DIY Stitching change of color

A very simple white look today enhanced by the pearl embellishments on the sheer top and Gold embroidered cat loafers. Clearly the Cat loafers are a very cheap (€15) Charlotte Olympia knock off from New Yorker, the stitching was white and looked horribly cheap so I simply bought a gold marker and transformed the stitching to being a lush gold. I just happened to bump into the Cat loafers when I went to the New Yorker store for cheap light blue sneakers that I had seen  there but they were no longer there in my size so I decided to give the Kitty Cats a go! I often change the color of stitching in shoes and even clothing to transform something from looking hideous to looking fab!
xoxo

I'm wearing; TopShop pearl embellished top, Zara white jeans, New Yorker (Charlotte Olympia DIY) cat loafers

Taylor Swift The 1940s Bikini Guys HATE It, Girls LOVE It

Taylor Swift

The 1940s Bikini

Guys HATE It, Girls LOVE It

The striped, belly button-covering bikini Taylor Swift rocked out in

Rhode Island this weekend is DIVIDING THE COUNTRY ... or at least the

TMZ newsroom.

It's been described as "super cute" and "stylish" by some (the women).

It's also been described as "horrible," "diaperish" and "an American

tragedy" by others (the men).



Now, we leave this important issue in your hands.

Copyright http://www.tmz.com/

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Radio Host Kidd Kraddick Died

If you have ever listened to FM radio on your morning commute in

Texas, then at one point or another you've probably listened to Kidd

Kraddick in the Morning, a nationally-syndicated morning talk show

that was based near Dallas. The eponymous host, Kidd Kraddick, died

this past weekend while attending a golf tournament fundraiser for his

charity, Kidd's Kids, in New Orleans. He was 53.



Further details explaining Kraddick's sudden death have yet to emerge,

but the Dallas Morning News reports that he fell ill during the golf

tournament, only taking a few swings before leaving.



The relationship between the listeners of morning radio shows and

their producers is an odd, passive, not entirely engaged one—most of

the time, you're only really half-listening. For Texans, Kraddick's

show was the comforting, avuncular (disembodied) voice that distracted

from the morning traffic jam to work or school.



But he was always on, every weekday morning, and to a generation of

drivers, he could be considered the Casey Kasem of Texas. Plus, we'll

forever and always ship Kidd and his co-host Kelly Rasberry, who

shared the on-air rapport of a cranky, endearing married couple.



"I knew what it felt like to be divorced, and now I feel like I know

what it's like to be a widow," Rasberry said on the show this morning.

Copyright http://austinist.com/



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Microsoft prices Xbox One controller at $60, headset at $25

Microsoft revealed early Monday the prices for two of the key

accessories for the upcoming next-generation Xbox One video game

console — the standalone controller, which will cost $59.99, and an

official Xbox-branded wireless headset to support the consoles various

chat and voice features for an additional $24.99. Like most video game

hardware, the starting bundle that Xbox One owners receive will

include a single controller, and Microsoft has said that the new

device will not be compatible with current-generation Xbox 360

controllers.



For a point of comparison, Sony's upcoming PlayStation 4 console —

which at a starting price of $399.99 will debut for $100 less than the

Xbox One — comes bundled with an earbud-style headset but will only

offer its motion-controlled camera peripheral, the imaginatively named

PlayStation Camera, for an extra $59.99. Unlike the Xbox One's Kinect

hardware, the PlayStation Camera is not a mandatory feature for the

PlayStation 4 console. Additional PS4 controllers also cost $59.99,

and the console is not backwards compatible with older versions of the

PlayStation DualShock controller.



Regardless of whether or not a headset is contained in the starting

console package, however, that most serious gamers will likely look to

make a heftier investment in a high-end gaming headset like those

offered by Turtle Beach, Tritton, or Astro if they're actually

planning to use either console's chat capabilities for actual gameplay

purposes. Both Sony and Microsoft have been vague on whether or not

gamers will be able to use their current headsets, which can run

upwards of $200 for the best models, on the next-gen hardware.

copyright http://www.nbcnews.com

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Low-cost iPhone named in China Labor Watch report

Proof of Apple's much-rumored, low-cost iPhone might have been

revealed inadvertently in a new report.



Released today by watchdog group China Labor Watch, the report accuses

Apple supplier Pegatron of several worker abuses, including safety

violations, poor living conditions, and excessive overtime.



Page 11 of the 62-page report describes Pegatron as assembling cell

phones and tablets for Apple. "Its assembled products include iPhone

4, iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, and low-priced plastic iPhones," the report

said.



The long, difficult day in the life of one factory worker is detailed

further in the report. Page 28 describes that worker's task with the

plastic iPhone:



Today's work is to paste protective film on the iPhone's plastic

back cover to prevent it from being scratched on assembly lines. This

iPhone model with a plastic cover will soon be released on the market

by Apple. The task is pretty easy, and I was able to work

independently after a five-minute instruction from a veteran employee.

It took around a minute to paste protective film on one rear cover.

The new cell phone has not yet been put into mass production, so

quantity is not as important.



The report's purpose apparently was to find out how a low-cost iPhone

can be produced.



The executive summary specifically states: "Apple is preparing to

release a cheap iPhone. Just how does a prosperous company like Apple

produce a discounted version of its phones?" Another question asks:

"So what is the competitive advantage that Pegatron has utilized to

win Apple's order of the cheap iPhone?"



The report blames some of the violations on the rush to create a cheaper iPhone:



At this moment, in Shanghai, China, workers in Apple's supplier

factory Pegatron are monotonously working long overtime hours to turn

out a scaled-back, less expensive version of the iPhone. Six days a

week, the workers making these phones have to work almost 11-hour

shifts, 20 minutes of which is unpaid, and the remainder of which is

paid at a rate of $1.50 an hour ($268 per month) before overtime. This

is less than half the average local monthly income of $764 and far

below the basic living wage necessary to live in Shanghai, one of

costliest cities in China. So these workers rely on long overtime

hours. If a worker does not finish three months at Pegatron, the

dispatch company that got the worker hired will deduct a large portion

of his wages.



The report goes on to highlight the labor violations claimed by China

Labor Watch, which sent investigators to three Pegatron factories to

conduct almost 200 interviews with workers from March to July.



China Labor Watch said it found at least 86 labor rights violations,

including 36 legal violations and 50 ethical violations, across 15

categories: dispatch labor abuse, hiring discrimination, women's

rights violations, underage labor, contract violations, insufficient

worker training, excessive working hours, insufficient wages, poor

working conditions, poor living conditions, difficulty in taking

leave, labor health and safety concerns, ineffective grievance

channels, abuse by management, and environmental pollution.



In response to the report, Apple sent a statement to The Wall Street

Journal in which it said it has been in contact with China Labor Watch

to investigate the allegations. Pegatron CEO Jason Cheng said: "We

will investigate [the allegations] fully and take immediate actions to

correct any violations to Chinese labor laws and our own code of

conduct."

copyright http://news.cnet.com/

Low-cost iPhone named in China Labor Watch report

150 arrested, 105 children rescued from prostitution ring

WASHINGTON -- The FBI announced Monday the arrests of 150 people and

recovery of 105 children involved in child prostitution rings in 76

cities across the country.



The sweep, conducted in the past three days, was carried out in

partnership with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies. It

represents the largest such law enforcement action focused on children

forced into prostitution.



Assistant FBI Director Ron Hosko, head of the bureau's criminal

division, said the children ranged from 13 to 17 years old. The

youngest of the victims was allegedly being pimped by her father, who

also was allegedly involved in videotaping his daughter's sexual

encounters.



In operations involving 230 separate law enforcement agencies,

authorities either made arrests or child recoveries from Atlanta to

Los Angeles.



The largest number of children -- 12 -- were recovered in San Francisco.



And the most alleged pimps --18 -- were arrested in Detroit.

"Child prostitution remains a persistent threat to children across

America," Hosko said. "This operation serves as a reminder that these

abhorrent crimes can happen anywhere and that the FBI remains

committed to stopping this cycle of victimization and holding the

criminals who profit from this exploitation accountable."

Copyright http://www.usatoday.com/

Cyclospora Outbreak: What You Need To Know

The cyclospora outbreak in the US which began in mid June has now

affected 285 people in 11 states. The CDC still does not know the

exact source of the parasite which has hospitalized 18 people thus

far. The CDC has only verified the parasite in fecal samples from 5

people to date.



Over 125 cases have been identified in Iowa. There is no clear history

of an originating source based on travel history thus far. According

to a report this week from the Iowa Dept of Public Health, the source

may be more likely originating from fresh vegetables as opposed to

fruit.

Cyclospora is a one-celled parasite which is too small to be seen by

the human eye. It causes explosive watery diarrhea, as well as nausea

and vomiting. Other common symptoms include fatigue, muscle aches, low

grade fever, and loss of appetite.



Cyclospora outbreaks originate from contaminated food or water, often

in tropical or subtropical climates. Outbreaks that have occurred in

the US in the past have generally have been linked to imported fresh

produce.



Raspberries, basil, lettuce, snow peas have been sources of previous

outbreaks since the 1990s.



Often times, in healthy persons, the illness is self- limited, and

resolves with supportive care including fluids, and medicine for

nausea if vomiting develops. The illness can last as little as 2-7

days–but can linger for several weeks to sometimes months in some

cases.



The onset can be as soon as 1 day but up to 2 weeks after exposure to

the parasite. It may not be uncommon to develop relapses associated

with this parasite.



When patients appear ill or dehydrated, intravenous fluids may be

necessary to restore fluid volume and electrolytes.



In immunocompromised patients, the illness generally begins slowly,

and may cause right sided upper abdominal pain with symptoms mimicking

gallbladder disease with elevated liver enzymes.



Diagnosis can be made by detecting the parasite in stool specimens,

specifically by identifying oocytes. There are currently no blood

tests that can detect antibodies to Cyclospora.



The Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test can detect Cyclospora DNA in

stool specimens. It is commercially available, and is likely the most

acccurate method to make the diagnosis.



Antibiotics which can be used to treat the infection include Septra or

Bactrim. Cipro can also be used in patients with a sulfa

allergy–however, this may not be optimal therapy.



Antibiotics may help to reduce symptoms and also improve the time to

recovery for those with prolonged symptoms as well as loss of

appetite. In most cases, appropriate antibiotics can stop the diarrhea

within 2 days.



It is unclear what the source of contamination is at this time-the

produce itself, or related to contaminated irrigation systems involved

in farm settings.



The CDC is recommending that people be careful by taking precautions

to wash any fresh fruits and vegetables thoroughly until we know the

food source that is causing the outbreak.

Copyright http://www.forbes.com

Japan Inc. Cashes In on Abenomics as Toyota to Sony Profits Rise

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's economic recovery plan is filling

the coffers of manufacturers from Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) to Sony

(6758) Corp.



As the exporters prepare to announce first-quarter earnings this week,

14 of Japan's 27 largest are projected to beat their own full-year

operating profit forecasts by 5 percent or more, according to data

compiled by Bloomberg. Net income may surge 75 percent from a year

earlier among companies that sell abroad and 33 percent at

domestic-oriented firms, UBS AG said this month.

Abe's drive to end 15 years of deflation in Japan through monetary

easing and fiscal stimulus benefited manufacturers as the yen dropped

5 percent against the dollar last quarter and about 20 percent in the

past 12 months, boosting earnings from overseas. Toyota, the world's

largest carmaker, may exceed its fiscal-year net income target by 21

percent, according to the average of 23 analyst estimates compiled by

Bloomberg.



"Abe introduced a real bullet," said Ichiro Takamatsu, a fund manager

in Tokyo at Bayview Asset Management Co. "Companies will report

stronger numbers because of the weak yen."



Toyota, set to report earnings on Aug. 2, may say first-quarter net

income rose 48 percent to 430 billion yen ($4.3 billion), according to

the average of four analyst estimates. Profit for the year ending

March may jump 72 percent to 1.66 trillion yen, based on 23

projections.



Sony, Japan's biggest smartphone maker, may boost full-year profit 28

percent to 55 billion yen, according to the average of 16 analyst

estimates. The Tokyo-based company will report first-quarter earnings

on Aug. 1.

Return Favor



One question is whether those benefiting from Abenomics will return

the favor to stimulate the broader economy. Companies such as Toyota,

after stockpiling cash, could bolster Abe's stimulus efforts by

increasing capital investment, wages and dividends.



"Companies are of course happy to receive the windfall from a weaker

yen and stronger exports, but extremely reluctant to spread this

additional income," said Martin Schulz, an economist at Fujitsu

Research Institute in Tokyo. "They would rather keep that income and

focus on investment, particularly overseas."

'Good Numbers'



Analysts expect exporters including Toyota and Sony to beat their

forecasts in part because the yen is trading at lower levels than the

companies predicted.



Toyota said in May it expects 1.37 trillion yen in annual profit,

based on exchange rates of 90 yen to the dollar and 120 yen against

the euro. Sony targets 50 billion yen in full-year net income based on

the same projected rates.



Japan's currency traded at an average of about 99 against the dollar

and 129 against the euro in the quarter ended June 30, compared with

about 80 yen and 103 yen a year earlier. The currency may weaken

further to 120 yen against the dollar over the next year, Credit

Suisse AG said in a July 1 report.



Toyota's operating profit is boosted by about 40 billion yen for every

1-yen weakening in the Japanese currency against the dollar, according

to the company.



"We are just at the starting lines toward sustainable growth," Akio

Toyoda, the carmaker's president, said last month at the annual

shareholder's meeting. He said the strong yen was "becoming

corrected."



Shino Yamada, a spokeswoman for Toyota, and Mami Imada, a spokeswoman

at Sony, declined to comment ahead of the companies' earnings

announcements.



"There should be many sectors that will benefit from the yen's

depreciation," said Masamitsu Ohki, a fund manager at Stats Investment

Management Co., a hedge fund in Tokyo. "I expect good numbers for the

first quarter."

Nissan, Panasonic



Nissan Motor Co. (7201), Japan's second-biggest carmaker, said July 25

it increased profit 14 percent to 82 billion yen in the three months

ended June 30, amid the weaker yen and higher U.S. sales. The

Yokohama-based company reiterated its forecast for full-year net

income of 420 billion yen.



Panasonic Corp. (6752), Japan's third-biggest TV maker, may post

full-year net income of 62 billion yen, compared with the company's

forecast of 50 billion yen, according to the average of 13 analyst

estimates compiled by Bloomberg. The Osaka-based company, which

reports first-quarter earnings on July 31, had a 754 billion-yen loss

last fiscal year.



Annual profit at Tokyo-based Honda Motor Co. (7267), Japan's

third-largest carmaker, may jump 71 percent to 627 billion yen,

according to the average of 20 estimates.

Electronics Makers



Carmakers may get a bigger boost from the weaker yen than electronics

manufacturers, said Makoto Kikuchi, chief executive officer at

Tokyo-based Myojo Asset Management Japan Co.



"Consumer electronics makers see a limited impact," Kikuchi said.

"They have high ratios of overseas production as well as overseas

sales."



Sony's operating profit is reduced by a weaker yen against the dollar,

while it's increased by a weaker yen against the euro, according to

the company.



One product where Sony is hurt by the weakening yen against the dollar

is its new PlayStation 4 game console. The electronics maker has

signed contracts to pay for parts in dollars, to avoid being hurt by

the strengthening yen. The result is that parts and production are

becoming more expensive just as the company prepares to compete in

consoles against Microsoft Corp.



Japanese electronics makers continue to suffer from competition

against Samsung Electronics Co. and Apple Inc. and from the emergence

of smartphones and tablet computers, which are eroding demand for

devices such as cameras and video-game consoles.



"In electronics, Japanese companies are extremely challenged by

competition in Asia," Schulz at Fujitsu said. "The overall demand is

not strong."

Canon, Nintendo



Canon Inc. (7751), the world's biggest camera maker, cut its full-year

forecast July 24, citing lower-than-expected demand.



Nintendo Co. (7974), the creator of "Super Mario," may miss its 55

billion-yen profit forecast for the year ending March, according to

analyst estimates. The Kyoto-based company, which fell short of

initial sales projections for its new Wii U game console, may post net

income of 53 billion yen, according to the average of 22 estimates.

The company will report first-quarter earnings on July 31.



A sustained recovery for Japan's economy will depend on whether Abe's

government can execute a more comprehensive growth strategy, Masayoshi

Son, president of SoftBank Corp. (9984), said in Tokyo on July 23.



"Monetary initiatives or monetary techniques will not suffice in the

long run," said Son, whose Tokyo-based mobile-phone company acquired

U.S. carrier Sprint Corp. (S) earlier this month. "Unless Japan grows,

all of those short-term initiatives will have no meaning."

Copyright http://www.bloomberg.com/

2013 Gold Cup: With Win Over Honduras and Mexico Loss, Pressure Is on United States to Finish the Job

COMMENTARY | And then there was one.



One more road trip. One more match. One Gold Cup Final that could be

the cherry on top of the sundae that is the best stretch of play in

the 100-year history of US Men's Soccer. Jurgen Klinsmann is 90+

minutes of action away from putting any and all critics on mute for

one entire year, and the fact of the matter is that the US coach and

his Waldo-striped army should absolutely be hoisting a trophy come

July 28.



Anything but a win on Sunday will be unacceptable in the eyes of

American supporters.



United States 3-1 Honduras: Order restored



Remember when Landon Donovan went on a hiatus and subsequently found

himself in Klinsmann's doghouse? It seems like ages ago. Donovan

announced his return to US Soccer in a big way in the July 5 friendly

against Guatemala, and his star has merely gotten brighter and

brighter since. In the past three weeks, Donovan went from being a

fringe player who had to prove himself to his coach to a definite

member of the 2014 World Cup squad to someone who has guaranteed

himself a spot in the starting XI for what will likely be the final

World Cup Qualifiers of his career.



Donovan was again the engine of the US attack on Wednesday, having a

hand in all three of the team's tallies (two goals and a brilliant

through ball that set up the Eddie Johnson strike). It's possible that

the biggest highlight of the night that involved the LA Galaxy star

came when he was subbed off 18 minutes from time. The first person to

meet Donovan was his coach, who almost immediately embraced who will,

regardless of what occurs on Sunday, be his team's MVP of this

tournament.



Welcome home, Landon. We missed you, maybe even more than we could

have imagined.



United States 3-1 Honduras: Up top



It took literally a handful of seconds during a US attack on Wednesday

to remember what the previously mentioned Johnson brings to the table

that Chris Wondolowski, try as he might, cannot routinely produce.

Johnson used his pace and strength to beat a defender to a Donovan

through ball and then hold his man off as he fired off a hit from 17

yards out that swooped around goalkeeper Donis Escobar for the

match-opener. Wondo finds the back of the net through his positioning

and by doing the so-called "dirty work" inside the penalty area.



Johnson is a true forward and a finisher, and the type of player you

want starting up top in a Final.



It would be overly harsh to suggest that Donovan and Wondolowski

didn't mesh in previous Gold Cup matches; rather, they were two

different guys who were fighting for the same cause. In Donovan and

Johnson, Klinsmann has himself a true partnership, one in which

Donovan can contribute both up front and in the midfield as a

distributor for the Seattle Sounders forward. Donovan and Johnson make

up the competition's top one-two punch as the Final draws near, and

thus don't be shocked if the duo is responsible for the goal that wins

the Gold Cup.



United States 3-1 Honduras: Mexico losing is nice and all, but...



Now it's all on Team USA to finish the job. That Panama, not Mexico,

has been the second-best team in the tournament and deserves to play

for the trophy will not matter at all if the Americans stumble. The

United States will enter Sunday as the favorite, a team that will have

a noticeable home-field advantage unless thousands of Mexican football

supporters descend on the Windy City with the sole purpose of rooting

against the US.



Two things worry me about Panama: They're good on attacking set

pieces, plays in which the US have leaked goals throughout this

tournament, and they've also been playing like a confident side that

knows it has nothing to lose. Who expected Panama to beat Mexico TWICE

in under three weeks? Who expected that they, not Mexico, would be

standing in the way of US and Gold Cup glory?



There have always been excuses whenever the US have struggled under

Klinsmann. New philosophies were being preached, and players were

trying to adjust to a new system. The manager hadn't yet had enough

time for find his first-choice lineup. CONCACAF has gotten much, much

better in a brief amount of time.



All of that goes out the window on Sunday, the first actual "must-win"

game of the Klinsmann era. Win, and it's job done, the result that had

been coming since that 6-1 drubbing of Belize. Fall short, and July

2013 will forever be labeled as nothing more than yet another failure

for US Soccer.



No pressure.

Copyright yahoo.com

Danica McKellar, aka Winnie Cooper, Reveals Killer Abs in Avril Lavigne Music Video

Danica McKellar is revealing a, well, revealing new side to herself.



The former "Wonder Years" star, 38, revealed her killer abs while on

the set of Avril Lavigne's new music video yesterday.



"Just had the best time shooting @AvrilLavigne's new video," she

tweeted. "And she is so sweet and fun! Made me feel like a rock star.

;)"

Top 10 Fashion Bloggers Festival Looks

photo by Natalie off Duty

It is Summer and our favorite season for another reason besides the obvious sun, sea and beach! We love festivals and love the amazing and inspiring looks, bohemian, contemporary, crochet, cut off jeans, cropped tops, summer frocks and bikini's in the mix, we love them all! Sophia (know from BlogandtheCity) and I collaborated again for a Top 10 Fashion Blogger Festival Looks!
xoxo


1) Oracle Fox

Amanda is brilliant and original when it comes to creating bohemian looks, jeans, lace and crochet are easily customized and embellished and make for perfect gorgeous festival looks!

http://oraclefox.com/





2) Natalie of Duty

Another queen of bohemian and thus festival looks in Natalie! We love the way she effortlessly mixes and matches silhouettes, prints and everything else!

http://natalieoffduty.blogspot.com/





3) Fashion Vibe

Who knew we could easily take upcoming trends and translate them to a summer festival look? The burgundy red Tee and plaided shirt make for a simple yet perfect outfit!

http://www.fashionvibe.net/





4) Snakes Nest

Bethany's cropped top and skirt are super gorgeous and we love the side braid!

http://outofabook.blogspot.com/





5) Lizzy van der Ligt

Lizzy's looks are perfect festival inspiration, we love the returning bohemian touch in all her outfits!

http://www.lizzyvdligt.com/




6) Peace Love Shea

Shea Marie's dresses and boots combination are super sweet!  

http://peaceloveshea.com/





7) LA's blog

A very daring use of a bikini and bold prints and we love it!  

http://www.lafromlasblog.com/





8) Fashion Toast

We love how Rumi went for a touch of contemporary, simplicity and minimalism into her festival looks!

http://www.fashiontoast.com/





9) Lisa Olsson

Lisa's very simple look is made into perfection by use of the belts!

http://imnext.se/lisaplace/





10) Angelica Blick

Long sleeved cropped tops with jeans shorts? yes, yes and yes!

http://nyheter24.se/modette/angelicablick/





11) Song of Style

We love how Aimee works the bikini into perfect festival looks!

http://songofstyle.blogspot.com/





12) Alana Ruas

We start to think that you need to be Brazilian like Alana to really know how to work crochet!

http://www.instintodevestir.com/





13) In search of Sadie

A new favorite blog of us and for a reason, Natasha's looks are always point on!

http://insearchofsadie.com/





14) the Blonde Salad

Chiara's play with the returning bright neon green of the polarized sunglasses and the green in her outfit is brilliant!

http://www.theblondesalad.com/





15) This Chick got Style 

We just love the sequined shorts combined with the sleeveless army jacket!

http://www.thischicksgotstyle.blogspot.nl/



FOLLOW COCOROSA ON BLOGLOVIN' FACEBOOK AND TWITTER 

Rick Warren returns to pulpit after son's suicide

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Nearly four months after his son's suicide, popular

pastor Rick Warren returned to the pulpit Saturday afternoon at the

Southern California megachurch he founded.



Warren, dressed in his usual casual black T-shirt and jeans, took the

stage at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif. with wife, Kay

Warren, and was greeted with a long standing ovation by the

congregation.



A shout of "We love you!" came from the crowd before Warren began.



"I love you, too," a smiling Warren replied. "Have I told you lately

that I love you?"



It was the first time Warren had taken the Saddleback pulpit since his

27-year-old son Matthew shot and killed himself on April 5.



In the sermon, first in a series called "How To Get Through What

You're Going Through," Rick Warren said he had the perfect role model

for his struggles.



"God knows what it's like to lose a son," Warren said.



He remained mostly composed, but choked back tears at times, including

when he thanked his surviving two children.



"How proud I was of Amy and Josh, who for 27 years loved their younger

brother," Warren said. "They talked him off the ledge time after time.

They are really my heroes."



He delivered a formal, prepared speech with notes and quotes from

Scripture but often broke off to talk frankly about his son.



"I was in shock for at least a month after Matthew took his life," Warren said.



But, Warren said he was grateful to come from "a family of spiritual redwoods."



"Satan picked the wrong team to pick on," he said.



Warren has been an essential figure in the modern, megachurch brand of

Christianity.



His multimillion-selling book "The Purpose Driven Life" made him a

national star in the realms of religion and self-help, and he

delivered the opening prayer at President Barack Obama's 2009

inauguration.



Saddleback, the church he founded in 1980, has grown to 20,000

members, according to Warren's biography on the church's website.



But in April, Matthew Warren, after a lifetime of struggle with

depression, shot and killed himself in what Warren at the time called

"a momentary wave of despair."



"For 27 years I prayed every day of my life for God to heal my son's

mental illness," Warren said.



But Warren said Saturday that he intended to turn his grief into a

message of service and hope.



"God wants to take your greatest sorrow and turn it into your life's

greatest message," he said.

Copyright http://www.usatoday.com so more info viit here http://www.usatoday.com





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'The Wolverine' review: Looking sharp

The Wolverine

Action. Starring Hugh Jackman, Rila Fukushima and Tao Okamoto.

Directed by James Mangold. (PG-13. 120 minutes.)



Somewhere along the line somebody must have had a crazy idea, that

maybe for once the Wolverine required a decent script, and shouldn't

rely only on action, audience goodwill and the sight of Hugh Jackman

with his shirt off. And so a team was assembled, made up of people who

have made some very good movies.



Those movies are too many to list here, but for a taste: Director

James Mangold made "Walk the Line" and "3:10 to Yuma," and

screenwriters Mark Bomback, Scott Frank and Christopher McQuarrie made

"Live Free or Die Hard," "Out of Sight" and "The Usual Suspects,"

respectively. This time out, nobody is slumming.



Within five minutes, it's apparent that the audience, and "The

Wolverine," are in good hands. The movie, a sequel to 2009's "X-Men

Origins: Wolverine," begins with three gripping sequences, including a

vivid one in which our hero survives the atomic bomb blast at

Nagasaki. Of course he does - he's that kind of person. His hair and

skin may be burned off, but he flexes and growls, and a moment later,

everything has grown back.



Less immediately apparent than the quality of the action is the subtle

and welcome change the filmmakers have wrought in Wolverine. Of the

mutant superhero X-Men, he was always the sad sack, the depressive,

the self-hating one, the one who didn't want to use his powers; but in

"The Wolverine," he is less angst-ridden, and more angry and

motivated, which activates the movie.

Straight-up action hero



At the start, he is drifting and haunted by nightmares, but he still

has the gumption to pick a fight when he witnesses an injustice. In

the best way, he is more like a straight-up action hero - no longer a

miserable guy like Lon Chaney Jr.'s Wolf Man, but capable, dangerous

and, when it's called for, sarcastic.



The clash between mutants and humans has been the relentless focus of

previous "X-Men" movies. "The Wolverine" drops that exhausted subject

in favor of something more clear-cut and immediate: The Wolverine is

asked to travel to Japan in order to say goodbye to the man whose life

he saved in Nagasaki. The Wolverine, who's not doing much of anything

these days besides growing out his sideburns, agrees, and soon gets

involved in a tangled and dangerous conflict over the old man's will.

The old man skips over his own son and makes his granddaughter, Marika

(Tao Okamoto), the richest woman in Asia.



A nice feature of "The Wolverine" is that it always stays with our

hero, and his task is always simple and easy to grasp, despite

whatever complicating machinations are taking place off camera. He

saves Marika's life - as soon as people find out that she is about to

inherit everything, armies of assassins pop out from everywhere - and

he becomes determined to keep her alive. Why? Because he's a nice guy,

and he likes her.



Unfortunately, the Wolverine is not the best relationship material at

the moment. He can't go to sleep without having nightmares that cause

him to leap out of the sheets, waving his adamantine knuckle blades,

ready to kill anything that moves. Handsome or not, he is definitely a

case for separate beds.



"The Wolverine" is the first film from the X-Men universe to show

Jackman to full advantage. The actor has worked himself into a

physical condition that is downright humbling, or inspiring, depending

on your viewpoint, and his performance is in the best action tradition

of strength and humor.



The action sequences are not perfunctory and, though they had to have

been cooked up on a computer, they don't look like it. Or at least,

they're imaginative enough that you don't have time to think of them

in that way.

Train chase



For example, there's a chase on top of a train, a familiar

action-movie trope last seen as recently as "The Lone Ranger," a few

weeks ago. But the chase in "The Wolverine" takes place on a Japanese

bullet train going 300 mph, which completely changes the dynamic. The

scene is faster, quieter and more eerie, and the fighting requires

different strategies.



"The Wolverine" shows that, while originality would be nice, a little

novelty and enthusiasm in the presentation of the familiar can be

quite enough. The bottom line is that audiences aren't stupid and will

not settle for just anything, as the anemic box office for recent

blockbusters is showing. "The Wolverine" deserves to break out from

the pack.

Copyright http://www.sfgate.com/

After 75 years of marriage, couple die one day apart at age 94

High school sweethearts Les and Helen Brown, who were born on the same

day on Dec. 31, 1918, died at age 94, within one day of each other.



"My mom often said she didn't want to see my father die, and he didn't

want to live without her," Daniel, the couple's youngest son, told the

Long Beach Press-Telegram.



Helen died on July 16, and Les died on July 17. The Southern

California couple celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary in

September.



"It was a real love match, wasn't it?" their oldest son, Les Jr., told

the newspaper. "They were together every day for 75 years."



According to the sons, the pair met at Huntington Park High School and

eloped on Sept. 19, 1937, at the age of 18 against their parents'

wishes. They thought a match between a wealthy man and a working-class

woman would never work out.



The couple moved to Long Beach in 1963. He was a photographer for the

Navy. She sold real estate. They had seven grandchildren.



The two, who were friends with many of their neighbors, were known to

take road trips and worshipped at Kingdom Hall as Jehovah's Witnesses.



Eventually, Helen was diagnosed with stomach cancer, and Les suffered

from Parkinson's disease.



"Like the Bible says, 'They were as one,'" Bob Brobst told the

Press-Telegram, who was a friend of the couple's for a decade.

Copyright http://news.yahoo.com/

Miami hostage standoff leaves 7 people dead

MIAMI -- Seven people were shot and killed at an apartment building in

a Miami suburb early Saturday, including the suspected gunman who was

holding two hostages when a SWAT team moved in, police said.



The hostages were rescued unharmed, Hialeah Police Sergeant Eddie

Rodriguez told NBC News.



The standoff began on Friday evening during an argument between the

gunman and the husband and wife who ran the apartment complex. Their

bodies were among the six found after the SWAT team moved in on

Saturday morning, police said.

The gunman lived in a fourth-floor apartment with his mother, the

Miami Herald quoted the landlords' daughter, Shamira Pisciotti, as

saying.



The couple, 78-year-old Italo Pisciotti and 68-year-old Samira

Pisciotti, went to the unit to discuss a problem with the gunman, who

opened fire and killed them both, their daughter told the newspaper.



Three other victims were found shot to death in that building and one

was walking into a building across the street when the gunman shot him

from a balcony, police said.



The shooter was barricaded inside a fifth-floor apartment with the two

hostages when police negotiators made contact with him during the

night. The SWAT team swarmed in after the talks broke down about 2

a.m., the Herald said.



The apartment complex in the blue-collar, mostly Hispanic community

housed about 90 families.



Copyright © 2013, Reuters

New Android, new Chromecast, old marketing tricks: Ars readers react

On Wednesday, Google held an event in San Francisco announcing a

couple of new products that proved interesting to Android and Apple

adherents alike. These included the revamped Nexus 7, Android 4.3, and

the Chromecast, a tiny dongle for your TV's HDMI port that pushes

music, photos, and videos from Android and iOS devices and laptops to

the...um...medium screen.



Ars sat down to run some benchmarks on the Nexus 7 as soon as we got

our hands on it, and Andrew Cunningham wrote up the results in The

2013 Nexus 7 performance preview: a huge speed upgrade in every way.

The benchmarks showed the newest tablet vastly outperforming the

original Nexus 7 as well as the Nexus 4, and coming close in

performance to the larger Nexus 10.



Storage, incidentally, was the most controversial part of the new

tablet. daneren2005 wrote, "I think the better storage performance is

the only thing I really care about in an upgrade. The Nexus 7

deteriorated so fast it was ridiculous and got extremely laggy when

approaching full. I'm hoping this version doesn't have these issues,

or at least not at the same level." charleski agreed: "Hmm. I was

planning to keep my old N7 since I mostly use it for reading. But

storage speed is the one thing that really bugs me about the original

model, and these improvements are quite enticing."



Digitali missed the old ways. "Still no SDCard storage? I love my

original one, but the lack of additional storage options is insane."

Chronoreverse didn't want to hear it, "You're never going to see

MicroSD storage in a Nexus device." But greenmky stepped in to offer a

more thorough response:



I'd prefer an SD card slot too, but considering the bang/buck that

Google offers with Nexus devices I've been willing to overlook it. I

don't keep that much music on hand, and on a tablet, the only reason I

use the space is for disc images for DOSBox or something. I don't

watch movies or TV on a tablet (would rather wait and watch on the

plasma/HT setup).



I really like SD cards (for media storage, Titanium Backup,

Photos, etc), but somehow I've ended up with a Nexus 7 / Nexus 4 combo

anyway.



My wife grouses about not having enough room for her music all of

the time on her Nexus 4. She's talked about getting another Android

device with MicroSD just for playing music. So far, it's just talk.



For my kids (age 7 and 5), however, an SD card slot is critical. I

load it up with episodes of My Little Pony: FIM and whatever else they

want to watch for trips, camping, etc. They load up the internal

storage with terrible insipid games and such :p



Devil's in the details



Verizon also announced it's Motorola Droid lineup this week, and while

the phones sounded awfully impressive, the specifics of the "Motorola

8X" chip that powers the lineup revealed decidedly average hardware.

Again, Andrew Cunningham took down the details in Motorola's "8-core"

X8 chip gives us a lesson in marketing-speak.



The deception made Doctor Hoot mad. "So your new 'flagship phone' has

a lower-resolution screen, a similar processor, and the same RAM as

the GSIII? Way to produce a flagship last year's flagship phone and

sell it for $199, Motorola. No wonder your market share is dropping."



ounkeo already hit the acceptance stage:



This is just the general problem with companies and manufacturers

in general. Nearly everyone inflates. The goal is to bedazzle ignorant

users. The fact that it works and you have users going on and on about

yet more pointless cores means it will continue to be done.



This has been happening in the PC market for a long time though

not quite as blatant as Motorola, Google, and Verizon. We had the

almighty Jiggahertz warz, the megapixie wars, the core warz. And

ignorant people lap it up.



Outside of Ars, pretty much any other blog comment section is

filled with "it doesnt haz 16corez...it is bad and useless."



Others joked about the offending 8 core chip. "Reminds me of the time

I went to a 'computer blowout' sale and saw vendors selling MP5, MP6,

and MP7 players," wrote RolandKSP.



And TerribleTony told us of his incredibly intriguing product: "I'm

working on a 36-core SoC design. 16 of the cores are 6510's, 10 ten

are Z80's, two are Hercules Graphics Adapters, two are FM synthesizers

I pulled off of old SoundBlaster Pro or Adlib cards (whatever I could

find at Goodwill), three are 8088s, and the remaining three are

actually people doing jobs it offloads to Amazon's Mechanical Turk."

Chrome...um...castic?



At Google's Wednesday event, a tiny little device called the

Chromecast. In her article, New "Chromecast," a $35 HDMI dongle to get

video streams to your TV, Casey Johnston took a look at Google's pitch

to get one of these things in every TV in every home. Ultimately, Ars

readers were enthusiastic, but some were skeptical that it would

really be a great at Google promised.



"Looks nifty, but no 5GHz Wi-Fi will be awful in any area with

congested 2.4GHz operation," Bob Loblaw posted. DOOManiac had another

idea: "I wish the thing had an IR port on it so you could

pause/play/rewind/ffwd using your remote instead of digging your

phone/tablet out again."



Ars of Ares thought the dongle's ultimate usefulness would come down to content:



I'm cautiously excited about this. I really dig connecting my PS3

to my phone via YouTube, so I'm fairly aware of the potential.



I do wonder about dev support though. It's great that they got

Netflix right out the gates, but that's kind of a given these days; I

already have five separate options to watch Netflix on one TV, how

many more do I need? HBO Go, on the other hand...



I hope they have some way of syncing the audio, but I sort of

doubt it. It would be awesome to have Google Music or Pandora playing

the same stream on multiple receivers and/or TVs throughout the

house—like the Nexus Q—but this little stick doesn't seem to be meant

for that. Hopeful, there...



They hit the pricing right out of the park. $35 is deep into

impulse territory!



outlaw2005 had no such reservations though. "I just ordered one for

each TV in the house. This is exactly what I was looking for."

You are where you eat



Towards the end of the week, Nathan Mattise brought us the story of a

programmer who kept being thwarted in his attempts to get a table at a

swanky San Francisco restaurant. To realize that fine dining dream,

the programmer built a bot to make online reservations—only to realize

that others were using superior bots for the same task. In Engineer

can't get decent dinner reservations, creates Urbanspoon-dominating

bot you can get the whole story of the eatery arms race.



psd sort of missed the point, but had a good DIY sentiment. "I'll tell

you where you can easily get a reservation—your own kitchen table!

Ditch the laziness, get off the keyboard and finally learn how to cook

gourmet meals for yourself! Start being self-sufficient for a change."



Happysin saw the future in this particular story: "This seems like the

natural beginning of agent-based life management. We've seen it in

Sci-Fi for years, but it would be great to tell your personal agent

that you want reservations as X place, and make sure to notify Y

person of the date when it's finalized. Then also manage things like

dentist and doctor scheduling, etc. Having an agent manage calendar

for things like that would be pretty great. You lose direct control

over parts of your schedule, but if it's set up properly, it shouldn't

be a problem."



But surely the restaurant would see something strange afoot. Right?

"'How come our only patrons are IT geeks?'" Stone joked as the

restaurant owners.



But FoneFreak spoke the voice of the common man (and woman): "I'll be

eating my Stouffer's Lean Cuisine and watching 'Rin-Tin-Tin' reruns on

antenna TV while these startup guys feast on braised peacock tongue

and in vivo monkey brains while they furiously blog about it in

real-time on invisible, holo-keyboards projected from a Google Glass

add-on dongle. *sigh*"

Copyright http://arstechnica.com

Europe and China Agree to Settle Solar Panel Fight

BRUSSELS — The European Union's trade chief said on Saturday that a

deal had been reached with China to settle a dispute over exports of

low-cost solar panels that had threatened to set off a wider trade war

between two of the world's largest economies.

The settlement essentially involves setting a fairly high minimum

price for sales of Chinese-made solar panels in the European Union to

try to prevent them from undercutting European producers. Those

producers accused Chinese manufacturers of benefiting from enormous

loans from state-owned banks and other government assistance that

enabled them to charge prices that would otherwise be uneconomical.



"We have found an amicable solution that will result in a new

equilibrium on the European solar panel market at a sustainable price

level," Karel De Gucht, the European trade commissioner, said in a

statement.



The deal immediately met with ferocious criticism from the European

manufacturers that had filed the complaint, and it complicates a

similar dispute between the United States and China.



Mr. De Gucht's decision in June to carry out his threat to impose

tariffs on solar panels from China generated significant fears within

the union about retribution from China. Chancellor Angela Merkel of

Germany called for further negotiations to avoid harm to German

exporters. European importers of solar products from China also

opposed the tariffs.



At the time, Mr. De Gucht said he had been left with no choice but to

impose the tariffs since his investigators found a systematic effort

by Chinese companies to sell solar panels in Europe below the cost of

making them, a practice known as dumping.



On Saturday, officials at the European Commission said they could not

give details of the deal, including the price that Chinese exporters

would pay to sell their panels in Europe, until the arrangement had

been formally approved by the commission. But a European Union

official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal had not

yet been formally approved, said the two sides had agreed to a minimum

price of 0.56 euros per watt (74 cents), which would base any

potential surcharge on the amount of electricity generated by each

imported panel.



The European solar manufacturers who lobbied for tougher action

against the Chinese exporters on Saturday promised to sue over the

settlement.



The agreement "is contrary in every respect to European law," said

Milan Nitzschke, the president of EU ProSun, an industry group. A

minimum price of 0.55 to 0.57 euros was at the level of "the current

dumping price for Chinese modules," the group said in a statement.



The arrangement would cover exports from 90 of about 140 Chinese

exporters that were examined during the investigation, and that

represent 60 percent of the panels sold in Europe, the government

official said. Those 90 companies would no longer face tariffs that

were put in place in June. Chinese exporters that did not agree to the

terms will still face tariffs that are set to rise to 47.6 percent on

Aug. 6 from the current level of 11.8 percent, the official said.



The Chinese government hoped from the start of the trade case with the

European Union for a negotiated settlement instead of a legal battle.

This deal comes as a relief, said He Weiwen, the co-director of the

China-United States-European Union Study Center at the China

Association of International Trade in Beijing.



The European settlement with Beijing in some ways complicates a

similar dispute between the United States and China. The United States

Commerce Department imposed final anti-dumping and anti-subsidy

tariffs last spring on imports of solar panels from China. China

responded on July 18 that it was preparing to impose tariffs of more

than 50 percent on polysilicon, the main material for solar panels, on

imports from the United States and South Korea.



The United States began trying in early summer to arrange a

comprehensive deal among Beijing, Brussels and Washington that would

set new global trade arrangements for solar panels in exchange for the

removal of the American tariffs and the preliminary European tariffs.

But faced with a complex process in the United States for removing

tariffs once the Commerce Department has made them final, the European

Union pushed ahead with its own negotiations with China, a Senate aide

with detailed knowledge of the issue said on Friday.



"The administration has been doing the right thing on this, pushing

for talks and trying to get a joint settlement with Europe, but the

Europeans have not had the same attitude and instead are pursuing

talks with China independently of the U.S., which has stalled progress

on U.S.-China talks," said the aide, who spoke anonymously because of

the diplomatic sensitivity of the issue.



The Office of the United States Trade Representative, which is part of

the White House, had no immediate response to the European deal, which

was announced shortly before dawn in Washington.



Solar panels represent more than 6 percent of China's exports to the

Continent, making them one of the largest Chinese exports to the

European Union. In 2011, Chinese exports of panels and their main

components to the European Union were worth about 21 billion euros or

$27.4 billion.



China grew from a tiny player in the global solar panel market five

years ago to the world's dominant producer now through a program of

enormous lending by state-owned banks and a wide variety of

manufacturing incentives by local and provincial governments. That has

allowed Chinese producers to drive down the price of panels by

three-quarters over the same period.



But Chinese manufacturers have expanded faster than the market, and

the largest of them now face severe financial difficulties.



James Kanter reported from Brussels and Keith Bradsher from Hong Kong.

Copyright http://www.nytimes.com/

Google Asks Glass Developers To Start Working On Android-Based Apps Ahead Of Glass Development Kit Launch

It looks like Google is about to unleash a new wave of more powerful

applications for Google Glass. Currently, Glass developers can only

build apps that are essentially web-based services that talk to the

user's hardware through a set of relatively limited APIs. At its I/O

developer conference earlier this year, Google announced that it would

soon release its so-called Glass Development Kit (GDK), which would

let them build Android-based apps for Glass that can run directly on

the device.



So far, however, Google hasn't launched the GDK. Instead, Google today

encouraged developers who are waiting for the GDK to start working on

Android apps for Glass using the standard Android SDK (API Level 15)

to try out their ideas.



As Google notes, developers can use the SDK to access low-level

hardware to render OpenGL and use stock Android UI widgets, for

example. Developers can also access the accelerometer of Glass through

the SDK.



Glass, after all, runs Android 4.0.4, so it's a pretty well-known

platform for many developers. To help newcomers get started, though,

the company also released a number of sample apps (a stopwatch,

compass and level) today that highlight some of the things developers

can do with Android on Glass. Over the next few weeks, Glass team

member Alain Vongsouvanh writes on Google+ today, the team will also

use these sample apps to "demonstrate the migration path between a

traditional Android app and a full Glass experience."



For Glass to reach its full potential, developers need better access

to the device's hardware, so it's nice to see Google moving ahead with

this. It's still a bit of a surprise that Google hasn't released the

GDK yet. And the fact that it made today's announcement indicates that

it could still be a few weeks out. If you're a Glass developer,

though, now is probably a good time to start thinking about how you

would use Android on Glass.

Copyright Contains http://techcrunch.com/

-Singer-songwriter JJ Cale dead at 74 after heart attack

Grammy award winning singer and songwriter JJ Cale, one of the most

versatile musicians of his era who played everything from rock and

roll to blues and jazz, has died after suffering a heart attack, his

official website said on Saturday.



Cale, who was 74, won a Grammy award in 2008 for "The Road to

Escondido," which he recorded with singer-songwriter Eric Clapton.





Born in Oklahoma City, Cale migrated to Los Angeles in the 1960s and

flourished. Rock legend Neil Young once described Cale as the best

electric guitar player he had ever seen other than the late Jimmy

Hendrix.



Cale's official website said he died on Friday night at Scripps

Hospital in La Jolla, California. There were no immediate plans for

memorial services, the website said.

Copyright Contains http://www.reuters.com/

(Reporting by Greg McCune; Editing by Vicki Allen)

Apple Developer site hack: doubts cast on Turkish hacker's claims

A Guardian investigation has cast doubt on claims by a UK-based

Turkish researcher that he hacked into Apple's Developer portal, which

has been offline for more than a week.



Ibrahim Balic, who describes himself as a security consultant, claimed

on Sunday that he had discovered a number of weaknesses in the site at

developer.apple.com which allowed him to grab email addresses of

registered developers.



Apple took its developer portal offline on Thursday 18 July. On Sunday

it emailed developers warning that the site had been hacked and that

some of their details might have been stolen. It has not given any

more details of how the hack was carried out.



In all, Balic said he had been able to grab the details of 100,000

people registered on the site, and that he included 73 of them in a

bug report to Apple. He claimed that he exploited a cross-site

scripting (XSS) bug in the site, and noted 13 issues in a bug report

to Apple between 16 and 20 July.



However XSS attacks generally require the attacker — which in this

case would be Balic — to "infect" a page, in this case Apple's, with a

malicious piece of Javascript or HTML which would then be used to

extract data from a visiting user. If Balic's claim is correct, he

seems to have used the XSS exploits against his own system.



Balic offered to provide proof of his hack by sharing some details of

the file with the Guardian, and provided the emails for 19 people; the

Guardian also extracted another 10 from an email Balic put on YouTube

in which he apparently showed how he hacked the site. (He has since

made the video private.)



But attempts by the Guardian two days ago to contact 29 of the group

whose details Balic claims to have acquired found that seven of the

emails bounced — because the email is no longer operational — and not

a single one of the others has responded to a request to say whether

they are registered with Apple. Nor could any of the emails or names

be discovered online — which would be unusual for any active

developer.



Many of the emails also belong to defunct services such as Freeserve,

Demon and SBC Global — which makes it unlikely that they would have

signed up as developers, as that only became possible in 2008.



Graham Cluley, an independent security consultant, commented: "Many of

the names and email addresses either don't look like they would belong

to Apple developers, or appear to have left no footprints anywhere

else on the net." Of the set of 10 emails which appeared in the video,

he said: "It's almost as though these are long-discarded ghost email

addresses from years ago or have been used by Balic in his video for

reasons best known to himself."



Balic told iMore that the user information that he showed in a video

came not from an exploit against a developer portal, but from Apple's

iAd Workbench, for targeting advertising campaigns to users. He said

that a malformed web request to those servers containing just a first

name or last name meant he could get more data — including a full

name, username and email address for those users.



He then said that he wrote a script that generated "random" users to

get more account information wherever there was a match of some sort,

and used that to acquire the user details.



Balic did not respond to a request by the Guardian to explain why the

emails he had apparently collected were defunct or apparently

inoperational.



Apple refused to comment on the method used to hack into its site. It

would not comment on whether it has called in law enforcement over the

hack, or whether it has identified any suspects.



Even if the hack was not carried out by Balic, Apple has still been

the target of a significant attack. However, standard iTunes Store and

App Store accounts belonging to non-developers have not been affected.



The increasing delay in bringing its developer portal back online may

also create problems for Apple in its preparation for the launch of

iOS 7, the updated version of its iPhone and iPad software. It

released the third beta for the software on 8 July, and has generally

aimed for a fortnightly cycle of releases. That would imply that the

fourth beta should have been released last Monday 22 July – although a

year ago there was a three-week delay, from 16 July to 6 August,

between the releases of the third and fourth betas for iOS 6, the

current iPhone software.



The company meanwhile has set up a new "system status" page, which on

Friday morning showed that only two of its 15 developer systems — for

updating apps, and reporting bugs — are online.

Copyright http://www.guardian.co.uk/

Hacker Barnaby Jack dies in San Francisco aged 35

Barnaby JackJack, who became famous after demonstrating an ATM hack,

died on Thursday – but coroners did not give details



Barnaby Jack, a hacker who was due to present his findings on the

security vulnerabilities of implanted medical devices, has died.



The San Francisco medical examiner's office said Jack, 35, died in the

city on Thursday – but did not provide details on the circumstances

surrounding his death.



Jack had exposed a security flaw in insulin pumps that could be made

to dispense a fatal dose by a hacker 300ft away, pushing some medical

companies to review the security of these devices.



He was also a popular and respected figure in the information security

scene. Within that small scene, reverse engineers are especially

close, said Matthieu Suiche, a friend of Jack's and chief scientist at

CloudVolumes Inc in an email. "We pretty much all know each other, or

have lots of common friends," Suiche said. "It's almost like we all

grew up together."images



He added: "There isn't much to say except that Barnaby was one of the

rare people in InfoSec who was a brilliant researcher but also a good

friend to many of us."



Suiche met Jack at the Black Hat conference a few years ago and said

they had been really good friends since. He said he had drinks with

Jack and his girlfriend in San Francisco just over a week ago.



He called his friend "brilliant", and said Jack's latest research on

medical devices could help save the lives of many people. "In this

world full of people fearfully complying and worrying, very few people

are crazy enough to challenge the rules, to approach life in an

unconventional paradigm and to speak up to contribute to change this

world," Suiche said.



Jack was due to speak at the Black Hat conference, which starts

Saturday in Las Vegas. His presentation, "Implantable medical devices:

hacking humans," would have explained how these devices could be

compromised and would have suggested ways to improve device security.



Black Hat said the room his discussion was meant to take place will

instead be used as a place for his friends and colleagues to gather

and remember him on 1 August, when the session was set to take place.



Black Hat said in a statement:



We have lost a member of our family. Everyone would agree that the

life and work of Barnaby Jack are legendary and irreplaceable. Barnaby

had the ability to take complex technology and intricate research and

make it tangible and accessible for everyone to learn and grow from.

Beyond his work in our industry, Barnaby was an incredibly warm

hearted and welcoming individual with a passion for celebrating life.

We all have a hilarious and upbeat story about Barnaby. He is truly a

shining example of what we love about this community.



Black Hat will not be replacing Barnaby's talk on Thursday, Aug.

1. No one could possibly replace him, nor would we want them to. The

community needs time to process this loss. The hour will be left

vacant as a time to commemorate his life and work, and we welcome our

attendees to come and share in what we hope to be a celebration of his

life. Barnaby Jack meant so much to so many people, and we hope this

forum will offer an opportunity for us all to recognize the legacy

that he leaves behind.



Our deepest sympathies go out to Barnaby Jack's family and loved

ones. Words cannot adequately describe how much he will be missed, but

it is certain that Barnaby will NEVER be forgotten.



At the time of his death, Jack was director of embedded security

research at security firm IOActive. On Twitter, the company said:

"Lost but never forgotten our beloved pirate, Barnaby Jack has passed.

He was a master hacker and dear friend. Here's to you Barnes!"



Copyright http://www.guardian.co.uk/

'The Wolverine:' A Howling Good Time

With his colossal muscle "guns" and his thousand-watt smile, there is

a reason the magnetic and charming Mr. Jackman makes the biggest

bucks. It might abut the reason he has played the same superhero more

times than anyone else on film (six with The Wolverine, seven with

2014's Days of Future Past).

He is known as the nicest man in Hollywood, extremely versatile and so

well cut his muscles have muscles, so much so we the audience take his

exceptional 44 year-old body for granted.



Not all his wolfish outings have been successful (X-men Origins:

Wolverine sent fanboys exiting the theaters in droves) …but The

Wolverine, a standalone adventure starring the wingy-banged grumpy

immortal X-man, does a great deal to explain the continued faith

Hollywood has in Jackman as a leading man and action star.



The movie, however, is far more than just a simple action-er and in

its choice to add depth and complexity to the story and character, it

follows the great trajectory so well established by recent movies like

The Avengers and Iron Man 3.



The story follows a reclusive Wolfie (aka Logan) who is leading a

hermitic existence in the wilds of Canada, looking like a filthier

Outlaw Josey Wales, living in caves and wandering the days aimlessly

after restlessly struggling through night after night of nightmares

featuring his past lady love, whom he was forced to kill in X-Men: The

Last Stand. She serves as tortuous delusion, popping up at the worst

times to remind him how miserable he is, and how little use he has for

his near immortality. He has lost his family, and everyone he loves

dies. He is lost.



Enter a wealthy Japanese businessman, whom he outed himself as mutant

saving him at Nagasaki, in an impressive sequence that starts by

featuring Logan's swoon-enducing male physicality and ends with the

unenviable task of reproducing moments from one of WWII's worst

disasters. Mr. Yashida is now dying, we are told by Yukio, a mutant

emissary in thigh-high red striped socks, Yukio. He wants to say good

bye, and offer a gift of thanks.



Out of that annoying sense of honor and duty he can't seem to shake,

Logan goes to Japan to see his old friend. Once there, he is offered

the chance to feel physical pain, deterioration and mortality like the

rest of humanity. It is in this newfound vulnerability that Logan

finds himself and we as the audience connect more with him than ever

before.



Mortality, love, vengeance and subjective morality are all themes that

trundle this tale along, and they are none too light a set of

subjects. There is the idea of Logan as ronin, or a samurai without a

master, which thematically has been used in a variety of genres, and

here, along with other clear influences, it is what integrates the

movie's desperate influences together. These influences separate The

Wolverine from the superhero movies of the past.



Logan's "man without a name" archetype brings to mind westerns like

The Outlaw Josey Wales. The hyper-colorized scenes in Tokyo seem

influenced by films like Happy Together and In the Mood for Love by

Hong Kong auteur Wong Kar-wai.



There is also an element of sparse expansiveness in the Japanese

seaside scenes reminiscent of classic director Yahujiro Ozu's work.

That freaky do-it-my-way auteur Darren Aronofsky (of Requiem for a

Dream and Black Swan) was originally attached to direct speaks to how

far a departure they were planning for The Wolverine...



Giving credit where it's due, without Hugh Jackman's versatility, this

kind of complicated blending of genres into a Marvel comic story would

not have worked. Jackman has the ability to seem intense and off the

cuff at the same time. Coming from another actor, some of the retorts

he tosses out would seem somewhere between cliched and ridiculous.



They seem perfectly at home coming from The Wolverine as a character,

and it shows just how well Jackman can embody the role, reminding us

how much we care about this troubled misanthrope with a heart of

gold. Immortality breeds existential despair, as well as, apparently,

perfect deadpan delivery of comic-book-ready pith and sass.



It was great to hear that Hugh Jackman found a way into the

character's bad attitude during the film shoots by starting every

morning with an ice cold shower. No wonder he's grumpy.



They have emassed a collection of pedigreed actors from all over the

world to play supporting roles, with greater and less successful

results. Rila Fukushima as Yukio, is immediately magnetic as friend

and battle-ready companion (or as she calls it, bodyguard) to the

reticent Logan.



She is a mutant with an unpleasant ability she wishes she could give

back, unlike her hard won and colossal fighting skills. Her costuming

and character are both unique and badass enough to inspire Halloween

homages, to become this year's "Hitgirl." The relationship between

her and Logan shows his goodness to the audience even before he

finally sees it for himself.



The character of Mariko as Logan's love interest, is less successful.

Tao Okamoto does what she can with the role, but she is meant to be

enigmatic, a mix of damsel in distress and femme fatale, and we as

the audience never learn to care much about her in specifics, beyond

the fact that she makes Logan feel again.



It is unfortunate that the climactic last quarter of the movie gets so

buried in CGI and desperate measures to fill holes in the plot or

explain character motivations that it almost loses us all to bleed to

death in its own bluster. It is assumed that Hollywood required

neater bows than the filmmakers would have wanted to tie, and as a

result, the bluster and cacophony ensued. The rest of the film is

inventive and unusual enough to compensate for the disastrous sections

towards the end.



At the X-Men: Days of Future Past panel at San Diego Comic-Con,

someone facetiously asked about Wolverine singing as part of the

movies. After saying no one wanted to see that, he burst into a song,

"I'm gonna SLICE 'em, i'm gonna DICE 'em…", bringing laughter and

cheers from the assembled masses. And speaking of Days of Future

Past, stay past the credits, for a scene worth going to see the movie.

It ties together the upcoming and highly anticipated movie to The

Wolverine, and features big talent and big hints about the next year's

star studded release.



Aussie man-meat, sharp claws, an over-the-top balletic fight atop a

bullet train, a nuclear explosion, an exciting clip from X-Men in 2014

that "plays the future cast," and more…Wolverine. See it. It's a

howling good time.



Leslie Combemale, "Cinema Siren", is a movie lover and aficionado in

Northern Virginia. Alongside Michael Barry, she owns ArtInsights

Animation and Film Art Gallery in Reston Town Center. She has a

background in film and art history. She often is invited to present at

conventions such as the San Diego Comic Con. In 2013 she will

moderate "Legendary Animators of Classic 60s Cartoons" at SDCC. She

previously moderated "The Art of the Hollywood Movie Poster" and is a

perennial panelist on the Harry Potter Fandom panel. Visit her art

gallery online at www.artinsights.com, and see more of her reviews and

interviews on www.artinsightsmagazine.com.

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