Thursday, June 7, 2012

Alaska bore tide draws surfers, viewers

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Romney team: Authorities probe possible hacking

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney gestures during a campaign stop at Southwest Office Systems, Tuesday, June 5, 2012, in Fort Worth, Texas. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney gestures during a campaign stop at Southwest Office Systems, Tuesday, June 5, 2012, in Fort Worth, Texas. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

(AP) ? Authorities are investigating whether Mitt Romney's private email account was hacked, his presidential campaign said Tuesday.

The website Gawker reported Tuesday that an anonymous hacker had signed into Romney's personal Hotmail account. Gawker reported that the hacker guessed the answer to a security question about Romney's favorite pet in order to gain access to the account and change the password. The anonymous hacker told the website that Romney's account on DropBox, a file sharing service, also was compromised.

Romney's campaign said that "proper authorities are investigating this crime." Campaign spokeswoman Gail Gitcho refused to comment further and would not say who was investigating. She also would not say whether Romney still uses the Hotmail account.

Romney isn't the first politician to face security problems with a private email account. Just weeks before the 2008 presidential election, a Tennessee college student accessed the private emails of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. The student, David Kernell, was convicted in April 2010 after Palin and her daughter Bristol testified about harassment and disruption they suffered. Kernell had correctly guessed answers to security questions guarding Palin's account, giving him access.

Romney's private Hotmail account was accepting email as recently as March 2012. As of Tuesday evening, the address was returning emails as undeliverable, citing an "unknown address."

Romney's private email address, mittromney(at)hotmail.com, was included in documents obtained and published earlier this year by The Associated Press. It was also included in documents attached to a Tuesday Wall Street Journal story. The address became public because Romney used it to conduct state business when he served as governor of Massachusetts, and some of his private emails were obtained under the Massachusetts Public Records Law.

Romney has used both a Hotmail account and an email account linked to his mittromney.com presidential campaign website. In August 2006, Romney told a group of recipients that all future emails were to be directed to the mittromney.com campaign account.

Romney wrote that, effective immediately, the new account would be his new email address. "Please keep it confidential as its use is for family and close friends," he wrote. "I will no longer be using my Hotmail account."

One month later, Romney again used the Hotmail address to email revisions of an editorial he was writing.

In March, the AP sent emails to each of Romney's private accounts. Both appeared to be operative at that time, but he did not reply. A Microsoft spokeswoman said Hotmail accounts are closed after 270 days of inactivity and incoming emails sent afterward are rejected as undeliverable. Neither of Romney's accounts bounced messages back to the AP in March.

An email sent to his private Hotmail account Tuesday bounced back as undeliverable.

Associated Press

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Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Financial Help and Financial News for Your Financial loans

Your credit report is one of the most important documents in determining your financial standing. A good credit report can help you achieve your financial goals, purchase valuable assets, and qualify for competitive interest rates on new lines of credit. A bad credit report can keep you from purchasing a new home or car, as well as preventing you from qualifying for credit at low interest rates. This makes it essential to know what?s in your credit report and what you can do to improve your credit by reviewing your credit file regularly.
According to a study released on Bankrate.com, a startling 70 percent of all credit reports contain serious errors or discrepancies which can affect an individual?s credit rating. These include having accounts listed twice, incorrect account statuses, discrepancies on the date penalties were incurred, and even the assignment of incorrect aliases that aren?t the same person. Each of these mistakes can cause decreases in your credit rating and affect your ability to borrow at competitive rates. By Federal law, every U.S. resident is allowed a free copy of their credit report each year. You can get your free reports by going to annualcreditreport.com and following the instructions to get each of your reports. Keep in mind, your free credit report actually includes the three different variations since you get a different report from each of the three main credit bureaus. Each of the three bureaus?Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion?has their own credit reporting system so they maintain their own version of your credit file. If you want to improve your credit, it?s important to check all three reports.

Once you receive copies of each of your reports, the next step is to carefully review the information included therein. Here are some tips of what you want to look for if you?re trying to find discrepancies:

? Check your contact information, paying special attention to any aliases the report indicates are you. In most cases these will be variations of your name, but in some instances the credit bureau will incorrectly assign an alias that?s not actually you.

? Check the status of each credit account. Make sure current accounts are showing current on your credit report. For delinquent accounts or any penalties incurred from delinquency or litigation make sure the date the penalty was incurred is correct.

? Check to make sure your accounts are only listed once, since double listed accounts increase your total debt load. Total debt owed is a major determining factor in FICO credit scores, so a mortgage listed twice can cause serious damage to your credit.

If you find any errors or discrepancies, submit your request for correction in writing to each of the three credit bureaus. It?s important to send the correction to all three agencies, since they?re not required to communicate with each other. Always submit disputes in writing and keep copies of all correspondence. Keep your explanations brief and to-the-point, and you?ll also want to provide copies of any proof or documentation you have.?

Once you submit your corrections, the credit bureaus will communicate the disputes to all of your relevant creditors. They will have an opportunity to confirm or deny your dispute. If the dispute is confirmed as an error, your report gets corrected and you must be notified if the correction gets rejected or changed at a later time. If you are denied a correction, you are allowed by law to present a summary of your side on the dispute in writing to be included in your credit file.

Even after you correct any errors in your credit reports with the three credit bureaus, you may not have the credit scores you had hoped to see. The credit history listed in your credit report is a main determining factor in your credit scores, but it is not the only piece of your credit puzzle. Total debt owed is another major determining factor. In this light, if correcting discrepancies doesn?t deliver the result you want, your best bet is to find ways to improve your credit history and pay off your debt as quickly as possible. If you need help, contact a non-profit credit counseling agency to allow a certified credit counselor to assess your debts and provide recommendations to help you improve your situation. ?

Connie Solidad has been writing about finances and debt consolidation for years. She's an expert in the industry and writes about debt incurred from credit cards, debt management options and credit counseling. When Connie is not working, she loves playing with her two dogs in Tampa, Florida. To learn more about debt management refer to ConsolidatedCredit.org.

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Canadian body parts suspect arrested in Berlin

This image taken from CCTV obtained by Associated Press video shows Luka Rocco Magnotta entering the Internet cafe in the district of Neukoelln in Berlin, Germany, Monday, June 4, 2012, where Kadir Anlayisli, who works in the cafe recognized him. "I looked at him and thought I knew him from somewhere, because I read newspapers every day," Anlayisli said. Luka Rocco Magnotta was apprehended on Monday in an Internet cafe in Berlin after an employee there recognized him and alerted police, Berlin police spokeswoman Kerstin Ziesmer said. The 29-year-old Canadian porn actor is accused of videotaping a killing and mailing the victim's body parts to the country's top political parties. (AP Photo/AP Video)

This image taken from CCTV obtained by Associated Press video shows Luka Rocco Magnotta entering the Internet cafe in the district of Neukoelln in Berlin, Germany, Monday, June 4, 2012, where Kadir Anlayisli, who works in the cafe recognized him. "I looked at him and thought I knew him from somewhere, because I read newspapers every day," Anlayisli said. Luka Rocco Magnotta was apprehended on Monday in an Internet cafe in Berlin after an employee there recognized him and alerted police, Berlin police spokeswoman Kerstin Ziesmer said. The 29-year-old Canadian porn actor is accused of videotaping a killing and mailing the victim's body parts to the country's top political parties. (AP Photo/AP Video)

This image taken from CCTV obtained by Associated Press video shows Luka Rocco Magnotta speaking to Kadir Anlayisli, a cafe worker who recognized him, in the Internet cafe in the district of Neukoelln in Berlin, Germany, Monday, June 4, 2012. "I looked at him and thought I knew him from somewhere, because I read newspapers every day," Anlayisli said. Luka Rocco Magnotta was apprehended on Monday in an Internet cafe in Berlin after an employee there recognized him and alerted police, Berlin police spokeswoman Kerstin Ziesmer said. The 29-year-old Canadian porn actor is accused of videotaping a killing and mailing the victim's body parts to the country's top political parties. (AP Photo/AP Video)

This image taken from CCTV obtained by Associated Press video shows Luka Rocco Magnotta, 2nd left, being removed by police from the Internet cafe in the district of Neukoelln in Berlin, Germany, Monday, June 4, 2012, where Kadir Anlayisli, who works in the cafe recognized him. "I looked at him and thought I knew him from somewhere, because I read newspapers every day," Anlayisli said. Luka Rocco Magnotta was apprehended on Monday in an Internet cafe in Berlin after an employee there recognized him and alerted police, Berlin police spokeswoman Kerstin Ziesmer said. The 29-year-old Canadian porn actor is accused of videotaping a killing and mailing the victim's body parts to the country's top political parties. (AP Photo/AP Video)

This image provided by Interpol shows an undated photo of Luka Rocco Magnotta, 29 years-old, who is accused of videotaping a gruesome murder before posting it to the internet will be charged with threatening Canada's prime minister after mailing a severed foot to his Conservative party headquarters, police said Saturday June 2, 2012. Magnotta is wanted for first-degree murder, defiling a corpse and using the mail system for delivering "obscene, indecent, immoral or scurrilous" material. Montreal Police Cmdr. Ian Lafreniere said they still believe Magnotta, 29, is in France. (AP Photo/Interpol)

Kadir Anlayisli stands next to the internet cafe in the district of Neukoelln in Berlin, Germany, Monday, June 4, 2012, where he recognized Luka Rocco Magnotta. Kadir Anlayisli who works in the after hours liqueur and tobacco shop with internet cafe, called a police man from outside saying he recognized the suspect person. Magnotta is wanted by Canadian authorities on first-degree murder and other charges. He is suspected of killing Jun Lin a 33-year-old Chinese university student he dated and mailing Lin's body parts to Canadian political parties. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

(AP) ? A Canadian porn actor suspected of murdering and dismembering a Chinese student and mailing his body parts to Canada's top political parties was reading about himself on the Internet when he was arrested Monday at a cafe in Berlin.

Canadian investigators say 29-year-old Luka Magnotta's obsessions led him to post Internet videos of his killing kittens, then a man, and finally to his arrest at the cafe where he had spent two hours reading media coverage of himself.

An international manhunt set off by a case of Internet gruesomeness that captured global attention ended quietly in the working-class Neukoelln district of the German capital when a cafe employee recognized Magnotta from a newspaper photo and flagged down a police car.

Confronted by seven officers, "He tried at first giving fake names but in the end he just said: 'You got me,'" said police spokesman Guido Busch. "He didn't resist."

Magnotta is wanted by Canadian authorities on suspicion of killing Jun Lin, a 33-year-old man he dated, in Canada, and mailing his body parts to?two of Canada's top political parties before fleeing to Europe.

They say Magnotta filmed the murder of the Chinese student in his Montreal studio apartment and posted it online. The video shows a man with an ice pick stabbing another naked, bound male. He also dismembers the corpse and performs sexual acts with it in what police called a horrifying video.

The warning signs apparently were already there. For nearly two years animal activists had been looking for a man who tortured and killed cats and posted videos of his cruelty online. Since Lin's murder, Montreal police have released a photo from the video which they say is of Magnotta.

In 2005, Magnotta was accused of sexually assaulting a woman, but the charges were dropped, the lawyer who represented him at the time said.

Magnotta is believed to have fled to France on May 26, based on evidence police found at his apartment and a blog he once posted about disappearing.

In Germany, surveillance camera footage of the Internet cafe, obtained by The Associated Press, showed Magnotta casually walking in to the shop at noon local time, wearing jeans, a green hoodie sweater and sunglasses.

He briefly spoke to the Internet cafe's desk person, then walked off to his assigned computer with the number 25 where he would later be spotted reading the news about his case.

About two hours later, seven German police officers are seen walking into the shop, without any haste or dispointed arms.

On the camera footage, three police officers are seen accompanying the handcuffed Magnotta a couple of minutes after they first entered the cafe. Magnotta calmly walks alongside them, again wearing sunglasses.

In Germany, police spokeswoman Kerstin Ziesmer said Magnotta is being questioned, and will be brought before a judge behind closed doors.

"He says he is the wanted person," she added, while cautioning that his identity must still be independently confirmed by German authorities.

Canada, like Europe, has no death penalty, making extradition more likely. Quebec bureau of prosecutions spokesman Rene Verret said it could still take a long time to get him back to Canada, but he said if Magnotta doesn't contest the order he could be returned within a couple of weeks.

The case's full horror emerged when a package containing a severed foot was opened at the ruling Conservative Party headquarters on May 29. That same day a hand was discovered at a postal facility, addressed to the Liberal Party of Canada. And a torso was found in a suitcase on a garbage dump in Montreal, outside Magnotta's apartment building. Police in masks combed through the blood-soaked Montreal studio apartment last Wednesday.

As they unraveled his background, police discovered that Luka Magnotta changed his name from Eric Clinton Newman in 2006 and that he was born in Scarborough, Ontario. He is also known as Vladimir Romanov.

His mother,?Anna Yourkin in Peterbourgh, Ontario, said she had no comment, apologized and hung up the phone.

Toronto lawyer Peter Scully said he represented Magnotta in a fraud case in 2004 and a sexual assault case in 2005. He said Magnotta was charged with a dozen counts of fraud and impersonation for using a woman's credit card to buy about $17,000 worth of goods, including a television, DVD player and several cellphones. He said he pleaded guilty to four fraud-related charges after serving 16 days in pre-trial custody. He received a nine-month conditional sentence and a year of probation.

Scully said Magnotta was charged with sexually assaulting a woman in 2005, but the prosecution decided to withdraw the charges. The woman's father became so irate and threatening that Scully said he wrote a letter to police and the prosecutor, telling them about it.

Scully remembered Magnotta as soft spoken and polite.

"I've had lots of creepy characters and Eric did not stand out as one of them," he said. Scully refers to his client by his previous name, Eric Newman.

But Nina Arsenault, a Toronto transsexual who said she had a relationship with Magnotta over a decade ago, described him as a drug user with a temper, who sometimes turned his anger on himself, hitting himself on the head, and other parts of his body.

While Magnotta described himself in an online video interview with a site called "Naked News" as a stripper and male escort, Lin, who was from Wuhan, China, was registered as an undergraduate in the engineering department and computer science at Concordia University in Montreal.?

Police have confirmed Magnotta is a porn actor and that he and Jun had a relationship.

Zoya De Frias Lakhany, 21, a fellow Concordia student in some of Lin's classes, said he was an excellent student who was shy and humble. She said she cried all weekend.

"He was happy here, he would take pictures of the snow and post them," she recalled. "He was sweet, never complained and smiled all the time."

Montreal Police Cmdr. Ian Lafreniere said investigators are extremely relieved and pleased about the arrest.

"We said from the beginning that the web has been used to glorify himself and we believe the web brought him down," said Lafreniere. "He was recognized because his photo was everywhere."

______

Gillies contributed to this report from Toronto. David Rising contributed from Berlin. Sean Farrell contributed from Montreal and Phil Couvrette contributed from Ottawa, Ontario.

Associated Press

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Where to Watch the Transit of Venus

1882 Transit of Venus

The transit of Venus in December 1882

Today offers a final opportunity for 21st century stargazers to observe a?transit of Venus. For those of you who forgot to bring your telescope to work today, we?ve got a guide for viewing the transit both indoors and outside.

DIY Viewing
If the weather is cooperating and you?ve got your pinhole projector in hand, you can definitely head out to see the transit on your own. Folks in North America north of 67 degrees latitude (meaning Northern Canada and Alaska) can watch the entire transit. Most of the lower 48 will be able to catch much of the transit towards sunset today. A good overview site for more information is transitofvenus.org.

Planetary Parties
There are meatspace events across the country (and around the world) for viewing the transit. Check your favorite local museum, university, or observatory, or simply stop by NASA?s fairly comprehensive round up of viewing events, mapping out spots as far-flung as Hanga Roa, Easter Island and Woldlia College, Ethiopia.

Viewers in California?s Bay Area can join the Lawrence Hall of Science event, where experts will be helping the curious use special eclipse-viewing glasses. New Yorkers can stop by Pier 1 at Riverside Park to join the Amateur Astronomers Association of New York (there?s also an indoor event at the American Museum of Natural History). Whether you?re at the Kansas Cosmosphere, the Pensacola State College Planetarium, or the Montana State Stadium, chances are there?s a viewing area open to the public not far from home.

Rain Checked?
But if you can?t make it outside today, fear not. Here?s a selection of online options for viewing, many of which have been handily organized on NASA?s Live Venus Transit Website:

NASA EDGE in Mauna Kea, Hawaii
NASA?s main NASA EDGE stream of the transit

NASA TV
Another live feed from NASA, carried by some cable and satellite provides

SLOOH SpaceCamera
A view from the SLOOH robotic telescopealso has a countdown timer.

Fairbanks, Alaska
Fairbanks?s 21 hours of sunlight should make it a great viewing area

Astronomers Without Borders
Broadcasting from Mount Wilson Observatory in California

NASA Glenn Research Center
Also offers information about future missions to Venus

Coca-Cola Space Science Center
Broadcasting from Alice Springs, Australia, with a team in Mongolia uploading live images

Transit Webcast from Norway
Covers the transit from locations across the country

Much Hoole, UK, Horrocks Webcast
Brings together live music, 2012 observations, and historical commentary

Indian Astronomical Observatory
The highest-elevation station in the world webcasting the transit

European Space Agency
Broadcasting from Svalbard in the Arctic and near Canberra, Australia

International Space Station
May provide video and images from astronauts. Hear astronaut Don Pettit discuss how he plans on photographing these unprecedented images from space

?

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Mad Catz unleashes the Wii U accessories at E3, we go hands-on

Mad Catz unleashes the Wii U accessories at E3, we go handson

Eagerly awaiting the launch of the Wii U? You're not alone. Mad Catz is ready, as the outfit has recently announced a set of accessories for the aforementioned console. Here at E3 2012, we were able to get a closer look at the entire family from the charging docks right on down to the TRITTON Kunai headset. While only the set(s) of cans is a finalized design, the outfit says the stands that will recharge your controllers that we saw are nearly complete. However, the FlipCover that we viewed was still a working prototype -- the same goes for the FPS controller that we were able to sneak a peek at. So, what about pricing and availability? The company is only offering that the Kunai for Wii U will set you back $50 when it ships. If you're looking for a quick rundown, hit the gallery below or venture beyond the break for a few impressions.

Continue reading Mad Catz unleashes the Wii U accessories at E3, we go hands-on

Mad Catz unleashes the Wii U accessories at E3, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jun 2012 08:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Weak bridges identified in Texas

ScienceDaily (June 5, 2012) ? Preliminary results from research at Rice University show more than a dozen Gulf Coast bridges on or near Galveston Island would likely suffer severe damage if subjected to a hurricane with a similar landfall as Hurricane Ike but with 30 percent stronger winds.

An awareness of which bridges are most at risk of damage in a strong hurricane helps public safety officials, said Jamie Padgett, a Rice assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering.

"We've been sharing these findings with emergency management agencies," Padgett said. "Some of the groups, particularly in the Clear Lake area, are interested in this information so they can plan emergency response routes, or at least do some hypothetical scenarios to think through their responses."

Padgett leads a research team modeling the performance of dozens of bridges in the Houston-Galveston region. They're determining how well bridges would withstand such a hurricane from their assessment of damage by 2008?s Ike, the third-costliest storm in American history.

Padgett and Matthew Stearns, a former undergraduate student in her lab, wrote about the effect of hurricanes on bridges in a new book, "Lessons From Hurricane Ike," based on analyses after Ike and Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The book was published recently by Texas A&M University Press. The book incorporates material from more than 20 researchers associated with the Rice-based Severe Storm Prediction, Education and Evacuation from Disasters (SSPEED) Center.

After Ike, Padgett and Stearns published a paper in the American Society of Civil Engineers' journal on the impact of Ike on bridge infrastructure in Greater Houston and Galveston.

The first bridge featured in their lengthy report was the Rollover Pass Bridge on Bolivar Peninsula, northeast of Galveston. In 2008, the span, which sat 5.3 feet over the mean water elevation, was given National Bridge Inventory condition ratings of "good" for the superstructure and substructure, "very good" for the deck and "satisfactory" for the channel; yet that same year it was destroyed in Ike's 15-foot surge and five-foot waves. This highlights the fact that condition ratings alone are not sufficient indicators of bridge safety, particularly in the face of natural hazards, Padgett said, and it underscores the importance of risk-assessment studies such as those conducted by her group.

The bridge was one of 53 evaluated by Padgett and her team after Ike. They used data compiled by themselves and others, including the Texas Department of Transportation and design firm HNTB, which worked on the state's recovery effort. Some bridges (mostly timber structures in rural areas) were destroyed by the storm surge and wave loading. Others were damaged by debris impact that accompanied the wind and water, and 25 more were weakened by scouring, where earth underneath the structures and supporting elements was washed away. Even 17 of the evaluated bridges that were far enough inland to escape significant storm surge suffered some degree of damage.

Advances in high-strength, corrosion-resistant materials and new design and construction techniques will help the next generation of bridges withstand such damage, said Padgett, who earned a coveted CAREER award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) last year to model sustainable solutions for bridge infrastructure subjected to multiple threats. But there are also fixes available to help existing bridges. "Through our work, we've identified some simple solutions," she said. "Adding details and retrofits to the structures, like shear keys or tie-downs, are potential solutions that would help protect bridges during hurricanes."

Padgett said the Houston Endowment's support of the SSPEED Center, along with her NSF award, were critical to her work. Her group also studies the impact of earthquakes and other factors, including increased load from a growing population, on bridges.

"Infrastructure reliability is certainly a hot topic worldwide," said Padgett, who is also studying bridges in California and Charleston, S.C. "We try to pick strategic locations that have an array of threats."

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