Target 4Q adj. profit beats Wall Street's view

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) ? Target's fiscal fourth-quarter net income dipped 2 percent as it dealt with intense competition during the crucial holiday season. But its adjusted results beat analysts' estimates and it forecast first-quarter earnings above Wall Street's view.

Shares rose almost 2 percent in premarket trading Wednesday.

The Minneapolis-based company earned $961 million, or $1.47 per share, for the period ended Feb. 2. That's down from $981 million, or $1.45 per share, a year earlier.

Removing certain items, earnings were $1.65 per share. That tops analysts' forecast for earnings of $1.47 per share.

Revenue climbed 7 percent to $22.73 billion from $21.29 billion. This met Wall Street's expectations.

Target Corp. foresees first quarter adjusted earnings of $1.10 to $1.20 per share.

Analysts predict earnings of $1.05 per share.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/target-4q-adj-profit-beats-wall-streets-view-125353190--finance.html

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Santa Cruz reeling after 2 police detectives killed in shootout ...

Santa Cruz was in mourning after two police detectives were killed in a shootout Tuesday.

The city's Police Department, which has less than 100 sworn officers, had operated for 150 years without losing a single one in the line of duty. Until Tuesday afternoon, when two veteran detectives in plainclothes walked up to Jeremy Goulet's house as part of a misdemeanor sexual assault investigation.

Sgt. Loran "Butch" Baker, 51, and Det. Elizabeth Butler, 38, were killed on Goulet's doorstep, Santa Cruz County Sheriff Phil Wowak said during a news conference near an impromptu memorial at police headquarters.

PHOTOS: Two Santa Cruz police officers killed

"We don't know all that happened when they came into contact with Goulet," said Wowak, whose department is leading the investigation so Santa Cruz police can mourn. "We do know what was left in the aftermath."

"Thank you for your service Santa Cruz Police Department. RIP Detective Baker. RIP Detective Butler." That's what Mary Gregg wrote in neat black letters on yellow construction paper, hanging her message in the window of the downtown check-cashing store where she works.

"Something," she felt, "had to be said today."

Best known for its surfing museum and a roller coaster that Bay Area newspaper columnist Herb Caen described as "one long shriek," Santa Cruz is not used to the kind of pain that rippled through town the day after a gunfight left two veteran detectives ? and the man they were investigating ? dead.

The 35-year-old Goulet, who had a long history of run-ins with the law, killed and disarmed the detectives before fleeing in Baker's car, Wowak said. Law enforcement officers from throughout the region began a sweep of the Santa Cruz neighborhood where Baker and Butler were slain. A short time later, Goulet ditched the car and tried to flee on foot.

In the ensuing gun battle, Wowak said, Goulet shot up a firetruck, sending firefighters, medical personnel and passersby scrambling. After killing the suspect, authorities discovered Goulet had been wearing body armor and had three guns.

"It is our belief that two of the three weapons belonged to the Santa Cruz Police Department, but we haven't confirmed it," said Wowak, adding that it was still unclear whether Goulet had taken the body armor from Baker's car or had it on before the shooting broke out.

"We know now that he was distraught," the sheriff said. "We know now that he had the intention of harming himself and possibly the police. ...?There's no doubt in anyone's mind that the officers who engaged Goulet stopped an imminent threat to the community."

Goulet had been arrested Friday on suspicion of disorderly conduct. Local news accounts said he had broken into the home of a co-worker and had been fired from his job at The Kind Grind coffeehouse Saturday. A manager at the beachfront shop declined to comment Wednesday.

According to Goulet's father, the barista ? who recently had moved from Berkeley to Santa Cruz ? was a ticking time bomb who held police and the justice system in deep contempt. Ronald Goulet, 64, told the Associated Press that his son had had numerous run-ins with the law and had sworn he would never go back to jail.

But the elder Goulet said he never thought his troubled son would turn to such violence.

Goulet said his son undermined any success he had in the military (he reportedly was a member of the Marine Corps Reserves and later the Army) or college because of an insatiable desire to peep in the windows of women as they showered or dressed.

"He's got one problem, peeping in windows," his father said. "I asked him, 'Why don't you just go to a strip club?' He said he wants a good girl that doesn't know she's being spied on, and said he couldn't stop doing it."

In 2008, a Portland, Ore., jury convicted Jeremy Goulet on misdemeanor counts of unlawful possession of a firearm and invasion of personal privacy after he peeked into a woman's bathroom as she showered, said Don Rees, a chief deputy district attorney in Multnomah County.

Goulet faced additional charges, including attempted murder, after he allegedly fired a gun at the woman's boyfriend. The two had fought after Goulet was spotted outside the woman's condo, but a jury acquitted him of those charges, Rees said.

During the trial, Goulet admitted that he liked to use his cellphone to record unsuspecting women undressing, according to the Oregonian newspaper. Prosecutors alleged he had peeped at women "hundreds of times" without getting caught.

Goulet was given three years' probation, Rees said, but spent time in jail after his probation was revoked.

As law enforcement officials Wednesday released new details of the unprecedented police killings, residents struggled to come to terms with what they said was the latest in a spate of high-profile acts of violence.

Earlier this month, a 21-year-old woman was beaten and raped while walking on the campus of UC Santa Cruz. Just days earlier, a UC Santa Cruz student had been shot in the head during a robbery at a bus stop on the city's west side. And a few weeks ago, a young man was gunned down in front of the Red Room, a popular downtown nightspot

Denise Paris Shaw, 58, has lived in Santa Cruz her entire life. Four generations of her family have graduated from Santa Cruz High School. Butler and Baker's deaths, she said, were "the most devastating thing I've seen."

Shaw's husband, Michael, was driving not far from Goulet's residence when the shootings began. Denise, a retired special education teacher, was home following the unfolding violence on television. The first thing she did was call her husband and say: "Two officers have been shot. You need to get home right now. The suspect is on the loose."

The more she watched, the more worried she became. "I had a feeling it was bad," she said, "when EMTs went in with two gurneys and came out with two gurneys and they were empty."

The Shaws keep an altar in their living room, dedicated to people they know who have died. Michael's father was a sheriff's lieutenant 50 years ago. When Michael got home, they put his father's badge on the altar. They lit a candle. And Michael began to sob.

On Wednesday, Denise Shaw brought a bouquet of red and white roses to the makeshift memorial at police headquarters. She laid it alongside the chocolate-filled hearts, candles and handwritten notes. She listened as local officials gave voice to the city's grief.

"They weren't just officers," Mayor Hilary Bryant said of Baker and Butler. "They were our friends. Our neighbors. They had families in our schools."

Police Chief Kevin Vogel, trembling and close to tears, said: "Today is one of the darkest days in the history of the department.

"We're having a tough time with this. We're doing the best job that we know how. It's been devastating. There are absolutely no words for me to describe what this department is going through."

He paused. And remembered one more thing he had to do.

"This is going to be hard," he said. Then he held up photographs of the slain officers, his detectives, his friends.

His hands shook.

ALSO:

Suspects allegedly kidnap man, force him to drive to strip club

Santa Cruz killings: Gunman took officers? weapons, police say

Gunman who killed 2 Santa Cruz cops wore body armor, police say

-- Lee Romney in Santa Cruz and Maria LaGanga in San Francisco

Photo: Sky Hall leaves flowers in front of the Santa Cruz Police Department on Wednesday at a memorial for two police detectives who were killed Tuesday. Suspect Jeremy Goulet, 35, was shot and killed by officers. Credit: Thomas Mendoza / Associated Press

Source: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2013/02/santa-cruz-reeling-after-2-police-detectives-killed-in-shootout.html

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Head of Mexico's powerful teachers' union jailed

MEXICO CITY (AP) ? Mexico's most powerful woman was formally charged with a massive embezzlement scheme on Wednesday, standing grim-faced behind bars live on national television in what many called a clear message that the new government is asserting its authority.

The country watched rapt as national teacher's union head Elba Esther Gordillo heard the charges against her read by a judge in a grim prison in eastern Mexico City. It was a dizzying fall from power for a woman who traveled on private jets and maintained properties worth millions of dollars in Southern California.

Gordillo was charged with embezzling 2 billion pesos (about $160 million) from union funds, as well as organized crime. The judge in the case said a decision about whether the evidence is sufficient to merit a trial would be taken in three to six days.

If found guilty, Gordillo could face 30 years in prison.

She was arrested Tuesday afternoon as she returned from San Diego for a meeting of leaders of the 1.5 million-member National Union of Education Workers she has led for nearly a quarter-century. She was heading the union's fight with President Enrique Pena Nieto's administration over the country's most sweeping educational reform in more than 70 years.

Her arrest came a day after the president signed the reform into law.

"This is a case that has absolutely no political motivation," Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam told the Televisa television network.

But most Mexicans scoffed at the idea that prosecutors had just found out that Gordillo ? known for her designer clothes, luxury cars and plastic surgery ? might be corrupt. Many saw it as a shot across the bow of potential foes by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which ran the country for seven decades, was thrown out of power in 2006 and won back the presidency last year.

The message: Don't commit Gordillo's mistake of publicly opposing the president's reform efforts.

"The message is that, if this can happen to Elba Esther, it can happen to anyone," former Mexico City Mayor Manuel Camacho Solis told MVS Radio. Prosecutors said they had detected nearly $3 million in purchases at Neiman Marcus stores using union funds, as well as $17,000 in U.S. plastic surgery bills and the purchase of a million-dollar home in San Diego.

The arrest immediately sparked calls for prosecutors to bring similar cases against other union leaders known for lavish spending. The main opposition parties specifically named the leader of the country's oil workers' union, accused by local news media of giving his son a $2 million Ferrari, a report that has never been confirmed or denied.

The arrest of Gordillo sidelines a powerful opponent of the PRI even as the administration takes on a figure many blame for the dire state of the Mexican education system. Gordillo was a PRI leader for decades before splitting from the party, which was accused of corruption and authoritarian practices during its decades in power.

"This can be something very good for the country, but also for the government and for the PRI," said Jose Antonio Crespo, a political analyst at the Center for Economic Research and Teaching in Mexico City. "It cleans up the image of the PRI, as if to say, "Yes, we will be a different PRI, we're moving forward, not backward."

Pena Nieto is also proposing reforms that would open the state-owned oil company to more private investment, a move that could awaken similar opposition from that union.

But teacher's union members had been the only ones marching in the streets against reform in recent weeks, and the fiery Gordillo, who rose from teenage school teacher to a maker of presidents, vowed to keep fighting.

"I want to die with the epitaph: Here lies a warrior. She died like a warrior," Gordillo said in a speech on her 68th birthday this month.

Her union's secretary-general said Gordillo still had the group's loyalty, solidarity and affection, but there was no immediate sign of plans for protests.

Asked if he would go after other corrupt union bosses, as opposition parties have demanded, Murillo Karam said "I don't have evidence as clear as in this case."

In a news conference minutes after Gordillo's detention, he said the investigation started in December, just after Pena Nieto took office, when Banco Santander alerted authorities to transfers of billions of pesos, according to the attorney general.

Some funds eventually ended up in bank accounts in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, according to Assistant Attorney General Alfredo Castillo, who said that in one case, $1 million went to a Swiss account for a company owned by Gordillo's mother. Those funds were then used to buy a million-dollar house on the Coronado peninsula near San Diego.

For years, Gordillo has beaten back attacks from union dissidents, political foes and journalists who have seen her as a symbol of Mexico's corrupt, old-style politics. Rivals have accused her of corruption, misuse of union funds and even a murder, but prosecutors who investigated never brought a charge against her.

She was expelled from Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party in 2006 for supporting other parties' candidates and the formation of her own New Alliance party. Her support was considered key in giving a razor-thin victory that year to former President Felipe Calderon.

After Pena Nieto's victory, his first legislative achievement was a reform that creates a system of uniform standards for teacher hiring and promotion based on merit instead of union connections. It also allows for the first census of Mexico's education system, which Gordillo's union has largely controlled for decades, allegedly padding the payroll with thousands of phantom teachers.

So great is the union's control that no one knows exactly how many schools, teachers or students exist in Mexico.

The Mexican education system has been persistently one of the worst performers among the world's developed economies, with few signs of improvement.

Mexico spent a higher percentage of its budget on public education than any other country in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development except New Zealand but had the lowest expenditure per child in 2009.

Nearly every Mexican 4-year-old is in pre-school, but only 47 percent are expected to graduate high school. In the U.S., the number is closer to 80 percent.

In a television interview last week about education reform, the interviewer told Gordillo that she was the most hated woman in Mexico.

"There is no one more loved by their people than I," Gordillo answered. "I care about the teachers. This is a deep and serious dispute about public education."

Columnist and political analyst Raymundo Riva Palacio said Gordillo is an experienced political fighter who may have lost the keen sense of political calculation that kept her in power for so many years.

"She lost clarity," Riva Palacio said. "Having so much to lose on the issue on which they finally got her, the money, she calculated badly."

Gordillo's arrest recalled the 1989 arrest of another once-feared union boss, Joaquin Hernandez Galicia, known as "La Quina." The longtime head of Mexico's powerful oil workers union, Hernandez Galicia was arrested during the first months of the new administration of then-President Carlos Salinas.

In 1988, he criticized Salinas' presidential candidacy and threatened an oil workers' strike if Salinas privatized any part of the government oil monopoly, Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex. On Jan. 10, 1989, ? about a month after Salinas took office ? soldiers used a bazooka to blow down the door of Hernandez' home in the Gulf Coast city of Ciudad Madero.

He was freed from prison after Salinas left office.

_____

Associated Press writers Mark Stevenson, Adriana Gomez Licon and Michael Weissenstein contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/head-mexicos-powerful-teachers-union-jailed-064823862.html

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Viruses can have immune systems: A pirate phage commandeers the immune system of bacteria

Feb. 27, 2013 ? A study published today in the journal Nature reports that a viral predator of the cholera bacteria has stolen the functional immune system of bacteria and is using it against its bacterial host. The study provides the first evidence that this type of virus, the bacteriophage ("phage" for short), can acquire a wholly functional and adaptive immune system.

The phage used the stolen immune system to disable -- and thus overcome -- the cholera bacteria's defense system against phages. Therefore, the phage can kill the cholera bacteria and multiply to produce more phage offspring, which can then kill more cholera bacteria. The study has dramatic implications for phage therapy, which is the use of phages to treat bacterial diseases. Developing phage therapy is particularly important because some bacteria, called superbugs, are resistant to most or all current antibiotics.

Until now, scientists thought phages existed only as primitive particles of DNA or RNA and therefore lacked the sophistication of an adaptive immune system, which is a system that can respond rapidly to a nearly infinite variety of new challenges. Phages are viruses that prey exclusively on bacteria and each phage is parasitically mated to a specific type of bacteria. This study focused on a phage that attacks Vibrio cholerae, the bacterium responsible for cholera epidemics in humans.

Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Andrew Camilli, Ph.D., of Tufts University School of Medicine led the research team responsible for the surprising discovery.

First author Kimberley D. Seed, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in Camilli's lab, was analyzing DNA sequences of phages taken from stool samples from patients with cholera in Bangladesh when she identified genes for a functional immune system previously found only in some bacteria (and most Archaea, a separate domain of single-celled microorganisms).

To verify the findings, the researchers used phage lacking the adaptive immune system to infect a new strain of cholera bacteria that is naturally resistant to the phage. The phage were unable to adapt to and kill the cholera strain. They next infected the same strain of cholera bacteria with phage harboring the immune system, and observed that the phage rapidly adapted and thus gained the ability to kill the cholera bacteria. This work demonstrates that the immune system harbored by the phage is fully functional and adaptive.

"Virtually all bacteria can be infected by phages. About half of the world's known bacteria have this adaptive immune system, called CRISPR/Cas, which is used primarily to provide immunity against phages. Although this immune system was commandeered by the phage, its origin remains unknown because the cholera bacterium itself currently lacks this system. What is really remarkable is that the immune system is being used by the phage to adapt to and overcome the defense systems of the cholera bacteria. Finding a CRISPR/Cas system in a phage shows that there is gene flow between the phage and bacteria even for something as large and complex as the genes for an adaptive immune system," said Seed.

"The study lends credence to the controversial idea that viruses are living creatures, and bolsters the possibility of using phage therapy to treat bacterial infections, especially those that are resistant to antibiotic treatment," said Camilli, professor of Molecular Biology & Microbiology at Tufts University School of Medicine and member of the Molecular Microbiology program faculty at the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts University.

Camilli's previous research established that phages are highly prevalent in stool samples from patients with cholera, implying that phage therapy is happening naturally and could be made more effective. In addition, a study published by Camilli in 2008 determined that phage therapy works in a mouse model of cholera intestinal infection.

The team is currently working on a study to understand precisely how the phage immune system disables the defense systems of the cholera bacteria. This new knowledge will be important for understanding whether the phage's immune system could overcome newly acquired or evolved phage defense systems of the cholera bacteria, and thus has implications for designing an effective and stable phage therapy to combat cholera.

Additional authors are David W. Lazinski, Ph.D., senior research associate in the Camilli lab at Tufts University School of Medicine, and Stephen B. Calderwood, M.D., Morton N. Swartz, M.D. academy professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and chief, division of infectious disease and vice-chair, department of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health under award numbers R01AI55058, R01AI045746, and R01AI058935.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Tufts University.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Kimberley D. Seed, David W. Lazinski, Stephen B. Calderwood, Andrew Camilli. A bacteriophage encodes its own CRISPR/Cas adaptive response to evade host innate immunity. Nature, 2013; 494 (7438): 489 DOI: 10.1038/nature11927

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/Wyf-HIQF99Q/130227134334.htm

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Mizuho hunting for banking assets in Asia, U.S

TOKYO (Reuters) - Mizuho Financial Group Inc , Japan's second-largest lender by assets, is looking to further expand overseas by acquiring either an Asian investment bank or a U.S. commercial bank over the next three years.

"Possible targets include an Asian investment bank, especially a bond market player," Mizuho President Yasuhiro Sato told reporters in Tokyo on Tuesday. "We also have to take a fresh look at the United States, whose economy, we expect, will become very strong in next five years."

Japanese banks such as Mizuho are leveraging their ample cash holdings to expand overseas to counter sluggish demand for loans at home. The retreat of European rivals in the wake of the debt crisis in the euro zone has also spurred lenders such as Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc to pick up assets around the world.

Mizuho is also looking to streamline its overall operations and cut costs by merging its international and corporate banking unit, Mizuho Corporate Bank, with its retail and small and medium enterprises unit Mizuho Bank in July.

It has said the merger and other group reorganization will cut costs by 30 billion yen ($319.83 million) and boost revenue by 60 billion yen over a three-year period.

Mizuho was created in 2000 by a merger of three banks, and its structure as a holding company with two core banking units has long been criticized as an inefficient way of splitting management duties among the three lenders.

Sato, who became CEO of Mizuho Financial in 2011, has been working to make the banking group more nimble and more cost-efficient in the face of tepid loan demand at home.

Sato said domestic lending is likely to remain flat or grow slightly over the next three years, while overseas loans are expected to increase.

Citing huge overseas bad loan problems suffered by Japanese banks in the past, Sato said his bank will stick to lending to blue chip firms abroad, even though loan interest margins tend to be thin for such borrowers.

He said Mizuho is trying to secure fatter profits by winning bond and share issuance and other investment banking business from these clients.

In its business plan for the three years starting in April announced on Tuesday, Mizuho said it aims to report a net profit of 550 billion yen for the year ending in March 2016. That's up 10 percent from the 500 billion yen forecast for the current financial year.

($1 = 93.8000 Japanese yen)

(Editing by Ryan Woo)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mizuho-hunting-banking-assets-asia-u-091050388--finance.html

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Millionaire to send married couple past Mars

Animations from the Inspiration Mars Foundation trace the trajectory for a 501-day round trip to Mars.

By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

Millionaire space tourist Dennis Tito's plan to send two astronauts on a 501-day flight that zooms past Mars and swings back to Earth?would set plenty of precedents on the final frontier?? but the most intriguing precedent might have to do with the astronauts that are to be sent: one man and one woman, preferably a married couple beyond childbearing years. We're talking about sex in space, folks.

And if that's not intriguing enough, consider this: There are already a couple of candidates for the job.

"We'll certainly throw our hat in the ring," said Taber MacCallum, who's a member of the development team for the 2018 mission that Tito has in mind.

---

MacCallum and his wife, Jane Poynter, were crew members together in Biosphere 2, the controversial two-year-long experiment in long-term environmental containment. They went on to become co-founders of Paragon Space Development Corp., a company specializing in life-support systems for spacecraft. Their expertise in life support is why they're involved in Tito's "Mission for America," which was officially unveiled on Wednesday at the National Press Club in Washington. But it just so happens that they also fit the profile for the trip: Poynter is about 50, and MacCallum will turn 49 on July 20, the anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

The couple won't be the only candidates in the running. "When we tell people we're proposing to send a man and a woman on a mission to Mars, as a married couple, people line up. ... That chord gets struck over and over again," MacCallum said.

MacCallum explained that Tito wants the crew on humanity's first trip to Mars to be representative of humanity, and because the current concept for the trip calls for two spacefliers, that means a man and a woman. A married couple would be ideal, MacCallum said, because of the "whole issue of companionship." MacCallum didn't refer specifically to sex, but that would presumably be part of the companionship package.

"When you're out that far, and the Earth is a tiny, blue pinpoint, you're going to need someone you can hug," Tito told Space.com. During Wednesday's briefing, Tito told reporters that he envisioned Dr. Phil giving the couple "marital advice" during the trip.

Paragon

Taber MacCallum and his wife, Jane Poynter, are part of the planning team for a mission to Mars in 2018. They're also potential candidates to take the trip.

In addition to their experience with life-support systems (and with each other), MacCallum and Poynter can draw upon their experience with life in isolation during the Biosphere 2 experiment in Arizona, which lasted from 1991 to 1993. The isolation inside a two-room spacecraft for 501 days will be even deeper. Even though the Biosphere 2 crew was separated from the outside world, "we could walk out at any time," MacCallum pointed out.

That's not the only challenge: Even with radiation shielding in place, the round trip to Mars is likely to involve exposure levels higher than NASA's limits, MacCallum said. (That's why the astronauts should be beyond their childbearing years and willing to accept an increased risk of cancer.)

Then there's the exposure to the health effects of long-term weightlessness, including bone loss and muscle loss. The astronauts who fly past Mars will surpass Soviet cosmonaut Valery Polyakov's 437-day record for continuous time in microgravity, set in 1994-1995 aboard the much roomier Mir space station.?

"We're definitely pushing boundaries," MacCallum said. "It's definitely going to be hard and challenging. But we can rely on elegance and simplicity."

When, where and how?
The details of the mission plan have come to light just in the past few days, but MacCallum said that Tito has been mulling over the idea for years. Tito started out as an engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, helping to design trajectories for the Mariner missions to Mars in the 1970s. Then he put his math genius to work in the investment world, building California-based Wilshire Associates into a multibillion-dollar powerhouse. In 2001, he spent around $20 million of his fortune for a seat on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft traveling to and from to the International Space Station.

After his eight-day space tour, Tito got back to business. But he also started working out a trajectory that could send a spaceship directly from Earth to Mars for a fly-by within 100 miles (160 kilometers) of the Red Planet's surface, and then back to the home planet 501 days after launch. Once the spaceship was on its way, only minor course corrections would be needed. There'd be no need for undocking or redocking ... no landing ... no do-or-die engine burn for the return from Mars.

There's one big catch, though: The trip will have to be started when the planets were aligned just right. One opportunity will come in 2016. Then there's another one in 2018. After that, the next chance won't come around until 2031.

Planning for a launch in January 2018 looked particularly attractive, and not just because that could plausibly provide enough time to put the mission together. That's also a time frame when solar activity is expected to be at a minimum, reducing the level of radiation exposure. So Tito assembled a team from Paragon as well as NASA's Ames Research Center and other space ventures to flesh out the mission plan.

The plan calls for launching the two astronauts in a crew capsule with a transfer rocket stage. If the launch vehicle is powerful enough ? say, the size of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy ? the upper stage and the crew capsule could be launched in one go. If the rocket doesn't have that much oomph, the capsule and the upper stage could be launched separately and then linked up in Earth orbit for the push onward to Mars.

Inspiration Mars

An artist's conception shows how the spacecraft for the Inspiration Mars Foundation's "Mission for America" might be configured ? with a crew capsule, an inflatable module similar to the ones built by Bigelow Aerospace, and an attached upper stage that could provide radiation shielding. The actual design has not yet been set.

Source: http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/27/17107722-millionaire-dennis-tito-plans-to-send-woman-and-man-to-mars-and-back?lite

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Home Depot leads Dow average higher

Trader Kevin Coulter, right, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013. Strong earnings reports from Home Depot and Macy's helped lift stock indexes in early trading on Wall Street Tuesday. A jump in home sales and consumer confidence also brought buyers back to the market. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Trader Kevin Coulter, right, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013. Strong earnings reports from Home Depot and Macy's helped lift stock indexes in early trading on Wall Street Tuesday. A jump in home sales and consumer confidence also brought buyers back to the market. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Trader Gregory Rowe works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013. Strong earnings reports from Home Depot and Macy's helped lift stock indexes in early trading on Wall Street Tuesday. A jump in home sales and consumer confidence also brought buyers back to the market. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013. Strong earnings reports from Home Depot and Macy's helped lift stock indexes in early trading on Wall Street Tuesday. A jump in home sales and consumer confidence also brought buyers back to the market. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Trader Gordon Charlop, right, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013. Strong earnings reports from Home Depot and Macy's helped lift stock indexes in early trading on Wall Street Tuesday. A jump in home sales and consumer confidence also brought buyers back to the market. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Specialist Michael O'Connor, left, calls out prices for Home Depot shares on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013. Strong earnings reports from Home Depot and Macy's helped lift stock indexes in early trading on Wall Street Tuesday. A jump in home sales and consumer confidence also brought buyers back to the market. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

NEW YORK (AP) ? A jump in home sales and strong earnings from Home Depot helped the Dow claw back more than half of its losses from Monday. Improving consumer confidence also brought back buyers to the market.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 115.96 points, or 0.8 percent, to 13,900.13. The Dow fell 216 points the day before, its biggest drop in three months, on concern that the European debt crisis may flare up again. The index has moved 100 points or more on four out of the past five trading days.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 9.09 points, or 0.6 percent, to 1,496.94. The Nasdaq composite was up 13.40 points, or 0.4 percent, at 3,129.65.

Home Depot, the biggest home improvement store chain in the country, jumped $3.64, or 5.7 percent, to $67.56 after reporting that its income rose 32 percent in the latest quarter thanks to strong U.S. sales and the cleanup that followed Superstorm Sandy. That made it the biggest gainer in the Dow, accounting for about 28 points, or about a quarter, of its advance.

"Companies on the whole, particularly U.S. companies, are doing well," Michael Mussio, a portfolio manager at FBB Capital, said.

Strong earnings from home improvement companies, such as Home Depot and Lowe's, which reported earnings Monday that beat Wall Street forecasts, compounded evidence that the U.S. housing market is maintaining its recovery, Mussio said. Also Tuesday, the government reported that sales of new homes jumped 16 percent last month to the highest level since July 2008.

The report boosted housing companies, which led the S&P 500 higher. PulteGroup rose $1.03, or 5.7 percent, to $19.05, edging out Home Depot as the biggest gainer in the index. D.R. Horton advanced 88 cents, or 4.12 percent, to $22.25 and Lennar Corp. rose $1.35, or 3.7 percent, to $38.01.

The rebounding housing sector has been an important factor behind a rally that pushed the Dow above 14,000 last week, close to its record high close of 14,164 reached in October 2007. The Dow is still up 6 percent this year, even after Monday's sell-off. The S&P 500 is up 5 percent.

Also Tuesday, a measure of consumer confidence rose sharply, reversing three months of declines, as shoppers began adjusting to a payroll tax hike last month.

Investors closely watched testimony by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. The Fed chairman said that the automatic government spending cuts due to take effect Friday would put a drag on the economy. He urged lawmakers and the White House to replace the cuts with longer-term policies to reduce the budget deficit.

Investors shouldn't be dissuaded from buying stocks by any flare-up in Europe's economic troubles, says Hans Olsen, a strategist at Barclays. The strategist says stocks should have a good year thanks to earnings growth and a pickup in corporate dealmaking.

Deals have accelerated sharply in the last three months and have involved household names including Heinz, Dell and American Airlines. Some of the acquired companies soared 20 percent or more when the deals are announced.

It's not yet clear how the recent see-saw in the market will affect investors. Individual investors have been creeping back into stocks since the start of this year, but the swings might yet unnerve them.

"The gyrations worry them, it scares them, even though the market is up," says Gabriel Fancher, an adviser at the Financial Group, a financial planner. "The market seems out of people's hands these days."

Tuesday's good news about the economy in the U.S. helped investors turn their focus away from Europe.

While U.S. market rose, European markets fell again as investors worried about Italy's political situation. The country is facing political gridlock after elections left Parliament with no clear-cut winner.

U.S. stocks slumped Monday after election results in Italy showed a race too close to call. That left investors fearful that the country, the euro region's third-largest, will struggle to form a government that can move forward with reforms to revive the economy, rekindling the region's debt crisis and worries over the viability of its shared currency, the euro.

Italy's main stock index dropped 4.9 percent Tuesday. The yield on Italy's benchmark government bond rose sharply, to 4.83 percent from 4.43 percent the day before, as investors sold them. That's still far below the 7 percent the yield traded at in January 2012, when confidence in Italy's finances was far lower. The euro was little changed against the dollar.

Other European indexes also fell, but not as much. Stocks fell 2.3 percent in Germany, 2.7 percent in France, and 1.3 percent in Britain.

In U.S. government bond trading, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which moves inversely to prices, rose two basis points to 1.88 percent.

Among other companies making big moves Tuesday;

? Tyson Foods fell 86 cents, or 3.7 percent, to $22.40 after it said that its fiscal second quarter has been tougher than expected because of lower margins in its beef and pork divisions. The nation's biggest meat company said it's still optimistic about its full-year results.

? Oneok fell $1.86, or 4 percent, to $44.34 after the natural gas company cut its distribution growth forecast for the next three years, citing expectations of lower sales volumes and prices of natural gas liquids.

? Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia fell 16 cents, or 5.3 percent, to $2.85 after the company said its fourth-quarter net income slid 74 percent as it continues to struggle with weak results at its publishing and broadcasting divisions.

? Macy's rose $1.33, or 3.5 percent, to $39.85 after its results beat analysts' forecasts.

____

AP Business Writer Bernard Condon contributed to the report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-02-26-Wall%20Street/id-84b0af137b394a86b91e80f981f36995

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Buck Wolf: Memories Of The '93 World Trade Center Bombing: 'Thank God The Elevator Never Arrived'

When firefighters rushed into the World Trade Center, I didn't care. Nobody around me did. It was lunchtime in Zuccotti Park on Feb. 26, 1993, and I was reading "The Art & Science Of Dumpster Diving."

Firetrucks would pull up to the curb outside the Twin Towers all the time. It was always something -- a smoldering cigarette, a strong wind on an upper floor. Fire alarms were something you'd learn to ignore.

We heard the boom down the street. Still, nobody cared. To live in New York City is to accept the occasional boom. People here don't turn around much -- even today.

At that moment, nobody had any idea that a terrorist with a truck bomb had blown a crater under the WTC that was the size of the Meadowlands Arena -- or that six people were dead.

I was just another zombie-like New Yorker in the Financial District ambling back from lunch.

Even the glitter of emergency lights didn't mean much. The firefighters couldn't have known what was going on. They didn't try to stop me when I entered the lobby.

Nobody knew what they were getting into.

In the Tower Two lobby, a man was down on ground. I didn't know why. I didn't stop. I had to get back to my desk.

I was a young reporter, working my first job at "The Journal of Commerce," which was then one of the oldest papers in the United States, founded by Samuel Morse of Morse Code fame, back in 1827. And I had the fear that every young journalist has in these moments -- that I had irreparably screwed up, and my professional life was over.

I had a story to file -- a small, insignificant story about the Iroquois natural gas pipeline. I should have filed it before lunch. But I wanted a falafel from Sam's Falafel Stand at Zuccotti Park, and I wanted to check out my new Dumpster diving book.

Now, filing that pipeline story would be impossible. And my miserable wretch of an editor would have all the reason she needed to put my meager career out of it's misery.

I actually hit the elevator button to go up. I hit it several time, in anger.

Thank god it never arrived. The worst place to be in a disaster like that is an elevator. The TWC had "198 of the biggest, fastest elevators ever built" and on Sept. 11 at least 200 people died in them.

Suddenly, smoke filled the lobby. Crowds of people came pouring down the steps. A frighteningly elaborate light show, composed entirely of flickering emergency vehicles, awaited me outside.

I would never think about the Iroquois natural gas pipeline ever again -- until today, 20 years later.

The fanfare with which they reopened the Twin Towers was quite elaborate.

Along with the ceremony, commemorative blue coffee mug were waiting on each person's desk. Above an image of the Twin Towers were the words "Welcome Back!" scrawled in friendly letters.

I never drank from that cup. I figured it would be a collector's item one day.

On Sept. 11, I was working for ABC News. When those planes struck the towers, I was immediately dispatched to go down there.

I was at a point in my life where I covered crime, and a lot of big disasters -- the Oklahoma City bombing case, the crash of Flight 800. I was a guy you sent to the scene to speak to victims, to get their stories.

As I biked down from ABC's West 66th Street offices, there were thousands of evacuees from lower Manhattan walking slowly, silently in the other direction, trying to escape the eye-stinging smoke.

Usually, when a reporter covers a disaster, you look for one or two people who can tell the story. In the case of Sept. 11, everyone had a devastating story to tell. This news was on a scope I had never seen before -- and hope never to again.

I had one good laugh on Sept. 11.

I was biking toward Ground Zero, thinking darkly, "Boy, I bet my World Trade Center 'Welcome Back!' mug is worth a fortune now. Whoopee!"

It's funny what you think about in a tragedy. Tragedies reveal truths, and not all of them are bad.

What is true about the '93 WTC bombing is also true about Sept. 11 and the Oklahoma City attack. Things could have been a lot worse if people panicked . . . if they didn't cooperate . . . if they weren't good to one another.

The truth is this: Most people are good. They're capable of genuine acts of heroism and extraordinary kindness. It was true in each of these disasters.

Only six people died in the '93 bombing. If you knew how scary it was for the tens of thousands who had to walk down the darkened steps of those 110-story buildings, you'd agree it was a miracle.

The cynic in me has a hard time believing nobody was trampled to death. The emergency lighting system failed. The people didn't.

Today, I'm best known as the guy in charge of HuffPost Weird News. I'm well conversant on the art and science of Dumpster diving, as well as UFOs, competitive eating, and a bunch of other offbeat subjects.

I'm also in charge of HuffPost Crime, and that keeps me all too aware of manmade disasters.

In December, I was in Newtown on the day of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. I was with reporters Michael McLaughlin and John Rudolf at a church just hours after Adam Lanza's killing spree.

It was a frigid night, and it was hard for anyone to accept the enormity of what just happened.

Still, families, friends and neighbors were singing Christmas carols with tears in their eyes. Even for a devout agnostic like myself, the scene was overwhelming.

Everyone needs, as Springsteen might say, a "Reason to Believe," and mine is that people are generally good.

As Anne Frank famously wrote from the attic in which her family hid from the Nazis: "I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart."

I believe that, too.

I have one other role at the Huffington Post. I am a fire warden. I have a silly red hat, and when the bell goes off for a fire drill, I put it on and annoy people with basic fire facts.

Among the most basic: Whenever there's a sign of fire, never, ever, ever attempt to get into an elevator.

Only an idiot does that.

?

Follow Buck Wolf on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@wolfb

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/buck-wolf/93-world-trade-center-bombing-buck-wolf_b_2762750.html

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Razer Edge Windows 8 gaming tablet up for pre-order March 1st ...

Razer?s Edge tablet is a 10 inch Windows 8 tablet aimed at gamers. It has the guts of a mid-range PC gaming laptop, including an Intel Ivy Bridge processor and discrete graphics. Razer will also offer optional accessories including a game controller that add buttons and D-pads on the sides of the tablet.

Razer introduced the Edge at CES in January, and now the company says it will be available for pre-order starting March 1st for $999 and up.

At that price you get a model with an Intel Core i5 processor, a 1366 x 768 pixel display, 64GB of storage, and NVDIA GeForce GT640M graphics.

Razer will also offer optional upgrades including a Core i7 processor and 128GB or 256GB solid state disks.

Razer will offer three different optional accessories for the gaming tablet:

Prices for the tablet alone can go as high as $1449 if you get a top-of-the-line model, which may seem like a lot of money for a tablet that gets about 3 hours of battery life during normal use and half that while playing demanding PC games.

But the Razer Edge is the first tablet of its type that?s actually capable of playing many of the latest PC games with graphics quality set to medium.

The Razer Edge is sort of like a Microsoft Surface Pro, and it?s priced like one. But while Microsoft?s $999 tablet comes with a digital pen and a pressure-sensitive screen, the Razer Edge comes with discrete graphics. If the Surface Pro is aimed at business and artistic applications, the Razer Edge is designed from the ground up for gaming.

via SlashGear

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• key specs
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• TypeTablet
• Form factorSlate
• Screen size10.1 inches
• Screen resolution1366 x 768
• Bundled OSWindows (8)
• Processor speed1.7 GHz
• System RAM4 GB
• Released01/08/2013

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Source: http://liliputing.com/2013/02/razer-edge-windows-8-gaming-tablet-up-for-pre-order-march-1st.html

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Nokia rebrands Drive, Maps and Transit for Windows Phones: it's all about Here (video)

The jewels in Nokia's Windows Phone crown have been its Here location services -- anyone wanting them on Microsoft's platform has usually had to snap up a Lumia or make do with the Drive+ beta. Nokia is about to share that wealth, as it's bringing Drive, Maps and Transit to other Windows Phone devices under a new name. Don't switch your shopping plans to include an HTC 8X just yet, though. Apart from a lack of specific timing, Nokia is limiting the availability to certain regions, and it's promising that the "first and best" Here experience will remain on its own smartphones. We'll still take the leftovers if they give the overall platform a boost.

If you'll recall, Nokia actually enabled its homegrown mapping arsenal to spread to other Windows Phone products some time back, but it's taking things to a new level with the Here platform underneath.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Nokia

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Source: Nokia Conversations

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/25/nokia-drive-maps-and-transit-coming-to-other-windows-phones/

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Johnson wins 2nd Daytona 500; Patrick finishes 8th

Jimmie Johnson celebrates after winning the Daytona 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race, Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013, at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)

Jimmie Johnson celebrates after winning the Daytona 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race, Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013, at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)

Danica Patrick, center, prepares to get in her car before the start of the NASCAR Daytona 500 Sprint Cup Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)

Jimmie Johnson crosses the finish line to win the Daytona 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race, Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013, at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Danica Patrick competes during NASCAR Daytona 500 Sprint Cup Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)

Trevor Bayne (21), Carl Edwards (99), David Gilliland (38), Terry Labonte (32), David Ragan (34) and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (17) collide between Turn 1 and Turn 2 as Jeff Gordon (24) and Marcos Ambrose (9) drive by during the NASCAR Daytona 500 Sprint Cup Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla., Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) ? A big first for Danica Patrick, but an even bigger second for Jimmie Johnson.

Patrick made history up front at the Daytona 500 Sunday, only to see Johnson make a late push ahead of her and reclaim his spot at the top of his sport.

It was the second Daytona 500 victory for Johnson, a five-time NASCAR champion who first won "The Great American Race" in 2006.

"There is no other way to start the season than to win the Daytona 500. I'm a very lucky man to have won it twice," said Johnson, who won in his 400th career start. "I'm very honored to be on that trophy with all the greats that have ever been in our sport."

It comes a year after Johnson completed only one lap in the race because of a wreck that also collected Patrick, and just three months after Johnson lost his bid for a sixth Sprint Cup title to go two years without a championship after winning five straight.

Although he didn't think he needed to send a message to his competitors ? "I don't think we went anywhere; anybody in the garage area, they're wise to all that," Johnson said ? the win showed the No. 48 team is tired of coming up short after all those years of dominance.

"Definitely a great start for the team. When we were sitting discussing things before the season started, we felt good about the 500," Johnson said, "but we're really excited for everything after the 500. I think it's going to be a very strong year for us."

Patrick is hoping for her own success after a history-making race.

The first woman to win the pole, Patrick also became the first woman to lead the race. She ran inside the top 10 almost the entire race, kept pace with the field and never panicked on the track.

Her only mistakes were on pit road, where she got beat on the race back to the track, and on the final lap, when she was running third but got snookered by the veterans and faded to eighth. That's going to stick with Patrick for some time.

"I would imagine pretty much anyone would be kicking themselves about what they coulda, shoulda have done to give themselves an opportunity to win," she said. "I think that's what I was feeling today, was uncertainty as to how I was going to accomplish that."

There were several multicar crashes, but no one was hurt and none of them approached the magnitude of the wreck that injured more than two dozen fans in the grandstand at the end of the second-tier Nationwide Series race on the same track a day earlier. Daytona International Speedway workers were up until 2 a.m repairing the fence that was damaged in the accident, and track officials offered Sunday morning to move any fans who felt uneasy sitting too close to the track.

Several drivers said the accident and concern for the fans stuck with them overnight and into Sunday morning, and Johnson was quick to send his thoughts from Victory Lane.

"I just want to give a big shout-out to all the fans, and I also want to send my thoughts and prayers out to everybody that was injured in the grandstands," Johnson said.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., whose father was killed in this race 12 years ago, was involved in Saturday's accident but refocused and finished second to Johnson, his Hendrick Motorsports teammate.

"Me personally, I was just really waiting to get the news on how everybody was, how all the fans were overnight, just hoping that things were going to improve," Earnhardt said, adding that he "wasn't really ready to proceed until you had some confirmation that things were looking more positive."

The race itself, the debut for NASCAR's new Gen-6 car, was quite similar to all the other Cup races during Speedweeks in that the cars seemed to line up in a single-file parade along the top groove of the track. It made the 55th running of the Daytona 500 relatively uneventful.

When the race was on the line, Johnson took off.

The driver known as "Five-Time" raced past defending NASCAR champion Brad Keselowski on the final restart and pulled out to a sizable lead that nobody challenged over the final six laps.

Johnson and Keselowski went down to the wire last season in their race for the Sprint Cup title, with Johnson faltering in the final two races as Keselowski won his first Cup championship.

Although it was a bit of an upset that stuck with Johnson into the offseason, it gave him no extra motivation when he found himself racing with Keselowski late Sunday for the Daytona 500.

"As far as racing with Brad out there, you really lose sight of who is in what car," Johnson said. "It's just somebody between you and the trophy. It could have been anybody."

Once Johnson cleared Keselowski on the last restart he had a breakaway lead with Greg Biffle and Patrick behind him. But as the field closed in on the checkered flag, Earnhardt finally made his move, just too late and too far behind to get close enough to the lead.

Earnhardt wound up second for the third time in the last four years. But with all the crashes the Hendrick cars have endured in restrictor-plate races ? teammate Kasey Kahne was in the first accident Sunday ? team owner Rick Hendrick was just fine with the finish.

"We have a hard time finishing these races. Boy, to run 1-2, man, what a day," Hendrick said. Jeff Gordon, who was a contender early, faded late to 20th.

And Johnson considered himself lucky to be the one holding the trophy at the end.

"Man, it's like playing the lottery; everybody's got a ticket," he said. "I've struck out a lot at these tracks, left with torn-up race cars. Today we had a clean day."

Mark Martin was third in a Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota. Keselowski, who overcame two accidents earlier in the race, wound up fourth in Penske Racing's new Ford. Ryan Newman was fifth in a Chevy for Stewart-Haas Racing and was followed by Roush-Fenway Racing's Greg Biffle, who was second on the last lap but was shuffled back with Patrick to finish sixth.

Regan Smith was seventh for Phoenix Racing, while Patrick, Michael McDowell and JJ Yeley rounded out the top 10.

Patrick was clearly disappointed with her finish. When the race was on the line, she was schooled by Earnhardt, who made his last move and blocked any chance she had.

Still, Patrick became the first woman in history to lead laps in the 500 when she passed Michael Waltrip on a restart on Lap 90. She stayed on the point for two laps, then was shuffled back to third. She ended up leading five laps, another groundbreaking moment for Patrick, who as a rookie in 2005 became the first woman to lead the Indianapolis 500 and now is the 13th driver to lead laps in both the Daytona 500 and the Indy 500.

"Dale did a nice job and showed what happens when you plan it out, you drop back and get that momentum. You are able to go to the front," Patrick said. "I think he taught me something. I'm sure I'll watch the race and there will be other scenarios I see that can teach me, too."

Earnhardt was impressed, nonetheless.

"She's going to make a lot of history all year long. It's going to be a lot of fun to watch her progress," said Earnhardt Jr. "Every time I've seen her in a pretty hectic situation, she always really remained calm. She's got a great level head. She's a racer. She knows what's coming. She's smart about her decisions. She knew what to do today as far as track position and not taking risks. I enjoy racing with her."

Johnson, one of three heavyweight drivers who took their young daughters to meet Patrick ? "the girl in the bright green car" ? after she won the pole in qualifications, tipped his cap, too.

"I didn't think about it being Danica in the car," Johnson said. "It was just another car on the track that was fast. That's a credit to her and the job she's doing."

The field was weakened by an early nine-car accident that knocked out race favorite Kevin Harvick and sentimental favorite Tony Stewart.

Harvick had won two support races coming into the 500 to cement himself as the driver to beat, but the accident sent him home with a 42nd place finish.

Stewart, meanwhile, dropped to 0-for-15 in one of the few races the three-time NASCAR champion has never won.

"If I didn't tell you I was heartbroken and disappointed, I'd be lying to you," Stewart said.

That accident also took former winner Jamie McMurray, his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Juan Pablo Montoya, and Kasey Kahne out of contention.

The next accident ? involving nine cars ? came 105 laps later and brought a thankful end to Speedweeks for Carl Edwards. He was caught in his fifth accident since testing last month, and this wreck collected six other Ford drivers.

The field suddenly had six Toyota drivers at the front as Joe Gibbs Racing and Michael Waltrip Racing drivers took control of the race. But JGR's day blew up ? literally ? when the team was running 1-2-3 with Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch setting the pace.

Kenseth, who led a race-high 86 laps, went to pit road first with an engine problem, and Busch was right behind him with a blown engine. Busch was already in street clothes watching as Hamlin led the field.

"It's a little devastating when you are running 1-2-3 like that," Busch said.

Hamlin's shot disappeared when he found himself in the wrong lane on the final restart. He tried to hook up with Keselowski to get them back to Johnson, but blamed former teammate Joey Logano for ruining the momentum of the bottom lane.

Hamlin offered a backhanded apology to Keselowski on Twitter, posting that he couldn't get close enough because "your genius teammate was too busy messing up the inside line 1 move at a time."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-02-24-NASCAR-Daytona%20500/id-bf5367c4ebe34448963434a47ab9d9d0

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GH music industry is likely to decline like ECG ? A.J Nelson ...

Entertainment of Sunday, 24 February 2013

Source: GhanaWeb

Ghana?s entertainment industry has seen an appreciable growth over the past few years. The industry is now a major employer of an appreciable number of the populace.

However, with the recent fuel increases and power problems in Ghana, rapper A.J Nelson believes the growth of the industry is likely to decline.

?The ?dum sor dum sor? is killing us. Artistes, producers, actors and actresses alike are spending more these days on a single production. I?ve not been able to complete even a single studio session for the past month because the power is not stable. You can spend the whole day in the studio but can?t do anything because of the power problem. Studios are also charging more these days because if you need to get your work done they have to spend more to fuel their generators. This is killing creativity, it is killing the industry!? he said.

According to A.J Nelson, if the government doesn?t fix the power problems anytime soon the whole entertainment industry will see the biggest slump in fortunes ever witnessed in Ghana.

?Radio and TV stations are spending more just to be on air. Nightclubs are also spending more. To organize an event you need some serious back-up power because you can?t trust the power supply. This is definitely not good. We need to fix the problem asap,? he added.

A.J Nelson?s latest single, Aden, was released last week. It features FlowKing Stone and Kodi, two of Ghana?s finest rappers.

The single is an inspirational hip-hop tune that encourages the down trodden to be hopeful in the face of backbiting and discouragement because God makes everything possible. The rhythm and instrumentation of the song has authentic Ghanaian roots.

Source: http://www.ghanamma.com/2013/02/gh-music-industry-is-likely-to-decline-like-ecg-a-j-nelson/

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Huawei Ascend P2 hitting Europe in Q2 for 399 euros, we go hands-on (update: video)

Just ahead of Huawei's press event, Huawei's treated us to an early viewing of its new 8.4-millimeter smartphone, the Ascend P2. With Android 4.1, a quad-core 1.5GHz processor, 13-megapixel camera and a 720p 4.7-inch Gorilla Glass 2 Infinity Edge Display, it joins the likes of the Ascend Mate and D2 in forming the Chinese manufacturer's smartphone family in 2013. And boy, it's a slender, feather-light phone with a glossy backing that come sin both black and white. Design-wise, like those leaks, it looks an awful lot like those P1 phones we first saw at CES 2012.

Its notable feature is the highest-speed LTE connection seen so far in a smartphone, up to 150Mbps with support for LTE Cat4. We also got to play with Huawei's Emotion UI again, which can draw on the 1GB of RAM housed inside. There's plenty of storage, with 16GB ready to accept your photos and music. The right side houses a volume switch and a physical camera button -- these were a bit plasticky, but has a nice matte finish. The other side is where the power button belongs, with both the headphone and micro-USB charging port found there. Huawei's focusing on battery life here as well, with a 2,420mAH cell powering the Android phone and the promise of consuming 20-percent less power, thanks to the handset's display technology.

With the aforementioned Emotion UI, there's the same clipboard animation across homescreen transitions, matching those other Ascend models. Getting into screen performance, it reflected a fair bit of ambient light. It's perhaps not the best display we've seen from Huawei -- there seems to be a space between the surface of the glass and the display itself. The hardware feels light, but feels like we were often unable to keep hold of it. The buttons have the right amount of bite, although it would have been nice to see some premium materials used for these minor details. The design also reminds us a fair bit of Panasonic's Eluga smartphone. Perhaps due to the lack of exotic color options, the phone wasn't quite as appealing as when we first got our hands on its predecessors. We'll have a hands-on video up soon. If you're in Europe you can pick this up in Q2 for €399 ($526).

Update: The video now lives after the break!

Gallery: Huawei Ascend P2 hands-on

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/24/huawei-ascend-p2-hands-on/

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President's personal life hits French stage

In this photo taken Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013, French actors Daniel-Jean Colloredo, center, Marie Piton, left, and Dominique Merot perform in a scene of "Mr. Normal, His Women and Me," directed by Bernard Uzan, at the Tristan Bernard theater in Paris, France. A vow to keep his private life out of the public eye helped sweep Francois Hollande to power last year as France?s president, attracting voters tired of his flashy predecessor?s amorous exploits. Now, the words of the one-time dull Socialist are back to bite him in a new play. (AP Photo/Jacques Brinon)

In this photo taken Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013, French actors Daniel-Jean Colloredo, center, Marie Piton, left, and Dominique Merot perform in a scene of "Mr. Normal, His Women and Me," directed by Bernard Uzan, at the Tristan Bernard theater in Paris, France. A vow to keep his private life out of the public eye helped sweep Francois Hollande to power last year as France?s president, attracting voters tired of his flashy predecessor?s amorous exploits. Now, the words of the one-time dull Socialist are back to bite him in a new play. (AP Photo/Jacques Brinon)

In this photo taken Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013, French actors Daniel-Jean Colloredo, center, Marie Piton, left, and Dominique Merot perform in a scene of "Mr. Normal, His Women and Me," directed by Bernard Uzan, at the Tristan Bernard theater in Paris, France. A vow to keep his private life out of the public eye helped sweep Francois Hollande to power last year as France?s president, attracting voters tired of his flashy predecessor?s amorous exploits. Now, the words of the one-time dull Socialist are back to bite him in a new play. (AP Photo/Jacques Brinon)

PARIS (AP) ? A vow to keep his private life out of the public eye helped sweep Francois Hollande to power last year as France's president, attracting voters tired of his flashy predecessor's amorous exploits. Now, the words of the one-time dull Socialist are back to bite him in a new play.

"Mr. Normal, His Women and Me," a comedy of errors set in the presidential Elysee Palace, is inspired by a real-life Twitter scandal involving his glamorous live-in girlfriend, journalist Valerie Trierweiler, and the elegant and influential mother of Hollande's four children, politician Segolene Royal.

The affair last year shook up Hollande's carefully cultivated dull image and hurt his popularity. And it immediately caught the attention of director and writer Bernard Uzan.

"When I first saw the tweet... it was a vaudeville before my eyes," said Uzan, referring to a message sent by Trierweiler during last June's legislative elections expressing support for Royal's political opponent.

Days later, Royal lost her bid for a parliamentary seat. Widely criticized as a vindictive move, the tweet went viral and dominated French media for days.

When writing the play, Uzan says he interviewed real politicians and used genuine quotes and anecdotes.

Indeed, the characters are very thinly disguised. The play features a portly, bespectacled protagonist called Francois Gouda ? named after a Dutch cheese ? who's chased around the Elysee by an obsessive ex-partner, Marjolaine Loyal, and bossy First Lady Nathalie Valtriere, who likes designer dresses.

Though it is fictional, the play ? which opened on Jan. 24 ? points out some uncomfortable truths about the last nine months, which have seen Hollande's popularity plunge at the same speed as the country's economic fortunes.

"I, as president, won't expose my private life to the eyes of the French," says Gouda, evoking Hollande's pledge a month before his election victory in May to not mix up his public and private lives.

Hollande's words were calculated to distance himself from his conservative predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy. He was criticized for letting his private life get too public during his presidency, divorcing his second wife Cecilia and marrying his third, former supermodel and singer Carla Bruni-Sarkozy while in office.

Two months after winning the election, it was Hollande in the hot seat, answering an uncomfortable question on Bastille Day about his own love triangle. His 27-year-old son, Thomas, was dragged into to the affair, dubbed "tweetgate," to defend his mother, Royal.

Mirroring the image political satirists paint of Hollande, the play shows the presidential character as incapable of controlling the two warring women who throw insults at each other.

To chuckles, an exasperated Gouda says, "I never asked to be here ... Why can't I just resign, like the pope?"

Actor Daniel Jean Colloredo plays the president as a weak, ridiculous leader ? steered by the characters around him, including his aide who tries to teach him the confidence to say "I am a winner" to a mirror. He eventually manages with a weak "we-we-winner."

"He really doesn't have the strength of character to choose either woman," said Colleredo.

Hollande's ex-partner Royal was back in the news this week causing controversy, with an announcement of her appointment as vice president of the new government-funded Public Investment Bank.

Top business leader Laurence Parisot questioned Royal's experience for the job, while journalists have called it a political appointment from the Elysee to keep Royal happy ? a charge she vehemently denies.

The play also tries to address the key question on everyone's lips: What is the irresistible appeal of Hollande, who has been nicknamed "flanby" after a bland custard dessert?

"We asked ourselves this, too. How can this (love triangle) have come about?" says Dominique Merot, the actress who plays Loyal. "He must have a lot of charm behind closed doors."

____

Follow Thomas Adamson at http://Twitter.com/ThomasAdamsonAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-02-23-France-All%20the%20President's%20Women/id-a215a8eb12a943f18d020b566d1b7ef7

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Google's future 42-acre 'Bayview' home gets its own Vanity Fair profile

Usually when we get a peek at Google's Mountain View home it's to gawk at the latest Android-related statue but a Vanity Fair article posted today showed the company's future HQ plans. After initiating plans for a new structure next to the existing Googleplex and then abandoning them last year, it's opting for a new facility designed by Seattle firm NBBJ (which also created offices for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) in another area of the city. Planned to open as soon as 2015 -- potentially ahead of Apple's halo-shaped new digs -- it's called Bay View and consists of nine buildings connected by bridges over 42 acres.

According to Google it's designed for many workers to operate just on natural light, and avail themselves of the many cafes and green roofs. Quoted in the article is civil engineer David Radcliffe, who claims that employees will never be more than a two and a half minute walk away from each other, which, along with the bent floorplan of each building, is intended to create opportunities for innovation through "casual collisions". These are just some of the tidbits included in the article waiting beyond the source link, but we're still trying to figure out where they hid parking spots for all the self-driving cars.

[Image credit: NBBJ]

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