Like it or not, email is still central to the vast majority of workplace communications, so we suppose it was only a matter of time before professional network LinkedIn integrated into your inbox. That time is now. LinkedIn Intro is a new service that brings folks' LinkedIn info accessible directly ...
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/94wMpIyuVd8/
Everybody knows that this year's NSA revelations are a big deal. The whole debacle's already prompted the president to order reforms
     |
Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/4fxhnp1benM/is-the-nsa-spying-scandal-as-bad-as-watergate-1450803386WASHINGTON (AP) — Warm air at high altitudes this September and October helped shrink the man-made ozone hole near the South Pole ever so slightly, scientists say.
The hole is an area in the atmosphere with low ozone concentrations. It is normally is at its biggest this time of year. NASA says on average it covered 8.1 million square miles this season. That's 6 percent smaller than the average since 1990.
The ozone hole is of concern because high-altitude ozone shields Earth from ultraviolet radiation.
NASA chief atmospheric scientist Paul A. Newman says the main reason for this year's result is local weather. The upper air has been almost 2 degrees warmer than normal in the globe's southernmost region. That has led to fewer polar stratospheric clouds. These clouds are where chlorine and bromine, which come from man-made products, nibble away at ozone.
"It's just like watching the Pac-Man eating cookies, where cookies are ozone. The chlorine atoms are the Pac-Man," Newman said.
James Butler, director of the global monitoring division at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Earth System Research Lab, said Wednesday that the new figures are "sort of encouraging news."
"It's not getting worse," Butler said. "That's a good sign."
Butler said it stopped getting worse around the late 1990s. But he added, "We can't say yet that it's a recovery."
Newman and Butler said they can't tell if the ozone hole changes are related to man-made global warming.
While warm upper air helped keep the ozone hole small, the surface of the Southern Hemisphere was also warm last month, with the second-highest average temperature on record for September, NOAA announced Wednesday. Records go back to 1880.
For the entire globe, last month tied 2003 for the fourth hottest September on record, with an average temperature 1.15 degrees higher than the average for the 20th century. September was the 343rd consecutive month that global temperatures have been higher than 20th century average.
This year, after nine months, is on track to be the sixth warmest on record globally, 1.22 degrees hotter than normal.
For the United States, this was the sixth warmest September on record, 2.5 degrees higher than the 20th century average. It was the hottest since 2005. But the nation's average temperature over the first nine months of the year is only the 28th highest on record.
___
Online:
NASA's ozone hole watch: http://ozonewatch.gsfc.nasa.gov/
NOAA's global temperatures for September: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/2013/9
___
Seth Borenstein can be followed at http://twitter.com/borenbears
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2013-10-23-Ozone%20Hole/id-841624ee681f46be9876966d8b24572aGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel, center, opens coalition talks with representatives of the Social Democrats in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013. Merkel on Wednesday launched coalition negotiations with the main opposition Social Democrats, SPD, that are likely to set the stage for weeks of hard bargaining to form a new government. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, center, opens coalition talks with representatives of the Social Democrats in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013. Merkel on Wednesday launched coalition negotiations with the main opposition Social Democrats, SPD, that are likely to set the stage for weeks of hard bargaining to form a new government. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
BRUSSELS (AP) — U.S. allies knew that the Americans were spying on them, but they had no idea how much.
As details of National Security Agency spying programs have become public through former contractor Edward Snowden, citizens, activists and politicians in countries from Latin America to Europe have lined up to express shock and outrage at the scope of what Washington may know about them.
But politicians are also using the threat to their citizens' privacy to drum up their numbers at the polls — or to distract attention from their own domestic problems. Some have even downplayed the matter to keep good relations with Washington.
After a Paris newspaper reported the NSA had swept up 70.3 million French telephone records in a 30-day period, the French government called the U.S. ambassador in for an explanation and put the issue of personal data protection on the agenda of the European Union summit that opens Thursday.
But the official French position —that friendly nations should not spy on each another — can't be taken literally, a former French foreign minister says.
"The magnitude of the eavesdropping is what shocked us," Bernard Kouchner said Tuesday in a radio interview. "Let's be honest, we eavesdrop too. Everyone is listening to everyone else. But we don't have the same means as the United States, which makes us jealous. And it's a bit of a game to discover the eavesdropping among intelligence services, even though the services — especially the Americans and the French — work together quite efficiently."
The French government, which until this week had been largely silent in the face of widespread U.S. snooping on its territory, may have had other reasons to speak out. The furor over the NSA managed to draw media attention away from France's controversial expulsion of a Roma family at a time when French President Francois Hollande's popularity is at a historic low. Just 23 percent of French approve of the job he is doing, according to a poll released last weekend.
In Germany, opposition politicians, the media and privacy activists have been vocal in their outrage over reported widescale U.S. eavesdropping — but not Chancellor Angela Merkel. She has worked hard to contain the damage to U.S.-German relations and refrained from saying anything bad about the Americans.
The German leader has expressed surprise at the scope of U.S. data collection efforts but also said her country was "dependent" on cooperation with the American spy agencies. It was thanks to "tips from American sources," she said, that security services were able to foil an Islamic terror plot in 2007 that targeted U.S. soldiers and citizens in Germany with an explosive equivalent to 900 pounds of TNT.
Still, to fend off criticism by the opposition and the media, Merkel raised the electronic eavesdropping issue when President Barack Obama visited Germany in June, demanded answers from the U.S. government, and backed calls for greater data protection at a European level.
Few countries have responded as angrily to U.S. spying than Brazil. President Dilma Rousseff took the extremely rare diplomatic step of canceling a visit to Washington where she had been scheduled to receive a full state dinner this week.
Analysts say the anger is genuine, though also politically profitable for Rousseff, who faces an increasingly competitive re-election campaign next year. Her strong stance against the United States can only help her standing with the more left-wing elements of her ruling Workers Party.
David Fleischer, a political scientist at the University of Brasilia, said since the Sept. 11 attacks in the U.S., it was "well known by Brazilian governments" that the Americans had stepped up spying efforts.
"But what the government did not know was that Dilma's office had been hacked as well, and this is what caused the outrage," Fleischer said.
Information the NSA collected in Mexico appears to have largely focused on drug fighting policies or government personnel trends. But the U.S. agency also allegedly spied on the emails of two Mexican presidents, Enrique Pena Nieto, the incumbent, and Felipe Calderon, the former head of state.
The Mexican government has reacted cautiously to those revelations, calling the targeting of the presidents "unacceptable" and "illegitimate" yet its statements haven't been accompanied by any real action. Pena Nieto has demanded an investigation but hasn't cancelled any visits or contacts, a strategy that Mexico's opposition and some analysts see as weak and submissive.
"Other countries, like Brazil, have had responses that are much more resounding than our country," said Sen. Gabriela Cuevas of Mexico's conservative National Action Party.
In part, this is because of Mexico's much-closer economic and political ties to the United States, which the Mexican government apparently does not want to endanger.
"It is true that we depend a lot more on the United States; Brazil is further away," Mexican columnist Guadalupe Loaeza wrote Tuesday.
Beyond politics, the NSA espionage has been greeted with relative equanimity in Mexico, whose people are long used to the government's extremely close intelligence cooperation with the United States in the war against the drug cartels.
"The country we should really be spying on now is New Zealand, to see if we can get enough information so the national team can win a qualifying berth at the World Cup," Loaeza wrote, referring to the Nov. 13 game between the two rivals.
__
Hinnant reported from Paris. AP writers Frank Jordans in Berlin, Stan Lehman in Sao Paulo and Mark Stevenson in Mexico City also contributed.
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-10-23-EU-US-Allies-Spying/id-b809662abbb6481a8d43cf1703aa2f56
No one likes a price hike, especially mid-contract. Neither does UK regulator Ofcom it seems, which is setting out new policy clarification for mobile, broadband and landline suppliers. The guidance is to prevent different "interpretations" of existing policy, and will ensure customers can leave ...
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/9PLF2w4bIEI/Though David Beckham has officially retired from soccer, it seems like his daughter, Harper Beckham, is looking to fill his famous cleats. The 2-year-old tot took to the soccer field on Oct. 19 in Los Angeles for her first training as David, 38, and wife Victoria Beckham, 39, cheered her on from the sidelines.
PHOTOS: Harper Beckham's life with dad David Beckham
Harper's brothers, Brooklyn, 14, Romeo, 10, and Cruz, 8, also attended the camp and supported their little sis from close by.
Fashion icon Victoria Beckham shocked many by wearing a casual T-shirt and jeans for a day at the field, and traded her signature stoic pose for a grin when Harper ran over to the sidelines for a hug.
PHOTOS: Victoria Beckham's life as a married mom of four
David spent most of the training photographing his children and was spotted having a chat with the boys' coach -- perhaps giving him a few pointers!
In their down time, the boys played soccer with their father as Victoria looked on smiling.
David currently models for H&M's body wear line and the Beckham family is estimated to be worth more than £200 million.
