FILE - In this Feb. 24, 2013 file photo, actor Josh Hartnett arrives at the 2013 Vanity Fair Oscars Viewing and After Party in West Hollywood, Calif. Showtime announced Tuesday, July 30, 2013, that Josh Hartnett and Eva Green have been cast in the period thriller "Penny Dreadful." Hartnett will play an American who finds danger in Victorian London in the drama, which Showtime described as a psychological thriller. Green, who starred in the James Bond film "Casino Royale," plays a beautiful woman who carries secrets and risk. It begins filming this fall for a scheduled 2014 debut on Showtime. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - In this Feb. 24, 2013 file photo, actor Josh Hartnett arrives at the 2013 Vanity Fair Oscars Viewing and After Party in West Hollywood, Calif. Showtime announced Tuesday, July 30, 2013, that Josh Hartnett and Eva Green have been cast in the period thriller "Penny Dreadful." Hartnett will play an American who finds danger in Victorian London in the drama, which Showtime described as a psychological thriller. Green, who starred in the James Bond film "Casino Royale," plays a beautiful woman who carries secrets and risk. It begins filming this fall for a scheduled 2014 debut on Showtime. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - This May 9, 2012 file photo shows actress Eva Green at a premiere of "Dark Shadows," at a central London cinema. Showtime announced Tuesday, July 30, 2013, that Josh Hartnett and Eva Green have been cast in the period thriller "Penny Dreadful." Hartnett will play an American who finds danger in Victorian London in the drama, which Showtime described as a psychological thriller. Green, who starred in the James Bond film "Casino Royale," plays a beautiful woman who carries secrets and risk. It begins filming this fall for a scheduled 2014 debut on Showtime. (AP Photo/Jonathan Short, File)
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) ? Showtime says Josh Hartnett and Eva Green have been cast in the period psychological thriller "Penny Dreadful."
Showtime's president, David Nevins, described the production as a scary monster story with a different look and style.
He told the Television Critics Association on Tuesday that It's the first genre series for the premium cable channel.
Hartnett will play an American who finds danger in Victorian London. Green, who starred in the James Bond film "Casino Royale," plays a woman who carries secrets and risk.
The eight-episode series was created by John Logan, whose credits include "Gladiator." He and filmmaker Sam Mendes are among its executive producers.
"Penny Dreadful" begins filming this fall for a scheduled 2014 debut on Showtime.
DALLAS (AP) ? A Dallas man says he's shocked to have been swamped with a nearly $67,000 erroneous water bill a few months after a similar computer error.
Tom Hoffman says he's looking forward to getting a new bill after the latest mistake that Dallas officials blame on a bad water meter.
WFAA-TV (http://bit.ly/1e853CN ) reported Monday that Hoffman canceled his auto-payment system earlier this year after getting a water bill for more than $66,000. Hoffman's financial accounts were frozen before the error was fixed.
Now it's happened again.
City of Dallas spokesman Frank Librio says the stuck meter has been replaced and accurate billing will follow.
Librio also apologized for the error and the inconvenience to Hoffman.
PARIS (Reuters) - The chief executives of Publicis and Omnicom said they had spoken to major clients about their planned merger and did not anticipate major problems with big advertisers defecting to rivals in the transition period.
Publicis CEO Maurice Levy said the reaction to the merger from all the company's major clients had been "extremely positive".
Competing sector executives and analysts expect that the Publicis Omnicom merger could spur some big customers to switch agencies to avoid conflicts.
Holding companies such as Omnicom and Publicis own networks of agencies and PR firms within the larger group. They're designed to work independently so that competing clients - Pepsi and Coca-Cola for example - are placed in separate networks to avoid conflict.
"We're going to work extremely hard to resolve any client conflict issues with creative solutions," said John Wren, the Omnicom CEO.
(Reporting by James Regan; Editing by Leila Abboud)
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama --?The Alabama High School Athletic Association recommends its football teams do not exceed 90 minutes per week of full contact, 11-on-11 practices during most of the upcoming season.
Full contact is defined as live game simulations where live action occurs. The AHSAA makes no recommendation regarding full-contact limits during drills involving groups of less than 11-on-11.
The recommended guidelines released today represent the AHSAA's attempt to tackle concussion safety. Football organizations across the country, such as Pop Warner and the Pac-12, are limiting contact in practice to reduce the number of head impacts to players. A recent study found youth football players are not more susceptible to head hits during games if they participate in fewer live hitting drills at practices.
The AHSAA's guidelines are not a mandated policy. AHSAA Executive Director Steve Savarese said in an interview he believes the association will likely adopt these measures as a formal policy in the future.
In a statement to all Alabama superintendents, principals, athletics directors and football coaches, Savarese wrote that teams may continue to dress in full pads for practices but should only participate in live action based on the guidelines.
"It is assumed that when players are in shells (shorts, shoulder pads, helmets) no live action will occur," Savarese wrote. "These guidelines are intended to limit live action and not the number of practices a team may participate in using full pads. A team may participate in 'air,' 'bags,' 'wrap,' and 'thud' drills and simulations at any point."
The AHSAA's recommendations:
* Week 1: Per AHSAA rules, the first two days of fall practice should be in shorts and helmets. Shoulder pads and helmets are allowed on the third practice day for a period that doesn't exceed 90 minutes of total practice time.
The AHSAA recommends that shoulder pads and helmets be used on the fourth practice day for a period of time that doesn't exceed 120 minutes of total practice time. One full contact practice of 11-on-11 not exceeding 90 minutes is recommended for the fifth practice day.
* Week 2: Alternating days of full contact practice that doesn't exceed a combined total of 120 minutes of 11-on-11 full contact per week. One intra-squad scrimmage would be allowed in this week.
* Week 3: Alternating days of full contact practice that doesn't exceed a combined total of 120 minutes of 11-on-11 full contact practice per week. One interscholastic scrimmage would be allowed this week.
* Week 4 through the end of the season: 90 minutes of 11-on-11 full contact practice per week.
* Spring evaluation: Alternating days of full contact practice that doesn't exceed a combined total of 120 minutes of 11-on-11 full contact practice per week. One interscholastic scrimmage would be allowing during the spring evaluation.
In addition to defining full contact, the AHSAA defined other terms for the purposes of its guidelines:
* Live Action: Contact at game speed where players execute full tackles at a competitive pace, taking players to the ground.
* Air: Players should run unopposed without bags or any opposition.
* Bags: Activity is executed against a bag, shield or pad to allow for a soft-contact surface, with or without the resistance of a teammate or coach standing behind the bag.
* Wrap: Drills run at full speed until contact, which is above the waist with the players remaining on their feet.
* Thud: Same as a wrap but the tempo is competitive with no pre-determined winner and the players are not tackling to the ground.
If the AHSAA's guidelines are adopted in the future as a policy, coaches might have to list their times when they stage full-contact practices, Savarese said.
"We have to rely on the integrity of the people monitoring and leading our student-athletes," he said. "We have thousands and thousands of parents who go to practice every day, and I'm sure someone will let us know if someone's not following those guidelines."
PIERMONT, N.Y. (AP) ? A deadly nighttime speedboat crash on the Hudson River hurled a bride-to-be and her fiance's best man into the water and left the groom and three others injured, including a friend charged with vehicular manslaughter on Saturday, just two weeks before the couple was to exchange their vows.
Six friends were on board the boat Friday night when it struck a barge near the Tappan Zee Bridge, sending Lindsey Stewart and Mark Lennon, both 30, into the water and injuring the other four, including groom-to-be Brian Bond, officials said.
A body matching Stewart's description was recovered Saturday while Lennon is presumed dead, Rockland County Sheriff's Department Chief William Barbera said. The search for Lennon's body will resume Sunday.
"The search has been suspended this evening and the tides have a lot to do with that," Barbera said. "We'll start again first thing in the morning."
Authorities charged the boat's operator, Jojo John, 35, of Nyack, with vehicular manslaughter and vehicular assault. He was arraigned from a hospital bed and ordered held on $250,000 bond, Barbera said. John is suspected of operating the boat while intoxicated but authorities are still awaiting the result of blood tests.
Attempts to reach John's family were not immediately successful and it was not clear if he had an attorney.
Earlier Saturday, authorities pulled a woman's body from the water that matched Stewart's description. Officials were working to confirm that the body was Stewart's but it was unclear how long that could take.
Stewart and Lennon were thrown from the boat when it struck a barge carrying materials for the construction of a replacement for the Tappan Zee Bridge, about a half-hour's drive north of New York City.
The boat, a 21-foot Stingray, had left the village of Piermont for a short trip across the river to Tarrytown, authorities said.
Stewart, of Piermont, worked for an insurance company. She and Bond were set to be married Aug. 10, family members said.
Bond, 35, was knocked unconscious in the crash but later woke and was able to call 911, Stewart's mother, Carol Stewart-Kosik, said.
Stewart's stepfather, Walter Kosik, said the couple have known each other since they were young children and used to go to church together.
"They have been friends the whole time, and they fell in love about 3 ? years ago," Kosik said.
They were to be married at the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Pearl River, with a reception at a vineyard in Hillburn, he said.
Barbera declined to identify the other people aboard the boat and had no information on their conditions. He said the barge was equipped with lights, but it was still difficult to see on the water late at night.
The New York State Thruway Authority, which is overseeing the bridge project, said it was reviewing safety procedures.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families during this difficult time," the authority said in a statement. It added that the lighting on the barges appeared to be functioning normally.
Stewart's former English teacher at Pearl River High School, who remained in contact with her through Facebook, called the accident "heartbreaking."
"She was one of my students and a bright, sweet girl loved by everyone," said Doreen Arney. "I knew that she was getting married, and to Brian. To happen to two such special kids ? it just shouldn't happen."
This frame grab image from a July 2, 2013 video courtesy of Hennes Paynter Communications shows freed kidnapped victim Amanda Berry, as she speaks at the law offices of Jones Day in Cleveland, Ohio. Berry made a surprise public appearance at a concert in Cleveland on Saturday.
By The Associated Press
One of three women held captive in a Cleveland home for a decade appeared at a public event for the first time since her rescue, a day after her abductor pleaded guilty in the case.
Amanda Berry made a surprise appearance at the daylong concert RoverFest in Cleveland on Saturday night, walking on stage with her family and waving at the cheering crowd. Wearing sunglasses and dressed in jeans and a black T-shirt, Berry smiled broadly while acknowledging the applause, but she didn't address the crowd. The rapper Nelly called Berry back to the stage after his music set.
The appearance came a day after Ariel Castro, a former school bus driver, pleaded guilty to 937 counts in a deal that will send him to prison for life without parole, plus 1,000 years.
Berry, now 27, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight disappeared between 2002 and 2004 when they were 14, 16 and 20 years old. They escaped in May when Berry kicked out part of a door and called to neighbors for help.
Berry told a police dispatcher in a dramatic 911 call: "Help me. I'm Amanda Berry. I've been kidnapped, and I've been missing for 10 years, and I'm, I'm here, I'm free now."
Castro, 53, who was arrested and jailed shortly afterward, was accused of raping and beating the three repeatedly. He also fathered a 6-year-old daughter with Berry, authorities say.
The women didn't attend the court proceeding but said in a statement that they were relieved by the conviction and looking forward to the end of the legal proceedings.
Berry and the other women said she had accepted a ride from Castro, who had remained friends with DeJesus' family and attended vigils over the years marking her disappearance.
Castro was accused of restraining the women, sometimes chaining them to a pole in a basement, to a bedroom heater or inside a van. The indictment included two counts of aggravated murder related to accusations that he punched and starved one of the women until she miscarried.
Earlier this month, the three women offered thanks on YouTube for emotional and financial backing they've received since going "through hell and back."
Related:
? 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Three loud explosions rocked the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi on Sunday, in what appeared to be attacks on judicial institutions there, a resident and a security source said.
Resident Hassan Bakoush told Reuters by telephone that he heard an explosion at the court in the north of the city: "It was very loud and I saw the smoke."
"Some balconies of nearby buildings are damaged," he added.
A security source said there were two more explosions - one in the vicinity of an office of the justice ministry and the other near a court in the south of the city.
(Reporting by Ghaith Shennib and Feras Bosalum; Writing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; editing by Mike Collett-White)
Hey guys, still looking for players for my new RP here. Hopefully some of you guys will be interested :)
Five best friends are in a car accident and transported to parallel universe where anything can happen - a world from their imaginations. They can be whoever they want to be. But can they get back to reality? Do they even want to go back?
And the site isn't letting me post links because I haven't been here much before. So if you're interested, click on my name, view my profile and click on the roleplay "Parallel". Sorry that I can't post the direct link here ;-;
Pretty much everyone who's ever watched "The Simpsons" knows that they sprung mostly formed out of Matt Groening's head over 20 years ago ? but what they may be less familiar with is the name Sam Simon, who co-created the series. Simon left in 1993 (though he still gets an executive producer credit) to pursue other TV options and philanthropic endeavors, but as he told The Hollywood Reporter (photo from the article Tweeted by Simon below), he's about to step up giving away as much money as he can. Why? He's been diagnosed with terminal colon cancer.
The 58-year-old nine-time Emmy winner, who currently consults on "Anger Management," announced his diagnosis on Marc Maron's "WTF" podcast back in May, saying he had been told he had between three and six months to live. He also added that he would donate nearly all of his "Simpsons" royalties to charity. (He is unmarried and has no children.)
As he told THR, he had no idea money from "The Simpsons" would still be coming in 25 years later. "(It) got bigger and bigger," he said.
Simon was solidly behind many charities even before his diagnosis; he founded the Sam Simon Foundation to assist needy humans and stray dogs; he has a PETA center in Norfolk, Va. named after him; global marine conservation group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society named one of its four vessels after him ? and that's just a start.
But now, he says, "We are going to expand all this stuff (in the Sam Simon Foundation). (It) is going to be very well endowed, and there's a lot of stuff I want them to do."
As for his health, it's a day-by-day situation. He said he's still undergoing chemotherapy treatment, though he gets "every possible side effect ? fatigue, nausea ... so today and tomorrow are like, my two good days for the month. So I'm feeling pretty good today, and, you know, we shall see."
Manatee High School assistant coach Rod Frazier is seen on the sideline during the 2011 State Football Championship in Orlando.
HERALD-TRIBUNE ARCHIVE / 2011 / THOMAS BENDER
Published: Friday, July 26, 2013 at 11:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, July 26, 2013 at 11:50 a.m.
Manatee High assistant football coach Rod Frazier, who was under school district investigation after police charged him with groping several students and staff last week, resigned today.
In a brief letter written to Superintendent Rick Mills and dated today, Frazier resigned effective immediately.
"I feel my resignation is in the best interest of all involved, including the school system and Manatee High," Frazier, 35, wrote.
According to a district press release, Mills has accepted Frazier's resignation.
Frazier's resignation comes a week after the state filed seven counts of battery and three counts of interfering with a student's attendance. On Tuesday, the school district resumed their own investigation, led by newly hired investigator Troy Pumphrey, as to whether Frazier could remain employed by the district.
The assistant football coach and Manatee High liaison has been under scrutiny since Feb. 8, when he was put on paid leave one day after the Herald-Tribune ran a story detailing the school district's quiet inquiry into groping allegations made against him.
That same day, Bradenton Police began an investigation that included more than 50 witnesses, including students, faculty and parents. On April 2, the police recommended to the State Attorney's Office that Frazier be charged with battery.
The police also recommended that four school administrators be charged with failure to report child abuse and lying to police. Those administrators includes former assistant superintendent Bob Gagnon, former school investigator Debra Horne, and Manatee High assistant principals Gregg Faller and Matthew Kane, who has since transferred to Southeast High.
The State Attorney has not yet decided whether to charge them.
The mother of a girl who wrote a letter to Manatee High in January alleging inappropriate behavior by Frazier said Friday she is relieved he stepped down.
?I think that's awesome that he quit,'' she said. ?But the question still remains by him quitting does that mean he still able to get another job at another school district?
?Half the battle is keeping him away from girls.''
Manatee High football coach Joe Kinnan could not immediately be reached for comment.
"I have accepted Mr. Frazier's resignation today in the interest of moving our school district forward," stated Superintendent Rick Mills in a press release. "We have an obligation to our School Board, community and the Florida Department of Education to conclude our internal investigation and we will proceed on that front."
Upon receiving the resignation, the school district has also banned Frazier from stepping on school property.
If the school district determines that Frazier violated codes of conduct that could threaten his coaching certificate, they could make a report to the state Department of Education. The department could opt to conduct its own investigation as to whether Frazier could keep a coaching certificate, which could affect whether he could coach in a school system again.
Reached this morning, Frazier?s attorney Eddie Mulock said that he had advised Frazier that resignation might be in his best interest.
?The resignation letter speaks for itself,? Mulock said. ?He thought it was in the best everybody to eliminate this issue so he can stay focused and defend himself against these false charges.?
Mulock said that what has become a high-profile and much speculated upon case may have made it impossible for Frazier to rejoin a school community, even if he is cleared of charges.
?He?s ruined. He?s finished,? Mulock said. ?No matter what happens in the trial because of how you all have made him out to be.?
Staff writer Chris Anderson contributed to this report.
MILWAUKEE ? A chain of convenience stores is cutting ties with Milwaukee Brewers slugger Ryan Braun in the wake of his season-ending suspension.Gary Gonczy, director of marketing and advertising for Kwik Trip, Inc., says the company will no longer use Braun as a spokesman. He says in an email Tuesday that the company is ending a promotional contest where the winner got to have lunch with Braun at a Milwaukee restaurant.Braun accepted a season-ending 65-game suspension Monday rather than fight Major League Baseball over evidence he used performance-enhancing drugs.
A little more than a month ago, I started this column by expressing empathy for Ryan Braun owners blindsided by the news that Major League Baseball would be seeking lengthy suspensions for those involved with the growing Biogenesis steroid scandal
As an organization, the Brewers bear no responsibility for the actions of Ryan Braun. But by everything Braun did and did not do to cause baseball's first suspension of a most valuable player, Braun has left the Brewers with an incredibly awkward and major public-relations problem on their hands.
A rig blowout in the Gulf of Mexico caught fire and continued to burn Wednesday. No injuries have been reported, and officials stress the rig blowout wouldn't be close to as damaging as the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
By Kevin McGill,?Associated Press / July 24, 2013
Natural gas spews from the Hercules 265 drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana, Tuesday. No injuries were reported in the rig blowout and there was no fire as of Tuesday evening at the site, about 55 miles off the Louisiana coast in the Gulf of Mexico.
US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement/AP
Enlarge
An out-of-control natural gas well off the Louisiana coast continued to burn Wednesday after it caught fire following a blowout that prompted the evacuation of 44 workers, authorities said.
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Meanwhile, officials stressed that Tuesday's blowout wouldn't be close to as damaging as the 2010 BP oil spill, in which an oilrig, the Deepwater Horizon, exploded off the Louisiana coast, killing 11 workers and eventually spewing millions of gallons of oil into the?Gulf?of Mexico.
No injuries were reported as a result of Tuesday night's fire, Eileen Angelico, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, told The Associated Press.
She said it wasn't known what caused the gas to ignite. It also wasn't clear early Wednesday how and when crews would attempt to extinguish the blaze. BSEE said earlier Tuesday that a firefighting vessel with water and foam capabilities had been dispatched to the scene.
Wild Well Control Inc. was hired to try to bring the well under control. Angelico said Wild Well personnel approached the well earlier Tuesday night, before the fire, but they determined it was unsafe to get closer when they were about 200 feet (60 meters) away from it.
The gas blowout was reported Tuesday morning.
The Coast Guard kept nautical traffic out of an area within 500 meters (500 yards) of the site throughout the day. The Federal Aviation Administration restricted aircraft up to 2,000 feet (600 meters) above the area.
BSEE said inspectors flying over the site soon after the blowout saw a light sheen covering an area about a half-mile by 50 feet (15 meters). However, it was dissipating quickly.
Earlier this month, a gas well off the Louisiana coast flowed for several days before being sealed.
Chris Roberts, a member of the Jefferson Parish Council in south Louisiana, said the travel restrictions might pose an inconvenience for participants in an upcoming deep sea fishing tournament.
"It could change some plans as to where some people plan to fish," he said.
Tuesday's blowout occurred near an unmanned offshore gas platform that was not currently producing natural gas, said Angelico. The workers were aboard a portable drilling?rigknown as a jackup?rig, owned by Hercules Offshore Inc., which was a contractor for exploration and production company Walter Oil & Gas Corp.
Walter Oil & Gas reported to the BSEE that the?rig?was completing a "sidetrack well" ? a means of re-entering the original well bore, Angelico said.
The purpose of the sidetrack well in this instance was not immediately clear. A spokesman for the corporation did not have the information Tuesday night. Industry websites say sidetrack wells are sometimes drilled to remedy a problem with the existing well bore.
"It's a way to overcome an engineering problem with the original well," Ken Medlock, an energy expert at Rice University's Baker Institute said. "They're not drilled all the time, but it's not new."
___
Associated Press writer Ramit Plushnick-Masti in Houston contributed to this story.
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If you think a red version of the rumored Droid Ultra just wouldn't be special enough, you're in luck. Frequent Motorola device leaker Houdabao claims to have photos of a Limited Edition model that would include a wrap-around racing stripe, much like a decked out muscle car. Unfortunately, there isn't much more to share. While Houdabao echoes talk of the Droid Ultra sporting a 5-inch LCD and a 6mm thick body, he doesn't outline the Limited Edition's full feature set. There's also no mention of its intended audience -- it may be only for Verizon staff, like the red Droid RAZR. Should the special-run Droid Ultra reach the public, though, there's a chance we'll learn more about it tomorrow. Check out a second photo of the Limited Edition after the break.
With a rail car behind him, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock delivers his State of the City address at the Forney Museum of Transportation on July 15. (Cyrus McCrimmon,The Denver Post)
Re: ?Denver Mayor Michael Hancock goes global in state of the city address,? July 16 news story.
It is exciting that Denver Mayor Michael Hancock highlighted the need for affordable housing during his state of the city address last Monday. While some Denver residents are doing well, other face more difficult times. According to the most recent census data, 10 percent of families living in Denver earn less than $15,000 a year and half of the residents living in Denver are renters.
Denver?s Inclusionary Housing Ordinance is a great start in the endeavor to provide affordable housing. Without it, many families would not be able to purchase homes. But Denver residents need more. Working families need an ordinance that goes further and includes both affordable rental and for-sale units.
We?re so fortunate to have a mayor who has ?the audacity to believe that anyone who wants to live in the city should not be forced out because of costs.? Hopefully we?ll see the comprehensive policies that will make that belief a reality.
Amanda Gonzalez, Denver
The writer is a policy analyst and staff attorney for FRESC: Good Jobs, Strong Communities.
This letter was published in the July 22 edition.
According to Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, it is up to businesses, banks and non-profits to solve the problem of less affordable housing projects by building more affordable housing projects. Really? How about Hancock?s office partnering with these entities to educate low-income citizens on how to open their own businesses, to teach basic business principles of hiring, creating jobs and making a profit so people can then afford to live where they want?
Citizens of Denver not only want to see fewer low-income housing projects, but most do not want to live in or near them. Why do we continue to hear from government officials that the solution to these kinds of ?low-income problems? is more ?low-income solutions?? When will we elect men and women who tout civic answers that are grounded in individual initiative and business acumen instead of LBJ?s old, tired ?War on Poverty??
Daniel M. Byram, Golden
This letter was published in the July 22 edition.
For information on how to send a letter to the editor, click here. Follow eLetters on Twitter to receive updates about new letters to the editor when they?re posted.
For three days now, anyone trying to access Apple's members-only developer page has been greeted with the following message:?
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And on Sunday, the company finally explained why: Their developer site was the target of a hack that may have compromised the security of some development site users' names, email addresses, and mailing addresses. And while the company says that any sensitive information taken is safely encrypted, some developers with accounts at the site have reported unauthorized, and repeated, password reset requests. Here's Apple's full message on the security breach:?
We?ll be back soon.
Last Thursday, an intruder attempted to secure personal information of our registered developers from our developer website. Sensitive personal information was encrypted and cannot be accessed, however, we have not been able to rule out the possibility that some developers? names, mailing addresses, and/or email addresses may have been accessed. In the spirit of transparency, we want to inform you of the issue. We took the site down immediately on Thursday and have been working around the clock since then.
In order to prevent a security threat like this from happening again, we?re completely overhauling our developer systems, updating our server software, and rebuilding our entire database. We apologize for the significant inconvenience that our downtime has caused you and we expect to have the developer website up again soon.
If your program membership was set to expire during this period, it has been extended and your app will remain on the App Store. If you have any other concerns about your account, please?contact us.
Thank you for your patience.
The extended site outage comes at a bad time for many developers, who, among other things, can't access a beta version of iOS 7 (or, for that matter, discuss their work related to it on the developer forums). Users are also shut out from downloads, help guides, membership renewal, and the ability to update expired certificates. ?And while that's bad enough, many developers now are wondering why the company took so long to notify them of the security breach. The company, for its part, is emphasizing that no customer data, including credit cards, were compromised, and said that they waited to alert developers about the hack so that they could look into what, exactly, was compromised first. So far, as TechCrunch reports, there haven't been any reports of developer accounts being used maliciously, which is one of the few bits of good news here for developers who use the site for their jobs. On the other hand, there's no word on when the company expects to have the site back online.?
Atoms For Peace aren?t the only ones taking a stance against Spotify. In fact, thousands of angry British musicians are aligning themselves with Thom Yorke and Nigel Godrich. More from the Guardian UK:
The Musicians? Union, which has more than 30,000 members throughout the industry, said it was pushing for a collective pay agreement modelled on the royalties paid by BBC and commercial radio stations. Spotify pays artists as little as 0.4p per stream, which means that a song that had a million plays would earn its performer just ?4,000.
By contrast a three-minute song played on Radio 2 generates ?59.73 for the songwriters and another similar sum to be split between the label and the performing artists. This 50/50 split is being advocated by the union, although the remuneration itself would be significantly more modest.
AURORA, Colo. (AP) ? Survivors of mass shootings in Colorado and Connecticut were among those gathered Friday in a suburban Denver park to honor those killed in the massacre at an Aurora movie theater a year after the attack.
Vigil participants read a list of names of those killed in recent gun violence around the nation and talked about the pain of losing loved ones as they called for strict federal gun control laws.
"Why wait any longer?" asked Carlee Soto, whose sister was killed at the elementary school rampage in Newtown, Conn. "The time for change is now."
The scene was somber, even as gun rights activists stood silently nearby at a counterrally holding signs to rebut the appeals for firearms restrictions.
"We want the families of the victims to know that we are sorry for their loss," said Alicia Perez, a Colorado organizer with Gun Rights Across America.
Perez went on to say that gun rights supporters simply felt compelled to oppose calls for new gun laws, which they see as an infringement on Second Amendment rights.
Mayors Against Illegal Guns, founded by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, was a sponsor of Friday's tribute rally. Perez's group criticized the association, saying its members were using tragedy for political gain.
Shortly before the survivors' vigil, a gun rights activist at the counterrally tried to move into position behind the lectern with a signs that read "No More Names." Rob Blancken also had a sign that said, "Tell billionaire Mayor Bloomberg to stay the hell out of Colorado." He was eventually instructed to move by an armed state parks ranger.
The victims' advocates, meanwhile, kept up their calls for tighter restrictions on gun sales and for universal background checks.
"I think that Coloradans get it, that something must change," said Tom Sullivan, whose son Alex was killed in the theater.
Colorado has been the only state outside the East Coast to ratchet back gun rights in reaction to mass shootings, and a federal push for new restrictions failed in Congress.
Stephen Barton, who was wounded in the Aurora shooting, said, "You shouldn't wait until it affects you to start caring about it."
"I never thought I would ever be affected by gun violence personally," he added.
Mayors Against Illegal Guns said participants will read the names of about 2,500 people who have been killed by gunfire since Dec. 14, when a gunman killed 20 first-graders and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
The Aurora rally came almost a year to the day after 12 people were killed and 70 others were wounded, some paralyzed, in a July 20, 2012, attack at a midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises."
The victims' names will be read until 12:38 a.m. Saturday, the moment that the shootings began in the theater last year.
Remembrance events planned continued Saturday included an early morning memorial service and a host of volunteer civic works, music, arts and even meditation. Aurora officials say they wanted to promote healing one year to the day after a gunman plunged the Denver suburb into anguish.
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Associated Press writer Thomas Peipert contributed to this report.
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Follow Dan Elliott at http://twitter.com/DanElliottAP
The way radio signals from GPS satellites bounce around during storms can now help scientists deduce wind speeds in hurricanes, insights that could help better predict the severity of the storms and where they might be headed.
Orbiting thousands of miles above Earth, global positioning satellite (GPS) networks constantly beam radio signals at the ground that reveal both where each satellite is and when the message was sent. These satellites thus serve as points that GPS receivers can refer to in order to calculate their own position.
Radio waves can bounce off surfaces much like how visible light reflects off mirrors. Approximately 60 percent of the radio signals from GPS satellites reflect off bodies of water such as the ocean and back at the sky. However, unlike mirrors, the surface of the ocean is rarely calm and flat ? wind blowing over bodies of water generates waves.
"Imagine you blow on a hot bowl of soup," said researcher Stephen Katzberg, a research engineer at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. "The harder you blow, the bigger the waves are in the bowl."?
When GPS signals ricochet off a wave, the rough surface of the water distorts the reflection by scattering the signals in a variety of directions. By analyzing this distortion, Katzberg and his fellow researchers can reason how rough the water is and thus how strong the wind is blowing.
"The GPS system for navigation contains all the elements of remote sensing. You just need to look at it the right way," Katzberg told LiveScience.
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Currently, scientists measure hurricane wind speeds by dropping a tube packed with scientific instruments into storms. These packages, called dropsondes, are strapped to small parachutes, jettisoned from airplanes and gather data as they fall. Each device measures pressure, humidity and temperature in addition to wind speed.
The storm-hunting airplanes of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), nicknamed Hurricane Hunters, typically drop about 20 single-use dropsondes, each costing about $750, into each storm. The new GPS-based method of measuring wind speed could provide a far more extensive view of a storm's wind speeds for a much lower cost. [In Images: NASA's Hurricane Hunters]
The GPS-based system involves GPS receiver chips located in aircraft. A computer compares radio waves coming directly from satellites above with reflected signals from the sea below and calculates an approximate wind speed with accuracy that's within 11 mph (18 km/h). For comparison, the wind speed of a midrange, Category 3 hurricane is about 123 mph (200 km/h).
Since the dropsondes are expensive, they are released in a spread-out pattern, and meteorologists need to use some guesswork to fill in the gaps. In comparison, the GPS-based method can constantly gather data about the wind below.
"You were already going to have these GPS systems onboard, so why not get additional information about the environment around you," Katzberg said.
Complementary systems
The GPS-based technique does have drawbacks, Katzberg cautioned. For instance, dropsondes currently provide wind speed measurements that are 10 times more precise than those from GPS. In addition, since the GPS-based method requires large bodies of water to work, it cannot be used over land. Moreover, in cases where the ocean's surface is choppy without any wind, such as the eye of a stormhurricane, Katzberg said other tools are needed to get an accurate wind speed measurement.
"The GPS technique, while useful as it has been shown to be, has practical limits as well," Katzberg said.
The ultimate goal of this GPS-based method is not to replace dropsondes, but to add a much broader view of wind speeds to the data the dropsondes provide. As GPS satellites improve, "wind speed detection by GPS can ultimately approach dropsonde accuracy, but the two measure mostly different things," Katzberg said.
The new system is currently getting tested during flights on Hurricane Hunters. It may also be implemented on satellites in the future, Katzberg said ?? in 2016, NASA plans to launch a system of small satellites called the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) to measure reflected GPS satellite signals from low orbit to monitor storm wind speeds from space.
Radio waves from other kinds of satellites might help too, Katzberg said, including reflections of powerful satellite broadcasts from DirecTV and Sirius XM Radio.
"Those signals are extremely powerful and easy to detect," Katzberg said. "These satellites cost hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars, but our system only costs a few hundred. We're taking advantage of the expensive infrastructure that's already there."
Katzberg and his colleagues Jason Dunion and George Ganoe detailed their findings online June 1 in the journal Radio Science.
Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
No matter your stance or beliefs on the causes of global warming, there is clear scientific evidence the planet is getting hotter. And even if you?re a holdout (which at this point just seems stubborn and silly) and insist that global warming is a myth, you?re not going to want to fire up your oven or stove this week. The heat index in New York City will reach 110? Fahrenheit today. If that?s not enough evidence of planetary temperature uptick, then, well, God help you.
The plus side to this kind of heat is the effect it has on my mid-summer garden. The tomatoes love it. They have started to ripen quickly from the excess sun and are ready to be devoured along with the peaches that hang heavy on the tree. If tomato-peach is a combination that raises your eyebrows, then just remember the old mantra: If it grows together, it goes together.
When the fruits of the garden are at their peak, there?s no need to manipulate them too much. A perfectly ripe tomato or peach is a feat no chef can improve upon. Cold summer soups are one of the greatest culinary tricks for ?cooking? such perfect produce. They are the simplest meal to make, requiring only a blender, and pop with unexpected flavor. Have fun whizzing up your own concoctions like cucumber and zucchini or radish and buttermilk, or this little number I like to call Greenspacho.
Or brave the heat and get to your garden or farmers market to pick (or pick up) some tomatoes and peaches. The sweet of the peach and the tang of the tomato are a perfect balancing act and are not only delicious, but also keep you away from the stove.
Stay cool.
Tomato-Peach Gazpacho
Serves 6 as a first course
2 pounds ripe tomatoes, chopped
1 1/2 pounds ripe peaches, pitted and chopped
1/2 cup chopped white onion, finely chopped
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
Fine sea salt freshly ground black pepper
Tiny basil leaves for garnish
Toss 1/2 cup of the tomato and 1/2 cup of the peach in a bowl with 2 tablespoons of the onion, 1 tablespoon of the oil, and 1/4 teaspoon salt.
Puree the remaining tomato, peach, in a blender with the cumin, the remaining 2 tablespoons oil, 1 1/4 teaspoons salt, and 3/4 teaspoon pepper until it is very smooth, then chill the soup until it?s cold.
Serve the soup with the chopped tomato mixture and tiny basil leaves.
Apple was quick to invite developers to the iWork for iCloud beta in the aftermath of WWDC, but us commoners have had to settle for watching from afar. The company is quickly opening things up, however -- it just started sending out beta invitations to ordinary iCloud users, including some Engadget readers. While this isn't likely to represent Apple's promised public beta, it's clear that we're now much closer to the day when everyone can give the web-based iWork a try.
Former South Africa player Dave Staniforth has been appointed as goalkeeping coach and strategic analyst of the Indian senior and junior men's teams, Hockey India announced on Thursday.
The 37-year-old Staniforth, who represented his country in 65 internationals, has worked as goalkeeping coach with the South African national side for three years.
Staniforth was also goalkeeping coach and video analyst of Ranchi Rhinos, the inaugural champions of the Hockey India League (HIL).
Hockey India Secretary General Narinder Batra said Staniforth's appointment will benefit all the goalkeepers in the core probables immensely.
"Hockey as a sport is about precise strategy and execution, so I believe that Dave's appointment will be significant ahead of the major events including FIH Hockey Junior Men World Cup 2013 and FIH Hockey Senior Men World Cup 2014," Batra said in a release.
Staniforth exuded confidence of preparing Indian goal keepers well for the tough assignments ahead.
"I am very happy with my new role with the Indian men teams and really look forward to preparing the goalkeepers for the busy hockey schedule ahead. Having spent a lot of time following the Indian team during the last two years, I have a good understanding of the goalkeepers' strengths and weaknesses," he said.
"I think that having a quality goalkeeper backing up an attacking hockey style is crucial to any teams success and I will be doing my best to make sure that the Indian men teams have this luxury," added Staniforth.
Staniforth represented South Africa in the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, 10th FIH Hockey World Cup in Kuala Lumpur in 2002 and 8th All Africa Games in Nigeria 2003.
ZHENGZHOU, China: The hottest nightclub in this factory town is a neon-encrusted dive down the road from the industrial park where iPhones are made 24 hours a day. Tucked behind an open construction site, Through the Summer, as the nightspot is known, had it all on a recent Saturday night - plastic whistles, fruit plates, a toddler with a mohawk, counterfeit light sabres, unconscious factory workers and a bawdy comedian who imbibed beer through his nose.
Liang Yulong, 19, who tests iPhone motherboards at the Foxconn Zhengzhou Technology Park, arrived at the club with a single goal in mind: to obliterate his dreary daytime reality on the spring-loaded dance floor. "Dancing lets me vent my anger and stress," he said, cigarette in hand. "When I'm here, I forget everything else."
Workers live in rows of brick dormitories that house up to eight workers in rooms filled with metal bunk beds, a combination shower-toilet, and not much else.?
The nocturnal menagerie, illuminated by powerful strobe lights, reveals a little-explored aspect of the global supply chain, the off-hour escapes that give the masses of workers the motivation to return to the assembly line.
The hands that make the world's electronics belong almost entirely to young people with dreams of their own, and a lifetime of contented industrial drudgery is not among them. Their precious time off is a rare chance to enjoy the present as they strive for a better future.
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"Everyone gets psyched for the weekend," said Bai Sihai, 24, as he navigated open potholes on the way back to his dorm after work one afternoon. His plan? A video-game binge session at an internet cafe followed by a long-distance phone call to his girlfriend.
The captains of industry are beginning to see the merits of off-hours leisure. In recent years, a wave of riots and suicides at China's massive factories have highlighted the abuses that workers often endure. This spring, three employees jumped to their deaths at plants owned by Foxconn, the Taiwan-based manufacturing giant that produces electronics for Apple, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and other companies. In May, a worker committed suicide at a Samsung plant in the southern province of Guangdong, where labour organisations had documented a string of violations like forced overtime and underage workers.
The industry has responded with carrots and sticks to save both the lives of their workers and their own corporate reputations. Under pressure, Foxconn has raised wages and cut overtime hours. At the Shanghai plant run by Quanta, which makes hardware for companies including Apple, Toshiba and Asus, workers can pay for yoga and taekwondo classes.
After the latest suicides at the Zhengzhou plant, the company instituted "silent mode", which banned all talk about non-work tasks on the factory floor. Although Foxconn later announced it had rescinded the policy after a public outcry, workers say it remains in effect.
In the high-tech Olympus of Silicon Valley, employees in ergonomically luxuriant offices can get subsidised massages and haircuts, scale rock-climbing walls, play foosball, meditate and do Pilates - all in the name of promoting creative innovation.
The work environment is considerably more bare-bones here. Unlike Apple's modernistic new campus in Cupertino, California, which will be surrounded by apricot trees, the Zhengzhou factory has all the charm of a penal colony. Employees, who must wear matching uniforms, say supervisors routinely curse and yell. In the residential compounds, rows of brick dormitories house up to eight workers in rooms filled with metal bunk beds, a combination shower-toilet, and not much else.
Perhaps that is why the world beyond the factory gates resembles a gigantic street fair. As dusk fell one night recently in Zhengzhou, Mandarin pop music blared from hair salons and couples strolled past stalls selling pirated DVDs, sliced watermelon and roses covered in silver glitter. A flatbed truck piled high with oversize stuffed animals drew a mob of young women like sharks to blood. "I want the green teddy bear," cooed a teenage girl to her boyfriend, who dutifully handed over 10 renminbi, or $1.80.
Down the block, a construction site played host to a parade of distractions, including a tattoo parlour set up in the back of a van; those arcade games with the metal claw that featured a pack of cigarettes as the big prize; and a beer garden of sorts, where hordes of young factory workers chugged watery beer and chain-smoked over plates of sliced pig knuckles.
At some point, a troupe of dolled-up singers was supposed to take the nearby stage, though Luo Haojie, 20, and his friends were finding ample amusement in their shot glasses. In May, Luo quit his factory job making iPhone 5 parts, which earned him about $300 a month, including overtime. "Our supervisors are vicious," and the cafeteria food is terrible, he said, to a round of applause from his drinking buddies.
Eventually he will need to find another job, but for now he is content to bask in the joys of youth, which means meeting girls and getting drunk with his former co-workers. "I'm here for my bros," he said. "Without them I'd be miserable."
Summer is the low season in China's factory towns, so many workers get a day off on weekends, sometimes even two. There are numerous colourful characters on hand to keep them entertained. One evening, a band of itinerant performers dressed like Buddhist monks had set up shop across from a KFC-inspired eatery confusingly named Donut. Garbed in silken yellow robes, the "celebrity acrobatic snake-training talent team" worked the crowd of bored onlookers by whipping balloons and hawking blessed ornaments for rearview-mirrors. A monk with an earring blew fireballs.
"The circus that came around a few months ago was better," said Li Yu, 19. "They had real lions and tigers."
Those looking for more athletic diversions can usually be found at the local roller rink.
In the glow of swirling rainbow lights one Saturday, Zhou Pengzheng, 20, another iPhone 5 motherboard tester, narrowly avoided several neophytes as he spun to a halt on a pair of $160 in-line skates, which cost him roughly a third of his monthly salary. "It feels like I'm flying," he said, before zooming once more into the throng of careening limbs.
In-line and roller skating has developed something of a cult following among the Foxconn strivers. A half-dozen teams with names like Rainbow, F-2 and Shadow gather for weekly group skating sessions across the city.
Fang Xuema, 17, learned to skate not long after coming to work at Foxconn last spring and soon joined team Shadow, which has around 100 members. The rink has since become her second home. A high school dropout, she quit the factory in May, because her age prohibited her from working lucrative overtime hours. "I used to come to the rink twice a week, but now I'm here every night," said Fang, in a black miniskirt and matching nail polish.
At 11 pm, the street performers had vanished and the love hotels were getting busy. After a long day of making iPhones, Wang Puyan, 20, and his girlfriend were heading towards a rented studio apartment off-campus, since factory dormitories are separated by gender.
A romantic adventure was not in the cards, however. "We see each other every day," he said. "Why would we go on a date?"
