POPE LIVE: Ready for departure, final meetings

"Pope Live" follows the events of the final day of Pope Benedict XVI's papacy as seen by journalists from The Associated Press around the world. It will be updated throughout the day with breaking news and other items of interest.

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LAST TASKS

The big speeches are done. It's almost time to go.

In just a few minutes, Pope Benedict XVI meets with his cardinals this morning on the day he heads into retirement. No major speech is expected during his morning farewell with his closest advisers, just a simple greeting to each one inside the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace.

Shortly before 5 p.m. local time, Benedict will leave the palace for the last time as pope, head to the helipad on the top of the hill in the Vatican gardens and fly to the papal retreat south of Rome. And there, at 8 p.m. ? the exact moment Benedict's resignation goes into effect ? the doors of the palazzo will close and the Swiss Guards in attendance will go off duty, their service protecting the pope now finished.

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QUICKQUOTE: JOHN KERRY

"The United States sends its best wishes to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI as he leaves the Vatican after years of service and dedication to God, the Catholic Church, and world peace. As the papal conclave assembles, I look forward to continuing our important relationship with the Vatican and working with the new pope to foster dialogue and promote human rights and human dignity throughout the world."

? New U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, visiting Rome for a conference on Syria as part of his first diplomatic tour abroad.

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A GLIMPSE INSIDE

Victor L. Simpson, Rome bureau chief for The Associated Press, reflects on his decades of covering the papacy:

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One thing that sets the Vatican apart from other places: You can't just stroll around and poke your head in everywhere.

As many as 18 million people pass through Vatican territory each year, but their visits are effectively limited to St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican museums. Aside from the Vatican's 492 residents and its 4,700 employees, everyone else needs a pass, even to drop by the Vatican pharmacy for medicine not sold in Italy (bring a doctor's prescription please) or to buy back copies of the Vatican paper at the offices of L'Osservatore Romano.

After all these years, I still feel a tingle of excitement to be let in through the Bronze Door, escorted past Swiss Guards in full regalia, and taken up to the pope's apartment on the third floor of the Apostolic Palace for a papal audience with a dignitary. These meetings have given a rare peek inside Vatican diplomacy.

? Victor L. Simpson

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TOWN TOUR

The town where Benedict is spending his last hours as pope and his first hours as the first pontiff in 600 years to retire is one of several picturesque "castle towns" known as the "Castelli," less than an hour's drive from Rome. Nestled in the Alban Hills, southeast of Rome, it is an area that is volcanic in origin. One of the volcano's old craters became Lake Albano, whose shores include Castel Gandolfo.

The volcano's no longer active, but the Castelli area gets its share of earthquakes, generally fairly mild and doing no damage. The rich volcanic soil helps produce inexpensive white wines that are a favorite in local trattorie as well as in restaurants in Rome.

The town is older than Christianity. The papal residence grounds include ruins from an imperial Roman villa, which itself had been on the site of ancient temples built several centuries before the ancient Romans came to check out the cool breezes and views.

The sprawling papal grounds, which as Vatican property enjoy extraterritoriality, include a working farm. Coffee bars in town have been known to serve milk from the farm's cows. (Yes, it's already been said: "Holy Cow.")

? Frances D'Emilio ? Twitter http://twittter.com/fdemilio

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GOODBYE, RED SHOES

The red shoes are being retired.

The Pope is giving up the trademark that briefly made him a fashion star, trading in his snappy ruby-red loafers for a pair of hand-crafted brown ones made for him by artisans in Mexico. He will wear those in retirement, Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi says.

The flash of red sparked (unfounded) rumors he was wearing Prada and helped make him Esquire magazine's accessorizer of the year in 2007. The actual designer? An Italian craftsman who had previously created a pair for Pope John Paul II, according to the Italian news agency ANSA.

A former Vatican official assured The Associated Press back in 2005 that Benedict was no clothes horse, advising that the pontiff "wouldn't know Gucci from Smoochi."

? Matt Surman ? Twitter http://twitter.com/apsurman

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LAST DAY AS POPE

Pope Benedict XVI is making history today, becoming the first pontiff to retire in nearly 600 years.

Only a handful of popes have ever done so.

The last was Pope Gregory XII, who stepped down in 1415 in a deal to end the Great Western Schism, a dispute among competing papal claimants. The most famous resignation was Pope Celestine V in 1294; Dante placed him in hell for it.

Benedict is saying farewell this morning to his closest advisers in Clementine Hall at the Apostolic Palace. Then shortly before 5 p.m., he will leave the palace for the last time as pope and fly by helicopter to the papal retreat at Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome.

Exactly at 8 p.m. ? when his resignation takes effect ? the doors at Castel Gandolfo will close and the papacy that began on April 19, 2005, will come to an end.

? Nicole Winfield ? http://twitter.com/nwinfield

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Follow AP reporters on Twitter where available.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pope-live-ready-departure-final-meetings-094739179.html

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Valibation: The Disease of Always Being on Your Phone (NSFW)

If you have 20 minutes, you should watch Valibation. It's a short film directed by Todd Strauss-Schulson (he's done a Harold and Kumar movie but this is nothing like that) that shows how being addicted to your phone can turn into a disease where the phone actually becomes a part of you. It's dark, it's weird and it's revealing—would we want our phones to be a part of us? That's not an automatic no, right? More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/ks3-n91ZhTI/valibation-the-disease-of-always-being-on-your-phone-nsfw

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Connecting the (quantum) dots: First viable high-speed quantum computer moves closer

Feb. 26, 2013 ? Recent research offers a new spin on using nanoscale semiconductor structures to build faster computers and electronics. Literally.

University of Pittsburgh and Delft University of Technology researchers reveal in the Feb. 17 online issue of Nature Nanotechnology a new method that better preserves the units necessary to power lightning-fast electronics, known as qubits (pronounced CUE-bits). Hole spins, rather than electron spins, can keep quantum bits in the same physical state up to 10 times longer than before, the report finds.

"Previously, our group and others have used electron spins, but the problem was that they interacted with spins of nuclei, and therefore it was difficult to preserve the alignment and control of electron spins," said Sergey Frolov, assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy within Pitt's Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, who did the work as a postdoctoral fellow at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.

Whereas normal computing bits hold mathematical values of zero or one, quantum bits live in a hazy superposition of both states. It is this quality, said Frolov, which allows them to perform multiple calculations at once, offering exponential speed over classical computers. However, maintaining the qubit's state long enough to perform computation remains a long-standing challenge for physicists.

"To create a viable quantum computer, the demonstration of long-lived quantum bits, or qubits, is necessary," said Frolov. "With our work, we have gotten one step closer."

The holes within hole spins, Frolov explained, are literally empty spaces left when electrons are taken out. Using extremely thin filaments called InSb (indium antimonide) nanowires, the researchers created a transistor-like device that could transform the electrons into holes. They then precisely placed one hole in a nanoscale box called "a quantum dot" and controlled the spin of that hole using electric fields. This approach -- featuring nanoscale size and a higher density of devices on an electronic chip -- is far more advantageous than magnetic control, which has been typically employed until now, said Frolov.

"Our research shows that holes, or empty spaces, can make better spin qubits than electrons for future quantum computers."

"Spins are the smallest magnets in our universe. Our vision for a quantum computer is to connect thousands of spins, and now we know how to control a single spin," said Frolov. "In the future, we'd like to scale up this concept to include multiple qubits."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Pittsburgh.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. V. S. Pribiag, S. Nadj-Perge, S. M. Frolov, J. W. G. van den Berg, I. van Weperen, S. R. Plissard, E. P. A. M. Bakkers, L. P. Kouwenhoven. Electrical control of single hole spins in nanowire quantum dots. Nature Nanotechnology, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2013.5

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/yzWo70ni_zA/130226114021.htm

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Robert Downey Jr. Discusses Leaving Iron Man

For how long can Robert Downey, Jr. play Iron Man? It's a nice problem for Marvel to have, one supposes, considering that it was only five years ago when the first Iron Man film was about to come out and the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe was an unproven concept.

But the fact is, Downey, Jr. is getting expensive for Marvel. The notoriously cost-conscious studio reportedly had to fork over upwards of $50 million to the actor for The Avengers, including box office bonuses and backend compensation. Plus, word has it that Downey, Jr.'s contract is up after Iron Man 3 hits this May, so Empire recently asked Tony Stark himself how much longer he might stick around in the metal suit.

"Let's just say that the only thing I ever let go of had claw marks in it," Downey, Jr. said in that typical Downey, Jr. way. "There's a little bit of soul reclamation going on. I feel that the first time I played Tony, I did it best. Sorry! The affinity with Tony now is: how do you sustain something? I'm not stupid, I like to play ball, I love the company, I love the character, and the business side of things, I'm not [too] picky about that either."

Of course, Marvel's head honcho Kevin Feige has floated the possibility of replacing Downey, Jr. eventually, James Bond style. "I hope Downey makes a lot of movies for us as Stark," Feige said back in April. "If and when he doesn't, and I'm still here making these movies, we don't take him to Afghanistan and have him wounded again. I think we James Bond it."

Empire asked the actor how he would feel about that, but he doesn't seem to be sweating it.

What's Going on in this Iron Man 3 Mandarin Poster?

"It would probably be the best thing in the world for me," he said. "You know, ego... but sometimes ego just has to be smashed. Let's see what happens. I take the audience very seriously - I feel bad when I see folks doing movies and the audience is like, 'Don't do that anymore.' I don't have to overstay my welcome..."

My humble suggestion would be to blast Tony off into space or something once you know Downey, Jr. is done -- send him on a mission from which the actor/character might eventually return years later for a cameo or grand return appearance. But what do you guys think? Will it still be Iron Man if a different actor is playing him?

Via CBM

Talk to Senior Editor Scott Collura on Twitter at @ScottIGN, on IGN at scottcollura and on Facebook.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1926920/news/1926920/

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Green Blog: On Our Radar: BP?s Gulf Spill Inquiry

BP?s internal investigation of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill examined the direct cause of a rig blowout but ignored decisions that managers made leading up to the accident, a witness testifies in federal court in New Orleans. The witness, an engineering professor at Berkeley, was testifying on behalf of the plaintiffs in civil litigation against the oil giant. [The Wall Street Journal]

Environmentalists fret about an M.I.T. professor?s possible candidacy for energy secretary, citing his ties to the natural gas industry and a study he authored suggesting that fracking risks are manageable. [The Washington Post]

Interpol plans a major effort to crack down on billions of dollars? worth of illegal fishing activity, calling it a threat to food security and ecosystems as well as a source of political instability and human rights violations. [The Guardian]

The head of Columbia University?s Earth Institute suggests that New York State explore a hydraulic fracturing demonstration project, given how intense the views are on both sides of the debate about whether drilling should be allowed. [The Huffington Post]

Another look at how the American military is seeking alternative energy sources even as Congress resists aggressive action. [Mother Jones]

Source: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/26/on-our-radar-bps-internal-spill-inquiry/?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Hagel takes helm at Pentagon after bitter fight

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Chuck Hagel has been sworn in as Secretary of Defense following a bitter nomination fight on Capitol Hill.

He took the oath of office at the Defense Department, which is facing deep budget cuts.

Hagel was expected to address civilian and uniformed employees at the department later in the day Wednesday.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hagel-takes-helm-pentagon-bitter-fight-081453495--politics.html

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The Convenience of getting Your Home fitness equipment ...

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Source: http://sflalegalnews.com/the-convenience-of-getting-your-home-fitness-equipment

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Legal aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 ...

Whilst the government comes under fire for reforms and policies on the budget deficit, welfare, education and health, the majority of the general public seem to be unaware that the Government has also pushed through its devastating attack on Access to Justice for injured people in spite of vociferous opposition from the trade unions, the Labour Party, victim support groups and civil rights organisations.

As a result of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) Act 2012, those who are injured in workplace accidents, road traffic accidents or those who develop diseases related to their work, such as asbestosis, will now find it much harder to find a specialist lawyer to take on their compensation claim.

The reforms of civil litigation funding and costs in England and Wales will come into effect in April of this year. These reforms turn the rules currently in place upon their head and expose those genuinely injured people needing legal representation to run the risk of having to pay from their own pocket if they lose their case as the existing ?No Win, No Fee? system will be no more.

The current system is knocked by government and the media because they say it encourages a so-called ?compensation culture?. Under the existing rules, the lawyer for the injured person doesn?t get paid for the work they have done if that case fails, whilst a success fee is payable by the guilty party in successful cases.

In April the guilty party will no longer have to pay the success fee. Insurance policies purchased by victims of accidents to protect themselves from any adverse costs orders will no longer be met by the guilty party.

In addition, the government is seeking to amend the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 which will radically change the way injured workers claim compensation from their employers.

Currently an injured person will recover a 100% of their compensation with the new rules, this is unlikely to be the case.

It does not seem right that an innocent victim is not entitled to receive their compensation in full but this is the new regime as proposed by insurers and the government.

The real danger for anyone who suffers an injury or illness through the negligence of others, is that come April they will have difficulty in finding a lawyer who is able to take on their case, have the ability to recover an insurance premium to safeguard them with any costs they may incur in taking the matter to a trial and even if successful they will not recover 100% of any damages awarded.

The reason for these reforms is to curb the alleged rise in compensation claims for ?whiplash? injuries and yet the reforms that are being introduced are aimed at all accident and occupational illness victims.

Yes there are fraudulent claims out there and these must be stamped out with the full force of the law. However, the vast majority of claims are not fraudulent or exaggerated as the government and insurance industry would have us believe. The proverbial sledgehammer is being applied to crack the ?whiplash nut?.

More injured people will become reliant on the NHS and benefits when compensation for their accident would have helped pay for their loss of earnings, need for care and rehabilitation of injuries caused through no fault of their own.

If you or a member of your family think you have been injured through no fault of your own, do not delay in contacting Attwaters Jameson Hill on 01279 638888 for advice and assistance.? Click here for further information on our Personal Injury department.

Claiming before the 1st April will make all the difference.

Source: http://www.attwatersjamesonhill.co.uk/2013/02/legal-aid-sentencing-and-punishment-of-offenders-act-2012/

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Stoke GameChanger Improves Stadium Broadband Delivery

February 25, 2013

Dan McBride VP Marketing Stoke

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Mobile and WiFi gateway solution provider Stoke recently launched at Mobile World Congress 2013 a new solution which is targeted at improving the customer experience at stadiums and metropolitan areas. The company's GameChanger solution in partnership with SOLiD Technologies brings together management, WiFi and fiber installation.

The idea is to allow a stadium to be WiFi and carrier agnostic meaning in a perfect world every customer will be able to come to a stadium and have coverage from their own provider. There are multiple benefits as consumers will get better quality of service, carriers will benefit from using the lit fiber instead of relying on radio technology and stadium owners won't have to invest in providing WiFi themselves. Moreover, they also get access to rich user data and can choose to show ads on the screens of devices for things like hot dog sales and the like.

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Boston Transit will be the first customer of what Stoke refers to as neutral host architecture (pictured) and the company's Wi-Fi eXchange aggregates, authenticates and meters the traffic running on the network.

The company also has news relating to a new software agent to protect LTE networks from threats to service availability meaning service providers can guide the LTE Security eXchange solution to provide inspection of network components. Some of the threats the solution should be able to catch are unauthorized access, session spoofing, privacy attacks or increased signaling loads which could be the result of increased use of small cells. The company has seen in its initial research that small cell usage will indeed increase signaling loads dramatically meaning carriers should keep a close eye on this challenge as they expand their reliance of this new technology.

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Taqua Leverages WiFi, Introduces Backhaul Product at MWC 2012

Source: http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/rich-tehrani/stoke-gamechanger-improves-stadium-broadband-delivery.html

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Half of Detroit Properties Have Not Paid Taxes; Update on Detroit ...

The hollowing out of Detroit is nearly complete. All that's left is a bankrupt shell of a city with no services and scattered citizens that do not pay taxes.

The Detroit News reports Half of Detroit Property Owners Don't Pay Taxes

Nearly half of the owners of Detroit's 305,000 properties failed to pay their tax bills last year, exacerbating a punishing cycle of declining revenues and diminished services for a city in a financial crisis, according to a Detroit News analysis of government records.

The News reviewed more than 200,000 pages of tax documents and found that 47 percent of the city's taxable parcels are delinquent on their 2011 bills. Some $246.5 million in taxes and fees went uncollected, about half of which was due Detroit and the rest to other entities, including Wayne County, Detroit Public Schools and the library.

Delinquency is so pervasive that 77 blocks had only one owner who paid taxes last year, The News found. Many of those who don't pay question why they should in a city that struggles to light its streets or keep police on them.

"Why pay taxes?" asked Fred Phillips, who owes more than $2,600 on his home on an east-side block where five owners paid 2011 taxes. "Why should I send them taxes when they aren't supplying services? It is sickening. ? Every time I see the tax bill come, I think about the times we called and nobody came."

Source: http://townhall.com/columnists/mikeshedlock/2013/02/25/half-of-detroit-properties-have-not-paid-taxes-update-on-detroit-bankruptcy-n1519550

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Christians, Muslims pray to halt Israeli security wall

Families in a West Bank town call on divine intercession to stop the construction of a barrier they say will separate residents from their own land. NBC News' Yara Borgal reports.

By Yara Borgal, Producer, NBC News

BEIT JALA, West Bank -- A West Bank community plants olive trees, even though many residents don?t think they will ever see them harvested. Any day, construction of Israel?s security wall could slice through this valley.?

?We are trying in a way to keep this land ? especially for the children of Beit Jala to feel a little bit of freedom,? said Maher Matar, a resident of the mostly Christian Palestinian community of 58 families.

Appeals to Israel?s courts have failed to stop the project, which Israel says is vital to protect it from terrorist attacks.

The impending decision has prompted both Christians and Muslims in the area to gather for weekly prayers they hope will stop Israel from building the separation wall.

While the International Criminal Court has said the wall is ?illegal? under international law, Israel maintains the structure is essential.

?It is important to remember that before the waves of Palestinian terror took 1,000 Israeli lives, there was no need for a fence. There was no need for a security barrier,? said Israeli Defense Ministry spokesman Josh Hantman. ?This barrier, it saves lives. And every inch of the barrier is open to judicial review and up for appeal.?

Israel has already completed 65 percent of the planned 435-mile barrier. Human rights organization B?Tselem says that if the wall is finished, 85 percent will fall on Palestinian land.

?People abroad they think we are terrorists,? said Elaine, a Beit Jala resident who would give only her first name.? ?We are not terrorists. We are fighting for our own rights. We are fighting for our own homes for our own land.??

Related:

Smuggled sperm: Palestinians become dads from jail

'Force to be reckoned with': Israel's settlers dig in ahead of Obama visit

Haunting funeral image named World Press Photo winner

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/25/17057961-christians-muslims-pray-to-halt-israeli-security-wall?lite

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Alcatel One Touch Star hands-on

Alongside Alcatel's other launches today at Mobile World Congress the One Touch Star is another example of an affordable handset that still manages to maintain good looks with excellent fit an finish. Featuring a 4-inch WVGA AMOLED display, 5-megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, quad-band GSM and 900 / 2100 UMTS, all powered by a 1GHz dual-core CPU.

The handset is a little on the heavy side, but not in an awful way, more like a quality sort of feeling, reminiscent of iPhone's weight. Clever touches such as the corner tab being recessed a little more to get at the 1500mAh battery and SIM slots -- or dual-SIM slots when optioned with that -- is also a clever touch and just generally adds to the device's appeal. Of course the One Touch Star will be a budget phone but it is also a brilliant example of how lower pricing and excellent quality can coexist. Well done Alcatel, well done. No word on pricing but it is expected to begin shipping sometime in March 2013. A Gallery showing off the cranberry variety is just below the break.

Filed under: Cellphones

Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/24/alcatel-one-touch-star-hands-on/

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Falcon Northwest Mach V (Triple Titan)

The launch of Nvidia's new GeForce GTX Titan graphics card has lit a fire underneath multiple boutique computer manufacturers. Falcon Northwest has built a new version of its Mach V desktop tower?the Mach V (Triple Titan)?to take advantage of the Titan's capabilities, with support for up to three of the new graphics cards and a six-core Intel Core i7 3970X CPU overclocked to 4.7GHz. The system's price tag as configured was $7,394. Yes, you read that right. The three graphics cards account for about $3000 of the eye-popping figure; this much power doesn't come cheap. The system's performance blew away the competition for the most part, setting a new standing for PC gaming. Thus, the Mach V (Triple Titan) takes the Editors' Choice for high-end gaming rigs.

Design and Features
The Mach V uses the same vertical chassis design as the Maingear Shift Super Stock (Core i7-3930K) ($5289 4.5); both cases orient video cards and components upwards to take advantage of the fact that hot air naturally rises. From the outside, the chassis design is simple, even understated, but the hardware inside the box is some of the most powerful that money can buy. There's 32GB of DDR3-1866 RAM, the aforementioned Intel Core i7-3970X, and a 256GB Crucial M4 SSD, backed up by a 2TB Western Digital Caviar Green hard drive. The entire system is powered by a 1200W PSU; optical storage comes courtesy of a 16x Asus DVD-RW drive.

The disadvantage to this triple-GPU configuration is that the GPUs consume every available slot; there's literally no room for any additional hardware. Falcon Northwest makes up for the lack of free PCI-Express ports with a whopping nine USB 2.0 ports and six USB 3.0 ports. Two of the latter are mounted at the top of the case for convenient access while working.

The vertical design presents two other challenges. First, a desk that's designed to exhaust hot air at the back may end up trapping that air if the system exhausts at the top. Second, there's the cabling issue. If you don't have many external drives or peripherals, the Mach V presents a very clean, crisp profile. Add three monitors' worth of cables, a few external drives, and a keyboard + mouse, and the top of the system looks like a rat's nest.

The trade-off is that cooling performance is typically better in a vertical case?and with three GPUs and a 4.7GHz overclocked CPU, the Mach V needs to balance cooling performance and noise. It does so quite well. The next-generation GPU Boost technology built into the Titan family keeps each GPU's temperature pegged at 80C. Customers can override this manually if they wish, but the system automatically adjusts frequencies to ensure that even a three-GPU system runs no risk of overheating.

Performance
The three Titan graphics cards are the showcase of the system and its strongest point. The Mach V (Triple Titan) sweeps even the Maingear F131 Super Stock (GTX Titan) in our 3D benchmark tests. Its 3DMark 11 Extreme score of 12,505 is 18% faster than the previous record-holder ? the Falcon Northwest Mach V (Intel Core i7-3770K), which was equipped with a pair of dual-GPU GTX 690s (four GPUs in total). In Aliens vs. Predator at 1,920-by-1,080 with 4x anti-aliasing (AA) and 4x anisotropic filtering (AF) turned on, the Mach V (Triple Titan) turned in 222 frames per second (fps) compared with the dual-Titan-equipped Maingear F131's 182fps. Performance in version 3.0 of Unigine's Heaven benchmark test at 1,920-by-1080 with 4x AA / AF was 198fps, compared to 155fps for the Maingear F131.

In other areas, the Maingear F131 and Mach V (Triple Titan) came in neck and neck. Both systems completed a Handbrake decode in 23 seconds. The Maingear F131 led in PCMark 7 (6,523 vs. 6,241 for the Mach V) and in Photoshop CS6 (2 minutes, 35 seconds to apply a dozen filters, vs. the Mach V's time of 2:41). The Mach V (Triple Titan) outperformed Maingear F131 in Cinebench, where the hexa-core 3970 got to stretch its legs. The multithreaded Cinebench R11.5 score for the Mach V (Triple Titan) was 13.62. Only the Origin Genesis (Core i7-3930K), with its 4.9GHz CPU, was faster.

Those performance figures provide an accurate model of how the Falcon-Northwest compares to other gaming systems. What they don't explain is how Falcon and its boutique competitors have leveraged the new cards to create better gaming experiences. We had the opportunity to test the Mach V in a 5,760-by-1,080 configuration across three 27-inch displays. A standard 1,920-by-1,080 display contains two megapixels? 5,760-by-1080 more than triples that, to 6.2MP. For comparison, 2,560-by-1,600 is 4 MP.

Yes, three GTX Titan GPUs pushing nearly 200fps in Heaven is impressive. What's more impressive yet is seeing the Mach V (Triple Titan) maintain 90fps in the same benchmark test when running across three displays at once. It's not a capability that's limited to synthetic benchmark tests?while multi-monitor gaming is still not standard, many recent titles like Shogun 2, Serious Sam BFE, World of Warcraft, and Batman: Arkham City all support it.

With three GTX Titan GPUs, the Falcon Northwest Mach V (Triple Titan) is capable of fielding game experiences that other configurations don't offer. Serious Sam BFE at 5,760-by-1,080 with 4x super-sampled AA, 16x AF, and all GPU and CPU options set to maximum, for example, still maintains a consistent 75fps.

The three-monitor experience isn't perfect?the view on the side panels is often distorted and, in some games, magnifies the landscape and enemies to appear closer than they are. Despite these flaws, multi-monitor gaming support is growing, and the immersion in these games is superior to single-panel play. Game for a few hours across three monitors, and you'll find that dropping back to one is jarring.

That said, what's also jarring is the Mach V (Triple Titan)'s price tag. At $999 each, there's no such thing as a cheap Titan GPU, but gamers who are interested without having quite that much scratch to spare should consider a single GPU configuration built around one of Falcon's lower-cost alternatives like the Tiki or FragBox.

If you've got the funds, this is an excellent system. It's a configuration that can handle multi-monitor gaming, 3D gaming, or both without breaking a sweat. Given the strength of the underlying hardware, this Mach V could be the center of a gaming platform for years to come. Buyers who prefer to buy a high-end system and use it for a number of years rather than upgrading on a regular basis should give the Mach V (Triple Titan) serious consideration. Of course, if you want to use this to replace the high-end gaming rig you bought last year because that system was the "fastest," that's also your prerogative. Regardless, with its record-breaking performance, triple-monitor capability, and smart power-saving functionality, the Falcon Northwest Mach V (Triple Titan) earns our Editors' Choice for high-end gaming desktops.

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Daniel Radcliffe Hopes He Won't 'Screw Up' Oscars Appearance

'It's going to be different,' the 'Harry Potter' star says of his special, surprise role in Sunday's ceremony.
By Kevin P. Sullivan, with reporting by Josh Horowitz

Daniel Radcliffe attends the 2013 Film Independent Spirit Awards
Photo: Getty Images

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1702496/oscar-2013-daniel-radcliffe-presenter.jhtml

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'Sequester' in US skies: Is an FAA 'calamity' avoidable?

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says the 'sequester' will force the FAA to furlough air traffic controllers, creating an air travel nightmare. Some Republicans are calling this a scare tactic.

By Husna Haq,?Correspondent / February 25, 2013

A jet departs Washington's Reagan National Airport next to the control tower outside Washington, Monday. The US Department of Transportation says the 'sequester' will force the Federal Aviation Administration to reduce hours at hundreds of control towers and airports and completely close dozens more, creating an air travel nightmare.

Larry Downing/Reuters

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In the world of air travel, it sounds like a nightmare scenario.

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The federal budget ?sequester,? Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Friday, would be a ?calamity? that would force the Federal Aviation Administration to reduce hours at hundreds of control towers and airports and completely close dozens more, leading to gridlock in the skies and long delays and cancellations in the nation?s airports.

As part of the $85 billion across-the-board spending cuts known as the sequester, the Department of Transportation must cut $1 billion from its annual budget, of which about $600 million would be slashed from the FAA, which oversees air travel. According to Secretary LaHood, that translates into furloughs for most of the agency?s 47,000 employees and closures of more than 100 air traffic control towers across the country ? a situation LaHood, in a series of appearances over the weekend, said would be ?very painful for the flying public.?

?It is going to be chaos for air travelers,? says Henry Harteveldt, a travel-industry analyst with advisory firm Hudson Crossing. ?Hundreds of control towers are slated to have either hours reduced or eliminated altogether. This is big.??

And while the projected disruption to air travel is deeply concerning to many, the ?sky-is-falling? scenario has some analysts skeptical about the administration?s use of the cutbacks in air transportation as a political football. After all, air travel delays are a popular weapon in the political debate because they impact so many Americans in a particularly irritating fashion.

?There may be some actions being done to create drama where there doesn?t need to be,? says Mr. Harteveldt. ?It can be as bad as the FAA and TSA want to make it.?

To what extent, then, is the dismal picture painted by LaHood fear-mongering designed to pressure lawmakers to reach a budget deal? Can the FAA target cuts in other areas to mitigate the impact for travelers, or are LaHood?s hands tied?

Congressional Republicans have accused the administration of using the air traffic control cuts to ?create alarm.?

?Before jumping to the conclusion that furloughs must be implemented, the administration and the agency need to sharpen their pencils and consider all the options,? Sen. John Thune (R) and Reps. Bill Schuster (R) and Frank LoBiondo (R), said in a joint statement Friday.

According to?Politico, the group said there were other areas in which the FAA could instead cut ?fat,? like the more than $500 million spent each year on consultants, or the $200 million spent on supplies and travel.

LaHood has countered the claims, saying he has no choice but to reduce air-traffic staffing.

?The largest number of employees at DOT is at FAA, of which the largest number are FAA controllers," LaHood said Sunday on CNN?s ?State of the Union.? "We are going to try and cut as much as we possibly can out of contracts and other things that we do. But in the end, there has to be some kind of furlough of air traffic control.?

Michael Boyd, an aviation analyst with Boyd Group International, an aviation consulting and forecasting firm, says the move is ?engineered to be as difficult as possible for the consumer.?

?Ray LaHood and his group will make it as hard as possible. They?re going to want to take this right to the consumer and make the consumer feel as much pain as possible,? says Mr. Boyd. ?This is how you make a point.? This is frankly a political program.?

What?s more, says Harteveldt, cuts could be focused on less critical areas to lessen the impact for travelers.

?I?m sure there are options available to them that would be considered discretionary ? less important, less strategic areas ? that could be examined and cut [without] ? affecting frontline service and frontline personnel,? he says.

Among the options cited by Harteveldt and Boyd are reducing spending on private contractors, management, and support staff, as well as temporarily suspending discretionary projects like personnel training and next-generation air traffic control systems.

?There is a concentrated effort to tell everyone how bad it will be,? says Boyd. ?It doesn?t have to be.?

Scott Lilly, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, disagrees. Not only are LaHood?s options limited under the law, he says, ?it could be even worse.?

?It?s surprising to a lot of people, but the truth is these budgets don?t work the way you think they do,? says Mr. Lilly, who worked in Congress for more than three decades, including as staff director of the House Appropriations Committee. ?There is a lot less latitude than you might suppose.?

The 1985 Gramm-Rudman Act, which originally introduced the concept of automatic spending cuts, as well as the Budget Control Act of 2011, which introduced this sequester, stipulate how government programs must be cut if voluntary spending reductions are not agreed on. The legislation, says Lilly, mandates formulaic across-the-board cuts of approximately?5.3 percent?on all non-national security government programs, with some exceptions. That means the FAA must shoulder an equal percentage of the financial burden as other government agencies.

?The problem with programs like the FAA is that they?re almost all salaries,? he adds, explaining that much of the budget is devoted to air traffic controllers? salaries and control towers that are leased under fixed contracts.

What?s more, the FAA will have spent half of its budget for the fiscal year by March 30, when cuts would likely go into effect, which means the agency would have to enact even steeper cuts to achieve the necessary reductions over a shorter period of time.

As such, says Lilly, LaHood?s hands are effectively tied.

?There?s not a lot of flexibility,? he says. ?My view is that this may be even worse for the FAA than what LaHood has described.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/uZo8vsUQ1Dc/Sequester-in-US-skies-Is-an-FAA-calamity-avoidable

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Governors Pushed To Implement Jobs Programs For People With Disabilities

WASHINGTON -- The Republican governor of South Dakota shared his personal experience growing up as the child of two deaf parents as part of the National Governors Association meeting this weekend, urging his fellow governors to promote jobs programs for people with disabilities.

South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard told his colleagues his experiences Sunday morning during a panel discussion, part of several sessions this weekend dedicated to the subject of employment for people with disabilities. Delaware Gov. Jack Markell (D), the NGA chairman, has made the issue this year's platform for NGA.

?I?m embarrassed to say that I have not done a lot as governor in this area," Daugaard said. "I want to do more.?

Daugaard went on to share details of his parents' lives, with his father working as a farmer and janitor, some of the only job opportunities available to him at the time. While the morning session was highlighted by Daugaard's personal experiences, governors also used the meetings to discuss ways states can create jobs for people with disabilities.

Carl Van Horn, the director of the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University in New Jersey, told governors Sunday morning that people with disabilities have an unemployment rate at twice the national average and the rate is likely to rise with the aging population. Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy (D) told his colleagues that the number of persons with disabilities seeking to enter the workforce will also continue to rise, due to the number of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans with disabilities who have exited from rehabilitation.

?We owe it to these patriots to make sure that they have a job," Malloy said. "We should do everything in our power to make sure they do.?

Malloy noted that one of the main concerns in his state has been that many people with disabilities work part time and do not receive benefits, but the income they make could cost them benefits from Medicaid. He said that he has created a program to allow for the state to provide benefits for people with disabilities who work part time, so they can enter the workforce.

On Saturday, Walgreens CEO Gregory Wasson told governors about his company's programs training and employing those with disabilities in retail stores and distribution centers. Wasson told governors that those hired by Walgreens have worked well in a fast environment and have contributed to corporate goals. He noted, though, that when states and companies work on the issue of employment for people with disabilities, they need to address individual business needs, and not adopt any one strategy.

?This cannot be a cookie cutter approach," Wasson said.

Markell, the NGA chairman, told governors that the NGA will continue exploring ways states can work to develop programs for employing those with disabilities. As part of the goal to develop a list of best practices for state governments, the association is planning two institutes in May for governors and their staffs to meet with business leaders and share findings.

Among the areas governors were told to focus on were utilizing business leaders as advocates and meeting with parents of the disabled to promote to them the idea that their child can get a job. Malloy said that with the rate of autism rising nationally, the jobs issue needs to be addressed.

?That means more people even with severe autism can work part time or full time," Malloy said. "That means that the job pipeline needs to be there. We need to move away from warehousing people. The best place to spend your day if you have disabilities is in a job. It is our obligation to break down the barriers.?

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/24/jobs-for-people-with-disabilities_n_2754163.html

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Jennifer Hudson Oscars: Singer Wows With 'Dreamgirls' Academy Award Performance (VIDEO)

Jennifer Hudson might not have been nominated for an Academy Award in 2013, but her "Dreamgirls" performance was one of the most memorable moments of the night.

Hudson took to the stage to sing the "Dreamgirls" hit, "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going," as part of a tribute to Broadway musicals on Sunday night.

The Academy confirmed the Broadway tribute in a statement on Feb. 20, saying: "We are pleased to have been able to amass so much talent to create the celebration of musicals of the last decade that we envisioned. We are thrilled that so many talented actors have agreed to bring our vision to life."

The tribute included performances by Catherine Zeta Jones for "Chicago" and the cast of "Les Miserables."

The "Dreamgirls" actress -- who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 2007 for the role of Effie White -- brought down the house with her powerful vocals on Sunday night.

Back in 2007, Hudson was shocked to be on the Oscars stage for the very first time. "I have to just take this moment," the former "American Idol" contestant said while accepting her first Oscar. "I cannot believe this. Look at what God can do. I didn't think I was going to win."

Now a seasoned performer, Hudson had some advice for first-time Oscar nominee, 9-year-old Quvenzhane Wallis, who she stopped on the red carpet.

?There are not many in her position,? Hudson told MTV News about the youngest nominee. ?All I can say is just stay humble, and live in every bit of this moment, and get used to having Academy Award winner ahead of your name.?

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/jennifer-hudson-oscars-dreamgirls-academy-awards-performance_n_2756528.html

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Washington Notebook: Poliquin's email stirs Senate talk

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Source: http://www.pressherald.com/r?19=961&43=561087&44=192771081&32=10367&7=617322&40=http://www.pressherald.com/news/poliquins-email-stirs-senate-talk_2013-02-24.html

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Dozens hurt after crash debris hits Daytona stands

Kyle Larson (32) goes airborne and into the catch fence during a multi-car crash involving Justin Allgaier (31), Brian Scott (2) and others during the final lap of the NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013, in Daytona Beach, Fla. Larson's crash sent car parts and other debris flying into the stands injuring spectators. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Kyle Larson (32) goes airborne and into the catch fence during a multi-car crash involving Justin Allgaier (31), Brian Scott (2) and others during the final lap of the NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013, in Daytona Beach, Fla. Larson's crash sent car parts and other debris flying into the stands injuring spectators. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Emergency officials put out a fire from driver Kyle Larson's engine after his car hit the wall and safety fence along the front grandstands on the final lap of a NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla., Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013. Larson's crash sent car parts and other debris flying into the stands injuring spectators. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)

Daytona International Speedway president Joie Chitwood III, left, speaks at news conference with Steve O'Donnell, NASCAR senior vice president, after numerous spectators were injured when driver Kyle Larson's car crashed in a catch fence on the last lap of the NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013, in Daytona Beach, Fla. Larson's crash sent car parts and other debris flying into the stands. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)

The engine from Kyle Larson's car sits burning next to other parts from the car near a grandstand fence after the car hit the wall and safety fence along the front stretch on the final lap of the NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla., Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)

Emergency personnel attend to an injured spectatos in front of the grandstands after Kyle Larson's car hit the safety wall and fence along the front stretch on the final lap of the NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla., Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) ? With the start of the Daytona 500 just hours away, NASCAR officials still have some cleaning up to do amid growing questions about fan safety.

The season opener will go off as planned Sunday less than 24 hours after at least 33 people were injured when a car flew into the fence during a NASCAR race at Daytona International Speedway, sending a tire and large pieces of debris sailing into the stands.

"Just seeing the carnage on the racetrack, it was truly unbelievable," driver Justin Allgaier said.

The final-lap accident Saturday marred the second-tier Nationwide Series race on the eve of a spectacle often called the Super Bowl of motorsports. Late into the night, track workers were scrambling to repair a huge section of fence that separates fans from the high-speed track.

Speedway President Joie Chitwood III has a news conference scheduled for Sunday morning to give the latest update on repairs and any safety changes that could be made before the "Great American Race."

The 12-car crash began about 200 feet from the start-finish line as the front-runners approached the checkered flag. Leader Regan Smith attempted to block Brad Keselowski for the win, triggering a horrific pileup that could have been much worse.

The front end of Larson's No. 32 car was sheared off, and his burning engine wedged through a gaping hole in the fence. Parts and pieces of his car sprayed into the stands, including a tire that cleared the top of the fence and landed midway up the spectator section closest to the track.

The 20-year-old Larson stood in shock a few feet from his car as fans in the stands waved frantically for help. Smoke from the burning engine briefly clouded the area, and emergency vehicles descended on the scene.

Ambulance sirens could be heard wailing behind the grandstands at a time the race winner would typically be doing celebratory burnouts.

"It was freaky. When I looked to my right, the accident happened," Rick Harpster of Orange Park said. "I looked over and I saw a tire fly straight over the fence into the stands, but after that I didn't see anything else. That was the worst thing I have seen, seeing that tire fly into the stands. I knew it was going to be severe."

Shannan Devine of Egg Harbor Township, N.J., was sitting about 250 feet from where the car smashed into the fence and could see plumes of smoke directly in front of her.

"I didn't know if there was a car on top of people. I didn't know what to think," she said. "I'm an emotional person and I immediately started to cry. It was very scary. Absolutely scary. I love the speed of the sport. But it's so dangerous."

Chitwood said 14 fans were treated on site and 14 others were taken to hospitals. Local officials said 19 people were taken to neighboring hospitals, including two who were in critical but stable condition.

Because of potential injuries, race winner Tony Stewart skipped the traditional victory celebration.

Stewart, who won for the 19th time at Daytona and seventh time in the last nine season-opening Nationwide races, was in no mood to celebrate.

"The important thing is what is going on on the frontstretch right now," said Stewart, a three-time NASCAR champion. "We've always known, and since racing started, this is a dangerous sport. But it's hard. We assume that risk, but it's hard when the fans get caught up in it.

"So as much as we want to celebrate right now and as much as this is a big deal to us, I'm more worried about the drivers and the fans that are in the stands right now because that was ... I could see it all in my mirror, and it didn't look good from where I was at."

There were at least five stretchers carrying injured people out of the stands, and a helicopter flew overhead.

Officials turned their attention to the track and the wreckage after injured were treated.

A forklift plucked Larson's engine out of the fence, and workers carried the tire out of the stands.

It was a chaotic finish to a race that was stopped for nearly 20 minutes five laps from the finish by a 13-car accident that sent driver Michael Annett to a hospital. His Richard Petty Motorsports team said he would be held overnight with bruising to his chest.

The race resumed with three laps to go, and the final accident occurred with Smith trying to hold off Keselowski through the final turn.

"It's Daytona. You want to go for the win here," Smith said. "I don't know how you can play it any different, other than concede second place, and I wasn't willing to do that today. Our job is to put them in position to win, and it was, and it didn't work out."

As the cars began wrecking all around Smith and Keselowski, Stewart slid through for the win, but Larson plowed into Keselowski and his car was sent airborne into the fence. When Larson's car came to a stop, it was missing its entire front end. Larson, who made his Daytona debut this week, stood with his hands on his hips before finally making the mandatory trip to the care center.

"I took a couple big hits there and saw my engine was gone," Larson said. "Just hope everybody's all right."

It appeared fans were lined up along the fence when Larson's car got airborne. But Chitwood said there was a buffer, adding there would be no changes to the seating before the Daytona 500.

"We don't anticipate moving any of our fans," Chitwood said. "We had our safety protocols in place. Our security maintained a buffer that separates the fans from the fencing area. With the fencing being prepared tonight to our safety protocols, we expect to go racing tomorrow with no changes."

Keselowski watched a replay of the accident and said it could cast a pall on the Daytona 500.

"I think until we know exactly the statuses of everyone involved, it's hard to lock yourself into the 500," Keselowski said. "Hopefully, we'll know soon and hopefully everyone's OK. And if that's the case, we'll staring focusing on Sunday."

___

AP Sports Writers Jenna Fryer, Dan Gelston and Jerome Minerva in Daytona Beach and Associated Press writer Jennifer Kay in Miami contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-02-24-CAR-NASCAR-Daytona-Fans-Injured/id-fd0c2ef99a3848268883e5a621936399

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Barnes & Noble chairman may bid for company's bookstores: WSJ

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Barnes & Noble Inc Chairman Leonard Riggio is considering a bid for the company's bookstore business, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the situation.

Riggio is the company's largest shareholder with a nearly 30 percent stake. He pioneered the book superstore format in the 1980s and 1990s.

According to the Journal, Riggio would take the company's 689 retail stores private, splitting that business from its Nook e-reader and tablet business and its college store chain.

Riggio's interest so far has been tentative, the report said. One person told the Journal that Riggio would make his interest formal this week and publicly disclose it.

A Barnes & Noble spokeswoman declined to comment on the report. She said Riggio also had no comment.

Barnes & Noble's retail business has struggled in recent years as more book buyers have switched to digital formats.

The company saw a short-lived rise in sales after the September 2011 liquidation of rival Borders Group.

But Barnes & Noble reported poor holiday sales at all its divisions in 2012. The company posted a 10.9 percent decrease in sales at its bookstores and on its website over the year-end holiday period.

The bookseller said in January last year that it might spin off its digital and e-reader business. It created a separate unit for its Nook and college bookstore chains called Nook Media. That unit has drawn investments from Microsoft Corp and British education and media publisher Pearson Plc .

The Nook, launched in 2009 to compete with Amazon.com Inc's market-leading Kindle, has been the cornerstone of Barnes & Noble's strategy to counter the shift by many readers to digital books.

The company has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the unit, but questions about its value have swirled after the disappointing holiday season.

Earlier this month, Barnes & Noble said its 2013 loss for Nook would be deeper than expected and sales at the unit would fall short of the $3 billion the company had forecast.

(Reporting by Michael Erman and Phil Wahba; Editing by Dale Hudson)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/barnes-noble-chairman-may-bid-companys-bookstores-wsj-003445581--finance.html

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Flipping the 'off' switch on cell growth: Protein uses multiple means to help cells cope when oxygen runs low

Feb. 22, 2013 ? A protein known for turning on genes to help cells survive low-oxygen conditions also slows down the copying of new DNA strands, thus shutting down the growth of new cells, Johns Hopkins researchers report. Their discovery has wide-ranging implications, they say, given the importance of this copying -- known as DNA replication -- and new cell growth to many of the body's functions and in such diseases as cancer.

"We've long known that this protein, HIF-1?, can switch hundreds of genes on or off in response to low oxygen conditions," says Gregg Semenza, M.D., Ph.D., a molecular biologist who led the research team and has long studied the role of low-oxygen conditions in cancer, lung disease and heart disorders. "We've now learned that HIF-1? is even more versatile than we thought, as it can work directly to stop new cells from forming." A report on the discovery appears in the Feb. 12 issue of Science Signaling.

With his team, Semenza, who is the C. Michael Armstrong Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine's Institute for Cell Engineering and Institute for Genomic Medicine, discovered HIF-1? in the 1990s and has studied it ever since, pinpointing a multitude of genes in different types of cells that have their activity ramped up or down by the activated protein. These changes in so-called "gene expression" help cells survive when oxygen-rich blood flow to an area slows or stops temporarily; they also allow tumors to build new blood vessels to feed themselves.

To learn how HIF-1?'s own activity is controlled, the team looked for proteins from human cells that would attach to HIF-1?. They found two, MCM3 and MCM7, that limited HIF-1?'s activity, and were also part of the DNA replication machinery. Those results were reported in 2011.

In the new research, Semenza and his colleagues further probed HIF-1?'s relationship to DNA replication by comparing cells in low-oxygen conditions to cells kept under normal conditions. They measured the amount of DNA replication complexes in the cells, as well as how active the complexes were. The cells kept in low-oxygen conditions, which had stopped dividing, had just as much of the DNA replication machinery as the normal dividing cells, the researchers found; the difference was that the machinery wasn't working. It turned out that in the nondividing cells, HIF-1? was binding to a protein that loads the DNA replication complex onto DNA strands, and preventing the complex from being activated.

"Our experiments answered the long-standing question of how, exactly, cells stop dividing in response to low oxygen," says Maimon Hubbi, Ph.D., a member of Semenza's team who is now working toward an M.D. degree. "It also shows us that the relationship between HIF-1? and the DNA replication complex is reciprocal -- that is, each can shut the other down."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Johns Hopkins Medicine, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. M. E. Hubbi, Kshitiz, D. M. Gilkes, S. Rey, C. C. Wong, W. Luo, D.-H. Kim, C. V. Dang, A. Levchenko, G. L. Semenza. A Nontranscriptional Role for HIF-1? as a Direct Inhibitor of DNA Replication. Science Signaling, 2013; 6 (262): ra10 DOI: 10.1126/scisignal.2003417

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

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/XQflXj1NWK4/130223111517.htm

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Strasburg gives up early HR, Mets beat Nats 5-3

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (AP) ? Washington ace Stephen Strasburg gave up a single and home run to the first two batters he faced in his return to the mound, and the New York Mets beat the Nationals 5-3 Saturday in a spring training opener.

Kirk Nieuwenhuis led off the Mets' first inning with a single and Ruben Tejada followed by homering over the left-center field fence on a full count.

Strasburg gave up three hits in two innings. He struck out two and walked none.

Strasburg pitched in a game for the first time since Sept. 7 when the Nationals shut him down for the season, rather than push his innings total.

Mets newcomer Shaun Marcum gave up four hits and three runs in two innings. Top Mets prospect Zack Wheeler pitched two shutout innings.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/strasburg-gives-early-hr-mets-beat-nats-5-204929122--mlb.html

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