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শনিবার, ২৯ জুন, ২০১৩
Propellant-free briquettes burn hotter and cleaner than normal charcoal
If you like cooking outdoors on a grill but don’t like the chemical aftertaste in your food, you’ll be interested in the Afire Koko Coconut Charcoal from Williams-Sonoma. ?Afire makes this charcoal from renewable coconut shells (left overs from other coconut uses) with no added propellants or other?chemicals, fillers, glues, or nitrates. ?The hole in [...]
বৃহস্পতিবার, ২৭ জুন, ২০১৩
Dish withdraws its offer to buy Clearwire
And with that, Dish is (seemingly) out of the running: following a decision to back away from buying Sprint, the satellite TV giant has also withdrawn its bid for Clearwire. The company is bowing out due to a "change in recommendation" at Clearwire -- in other words, shareholders now prefer Sprint's recently sweetened offer. Between that and Sprint's lawsuit, we're not expecting Dish to make another acquisition attempt, especially when Softbank's acquisition of Sprint (and thus Clearwire) could close in a matter of weeks.
Filed under: Wireless, Mobile, Sprint
Source: Dish
Qatar to change premier, foreign minister under new emir
By Regan Doherty
DOHA (Reuters) - Qatar's prime minister, for two decades the driving force behind the Gulf country's rise to global prominence, will quit his posts of premier and foreign minister in an imminent cabinet reshuffle, al Jazeera reported on Wednesday.
Diplomats said earlier this month that Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, popularly known as HBJ, was likely to step down after Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani handed power to his son - a move announced on Tuesday.
Qatari-owned al Jazeera said the current minister of state for interior affairs, Sheikh Abdullah bin Naser al-Thani, had been chosen as the next prime minister.
It also named Khalid bin Atiyah, the current state minister for foreign affairs and Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim's close lieutenant, as the new foreign minister.
In Sheikh Hamad's time as foreign minister, Qatar began hosting the largest U.S. air base in the Middle East but also cozied up to America's foes Iran, Syria and Hamas in pursuit of leverage. The Afghan Taliban opened an office in Doha last week.
Named prime minister in 2007, he played a personal role in facilitating Qatar's numerous efforts to resolve violent tensions, brokering talks in conflicts ranging from Lebanon to Yemen and from Darfur to the Palestinian territories.
What perhaps brought Sheikh Hamad most fame was his country's public and robust support of the Arab Spring revolts.
Qatar lent significant support to rebels fighting Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi by supplying them with weapons and fuel.
The state has also been Egypt's top financial backer, signaling an intention to play a leading role in rebuilding the economy of the most populous Arab country after its 2011 uprising.
Qatar has been an early and ardent supporter of Syrian rebels fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad from power.
Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani was named emir following the abdication of his father on Tuesday in a transition rare in Gulf Arab countries, where heads of state normally rule for life.
Qatar is the world's largest exporter of liquefied natural gas and key financier of Arab Spring uprisings.
There was no reference to Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim during Tuesday's ceremonies and he was not seen in television coverage of the thousands who came to pledge allegiance to the new ruler.
Sheikh Tamim was due to deliver his first address to Qatari citizens on Wednesday evening at 11:00 a.m. EDT.
(Reporting by Sami Aboudi and Yara Bayoumy, Editing by William Maclean and Mike Collett-White)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/qatar-change-premier-foreign-minister-under-emir-125607917.html
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বুধবার, ২৬ জুন, ২০১৩
Immigration bill clears Senate test
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Historic immigration legislation cleared a key Senate hurdle with votes to spare on Monday, pointing the way to near-certain passage within days for $38 billion worth of new security measures along the border with Mexico and an unprecedented chance at citizenship for millions living in the country illegally.
The vote was 67-27, seven more than the 60 needed, with 15 Republicans agreeing to advance legislation at the top of President Barack Obama's second-term domestic agenda.
The vote came as Obama campaigned from the White House for the bill, saying, "now is the time" to overhaul an immigration system that even critics of the legislation agree needs reform.
Last-minute frustration was evident among opponents. In an unusual slap at members of his own party as well as Democrats, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said it appeared that lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle "very much want a fig leaf" on border security to justify a vote for immigration.
Senate passage on Thursday or Friday would send the issue to the House, where conservative Republicans in the majority oppose citizenship for anyone living in the country illegally.
Some GOP lawmakers have appealed to Speaker John Boehner not to permit any immigration legislation to come to a vote for fear that whatever its contents, it would open the door to an unpalatable compromise with the Senate. At the same time, the House Judiciary Committee is in the midst of approving a handful of measures related to immigration, action that ordinarily is a prelude to votes in the full House.
"Now is the time to do it," Obama said at the White House before meeting with nine business executives who support a change in immigration laws. He added, "I hope that we can get the strongest possible vote out of the Senate so that we can then move to the House and get this done before the summer break" beginning in early August.
He said the measure would be good for the economy, for business and for workers who are "oftentimes exploited at low wages."
As for the overall economy, he said, "I think every business leader here feels confident that they'll be in a stronger position to continue to innovate, to continue to invest, to continue to create jobs and ensure that this continues to be the land of opportunity for generations to come."
Opponents saw it otherwise. "It will encourage more illegal immigration and must be stopped," Cruz exhorted supporters via email, urging them to contact their own senators with a plea to defeat the measure.
Leaving little to chance, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce announced it was launching a new seven-figure ad buy Monday in support of the bill. "Call Congress. End de facto amnesty. Create jobs and economic growth by supporting conservative immigration reforms," the ad said.
Senate officials said some changes were still possible to the bill before it leaves the Senate - alterations that would swell the vote total.
At the same time, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., who voted to advance the measure during the day, said he may yet end up opposing it unless he wins a pair of changes he is seeking.
Senate Democrats were unified on the vote.
Republicans were anything but on a bill that some party leaders say offers the GOP a chance to show a more welcoming face to Hispanic voters, yet tea party-aligned lawmakers assail as amnesty for those who have violated the law.
The party's two top Senate leaders, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and John Cornyn of Texas, voted against advancing the measure. Both are seeking new terms next year.
Among potential 2016 GOP presidential contenders, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida was an enthusiastic supporter of the bill, while Cruz and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky were opposed.
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated the legislation will reduce the deficit and increase economic growth in each of the next two decades. It is also predicting unemployment will rise slightly through 2020, and that average wages will move lower over a decade.
At its core, the legislation in the Senate would create a 13-year pathway to citizenship for an estimated 11 million immigrants living illegally in the United States. It also calls for billions of dollars to be spent on manpower and technology to secure the 2,000-mile border with Mexico, including a doubling of the Border Patrol with 20,000 new agents.
The measure also would create a new program for temporary farm laborers to come into the country, and another for lower-skilled workers to emigrate permanently. At the same time, it calls for an expansion of an existing visa program for highly-skilled workers, a gesture to high tech companies that rely heavily on foreigners.
In addition to border security, the measure phases in a mandatory program for employers to verify the legal status of potential workers, and separate effort to track the comings and goings of foreigners at some of the nation's airports.
The legislation was originally drafted by a bipartisan Gang of 8, four senators from each party who negotiated a series of political trade-offs over several months.
The addition of the tougher border security provisions came after CBO informed lawmakers that they could potentially spend tens of billions of dollars to sweeten the bill without fearing higher deficits.
The result was a series of changes negotiated between the Gang of 8 and Republican Sens. John Hoeven of North Dakota and Bob Corker of Tennessee. Different, lesser-noticed provisions helped other lawmakers swing behind the measure.
In a speech on the Senate floor, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, likened some of them to "earmarks," the now-banned practice of directing federal funds to the pet projects of individual lawmakers.
He cited a provision creating a $1.5 billion jobs fund for low-income youth and pair of changes to benefit the seafood processing industry in Alaska. Sen. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., issued a statement on Friday trumpeting the benefits of the first; Alaska Sens. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, and Mark Begich, a Democrat, took credit for the two others.
Grassley also raised questions about the origin of a detailed list of planes, sensors, cameras and other equipment to be placed along the southern border.
"Who provided the amendment sponsors with this list?" asked Grassley, who is a member of the Judiciary Committee that approved an earlier version of the bill. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano "did not provide the committee with any list. Did Sikorsky, Cessna and Northrup Grumann send up a wish list to certain members of the Senate?"
Randy Belote, a spokesman for Northrup Grumann, said in an email the firm has "not had the opportunity to review the comments nor... provided the committee a 'wish list' of its systems to consider."
Officials at the other two companies did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
___
Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Jim Kuhnhenn contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/immigration-bill-clears-senate-test-225923799.html
Russia spies may be chatting with 'tasty morsel' Snowden
By Lidia Kelly
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Edward Snowden's disappearance from view has heightened speculation that the former U.S. spy agency contractor may be talking to Russian secret services, which see him as a "tasty morsel" that is too good to miss.
Even a flat denial by President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday is unlikely to end whispers that Snowden may have been interviewed by intelligence officers anxious to get their hands on whatever information he has not yet leaked.
Some experts say Russia might even try to hand him over to the United States in a Cold War-style exchange, although this seemed less likely after Putin ruled out his extradition to face espionage charges back home.
"He is a tasty morsel for any, any secret service, including ours. Any secret service would love to talk to him," said a Russian security source.
Snowden, charged with disclosing secret U.S. surveillance programs, left Hong Kong for Moscow on Sunday and the WikiLeaks anti-secrecy group said he was heading for Ecuador, where he wants political asylum.
Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Reuters. But a former officer of its Soviet predecessor, the KGB, said Russia was unlikely to miss out, assuming Snowden is willing to cooperate.
"It would be silly to pass on such an opportunity to get information that is very difficult, impossible or expensive to get in any other way," said the ex-officer, Lev Korolkov.
U.S. Senator John McCain, a Republican opponent of President Barack Obama, said Putin - also a former Soviet agent - would grab the chance. "He is ... an old KGB colonel apparatchik that has disdain for democracy and the things we stand for and believe in," McCain said on CNN on Tuesday. "If he sees a situation he'll take advantage of it."
Speculation about an FSB role in Snowden's arrival from Hong Kong began with the plane's touchdown on Sunday, when about two dozen plain-clothed security agents were spotted monitoring the transit zone, at times accompanied by uniformed policemen.
Ecuador's ambassador to Russia, Patricio Alberto Chavez Zavala, got to the transit zone soon after Snowden landed. Then the agents and police blocked the entrance to one of the lounges. Some remained all night and into the next day,
But there was no sign of Snowden, who Putin said on Tuesday was still in the transit area at Sheremetyevo airport.
Snowden has said he accepted a job as a systems administrator at contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, where he worked for about three months, to gain access to details of the U.S. National Security Agency's surveillance programs.
U.S. officials said intelligence agencies were concerned they did not know how much sensitive material Snowden had, and that he may have taken more documents than initially estimated which could get into the hands of foreign intelligence agencies.
ASSESSING SNOWDEN'S VALUE
Russian political analyst Pavel Salin suggested the Kremlin's near silence on Snowden for more than 36 hours after he arrived was a stalling tactic. "Now they are assessing how useful he may be. His value depends on the information he has," he said.
Korolkov said that is unclear. "We don't know what really is in his possession and how much of an interest he is. All that he can say could already be known," he said. "But he is of interest (to Russia) for a number of other reasons."
Analysts said Snowden could be useful for a Cold War-style spy swap or as a propaganda tool for Russia, which frequently accuses the United States of violating the principles of freedom and democracy that it tries to press on others.
Putin, asked on Tuesday about the U.S. request to hand Snowden over, questioned whether the American and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is also a fugitive from justice, should be treated as criminals and jailed.
Deputy parliament speaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky has proposed Snowden be exchanged for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer whose jailing in the United States angered Moscow. The United States has refused Russian requests for his repatriation.
Korolkov, and the security service source who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Russia would follow a common international practice in using Snowden in negotiations over Bout. "This is how it is done in the world. It would be in the government's advantage not to give Snowden back," Korolkov said.
The source said: "Russia has some negotiating advantage here."
But there are risks for both countries in taking the dispute over Snowden too far.
"It's a very, very important moment for the entire U.S.-Russia relationship: We are really at a point that will define the relationship for the foreseeable future," said Dmitry Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center think-tank.
Korolkov predicted the Kremlin will tread carefully. "Russia is not at all interested in entering into a conflict with such a geopolitical opponent and political partner as the United States," he said.
(Additional reporting by Gabriela Baczynska, Thomas Grove and Alissa de Carbonnel; Editing by Timothy Heritage, Steve Gutterman and David Stamp)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/russia-spies-may-chatting-tasty-morsel-snowden-202755572.html
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সোমবার, ১৭ জুন, ২০১৩
Doing Mobile Monetization The Right Way | TechCrunch
Editor?s note:?Chris?Moore is a partner at Redpoint Ventures?where he focuses on making investments in?consumer Internet, online marketing and SaaS companies. Follow him on his blog and Twitter @Moorski.
This year alone, there is an $11.4 billion mobile advertising opportunity, which?means there is tremendous upside for nimble and innovative startups with disruptive mobile-first models. As we saw from Facebook last year, the company was able to turn around and actually make something of its mobile business ? a business that didn?t exist at the time of IPO.?However, despite the potential of the market, and Facebook?s early success, we?re still a long way from realizing the promise of the mobile medium.
When looking at the opportunity, it?s clear there are a few core challenges that need to be addressed quickly in this nascent market. The startups that address these challenges first will be the companies to watch.
The Problems That Need Solutions
In many ways, we?re at the same juncture with mobile advertising as we were with the desktop web circa 1996-97. At that time we were limited by basic ad-serving capabilities, browser cookies to track visits and boring, static display ads. Search keyword advertising, the most compelling ad format and targeting method the web has seen, was only in its infancy (at Goto.com, which eventually became Overture) at the time.
Right now, the two most obvious hurdles to overcome are what smart companies are focusing on: developing a reliable and privacy-safe method for user targeting across apps, and developing smartphone native ad formats.
Cross-App User Targeting. On the traditional desktop web, browser cookies became a reasonably reliable and standardized method for recognizing and storing attributes of any given user in between visits to a site. Today roughly 80 percent of online ads leverage cookies or some other form of a user-targeting mechanism.
In the mobile app world, an analogous, reliable and standardized mechanism has not yet emerged across either iOS or Android, and until it does, relevance-based targeting will be less effective in the mobile environment and remain a giant missed opportunity for advertisers. Currently there isn?t a robust way to track users across applications after Apple deprecated UDID as a targeting mechanism. In order for cross-app user targeting to be fully realized, the tracking of users in a privacy-focused environment must be solved.
Smartphone Native Ad Formats.?The first ad formats utilized on smartphones were borrowed from the web. As a result, users are inadvertently clicking on too-small-to-read banner ads, thus ensuring annoyed users. Instead of a fluid and seamless experience, users are pulled out of their task at hand and brought to un-optimized web landing pages in the mobile browser.
The only way mobile ad monetization will flourish is when smartphone native ad formats that enhance the immediate app experience are developed. The good news is that we?re starting to see a few promising native smartphone format candidates with notifications and Facebook?s Sponsored Stories. There is still plenty of room for innovation, as these formats aren?t 100 percent where they need to be. Users and marketers alike can?t wait for some savvy startup to develop innovative and reliable ad formats that fit within the app experience and engage the user without disrupting the task at hand.
The Winner?s Circle
Once the dilemmas of cross app user targeting and smartphone native ad formats are solved, there are some very promising areas within the mobile environment that are poised for the taking:
Online-to-Online Ad Tech Providers.?The ad-tech player who can get the ambient context digital wallet and in-app context right for the Walmarts and Coca-Colas of the world will be a really big deal. There will be several winners in this area, each focused on a particular vertical of offline-to-online.
Cost-Per-Lead Advertising.?Yes, cost-per-lead advertising. The web performance stepchild to cost-per-click could emerge as a first-call citizen in the smartphone medium. Why? Well, the medium happens to be attached to a phone, and guess what leads perform the best: phone calls. The smartphone promises to connect this intent to buy to a live person more seamlessly than any other medium to date. This will lead to higher conversion rates and thus higher monetization rates. Inadco, a Redpoint portfolio company that started in the web CPL space, is one startup helping these advertisers take advantage of the mobile phone.
Ambient Context and User Analytics Providers.?The fundamental problem of user targeting and analytics within the mobile world must be solved. This solution will come from a clever startup, not the underlying platform players Apple and Google. Just as Omniture emerged to be an important platform company in web analytics, there will also be similar companies built within the smartphone medium. Native mobile app analytics companies like Flurry are promising, as are the emerging players in audience targeting like BlueKai (a Redpoint portfolio company).
While we are a far way from identifying the smartphone equivalent of paid search, it will absolutely exist (it has to) and it will leverage ambient targeting, the digital wallet and smartphone native formats that interrupt but don?t disrupt the user from the task at hand.
The market is big and the current players are just starting to crop up, which means the challenge is for the taking. The next two years will undoubtedly be exciting years to see it all unfold ? not only to see who the winners will be, but also to see the innovations that make it happen.
Source: http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/15/doing-mobile-monetization-the-right-way/
রবিবার, ১৬ জুন, ২০১৩
Obama trade dilemma: Scant support from Democrats
WASHINGTON (AP) -- As President Barack Obama pushes an ambitious agenda to liberalize global trading, political trade wars already are forming, and they're with fellow Democrats rather than with Republicans, his usual antagonists.
Obama is promoting free-trade proposals with Europe and Asia that could affect up to two-thirds of all global trade.
The ambitious deals would reduce or eliminate tariffs and other trade barriers. But there's trouble ahead for both the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership ? at the negotiating table and from Congress.
The deal with Europe will be a top item this coming week in Northern Ireland at the Group of Eight summit of major industrial democracies. But French and other objections have recently surfaced which could delay the planned launch of the negotiations.
The Asia pact was brought up pointedly by the new Chinese president, Xi Jinping, in his California meetings with Obama last weekend.
Republicans historically have supported free-trade agreements far more than have Democrats, and a politically weakened Obama may not have enough second-term clout to successfully twist the arms of enough Democratic lawmakers.
Some Republicans who usually vote for easing trade barriers may vote "no" just because the agreements will bear Obama's signature.
Both deals generally have the support of U.S. businesses. But labor unions and human rights and environmental groups ? core Democratic constituencies ? have so far viewed them cynically.
These organizations, and Democrats in general, say that free-trade deals can cost American jobs and lead to environmental and workplace abuses that would not be tolerated in the U.S.
"We certainly have concerns," said Celeste Drake, a trade and policy specialist at the AFL-CIO, the nation's largest labor federation. "I think Obama realizes this problem about Republicans always being the big supporters (on trade liberalization) and he would like to have our support. But overall we're skeptical. We wish we'd see more."
It's not a new problem.
President Bill Clinton powered the U.S.-Mexico-Canada North American Free Trade Agreement through Congress in 1993 only by heavily courting Republicans and overcoming stiff Democratic opposition, including from House Democratic leaders and unions.
As he campaigned for president in 2008, Obama courted blue-collar votes by criticizing NAFTA. Since then, he's changed his tune.
Obama worked to overcome Democratic resistance to win passage in 2011 of trade pacts with South Korea, Panama and Colombia, completing negotiations begun by his Republican predecessor, President George W. Bush.
The talks for a new Asia-Pacific free-trade zone came up in the Obama-Xi meetings last weekend.
At first, the deliberations involved the United States and 10 Pacific Rim nations: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. More recently, Japan has sought to join the talks, drawing the keen interest of the Chinese leader. Until now, China hasn't been included in the process.
"We have a half-a-trillion-dollar-a-year trade relationship with China," said Tom Donilon, Obama's national security adviser. "President Xi's point ... was that the Chinese would like to be kept informed and have some transparency into the process."
But the possible inclusion of Japan, the third-largest economy, after the U.S. and China, generated heat from auto-state lawmakers, who criticized Japan's efforts to restrict auto imports.
Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., pledged to fight ratification if Japan won't "stop blocking American companies from its markets."
Michael Froman, a White House international economics adviser nominated to be the next U.S. trade representative, said the auto industry concerns are "well-founded" and he suggested they would be addressed.
Backers of a sweeping U.S. trade deal with the 27 European Union countries hoped to get an enthusiastic sendoff from the G-8 summit in Northern Ireland on Monday and Tuesday.
British Prime Minister David Cameron, the host, has made trade liberalization a priority, and many European nations are hoping the promise of expanded trade will help reverse Europe's spreading recessions.
"An EU-US trade deal could add tens of billions to our economies," Cameron told reporters. "Everything is on the table, with no exception."
But there already are serious divisions in Europe.
Despite Cameron's and Obama's assertions that everything should be on the table, the European Union Parliament bowed to strong French concerns and recently voted to exclude TV, movies and other cultural "audiovisual services" from the trade talks even before formal negotiations begin next month.
France stuck to this "cultural exception" at a meeting of the EU members in Luxembourg on Friday.
Also, some members of the European Parliament are urging that data protection provisions be made a key part of the negotiations ? in response to recent disclosures of widespread snooping by the U.S. intelligence community on telephone and Internet communications at home and abroad.
Other potential roadblocks include longstanding arguments over genetically engineered food and other agricultural issues, as well as "Buy American" provisions in recent U.S. legislation, climate change and a squabble over government subsidies involving plane makers Boeing in the U.S. and Airbus in Europe.
"Both sides know that they need to work very hard," said Philipp Rosler, vice chancellor of Germany and minister of economics and technology.
"And only if the people understand that, and only if we don't end up just having discussions on tiny details ? like chickens ? only then will we have the opportunity of not only negotiating, but also of concluding a good agreement," Rosler told a conference at the Brookings Institution, a U.S. think tank.
Obama, with the backing of Michigan Rep. Dave Camp, the Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, is also pushing for renewal of an expired law that allowed the White House to submit trade deals to Congress for a straight yes-or-no vote without amendments.
"This is a Congress that's pro-trade. But it's also highly polarized," said James Thurber, a political science professor at American University. "Business has been pushing these trade deals for a long time. Labor has not. So that splits things in a difficult manner for Obama."
"He's got people who don't want him to win on anything. And then he's got some people from labor who are skeptical about expansionistic trade policies and their effect on the workforce here," Thurber said. "So it will be tough."
___
Follow Tom Raum on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/tomraum
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-trade-dilemma-scant-support-075447164.html
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