over the weekend and through Tuesday, Bullet News was contracted by numerous readers, who say their bank accounts were compromised.
One victim who contacted Bullet News said he was robbed of $1,000 out of two of his accounts.
?If I hadn?t checked my account online, I wouldn?t have known,? he said.
Others who spoke with Bullet News reported a similar pattern, with withdrawals in the amount of $500, which appears to coincide with the daily cash withdrawal limit of the victims.
Debits on accounts were posted from overseas locations, such as Hong Kong and Malaysia.
As the markets once again approach historic highs - the overly exuberant tone, extreme complacency and weakness in the economic data, bring to mind Bob Farrell's 10 investment rules.? These rules should be a staple for any long term successful investor.? These rules are often quoted yet rarely heeded - just as they are now.? Bob Farrell is a Wall Street veteran with over 50 years of experience in crafting his investing rules.? Farrell obtained his masters degree from Columbia Business School and started as a technical analyst at Merrill Lynch in 1957. Even though Farrell studied fundamental analysis under Gramm and Dodd, he turned to technical analysis after realizing there was more to stock prices than balance sheets and income statements. Farrell became a pioneer in sentiment studies and market psychology. His 10 rules on investing stem from personal experience with dull markets, bull markets, bear markets, crashes and bubbles. In short, Farrell has seen it all and lived to tell about it.
The 10 Rules Of Investing
1. Markets tend to return to the mean (average price) over time.
Like a rubber band that has been stretched too far ? it must be relaxed in order to be stretched again. This is exactly the same for stock prices which are anchored to their moving averages.? Trends that get overextended in one direction, or another, always return to their long-term average. Even during a strong uptrend or strong downtrend, prices often move back (revert) to a long-term moving average. The chart below shows the S&P 500 with a 52-week simple moving average.
The bottom chart shows the percentage deviation of the current price of the market from the 52-week moving average.? During bullish trending markets there are regular reversions to the mean which create buying opportunities.? However, what is often not stated is that in order to take advantage of such buying opportunities profits should have been taken out of portfolios as deviations from the mean reached historical extremes.? Conversely, in bearish trending markets, such reversions from extreme deviations should be used to sell stocks, raise cash and reduce portfolio risk rather than "panic sell" at market bottoms.
The dashed RED lines denote when the markets changed trends from positive to negative. This is the very essence of portfolio "risk" management.
2. Excesses in one direction will lead to an opposite excess in the other direction.
Markets that overshoot on the upside will also overshoot on the downside, kind of like a pendulum. The further it swings to one side, the further it rebounds to the other side. This is the extension of Rule #1 as it applies to longer term market cycles (cyclical markets).?
While the chart above showed prices behave on a short term basis - on a longer term basis markets also respond to Newton's 3rd law of motion:? "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction."?? The first chart shows that cyclical markets reach extremes when more than 3-standard deviations above the 50-week moving average.? For the first time since the lows of the market in 2009 this has now occurred.? Notice that these excesses ARE NEVER worked off by just going sideways.
The second chart shows the price reversions of the S&P 500 on a long term basis and adjusted for inflation. Notice that when prices have historically reached extremes ? the reversion in price is just as extreme. It is clear that the current reversion in the stock market is still underway from the 2000 peak.
3. There are no new eras ? excesses are never permanent.
There will always be some "new thing" that elicits speculative interest.? These "new things" throughout history, like the "Siren's Song," has led many investor to their demise. In fact, over the last 500 years we have seen speculative bubbles involving everything from Tulip Bulbs to Railways, Real Estate to Technology, Emerging Markets (5 times) to Automobiles and Commodities.?? It is always starts the same and ends with the utterings of "This time it is different"??
[The chart below is from my March 2008 seminar discussing that the next recessionary bear market was about to occur.]
As legendary investor Jesse Livermore once stated:?
"A lesson I learned early is that there is nothing new in Wall Street. There can't be because speculation is as old as the hills. Whatever happens in the stock market today has happened before and will happen again."
4. Exponential rapidly rising or falling markets usually go further than you think, but they do not correct by going sideways
The reality is that excesses, such as we are seeing in the market now, can indeed go much further than logic would dictate. However, these excesses, as stated above, are never worked off simply by trading sideways. Corrections are always just as brutal as the advances were exhilarating. As the chart below shows when the markets broke out of their directional trends ? the corrections came soon thereafter.
5. The public buys the most at the top and the least at the bottom.
The average individual investor is most bullish at market tops and most bearish at market bottoms.? This is due to investor's emotional biases of "greed" when markets are rising and "fear" when markets are falling.? Logic would dictate that the best time to invest is after a massive selloff - unfortunately this is exactly the opposite of what investors do.
The chart below shows the flow of money into equity based mutual funds.
6. Fear and greed are stronger than long-term resolve.
As stated in Rule $5 it is emotions that cloud your decisions and affect your long-term plan.
"Gains make us exuberant; they enhance well-being and promote optimism," says Santa Clara University finance professor Meir Statman.? His studies of investor behavior show that "Losses bring sadness, disgust, fear, regret. Fear increases the sense of risk and some react by shunning stocks."
The composite index of bullish sentiment (an average of AAII and Investor's Intelligence surveys) shows that "greed" is beginning to reach levels where markets have generally reached intermediate term peaks.?
In the words of Warren Buffett:?
"Buy when people are fearful and sell when they are greedy."
Currently, those "people" are getting extremely greedy.
7. Markets are strongest when they are broad and weakest when they narrow to a handful of blue-chip names.
Breadth is important. A rally on narrow breadth indicates limited participation and the chances of failure are above average. The market cannot continue to rally with just a few large-caps (generals) leading the way. Small and mid-caps (troops) must also be on board to give the rally credibility. A rally that "lifts all boats" indicates far-reaching strength and increases the chances of further gains.?
The chart above shows the ARMS Index which is a volume-based indicator that determines market strength and breadth by analyzing the relationship between advancing and declining issues and their respective volume.? It is normally used as a short term trading measure of market strength.? However, for longer term periods the chart shows a weekly index smoothed with a 34-week average.? Spikes in the index has generally coincided with near-term market peaks.
8. Bear markets have three stages ? sharp down, reflexive rebound and a drawn-out fundamental downtrend
Bear markets often start with a sharp and swift decline. After this decline, there is an oversold bounce that retraces a portion of that decline. The longer term decline then continues, at a slower and more grinding pace, as the fundamentals deteriorate. Dow Theory suggests that bear markets consists of three down legs with reflexive rebounds in between.
The chart above shows the stages of the last two primary cyclical bear markets.? There were plenty of opportunities to sell into counter-trend rallies during the decline and reduce risk exposure.???
9. When all the experts and forecasts agree ? something else is going to happen.
This rule fits within Bob Farrell's contrarian nature.? As Sam Stovall, the investment strategist for Standard & Poor's once stated:
"If everybody's optimistic, who is left to buy? If everybody's pessimistic, who's left to sell?"
The point here is that as a contrarian investor, and along with several of the points already made within Farrell's rule set, excesses are built by everyone being on the same side of the trade.? Ultimately, when the shift in sentiment occurs ? the reversion is exacerbated by the stampede going in the opposite direction
Being a contrarian can be quite difficult at times as bullishness abounds.? However, it is also the secret to limiting losses and achieving long term investment success. As Howard Marks once stated:
"Resisting ? and thereby achieving success as a contrarian ? isn't easy. Things combine to make it difficult; including natural herd tendencies and the pain imposed by being out of step, since momentum invariably makes pro-cyclical actions look correct for a while. (That's why it's essential to remember that "being too far ahead of your time is indistinguishable from being wrong.")
Given the uncertain nature of the future, and thus the difficulty of being confident your position is the right one ? especially as price moves against you ? it's challenging to be a lonely contrarian."
10. Bull markets are more fun than bear markets
As stated above in Rule #5 ? investors are primarily driven by emotions. As the overall markets rise ? up to 90% of any individual stock?s price movement is dictated by the overall direction of the market hence the saying ?a rising tide lifts all boats.?
Psychologically, as the markets rise, investors begin to believe that they are ?smart? because their portfolio is going up. In reality, it is primarily more a function of ?luck? rather than ?intelligence? that is driving their portfolio.
Investors behave much the same way as individuals who addicted to gambling. When they are winning they believe that their success is based on their skill. However, when they began to lose, they keep gambling thinking the next ?hand? will be the one that gets them back on track.? Eventually - they leave the table broke.
It is true that bull markets are more fun than bear markets. Bull markets elicit euphoria and feelings of psychological superiority. Bear markets bring fear, panic and depression.
What is interesting is that no matter how many times we continually repeat these ?cycles? ? as emotional human beings we always ?hope? that somehow this ?time will be different.? Unfortunately, it never is and this time won?t be either. The only questions are: when will the next bear market begin and will you be prepared for it?
Conclusions
Like all rules on Wall Street, Bob Farrell's rules are not meant has hard and fast rules. There are always exceptions to every rule and while history never repeats exactly it does often "rhyme" very closely.
Nevertheless, these rules will benefit investors by helping them to look beyond the emotions and the headlines.? Being aware of sentiment can prevent selling near the bottom and buying near the top, which often goes against our instincts.
Regardless of how many times I discuss these issues, quote successful investors, or warn of the dangers ? the response from both individuals and investment professionals is always the same.
??I am a long term, fundamental value, investor.? So these rules don?t really apply to me.?
No you?re not. Yes, they do.
Individuals are long term investors only as long as the markets are rising.? Despite endless warnings, repeated suggestions and outright recommendations - getting investors to sell, take profits and manage your portfolio risks is nearly a lost cause as long as the markets are rising.? Unfortunately, by the time the fear, desperation or panic stages are reached it is far too late to act and I will only be able to say that I warned you.
?Cinco c?maras rotas? compite en los premios Oscar con el documental israel? ?The Gatekeepers?, que muestra entrevistas a seis ex directores de la Shin Bet, el servicio secreto de seguridad interna de Israel, que es una especie de h?brido entre el FBI y la CIA de Estados Unidos. En la pel?cula, los seis entrevistados condenan las actuales pr?cticas israel?es de ocupaci?n y de expansi?n de asentamientos.
Yes, you can fix that smashed iPhone on demand now. That means no visits to the Apple store, or intensive DIY efforts. A YC alum called iCracked launched a real-time, iPhone or iPad repair service a little over a month ago. Think of it like an “Exec” or an “Uber” for your broken iPhone that you can order straight to your door. With hardly any publicity at all, the service is blowing up: it boosted iCracked’s number of monthly customers by about 250 percent and the company tells me the business is eyeing “eight figures” in revenue for this year. The changes add iCracked to a growing class of startups like Exec, Uber, Zimride’s Lyft, Instacart and Postmates that are all trying to solve the logistical issues of delivering products and services in real-time in urban cities. “We want to be the ‘AAA’ for your device,” explains AJ Forsythe, the company’s CEO. “We’re doing on-demand repair and buyback for just about every major city in the U.S.” He shared some of the maps above and below with us, showing actual completed repairs in the last 30 days. Above is the San Francisco Bay Area, and just for good measure to show that this isn’t a Silicon Valley-only phenomenon, he showed us a map of South Florida (below). “We’re trying to get to a place where we can get someone to them in the shortest amount of time at the click of a button,” he said. He partnered with a 20-year-old from the U.K. named Martin Amps, who had built a dispatch system just months ago. Amps never implemented it because it was so specialized, but Forsythe found him on a Hacker News posting and thought the system could be of use to iCracked. Up until then, iCracked’s three-prong business model worked similarly. But it didn’t operate in real-time. Customers would have to mail-in their devices or schedule appointments with iTechs. iCracked earns revenue in three ways: it does 1) repairs, 2) buybacks and 3) sells do-it-yourself kits (pictured right) for people who want to fix phones themselves. The company has more than 350 “iTechnicians,” who work as contractors and are trained to quickly fix broken iPhones and iPads. They earn decent salaries of between $70,000 and $100,000 a year. Forsythe says he’s selective and he only ends up hiring about 2 to 3 percent of iTech applicants. While these “iTechs”
JOHN ROBBINS/Bullet News
