The Acer Iconia A500, which will start at $579 for the entry-level 16GB Wi-Fi model, has a 10.1in capacitive touchscreen and runs the latest Google Android 3.0 'Honeycomb' operating system specifically designed for larger screened tablet devices.
Described by Acer as offering a "superb mobile and home entertainment experience", the Iconia A500 supports HD video playback, and has an HDMI-out port meaning it can be plugged directly into a high-definition television. It also has a USB port for storing and transferring files, and is the only mainstream Android tablet aside from the Motorola Xoom to offer this feature.
The Acer Iconia A500 is a little on the chunky side, and is heavier than the iPad 2, but potential buyers may be happy sacrificing a little size and weight for some extra features — at least that's what Acer will hope.
Like the iPad 2, the Acer Iconia A500 will come in Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G variants, and has two cameras — a front-facing camera for video calls and a rear camera for recording HD video and capturing still photographs. It is powered by a 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor — the same used in the Galaxy Tab 10.1v — and 1GB RAM. Acer offers 16GB and 32GB storage options, and both sizes come with expandable memory via a microSD card slot.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
HTC Pyramid 4G Android 2.4 Specs and Photos Leaked
March 22, 2011 – /3anime Tech News/ – T-Mobile is scheduled to unveil the the HTC Pyramid soon but somehow like every other gadget secret in recent times, specs of the device has been leaked out on the web.
The HTC Pyramid 4G is said to run on Google’s Android 2.4 (yes 2.4!) with a 480 x 800 display and will be powered by a dual-core 1.2 GHz processor, 768MB worth of RAM, 8MP rear cam, VGA front cam, HSPA+ (14.4 Mbps), DLNA and will HTC Sense 3.0.
Update: We’ve added an additional leaked photo. This time, the front portion of the HTC Pyramid is shown on top. The leaked front facing photo of the HTC Pyramid has fired rumors that it will have a 960×540 screen. See GMSArena’s take on why these rumors could be true.
Read more: http://3anime.com/htc-pyramid-4g-android-2-4-specs-and-photos-leaked/3254
The HTC Pyramid 4G is said to run on Google’s Android 2.4 (yes 2.4!) with a 480 x 800 display and will be powered by a dual-core 1.2 GHz processor, 768MB worth of RAM, 8MP rear cam, VGA front cam, HSPA+ (14.4 Mbps), DLNA and will HTC Sense 3.0.
Update: We’ve added an additional leaked photo. This time, the front portion of the HTC Pyramid is shown on top. The leaked front facing photo of the HTC Pyramid has fired rumors that it will have a 960×540 screen. See GMSArena’s take on why these rumors could be true.
Read more: http://3anime.com/htc-pyramid-4g-android-2-4-specs-and-photos-leaked/3254
Do Not Anger the Alpha Android
Playtime is over in Android Land. Over the last couple of months Google (GOOG) has reached out to the major carriers and device makers backing its mobile operating system with a message: There will be no more willy-nilly tweaks to the software. No more partnerships formed outside of Google's purview. From now on, companies hoping to receive early access to Google's most up-to-date software will need approval of their plans. And they will seek that approval from Andy Rubin, the head of Google's Android group.
This is the new reality described by about a dozen executives working at key companies in the Android ecosystem. Some of those affected include LG, Toshiba, Samsung, and even Facebook, which has been trying to develop an Android device. There have been enough run-ins to trigger complaints with the Justice Dept., according to a person familiar with the matter. The Google that once welcomed all comers to help get its mobile software off the ground has become far more discriminating—especially for companies that want to include Google services such as search and maps on their hardware. Google also gives chip and device makers that abide by its rules a head start in bringing Android products to market, according to the executives.
When Android hit the scene in 2008, Google had a tantalizing pitch: Android was "open source." That is, Google would do the hard work of developing the code, and hardware and software makers were free to use the system at no charge. Carriers and device makers relished the idea of not paying royalties. Android became the people's mobile software, a free zone that contrasted with the closed worlds of the iPhone (AAPL) and BlackBerry (RIMM). HTC, Motorola (MMI), and Acer could avoid spending billions developing their own operating systems and customize Android with unique services. Carriers got a raft of slick new devices to sell. Consumers enjoyed more choice. And Google's search-advertising business could tap the vast mobile phone market.
Android's share of the smartphone market surged from 9 percent in 2009 to an industry-leading 31 percent worldwide. "I don't think we've seen anything like Android in terms of gaining share," says Bill Gurley, general partner at the venture capital firm Benchmark Capital.
Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_15/b4223041200216.htm
This is the new reality described by about a dozen executives working at key companies in the Android ecosystem. Some of those affected include LG, Toshiba, Samsung, and even Facebook, which has been trying to develop an Android device. There have been enough run-ins to trigger complaints with the Justice Dept., according to a person familiar with the matter. The Google that once welcomed all comers to help get its mobile software off the ground has become far more discriminating—especially for companies that want to include Google services such as search and maps on their hardware. Google also gives chip and device makers that abide by its rules a head start in bringing Android products to market, according to the executives.
When Android hit the scene in 2008, Google had a tantalizing pitch: Android was "open source." That is, Google would do the hard work of developing the code, and hardware and software makers were free to use the system at no charge. Carriers and device makers relished the idea of not paying royalties. Android became the people's mobile software, a free zone that contrasted with the closed worlds of the iPhone (AAPL) and BlackBerry (RIMM). HTC, Motorola (MMI), and Acer could avoid spending billions developing their own operating systems and customize Android with unique services. Carriers got a raft of slick new devices to sell. Consumers enjoyed more choice. And Google's search-advertising business could tap the vast mobile phone market.
Android's share of the smartphone market surged from 9 percent in 2009 to an industry-leading 31 percent worldwide. "I don't think we've seen anything like Android in terms of gaining share," says Bill Gurley, general partner at the venture capital firm Benchmark Capital.
Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_15/b4223041200216.htm
Windows Phone 7 Updates Progress, Slowly
AT&T customers who purchased a Windows Phone 7 smartphone: expect your long-awaited software updates to arrive in April. Maybe.
According to Microsoft’s handy chart of Windows Phone 7 updates, three AT&T smartphones—the HTC surround, LG Quantum and Samsung Focus—have entered a “Testing” phase for both their February and March updates, with completion estimated for early April. After that, the devices will enter the “Scheduling” phase, which, according to Microsoft, “typically lasts 10 business days or less.”
After that, the updates will be delivered to the smartphones—a process the company admits “might take several weeks.” But in theory, if everything proceeds rapidly, those devices could see their new software tweaks delivered before May.
Read more: http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Windows-Phone-7-Updates-Progress-Slowly-201426/
According to Microsoft’s handy chart of Windows Phone 7 updates, three AT&T smartphones—the HTC surround, LG Quantum and Samsung Focus—have entered a “Testing” phase for both their February and March updates, with completion estimated for early April. After that, the devices will enter the “Scheduling” phase, which, according to Microsoft, “typically lasts 10 business days or less.”
After that, the updates will be delivered to the smartphones—a process the company admits “might take several weeks.” But in theory, if everything proceeds rapidly, those devices could see their new software tweaks delivered before May.
Read more: http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Windows-Phone-7-Updates-Progress-Slowly-201426/
Apple running out of remaining stock of discounted original iPads
The Apple Online Store no longer offers the Wi-Fi only version of the original iPad in its clearance section and has run out of the first-generation 16GB Wi-Fi iPad in the refurbished section, as noted by MacNN.
All three of last year's 3G iPad models remain on sale in the clearance section, priced at $529, $629 and $729 for the 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models respectively. The refurbished versions of the 32GB and 64GB Wi-Fi iPads sell for $429 and $529, while refurbished iPad 3Gs sell for $479, $559 and $659.
Shortly after unveiling the iPad 2, Apple began offering remaining stock of the original iPad for a discount. Unopened models of the iPad are on sale for a $100 discount, while refurbished models sell for as much as $170 off the original price.
Read more: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/03/31/apple_running_out_of_remaining_stock_of_discounted_original_ipads.html
All three of last year's 3G iPad models remain on sale in the clearance section, priced at $529, $629 and $729 for the 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models respectively. The refurbished versions of the 32GB and 64GB Wi-Fi iPads sell for $429 and $529, while refurbished iPad 3Gs sell for $479, $559 and $659.
Shortly after unveiling the iPad 2, Apple began offering remaining stock of the original iPad for a discount. Unopened models of the iPad are on sale for a $100 discount, while refurbished models sell for as much as $170 off the original price.
Read more: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/03/31/apple_running_out_of_remaining_stock_of_discounted_original_ipads.html
Antitrust Cry From Microsoft
The wheel of technology history turns remarkably fast. Microsoft, whose domination of the technology industry provoked a landmark federal antitrust case, is crying foul against Google and urging European Union antitrust officials to go after the search giant.
Microsoft plans to file a formal antitrust complaint on Thursday in Brussels against Google, its first against another company. Microsoft hopes that the action may prod officials in Europe to take action and that the evidence gathered may also lead officials in the United States to do the same.
In Europe, Microsoft is joining a chorus of complaints, but until now they have come mainly from small Internet companies saying that Google’s search engine unfairly promotes its own products, like Google Product Search, a price comparison site, over rival offerings.
The Internet and smartphones are the markets where energy, investment and soaring stock prices reside. Microsoft, still immensely wealthy, is pouring billions into these fast-growing fields, especially Internet search. Yet the champion of the PC era trails well behind Google.
“The company that was the 800-pound gorilla is now resorting to antitrust, where it is always the case that the also-rans sue the winners,” said Michael A. Cusumano, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management who has studied Microsoft.
The Microsoft complaint, Professor Cusumano notes, is also a reminder of the comparative speed with which fortunes can shift in fast-moving technology markets. “It doesn’t happen instantly, but it does happen faster than in most industries,” Professor Cusumano said. “It took Google about a decade to really turn the tables on Microsoft.”
For years, the swaggering giant of personal computer software battled competitors and antitrust regulators in America and abroad, parrying their claims that it had bullied rivals and abused its market muscle. In the United States, it suffered rulings against it and in 2001 reached a settlement that prohibited Microsoft from certain strong-arm tactics. In Europe, Microsoft absorbed setbacks and record fines from regulators and judges.
Still, irony has no place in antitrust doctrine. Microsoft’s complaint must be weighed on the merits, as part of a wide-ranging antitrust investigation of Google, begun last year and led by Europe’s competition commissioner, Joaquín Almunia.
The litany of particulars in Microsoft’s complaint, the company’s lawyers say, includes claims of anticompetitive practices by Google in search, online advertising and smartphone software. But a central theme, Microsoft says, is that Google unfairly hinders the ability of search competitors — and Microsoft’s Bing is almost the only one left — from examining and indexing information that Google controls, like its big video service YouTube.
Such restraints, Microsoft contends, undermine competition — and thus pose a threat to consumer choice and better prices for online advertisers.
When told of the Microsoft claims, Adam Kovacevich, a Google spokesman, denied that the company had done anything wrong and said its practices did not deny Microsoft access to Google technology and content.
Though it is making an antitrust claim, Microsoft is also claiming a bit of hypocrisy on Google’s part. In an interview, Bradford L. Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel, cited Google’s stated mission to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”
“That is a laudable goal,” Mr. Smith said. “But it appears Google’s practice is to prevent others from doing the same thing. That is unlawful and it raises serious antitrust issues.”
Google’s strategy, he adds, seems to be to “wall off content so that it cannot be crawled and searched by competing companies.”
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/31/technology/companies/31google.html?src=busln
Microsoft plans to file a formal antitrust complaint on Thursday in Brussels against Google, its first against another company. Microsoft hopes that the action may prod officials in Europe to take action and that the evidence gathered may also lead officials in the United States to do the same.
In Europe, Microsoft is joining a chorus of complaints, but until now they have come mainly from small Internet companies saying that Google’s search engine unfairly promotes its own products, like Google Product Search, a price comparison site, over rival offerings.
The Internet and smartphones are the markets where energy, investment and soaring stock prices reside. Microsoft, still immensely wealthy, is pouring billions into these fast-growing fields, especially Internet search. Yet the champion of the PC era trails well behind Google.
“The company that was the 800-pound gorilla is now resorting to antitrust, where it is always the case that the also-rans sue the winners,” said Michael A. Cusumano, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management who has studied Microsoft.
The Microsoft complaint, Professor Cusumano notes, is also a reminder of the comparative speed with which fortunes can shift in fast-moving technology markets. “It doesn’t happen instantly, but it does happen faster than in most industries,” Professor Cusumano said. “It took Google about a decade to really turn the tables on Microsoft.”
For years, the swaggering giant of personal computer software battled competitors and antitrust regulators in America and abroad, parrying their claims that it had bullied rivals and abused its market muscle. In the United States, it suffered rulings against it and in 2001 reached a settlement that prohibited Microsoft from certain strong-arm tactics. In Europe, Microsoft absorbed setbacks and record fines from regulators and judges.
Still, irony has no place in antitrust doctrine. Microsoft’s complaint must be weighed on the merits, as part of a wide-ranging antitrust investigation of Google, begun last year and led by Europe’s competition commissioner, Joaquín Almunia.
The litany of particulars in Microsoft’s complaint, the company’s lawyers say, includes claims of anticompetitive practices by Google in search, online advertising and smartphone software. But a central theme, Microsoft says, is that Google unfairly hinders the ability of search competitors — and Microsoft’s Bing is almost the only one left — from examining and indexing information that Google controls, like its big video service YouTube.
Such restraints, Microsoft contends, undermine competition — and thus pose a threat to consumer choice and better prices for online advertisers.
When told of the Microsoft claims, Adam Kovacevich, a Google spokesman, denied that the company had done anything wrong and said its practices did not deny Microsoft access to Google technology and content.
Though it is making an antitrust claim, Microsoft is also claiming a bit of hypocrisy on Google’s part. In an interview, Bradford L. Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel, cited Google’s stated mission to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”
“That is a laudable goal,” Mr. Smith said. “But it appears Google’s practice is to prevent others from doing the same thing. That is unlawful and it raises serious antitrust issues.”
Google’s strategy, he adds, seems to be to “wall off content so that it cannot be crawled and searched by competing companies.”
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/31/technology/companies/31google.html?src=busln
Gates Calls for Limited Role Aiding Libyan Rebels
The U.S. should avoid developing a closer relationship with Libyan opposition forces, defense leaders said Thursday, telling an often hostile Congress that foreign nations must now take over airstrike responsibilities and any effort to train and equip the rebels.
With the U.S. role in Libya at a turning point, the next critical decision is how, if at all, the U.S. chooses to support the opposition forces, particularly in the face of the ongoing budget crisis at home. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he is opposed to arming the rebels, a step his boss President Barack Obama has not ruled out.
Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said it was time to turn the bulk of the conflict over to NATO.
Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=13271526
With the U.S. role in Libya at a turning point, the next critical decision is how, if at all, the U.S. chooses to support the opposition forces, particularly in the face of the ongoing budget crisis at home. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he is opposed to arming the rebels, a step his boss President Barack Obama has not ruled out.
Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said it was time to turn the bulk of the conflict over to NATO.
Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=13271526
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Google says no to Android 3.0 custom UIs
Google has said that it will not allow custom UIs, such as HTC’s Sense UI and Samsung’s TouchWiz, onto Android 3.0 for the time being
Published on Mar 24, 2011
Google, for the first time in Android’s history, has prohibited the use of custom OEM UIs on its tablet-centric Android 3.0 Honeycomb operating system.
The news comes via the Driodcon Conference in Berlin where an LG spokesperson claimed that for the time being Google is prohibiting adjustments and changes of the Android 3.0 GUI, according to The Unwired.
Having said that, Google has confirmed that these custom UIs will be allowed access in later versions of Android 3.0 – just not in the release iteration.
This is certainly bad news for HTC and Samsung – both companies love their custom UI overlays for Android.
Could this be why HTC declined to release the HTC Flyer on Android 3.0? It’d certainly make sense, as this means it could launch the Flyer on Android 2.3, complete with HTC Sense UI, and wait for the custom UI-friendly version of Android 3.0 to be released by Google.
Quite what Samsung will do if it’s not allowed to include its TouchWiz UI on its new range of Galaxy Tab products remains to be seen. Either way, it’s not looking good. Could this be why Samsung re-announced its Galaxy Tab range recently?
We’re not sure, but this is certainly a very interesting development within the Android platform – and one we'll be keeping a close eye on.
Is Google beginning to take lessons from Apple and take more control of its operating system? It's certainly beginning to look that way.
Published on Mar 24, 2011
Google, for the first time in Android’s history, has prohibited the use of custom OEM UIs on its tablet-centric Android 3.0 Honeycomb operating system.
The news comes via the Driodcon Conference in Berlin where an LG spokesperson claimed that for the time being Google is prohibiting adjustments and changes of the Android 3.0 GUI, according to The Unwired.
Having said that, Google has confirmed that these custom UIs will be allowed access in later versions of Android 3.0 – just not in the release iteration.
This is certainly bad news for HTC and Samsung – both companies love their custom UI overlays for Android.
Could this be why HTC declined to release the HTC Flyer on Android 3.0? It’d certainly make sense, as this means it could launch the Flyer on Android 2.3, complete with HTC Sense UI, and wait for the custom UI-friendly version of Android 3.0 to be released by Google.
Quite what Samsung will do if it’s not allowed to include its TouchWiz UI on its new range of Galaxy Tab products remains to be seen. Either way, it’s not looking good. Could this be why Samsung re-announced its Galaxy Tab range recently?
We’re not sure, but this is certainly a very interesting development within the Android platform – and one we'll be keeping a close eye on.
Is Google beginning to take lessons from Apple and take more control of its operating system? It's certainly beginning to look that way.
Microsoft Website Helps Users Track Windows Phone Update
Microsoft has put up a website that allows owners of Windows Phone 7-based smartphones to find out when they will be offered the copy and paste update, the company said in a blog post on Wednesday.
The "Where's my phone update?" site lists a three-stage approach: first the update is tested by the mobile operator, then Microsoft can take up to 10 days to schedule it for delivery, and finally it will be delivered. Even after the last stage has been reached, however, it can still take "several weeks" before phone owners receive the message that an update is finally available for them, Microsoft said. Upon receiving the message, phone owners can then connect their phone to a computer to download and install the update.
The goal is to give users a better sense of when to expect new software, according to Microsoft.
Microsoft provides the information by phone model for owners in the U.S., and by network operator for owners in other countries.
For example, U.S. owners of the HTC HD7 can see that the copy and paste update, also known as NoDo, is currently being scheduled. In the international section of the website, owners of a Windows Phone 7 smartphone from operator Three in the U.K., Ireland, Austria, Italy and Sweden can also see that the update is now being scheduled.
Microsoft started distributing the upgrade on Tuesday, and the first group to receive it are owners of unlocked phones. In the next phase of the process, Microsoft will start making the new software available to a broader range of customers with phones customized for specific operators, the blog post said.
Read more: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/223158/microsoft_website_helps_users_track_windows_phone_update.html
The "Where's my phone update?" site lists a three-stage approach: first the update is tested by the mobile operator, then Microsoft can take up to 10 days to schedule it for delivery, and finally it will be delivered. Even after the last stage has been reached, however, it can still take "several weeks" before phone owners receive the message that an update is finally available for them, Microsoft said. Upon receiving the message, phone owners can then connect their phone to a computer to download and install the update.
The goal is to give users a better sense of when to expect new software, according to Microsoft.
Microsoft provides the information by phone model for owners in the U.S., and by network operator for owners in other countries.
For example, U.S. owners of the HTC HD7 can see that the copy and paste update, also known as NoDo, is currently being scheduled. In the international section of the website, owners of a Windows Phone 7 smartphone from operator Three in the U.K., Ireland, Austria, Italy and Sweden can also see that the update is now being scheduled.
Microsoft started distributing the upgrade on Tuesday, and the first group to receive it are owners of unlocked phones. In the next phase of the process, Microsoft will start making the new software available to a broader range of customers with phones customized for specific operators, the blog post said.
Read more: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/223158/microsoft_website_helps_users_track_windows_phone_update.html
Motorola hedging Android bet with new web-based OS
Motorola Mobility, which has been Google's only major licensee fully committed to Android, is now working on a new web-based mobile operating system apparently intended to give it more control over its future, enraging Android advocates anew just weeks after Nokia opted against adopting Google's mobile OS.
Word of Motorola's new project was reported by Information Week, which attributed "a source familiar with the matter."
While the company issued an email statement insisting that "Motorola Mobility is committed to Android as an operating system," it did not deny that it was also working on its own competing mobile operating system project.
The report also cited Deutsche Bank analyst Jonathan Goldberg, who said, "I know they're working on it. I think the company recognizes that they need to differentiate and they need options, just in case. Nobody wants to rely on a single supplier."
Goldberg said the company was working to be "financially disciplined" about the new project so as to avoid spooking investors with the idea that the company was "going back to the Motorola of old where they're working on 50 million operating systems at once."
Read more: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/03/23/motorola_hedging_android_bet_with_new_web_based_os.html
Word of Motorola's new project was reported by Information Week, which attributed "a source familiar with the matter."
While the company issued an email statement insisting that "Motorola Mobility is committed to Android as an operating system," it did not deny that it was also working on its own competing mobile operating system project.
The report also cited Deutsche Bank analyst Jonathan Goldberg, who said, "I know they're working on it. I think the company recognizes that they need to differentiate and they need options, just in case. Nobody wants to rely on a single supplier."
Goldberg said the company was working to be "financially disciplined" about the new project so as to avoid spooking investors with the idea that the company was "going back to the Motorola of old where they're working on 50 million operating systems at once."
Read more: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/03/23/motorola_hedging_android_bet_with_new_web_based_os.html
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Samsung reveals thinnest tablets with Android 3.0
Samsung has taken the wraps off two new Android 3.0 Galaxy Tab computers which are believed to be the thinnest on the market at just 8.6mm in thickness – 0.2mm thinner than the rival iPad 2.
The devices will compete primarily with the Motorola Xoom, which also runs Android 3.0, and could actually beat it on price.
The Wi-Fi only 16GB Galaxy Tab 8.9-inch tablet will be US$469, while the 32GB version will cost US$569. The Wi-Fi only 10.1-inch tablet will cost US$499 for a 16GB version, while the 32GB model will cost US$599. Both models will ship early in the summer.
A 4G version of the new tablet computers are believed to be coming later in the year.
Both tablets will come with a dual-core 1GHz processor, a 1,280 x 800 HD display and will come with a microSD card slot for up to32GB cards.
John Kennedy
The devices will compete primarily with the Motorola Xoom, which also runs Android 3.0, and could actually beat it on price.
The Wi-Fi only 16GB Galaxy Tab 8.9-inch tablet will be US$469, while the 32GB version will cost US$569. The Wi-Fi only 10.1-inch tablet will cost US$499 for a 16GB version, while the 32GB model will cost US$599. Both models will ship early in the summer.
A 4G version of the new tablet computers are believed to be coming later in the year.
Both tablets will come with a dual-core 1GHz processor, a 1,280 x 800 HD display and will come with a microSD card slot for up to32GB cards.
John Kennedy
Firefox 4 debuts: The last kitchen sink release
By Cade Metz in San Francisco • Get more from this author
Posted in Applications, 22nd March 2011 18:06 GMT
Mozilla has officially released Firefox 4, the latest version of its popular open-source browser, after nearly a year of development.
Available for download on Windows, Linux, and Mac, Firefox 4 offers added JavaScript performance through a new extension to Mozilla's SpiderMonkey engine, hardware acceleration on all platforms, new tools for organizing and navigating browser tabs, a service for syncing browser settings across multiple machines, and a revamped interface. "We focused a lot on speed," Mozilla vice presidents of products Jay Sullivan tells The Register.
"But beyond raw speed, we're speeding up the way users flow through the internet. We're speeding up your real online life, improving startup time, tab switching, and scrolling – stuff beyond the benchmarks."
Sullivan also emphasizes that unlike Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9, which made its official debut last week, Firefox 4 runs on Windows XP. "This is really important for so many people," he says, citing studies indicating that between 40 and 50 per cent of the web users are still on this aging Microsoft OS. "We need to provide updates to security, privacy, and innovations to those folks as well."
Microsoft is (overly) quick to provide a counter argument. On Monday evening, in anticipation of the release of Firefox 4, Redmond sent a canned statement to journalists defending it decision to offer Internet Explorer 9 only on Windows Vista and Windows 7. "The developer community has been vocal that they want to push the web forward," the statement read.
"The browser is only as good as the operating system it runs on and a browser running on a ten year old operating system tethers the web to the past. The time has come to stop focusing on lowest common denominator, and to really push what’s possible with innovations like full hardware acceleration. Customers can tell the difference when they see it.”
Firefox 4 does offer hardware acceleration on Windows XP, but it's limited. Compositing is accelerated through Direct3D, but web content is not accelerated. On Windows Vista and Windows 7, Firefox 4 accelerates content through Direct2D. It should also be pointed out that unlike IE, Firefox 4 supports WebGL, which provides hardware accelerated 3D inside the browser, mapping JavaScript to the OpenGL desktop graphics interface.
Mozilla also provides hardware acceleration on Linux and Mac. Content acceleration is handled through XRender on Linux and through Quartz on Mac, while compositing is handled via OpenGL on both platforms. Mozilla acknowledges that Quartz uses the CPU rather than the GPU. QuartzGL, which provides GPU acceleration through Quartz 2D API, is not supported). But Quzrtz GL isn't supported by any browser, and no, you can't get IE9 on a Mac. Or Linux.
On Monday, Mozilla also unfurled a release candidate for an Android incarnation of Firefox 4. And Sullivan says this version is slated to officially arrive "in the next couple of weeks". Like the desktop incarnations of the browser, Firefox 4 for Android offers the Mozilla's Firefox Sync service, which lets you synchronize your browser setting across multiple devices.
Originally known as Firefox Weave, Sync has long been available as a Firefox plug-in, and it's the basis for Firefox Home, the Mozilla iPhone application that lets you access your Firefox data on Apple's holy handheld (which will run Firefox itself). On Firefox 4, it lets you synchronize bookmarks, history, "Awesome Bar" data, passwords, form-fill data, and open tabs.
On the desktop, Mozilla's new browser also offers Panorama, a means of better organizing your browser tabs. letting you sort tabs like playing cards on a table. And it includes what Mozilla calls "App Tabs", letting you create compact icons on the browser toolbar for frequently used web applications, such as Twitter or Gmail.
At the heart of the browser, Mozilla offers a new extension to its JavaScript engine known as JaegerMonkey (aka JagerMonkey). This operates in tandem with the TraceMonkey extension that debuted with Firefox 3.5 in June 2009. TraceMonkey speeds JavaScript performance by detecting code loops and converting them to assembly language. With Firefox 4, TraceMonkey still looks to convert loops, but when it can't, JaegerMonkey converts entire methods into assembly. This new method JIT (just in time) compiler uses the Nitro assembler from Apple’s open source WebKit project.
Mozilla is claiming better performance than its competitors – including IE9, Chrome, and Safari – on its own Kracken benchmark (naturally) as well as Facebook's JSGameBench.
Firefox went through 12 betas and two release candidates, and this is the last incarnation of the popular open source browser to receive such as an extended development and test period. In response to Google, which now delivers a new version of its Chrome browser every six to eight weeks, Mozilla is moving Firefox to a quarterly release schedule, planning to offer three more new versions of the browser before the end of the year.
"The motivation here is that as we build stuff, we want to get it to people as fast as possible," Sullivan says. "If you look at Firefox 4, all of its tools have been done for a while. But we created this relatively large unit to ship with. Now, when we get stuff done, we need to get it in people's hands."
It's yet to be seen whether Mozilla can actually deliver new browsers at this pace. Working on a year to two-year release schedule, it has a history of delays, including a roughly three month delay on Firefox 4. But the move to quarterly release schedule is welcome. And Firefox 4 is here.
Posted in Applications, 22nd March 2011 18:06 GMT
Mozilla has officially released Firefox 4, the latest version of its popular open-source browser, after nearly a year of development.
Available for download on Windows, Linux, and Mac, Firefox 4 offers added JavaScript performance through a new extension to Mozilla's SpiderMonkey engine, hardware acceleration on all platforms, new tools for organizing and navigating browser tabs, a service for syncing browser settings across multiple machines, and a revamped interface. "We focused a lot on speed," Mozilla vice presidents of products Jay Sullivan tells The Register.
"But beyond raw speed, we're speeding up the way users flow through the internet. We're speeding up your real online life, improving startup time, tab switching, and scrolling – stuff beyond the benchmarks."
Sullivan also emphasizes that unlike Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9, which made its official debut last week, Firefox 4 runs on Windows XP. "This is really important for so many people," he says, citing studies indicating that between 40 and 50 per cent of the web users are still on this aging Microsoft OS. "We need to provide updates to security, privacy, and innovations to those folks as well."
Microsoft is (overly) quick to provide a counter argument. On Monday evening, in anticipation of the release of Firefox 4, Redmond sent a canned statement to journalists defending it decision to offer Internet Explorer 9 only on Windows Vista and Windows 7. "The developer community has been vocal that they want to push the web forward," the statement read.
"The browser is only as good as the operating system it runs on and a browser running on a ten year old operating system tethers the web to the past. The time has come to stop focusing on lowest common denominator, and to really push what’s possible with innovations like full hardware acceleration. Customers can tell the difference when they see it.”
Firefox 4 does offer hardware acceleration on Windows XP, but it's limited. Compositing is accelerated through Direct3D, but web content is not accelerated. On Windows Vista and Windows 7, Firefox 4 accelerates content through Direct2D. It should also be pointed out that unlike IE, Firefox 4 supports WebGL, which provides hardware accelerated 3D inside the browser, mapping JavaScript to the OpenGL desktop graphics interface.
Mozilla also provides hardware acceleration on Linux and Mac. Content acceleration is handled through XRender on Linux and through Quartz on Mac, while compositing is handled via OpenGL on both platforms. Mozilla acknowledges that Quartz uses the CPU rather than the GPU. QuartzGL, which provides GPU acceleration through Quartz 2D API, is not supported). But Quzrtz GL isn't supported by any browser, and no, you can't get IE9 on a Mac. Or Linux.
On Monday, Mozilla also unfurled a release candidate for an Android incarnation of Firefox 4. And Sullivan says this version is slated to officially arrive "in the next couple of weeks". Like the desktop incarnations of the browser, Firefox 4 for Android offers the Mozilla's Firefox Sync service, which lets you synchronize your browser setting across multiple devices.
Originally known as Firefox Weave, Sync has long been available as a Firefox plug-in, and it's the basis for Firefox Home, the Mozilla iPhone application that lets you access your Firefox data on Apple's holy handheld (which will run Firefox itself). On Firefox 4, it lets you synchronize bookmarks, history, "Awesome Bar" data, passwords, form-fill data, and open tabs.
On the desktop, Mozilla's new browser also offers Panorama, a means of better organizing your browser tabs. letting you sort tabs like playing cards on a table. And it includes what Mozilla calls "App Tabs", letting you create compact icons on the browser toolbar for frequently used web applications, such as Twitter or Gmail.
At the heart of the browser, Mozilla offers a new extension to its JavaScript engine known as JaegerMonkey (aka JagerMonkey). This operates in tandem with the TraceMonkey extension that debuted with Firefox 3.5 in June 2009. TraceMonkey speeds JavaScript performance by detecting code loops and converting them to assembly language. With Firefox 4, TraceMonkey still looks to convert loops, but when it can't, JaegerMonkey converts entire methods into assembly. This new method JIT (just in time) compiler uses the Nitro assembler from Apple’s open source WebKit project.
Mozilla is claiming better performance than its competitors – including IE9, Chrome, and Safari – on its own Kracken benchmark (naturally) as well as Facebook's JSGameBench.
Firefox went through 12 betas and two release candidates, and this is the last incarnation of the popular open source browser to receive such as an extended development and test period. In response to Google, which now delivers a new version of its Chrome browser every six to eight weeks, Mozilla is moving Firefox to a quarterly release schedule, planning to offer three more new versions of the browser before the end of the year.
"The motivation here is that as we build stuff, we want to get it to people as fast as possible," Sullivan says. "If you look at Firefox 4, all of its tools have been done for a while. But we created this relatively large unit to ship with. Now, when we get stuff done, we need to get it in people's hands."
It's yet to be seen whether Mozilla can actually deliver new browsers at this pace. Working on a year to two-year release schedule, it has a history of delays, including a roughly three month delay on Firefox 4. But the move to quarterly release schedule is welcome. And Firefox 4 is here.
US judge writes unhappy ending for Google's online library plans
Google's controversial plans to create the world's biggest online library have been shelved by a US judge.
In a ruling filed in the US district court in Manhattan, judge Denny Chin ruled the company had gone "too far" in its ambitious plans and rejected a legal settlement with authors and publishers that Google reached in 2008.
The web giant has scanned millions of books, many held at some of the world's greatest libraries including Oxford University's Bodleian and Harvard's libraries, and made them available online via its eBooks platform. The plan has split the publishing industry and attracted fierce criticism from authors and rival tech firms.
While Google said it would show only snippets of works that are in copyright, some authors complained that they had not given their permission for the scanning in the first place and were wary of Google's future plans.
In court Google rejected calls for an "opt-in" solution where copyright owners would decide whether or not to be part of the scanning project. The company said the idea was not viable. Chin suggested he might look more favourably on a settlement that allowed copyright owners to "opt in".
"While the digitisation of books and the creation of a universal digital library would benefit many," Chin wrote, Google's current pact would "simply go too far". It would "give Google a significant advantage over competitors, rewarding it for engaging in wholesale copying of copyrighted works without permission," he said.
The agreement rejected by Chin was negotiated with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers. Under the settlement, Google would continue to digitise books and sell access online and the company would pay $125m (£76.9m) in royalties every year to the copyright owners of the books being scanned.
Copyright concerns persisted, however, as the ownership of many of the works being scanned by Google could not be established.
Hilary Ware, managing counsel for Google, said the judge's decision was disappointing. "We believe this agreement has the potential to open up access to millions of books that are currently hard to find in the US today," she said. "Regardless of the outcome, we'll continue to work to make more of the world's books discoverable online through Google Books and Google eBooks."
"Publishers are prepared to modify the settlement agreement to gain approval," said John Sargent, chief executive of Macmillan, in a statement issued by the Association of American Publishers. He said they would work to overcome the objections raised by the court.
Google co-founder Larry Page was the author of the firm's plans to make 150m books accessible via the search engine. He has been promoting the idea since shortly after the company was formed in 1998.
Google began working with several libraries in 2004 to scan and digitise books and other writings in their collections, and has said it has completed 10% of the effort. The search engine currently allows users to search about two million books that are out of copyright, including the works of William Shakespeare. That service will be unaffected by the ruling.
Chin's decision is the latest in a series of setbacks. The plans have attracted criticism not only in the US but across Europe and in China and Canada. It is also separately being investigated by the US Justice Department on competition and copyright grounds.
In a ruling filed in the US district court in Manhattan, judge Denny Chin ruled the company had gone "too far" in its ambitious plans and rejected a legal settlement with authors and publishers that Google reached in 2008.
The web giant has scanned millions of books, many held at some of the world's greatest libraries including Oxford University's Bodleian and Harvard's libraries, and made them available online via its eBooks platform. The plan has split the publishing industry and attracted fierce criticism from authors and rival tech firms.
While Google said it would show only snippets of works that are in copyright, some authors complained that they had not given their permission for the scanning in the first place and were wary of Google's future plans.
In court Google rejected calls for an "opt-in" solution where copyright owners would decide whether or not to be part of the scanning project. The company said the idea was not viable. Chin suggested he might look more favourably on a settlement that allowed copyright owners to "opt in".
"While the digitisation of books and the creation of a universal digital library would benefit many," Chin wrote, Google's current pact would "simply go too far". It would "give Google a significant advantage over competitors, rewarding it for engaging in wholesale copying of copyrighted works without permission," he said.
The agreement rejected by Chin was negotiated with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers. Under the settlement, Google would continue to digitise books and sell access online and the company would pay $125m (£76.9m) in royalties every year to the copyright owners of the books being scanned.
Copyright concerns persisted, however, as the ownership of many of the works being scanned by Google could not be established.
Hilary Ware, managing counsel for Google, said the judge's decision was disappointing. "We believe this agreement has the potential to open up access to millions of books that are currently hard to find in the US today," she said. "Regardless of the outcome, we'll continue to work to make more of the world's books discoverable online through Google Books and Google eBooks."
"Publishers are prepared to modify the settlement agreement to gain approval," said John Sargent, chief executive of Macmillan, in a statement issued by the Association of American Publishers. He said they would work to overcome the objections raised by the court.
Google co-founder Larry Page was the author of the firm's plans to make 150m books accessible via the search engine. He has been promoting the idea since shortly after the company was formed in 1998.
Google began working with several libraries in 2004 to scan and digitise books and other writings in their collections, and has said it has completed 10% of the effort. The search engine currently allows users to search about two million books that are out of copyright, including the works of William Shakespeare. That service will be unaffected by the ruling.
Chin's decision is the latest in a series of setbacks. The plans have attracted criticism not only in the US but across Europe and in China and Canada. It is also separately being investigated by the US Justice Department on competition and copyright grounds.
AT&T, Sprint 3D smartphones may sell well
ORLANDO - AT&T on Monday announced two new smartphones, including the LG Thrill 4G with a glasses-free 3D display.
On Tuesday at CTIA, Sprint also announced a glasses-free 3D smartphone, the HTC Evo 3D, which runs on its 4G WiMax network.
Neither company has announced pricing for their 3D phones, but analysts said they need to be in line with the $200 to $250 price of other smarphones to be accepted.
Read more: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214940/AT_T_Sprint_3D_smartphones_may_sell_well
On Tuesday at CTIA, Sprint also announced a glasses-free 3D smartphone, the HTC Evo 3D, which runs on its 4G WiMax network.
Neither company has announced pricing for their 3D phones, but analysts said they need to be in line with the $200 to $250 price of other smarphones to be accepted.
Read more: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214940/AT_T_Sprint_3D_smartphones_may_sell_well
U.S. nuclear waste problem gains new scrutiny
"The radiation levels, while not acceptable, are manageable," he said.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has essentially accepted the industry's rationale on the safety of dense-packing fuel rods. Over the last two decades, the agency has repeatedly approved license applications by utilities to pack more rods into the pools.
Nuclear safety experts say that plants have packed up to five times more spent fuel rods than the pools were designed to store, though Nuclear Energy Institute officials say the pools contain no more than twice their original capacity.
The only advantage to keeping the pools packed so tightly is the cost of the dry casks, which would run about $5 billion to $10 billion nationwide, said Frank N. von Hippel, a Princeton University physicist who first disclosed the problem in a paper he co-wrote in 2003. He said he considers fixing the fuel pool problem one of the most important steps toward making U.S. nuclear plants safer.
Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-spent-fuel-us-20110323,0,4358762.story?page=2&utm_medium=feed&track=rss&utm_campaign=Feed%3A%20latimes%2Fnews%2Fscience%20(L.A.%20Times%20-%20Science)&utm_source=feedburner
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has essentially accepted the industry's rationale on the safety of dense-packing fuel rods. Over the last two decades, the agency has repeatedly approved license applications by utilities to pack more rods into the pools.
Nuclear safety experts say that plants have packed up to five times more spent fuel rods than the pools were designed to store, though Nuclear Energy Institute officials say the pools contain no more than twice their original capacity.
The only advantage to keeping the pools packed so tightly is the cost of the dry casks, which would run about $5 billion to $10 billion nationwide, said Frank N. von Hippel, a Princeton University physicist who first disclosed the problem in a paper he co-wrote in 2003. He said he considers fixing the fuel pool problem one of the most important steps toward making U.S. nuclear plants safer.
Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-spent-fuel-us-20110323,0,4358762.story?page=2&utm_medium=feed&track=rss&utm_campaign=Feed%3A%20latimes%2Fnews%2Fscience%20(L.A.%20Times%20-%20Science)&utm_source=feedburner
Allies Target Qaddafi’s Ground Forces, Debate Command Structure
March 23 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S.-led alliance is preparing to direct more attacks against leader Muammar Qaddafi’s ground forces as the U.S. and its partners try to resolve disputes over who will take over command.
The initial wave of allied airstrikes, concentrated on Libya’s air defenses, have not ended attacks on civilians by Qaddafi’s fighters, said U.S. Admiral Samuel Locklear, the tactical commander for the allied attacks on Libya. The alliance now is “considering all options” for using air power to protect civilians in battleground cities of Misrata, Ajdabiya and Zawiyah, said Locklear, who spoke to reporters at the Pentagon via telephone from his command ship in the Mediterranean Sea.
In Brussels, members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization held a second day of inconclusive talks about whether it or some ad-hoc grouping will take command of military operation initially headed by the U.S. There are division within NATO and also a need to include Arab participants in the leadership. President Barack Obama spoke with both U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday to try to resolve the issues, according to statements from their offices.
“This command-and-control business is complicated, and we haven’t done something like this kind of on-the-fly before,” U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters in Moscow yesterday. “It’s not surprising to me that it would take a few days to get it all sorted out.”
Oil, Turmoil
The Libya conflict, which began in February in the eastern city of Benghazi, is the bloodiest in a series of uprisings that have spread across the Middle East and ousted the leaders of Egypt and Tunisia. Elsewhere, Yemen’s U.S.-backed president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has ruled for three decades, signaled he may yield to public demands he quit, but not immediately as his opponents demand. Bahrain, where the Sunni Muslim monarchy brought in Saudi Arabian security forces to crush Shiite protests, may face a further cut in its credit rating because of the implications of political unrest for its economic growth, Standard & Poor’s said.
Amid regional turmoil, oil traded near the highest price in more than a week. Crude oil for April delivery increased $1.55, or 1.5 percent, to $103.88 a barrel at 12:38 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. April futures expired yesterday. The more active May oil contract advanced $1.33, or 1.3 percent, to $104.42.
Opening Salvo
The overall intensity of the military campaign, which began March 19 with volleys of U.S. and U.K. Tomahawk cruise missiles followed by U.S. B-2 bombings, will ease with the establishment of the no-fly zone, Gates said at a press conference in Moscow yesterday.
The U.S. and allies through yesterday fired 162 Raytheon Co. Tomahawks that hit 108 targets, according to an e-mail from Navy Capt. Darryn James, a Pentagon spokesman. The U.S. has flown 212 aircraft sorties and the coalition 124, James said.
Obama, concluding his Latin America trip in El Salvador, said military action averted a “catastrophe” had Qaddafi attacked Benghazi, the rebel capital.
The Libyan ruler, speaking from his compound in Tripoli, denounced the U.S.-led airstrikes and declared “I am here, I am standing fast,” according to Al-Arabiya television.
While the UN-authorized no-fly zone has destroyed or grounded the Libyan air force, Qaddafi’s ground forces continue to violate Security Council Resolution 1973 by keeping up attacks on civilians in Misrata, the largest city in western Libya; Ajdabiya, the gateway to Benghazi, the country’s second- largest city; and Zawiyah, near Tripoli, said Locklear.
‘All Actions Necessary’
“We’re going to continue to pursue all actions necessary to make him comply with UN Security Council Resolution 1973,” Locklear said.
His remarks suggest that alliance warplanes may shift to hitting Libyan tanks and rocket launchers, which are being used against rebels in population centers. He also said his forces are “watching” Qaddafi’s two key military units -- the 32nd Brigade, which has been commanded by Qaddafi’s youngest son, Khamis, and the 9th Security Regiment. They are tank-equipped regime-protection units, according to information provided by the Pentagon.
Libyan deputy foreign ministers asked yesterday for Libyan tribes’ help to start a dialogue with the opposition, Al-Arabiya news channel reported. The Security Council resolution calls for an immediate cease-fire, which the Qaddafi regime has not respected despite several claims that it was instituting a halt to the fighting.
NATO Debates
The question of who assumes military leadership in a U.S. handoff was unresolved in a second day of talks at NATO headquarters in Brussels and in telephone calls among key leaders.
Thirteen nations are participating in the coalition, according to Locklear, who said that Qatar is moving aircraft to be able to join the military operation by the weekend. It would be the first Arab participant, and the Associated Press reported that Qatar was deploying two Mirage jets to a U.S. base on the Greek island of Crete. The United Arab Emirates refused to take part because of anger that its U.S. and European allies failed to take a stronger stand against what the U.A.E. sees as Iranian involvement in Bahrain protests, the former head of the country’s air force, Major General Khaled Bu-Ainnain, said in an interview yesterday.
Norway and Italy said their participation in air operations depends on settling who will be in command. Germany, which opposed military action against Libya, pulled its forces in the Mediterranean from NATO and put them under exclusively German command, the German news agency DPA reported yesterday.
French Proposal
France proposed that a new political steering committee, outside NATO, take responsibility, Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told lawmakers in Paris, according to Agence France-Presse. Speaking in San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador, Obama said he has “absolutely no doubt” that the U.S. will be able to transfer control to an international coalition.
The likely outcome will be a hybrid arrangement in which NATO has command-and-control responsibilities, overseen by a political steering committee including representatives from all nations participating in Operation Odyssey Dawn, according to a Western diplomat at the United Nations. Jordan and Kuwait are expected to be the next Arab nations to join the alliance, he said. Turkey, a majority-Muslim nation that is a NATO member, may work with the rebel council in Benghazi on delivering humanitarian aid, he said.
War Costs
The U.S. is also talking with Saudi Arabia about how it might contribute to the Libya actions, according to a State Department official, who was authorized to brief reporters on terms that didn’t allow his name to be used.
The cost of initial U.S. strikes against Libyan air defenses exceeds $168 million, including the use of Raytheon Co. Tomahawk cruise missiles and Northrop Grumman Co. long-range B-2 bombers, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne told lawmakers in London yesterday that the cost of U.K. operations in Libya are likely to run into “tens of millions of pounds” and that it will be met by the Treasury’s reserve fund, not the Ministry of Defense’s budget.
Air strikes enabled rebel forces to push out from their eastern stronghold of Benghazi toward Ajdabiya as the United States Africa Command reported that an F-15E jet crashed because of technical difficulties and two crew members were recovered.
City Attacked
In Misrata, Qaddafi’s forces shelled the main electricity station, cutting off power from most parts of the city, Mohamed al-Misrati, a resident who witnessed the attack, said by satellite phone from the city. Dozens of people were killed and more than 150 others wounded in the ongoing attack, which involved tanks shelling residential areas, al-Misrati said yesterday. There are no reliable estimates of the number of casualties from the weeks of fighting.
Attacks late March 21 targeted early warning radars, communication centers and surface-to-air missile sites in and around Tripoli and Misrata, aircraft hangars at the Ghardabiya airfield, and an armored convoy south of Benghazi. The coalition struck a command-and-control facility in a Qaddafi compound in Tripoli, Army General Carter Ham, the top U.S. commander for combat operations against Libya, said March 21.
The coalition flew between 70 and 80 sorties March 21, with France, Spain, Italy, Denmark and the U.K. enforcing the no-fly zone over Benghazi and coalition vessels patrolling the coast, Ham said. Both Italy and France deployed aircraft carriers.
Libyan Claims
“Many civilians were killed last night because many of the targets last night were civilian and quasi-military places,” Moussa Ibrahim, a Libyan government spokesman, said in an interview with Sky News.
China yesterday called for an immediate cease-fire in the North African country. The United Nations resolution authorizing the military action was meant to “protect the safety of civilians,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said at a briefing in Beijing yesterday.
“The military actions taken by relevant countries are causing civilian casualties,” Jiang said.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on March 21 described the allied offensive as a “crusade,” which his spokesman later described as his personal opinion.
--With assistance from Ola Galal in Cairo, Benjamin Harvey in Istanbul, Brendan McGarry, Roxana Tiron and Nadeem Hamid in Washington, Julianna Goldman in San Salvador, El Salvador, Grant Smith and Kitty Donaldson in London, Gonzalo Vina and Gregory Viscusi in Paris, James Neuger in Brussels, Leon Mangasarian in Berlin, Bill Varner in New York and Vivian Salama in Dubai. Editors: Terry Atlas, Leslie Hoffecker
To contact the reporters on this story: Tony Capaccio in Washington at acapaccio@bloomberg.net; Viola Gienger in Washington at vgienger@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net
The initial wave of allied airstrikes, concentrated on Libya’s air defenses, have not ended attacks on civilians by Qaddafi’s fighters, said U.S. Admiral Samuel Locklear, the tactical commander for the allied attacks on Libya. The alliance now is “considering all options” for using air power to protect civilians in battleground cities of Misrata, Ajdabiya and Zawiyah, said Locklear, who spoke to reporters at the Pentagon via telephone from his command ship in the Mediterranean Sea.
In Brussels, members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization held a second day of inconclusive talks about whether it or some ad-hoc grouping will take command of military operation initially headed by the U.S. There are division within NATO and also a need to include Arab participants in the leadership. President Barack Obama spoke with both U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday to try to resolve the issues, according to statements from their offices.
“This command-and-control business is complicated, and we haven’t done something like this kind of on-the-fly before,” U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters in Moscow yesterday. “It’s not surprising to me that it would take a few days to get it all sorted out.”
Oil, Turmoil
The Libya conflict, which began in February in the eastern city of Benghazi, is the bloodiest in a series of uprisings that have spread across the Middle East and ousted the leaders of Egypt and Tunisia. Elsewhere, Yemen’s U.S.-backed president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has ruled for three decades, signaled he may yield to public demands he quit, but not immediately as his opponents demand. Bahrain, where the Sunni Muslim monarchy brought in Saudi Arabian security forces to crush Shiite protests, may face a further cut in its credit rating because of the implications of political unrest for its economic growth, Standard & Poor’s said.
Amid regional turmoil, oil traded near the highest price in more than a week. Crude oil for April delivery increased $1.55, or 1.5 percent, to $103.88 a barrel at 12:38 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. April futures expired yesterday. The more active May oil contract advanced $1.33, or 1.3 percent, to $104.42.
Opening Salvo
The overall intensity of the military campaign, which began March 19 with volleys of U.S. and U.K. Tomahawk cruise missiles followed by U.S. B-2 bombings, will ease with the establishment of the no-fly zone, Gates said at a press conference in Moscow yesterday.
The U.S. and allies through yesterday fired 162 Raytheon Co. Tomahawks that hit 108 targets, according to an e-mail from Navy Capt. Darryn James, a Pentagon spokesman. The U.S. has flown 212 aircraft sorties and the coalition 124, James said.
Obama, concluding his Latin America trip in El Salvador, said military action averted a “catastrophe” had Qaddafi attacked Benghazi, the rebel capital.
The Libyan ruler, speaking from his compound in Tripoli, denounced the U.S.-led airstrikes and declared “I am here, I am standing fast,” according to Al-Arabiya television.
While the UN-authorized no-fly zone has destroyed or grounded the Libyan air force, Qaddafi’s ground forces continue to violate Security Council Resolution 1973 by keeping up attacks on civilians in Misrata, the largest city in western Libya; Ajdabiya, the gateway to Benghazi, the country’s second- largest city; and Zawiyah, near Tripoli, said Locklear.
‘All Actions Necessary’
“We’re going to continue to pursue all actions necessary to make him comply with UN Security Council Resolution 1973,” Locklear said.
His remarks suggest that alliance warplanes may shift to hitting Libyan tanks and rocket launchers, which are being used against rebels in population centers. He also said his forces are “watching” Qaddafi’s two key military units -- the 32nd Brigade, which has been commanded by Qaddafi’s youngest son, Khamis, and the 9th Security Regiment. They are tank-equipped regime-protection units, according to information provided by the Pentagon.
Libyan deputy foreign ministers asked yesterday for Libyan tribes’ help to start a dialogue with the opposition, Al-Arabiya news channel reported. The Security Council resolution calls for an immediate cease-fire, which the Qaddafi regime has not respected despite several claims that it was instituting a halt to the fighting.
NATO Debates
The question of who assumes military leadership in a U.S. handoff was unresolved in a second day of talks at NATO headquarters in Brussels and in telephone calls among key leaders.
Thirteen nations are participating in the coalition, according to Locklear, who said that Qatar is moving aircraft to be able to join the military operation by the weekend. It would be the first Arab participant, and the Associated Press reported that Qatar was deploying two Mirage jets to a U.S. base on the Greek island of Crete. The United Arab Emirates refused to take part because of anger that its U.S. and European allies failed to take a stronger stand against what the U.A.E. sees as Iranian involvement in Bahrain protests, the former head of the country’s air force, Major General Khaled Bu-Ainnain, said in an interview yesterday.
Norway and Italy said their participation in air operations depends on settling who will be in command. Germany, which opposed military action against Libya, pulled its forces in the Mediterranean from NATO and put them under exclusively German command, the German news agency DPA reported yesterday.
French Proposal
France proposed that a new political steering committee, outside NATO, take responsibility, Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told lawmakers in Paris, according to Agence France-Presse. Speaking in San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador, Obama said he has “absolutely no doubt” that the U.S. will be able to transfer control to an international coalition.
The likely outcome will be a hybrid arrangement in which NATO has command-and-control responsibilities, overseen by a political steering committee including representatives from all nations participating in Operation Odyssey Dawn, according to a Western diplomat at the United Nations. Jordan and Kuwait are expected to be the next Arab nations to join the alliance, he said. Turkey, a majority-Muslim nation that is a NATO member, may work with the rebel council in Benghazi on delivering humanitarian aid, he said.
War Costs
The U.S. is also talking with Saudi Arabia about how it might contribute to the Libya actions, according to a State Department official, who was authorized to brief reporters on terms that didn’t allow his name to be used.
The cost of initial U.S. strikes against Libyan air defenses exceeds $168 million, including the use of Raytheon Co. Tomahawk cruise missiles and Northrop Grumman Co. long-range B-2 bombers, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne told lawmakers in London yesterday that the cost of U.K. operations in Libya are likely to run into “tens of millions of pounds” and that it will be met by the Treasury’s reserve fund, not the Ministry of Defense’s budget.
Air strikes enabled rebel forces to push out from their eastern stronghold of Benghazi toward Ajdabiya as the United States Africa Command reported that an F-15E jet crashed because of technical difficulties and two crew members were recovered.
City Attacked
In Misrata, Qaddafi’s forces shelled the main electricity station, cutting off power from most parts of the city, Mohamed al-Misrati, a resident who witnessed the attack, said by satellite phone from the city. Dozens of people were killed and more than 150 others wounded in the ongoing attack, which involved tanks shelling residential areas, al-Misrati said yesterday. There are no reliable estimates of the number of casualties from the weeks of fighting.
Attacks late March 21 targeted early warning radars, communication centers and surface-to-air missile sites in and around Tripoli and Misrata, aircraft hangars at the Ghardabiya airfield, and an armored convoy south of Benghazi. The coalition struck a command-and-control facility in a Qaddafi compound in Tripoli, Army General Carter Ham, the top U.S. commander for combat operations against Libya, said March 21.
The coalition flew between 70 and 80 sorties March 21, with France, Spain, Italy, Denmark and the U.K. enforcing the no-fly zone over Benghazi and coalition vessels patrolling the coast, Ham said. Both Italy and France deployed aircraft carriers.
Libyan Claims
“Many civilians were killed last night because many of the targets last night were civilian and quasi-military places,” Moussa Ibrahim, a Libyan government spokesman, said in an interview with Sky News.
China yesterday called for an immediate cease-fire in the North African country. The United Nations resolution authorizing the military action was meant to “protect the safety of civilians,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said at a briefing in Beijing yesterday.
“The military actions taken by relevant countries are causing civilian casualties,” Jiang said.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on March 21 described the allied offensive as a “crusade,” which his spokesman later described as his personal opinion.
--With assistance from Ola Galal in Cairo, Benjamin Harvey in Istanbul, Brendan McGarry, Roxana Tiron and Nadeem Hamid in Washington, Julianna Goldman in San Salvador, El Salvador, Grant Smith and Kitty Donaldson in London, Gonzalo Vina and Gregory Viscusi in Paris, James Neuger in Brussels, Leon Mangasarian in Berlin, Bill Varner in New York and Vivian Salama in Dubai. Editors: Terry Atlas, Leslie Hoffecker
To contact the reporters on this story: Tony Capaccio in Washington at acapaccio@bloomberg.net; Viola Gienger in Washington at vgienger@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Opera announces Opera Mini 6 and Opera Mobile 11
WEB BROWSER OUTFIT Opera has announced the latest versions of its mobile web browsers, Opera Mini 6 and Opera Mobile 11.
The Opera Mini 6 browser works on devices using the Android, Blackberry. Symbian/Series 60 and J2ME operating systems. Opera Mobile 11 works on Android, Symbian, Windows 7 and Meego. Android is obviously the top priority for Opera, with users able to choose between the two mobile browsers.
Currently neither Opera browser will work on Apple's devices, but Opera is planning to show a preview of Opera Mini on the Iphone and Ipad, suggesting that an Opera web browser release for IOS is imminent.
Opera's web browser hasn't been doing well on desktop and laptop PCs, particularly with stiff competition from Microsoft, Google and Mozilla. However, its mobile offering has been gaining strong support, with the company having around 100 million mobile users.
Opera will be showcasing its updated mobile web browsers in action at the CTIA Wireless event in Florida next week. They should be available for download then.
Read more: http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2035283/opera-announces-opera-mini-opera-mobile#ixzz1H2tHDUKj
The Inquirer - Computer hardware news and downloads. Visit the download store today.
The Opera Mini 6 browser works on devices using the Android, Blackberry. Symbian/Series 60 and J2ME operating systems. Opera Mobile 11 works on Android, Symbian, Windows 7 and Meego. Android is obviously the top priority for Opera, with users able to choose between the two mobile browsers.
Currently neither Opera browser will work on Apple's devices, but Opera is planning to show a preview of Opera Mini on the Iphone and Ipad, suggesting that an Opera web browser release for IOS is imminent.
Opera's web browser hasn't been doing well on desktop and laptop PCs, particularly with stiff competition from Microsoft, Google and Mozilla. However, its mobile offering has been gaining strong support, with the company having around 100 million mobile users.
Opera will be showcasing its updated mobile web browsers in action at the CTIA Wireless event in Florida next week. They should be available for download then.
Read more: http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2035283/opera-announces-opera-mini-opera-mobile#ixzz1H2tHDUKj
The Inquirer - Computer hardware news and downloads. Visit the download store today.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Adobe Flash 10.2 now available for Android smartphones and Motorola XOOM
Adobe Flash Player 10.2 has finally arrived for higher powered Android devices running Android 2.1 or above, including the new Android 3.0 Honeycomb powered tablets like Motorola's XOOM. On the XOOM, at least, there's was some initial confusion in the Android Market as to which version was available, 10.1 or 10.2. Somebody fixed that relatively quickly, and the plug-in is now listed properly as 10.2, even though it is a beta version. The version of Adobe Flash 10.2 for smartphones is the production release version, and Adobe promises improved performance over the 10.1 plug-in that has been in use for months.
I did some quick before and after tests on an Android 2.3 Gingerbread equipped Google Nexus S to try to get a feel for the promised performance enhancements. While still running Flash 10.1, I found that our own embedded YouTube Flash videos ran smoothly at 360p quality, but got very jittery when running at 480p or 720p. Upgrading the Flash plug-in to 10.2 smoothed out the 480p playback significantly, though still left the frame rate lower than it should have been. In all cases, though, the sound was not quite synchronized with the video both with Flash 10.1 and 10.2.
Read more: http://www.mobileburn.com/news.jsp?Id=13553
I did some quick before and after tests on an Android 2.3 Gingerbread equipped Google Nexus S to try to get a feel for the promised performance enhancements. While still running Flash 10.1, I found that our own embedded YouTube Flash videos ran smoothly at 360p quality, but got very jittery when running at 480p or 720p. Upgrading the Flash plug-in to 10.2 smoothed out the 480p playback significantly, though still left the frame rate lower than it should have been. In all cases, though, the sound was not quite synchronized with the video both with Flash 10.1 and 10.2.
Read more: http://www.mobileburn.com/news.jsp?Id=13553
Toshiba Android 3.0 Tablet Get’s A Notification Page, Is It Launching Soon?
Toshiba is working on bringing a new Android 3.0 Honeycomb based tablet to market, did you know? Well the company is going to be bringing what is being called the “Toshiba Tablet” to market sometime this year, they have shown the tablet off before at CES 2011 and there has been a special website setup for it too.
However the precise release date or price for the tablet has been left unavailable by the company, except for the declaration by company officials at CES that the tablet would launch soon. And another recent declaration by a company employee that the Toshiba Tablet is superior to the Apple iPad 2 words from folks inside Toshiba regarding this upcoming tablet have been nonexistent.
Although recently a document has leaked for tablet availability at Staples stores here in the US. The document showed –among many other tablets– a Toshiba 10″ tablet with 32GB storage running Android 3.0 Honeycomb listed for launch in June of this year for $499.
Read more: http://tablets-planet.com/2011/03/18/toshiba-android-3-0-tablet-gets-a-notification-page-is-it-launching-soon/
However the precise release date or price for the tablet has been left unavailable by the company, except for the declaration by company officials at CES that the tablet would launch soon. And another recent declaration by a company employee that the Toshiba Tablet is superior to the Apple iPad 2 words from folks inside Toshiba regarding this upcoming tablet have been nonexistent.
Although recently a document has leaked for tablet availability at Staples stores here in the US. The document showed –among many other tablets– a Toshiba 10″ tablet with 32GB storage running Android 3.0 Honeycomb listed for launch in June of this year for $499.
Read more: http://tablets-planet.com/2011/03/18/toshiba-android-3-0-tablet-gets-a-notification-page-is-it-launching-soon/
HP's WebOS Could Tame the 'Consumerization of IT'
Many industry analysts have been quick to jump on the HP criticism bandwagon after CEO Leo Apotheker revealed the company's keen focus on mobile computing platform webOS and the cloud during an HP event this week. The market even responded unfavorably with HP stock prices falling soon after the event. Let's face it, we've come to know HP as a hardware company, and its move into mobile OSes and cloud services is making everyone a bit jumpy.
That criticism may be unfounded, however. What many see as HP just throwing a hat into the ring to compete with Apple and Google may actually be a great strategy to provide businesses with sensible and secure options that fuse mobile and cloud computing into offerings that will sit better with CIOs and IT decision makers. As popular as Android and Apple devices are, there are still legitimate concerns in corporate IT about introducing these devices onto a business network; the same can be said about cloud computing.
Read more: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2382173,00.asp
That criticism may be unfounded, however. What many see as HP just throwing a hat into the ring to compete with Apple and Google may actually be a great strategy to provide businesses with sensible and secure options that fuse mobile and cloud computing into offerings that will sit better with CIOs and IT decision makers. As popular as Android and Apple devices are, there are still legitimate concerns in corporate IT about introducing these devices onto a business network; the same can be said about cloud computing.
Read more: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2382173,00.asp
Coming soon to a computer near you: Dot-XXX
On Friday in San Francisco, the California nonprofit that oversees Internet addresses gave the green light to the virtual red-light district. The vote comes after several years of clashes and deliberations by the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers.
Adult-entertainment sites will still populate the .com space and every other corner of the Internet. But now, many pornographic sites can also join a specialized domain that instantly telegraphs its content with the infamous suffix. ICM Registry, a Florida-based company that will run .xxx, said the domain’s Web sites will be the Internet’s most trusted place for adult entertainment: ICM will monitor the sites to ensure that they prohibit spam, viruses and any other illegal behavior. And it says it will use some of the registration fees for an affiliated foundation to promote free speech and combat child pornography.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/coming-soon-online-dot-xxx/2011/03/16/ABV1AAr_story.html
Adult-entertainment sites will still populate the .com space and every other corner of the Internet. But now, many pornographic sites can also join a specialized domain that instantly telegraphs its content with the infamous suffix. ICM Registry, a Florida-based company that will run .xxx, said the domain’s Web sites will be the Internet’s most trusted place for adult entertainment: ICM will monitor the sites to ensure that they prohibit spam, viruses and any other illegal behavior. And it says it will use some of the registration fees for an affiliated foundation to promote free speech and combat child pornography.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/coming-soon-online-dot-xxx/2011/03/16/ABV1AAr_story.html
Man rescued 8 days after Japan's quake-tsunami
FUKUSHIMA CITY, Japan (AP) — Rescuers pulled a man alive from a wrecked house eight days after Japan's earthquake and tsunami Saturday as a crucial mission inched forward to rebuild power lines to a radiation-leaking nuclear plant crippled in the disaster.
As Japan crossed the one-week mark since the twin natural disasters spawned the nuclear crisis, the Japanese government conceded Friday it was slow to respond and welcomed ever-growing help from the United States in hopes of preventing a complete meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant.
The natural disasters claimed more than 7,200 lives, with many thousands more missing in an area struck first by a magnitude 9.0 quake and then an enormous wall of water that seemed to scrape the earth clean.
Rescues have been few, with the latest Saturday in the rubble of Kesennuma city, where a young man was pulled from a crushed house. He was too weak to talk and transferred immediately to a hospital, a military official said, declining to be named because he was not authorized to speak with reporters.
Emergency crews at the nuclear plant faced two continuing challenges: cooling the nuclear fuel in reactors where energy is generated and cooling the adjacent pools where thousands of used nuclear fuel rods are stored in water.
"In hindsight, we could have moved a little quicker in assessing the situation and coordinating all that information and provided it faster," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Friday.
The plant operator was working steadily to rebuild the wiring of power lines to six reactors, and planned to finish circuitry to units 1, 2, 5 and 6 finished Saturday, said Hidehiko Nishiyama of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said. Workers planned to reconnect troubled Unit 3 on Sunday, he said.
However, much work remains to be done before operators can flip the switch to test crucial cooling systems at the plant.
"Most of the motors and switchboards were submerged by the tsunami and they cannot be used. A thorough examination must be carried out to determine if there is leakage of electricity and whether some switchboards remain usable," Nishiyama said at a briefing Saturday.
Even once the power is reconnected, it is not clear if the cooling systems will still work.
The storage pools need a constant source of cooling water. Even when removed from reactors, uranium rods are still extremely hot and must be cooled for months, possibly longer, to prevent them from heating up again and emitting radioactivity.
On Friday, survivors, rescue workers and ordinary people observed a minute at the one-week mark. As a siren blared, they lowered their heads and clasped their hands in prayer.
In the largely destroyed town of Hirota, 70-year-old Tetsuko Ito wept as she hugged an old friend she met at a refugee center. One of her sons was missing and another had been evacuated from his home near the Fukushima complex.
"Every day is terrifying. Is there going to be an explosion at the reactor? Is there going to be word my other son is dead?" she said.
If the situation gets worse in Fukushima, she said her evacuated son and his family will have to live at her already crowded house, which escaped the tsunami.
"It's strange when this destroyed area is a place someone would consider safe," she said.
Japan's government raised the accident classification for the nuclear crisis from Level 4 to Level 5 on a seven-level international scale. That put it on a par with the Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania in 1979, and signified its consequences went beyond the local area.
Edano also said Tokyo was asking Washington for additional help, a change from a few days ago, when Japanese officials disagreed with American assessments of the severity of the problem.
The Science Ministry said radiation levels about 30 kilometers (19 miles) northwest of the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant rose at one time Friday to 0.15 millisieverts per hour, about the amount absorbed in a chest X-ray. While levels fluctuate, radiation at most points at that distance from the facility have been far below that. The ministry did not have an explanation for the rise.
A U.S. military fire truck was among a fleet of Japanese vehicles that sprayed water into Unit 3, according to air force Chief of Staff Shigeru Iwasaki, sending tons of water arcing over the facility in an attempt to prevent nuclear fuel from overheating and emitting dangerous levels of radiation.
Additionally, the United States also conducted overflights of the reactor site, strapping sophisticated pods onto aircraft to measure radiation aloft. Two tests conducted Thursday gave readings that U.S. Deputy Energy Secretary Daniel B. Poneman said reinforced the U.S. recommendation that people stay 50 miles (80 kilometers) away from the Fukushima plant. Japan has ordered only a 12-mile (20-kilometer) evacuation zone around the plant.
American technical experts also are exchanging information with officials from the Tokyo Electric Power Co. which owns the plants, as well as with Japanese government agencies.
The tsunami knocked out power to cooling systems at the nuclear plant and its six reactors. In the week since, four have been hit by fires, explosions or partial meltdowns. The events have led to power shortages and factory closures, hurt global manufacturing and triggered a plunge in Japanese stock prices.
Most of Japan's auto industry is shut down. Factories from Louisiana to Thailand are low on Japanese-made parts. Idled plants are costing companies hundreds of millions of dollars. And U.S. car dealers may not get the cars they order this spring.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan vowed that the disasters would not defeat Japan.
"We will rebuild Japan from scratch," he said in a nationally televised address, comparing the work with the country's emergence as a global power from the wreckage of World War II.
While nuclear experts have been saying for days that Japan was underplaying the crisis' severity, Hidehiko Nishiyama of the nuclear safety agency said the rating was raised when officials realized that at least 3 percent of the fuel in three of the complex's reactors had been severely damaged. That suggests those reactor cores have partially melted down and thrown radioactivity into the environment.
Low levels of radiation have been detected well beyond Tokyo, which is 140 miles (220 kilometers) south of the plant, but hazardous levels have been limited to the plant itself.
Police said more than 452,000 people made homeless by the quake and tsunami were staying in schools and other shelters, as supplies of fuel, medicine and other necessities ran short.
Talmadge reported from Yamagata, Japan. Associated Press writers Foster Klug in Hirota, Japan, and Elaine Kurtenbach, Tim Sullivan, Shino Yuasa and Jeff Donn in Tokyo contributed to this report.
As Japan crossed the one-week mark since the twin natural disasters spawned the nuclear crisis, the Japanese government conceded Friday it was slow to respond and welcomed ever-growing help from the United States in hopes of preventing a complete meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant.
The natural disasters claimed more than 7,200 lives, with many thousands more missing in an area struck first by a magnitude 9.0 quake and then an enormous wall of water that seemed to scrape the earth clean.
Rescues have been few, with the latest Saturday in the rubble of Kesennuma city, where a young man was pulled from a crushed house. He was too weak to talk and transferred immediately to a hospital, a military official said, declining to be named because he was not authorized to speak with reporters.
Emergency crews at the nuclear plant faced two continuing challenges: cooling the nuclear fuel in reactors where energy is generated and cooling the adjacent pools where thousands of used nuclear fuel rods are stored in water.
"In hindsight, we could have moved a little quicker in assessing the situation and coordinating all that information and provided it faster," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Friday.
The plant operator was working steadily to rebuild the wiring of power lines to six reactors, and planned to finish circuitry to units 1, 2, 5 and 6 finished Saturday, said Hidehiko Nishiyama of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said. Workers planned to reconnect troubled Unit 3 on Sunday, he said.
However, much work remains to be done before operators can flip the switch to test crucial cooling systems at the plant.
"Most of the motors and switchboards were submerged by the tsunami and they cannot be used. A thorough examination must be carried out to determine if there is leakage of electricity and whether some switchboards remain usable," Nishiyama said at a briefing Saturday.
Even once the power is reconnected, it is not clear if the cooling systems will still work.
The storage pools need a constant source of cooling water. Even when removed from reactors, uranium rods are still extremely hot and must be cooled for months, possibly longer, to prevent them from heating up again and emitting radioactivity.
On Friday, survivors, rescue workers and ordinary people observed a minute at the one-week mark. As a siren blared, they lowered their heads and clasped their hands in prayer.
In the largely destroyed town of Hirota, 70-year-old Tetsuko Ito wept as she hugged an old friend she met at a refugee center. One of her sons was missing and another had been evacuated from his home near the Fukushima complex.
"Every day is terrifying. Is there going to be an explosion at the reactor? Is there going to be word my other son is dead?" she said.
If the situation gets worse in Fukushima, she said her evacuated son and his family will have to live at her already crowded house, which escaped the tsunami.
"It's strange when this destroyed area is a place someone would consider safe," she said.
Japan's government raised the accident classification for the nuclear crisis from Level 4 to Level 5 on a seven-level international scale. That put it on a par with the Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania in 1979, and signified its consequences went beyond the local area.
Edano also said Tokyo was asking Washington for additional help, a change from a few days ago, when Japanese officials disagreed with American assessments of the severity of the problem.
The Science Ministry said radiation levels about 30 kilometers (19 miles) northwest of the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant rose at one time Friday to 0.15 millisieverts per hour, about the amount absorbed in a chest X-ray. While levels fluctuate, radiation at most points at that distance from the facility have been far below that. The ministry did not have an explanation for the rise.
A U.S. military fire truck was among a fleet of Japanese vehicles that sprayed water into Unit 3, according to air force Chief of Staff Shigeru Iwasaki, sending tons of water arcing over the facility in an attempt to prevent nuclear fuel from overheating and emitting dangerous levels of radiation.
Additionally, the United States also conducted overflights of the reactor site, strapping sophisticated pods onto aircraft to measure radiation aloft. Two tests conducted Thursday gave readings that U.S. Deputy Energy Secretary Daniel B. Poneman said reinforced the U.S. recommendation that people stay 50 miles (80 kilometers) away from the Fukushima plant. Japan has ordered only a 12-mile (20-kilometer) evacuation zone around the plant.
American technical experts also are exchanging information with officials from the Tokyo Electric Power Co. which owns the plants, as well as with Japanese government agencies.
The tsunami knocked out power to cooling systems at the nuclear plant and its six reactors. In the week since, four have been hit by fires, explosions or partial meltdowns. The events have led to power shortages and factory closures, hurt global manufacturing and triggered a plunge in Japanese stock prices.
Most of Japan's auto industry is shut down. Factories from Louisiana to Thailand are low on Japanese-made parts. Idled plants are costing companies hundreds of millions of dollars. And U.S. car dealers may not get the cars they order this spring.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan vowed that the disasters would not defeat Japan.
"We will rebuild Japan from scratch," he said in a nationally televised address, comparing the work with the country's emergence as a global power from the wreckage of World War II.
While nuclear experts have been saying for days that Japan was underplaying the crisis' severity, Hidehiko Nishiyama of the nuclear safety agency said the rating was raised when officials realized that at least 3 percent of the fuel in three of the complex's reactors had been severely damaged. That suggests those reactor cores have partially melted down and thrown radioactivity into the environment.
Low levels of radiation have been detected well beyond Tokyo, which is 140 miles (220 kilometers) south of the plant, but hazardous levels have been limited to the plant itself.
Police said more than 452,000 people made homeless by the quake and tsunami were staying in schools and other shelters, as supplies of fuel, medicine and other necessities ran short.
Talmadge reported from Yamagata, Japan. Associated Press writers Foster Klug in Hirota, Japan, and Elaine Kurtenbach, Tim Sullivan, Shino Yuasa and Jeff Donn in Tokyo contributed to this report.
Obama Takes Hard Line With Libya After Shift by Clinton
WASHINGTON — In a Paris hotel room on Tuesday night, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton found herself juggling the inconsistencies of American foreign policy in a turbulent Middle East. She criticized the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates for sending troops to quash protests in Bahrain even as she pressed him to send planes to intervene in Libya.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/world/africa/19policy.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/world/africa/19policy.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Google erects Android 3.0 mascot on campus
Google has made a tradition of erecting Android mascots at its headquarters. The Android 3.0 (codenamed Honeycomb) mascot recently arrived at the Building 44 on the company's Mountain View, California campus.
The Honeycomb statue joins other treats in front of the Android building which are representing the operating system's codenames for previous versions: a cupcake (1.5), an Éclair (2.0-2.1), a bowl of frozen yogurt (aka Froyo, 2.2), Gingerbread (2.3). If you haven't figured it out yet, we'll tell you: the Android releases are codenamed after a dessert, in alphabetical order.
Read more: http://www.techspot.com/news/42624-google-erects-android-30-mascot-on-campus.html
The Honeycomb statue joins other treats in front of the Android building which are representing the operating system's codenames for previous versions: a cupcake (1.5), an Éclair (2.0-2.1), a bowl of frozen yogurt (aka Froyo, 2.2), Gingerbread (2.3). If you haven't figured it out yet, we'll tell you: the Android releases are codenamed after a dessert, in alphabetical order.
Read more: http://www.techspot.com/news/42624-google-erects-android-30-mascot-on-campus.html
Android Browser Faster Than iPhone In Flawed Study
Blaze Software performed a huge study on browser performance, loading 1,000 different Web sites in the Android and iPhone browsers and taking 45,000 measurements. It says that the results conclusively prove that the Android browser is 52% faster than the Safari browser in the iPhone.
"We were very surprised by the results," Guy Podjarny, Blaze CTO and co-founder, said in a statement. "We assumed that it would be a closer race and that the latest JavaScript speed improvements would have a more material impact on performance. The fact that Android beat iPhone by such a large margin was not expected."
"We were very surprised by the results," Guy Podjarny, Blaze CTO and co-founder, said in a statement. "We assumed that it would be a closer race and that the latest JavaScript speed improvements would have a more material impact on performance. The fact that Android beat iPhone by such a large margin was not expected."
Internet Explorer 9 racked up 2.35 million downloads in first day: Microsoft
"We want to thank everyone around the world for downloading IE9 and the enthusiastic reception," Ryan Gavin, Microsoft's Senior Director for Internet Explorer Business and Marketing, wrote on the official Internet Explorer blog. "2.3 million downloads in 24 hours is over double the 1 million downloads we saw of the IE9 Beta and four times that of the IE9 RC over the same time period." Fair enough.
But how do those download numbers stack up against other browser launches?
Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Horizons/2011/0317/Internet-Explorer-9-racked-up-2.35-million-downloads-in-first-day-Microsoft
But how do those download numbers stack up against other browser launches?
Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Horizons/2011/0317/Internet-Explorer-9-racked-up-2.35-million-downloads-in-first-day-Microsoft
After pounding rebel hub, Gaddafi calls for truce as UN action looms
CAIRO: Libya's army said it would halt operations from Sunday to allow rebels to lay down their arms, softening repeated threats by Muammar Gaddafi to crush them, as world powers edged towards adopting tough measures to shut down the strongman's military machine.
Libyan troops pushed forward towards the insurgent stronghold of Benghazi on Thursday and launched air raids on its outskirts as Washington raised the possibility of air strikes to stop the forces. The international debate on what action to take may have dragged on too long to help the anti-Gaddafi uprising, now struggling to hold its ground one month after it started.
Gaddafi's forces have made "significant strides on the ground" and are 160km from Benghazi, US undersecretary of state William Burns said.
Read more: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/After-pounding-rebel-hub-Gaddafi-calls-for-truce-as-UN-action-looms/articleshow/7732877.cms
Libyan troops pushed forward towards the insurgent stronghold of Benghazi on Thursday and launched air raids on its outskirts as Washington raised the possibility of air strikes to stop the forces. The international debate on what action to take may have dragged on too long to help the anti-Gaddafi uprising, now struggling to hold its ground one month after it started.
Gaddafi's forces have made "significant strides on the ground" and are 160km from Benghazi, US undersecretary of state William Burns said.
Read more: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/After-pounding-rebel-hub-Gaddafi-calls-for-truce-as-UN-action-looms/articleshow/7732877.cms
Crews Race To Supply Emergency Power To Crippled Japanese Plant
Japanese engineers are racing Friday to extend an emergency power cable to a nuclear reactor complex crippled by the country's earthquake and tsunami a week ago.
A steady supply of power could enable workers at the Fukushima plant to get water pumps working again in their urgent effort to cool off overheated nuclear fuel rods.
The International Atomic Energy Agency says that Japanese authorities have told them they have been able to lay a cable line to reactor number two at the nuclear plant. However, it is not clear how close workers are to actually restoring power.
The U.N. nuclear agency reported the situation at the Fukushima nuclear station was "very serious" Thursday, but that the problems caused by last week's natural disaster had not become significantly worse during the previous 24 hours. That assessment was delivered before the announcement late Thursday night that the circuit delivering electric power to the plant had just been restored.
A steady supply of power could enable workers at the Fukushima plant to get water pumps working again in their urgent effort to cool off overheated nuclear fuel rods.
The International Atomic Energy Agency says that Japanese authorities have told them they have been able to lay a cable line to reactor number two at the nuclear plant. However, it is not clear how close workers are to actually restoring power.
The U.N. nuclear agency reported the situation at the Fukushima nuclear station was "very serious" Thursday, but that the problems caused by last week's natural disaster had not become significantly worse during the previous 24 hours. That assessment was delivered before the announcement late Thursday night that the circuit delivering electric power to the plant had just been restored.
Nokia to release N8-style MeeGo tablet, suggests patent
A patent filed back in May 2010 has been revealed, suggesting that Nokia has an N8-style MeeGo tablet in the pipeline.
Revealed by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the year-old patent details Nokia’s plans to release an N8-style tablet, believed to be sporting a 9 or 10-inch display. The mystery slate is also rumoured to be running Nokia and Intel’s MeeGo OS, despite the Finns admitting that it will only reveal one such device in 2011 following its Windows Phone 7 alliance. Could this be it?
Little else is known about the unnamed tablet, although the basic sketches reveal that it will arrive with USB ports, a 3.5mm audio jack and what likes like microSD and SIM card slots. If previous rumours are true, it will also feature a 1.2GHz processor under the hood.
If it ever sees the light of day, Nokia’s rumoured MeeGo tablet will launch in Q3 2011.
Revealed by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the year-old patent details Nokia’s plans to release an N8-style tablet, believed to be sporting a 9 or 10-inch display. The mystery slate is also rumoured to be running Nokia and Intel’s MeeGo OS, despite the Finns admitting that it will only reveal one such device in 2011 following its Windows Phone 7 alliance. Could this be it?
Little else is known about the unnamed tablet, although the basic sketches reveal that it will arrive with USB ports, a 3.5mm audio jack and what likes like microSD and SIM card slots. If previous rumours are true, it will also feature a 1.2GHz processor under the hood.
If it ever sees the light of day, Nokia’s rumoured MeeGo tablet will launch in Q3 2011.
Asustek's Google or MeeGo Netbooks to Cost $200 - $250 - Report.
Asustek Computer, one of the world's biggest suppliers of notebooks, reportedly plans to release an ultra low-cost netbook "in cooperation with Intel" in June, 2011. The new laptop will likely be based on Intel Corp.'s or Google's operating system.
In a bid to better compete against emerging media tablets and other low-cost systems, Asustek plans to release a netbook with $200 - $250 price-tag, according to a report by DigiTimes web-site. Specifications of the mobile computer are unclear, but it may feature 10" screen, single-core Intel Atom processor and be powered by either Intel MeeGo operating system or Google Chrome or Android platforms.
Read more: http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/mobile/display/20110317103247_Asustek_s_Google_or_MeeGo_Netbooks_to_Cost_200_250_Report.html
In a bid to better compete against emerging media tablets and other low-cost systems, Asustek plans to release a netbook with $200 - $250 price-tag, according to a report by DigiTimes web-site. Specifications of the mobile computer are unclear, but it may feature 10" screen, single-core Intel Atom processor and be powered by either Intel MeeGo operating system or Google Chrome or Android platforms.
Read more: http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/mobile/display/20110317103247_Asustek_s_Google_or_MeeGo_Netbooks_to_Cost_200_250_Report.html
Nokia “Harmattan” Maemo 6 device tipped for release
Nokia’s OS policy seemed, although somewhat controversial, pretty straightforward: S30/S40 on the phones, Windows Phone on the smartphones and MeeGo back in the lab working on what comes next. Now, though, it seems Nokia has another product running a different OS in the pipeline for 2011, a Maemo “Harmattan” 6 device “expected to raise the interest of the MeeGo community.”
Read more: http://www.slashgear.com/nokia-harmattan-maemo-6-device-tipped-for-release-17140579/
Read more: http://www.slashgear.com/nokia-harmattan-maemo-6-device-tipped-for-release-17140579/
Japan earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis could further Apple's iPad 2 shortages
The Apple iPad 2 has been selling out in stores across the U.S. since its launch Friday, and the scarcity of the device will probably continue as Japan continues to recover from the earthquake and tsunami that struck the nation March 11 and as it tries to rein in an escalating nuclear crisis.
Apple pushed the delivery time for those ordering the iPad 2 online to 4 to 5 weeks Thursday, the same day that the research firm IHS iSuppli issued a report that said five key components of the tablet made in Japan will be in short supply because of factory shutdowns.
"The aftermath of the Japanese earthquake may cause logistical disruptions and supply shortages in Apple Inc.'s iPad 2, which employs several components manufactured in the disaster-stricken country -- including a hard-to-replace electronic compass, the battery and possibly the advanced technology glass in the display," IHS iSuppli said in a statement.
Apple officials were unavailable to comment on the report Thursday afternoon.
IHS iSuppli said it has identified five parts in the iPad 2 supplied by Japanese companies: NAND flash drives from Toshiba, memory manufactured by Elpida, electronic compasses from AKM Semiconductor, glass used in the tablet's touch screen likely from Asahi Glass Co. and batteries from Apple factories in Japan.
Read more: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/03/the-apple-ipad-2-has-been-selling-out-in-stores-nationwide-since-it-launch-last-friday-and-the-scarcity-of-the-device-is-li.html
Apple pushed the delivery time for those ordering the iPad 2 online to 4 to 5 weeks Thursday, the same day that the research firm IHS iSuppli issued a report that said five key components of the tablet made in Japan will be in short supply because of factory shutdowns.
"The aftermath of the Japanese earthquake may cause logistical disruptions and supply shortages in Apple Inc.'s iPad 2, which employs several components manufactured in the disaster-stricken country -- including a hard-to-replace electronic compass, the battery and possibly the advanced technology glass in the display," IHS iSuppli said in a statement.
Apple officials were unavailable to comment on the report Thursday afternoon.
IHS iSuppli said it has identified five parts in the iPad 2 supplied by Japanese companies: NAND flash drives from Toshiba, memory manufactured by Elpida, electronic compasses from AKM Semiconductor, glass used in the tablet's touch screen likely from Asahi Glass Co. and batteries from Apple factories in Japan.
Read more: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/03/the-apple-ipad-2-has-been-selling-out-in-stores-nationwide-since-it-launch-last-friday-and-the-scarcity-of-the-device-is-li.html
Pulse News Reader Updated for XOOM, Android 3.0.1 Honeycomb
Behold version 1.9.5, an update that’s just this week come through for Pulse, one of if not THE preeminent news feed reader on Android (and iOS, for those keeping track of that.) This update is marked 1.9.5 and says that it’s an update specifically for Android 3.0.1 Honeycomb. We’re rolling out with it on the Motorola XOOM and so far… it looks exactly the same. But that’s no bad thing, all updates behind the scenes – that means they were doing it right the first time!
Read more: http://androidcommunity.com/pulse-news-reader-updated-for-xoom-android-3-0-1-honeycomb-20110317/
Read more: http://androidcommunity.com/pulse-news-reader-updated-for-xoom-android-3-0-1-honeycomb-20110317/
ASUS to Introduce Sub-$250 Netbook Running Android 3.0?
A new rumor has surfaced from DigiTimes reporting ASUS is looking to evolve their netbook game in 2011 with either Chrome OS or – our precious – Android. It’ll be on the affordable side with pricing expected to sit anywhere between $200 and $250. They’re claiming it’ll be a 1o or 11 inch netbook.
ASUS has already shown their Android-based netbook card – they debuted tablet/netbook hybrids at CES this year called the Eee Pad Transformer and Eee Pad Slider (both pictured above). This would be a more traditional netbook, though, which makes things a bit interesting.
As far as processor technology goes, it’s believed that Intel’s established Atom series will be powering things under the hood, though which chipset exactly wasn’t said. While Chrome OS may be a better fit for a traditional netbook experience, Android has quickly become an easily-marketable household name and – to be quite honest – it can do a lot more than Chrome OS can in its current state. We’ll be keeping an eye out for further announcements from ASUS.
ASUS has already shown their Android-based netbook card – they debuted tablet/netbook hybrids at CES this year called the Eee Pad Transformer and Eee Pad Slider (both pictured above). This would be a more traditional netbook, though, which makes things a bit interesting.
As far as processor technology goes, it’s believed that Intel’s established Atom series will be powering things under the hood, though which chipset exactly wasn’t said. While Chrome OS may be a better fit for a traditional netbook experience, Android has quickly become an easily-marketable household name and – to be quite honest – it can do a lot more than Chrome OS can in its current state. We’ll be keeping an eye out for further announcements from ASUS.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Sarah Palin's low-profile, high-impact advisor
Rebecca Mansour, who doesn't mind sounding elite with her vast vocabulary, calls herself boring. Her words in defense of the former Alaska governor, however, are anything but dull.
Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-rebecca-mansour-20110317,0,5892620.story
Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-rebecca-mansour-20110317,0,5892620.story
Senators Question Safety of Nuclear Reactors in California and Vermont
WASHINGTON, DC, March 16, 2011 (ENS) - Citing the nuclear emergency in Japan, California's two U.S. Senators today called on the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to perform a thorough inspection to evaluate the safety and emergency preparedness of the state's two nuclear power plants, both located on the Pacific Ocean and near earthquake faults.
Senator Barbara Boxer, who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and Dianne Feinstein sent a letter to Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Dr. Gregory Jaczko asking for evaluations of the San Onofre nuclear power plant in San Clemente and the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant near San Luis Obispo.
Read more: http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2011/2011-03-16-02.html
Senator Barbara Boxer, who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and Dianne Feinstein sent a letter to Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Dr. Gregory Jaczko asking for evaluations of the San Onofre nuclear power plant in San Clemente and the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant near San Luis Obispo.
Read more: http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2011/2011-03-16-02.html
Japan crisis spells jitters for global economy
WASHINGTON — Experts are cautiously optimistic that the still-brittle global economy can absorb the shock of Japan's triple disaster, but major risks still loom as the crisis unfolds.
As Japan has been ravaged by an earthquake, tsunami and nuclear emergency, economists have appeared confident the world's third largest economy will bounce back and that damage to the global economy will be limited.
Many, like Nariman Behravesh, an economist at US-based IHS, predicts a "large, but -- probably -- temporary impact on the Japanese economy," and a "small impact on the rest of the world."
Using previous catastrophes like the 1995 Kobe earthquake as a reference, they expect quake-struck businesses to eventually reopen.
Meanwhile tens of billions of dollars will be spent rebuilding homes, factories and infrastructure, sparking a recovery boom.
That process, they hope, will be replicated in Japan's links with the world.
"Japan's most important trading partners -- Australia, China -- will see both the most important near-term drag, and the largest medium-term benefit," said Societe Generale's Michala Marcussen.
The prospect of quick economic recovery will be little consolation for the millions whose lives have been turned upside down by the disaster, but will offer some solace for those across the globe who are already worried by high unemployment and rising prices.
But as the crisis rumbles on, there are increasing warnings about how spillovers could be felt by consumers and economies across the globe, even without a catastrophic nuclear meltdown.
The most immediate problems are being felt in the manufacturing sector.
Japan has long ceased to be the world's factory -- surpassed by China, Indonesia and a host of other emerging countries -- but it is still a crucial part of the global supply chain for everything from cars and computer parts.
With 11 nuclear plants shuttered and blackouts predicted until the end of April, a slowdown in Japanese production could quickly turn into a manufacturing bottleneck.
"People will be surprised by how fast prices will rise," Jesse Toprak, an auto analyst with TrueCar.com told AFP.
Toprak predicted that shuttered production could push up the cost of Japanese cars by around $1,000 dollars for some US-sold models by next week, as dealers cut discounts in the face dwindling supply.
"A lot of this inventory won't last more than a few weeks, if that," Toprak said, citing already high demand for fuel-efficient Japanese vehicles like the Toyota Prius.
Meanwhile production on non-Japanese cars could be slowed by a parts shortage.
"Most vehicles that are made the United States have at least one component if not more that comes from Japan," he said.
Rising oil prices are seen as another conduit for the crisis spreading.
Although crude costs have fluctuated in recent days as traders weighted lower short-term demand in Japan, a protracted nuclear crisis could raise demand for oil.
On Wednesday oil prices rose by 80 cents a barrel in New York and $2.10 in London, although tension in the Middle East and North Africa also played a role.
"An oil price shock would lower (global) growth substantially, but probably not cause an outright recession," said analysts at Swiss Re.
Policymakers, still chastened by the recent economic downturn, are also focused on preventing fallout in the financial markets -- a now familiar conduit for crises.
Japan's central bank has pumped $62 billion into the economy, while the Federal Reserve continued to unfurl a $600 billion in stimulus spending despite a rosier economic outlook at home.
When the yen hit a post-war high against the dollar on Wednesday, speculation raged that central banks could intervene to stop a crippling rise in the price of Japan's exports.
Still, the major stock markets -- a quick and quantifiable, if frequently imperfect, barometer of the crisis -- have fallen sharply in the last few days.
Among other concerns, traders worry that Japanese investors could repatriate cash to Japan, destabilizing markets from Brazil and the United States.
Japanese investors have poured cash into Latin America's largest markets, with retail investors estimated to hold around $35 billion in assets in Brazil alone.
US bond holders meanwhile have fretted that Japan -- the second largest holder of US debt -- might trim back its $886 billion holdings to pay for rebuilding costs.
Any decision to sell US bonds could force the price of borrowing up for the already cash-strapped United States, bring the country a step closer to a fully blown fiscal crisis.
For now few economists are making bold predictions about how events will develop without significant caveats.
"It is still too early to tell what the full impact of the March 11 earthquake, tsunami and growing nuclear crisis on Japan's infrastructure, industrial base and economic growth will be -- let alone the broader global impacts," said Behravesh of IHS.
As Japan has been ravaged by an earthquake, tsunami and nuclear emergency, economists have appeared confident the world's third largest economy will bounce back and that damage to the global economy will be limited.
Many, like Nariman Behravesh, an economist at US-based IHS, predicts a "large, but -- probably -- temporary impact on the Japanese economy," and a "small impact on the rest of the world."
Using previous catastrophes like the 1995 Kobe earthquake as a reference, they expect quake-struck businesses to eventually reopen.
Meanwhile tens of billions of dollars will be spent rebuilding homes, factories and infrastructure, sparking a recovery boom.
That process, they hope, will be replicated in Japan's links with the world.
"Japan's most important trading partners -- Australia, China -- will see both the most important near-term drag, and the largest medium-term benefit," said Societe Generale's Michala Marcussen.
The prospect of quick economic recovery will be little consolation for the millions whose lives have been turned upside down by the disaster, but will offer some solace for those across the globe who are already worried by high unemployment and rising prices.
But as the crisis rumbles on, there are increasing warnings about how spillovers could be felt by consumers and economies across the globe, even without a catastrophic nuclear meltdown.
The most immediate problems are being felt in the manufacturing sector.
Japan has long ceased to be the world's factory -- surpassed by China, Indonesia and a host of other emerging countries -- but it is still a crucial part of the global supply chain for everything from cars and computer parts.
With 11 nuclear plants shuttered and blackouts predicted until the end of April, a slowdown in Japanese production could quickly turn into a manufacturing bottleneck.
"People will be surprised by how fast prices will rise," Jesse Toprak, an auto analyst with TrueCar.com told AFP.
Toprak predicted that shuttered production could push up the cost of Japanese cars by around $1,000 dollars for some US-sold models by next week, as dealers cut discounts in the face dwindling supply.
"A lot of this inventory won't last more than a few weeks, if that," Toprak said, citing already high demand for fuel-efficient Japanese vehicles like the Toyota Prius.
Meanwhile production on non-Japanese cars could be slowed by a parts shortage.
"Most vehicles that are made the United States have at least one component if not more that comes from Japan," he said.
Rising oil prices are seen as another conduit for the crisis spreading.
Although crude costs have fluctuated in recent days as traders weighted lower short-term demand in Japan, a protracted nuclear crisis could raise demand for oil.
On Wednesday oil prices rose by 80 cents a barrel in New York and $2.10 in London, although tension in the Middle East and North Africa also played a role.
"An oil price shock would lower (global) growth substantially, but probably not cause an outright recession," said analysts at Swiss Re.
Policymakers, still chastened by the recent economic downturn, are also focused on preventing fallout in the financial markets -- a now familiar conduit for crises.
Japan's central bank has pumped $62 billion into the economy, while the Federal Reserve continued to unfurl a $600 billion in stimulus spending despite a rosier economic outlook at home.
When the yen hit a post-war high against the dollar on Wednesday, speculation raged that central banks could intervene to stop a crippling rise in the price of Japan's exports.
Still, the major stock markets -- a quick and quantifiable, if frequently imperfect, barometer of the crisis -- have fallen sharply in the last few days.
Among other concerns, traders worry that Japanese investors could repatriate cash to Japan, destabilizing markets from Brazil and the United States.
Japanese investors have poured cash into Latin America's largest markets, with retail investors estimated to hold around $35 billion in assets in Brazil alone.
US bond holders meanwhile have fretted that Japan -- the second largest holder of US debt -- might trim back its $886 billion holdings to pay for rebuilding costs.
Any decision to sell US bonds could force the price of borrowing up for the already cash-strapped United States, bring the country a step closer to a fully blown fiscal crisis.
For now few economists are making bold predictions about how events will develop without significant caveats.
"It is still too early to tell what the full impact of the March 11 earthquake, tsunami and growing nuclear crisis on Japan's infrastructure, industrial base and economic growth will be -- let alone the broader global impacts," said Behravesh of IHS.
Haiti's cholera cases may double UN estimate
Doctors say Haiti's cholera epidemic could potentially spread to nearly 800,000 people — which is twice an earlier UN estimate.
The study by U.S. researchers predicts Haiti's cholera epidemic could climb to 779,000 cases by November if no changes are made in how the bacterial disease is handled. It spreads person-to-person through contaminated food and water.
"It is going to be larger than predicted in terms of sheer numbers and will last far longer than the initial projections," said study author Dr. Sanjay Basu, a medical resident at University of California San Francisco.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/03/16/haiti-cholera-deaths.html
The study by U.S. researchers predicts Haiti's cholera epidemic could climb to 779,000 cases by November if no changes are made in how the bacterial disease is handled. It spreads person-to-person through contaminated food and water.
"It is going to be larger than predicted in terms of sheer numbers and will last far longer than the initial projections," said study author Dr. Sanjay Basu, a medical resident at University of California San Francisco.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/03/16/haiti-cholera-deaths.html
Delegates meet in Nairobi for HIV/Aids summit
Delegates from 25 countries met in Nairobi Wednesday for a HIV/Aids stakeholders summit meant to look at ways of preventing the spread of the pandemic.
The summit aims at coming up with new innovative ideas that would enable the region to reduce the spread of HIV/Aids.
The summit heard that male circumcision is being used as an HIV and AIDs prevention method with Kenya and South Africa targeting to circumcise 4 million people by the end of the year.
National AIDS/STI Control Programme -NASCOP director Nicholas Muraguri said studies have shown that a higher number of uncircumcised male are at a higher risk of contracting the HIV virus and the two governments would be offering door to door circumcision services.
Kenya's minister for special programmes Esther Murugi addressing the summit said Kenya still requires additional funding to support HIV prevention, treatment and care programmes as well as mitigating the social economic challenges.
Murugi said that with sufficient focus, commitment and partnerships, capacity building can successfully be implemented that could lead to sustainable and far-reaching health impacts on HIV/Aids in the region.
The minister said Sub- Saharan Africa was the most affected by HIV/Aids in the world with an estimated 22.5 million people living with the virus, which is equivalent to two thirds of the global total.
"In 2009, around 1.3 million people died from AIDS in Sub- Saharan Africa while 1.8 people were infected with HIV," said Murugi.
She added that AIDS epidemic in Sub- Saharan Africa continues to devastate communities, eroding decades of development progress.
Statistics show that HIV/Aids prevalence in Kenya stands at 6.3 percent, a drop from the 7.1 percent recorded in 2007, a marked reduction achieved through concerted efforts by the government.
The minister complimented development partners, Community Based Organizations (CBO's), Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO's) and other stakeholders for their efforts in reducing the impact of the virus in the country.
The summit aims at coming up with new innovative ideas that would enable the region to reduce the spread of HIV/Aids.
The summit heard that male circumcision is being used as an HIV and AIDs prevention method with Kenya and South Africa targeting to circumcise 4 million people by the end of the year.
National AIDS/STI Control Programme -NASCOP director Nicholas Muraguri said studies have shown that a higher number of uncircumcised male are at a higher risk of contracting the HIV virus and the two governments would be offering door to door circumcision services.
Kenya's minister for special programmes Esther Murugi addressing the summit said Kenya still requires additional funding to support HIV prevention, treatment and care programmes as well as mitigating the social economic challenges.
Murugi said that with sufficient focus, commitment and partnerships, capacity building can successfully be implemented that could lead to sustainable and far-reaching health impacts on HIV/Aids in the region.
The minister said Sub- Saharan Africa was the most affected by HIV/Aids in the world with an estimated 22.5 million people living with the virus, which is equivalent to two thirds of the global total.
"In 2009, around 1.3 million people died from AIDS in Sub- Saharan Africa while 1.8 people were infected with HIV," said Murugi.
She added that AIDS epidemic in Sub- Saharan Africa continues to devastate communities, eroding decades of development progress.
Statistics show that HIV/Aids prevalence in Kenya stands at 6.3 percent, a drop from the 7.1 percent recorded in 2007, a marked reduction achieved through concerted efforts by the government.
The minister complimented development partners, Community Based Organizations (CBO's), Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO's) and other stakeholders for their efforts in reducing the impact of the virus in the country.
Parkinson's disease yields to experimental gene therapy
A small-scale gene therapy trial conducted at seven U.S. medical centers has found that a single infusion of a specialized gene, piggybacked onto a virus and fed directly into the brain, can safely lessen the severity of symptoms and improve response to medication in patients with advanced Parkinson's disease.
The clinical trial -- the results of which were published Wednesday in the journal Lancet Neurology -- marks the first time that gene therapy has demonstrated effectiveness in treating Parkinson's in humans when compared with a "sham" treatment.
The Phase 2 study of a gene therapy for Parkinson's, designed largely to gain a clearer picture of a treatment's safety, also yielded promising results on that front: Among 16 subjects who received a copy of the glutamic acid decarboxylase, or GAD, gene directly into their brain's subthalamic nucleus, the most common drug-related side effects were headache and nausea. While one subject who got the active gene therapy developed a bowel obstruction, researchers concluded it was unrelated to the treatment.
The GAD gene is thought to regulate the production of a neurochemical called GABA, which is underactive in some parts of the brain and overactive in others, resulting in tremors, irregular gait, language and cognitive problems, and difficulty in initiating movement. While patients with the disease often respond well to drugs that compensate for those imbalances, those drugs lose effectiveness over time.
The findings are a step forward for the promising but troubled field of gene therapy. Researchers and regulators have wrestled with widespread concern that gene therapy could prompt irreversible immune responses, cause unanticipated gene mutations or exert effects beyond the intended target. But those concerns did not seem to materialize in the course of the study, which was funded by the New Jersey company Neurologix, which developed the technique of delivering the GAD gene and hopes to market the therapy.
Compared with 21 subjects who were given a surgical infusion of a saline solution into the brain, the 16 subjects who had a copy of the GAD gene fed into both sides of the subthalamic nucleus showed significantly greater improvement on an overall measure of disease severity. While those in the placebo arm of the study did see improvements in the severity of their symptoms, those on gene therapy improved more dramatically at one month, three months and six months after they had the surgery. And while half of the 16 subjects who got the gene therapy improved by nine points on a comprehensive measure of Parkinson's severity, just three of the 21 subjects who got the sham surgery (14%) made such an improvement.
The clinical trial -- the results of which were published Wednesday in the journal Lancet Neurology -- marks the first time that gene therapy has demonstrated effectiveness in treating Parkinson's in humans when compared with a "sham" treatment.
The Phase 2 study of a gene therapy for Parkinson's, designed largely to gain a clearer picture of a treatment's safety, also yielded promising results on that front: Among 16 subjects who received a copy of the glutamic acid decarboxylase, or GAD, gene directly into their brain's subthalamic nucleus, the most common drug-related side effects were headache and nausea. While one subject who got the active gene therapy developed a bowel obstruction, researchers concluded it was unrelated to the treatment.
The GAD gene is thought to regulate the production of a neurochemical called GABA, which is underactive in some parts of the brain and overactive in others, resulting in tremors, irregular gait, language and cognitive problems, and difficulty in initiating movement. While patients with the disease often respond well to drugs that compensate for those imbalances, those drugs lose effectiveness over time.
The findings are a step forward for the promising but troubled field of gene therapy. Researchers and regulators have wrestled with widespread concern that gene therapy could prompt irreversible immune responses, cause unanticipated gene mutations or exert effects beyond the intended target. But those concerns did not seem to materialize in the course of the study, which was funded by the New Jersey company Neurologix, which developed the technique of delivering the GAD gene and hopes to market the therapy.
Compared with 21 subjects who were given a surgical infusion of a saline solution into the brain, the 16 subjects who had a copy of the GAD gene fed into both sides of the subthalamic nucleus showed significantly greater improvement on an overall measure of disease severity. While those in the placebo arm of the study did see improvements in the severity of their symptoms, those on gene therapy improved more dramatically at one month, three months and six months after they had the surgery. And while half of the 16 subjects who got the gene therapy improved by nine points on a comprehensive measure of Parkinson's severity, just three of the 21 subjects who got the sham surgery (14%) made such an improvement.
Bahrain unleashes assault against protesters’ camp in capital
MANAMA, Bahrain — A tent city in the heart of Bahrain’s capital was wiped away Wednesday morning in a cloud of tear gas and a hail of rubber bullets after the government dispatched troops against pro-democracy demonstrators in defiance of U.S. warnings.
Trails of acrid black smoke floated over Manama as dumpsters and tires were set alight across the city. By late afternoon, the military had announced a 12-hour curfew for most of the downtown area, including Pearl Square, which has been the hub of the demonstrations.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/bahrain_unleashes_assault_against_protesters_camp_in_capital/2011/03/16/ABHGtYg_story.html?wprss=rss_homepage
Trails of acrid black smoke floated over Manama as dumpsters and tires were set alight across the city. By late afternoon, the military had announced a 12-hour curfew for most of the downtown area, including Pearl Square, which has been the hub of the demonstrations.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/bahrain_unleashes_assault_against_protesters_camp_in_capital/2011/03/16/ABHGtYg_story.html?wprss=rss_homepage
New versions of Firefox, IE go head-to-head
On Tuesday, Microsoft released Internet Explorer 9, the latest version of the company’s venerable Web browser. Rival Mozilla just unveiled the all-but-official version of Firefox 4. Both will go up against the ever-speedy and sparse Google Chrome, which was recently updated to version 10.
IE, with about a 57% market share, according to Net Applications, and Firefox, with nearly 22%, are No. 1 and No. 2. They are the browsers I concentrated on for this review and have market shares well ahead of Chrome (about 11%), Apple Safari (6%) and Europe’s Opera (2%). But Microsoft’s once-dominant position has steadily declined through the years.
The folks behind modern browsers tout speeds; simpler navigation, add-ons and extensions; and security. They point out that IE9, Firefox 4 and Chrome 10 embrace flashy Web standards such as HTML5.
Of course, people often use what’s convenient (the default browser on their computer). But you’ll also come upon those who are überpassionate about which browser they’ll rely on.
I was mightily impressed with IE9 six months ago when I first reviewed it, even as a beta. I still am. The software is a refreshing leap forward for a browser franchise that had gone stale. IE9 is fast and streamlined. Web apps behave like apps on your PC. Indeed, the lines are blurring.
IE9 lets you “pin,” or park, icons for sites on the Windows 7 task bar (a strip of icons at the bottom of the screen). Clicking on a pinned icon launches a Web page or app without you having to separately launch the browser. If you right-click on a parked icon instead, a menu of handy shortcuts appears for certain sites through what Microsoft calls “jump lists.”
For example, right-clicking on an icon for Pandora brings up shortcuts that let you jump to a music search Web page or the Pandora blog. A jump list for USA TODAY leads to shortcuts for different sections of the paper. Another nice Windows 7 feature: You can “tear” a Web page right out of IE9 by dragging its tab. If you drag the page all the way to the left side of the screen, then drag a second torn Web page out of the browser all the way to the right, you can compare them side by side.
Now Microsoft is implementing more advances. One area of emphasis is Tracking Protection. At the core of this privacy initiative: Tracking Protection Lists, which are kind of the Web equivalents of the “do not call” lists aimed at marketers. An IE9 user can add lists compiled by privacy organizations. While intentions are in the right place, such lists are understandably imperfect.
Microsoft complements those lists with a do-not-track user preference that effectively broadcasts to a site that you, well, don’t want to be tracked. But it relies on the honesty and integrity of the site to adhere to your wishes. Mozilla with Firefox 4 and Google with Chrome are also backing do-not-track mechanisms (which the Federal Trade Commission is watching closely). Mozilla is pushing a universal do-not-track standard, which would prevent the site from tracking your visit for advertising purposes.
One key drawback for IE9 remains: It won’t work on Windows XP computers, and there are lots still out there. And though IE9 is compatible with Windows Vista, it’s really optimized for use on PCs with Windows 7.
Firefox 4 has a cleaner interface and simplified menus that aim to keep your focus on the content at hand. The Home button is all the way to the upper right side of the browser. Tabs for open websites sit on top of what Mozilla refers to as the Awesome Bar — it’s where you type in terms that might get you to a Web destination so that you don’t have to remember the Web address or URL. Still, Firefox is the only one of the three browsers to retain a separate, dedicated search box — making it appear more cluttered than its rivals.
You can also easily create App Tabs pinned to the top of the browser, each representing Web applications you frequently call upon, such as Gmail.
Mozilla also improved the Add-ons Manager in Firefox 4 to help you find and install add-ons, from a collection numbering more than 200,000.
Not all Firefox 4 changes are intuitive. I was confused by a panorama feature that’s supposed to make it easy to drag and drop related tabs into manageable groups.
You can also sync your Firefox history, bookmarks, add-ons, open tabs and passwords across multiple computers via the Firefox 4 mobile beta, but syncing for now is limited to Android smartphones and tablets and the Nokia N900 smartphone. IE9 doesn’t have sync.
Mozilla claims the new Firefox is six times faster than the previous release, and it seemed so. Browser innovation may lead to industry skirmishes. But it also leads to positive outcomes for all of us who spend time in cyberspace.
E-mail: ebaig@usatoday.com
IE, with about a 57% market share, according to Net Applications, and Firefox, with nearly 22%, are No. 1 and No. 2. They are the browsers I concentrated on for this review and have market shares well ahead of Chrome (about 11%), Apple Safari (6%) and Europe’s Opera (2%). But Microsoft’s once-dominant position has steadily declined through the years.
The folks behind modern browsers tout speeds; simpler navigation, add-ons and extensions; and security. They point out that IE9, Firefox 4 and Chrome 10 embrace flashy Web standards such as HTML5.
Of course, people often use what’s convenient (the default browser on their computer). But you’ll also come upon those who are überpassionate about which browser they’ll rely on.
I was mightily impressed with IE9 six months ago when I first reviewed it, even as a beta. I still am. The software is a refreshing leap forward for a browser franchise that had gone stale. IE9 is fast and streamlined. Web apps behave like apps on your PC. Indeed, the lines are blurring.
IE9 lets you “pin,” or park, icons for sites on the Windows 7 task bar (a strip of icons at the bottom of the screen). Clicking on a pinned icon launches a Web page or app without you having to separately launch the browser. If you right-click on a parked icon instead, a menu of handy shortcuts appears for certain sites through what Microsoft calls “jump lists.”
For example, right-clicking on an icon for Pandora brings up shortcuts that let you jump to a music search Web page or the Pandora blog. A jump list for USA TODAY leads to shortcuts for different sections of the paper. Another nice Windows 7 feature: You can “tear” a Web page right out of IE9 by dragging its tab. If you drag the page all the way to the left side of the screen, then drag a second torn Web page out of the browser all the way to the right, you can compare them side by side.
Now Microsoft is implementing more advances. One area of emphasis is Tracking Protection. At the core of this privacy initiative: Tracking Protection Lists, which are kind of the Web equivalents of the “do not call” lists aimed at marketers. An IE9 user can add lists compiled by privacy organizations. While intentions are in the right place, such lists are understandably imperfect.
Microsoft complements those lists with a do-not-track user preference that effectively broadcasts to a site that you, well, don’t want to be tracked. But it relies on the honesty and integrity of the site to adhere to your wishes. Mozilla with Firefox 4 and Google with Chrome are also backing do-not-track mechanisms (which the Federal Trade Commission is watching closely). Mozilla is pushing a universal do-not-track standard, which would prevent the site from tracking your visit for advertising purposes.
One key drawback for IE9 remains: It won’t work on Windows XP computers, and there are lots still out there. And though IE9 is compatible with Windows Vista, it’s really optimized for use on PCs with Windows 7.
Firefox 4 has a cleaner interface and simplified menus that aim to keep your focus on the content at hand. The Home button is all the way to the upper right side of the browser. Tabs for open websites sit on top of what Mozilla refers to as the Awesome Bar — it’s where you type in terms that might get you to a Web destination so that you don’t have to remember the Web address or URL. Still, Firefox is the only one of the three browsers to retain a separate, dedicated search box — making it appear more cluttered than its rivals.
You can also easily create App Tabs pinned to the top of the browser, each representing Web applications you frequently call upon, such as Gmail.
Mozilla also improved the Add-ons Manager in Firefox 4 to help you find and install add-ons, from a collection numbering more than 200,000.
Not all Firefox 4 changes are intuitive. I was confused by a panorama feature that’s supposed to make it easy to drag and drop related tabs into manageable groups.
You can also sync your Firefox history, bookmarks, add-ons, open tabs and passwords across multiple computers via the Firefox 4 mobile beta, but syncing for now is limited to Android smartphones and tablets and the Nokia N900 smartphone. IE9 doesn’t have sync.
Mozilla claims the new Firefox is six times faster than the previous release, and it seemed so. Browser innovation may lead to industry skirmishes. But it also leads to positive outcomes for all of us who spend time in cyberspace.
E-mail: ebaig@usatoday.com
Motorola Xoom Wi-Fi matches iPad 2 on price
Xoom – the new tablet computer manufactured by Motorola – will soon be available in a Wi-Fi only iteration, Motorola announced today. Previously, Motorola was offering a 3G capable Xoom for $800, or $600 with a Verizon data plan. The new Wi-Fi Xoom will sell for $600, exactly in line with the 32GB Wi-Fi only Apple iPad 2. The device will ship with the Android 3.0 Honeycomb operating system, 32GB of memory, and a 1GHz processor.
Powerful stuff. But many analysts have worried that Motorola waited too long to introduce a cheaper Xoom, and that the company may have scared away prospective consumer by initially rolling out only a 3G edition of the tablet computer.
Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Horizons/2011/0316/Motorola-Xoom-Wi-Fi-matches-iPad-2-on-price
Powerful stuff. But many analysts have worried that Motorola waited too long to introduce a cheaper Xoom, and that the company may have scared away prospective consumer by initially rolling out only a 3G edition of the tablet computer.
Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Horizons/2011/0316/Motorola-Xoom-Wi-Fi-matches-iPad-2-on-price
Sony to Get PS3 Hacker’s PayPal Records
A federal magistrate said Sony may subpoena the PayPal account of PlayStation 3 hacker George Hotz, as the gamemaker ratchets up its civil lawsuit against the man who released the first full-fledged PS3 jailbreak in the console’s four-year history.
Tuesday’s order came two weeks after Magistrate Joseph Spero in San Francisco granted Sony the right to acquire the internet IP addresses of anybody who had visited Hotz’s website from January of 2009 onward. Sony has also won subpoenas for data from YouTube and Google, as well as Twitter account data linked to Hotz, who goes by the handle GeoHot.
Respected for his iPhone hacks and now the PlayStation 3 jailbreak, the 21-year-old New Jersey man is accused of breaching the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and other laws after his website published an encryption key and software tools that allow PlayStation owners to gain complete control of their consoles from the firmware on up. Hotz has complied with a court order and removed the hack.
The latest development allows the Japanese console maker to acquire “documents sufficientto identify the source of funds (.pdf) in California that went into any PayPal account associated with geohot@gmail.com for the period of January 1, 2009, to February 1, 2011,” Spero ruled.
Read more: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/03/playstation-hacker-paypal/
Tuesday’s order came two weeks after Magistrate Joseph Spero in San Francisco granted Sony the right to acquire the internet IP addresses of anybody who had visited Hotz’s website from January of 2009 onward. Sony has also won subpoenas for data from YouTube and Google, as well as Twitter account data linked to Hotz, who goes by the handle GeoHot.
Respected for his iPhone hacks and now the PlayStation 3 jailbreak, the 21-year-old New Jersey man is accused of breaching the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and other laws after his website published an encryption key and software tools that allow PlayStation owners to gain complete control of their consoles from the firmware on up. Hotz has complied with a court order and removed the hack.
The latest development allows the Japanese console maker to acquire “documents sufficientto identify the source of funds (.pdf) in California that went into any PayPal account associated with geohot@gmail.com for the period of January 1, 2009, to February 1, 2011,” Spero ruled.
Read more: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/03/playstation-hacker-paypal/
UPDATE 5-Tokyo bourse rejects calls for halt, to keep markets open
TOKYO/NEW YORK, March 17 (Reuters) - The Tokyo Stock Exchange and Japanese financial regulators plan to keep markets open despite a report that some foreign financial institutions are calling for Japan's stock market to halt trading.
The Nikkei news agency said officials from more than 10 non-Japanese financial firms held a conference call on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the situation in Japan, where markets have been rocked by an earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster over the past week.
Some participants called for the market to be closed immediately, Nikkei reported, citing people familiar with the discussion.
The report said that foreign firms were looking for a trading halt because the "market was experiencing too much volatility," but did not elaborate.
The exchange plans no changes to its day-to-day operations, Tokyo Stock Exchange spokeswoman Yukari Hozumi told Reuters on Thursday.
"We are open as normal today, and will be tomorrow. We have absolutely no plan to shorten hours or halt trading," Hozumi added.
Japan's stock market tumbled in the first two days of trading after an earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster rocked the country. But on Wednesday, stocks soared on record volumes, despite persistent worries about overheated nuclear reactors and high radiation levels.
The benchmark Nikkei index was down 2.2 percent in mid-morning trading on Thursday.
Mike Cahill, who runs OCC, the U.S. clearinghouse for stock options, said banks might urge the TSE to close down operations if they were understaffed. Reuters has reported that foreign bank employees were racing to leave Japan due to safety concerns.
Yet representatives of several U.S. and European banks said they were unaware of any calls to halt trading activity. They noted that much of their trading and brokerage operations are performed online, allowing employees to perform trades on the TSE from off-site locations, such as Hong Kong.
HSBC said "it is business as usual" in Japan," adding that "offices and branches in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and Yokohama have remained open for business."
Representatives for other large, non-Japanese banks also said evoked similar sentiments.
The Nikkei news agency said officials from more than 10 non-Japanese financial firms held a conference call on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the situation in Japan, where markets have been rocked by an earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster over the past week.
Some participants called for the market to be closed immediately, Nikkei reported, citing people familiar with the discussion.
The report said that foreign firms were looking for a trading halt because the "market was experiencing too much volatility," but did not elaborate.
The exchange plans no changes to its day-to-day operations, Tokyo Stock Exchange spokeswoman Yukari Hozumi told Reuters on Thursday.
"We are open as normal today, and will be tomorrow. We have absolutely no plan to shorten hours or halt trading," Hozumi added.
Japan's stock market tumbled in the first two days of trading after an earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster rocked the country. But on Wednesday, stocks soared on record volumes, despite persistent worries about overheated nuclear reactors and high radiation levels.
The benchmark Nikkei index was down 2.2 percent in mid-morning trading on Thursday.
Mike Cahill, who runs OCC, the U.S. clearinghouse for stock options, said banks might urge the TSE to close down operations if they were understaffed. Reuters has reported that foreign bank employees were racing to leave Japan due to safety concerns.
Yet representatives of several U.S. and European banks said they were unaware of any calls to halt trading activity. They noted that much of their trading and brokerage operations are performed online, allowing employees to perform trades on the TSE from off-site locations, such as Hong Kong.
HSBC said "it is business as usual" in Japan," adding that "offices and branches in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and Yokohama have remained open for business."
Representatives for other large, non-Japanese banks also said evoked similar sentiments.
Why Japan embraced nuclear power after suffering the atomic bomb
Japan has been there before. And that’s what makes the growing radiation threat from the Fukushima Daiichi plant as mysterious as it is disturbing: Why did a country that suffered the utter horror of Hiroshima and Nagasaki so willingly give itself over to nuclear power?
Japan’s 55 reactors produce nearly 30 per cent of the country’s electricity, and the long-term strategy before the Fukushima disaster was to push that figure to 50 per cent by 2030. Almost alone among its political allies, whose ambitions were reined in by the catastrophes at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, the land that experienced the atomic bomb has chosen to expand its network of nuclear plants, many of them knowingly built in seismic zones.
Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/asia-pacific/why-japan-embraced-nuclear-power-after-suffering-the-atomic-bomb/article1945020/
Japan’s 55 reactors produce nearly 30 per cent of the country’s electricity, and the long-term strategy before the Fukushima disaster was to push that figure to 50 per cent by 2030. Almost alone among its political allies, whose ambitions were reined in by the catastrophes at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, the land that experienced the atomic bomb has chosen to expand its network of nuclear plants, many of them knowingly built in seismic zones.
Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/asia-pacific/why-japan-embraced-nuclear-power-after-suffering-the-atomic-bomb/article1945020/
Libya: US urges tough United Nations resolution
The US has said the UN should consider more than just a no-fly zone over Libya, amid Security Council division on a draft resolution.
US ambassador Susan Rice said a no-fly zone would only bring limited help. She hoped for an early vote on a draft.
Russia expressed concern at some of the implications of the proposals and put forward a counter-resolution.
Forces loyal to Col Gaddafi are taking ground from rebels, who say they fear "genocide" without swift UN action.
On Wednesday, the International Committee of the Red Cross withdrew from the rebel-held city of Benghazi, in eastern Libya, saying it feared an imminent attack by Col Gaddafi's forces.
Government forces say they have captured Ajdabiya, the last town before Benghazi, but the rebels deny this.
Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12768695
US ambassador Susan Rice said a no-fly zone would only bring limited help. She hoped for an early vote on a draft.
Russia expressed concern at some of the implications of the proposals and put forward a counter-resolution.
Forces loyal to Col Gaddafi are taking ground from rebels, who say they fear "genocide" without swift UN action.
On Wednesday, the International Committee of the Red Cross withdrew from the rebel-held city of Benghazi, in eastern Libya, saying it feared an imminent attack by Col Gaddafi's forces.
Government forces say they have captured Ajdabiya, the last town before Benghazi, but the rebels deny this.
Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12768695
Republicans say regulations, taxes stifle new jobs
Before the 2010 midterm elections, Republicans promised an intense focus on creating and preserving American jobs. But spending and program cuts instead have dominated their agenda since taking control of the House in January — so much so that Democrats now accuse the GOP of reneging on a key campaign pledge.
In an effort to re-ignite their jobs mantra, House Republican held a “jobs forum” at the Capitol Wednesday. Panel guests included business owners and industry executives from across the country who complained that government roadblocks have stymied operations and kept them from hiring more employees.
GOP leaders in attendance, including Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio, Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy of California, Chief Deputy Whip Peter J. Roskam and House Republican Conference Chairman Jeb Hensarling of Texas, stressed the need to loosen business regulations, lower taxes and make it easier for U.S. companies to compete globally.
“The American people are still asking the question: ‘Where are the jobs?’” Mr. Boehner said. “It’s pretty clear that part of the reason they’re still asking that question is that government is in the way of job creators in America.
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/mar/16/republicans-say-regulations-taxes-stifle-new-jobs/
In an effort to re-ignite their jobs mantra, House Republican held a “jobs forum” at the Capitol Wednesday. Panel guests included business owners and industry executives from across the country who complained that government roadblocks have stymied operations and kept them from hiring more employees.
GOP leaders in attendance, including Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio, Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy of California, Chief Deputy Whip Peter J. Roskam and House Republican Conference Chairman Jeb Hensarling of Texas, stressed the need to loosen business regulations, lower taxes and make it easier for U.S. companies to compete globally.
“The American people are still asking the question: ‘Where are the jobs?’” Mr. Boehner said. “It’s pretty clear that part of the reason they’re still asking that question is that government is in the way of job creators in America.
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/mar/16/republicans-say-regulations-taxes-stifle-new-jobs/
Japan nears key fix for nuclear plant, but could it come too late?
For embattled workers at a quake- and tsunami-stricken nuclear power plant on Japan's northeast coast, the cavalry may finally be arriving – in the form of electricity from outside the plant to run pumps needed to supply critical cooling water to reactors and spent-fuel pools.
If the electricity arrives in time and workers can prevent the Fukushima I plant's predicament from becoming more grave, the utility faces a long road to what several nuclear engineering specialists say will be the eventual closure of the plant.
Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/0316/Japan-nears-key-fix-for-nuclear-plant-but-could-it-come-too-late
If the electricity arrives in time and workers can prevent the Fukushima I plant's predicament from becoming more grave, the utility faces a long road to what several nuclear engineering specialists say will be the eventual closure of the plant.
Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/0316/Japan-nears-key-fix-for-nuclear-plant-but-could-it-come-too-late
IAEA Chief Heads to Japan to Assess Nuclear Crisis
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency says he will travel to Japan to gather firsthand information about the crisis at an earthquake-damaged nuclear power plant, after stating that the agency needs more timely information from the Japanese government.
Speaking at a news conference Wednesday in Vienna, IAEA Director-General Yukiya Amano said he hopes to arrive in Japan as early as Thursday and to stay for a day. He said he would meet with high-level officials and discuss what assistance the United Nations nuclear agency can provide.
The IAEA has been trying to assess the situation at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant from afar.
Read more: http://www.voanews.com/english/news/asia/IAEA-Chief-Heads-to-Japan-to-Assess-Nuclear-Crisis-118105754.html
Speaking at a news conference Wednesday in Vienna, IAEA Director-General Yukiya Amano said he hopes to arrive in Japan as early as Thursday and to stay for a day. He said he would meet with high-level officials and discuss what assistance the United Nations nuclear agency can provide.
The IAEA has been trying to assess the situation at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant from afar.
Read more: http://www.voanews.com/english/news/asia/IAEA-Chief-Heads-to-Japan-to-Assess-Nuclear-Crisis-118105754.html
Apple iPad 2 iOS 4.3 Jailbreak by Comex
Yes you have heard right guys! The renowned iPhone hacker Comex has Jailbreak 4.3 iOS on recently announced Apple iPad 2 and as a proof of it there is a photo and a video (below) showing iPad 2 running Cydia. You will notice in the video below that the tablet is working smooth and is pretty speedy loading things in the jailbreak application.
Read more: http://www.newsden.net/apple-ipad-2-ios-4-3-jailbreak-comex-video-7225/
Read more: http://www.newsden.net/apple-ipad-2-ios-4-3-jailbreak-comex-video-7225/
Japan quake: live report
0145 GMT: Britain's Daily Telegraph has reported that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had warned Japan two years ago that a strong earthquake could pose a "serious problem" for its nuclear power stations.
- An IAEA expert expressed concern that the Japanese reactors were only designed to withstand magnitude 7.0 tremors, according to a December 2008 US diplomatic cable obtained by the WikiLeaks website, the Telegraph reported.
0130 GMT: Britain has advised its citizens to consider leaving Tokyo and northeastern Japan following the earthquake and the subsequent explosions at the Fukushima nuclear facility. The Foreign Office said British officials report there is still "no real human health issue that people should be concerned about".
Advertisement: Story continues below
0050 GMT: Television images have shown a Japanese military helicopter sumping water Thursday from a huge bucket onto the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant. NHK also reports that more helicopters will be sent to douse the plant.
0030 GMT: Japanese shares slumped more than four percent in early trade Thursday as the yen hit its highest level against the dollar since World War II.
0020 GMT: Our Tokyo bureau reports that the Bank of Japan today has pumped five trillion yen into the financial system to soothe money markets.
0000 GMT: A new day dawns in Japan, and the AFP live report is resuming. Here is a brief summary of Wednesday's events as Japan grapples with its worst crisis in generations.
-- Japan's Emperor Akihito gives a historic, rare address to a jittery nation, saying he is "deeply concerned" about the "unpredictable" situation at the stricken Fukushima No. 1 power plant which has been hit by a series of explosions after Friday's quake knocked out reactor cooling systems.
-- Japanese crews grappling with the world's worst nuclear incident since Chernobyl in 1986 are briefly evacuated after a spike in radiation levels at the plant, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) northeast of Tokyo.
-- New fires and feared damage to the vessel containing one of the plant's six reactor cores compounds the crisis.
-- Concern swells about the pools holding spent fuel rods at the plant -- which need water to keep them cool -- and US Nuclear Regulatory Commission head Gregory Jaczko warns there is no water left in the spent fuel pool of reactor 4, resulting in "extremely high" radiation levels.
-- The 50 or so workers at the plant, which has been hit by four explosions and two fires, are risking their lives forming the last line of defense against the nuclear disaster, and are being hailed as heroes.
-- The government warns people living up to 10 kilometers (six miles) beyond the 20-kilometer exclusion zone around the plant to stay indoors. More than 200,000 people have already been evacuated from the zone. The US embassy in Tokyo warns American citizens living within 50 miles (80 kilometers) of the plant to evacuate or seek shelter.
-- Japan's chief government spokesman Yukio Edano says radiation levels from the plant posed no immediate health threat outside the 20-kilometer exclusion zone, but the European Union's energy chief Guenther Oettinger says the situation has spun out of control.
-- The official toll of the dead and missing rises to nearly 13,000, police said, with the number of confirmed dead at 4,314, while millions have been left without water, electricity, fuel or enough food, and hundreds of thousands more are homeless, stoically coping with freezing cold and wet conditions in the northeast.
© 2011 AFP
This story is sourced direct from an overseas news agency as an additional service to readers. Spelling follows North American usage, along with foreign currency and measurement units.
- An IAEA expert expressed concern that the Japanese reactors were only designed to withstand magnitude 7.0 tremors, according to a December 2008 US diplomatic cable obtained by the WikiLeaks website, the Telegraph reported.
0130 GMT: Britain has advised its citizens to consider leaving Tokyo and northeastern Japan following the earthquake and the subsequent explosions at the Fukushima nuclear facility. The Foreign Office said British officials report there is still "no real human health issue that people should be concerned about".
Advertisement: Story continues below
0050 GMT: Television images have shown a Japanese military helicopter sumping water Thursday from a huge bucket onto the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant. NHK also reports that more helicopters will be sent to douse the plant.
0030 GMT: Japanese shares slumped more than four percent in early trade Thursday as the yen hit its highest level against the dollar since World War II.
0020 GMT: Our Tokyo bureau reports that the Bank of Japan today has pumped five trillion yen into the financial system to soothe money markets.
0000 GMT: A new day dawns in Japan, and the AFP live report is resuming. Here is a brief summary of Wednesday's events as Japan grapples with its worst crisis in generations.
-- Japan's Emperor Akihito gives a historic, rare address to a jittery nation, saying he is "deeply concerned" about the "unpredictable" situation at the stricken Fukushima No. 1 power plant which has been hit by a series of explosions after Friday's quake knocked out reactor cooling systems.
-- Japanese crews grappling with the world's worst nuclear incident since Chernobyl in 1986 are briefly evacuated after a spike in radiation levels at the plant, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) northeast of Tokyo.
-- New fires and feared damage to the vessel containing one of the plant's six reactor cores compounds the crisis.
-- Concern swells about the pools holding spent fuel rods at the plant -- which need water to keep them cool -- and US Nuclear Regulatory Commission head Gregory Jaczko warns there is no water left in the spent fuel pool of reactor 4, resulting in "extremely high" radiation levels.
-- The 50 or so workers at the plant, which has been hit by four explosions and two fires, are risking their lives forming the last line of defense against the nuclear disaster, and are being hailed as heroes.
-- The government warns people living up to 10 kilometers (six miles) beyond the 20-kilometer exclusion zone around the plant to stay indoors. More than 200,000 people have already been evacuated from the zone. The US embassy in Tokyo warns American citizens living within 50 miles (80 kilometers) of the plant to evacuate or seek shelter.
-- Japan's chief government spokesman Yukio Edano says radiation levels from the plant posed no immediate health threat outside the 20-kilometer exclusion zone, but the European Union's energy chief Guenther Oettinger says the situation has spun out of control.
-- The official toll of the dead and missing rises to nearly 13,000, police said, with the number of confirmed dead at 4,314, while millions have been left without water, electricity, fuel or enough food, and hundreds of thousands more are homeless, stoically coping with freezing cold and wet conditions in the northeast.
© 2011 AFP
This story is sourced direct from an overseas news agency as an additional service to readers. Spelling follows North American usage, along with foreign currency and measurement units.
Yen Hits Record High After U.S. Warning on Reactor
HONG KONG — The Japanese stock market sank again Thursday morning and the yen hit a record high against the U.S. dollar after a U.S. nuclear official warned that the situation at a damaged reactor was more serious than Tokyo has acknowledged.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index dropped 2.5 percent within an hour of the open, wiping out much of a rebound staged during the previous day and returning toward the lows plumbed during a massive, panicky sell-off on Tuesday.
The broader Topix index sagged 3.2 percent.
The latest declines came as the barrage of ominous news about the reactors at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station continued.
Late on Wednesday in Congressional testimony, Gregory Jaczko, the chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, gave the Obama’s administration first assessment of the condition of the plant, apparently mixing information it has received from Japan with data it has collected independently.
Mr. Jaczko asserted that there was now little or no water in the pool storing spent nuclear fuel at the No. 4 reactor of the Fukushima Daiichi complex, leaving fuel rods stored there exposed and bleeding radiation into the atmosphere.
On the foreign exchange markets, the yen jumped to a record high against the dollar on expectations that companies, insurers and investors will repatriate more cash to help pay for the costs of the massive quake and tsunami that slammed the country’s northeast on Friday.
The yen hit a high of around 76.30 per dollar in late New York trading, breaking the record of 79.75 in April 1995. It was trading at 79.50 yen per dollar during the Tokyo morning.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index dropped 2.5 percent within an hour of the open, wiping out much of a rebound staged during the previous day and returning toward the lows plumbed during a massive, panicky sell-off on Tuesday.
The broader Topix index sagged 3.2 percent.
The latest declines came as the barrage of ominous news about the reactors at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station continued.
Late on Wednesday in Congressional testimony, Gregory Jaczko, the chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, gave the Obama’s administration first assessment of the condition of the plant, apparently mixing information it has received from Japan with data it has collected independently.
Mr. Jaczko asserted that there was now little or no water in the pool storing spent nuclear fuel at the No. 4 reactor of the Fukushima Daiichi complex, leaving fuel rods stored there exposed and bleeding radiation into the atmosphere.
On the foreign exchange markets, the yen jumped to a record high against the dollar on expectations that companies, insurers and investors will repatriate more cash to help pay for the costs of the massive quake and tsunami that slammed the country’s northeast on Friday.
The yen hit a high of around 76.30 per dollar in late New York trading, breaking the record of 79.75 in April 1995. It was trading at 79.50 yen per dollar during the Tokyo morning.
Toshiba Android 3.0 Tablet Far Better Than IPad2
When iPad 2 was launched earlier this month, Apple’s had quite hard words against its rivals, but now it is their turn to hit back. An executive from Toshiba’s Australian division Rob Wilkinson has said that their upcoming tablet, running Android 3.0, will far superior than iPad 2. While explaining he said that the price of their gadget will meet that of Apple’s iPad2, but it will surpass the features. At the heart of this device is NVIDIA Tegra processor 2, and it will be sold through traditional PC retailers, rather than through cellular networks.
Rendered HTC Pyramid Runs Android 3.0 Honeycomb
You might know this phone as the HTC Desire HD2, but here are some of the first renderings we’ve seen of the upcoming HTC Pyramid. I’m not really a fan of super-sized displays, but there are more than a few people who might like the 4.3-inch qHD (540×960) touchscreen on this sucker.
Perhaps the more notable tidbit of information being connected to this device, though, is that it may run on Android 3.0 Honeycomb. Sure, it’s got a pretty big screen, but I think you’d still call it a smartphone. So, why would HTC plunk a tablet-centric OS on there? It’s possible that the blurb is mistaken, but that’s what it says.
Running through the rest of the supposed spec sheet, we find a 1.2GHz processor, 768MB RAM, 8MP rear camera, 1.3MP front camera, and the standard set of four capacitive touch buttons below the display.
From a design standpoint, the HTC Pyramid isn’t exactly pyramidal in shape, nor does it really stand out in the sea of Android alternatives. Maybe that’s what you want, but I really liked the personality of the HTC Incredible so much more.
Perhaps the more notable tidbit of information being connected to this device, though, is that it may run on Android 3.0 Honeycomb. Sure, it’s got a pretty big screen, but I think you’d still call it a smartphone. So, why would HTC plunk a tablet-centric OS on there? It’s possible that the blurb is mistaken, but that’s what it says.
Running through the rest of the supposed spec sheet, we find a 1.2GHz processor, 768MB RAM, 8MP rear camera, 1.3MP front camera, and the standard set of four capacitive touch buttons below the display.
From a design standpoint, the HTC Pyramid isn’t exactly pyramidal in shape, nor does it really stand out in the sea of Android alternatives. Maybe that’s what you want, but I really liked the personality of the HTC Incredible so much more.
Scientists Project Path of Radiation Plume
A United Nations forecast of the possible movement of the radioactive plume coming from crippled Japanese reactors shows it churning across the Pacific, and touching the Aleutian Islands on Thursday before hitting Southern California late Friday.
Health and nuclear experts emphasize that radiation in the plume will be diluted as it travels and, at worst, would have extremely minor health consequences in the United States, even if hints of it are ultimately detectable. In a similar way, radiation from the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 spread around the globe and reached the West Coast of the United States in ten days, its levels measurable but minuscule.
The projection, by the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization, an arm of the United Nations in Vienna, gives no information about actual radiation levels but only shows how a radioactive plume would probably move and disperse.
The forecast, calculated Tuesday, is based on patterns of Pacific winds at that time and the predicted path is likely to change as weather patterns shift.
On Sunday, the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it expected that no “harmful levels of radioactivity” would travel from Japan to the United States “given the thousands of miles between the two countries.”
The test ban treaty group routinely does radiation projections in an effort to understand which of its global stations to activate for monitoring the worldwide ban on nuclear arms testing. It has more than 60 stations that sniff the air for radiation spikes and uses weather forecasts and powerful computers to model the transport of radiation on the winds.
On Wednesday, the agency declined to release its Japanese forecast, which The New York Times obtained from other sources. The forecast was distributed widely to the agency’s member states.
But in interviews, the technical specialists of the agency did address how and why the forecast had been drawn up.
“It’s simply an indication,” said Lassina Zerbo, head of the agency’s International Data Center. “We have global coverage. So when something happens, it’s important for us to know which station can pick up the event.”
For instance, the Japan forecast shows that the radioactive plume will likely miss the agency’s monitoring stations at Midway and in the Hawaiian Islands but is likely to be detected in the Aleutians and at a monitoring station in Sacramento.
The forecast assumes that radioactivity in Japan is released continuously and forms a rising plume. It ends with the plume heading into Southern California and the American Southwest, including Nevada, Utah and Arizona. The plume would have continued eastward if the United Nations scientists had run the projection forward.
Earlier this week, the leading edge of the tangible plume was detected by the Navy’s Seventh Fleet when it was operating about 100 miles northeast of the Japanese reactor complex. On Monday, the Navy said it had repositioned its ships and aircraft off Japan “as a precautionary measure.”
The United Nations agency has also detected radiation from the stricken reactor complex at its detector station in Gunma, Japan, which lies about 130 miles to the southwest.
The chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Gregory B. Jaczko, said Monday that the plume posed no danger to the United States. “You just aren’t going to have any radiological material that, by the time it traveled those large distances, could present any risk to the American public,” he said in a White House briefing.
Mr. Jaczko was asked if the meltdown of a core of one of the reactors would increase the chance of harmful radiation reaching Hawaii or the West Coast.
“I don’t want to speculate on various scenarios,” he replied. “But based on the design and the distances involved, it is very unlikely that there would be any harmful impacts.”
The likely path of the main Japanese plume across the Pacific has also caught the attention of Europeans, many of whom recall how the much closer Chernobyl reactor in the Ukraine began spewing radiation.
I n Germany on Wednesday, the Federal Office for Radiation Protection held a news conference that described the threat from the Japanese plume as trifling and said there was no need for people to take iodine tablets. The pills can prevent poisoning from the atmospheric release of iodine 131, a radioactive byproduct of nuclear plants. The United States is also carefully monitoring and forecasting the plume’s movements. The agencies include the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Energy.
On Wednesday, Steven Chu, the energy secretary, told Congress that the United States was planning to deploy equipment in Japan that could detect radiation exposure on the ground and in the air. In total, the department’s team includes 39 people and more than eight tons of equipment.
“We continue to offer assistance in any way we can,” Dr. Chu said at a hearing, “as well as informing ourselves of what the situation is.”
Health and nuclear experts emphasize that radiation in the plume will be diluted as it travels and, at worst, would have extremely minor health consequences in the United States, even if hints of it are ultimately detectable. In a similar way, radiation from the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 spread around the globe and reached the West Coast of the United States in ten days, its levels measurable but minuscule.
The projection, by the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization, an arm of the United Nations in Vienna, gives no information about actual radiation levels but only shows how a radioactive plume would probably move and disperse.
The forecast, calculated Tuesday, is based on patterns of Pacific winds at that time and the predicted path is likely to change as weather patterns shift.
On Sunday, the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it expected that no “harmful levels of radioactivity” would travel from Japan to the United States “given the thousands of miles between the two countries.”
The test ban treaty group routinely does radiation projections in an effort to understand which of its global stations to activate for monitoring the worldwide ban on nuclear arms testing. It has more than 60 stations that sniff the air for radiation spikes and uses weather forecasts and powerful computers to model the transport of radiation on the winds.
On Wednesday, the agency declined to release its Japanese forecast, which The New York Times obtained from other sources. The forecast was distributed widely to the agency’s member states.
But in interviews, the technical specialists of the agency did address how and why the forecast had been drawn up.
“It’s simply an indication,” said Lassina Zerbo, head of the agency’s International Data Center. “We have global coverage. So when something happens, it’s important for us to know which station can pick up the event.”
For instance, the Japan forecast shows that the radioactive plume will likely miss the agency’s monitoring stations at Midway and in the Hawaiian Islands but is likely to be detected in the Aleutians and at a monitoring station in Sacramento.
The forecast assumes that radioactivity in Japan is released continuously and forms a rising plume. It ends with the plume heading into Southern California and the American Southwest, including Nevada, Utah and Arizona. The plume would have continued eastward if the United Nations scientists had run the projection forward.
Earlier this week, the leading edge of the tangible plume was detected by the Navy’s Seventh Fleet when it was operating about 100 miles northeast of the Japanese reactor complex. On Monday, the Navy said it had repositioned its ships and aircraft off Japan “as a precautionary measure.”
The United Nations agency has also detected radiation from the stricken reactor complex at its detector station in Gunma, Japan, which lies about 130 miles to the southwest.
The chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Gregory B. Jaczko, said Monday that the plume posed no danger to the United States. “You just aren’t going to have any radiological material that, by the time it traveled those large distances, could present any risk to the American public,” he said in a White House briefing.
Mr. Jaczko was asked if the meltdown of a core of one of the reactors would increase the chance of harmful radiation reaching Hawaii or the West Coast.
“I don’t want to speculate on various scenarios,” he replied. “But based on the design and the distances involved, it is very unlikely that there would be any harmful impacts.”
The likely path of the main Japanese plume across the Pacific has also caught the attention of Europeans, many of whom recall how the much closer Chernobyl reactor in the Ukraine began spewing radiation.
I n Germany on Wednesday, the Federal Office for Radiation Protection held a news conference that described the threat from the Japanese plume as trifling and said there was no need for people to take iodine tablets. The pills can prevent poisoning from the atmospheric release of iodine 131, a radioactive byproduct of nuclear plants. The United States is also carefully monitoring and forecasting the plume’s movements. The agencies include the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Energy.
On Wednesday, Steven Chu, the energy secretary, told Congress that the United States was planning to deploy equipment in Japan that could detect radiation exposure on the ground and in the air. In total, the department’s team includes 39 people and more than eight tons of equipment.
“We continue to offer assistance in any way we can,” Dr. Chu said at a hearing, “as well as informing ourselves of what the situation is.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
