SAN FRANCISCO ? The Mexican Museum in San Francisco is joining the nation's largest museum network.
The San Francisco Chronicle ( http://bit.ly/ye7fAu) reports the museum of Latino art and culture on Tuesday becomes the city's first museum to join the Smithsonian Institution's Affiliations Program.
The partnership allows the Mexican Museum to borrow and lend pieces long-term within the 160-member network.
The museum's CEO Jonathan Yorba was previously a fellow at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Founded in 1975 in San Francisco's Mission District, the Mexican Museum and its 14,000-item collection is now located at the Fort Mason Center.
The museum is planning to build a new facility near downtown San Francisco. Yorba hopes to break ground next year and open in 2016.
___
Information from: San Francisco Chronicle, http://www.sfgate.com
While beans were vaguely spilled ahead of its official launch, T-Mobile UK today unveiled its latest attempt to differentiate itself from the competitive world of British carriers with a new no-holds-barred tariff. From the network that previously nixed its fair use policy around this time last year, the Full Monty offers up truly -- yes, truly; we checked -- unlimited data alongside unlimited cross network calls and text messages. While the entry-level £36 contract limits calls to 2,000 per month, unlimited calling starts at £41 per month, reaching the dizzying heights of £61 if you're shopping for the latest iPhone. New phones will similarly be absorbed into what is now T-Mob's premier contract. It'll join mobile carrier Three, which was previously the only other major operator to offer unlimited data. Alongside the above package, which includes tethering, T-Mobile phones will also nab access to BT Openzone, the UK's largest WiFi hotspot network.
When the Fully Monty launches on February 1st, it'll be accompanied by a new Android and iOS app that adds one-click connectivity to those WiFi networks. The deal isn't available SIM-only, although T-Mobile UK's Head of Propositions, Ben Fritsch, told us that the new deal is pitched at users looking to take the smartphone plunge. Its existing collection of tariffs will also see a similar refresh -- but there's no details on those just yet. American readers can gaze with envy at the full release below.
Update:Electricpig reports that there may be traffic control in effect if users (somehow) hit above 80GB.
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Eugene Temkin was intent on having a hitman kidnap, torture and kill a former business partner and his family because he felt he wasn't repaid for a deal that soured nearly a decade earlier.
Temkin not only tried once, he tried again four months after FBI agents learned about the plot and warned him to stay away from Michael Hershman. In both instances Temkin, 51, unwittingly tried to hire an undercover law enforcement officer to carry out the hit.
On Monday, Temkin is scheduled to be sentenced in a Los Angeles federal courtroom after being convicted last year of three murder-for-hire-related counts with prosecutors asking for a 20-year prison sentence.
Court documents portray the fear, helplessness and frustration of Temkin's victims, who said they were terrorized and traumatized while getting little help from authorities.
For Hershman and his family, the last several years have been painful and agonizing. His 20-year-old son died from an accidental drug overdose in late 2010 and he slept with a machete because Temkin hired people to stalk and harass him, Hershman said. His college-age daughter has been placed in a psychiatric clinic in Texas where she has hallucinations and believes she's been kidnapped by Temkin and put there by him, he said.
"Every day he is thinking and plotting revenge on us, his life revolves around it," Hershman wrote in a letter to U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson. "He will not stop. Please help us."
The men met one another when they were selling drugs in the 1980s, according to court documents. In 2001, Temkin lent Hershman $500,000 ? money from a second mortgage on an apartment building he owned ? to invest in a casino in Equatorial Guinea. When Hershman was unable to repay Temkin right away because the casino had not fared well, Temkin sued his then-business partner after losing the apartment complex in foreclosure.
The lawsuit was settled in 2006, but authorities said Temkin wanted about $5 million for unrealized profits he would have received had he sold the apartment building before the real estate market crashed.
Temkin repeatedly threatened and harassed Hershman and his family, investigators said. Pictures and other heirlooms were stolen from Hershman's storage unit. Their e-mails were hacked and his children said they were followed by strange men.
Temkin was never charged in connection with those incidents but Hershman obtained a restraining order against him in 2007, saying Temkin made gun signals to him with his hands, according to an affidavit.
Hershman said he pleaded with numerous law enforcement agencies to investigate Temkin but they did nothing.
The investigation took a turn in late 2009 when one of Temkin's friends approached Los Angeles County sheriff's detectives saying Temkin wanted to extort money from Hershman before killing him.
A series of meetings were arranged between an undercover detective posing as a hitman and Temkin, who gave varying scenarios how Hershman should be killed.
One plot involved a crew kidnapping Hershman and his family in the Dominican Republic and have the undercover officer kill them.
"Hang him from a door, throw him from a fishing boat, all works for me," Temkin said during one of the recorded conversations with the investigator.
In March 2010, FBI agents met with Temkin who told them about the dispute but denied making threats. The agents then told Temkin not to threaten, hurt or kill Hershman, according to court documents. Temkin agreed.
FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller says it's not uncommon for law enforcement agencies to receive cases where death threats are made.
"The government has to prove a legal intent that someone planned to go through with it," Eimiller said.
Temkin apparently wasn't dissuaded because several months later authorities learned he was still interested in killing Hershman. Another undercover officer, acting as a hit man, began meeting with Temkin, who indicated he had another hired hand to kill Hershman but would call the officer if plans fell through.
In July 2010, Temkin gave the officer the green light to kill Hershman, his wife and a business partner, authorities said.
Temkin provided the undercover officer with Hershman's passport number, photographs of the would-be victims and 30 $100 bills for the job expected to cost $30,000.
Temkin was arrested six days later at his home outside of Santa Barbara.
In arguing for a sentence no greater than six years, defense attorney Richard Callahan said Temkin called off plans to kill Hershman after the meeting with FBI agents.
"While Mr. Temkin was angry and fixated on Hershman's debt, he never took action on it for almost 10 years despite clear opportunities to do so," Callahan wrote. It wasn't until the FBI intervened that Temkin "crossed the line."
"It is submitted that without the intervention of the FBI, that 'line' would never have been crossed," he added.
Small businesses naturally tend to focus on daily actions that generate results, such as engaging prospects with their sales process, and then efficiently converting that interest into profits.
Advertising is a form of media that fits well with the small business mindset. It creates awareness, a sense of urgency, and a desire to take action now.
Unlike traditional advertising campaigns, social media takes time to do its job.
This is one reason why many small businesses are challenged with using it well. They view it as another form of advertising.
This also leads to the temptation to set up business pages on every social network to drive traffic to your websites.
This is not a good idea ? especially when so many others are doing the same thing.
If you really want to drive traffic to your website ? get personal.?Learn how to use social media to humanize your business. It?s a simple process, one that admittedly takes time ? but it works.
If you learn how to do this right, you will indeed differentiate your business ? and in ways that are much more sustainable than traditional marketing practices.
Personal is More Trustworthy
Traditional marketing makes claims, often with competitive comparisons that may or may not be true. Some of these claims include being the best, the most awarded, and so on.
As a result, consumers have learned not to trust advertising.?They have learned from experience that if something seems too good to be true ? it probably isn?t.
Now every claim is challenged.?This is why more consumers rely on the Internet to validate what they have learned from other sources ? including word of mouth recommendations from friends.
What are they looking for? ?Not more marketing ? that?s for sure.
Consumers are searching the web for reliable information ? not necessarily from companies, but from real people who offer perspectives that are backed up by direct experience.
This is the power of content marketing?- bringing truthfulness to the marketing equation.
Personalization is your strongest differentiator, and that is best accomplished via your personal social media accounts ? and those of your team members.
Who you are is unique ? and that is a business differentiator. It?s subtle, but it is nonetheless true.
The Company is Incidental
Anyone who manages a business presence on Facebook, Twitter, or Google+ knows that it can be difficult to engage others. Why?
People have conversations with people ? not companies.
You are more likely to engage your audience with a personal account ? one where they can get to know and trust you.
Look at this from the perspective of a customer. When you receive outstanding service, you are more likely to recommend not just the company ? but the person within it that was responsible for your favorable experience.
The company is incidental. What matters is who personally made a difference for you.
People Take Care of People
It has been said the best way to build a business is not to focus on the consumer, but those who serve them.
Have you ever been unsatisfied and ready to discontinue your relationship with a business ? only to change your mind due to just one interaction with an especially caring representative?
That?s the power of personalization. When someone cares about you, its memorable.
This is also why personal social media accounts that are linked to a business can accomplish more than a business account.
Businesses often wonder if they can trust their staff to represent the company well online.
This is pretty simple. If you do not trust your staff to represent your company online, then you have the wrong people. If they are now successful offline, then they can do it online too.
As long as they respect the company, its vision and mission, and most importantly, its values ? then let them be who they are.
Your staff will use social networking differently than you. ?That?s OK. Let them be themselves ? because that personalization is the magic that makes it work.
Successful business is people taking care of people.
There just is no other way.
How exactly is this done?
This related article on Personal vs Professional Social Media Accounts will give you some ideas for further personalizing your online presence.
What are your thoughts? Leave a comment below.
And please share this with your community and encourage them to join the conversation.
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Hundreds of Etta James' friends, fans and family gathered Saturday at a Los Angeles-area church to remember the legendary rhythm and blues singer, who died this month.
Mourners at James' funeral included entertainment luminaries, with both Stevie Wonder and Christina Aguilera performing. Aguilera sang the song that James made famous, "At Last," while Wonder performed with the church's choir.
The Rev. Al Sharpton was to deliver the eulogy.
James died Jan. 20 at age 73 after battling leukemia and other ailments. She was most famous for her rendition of "At Last," and in her decades-long career, she became revered for her passionate, soulful singing voice. Her version of the song has become an enduring anthem for weddings and commercials.
Perhaps most famously, President Barack Obama and the first lady danced to a version of the song at his inauguration ball.
"Etta James was a pioneer. Her ever-changing sound has influenced rock and roll, rhythm and blues, pop, soul and jazz artists, marking her place as one of the most important female artists of our time," Rock and Roll Hall of Fame President and CEO Terry Stewart said after her death.
James won four Grammy Awards, including a lifetime achievement honor and was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.
She scored her first hit when she was just a teenager with the suggestive "Roll With Me, Henry," which had to be changed to "The Wallflower" in order to get airplay. Her 1967 album, "Tell Mama," became one of the most highly regarded soul albums of all time, a mix of rock and gospel music.
Over her lifetime, James battled adversity, including a turbulent upbringing and drug addiction.
She rebounded from a heroin addiction to see her career surge after performing the national anthem at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. She won her first Grammy Award a decade later, and two more in 2003 and 2004.
She is also an inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Andy Cohen keeps getting suprising honesty from his game "Plead the Fifth" on "Watch What Happens: Live" (Weeknights, 11 p.m. EST on Bravo. With Alan Cumming on as guest, he asked him about which presidential candidate he'd be willing to sleep with and which diva was the bigger diva on 'Burleseque' out of Cher and Christian Aguilera.
For the record, it was Christina with no hesitation in that answer. Cumming did take a moment to think about it after Cohen posed his last question. Having already plead the Fifth to an earlier question, the rules of the game stated there was no getting out of this one.
"What TV or film star needs to never grace the Broadway stage again?" Cohen asked him. After some reflection, Cumming gave an honest answer. "Farrah Fawcett," he said.
While Fawcett got good reviews in an early off-Broadway production of the play "Extremities," her official debut on Broadway in a show called "Bobbi Boland" was cancelled in late 2003 during the previews, never making it to its official open. Fawcett passed away on June 25, 2009 after a two-year battle with cancer.
Catch new episodes of "Watch What Happens: Live" every weeknight at 10 p.m. EST on Bravo.
TV Replay scours the vast television landscape to find the most interesting, amusing, and, on a good day, amazing moments, and delivers them right to your browser.
Related on HuffPost:
MONDAY, JANUARY 23: "Gossip Girl"
1? of ?19
"Gossip Girl" (8 p.m. EST, The CW) "Clueless" writer/director Amy Heckerling makes her first foray into TV directing since 2005 for Blair's bachelorette party, as others scheme behind Queen B's back to make it a night to remember. After discovering the truth behind Chuck and Blair's car accident, Nate joins forces with a surprising ally to gather the evidence, while Serena and Dan pretend to be dating again to protect Blair's secret. "Gossip Girl" (8 p.m. EST, The CW) "Clueless" writer/director Amy Heckerling makes her first foray into TV directing since 2005 for Blair's bachelorette party, as others scheme behind Queen B's back to make it a night to remember. After discovering the truth behind Chuck and Blair's car accident, Nate joins forces with a surprising ally to gather the evidence, while Serena and Dan pretend to be dating again to protect Blair's secret.
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MONDAY, JANUARY 23: "Gossip Girl"
"Gossip Girl" (8 p.m. EST, The CW) "Clueless" writer/director Amy Heckerling makes her first foray into TV directing since 2005 for Blair's bachelorette party, as others scheme behind Queen B's back to make it a night to remember. After discovering the truth behind Chuck and Blair's car accident, Nate joins forces with a surprising ally to gather the evidence, while Serena and Dan pretend to be dating again to protect Blair's secret. "; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });
Space Weather Center to add world's first 'ensemble forecasting' capabilityPublic release date: 27-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Susan Hendrix Susan.m.hendrix@nasa.gov 301-286-7745 NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Improved Forecasting to Coincide with Peak in Solar Activity
After years of relative somnolence, the sun is beginning to stir. By the time it's fully awake in about 20 months, the team at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., charged with researching and tracking solar activity, will have at their disposal a greatly enhanced forecasting capability.
Goddard's Space Weather Laboratory recently received support under NASA's Space Technology Program Game Changing Program to implement "ensemble forecasting," a computer technique already used by meteorologists to track potential paths and impacts of hurricanes and other severe weather events.
Instead of analyzing one set of solar-storm conditions, as is the case now, Goddard forecasters will be able to simultaneously produce as many as 100 computerized forecasts by calculating multiple possible conditions or, in the parlance of Heliophysicists, parameters. Just as important, they will be able to do this quickly and use the information to provide alerts of space weather storms that could potentially be harmful to astronauts and NASA spacecraft.
"Space weather alerts are available now, but we want to make them better," said Michael Hesse, chief of Goddard's Space Weather Laboratory and the recently named director of the Center's Heliophysics Science Division. "Ensemble forecasting will provide a distribution of arrival times, which will improve the reliability of forecasts. This is important. Society is relying more so than ever on space. Communications, navigation, electrical-power generation, all are all susceptible to space weather." Once it's implemented, "there will be nothing like this in the world. No one has done ensemble forecasting for space weather."
The state-of-the-art capability, which Hesse's group is implementing now and expects to complete within three years, couldn't come too soon, either.
Sun Growing Restless
Since the sun reached its solar minimum in 2008 the period when the number of sunspots is lowest it has begun to awaken from its slumber. On Aug. 4, the sun unleashed a near X-class solar flare that erupted near an Earth-facing sunspot. Although flares don't always produce coronal mass ejections (CMEs) gigantic bubbles of charged particles that can carry up to ten billion tons of matter and accelerate to several million miles per hour as they erupt from the sun's atmosphere and stream through interplanetary space this one did.
The CME overtook two previous CMEs all occurring within 48 hours and combined into a triple threat. Luckily for Earthlings, the CMEs produced only a moderate geomagnetic storm when solar particles streamed down the field lines toward Earth's poles and collided with atoms of nitrogen and oxygen in the atmosphere. Even so, "it was the strongest storm in many years," said Antti Pulkkinen, one of the laboratory's chief forecasters.
However, the repercussions could be far worse in the future. As part of its 11-year cycle, the sun is entering solar maximum, the period of greatest activity. It is expected to peak in 2013. During this time, more powerful CMEs, often associated with M- and X-class flare events, become more numerous and can affect any planet or spacecraft in its path. In the past, solar storms have disrupted power grids on Earth and damaged instrumentation on satellites. They can also be harmful to astronauts if they are not warned to take protective cover.
"No one knows exactly what the sun will do, Pulkkinen said. "We can't even tell in a week, let alone a year or two, what the sun will do. All we know is that the sun will be more active."
Given the expected uptick in activity, Hesse, Pulkkinen, and Yihua Zheng, another chief forecaster, were anxious to enhance their forecasting acumen. They partnered with the Space Radiation Analysis Group at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, which is responsible for ensuring that astronauts' exposure to deadly radiation remains below established safety levels, and won NASA funding to develop the Integrated Advanced Alert/Warning Systems for Solar Proton Events.
Weaknesses in Current System
"Ensemble forecasting holds the key" to an enhanced alert system," Hesse said. "We agreed that this was the way to go."
Currently, the laboratory is running one CME model calculating one set of parameters at a time. The parameters are derived from near real-time data gathered by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory, and the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, among others. "But since all of these are scientific research missions, we have no guarantee of a continuous real-time data stream," Zheng said.
Furthermore, imperfections exist in the data. These imperfections grow over time, leading to forecasts that don't agree with the evolution of actual conditions. For NASA, the Air Force, and other organizations, which use Goddard's forecasts to decide whether steps are needed to protect space assets and astronauts, uncertainty is as unwelcome as the storm itself.
Ensemble forecasting, however, overcomes the weaknesses by allowing forecasters to tweak the conditions. "Generating different parameters is easy just varying a little bit of all parameters involved in characterizing a CME, such as its speed, propagation direction, and angular extent," Zheng explained. In essence, the multiple forecasts provide information on the different ways the CME can evolve over the next few hours. "We'll be able to characterize the uncertainties in our forecasts, which is almost as important as the forecast itself," Pulkkinen added.
The team has already installed new computer systems to run the varying calculations and hopes to develop the ability to generate more specialized forecasts.
"We recognize there is a huge gap in our current capability," Pulkkinen continued. "We certainly don't want to miss the solar maximum with this capability. We're really pushing the envelope to have it done. When we do, we'll be the first in the world to have it."
When this forecasting technique is verified and validated by NASA's Space Weather Laboratory, the capability will be made available to NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, which is responsible for issuing national space weather alerts. NASA's goal to understand and track space weather activity will enable a greatly enhanced forecasting capability for U.S. interests.
###
For more information about Goddard's space weather efforts and access to its space weather analysis system, visit:
http://ccmc.gsfc.nasa.gov/about.php
http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov/iswa/iSWA.html
For more information about NOAA's space weather efforts, visit:
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/
For more information about technology development at the Goddard Space Flight Center, visit:
http://gsfctechnology.gsfc.nasa.gov
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Space Weather Center to add world's first 'ensemble forecasting' capabilityPublic release date: 27-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Susan Hendrix Susan.m.hendrix@nasa.gov 301-286-7745 NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Improved Forecasting to Coincide with Peak in Solar Activity
After years of relative somnolence, the sun is beginning to stir. By the time it's fully awake in about 20 months, the team at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., charged with researching and tracking solar activity, will have at their disposal a greatly enhanced forecasting capability.
Goddard's Space Weather Laboratory recently received support under NASA's Space Technology Program Game Changing Program to implement "ensemble forecasting," a computer technique already used by meteorologists to track potential paths and impacts of hurricanes and other severe weather events.
Instead of analyzing one set of solar-storm conditions, as is the case now, Goddard forecasters will be able to simultaneously produce as many as 100 computerized forecasts by calculating multiple possible conditions or, in the parlance of Heliophysicists, parameters. Just as important, they will be able to do this quickly and use the information to provide alerts of space weather storms that could potentially be harmful to astronauts and NASA spacecraft.
"Space weather alerts are available now, but we want to make them better," said Michael Hesse, chief of Goddard's Space Weather Laboratory and the recently named director of the Center's Heliophysics Science Division. "Ensemble forecasting will provide a distribution of arrival times, which will improve the reliability of forecasts. This is important. Society is relying more so than ever on space. Communications, navigation, electrical-power generation, all are all susceptible to space weather." Once it's implemented, "there will be nothing like this in the world. No one has done ensemble forecasting for space weather."
The state-of-the-art capability, which Hesse's group is implementing now and expects to complete within three years, couldn't come too soon, either.
Sun Growing Restless
Since the sun reached its solar minimum in 2008 the period when the number of sunspots is lowest it has begun to awaken from its slumber. On Aug. 4, the sun unleashed a near X-class solar flare that erupted near an Earth-facing sunspot. Although flares don't always produce coronal mass ejections (CMEs) gigantic bubbles of charged particles that can carry up to ten billion tons of matter and accelerate to several million miles per hour as they erupt from the sun's atmosphere and stream through interplanetary space this one did.
The CME overtook two previous CMEs all occurring within 48 hours and combined into a triple threat. Luckily for Earthlings, the CMEs produced only a moderate geomagnetic storm when solar particles streamed down the field lines toward Earth's poles and collided with atoms of nitrogen and oxygen in the atmosphere. Even so, "it was the strongest storm in many years," said Antti Pulkkinen, one of the laboratory's chief forecasters.
However, the repercussions could be far worse in the future. As part of its 11-year cycle, the sun is entering solar maximum, the period of greatest activity. It is expected to peak in 2013. During this time, more powerful CMEs, often associated with M- and X-class flare events, become more numerous and can affect any planet or spacecraft in its path. In the past, solar storms have disrupted power grids on Earth and damaged instrumentation on satellites. They can also be harmful to astronauts if they are not warned to take protective cover.
"No one knows exactly what the sun will do, Pulkkinen said. "We can't even tell in a week, let alone a year or two, what the sun will do. All we know is that the sun will be more active."
Given the expected uptick in activity, Hesse, Pulkkinen, and Yihua Zheng, another chief forecaster, were anxious to enhance their forecasting acumen. They partnered with the Space Radiation Analysis Group at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, which is responsible for ensuring that astronauts' exposure to deadly radiation remains below established safety levels, and won NASA funding to develop the Integrated Advanced Alert/Warning Systems for Solar Proton Events.
Weaknesses in Current System
"Ensemble forecasting holds the key" to an enhanced alert system," Hesse said. "We agreed that this was the way to go."
Currently, the laboratory is running one CME model calculating one set of parameters at a time. The parameters are derived from near real-time data gathered by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory, and the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, among others. "But since all of these are scientific research missions, we have no guarantee of a continuous real-time data stream," Zheng said.
Furthermore, imperfections exist in the data. These imperfections grow over time, leading to forecasts that don't agree with the evolution of actual conditions. For NASA, the Air Force, and other organizations, which use Goddard's forecasts to decide whether steps are needed to protect space assets and astronauts, uncertainty is as unwelcome as the storm itself.
Ensemble forecasting, however, overcomes the weaknesses by allowing forecasters to tweak the conditions. "Generating different parameters is easy just varying a little bit of all parameters involved in characterizing a CME, such as its speed, propagation direction, and angular extent," Zheng explained. In essence, the multiple forecasts provide information on the different ways the CME can evolve over the next few hours. "We'll be able to characterize the uncertainties in our forecasts, which is almost as important as the forecast itself," Pulkkinen added.
The team has already installed new computer systems to run the varying calculations and hopes to develop the ability to generate more specialized forecasts.
"We recognize there is a huge gap in our current capability," Pulkkinen continued. "We certainly don't want to miss the solar maximum with this capability. We're really pushing the envelope to have it done. When we do, we'll be the first in the world to have it."
When this forecasting technique is verified and validated by NASA's Space Weather Laboratory, the capability will be made available to NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, which is responsible for issuing national space weather alerts. NASA's goal to understand and track space weather activity will enable a greatly enhanced forecasting capability for U.S. interests.
###
For more information about Goddard's space weather efforts and access to its space weather analysis system, visit:
http://ccmc.gsfc.nasa.gov/about.php
http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov/iswa/iSWA.html
For more information about NOAA's space weather efforts, visit:
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/
For more information about technology development at the Goddard Space Flight Center, visit:
http://gsfctechnology.gsfc.nasa.gov
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Stock index futures rose on Thursday, adding to gains from the previous session when the Federal Reserve boosted equities by saying it was likely to keep interest rates near zero until at least late 2014.
S&P 500 futures rose 3.7 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures were up 17 points, and Nasdaq futures rose 4.75 points.
DAVOS, Switzerland ? German Chancellor Angela Merkel insisted Wednesday that Europe will remain an economic power only if it deepens the integration that has caused it so many problems. Without that, she warned the global elite gathered in a Swiss ski resort, Europe will remain little more than a pleasant vacation destination.
The tone of Merkel's keynote address was not dramatically different from her measured norm, but it was positive enough to feed an emerging feeling among European power brokers that Germany ? and hence Europe ? is finally becoming convinced that it needs to do whatever it takes to save the euro from collapse.
"The message is that we are ready for more commitment. We are no longer making excuses," Merkel said. If Europe doesn't integrate further, she said, "we will remain an interesting holiday destination for a long time, but we won't be able to produce prosperity for the people in Europe anymore."
Merkel pledged to do what is necessary to protect the euro from collapse, and said greater European unity is needed to spark job creation and growth. However, she poured cold water on calls for Europe to ratchet up the financial firepower of its safety net for failing economies.
Germany is at the center of any rescue plan because it has the deepest pockets in Europe. And Europe is at the center of the global outlook because many fear a collapse of the euro could drag large parts of the world back into recession.
For months, Germany has argued that indebted countries much cut their budgets to the bone, and that their people must become poorer, in exchange for help in reducing their debt loads. But many say that will do little good if that very austerity causes growth to evaporate, making countries unable to pay back the debt that remains.
George Soros, the philanthropist and former financier, called Germany a task master imposing a strict anti-inflationary viewpoint on the rest of the continent. He said weaker eurozone countries have been "relegated to the status of third world countries" having to pay back debts in a foreign currency.
"The problem is that the austerity that Germany wants will push Europe into a deflationary death spiral. ... The economy will contract and tax revenues will fall. So the debt burden ... will actually rise, requiring further budget cuts and setting in motion a vicious cycle."
Merkel's government has been unwilling to back two proposals voiced as potential solutions to the 2-year-old debt crisis: "eurobonds" backed jointly by all eurozone countries, and stimulus that essentially involves getting the European Central Bank to print more money.
In the past month, business leaders and academics say they have become increasingly confident that Germany ? once its back is against the wall ? will go along with measures to boost growth, and possibly save Europe from deeper crisis.
"We are starting to see signs of a shift in sentiment towards Europe," said Baudouin Prot, CEO of French bank BNP Paribas.
He said the catalyst for the newfound optimism was a round of reasonably priced long-term loans to European banks by the European Central Bank, which caused spiking interest rates for European bonds ? a key indicator of confidence in their ability to pay back the money ? to drop.
"We are on the right track, but we need to keep moving forward. We need each country to implement financial discipline," Prot said. "But it's not just about debt reduction. Europe also needs a growth strategy, a series of initiatives to open up the market, support innovation and competitiveness."
He said all 17 countries that use the euro must improve their finances, and that Europe as a whole needs to act better as a whole. He also cautioned against overregulation of banks.
Soros had a gloomier outlook but said he too sees Germany coming around to the idea that austerity is not enough, and that too much of it will just end up making matters worse.
"The argument is really very strong and I believe that it has to eventually sink in," he said.
Soros and others stressed that tough decisions need to be taken and that Europe is far from out of the water. What is changing is that leaders increasingly believe that Europe ? its back against the wall ? is finally acting. In December, the leaders of the 17 countries that use the euro agreed they need new rules that they're now working out, calming markets.
Gerard Lyons, global chief economist at Standard Chartered, said rescue efforts have been misguided.
"Europe is focusing on the wrong problem," he said. "Clearly debt has to be brought down. But Europe suffers from a lack of growth, not a high level of debt. ... Basically you need to address a debt problem by focusing on growth."
Oxford University professor Timothy Garton Ash said there's still a good chance Greece will default on its debt. What matters, he said, is how Europe responds: If it builds an effective firewall to prevent the crisis from spreading to other countries, that would go a long way to calming the fears that have caused so much turmoil.
"I do think there really is a shift in sentiment and perceptions," Garton Ash said. "The market sees that Germany is really willing to do what it takes."
The fear that gripped markets in the second half of 2011 was largely due to concerns that Italy ? the eurozone's third economy ? would default on its debt, and that it would be too big for Europe to bail out. A default by Italy would send massive shock waves round the global economy as well as potentially wiping out large chunks of Europe's banking system.
Amid the discussion of Europe's debt woes came a sense that Western-style capitalism, as practiced for decades, is moving into a new phase. A four-year economic crisis is putting pressure on politicians to build a new model.
David Rubenstein, managing director of asset management firm Carlyle Group, said leaders must work fast to overcome the crisis or see other models of capitalism, such as the form practiced in China, win the day.
"We've got to work through these problems. If we don't do that in three or four years ... the game will be over for the type of capitalism that many of us have lived through and thought was the best type," he said.
China has reaped the rewards of its transition to a more market economy and is now the world's second-largest economy. Unlike the capitalist systems in the U.S. and Europe, China's market transformation has been heavily guided by a state apparatus that continues to balk at widespread democratic reforms. Latin America, too, has seen success in the development of "state capitalism" in certain industries.
"You combine elements of private enterprise with public responsibility," said Colombia's mining and energy minister, Mauricio Cardenas.
At the economic forum, there were numerous references to the need to innovate, the need to consult with employees and the realization that power in the world is shifting from the west to the east. While the traditional industrial economies of the United States and Europe have limped through the last few years, often from one crisis to another, many economies in Asia and Latin America have been booming.
Outside the conference center, activists are camped in igloos to protest years of crisis in which hundreds of millions have lost their jobs even as top executives still reap huge pay packets. On Wednesday they sent aloft big red weather balloons carrying a protest banner reading "Hey WEF, Where are the other 6.9999 billion leaders?"
___
Pan Pylas and Edith M. Lederer contributed to this report.
Audiobooks.com is a new service for book lovers that allows you to listen to as many audiobooks as you want. The cloud-based service offers more than 10,000 titles, including the biography of Steve Jobs.
Apple launched its iCloud service a little over three months ago. Well, since then, over 85 million users are syncing their devices through their personal cloud. This comes from Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Office, on today's Q1 2012 financial earning calls.
ATLANTA ? A former investigator with the city of Los Angeles claims Atlanta police rejected his job application solely because he has HIV, a decision he said breaks the law and perpetuates stereotypes about people with the virus.
Atlanta police argue hiring the man poses a threat to the health and safety of the public, setting up a legal fight that is being followed closely by gay rights groups and police agencies.
A federal appeals court is scheduled to hear arguments in the case Wednesday, and judges will have the chance to pepper both sides with questions.
"It's shocking and frustrating and very saddening that in 2012 this is still going on," said the 40-year-old man who sued the city of Atlanta in 2010 under the pseudonym Richard Roe. "People are living with HIV and, for the most part, they are living normal lives and productive lives."
Roe spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because he believes his medical condition could prevent him from other job opportunities.
Roe's anonymous lawsuit mirrors a battle that has largely been waged quietly, without high-profile protests or marches. Several similar lawsuits have been dismissed by judges who sided with the police departments, or the cases were settled out of court, the agreements kept confidential.
A lower judge sided with the city of Atlanta in November 2010 and threw out the lawsuit, ruling that Roe failed to prove he didn't pose a "direct threat" to the health and safety of others. Roe appealed the decision.
Atlanta attorneys said in court documents Roe didn't disclose his condition and warned he couldn't perform "essential functions" of an officer. The police department and city officials have refused to comment beyond court filings.
Roe said he was a criminal investigator with the city of Los Angeles, though he did not work with the police department. He discovered he had HIV in 1997 but said it didn't hinder his ability to perform his duties. He said his infection never came up with the city.
He moved to Atlanta to find a better job, and in January 2006 began the lengthy process to join the city's police force. He passed a written test, a psychological exam, computerized voice stress analysis and a background check. The roadblock came after a blood test during a physical revealed he had the virus that causes AIDS, his lawsuit said. The doctor did not do any further tests.
Roe said the physician, Dr. Alton Greene, told him Atlanta police had a policy of refusing to hire officers with the virus. Roe said the doctor's statement violates the Americans with Disabilities Act, which he said prevents employers from dismissing anyone because they have HIV.
The city said they do not systematically reject job applicants because of HIV, but instead they look at each individual on a case-by-case basis.
In Roe's case, the city said, the doctor recommended that he have "no physical contact or involvement with individuals."
Catherine Hanssens, executive director of the Center for HIV Law and Policy, said the Roe case centers on the "belief that, 30 years into the epidemic, HIV is easily transmitted and results in a death sentence when it is transmitted."
"And neither of those are remotely close to the truth," she said.
Nurses, paramedics and other first responders with HIV have faced similar challenges over the years by employers, said Hanssens, but she said legal fights in those professions don't often surface much anymore because decades of litigation and medical research shows those with HIV can work in higher-risk fields.
Scott Schoettes of Lambda Legal, the gay rights group that represents Roe, said the city will not be able to show that someone with HIV presents a public threat.
"And maybe other departments will realize that they should create a policy that explicitly says HIV should not disqualify you from getting a job," he said.
Police departments often don't have a policy about whether to hire an officer with HIV, and those that do are loath to advertise the decision to protect the privacy of their officers.
Darrel Stephens, the executive director of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, said his group has no guidelines for members on how to treat applicants with HIV. The Fraternal Order of Police also doesn't have a policy, but president Chuck Canterbury said his group argues that officers with the virus should be protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Roe, who is in school studying criminal justice, said he's waging the legal battle because he wants to serve the city.
"Because of my desire to serve my community, I wouldn't want to be anywhere but out in the public," he said. "Making the streets safer for the underdog is one of the most rewarding things I can do."
___
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BRUSSELS/ATHENS (Reuters) ? Euro zone finance ministers will decide on Monday what terms of a Greek debt restructuring they are ready to accept as part of a second bailout package for Athens after negotiators for private creditors said they could not improve their offer.
Resolving the issue of a Greek debt swap is key to putting Athens' debt on a sustainable path and avoiding a chaotic default that could threaten the whole currency bloc.
After several rounds of talks, Greece and its private creditors are converging on a deal in which private bondholders would take a real loss of 65 to 70 percent on their Greek bonds, officials close to the negotiations said.
But some details of the debt restructuring, which will involve swapping existing Greek bonds for new, longer-term bonds to bring Greek debt down to a more sustainable 120 percent of GDP in 2020 from 160 percent now, are unresolved.
"What I am confident of is that our offer, that was delivered to the prime minister, is the maximum offer consistent with a voluntary PSI deal," Institute of International Finance chief Charles Dallara, who is negotiating on behalf of banks and insurers holding Greek debt, told Antenna TV on Sunday.
"We are at a crossroads and I remain quite hopeful," said Dallara, who left Athens on Saturday without a deal in place.
"We will listen to the report on the negotiations, see how far they have gotten and have the ministers say what is acceptable and what is not in terms of outcome of the negotiations," one Eurogroup official said.
Once the guidance from the finance ministers, known as the Eurogroup, is clear, talks on the restructuring could be finalized later in the week.
Talks on the extent of Private Sector Involvement (PSI) in the Greek debt restructuring are a vital part of a second financing package for Athens that would keep it funded until 2014.
"We are working for a deal in time for the January 30 summit of EU leaders. The restructuring offer needs to be made in the course of February," the official said.
"Obviously there is a clear link between the PSI and the next programme and what we will be focusing on in the Eurogroup is making the next programme operational."
Without the second bailout from the euro zone and the International Monetary Fund, Greece will not be able to pay back 14.5 billion euros in maturing bonds in March, triggering a messy default that would hurt the whole euro zone economy.
There are doubts that even with a new bailout Greece's mountainous debt can be reduced to a still-painful 120 percent of GDP by 2020.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Sunday the crucial factor was that Athens should have a level of debt that was sustainable by then. "This goal must be achieved," he told German public broadcaster ARD.
STICKING POINT
Euro zone leaders agreed in October that the second bailout would total 130 billion euros, if private bondholders forgave half of what Greece owes them in nominal terms.
But Greek economic prospects have deteriorated since then, which means either euro zone governments or investors will have to contribute more than thought.
The main sticking point is coupon, or interest rate, the new Greek bonds would carry. Officials said the new bonds are likely to be 30 years in maturity and carry a progressively higher coupon, which would average out at around 4 percent.
"The euro zone ministers will examine the proposal and say whether we have a deal. If they say we don't, we're back to the negotiating table," a banking source close to the talks said.
Progress will be presented to euro zone ministers by Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos.
"We then expect a discussion about the coupon," a senior Greek banker close to the negotiations told Reuters.
"I believe that the private sector can accept a lower coupon than the 4 percent average, but the question then is: will the PSI still be on a voluntary basis?" he said.
The voluntary character of the debt restructuring is important to avoid triggering the pay-out of insurance against a Greek default.
While the sums of such insurance appear relatively small, euro zone officials said, such a "credit event" could trigger a chain reaction of events that would entail rapid and large scale contagion in euro zone debt markets, and is thus best avoided.
NEW RESCUE FUND
After dealing with Greece, euro zone ministers will choose a replacement for European Central Bank Board member Jose Manuel Gonzales Paramo, whose term ends in May.
The 17 ministers of the euro zone will then be joined by 10 ministers from the other European Union countries to finalise a treaty setting up the euro zone's permanent bailout fund - the 500 billion euro European Stability Mechanism (ESM). Its predecessor, the EFSF, is widely viewed as insufficient.
The ESM is another crucial element in the bloc's efforts to end the sovereign debt crisis that threatens to engulf Spain and Italy after claiming Greece, Ireland and Portugal.
The fund should boost market confidence in euro zone defences should Spain or Italy need emergency financing. Separately, the IMF has launched a proposal to boost its war chest by $600 billion.
IMF head Christine Lagarde is to discuss this during a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday. She will make a speech on Monday in which she is expected to urge euro zone leaders to act quickly while acknowledging it is not merely Europe's problem because "innocent bystanders" will also be hit by a worsening debt crisis.
The 27 EU finance ministers will also prepare the final draft of another treaty to sharply tighten fiscal discipline in the euro zone, called the fiscal compact, that is designed to ensure another sovereign debt crisis cannot happen in future.
EU leaders are to sign off on both treaties on January 30, allowing the ESM to become operational in July.
To prepare for the January 30 summit, Merkel will meet European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy on Monday evening.
(Additional reporting by Lefteris Papadimas and Ingrid Melander in Athens; Reporting By Jan Strupczewski, editing by Mike Peacock)
Sandia chemists find new material to remove radioactive gas from spent nuclear fuelPublic release date: 24-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Nancy Salem mnsalem@sandia.gov 505-844-2739 DOE/Sandia National Laboratories
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. Research by a team of Sandia National Laboratories chemists could impact worldwide efforts to produce clean, safe nuclear energy and reduce radioactive waste.
The Sandia researchers have used metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) to capture and remove volatile radioactive gas from spent nuclear fuel. "This is one of the first attempts to use a MOF for iodine capture," said chemist Tina Nenoff of Sandia's Surface and Interface Sciences Department.
The discovery could be applied to nuclear fuel reprocessing or to clean up nuclear reactor accidents. A characteristic of nuclear energy is that used fuel can be reprocessed to recover fissile materials and provide fresh fuel for nuclear power plants. Countries such as France, Russia and India are reprocessing spent fuel.
The process also reduces the volume of high-level wastes, a key concern of the Sandia researchers. "The goal is to find a methodology for highly selective separations that result in less waste being interred," Nenoff said.
Part of the challenge of reprocessing is to separate and isolate radioactive components that can't be burned as fuel. The Sandia team focused on removing iodine, whose isotopes have a half-life of 16 million years, from spent fuel.
They studied known materials, including silver-loaded zeolite, a crystalline, porous mineral with regular pore openings, high surface area and high mechanical, thermal and chemical stability. Various zeolite frameworks can trap and remove iodine from a stream of spent nuclear fuel, but need added silver to work well.
"Silver attracts iodine to form silver iodide," Nenoff said. "The zeolite holds the silver in its pores and then reacts with iodine to trap silver iodide."
But silver is expensive and poses environmental problems, so the team set out to engineer materials without silver that would work like zeolites but have higher capacity for the gas molecules. They explored why and how zeolite absorbs iodine, and used the critical components discovered to find the best MOF, named ZIF-8.
"We investigated the structural properties on how they work and translated that into new and improved materials," Nenoff said.
MOFs are crystalline, porous materials in which a metal center is bound to organic molecules by mild self-assembly chemical synthesis. The choice of metal and organic result in a very specific final framework.
The trick was to find a MOF highly selective for iodine. The Sandia researchers took the best elements of the zeolite Mordenite its pores, high surface area, stability and chemical absorption and identified a MOF that can separate one molecule, in this case iodine, from a stream of molecules. The MOF and pore-trapped iodine gas can then be incorporated into glass waste for long-term storage.
The Sandia team also fabricated MOFs, made of commercially available products, into durable pellets. The as-made MOF is a white powder with a tendency to blow around. The pellets provide a stable form to use without loss of surface area, Nenoff said.
Sandia has applied for a patent on the pellet technology, which could have commercial applications.
The Sandia researchers are part of the Off-Gas Sigma Team, which is led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory and studies waste-form capture of volatile gasses associated with nuclear fuel reprocessing. Other team members Pacific Northwest, Argonne and Idaho national laboratories are studying other volatile gases such as krypton, tritium and carbon.
The project began six years ago and the Sigma Team was formalized in 2009. It is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy.
Sandia's iodine and MOFs research was featured in two recent articles in the Journal of the American Chemical Society authored by Nenoff and team members Dorina Sava, Mark Rodriguez, Jeffery Greathouse, Paul Crozier, Terry Garino, David Rademacher, Ben Cipiti, Haiqing Liu, Greg Halder, Peter Chupas, and Karena Chapman. Chupas, Halder and Chapman are from Argonne.
"The most important thing we did was introduce a new class of materials to nuclear waste remediation," said Sava, postdoctoral appointee on the project.
Nenoff said another recent paper in Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research shows a one-step process that incorporates MOFs with iodine in a low-temperature, glass waste form. "We have a volatile off-gas capture using a MOF and we have a durable waste form," Nenoff said.
Nenoff and her colleagues are continuing their research into new and optimized MOFs for enhanced volatile gas separation and capture.
"We've shown that MOFs have the capacity to capture and, more importantly, retain many times more iodine than current materials technologies," said Argonne's Chapman.
###
Sandia National Laboratories is a multiprogram laboratory operated and managed by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. With main facilities in Albuquerque, N.M., and Livermore, Calif., Sandia has major R&D responsibilities in national security, energy and environmental technologies, and economic competitiveness.
Sandia news media contact: Nancy Salem, mnsalem@sandia.gov, (505) 844-2739
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Sandia chemists find new material to remove radioactive gas from spent nuclear fuelPublic release date: 24-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Nancy Salem mnsalem@sandia.gov 505-844-2739 DOE/Sandia National Laboratories
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. Research by a team of Sandia National Laboratories chemists could impact worldwide efforts to produce clean, safe nuclear energy and reduce radioactive waste.
The Sandia researchers have used metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) to capture and remove volatile radioactive gas from spent nuclear fuel. "This is one of the first attempts to use a MOF for iodine capture," said chemist Tina Nenoff of Sandia's Surface and Interface Sciences Department.
The discovery could be applied to nuclear fuel reprocessing or to clean up nuclear reactor accidents. A characteristic of nuclear energy is that used fuel can be reprocessed to recover fissile materials and provide fresh fuel for nuclear power plants. Countries such as France, Russia and India are reprocessing spent fuel.
The process also reduces the volume of high-level wastes, a key concern of the Sandia researchers. "The goal is to find a methodology for highly selective separations that result in less waste being interred," Nenoff said.
Part of the challenge of reprocessing is to separate and isolate radioactive components that can't be burned as fuel. The Sandia team focused on removing iodine, whose isotopes have a half-life of 16 million years, from spent fuel.
They studied known materials, including silver-loaded zeolite, a crystalline, porous mineral with regular pore openings, high surface area and high mechanical, thermal and chemical stability. Various zeolite frameworks can trap and remove iodine from a stream of spent nuclear fuel, but need added silver to work well.
"Silver attracts iodine to form silver iodide," Nenoff said. "The zeolite holds the silver in its pores and then reacts with iodine to trap silver iodide."
But silver is expensive and poses environmental problems, so the team set out to engineer materials without silver that would work like zeolites but have higher capacity for the gas molecules. They explored why and how zeolite absorbs iodine, and used the critical components discovered to find the best MOF, named ZIF-8.
"We investigated the structural properties on how they work and translated that into new and improved materials," Nenoff said.
MOFs are crystalline, porous materials in which a metal center is bound to organic molecules by mild self-assembly chemical synthesis. The choice of metal and organic result in a very specific final framework.
The trick was to find a MOF highly selective for iodine. The Sandia researchers took the best elements of the zeolite Mordenite its pores, high surface area, stability and chemical absorption and identified a MOF that can separate one molecule, in this case iodine, from a stream of molecules. The MOF and pore-trapped iodine gas can then be incorporated into glass waste for long-term storage.
The Sandia team also fabricated MOFs, made of commercially available products, into durable pellets. The as-made MOF is a white powder with a tendency to blow around. The pellets provide a stable form to use without loss of surface area, Nenoff said.
Sandia has applied for a patent on the pellet technology, which could have commercial applications.
The Sandia researchers are part of the Off-Gas Sigma Team, which is led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory and studies waste-form capture of volatile gasses associated with nuclear fuel reprocessing. Other team members Pacific Northwest, Argonne and Idaho national laboratories are studying other volatile gases such as krypton, tritium and carbon.
The project began six years ago and the Sigma Team was formalized in 2009. It is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy.
Sandia's iodine and MOFs research was featured in two recent articles in the Journal of the American Chemical Society authored by Nenoff and team members Dorina Sava, Mark Rodriguez, Jeffery Greathouse, Paul Crozier, Terry Garino, David Rademacher, Ben Cipiti, Haiqing Liu, Greg Halder, Peter Chupas, and Karena Chapman. Chupas, Halder and Chapman are from Argonne.
"The most important thing we did was introduce a new class of materials to nuclear waste remediation," said Sava, postdoctoral appointee on the project.
Nenoff said another recent paper in Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research shows a one-step process that incorporates MOFs with iodine in a low-temperature, glass waste form. "We have a volatile off-gas capture using a MOF and we have a durable waste form," Nenoff said.
Nenoff and her colleagues are continuing their research into new and optimized MOFs for enhanced volatile gas separation and capture.
"We've shown that MOFs have the capacity to capture and, more importantly, retain many times more iodine than current materials technologies," said Argonne's Chapman.
###
Sandia National Laboratories is a multiprogram laboratory operated and managed by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. With main facilities in Albuquerque, N.M., and Livermore, Calif., Sandia has major R&D responsibilities in national security, energy and environmental technologies, and economic competitiveness.
Sandia news media contact: Nancy Salem, mnsalem@sandia.gov, (505) 844-2739
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Public release date: 27-Jan-2012
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Apple launched its iCloud service a little over three months ago. Well, since then, over 85 million users are syncing their devices through their personal cloud. This comes from Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Office, on today's Q1 2012 financial earning calls.