Friday, October 25, 2013

Is iMessage secure? The good, the bad, and the complicated

Is iMessage secure? The good, the bad, and the complicated

Last week, researchers from QuarksLab gave a presentation at HITBSecConf2013 on the security of iMessage. The researchers sought to investigate claims made by Apple that nobody but the sender and receiver could read iMessage data thanks to their use of end-to-end encryption. While the researchers discovered that they were able to intercept and decrypt iMessages, Apple was quick to respond insisting iMessages infrastructure is not set up for that type of interception. So which is it? Is iMessage secure or not?

Details published on the research cover two kinds of scenarios. The first scenarios is one where a malicious attacker is able to intercept, decrypt, and manipulate iMessages between two users. The researchers properly point out, multiple times, that this attack has "strong requirements". An attacker must be able to acquire both parties private keys (in one type of scenario), impersonate two separate Apple servers, redirect the victims' traffic to those servers, and install a certificate for their own CA on the users' devices. Is this possible? Absolutely, and the researchers even published a (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbqZnTKDVU0&feature=youtu.be) demonstrating the attack. It is probable? No. While the attack is reproducible in an environment where you control and have full access to the devices you're attacking, it becomes tremendously more difficult when you're talking about targeting people in the wild.

The second scenario the researchers discuss, which is slightly more worrisome, though probably not freak-out worthy, is one where Apple could intercept and decrypt iMessage between two users. With Apple, there's no need for an attacker to install their own trusted CA on a victim's device because Apple already has a CA that is trusted by iOS devices. Apple doesn't need to impersonate any servers because they're the ones running the actual servers. This also means Apple doesn't need to redirect the victims' traffic since it's already in the middle of it. Finally, Apple owns the server that assigns the encryption keys. This means that, from a cryptography standpoint, Apple possesses everything necessary to read iMessages between its users.

Apple issued a response to the research, saying that iMessage is not architected in a way that would allow such an attack to take place:

The research discussed theoretical vulnerabilities that would require Apple to re-engineer the iMessage system to exploit it, and Apple has no plans or intentions to do so.

While theoretically Apple has all the pieces necessary to intercept iMessages, their stance is that technologically their system is not set up in a way that would allow for that. While Apple could be lying about this, the damage that would be caused to their reputation if it was discovered that they were lying doesn't seem like it would be worth the risk. If Apple had a backdoor for reading iMessages, it seems more likely that they simply would have stayed quiet back in June, rather than going on record with a voluntary statement insisting they can't read iMessages. With the number of large tech companies that we now know the NSA taps into data from, Apple would have had nothing to lose by staying quiet about the whole thing, but they have a lot to lose from lying.

Moreover, whether you trust Apple or not, trust them to do what's in their own self-interest. If iMessage is proven to be exploitable in a way Apple has denied, it will harm their business. That's not in Apple's self-interest.

The research raises an interesting point though, which is that, if the NSA wanted to, from a cryptographic standpoint, there is nothing stopping them from requiring Apple go give them access to people's messages. The NSA could coerce Apple into re-engineering the iMessage system to allow for such eavesdropping. With that in mind, it would be nice to see Apple come up with a stronger key infrastructure, or perhaps as a start just sharing more information about their current system.

Another change some people have been proposing is certificate pinning. Ironically, a lack of certificate pinning is what allowed the researchers to analyze iMessage's traffic; the closed protocol which Apple has been scrutinized for not publishing more details on. If Apple had employed certificate pinning, iMessage would not have accepted the researchers' self-signed certificates that they were using on their fake iMessage servers. Certificate pinning would also prevent a malicious attacker from installing their own CA on a victims' devices, in turn preventing them from intercepting iMessage traffic. This would increase security in terms of an outside attacker, which as we already discussed, is a fairly unlikely scenario, but wouldn't change anything about Apple's potential ability to intercept messages. It could be argued that Apple should do this from a security standpoint, but still does not address the bigger concern.

For now, it really comes down to a question of whether or not you should use iMessage. The researchers gave an accurate assessment:

MITM attacks on iMessage are unpractical to the average hacker, and the privacy of iMessage is good enough for the average user.

If the informations being exchanged are sensitive to the point that you don’t want any government agencies to look into them, don’t. It's important to remember that iMessage was introduced as a replacement for SMS, which isn't encrypted at all and can be easily spoofed. The importance of security shouldn't be downplayed, but in the context of text messaging, iMessage continues to be more secure than SMS.

As users, we are left trying to find the right balance of convenience and security. iMessage offers the security of encrypting messaging, but sacrifices some security with the convenience of transparent encryption. Apple could implement a system where a sender and receiver confirm their keys with each other before beginning messaging, but of course this would reduce convenience. If you currently have a need to transmit highly sensitive information that you can't risk the NSA or other three-letter acronyms from seeing, iMessage isn't the best choice and really never was. For the other 99.9% of iOS users, iMessage remains a convenient messaging solution and there's not much need to worry about your communications becoming compromised.


    






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Fifty Shades' Star Jamie Dornan Told Us He's 'Nervous' Around Ladies... These Steamy Photos Prove Otherwise


MTV News once asked the 'Once Upon A Time' actor what he says to ladies to woo them.


By Jocelyn Vena








Source:
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1716103/jamie-dornan-fifty-shades-christian-grey-memes.jhtml

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Australia PM: Climate change not causing wildfires


CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The government staunchly rejected arguments that climate change is causing the wildfires ravaging parts of eastern Australia following a record hot start to the spring season.

"That is complete hogwash," Prime Minister Tony Abbott told News Corp. Australian newspapers in an interview published on Friday.

Environment Minister Greg Hunt backed his prime minister, saying no individual event can be linked to climate change.

But a climate science organization abolished by Abbott's government released a report on Friday declaring a clear link between climate change and the wildfires. The severity and scale of the fires was unprecedented for this time of year, it said. Last month had been the hottest September on record in New South Wales state. The 12 months preceding it had been the hottest year on record across Australia.

The government abolished the state-funded Climate Commission after being elected last month. But the organization survives through public donations as the Climate Council to continue its independent work of communicating reliable information about global warming.

To deny the influence of climate change on extreme fire weather placed people and property an unnecessarily high risk, the report warned. The findings are interim, and the final report will be released next month.

Will Steffen, a Climate Council member and director of the Australian National University's Climate Change Institute, said he was frustrated that the established science on global warming was not yet accepted in Australia.

"We'd like to see a discussion in this country that gets beyond these futile debates about the science that have been settled for decades in the scientific literature and get on with the real debate about what is really the best way of dealing with the problem," Steffen told reporters. "That's where the political debate really needs to be."

Abbott argues that Australia has experienced wildfires for more than 200 years of European settlement and had suffered worse fires in the past.

This week, he accused Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, of "talking through her hat" when she referred to the Australian wildfires as the world "paying the price of carbon" in the atmosphere.

"They are desperate to find anything that they think might pass as ammunition for their cause," Abbott said, referring to people who link the fires to global warming and who criticize his government's climate change policies.

Abbott's conservative government plans to repeal laws that force Australia's worst greenhouse gas polluters to pay a tax for every ton of carbon dioxide that they emit. The tax was introduced last year to reduce Australia's abundant greenhouse gas emissions.

Australia is one of the world's worst greenhouse gas emitters on a per capita basis because of its heavy reliance on cheap coal for power generation. As the world's driest continent after Antarctica, scientists warn that Australia is also particularly vulnerable to climate extremes that come with climate change.

A U.N.-created climate change panel issued a major report in Stockholm last month that said it was "extremely likely," or 95 percent likely, that global warming was man-made. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the British meteorological office also released research in September that used computer simulations to conclude that climate change influenced some recent weather occurrences in Europe and the United States.

The wildfires that have burned around Sydney razed more than 200 homes and resulted in two deaths. One resident died of a heart attack while throwing buckets of water on his home last week, and a pilot died Thursday when his plane crashed while attempting to drop water on flames.

Adam Bandt, a lawmaker for the Australian Greens party that champions the carbon tax, was widely accused of politicizing the disaster when be tweeted at the height of the fire emergency last week: "Tony Abbott's plan means more bushfires for Australia & more pics like this of Sydney."

His comment came as television networks were airing images of destroyed homes.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/australia-pm-climate-change-not-causing-wildfires-061504799.html
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Paul Ryan wants narrower focus for new budget talks


By David Lawder


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new round of U.S. budget negotiations starting next week should focus more narrowly on replacing automatic spending cuts rather than an elusive "grand bargain," House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said on Thursday.


Ryan told Reuters in an interview that simply maintaining the automatic "sequester" cuts was the fallback position for Republicans if Democrats do not agree to substitute longer-term savings on expensive federal benefits programs.


"We have spending cuts coming. The question is, can we get something that's better than this?" said Ryan, last year's Republican vice presidential nominee. "If we can get an agreement, it's obviously going to be better than the status quo."


He said reducing expectations could make the talks more successful than past efforts, such as the 2011 "supercommittee" that failed to find $1.2 trillion in savings over 10 years.


"My hope is that it has a better chance because we'll set more rational expectations of what we're setting out to achieve," Ryan said.


"If we focused on doing some big grand bargain, like those prior efforts ... then I don't think we'll be successful because we'll focus on our differences. Each party will demand that the other compromises a core principle and then we'll get nothing done," he said.


The 29-member negotiating committee, set in motion by last week's deal to end a government shutdown and raise the federal debt limit, will convene on Wednesday.


Ryan, who will lead Republicans on the panel, said there was a better chance of finding common ground with Democrats on "smarter" spending cuts to replace the across-the-board reductions to discretionary spending. He said those include reforms to "entitlements," which include the Medicare and Social Security programs for the elderly, Medicaid healthcare for the poor and some farm subsidy programs.


He noted that President Barack Obama had proposed changes to those programs, such as a lower inflation gauge for the Social Security retirement program's cost-of-living increases. His Democratic counterpart, Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray, also has proposed some ways to reduce healthcare costs by $275 billion over 10 years through new efficiencies.


Both parties want to mitigate the sequester's impact, especially with a further $109 billion round of cuts due to launch on January 15 - the same date that government agency funding runs out again. Military programs favored by Republicans would bear more than half of those cuts.


REVENUE STICKING POINT


Ryan reiterated his long-standing opposition to further tax revenue increases as part of the budget negotiations, saying a major tax hike for the wealthiest Americans in January was already hurting the economy.


"If people see this conference as an excuse to raise taxes, I don't think it's going to be successful," Ryan said.


Democratic Representative Chris Van Hollen, another member of the budget panel, told Reuters on Tuesday that Democrats would not agree to significant cuts in social programs without increasing revenues by eliminating some tax breaks.


Without that, they will not consider proposals such as the cost-of-living change or charging wealthier seniors more for their Medicare health coverage, Van Hollen said.


If the two sides remain at loggerheads over revenues and benefits cuts, Ryan said the sequester cuts would simply remain in place, hitting agencies and programs ranging from education to military readiness.


"It's not our preferred route to reducing deficit and spending, but it works," he said, adding that Republicans were "proud" of the fact it had produced tangible savings.


"If we can't replace these spending cuts with smarter spending cuts, then we'll take what we have," he said.


He also said he believed the panel could help ease some sequester pain on federal agencies and the military by offering them more flexibility to spend their reduced budgets more effectively.


He also would like the panel to discuss ways to support comprehensive tax reform, which he views as a revenue-neutral endeavor that jolts economic growth by closing tax breaks, reducing rates and simplifying a complex tax code.


The negotiating panel is due to issue a recommendation by December 13, requiring majority approval among panelists from each chamber - seven House of Representatives members and 22 Senate members. The January 15 expiration of government funding creates the threat of another government shutdown if the two sides cannot come to some agreement.


Ryan said he was not interested in threatening another shutdown, adding, "I'd rather focus on the here and the now rather than January 15."


(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Eric Beech and Peter Cooney)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/paul-ryan-wants-narrower-focus-budget-talks-001305385--sector.html
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Oracle gears up to battle Salesforce.com, IBM with Eloqua update


Oracle is rolling out a series of new features for its Eloqua marketing automation suite, hoping to get a leg up on rivals like Salesforce.com and IBM in the red-hot software segment.


Now generally available is AdFocus, which provides marketers with tools for running multichannel advertising campaigns. A key feature is the ability to deliver targeted display ads to customers and prospects, while comparing their effectiveness to so-called "owned" and "earned" media, such as company websites and buzz on social networks, respectively.


[ InfoWorld presents the Bossies 2013, the best open source software for data centers, clouds, mobile, and more. | Get the latest insight on the tech news that matters from InfoWorld's Tech Watch blog. ]


Another update concerns Eloqua Profiler, which like its name suggests, is used to build out profiles of prospects based on their interactions with "assets" tracked in Eloqua, such as emails and web pages. Now Profiler can also include asset activity that's occurring on properties the marketer's organization doesn't own, such as video content hosted on a third-party website.


Finally it's now possible to tap Facebook's custom audience feature from AdFocus, giving marketers the ability to target discrete blocks of users based on their social profile.


There's perhaps no hotter area of enterprise software these days than marketing automation, following a rash of consolidation as platform vendors attempt to build out broad product suites.


Last week, Oracle bought Compendium in order to bolster the capabilities of Eloqua, which it acquired in December for $871 million. Compendium provides software for creating different types of content that can be used to entice customers to visit a marketer's web site or other property, said John Stetic, vice president of products, Oracle Eloqua Marketing Cloud.


Among others, Salesforce.com has also invested heavily in marketing software, scooping up ExactTarget, Buddy Media and Radian6 for its own cloud-based suite.


Oracle gets an edge over the competition with Eloqua, as its always been "built by marketers, for marketers," Stetic said. "We allow for really advanced targeting throughout the entire buying process."


In addition, Oracle is taking a more open approach, offering a full suite but not forcing customers to use it all, he said. "Lots of vendors want to think they'll have this whole stack and own the world, but what I hear from customers is, I want choice."


Meanwhile, as online privacy concerns mount in the wake of revelations over surveillance programs by the U.S. National Security Agency, marketers need to be mindful of the boundaries between themselves and customers, Stetic said.


"Ultimately what it comes down to things like government surveillance, people can't vote with their wallets on that, whereas in the commercial world if someone feels they're being overly tracked and overly monitored and not getting value out of it, they vote with their wallets," he said.


Source: http://www.infoworld.com/d/the-industry-standard/oracle-gears-battle-salesforcecom-ibm-eloqua-update-229499?source=rss_business_intelligence
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OS X Mavericks Server can create bots to help developers make better apps faster

OS X Mavericks Server can create bots to help developers make better apps faster

If you're a developer and you've ever wished you had magical bots to help you build, analyze, and test your apps, well OS X Mavericks Server can do just that. And Apple has sent out an email saying so:

Take advantage of continuous integration in Xcode by creating bots with OS X Server for Mavericks that automate the process of building, analyzing, testing, and archiving your apps. As the bots do their work on the remote Mac, Xcode on your development machine displays the build and test reports. Bots can generate a regular release for your QA team, be configured to execute on every check-in, and even test your apps on connected iOS devices.

Get a redemption code from the Mac Dev Center to download OS X Server for OS X Mavericks from the Mac App Store.

Anyone trying it out, let me know how it works. (They follow the 3 Laws, right? ...Right?)


    






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Thursday, October 24, 2013

High School Musical Cast to Reunite After Five Years For Charity


The wildcats are back! Us Weekly can exclusively confirm that the cast of Disney's High School Musical will be reuniting after five years -- and all for a great cause! The cast from the 2006 hit will reunite in December to help support social activist Monique Coleman in her nonprofit web series GimmeMo' Foundation, which helps to invest in and create programs to improve the lives of youth globally.


PHOTOS: Costars reunited!


The private reunion party will take place in Los Angeles, but fans can enter to win for the chance to attend! Fans who would like the chance to win can donate starting at $3 to the fundraiser in order to be entered to win the grand prize. The grand prize winner and a friend — chosen at random -- will then win a trip to L.A. to join the HSM cast in their VIP homecoming party.


PHOTOS: Zac's buff body!


Those who donate more can receive other exclusive prizes though, including exclusive campaign t-shirts, hoodies and personalized thank-you's from the cast.


Cast members attending include Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Corbin Bleu, Lucas Grabeel, Kaycee Stroh, Olesya Rulin and director Kenny Ortega. Zac Efron won't be in attendance, but will be providing the special winner a surprise video.


PHOTOS: Zac Efron -- TV to movie stars


High School Musical premiered in 2006. The cast returned one year later for High School Musical 2 and later filmed High School Musical 3: Senior Year in 2008.


To enter a chance to win, go to: Prizeo.com/HSMreunion. The last chance to donate is Dec. 1.


Source: http://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/news/high-school-musical-cast-to-reunite-after-five-years-for-charity-20132410
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The Life Of Doc Pomus, Songwriter To The Stars





Doc Pomus, pictured here in the 1980s, was an obscure, yet prolific songwriter who died in 1991. A.K.A. Doc Pomus is a documentary about his life.



Courtesy of the artist


Doc Pomus, pictured here in the 1980s, was an obscure, yet prolific songwriter who died in 1991. A.K.A. Doc Pomus is a documentary about his life.


Courtesy of the artist


His name would spin around and around on the vinyl, the writer of a thousand songs: Doc Pomus. As the man behind smash records including Elvis Presley's "Viva Las Vegas," Ray Charles' "Lonely Avenue" and The Drifters' "This Magic Moment," he shaped the early sound of rock 'n' roll.


Pomus died in 1991. His story — one of intriguing reinvention and determination — is told in the new documentary A.K.A. Doc Pomus, which was co-directed by Peter Miller.



Born Jerome Felder, Pomus was a Brooklyn native. At the age of 6, he was diagnosed with polio and lost the use of his legs. Facing a difficult life of disability, Pomus was inspired to lead a life of music.


"When he heard Big Joe Turner's song on the radio, called 'Piney Brown Blues,' it just absolutely transformed him," Miller says in an interview with NPR's Melissa Block. "He realized that the blues is what had the greatest meaning for him, and he turned himself into a blues singer. This handicapped, white Jewish kid found himself singing in African-American blues clubs."


Felder became Doc Pomus in part to keep his new escapades a secret from his mother. In a vintage clip featured in the film, he explains that "Doc" was a nod to blues singer Doctor Clayton, while "Pomus" simply seemed to roll nicely off the tongue.


After recording dozens of blues sides, Doc Pomus created a potential hit called "Heartlessly." The track was picked up by pioneering rock 'n' roll DJ Alan Freed. But as things were starting to heat up for the record, Pomus hit a wall.


"The record company that acquired this recording discovered that Doc was a 30-something-year-old, disabled Jewish guy on crutches," Miller says. "And I think their hopes for him becoming a pop star dimmed, and they didn't release the record. So I think at some point along the way, Doc realized that he had to pursue other ways of getting his music out there."


Pomus turned to writing, kicking off a career as one of the most prolific songsmiths of the 20th century. Miller spoke with Melissa Block about what came next: Pomus' years as a Brill Building hit-maker, his struggles in the age of Bob Dylan and The Beatles (who found success writing their own songs) and his rebirth late in life as a mentor to younger artists. Hear more of their conversation at the audio link.


Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/10/24/240487765/the-life-of-doc-pomus-songwriter-to-the-stars?ft=1&f=1039
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Ryan Reynolds Gets Waxed In Hollywood



Not Bad





Ryan Reynolds celebrated his birthday this week with a little unveiling ceremony at the Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum in Hollywood, CA. As you can see in the photo below, Ryan proudly posed next to his wax doppelgänger which will go on display at the museum next week. Altho I’d argue that it is nearly impossible for Madame Tussaud’s to recreate true hotness like that possessed by Ryan Reynolds, I have to admit that this new wax statue of him is pretty damn good. Check out the photo below and see if you can tell the difference between the real and the fake Ryan Reynolds.




After three months of voting from thousands of fans, the results are in and Ryan Reynolds is the next celebrity immortalized in wax at Madame Tussauds Hollywood. In a first for the legendary attraction, fans were given the opportunity to weigh in via Facebook as to what figure they would like to see. In a close race between well-known stars Ryan Gosling, Anne Hathaway, Ryan Reynolds, Jennifer Hudson and Sofia Vergara, Reynolds came out on top due to a tremendous outpouring of support from his fans. Perfectly timed with Reynolds’ birthday today, the figure is being unveiled to the public. “Thank you to everyone at Madame Tussauds Hollywood for their hard work and talent,” said Reynolds after seeing the completed figure. “This is undoubtedly the largest and most spectacular birthday candle I’ve ever received.” Madame Tussauds Hollywood offers its visitors a truly unique opportunity to interact with lifelike wax figures of Hollywood’s most notable celebrities and iconic movie figures. Through the Facebook Choice contest, fans from around the world had the opportunity to engage with Madame Tussauds Hollywood and provide feedback on the celebrities showcased in the attraction in a whole new way…through social media. “We always take visitor suggestions into account when deciding what figures to add to Madame Tussauds Hollywood each year, but by engaging with our fans through social media we are able to get direct feedback,” said Colin Thomas, general manager of Madame Tussauds Hollywood. “Any of the celebrities we were considering would have been a great addition to the attraction. Ryan has an incredible fan base though and they weren’t going to give up until he won!” After three months, Reynolds was named the winner. Through the contest, self-proclaimed No. 1-fan Melissa Ortega from Dalton, GA, won a trip to Los Angeles to celebrate the official figure launch. “I am a huge Ryan Reynolds fan and have seen all of his movies,” said Ortega. “When I saw the Madame Tussauds contest to help select the next wax figure, I knew I had to jump into action to be sure Ryan won. I can’t wait to see it in person!” Although each process has variations, figure making at Tussauds Studios has not changed fundamentally since Madame Tussauds was founded more than 200 years ago. Utilizing approximately 330 pounds of clay, a team of 20 skilled artists took more than 200 different measurements and spent months shaping the Reynolds figure to look just right. The figure of People Magazine’s former sexiest man alive will be on display starting October 29, and joins the ranks of Hollywood icons such as Lady Gaga, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Michael Jackson, Justin Bieber and Rihanna in the attraction.



Looks good, no? I once ran into Ryan at the Alcove in Los Feliz, which was a nice surprise, but now any one of us can run into him at the Madame Tussaud’s on Hollywood Blvd. I have a sneaking suspicion that the wax version of Ryan won’t protest quite so much as the real thing if someone wanted to grab his ass … er, I’m assuming.


[Source]





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Arcade Fire In The Throes Of Transformation





Arcade Fire on Saturday night in Bushwick. Win Butler on the left, Richard Reed Parry on the right.



Courtesy of Sachyn Mital


Arcade Fire on Saturday night in Bushwick. Win Butler on the left, Richard Reed Parry on the right.


Courtesy of Sachyn Mital


Saturday's hottest ticket in New York City was to see a band nobody's heard of. The Reflektors burned through a fan-only presale, and tickets hit the secondary market at prices high as $5,000 — a hefty sum to see any band, much less a band yet to release its first album, in Bushwick's warehousiest corridors. That's like half a year's rent for that neighborhood. But the hype was real. Based only on the "Is-this-really-happening?" disbelief stretching the faces of all the superfans and industry types in the audience, you'd think they were about to see a band that would never play a skuzzy converted depot in east Brooklyn: U2 or Bruce Springsteen, or, I don't know, Arcade Fire.



The thing about the musicians on stage was that they looked a lot like Arcade Fire. Despite his Jack White-like red shirt and white tie, the bassist's flaming red hair drew Richard Reed Parry comparisons. And they sounded like Arcade Fire, too. They even covered "Sprawl II." And that's because — (no) surprise! — The Reflektors was Arcade Fire. That cat was never really in the bag. After a little tongue-in-cheek stage banter ("We started three years ago. We were nervous to play New York because we heard you're standoffish!"), a gold-suited Win Butler and his band ran through a set of mostly unheard tracks from their upcoming album Reflektor, masquerading as a brand new band riding the promotional cycle for its first album.


But the group that played at 299 Meserole this weekend, no matter what you called them, was clearly neither a set of wide-eyed naïfs dropping their first 12", nor the band that made sneaking out of your parents house feel like toppling the Berlin Wall. The musicians were belied by more than their popularity; never mind that most in attendance — who embraced the show's "formal" dress code with thrifted tuxes, reflective masks or fratty banana suits — only got access to buying these tickets after pre-ordering Reflektor. They're also darker, and maybe a more disillusioned, too. "We're so excited to play CMJ," Butler called out sarcastically. "Thank you so much to all the industry types who offered to sign our band!"


But the plucky effrontery that has underpinned all Arcade Fire's work to date is crumbling. The band has told stories about struggling under somebody's thumb since its 2003 debut album Funeral. Songs like "Wake Up" and "Crown of Love" captured an anthemic emotional power, half hope and half rebellion, unmatched by the group's successors and copycats. The songs bloomed around refrains that felt bigger than any stadium they eventually filled. But this is less so on Reflektor. The new songs Arcade Fire played Saturday were full of new (mostly rhythmic) ideas coming to the fore and many old (mostly romantic) identifiers fading away.


Some saw that change coming when Arcade Fire announced that James Murphy, the David Bowie-obsessed former face of LCD Soundsystem and head of disco-punk label DFA, was announced as Reflektor's producer. He introduced the band at the show. Others heard it in the album's dynamic, Bowie-featuring first single, which abandoned that operatic Springsteenian populism for pop reflective of the transformations undertaken by their arena-sized predecessors the Talking Heads and U2 (there's that similarity again).



That change got its first full public display in Bushwick. Take "We Exist," for one. Four years ago an Arcade Fire song with titles that way might've sounded like "Born to Run," but when that "Hang On To Your Love"/"Your Cover's Blown" bassline crept out beneath the venue's Murphy-esque disco balls and reflective hanging polygons, it left no ambiguities about the type of music Arcade Fire is now interested in making. Fans of the group should have been safe assuming they'd get the standard fare of marching violinists yowling to the rafters, but instead were blindsided by Sade. With strings marginalized and two miscellaneous percussionists in tow, this group looked and sounded more like Stop Making Sense than In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.


This departure is not a totally clean break from their last work, 2010's Grammy-winning, Twitter-enraging The Suburbs. There were of course the type of joyful moments Arcade Fire is known for (see the swelling "Supersymmetry"), and brand new sounds, like the Princely backup vocals of "It's Never Over (Orpheus)" and the murky rave-up "Here Comes the Night Time." But taking the stage in the throes of a transformation didn't always work in Arcade Fire's favor. The band sometimes sounded uninspired performing new songs they'd written in their old style (like the underwhelming "Joan of Arc") or those that didn't do Butler's heady aspiration to sound like "a mash up of Studio 54 and Hatian voodoo" real justice (the chopped reggaeton of "Flashbulb Eyes"). Some old favorites even looked limp in their new duds (like the beloved "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)"), while others ("Haiti") sound suddenly prophetic of where the band has touched down.


Gone is the jubilation of the Arcade Fire of days past. The crowd occasionally felt awkward inside the band's new big beat, and responded to Butler's post-encore announcement that there would be no more Reflektors, or Arcade Fire, tonight but rather a DJ set from James Murphy for those who wanted to "dance all night," with more than a smattering of boos. But the band itself is dancing toward something that'll lead it outside the sounds their old crowd formed around. Seeing that live was alone worth the price of admission.


Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2013/10/23/240251629/arcade-fire-in-the-throes-of-transformation?ft=1&f=10001
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The Fascinating Science Behind Why a Tapped Beer Foams Over

Scientists have figured out how flying insects fly. They've created real-life lightsabers. But they're at their best when they're tackling the mysteries of beer. Now, thanks to a research team studying fluid mechanics, we finally know why bottled beer foams over after a tap on the mouth — with slow-mo footage and everything.

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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/TV5-XEqsbCI/the-fascinating-science-behind-why-a-tapped-beer-foams-1451022759
Tags: Gta 5 Online Not Working   ricin   mariano rivera   veep   lil kim  

Coyote more likely to make a meal out of moose than we thought: Study

Coyote more likely to make a meal out of moose than we thought: Study


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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

24-Oct-2013



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Contact: Jenny Ryan
jenny.ryan@nrcresearchpress.com
Canadian Science Publishing (NRC Research Press)





This news release is available in French.

It has long been believed that coyotes were incapable of taking down an adult moose, but researchers have recently discovered that eastern coyotes and coyote wolf hybrids (canids) have preyed on adult moose in central Ontario. Their findings were published today in the Canadian Journal of Zoology.


Researchers Dr. John Benson, a PhD student in the Environmental and Life Sciences Graduate Program at Trent University when he conducted the research, and Dr. Brent Patterson, a research scientist with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources in Peterborough, documented instances where packs of eastern coyotes and coyote wolf hybrids (canids) were found to have killed moose. Their study involved live capture of eastern coyotes and eastern coyote eastern wolf hybrids to deploy Global Positioning System (GPS) radio-collars and take blood samples for DNA analysis. The GPS collars delivered highly accurate locations of the study animals (via satellites or cell towers) so the researchers were able to visit these locations during winter to investigate their activities and document predation patterns. The DNA analysis allowed them to determine whether the animals were coyotes, wolves, or coyote wolf hybrids.


In the study, four canid packs ranging in size from two to five animals were found to have killed moose. The researchers obtained two accurate ages from moose that were killed by coyotes and/or hybrids: One was very old (20 years) and one was young (20 months). It is believed that younger and older adult moose are probably more vulnerable due to inexperience and deteriorating body condition, respectively.


"Coyotes and coyote wolf hybrids probably prey on moose opportunistically and only when circumstances are favorable. For instance, when snow is deep and a hard crust forms on top this impedes the ability of moose to travel and gives the lighter coyotes and hybrids an advantage because they can travel on top of the snow," explained Dr. Benson. "Additionally, we noticed that some of the moose killed by coyotes and hybrids were on steep slopes that may have slowed the moose and created unstable footing. We also found that some of the moose were killed in areas where medium-sized trees were moderately dense, which may have prevented moose from swinging around quickly to fend off predators attacking from the rear or side."


"Killing of adult moose by eastern coyotes and coyote wolf hybrids appears to be relatively rare and probably does not pose a threat to moose populations in central Ontario. However, from the perspective of a pack of coyotes or hybrids, killing even a single moose during a winter is very beneficial and goes a long way towards helping them meet their energetic demands. For instance, a pack of two eastern coyotes spent some or all of 18 days feeding on a moose that they killed."


The authors do not believe the viability of moose populations in central Ontario is negatively affected by this predation, as recent studies have shown that populations in WMU49 and nearby Algonquin Provincial Park are increasing and that both adult and calf moose survival is relatively high.


###


This research was a collaborative project between the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Trent University and was conducted in Wildlife Management Unit 49 (WMU49) in central Ontario -- the area between Huntsville, ON and Parry Sound, ON.


The article "Moose predation by eastern coyotes and coyote wolf hybrids" by John F. Benson and Brent R. Patterson is published today in the Canadian Journal of Zoology.


Direct link to article: http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/abs/10.1139/cjz-2013-0160


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Coyote more likely to make a meal out of moose than we thought: Study


[ Back to EurekAlert! ]

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

24-Oct-2013



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]


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Contact: Jenny Ryan
jenny.ryan@nrcresearchpress.com
Canadian Science Publishing (NRC Research Press)





This news release is available in French.

It has long been believed that coyotes were incapable of taking down an adult moose, but researchers have recently discovered that eastern coyotes and coyote wolf hybrids (canids) have preyed on adult moose in central Ontario. Their findings were published today in the Canadian Journal of Zoology.


Researchers Dr. John Benson, a PhD student in the Environmental and Life Sciences Graduate Program at Trent University when he conducted the research, and Dr. Brent Patterson, a research scientist with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources in Peterborough, documented instances where packs of eastern coyotes and coyote wolf hybrids (canids) were found to have killed moose. Their study involved live capture of eastern coyotes and eastern coyote eastern wolf hybrids to deploy Global Positioning System (GPS) radio-collars and take blood samples for DNA analysis. The GPS collars delivered highly accurate locations of the study animals (via satellites or cell towers) so the researchers were able to visit these locations during winter to investigate their activities and document predation patterns. The DNA analysis allowed them to determine whether the animals were coyotes, wolves, or coyote wolf hybrids.


In the study, four canid packs ranging in size from two to five animals were found to have killed moose. The researchers obtained two accurate ages from moose that were killed by coyotes and/or hybrids: One was very old (20 years) and one was young (20 months). It is believed that younger and older adult moose are probably more vulnerable due to inexperience and deteriorating body condition, respectively.


"Coyotes and coyote wolf hybrids probably prey on moose opportunistically and only when circumstances are favorable. For instance, when snow is deep and a hard crust forms on top this impedes the ability of moose to travel and gives the lighter coyotes and hybrids an advantage because they can travel on top of the snow," explained Dr. Benson. "Additionally, we noticed that some of the moose killed by coyotes and hybrids were on steep slopes that may have slowed the moose and created unstable footing. We also found that some of the moose were killed in areas where medium-sized trees were moderately dense, which may have prevented moose from swinging around quickly to fend off predators attacking from the rear or side."


"Killing of adult moose by eastern coyotes and coyote wolf hybrids appears to be relatively rare and probably does not pose a threat to moose populations in central Ontario. However, from the perspective of a pack of coyotes or hybrids, killing even a single moose during a winter is very beneficial and goes a long way towards helping them meet their energetic demands. For instance, a pack of two eastern coyotes spent some or all of 18 days feeding on a moose that they killed."


The authors do not believe the viability of moose populations in central Ontario is negatively affected by this predation, as recent studies have shown that populations in WMU49 and nearby Algonquin Provincial Park are increasing and that both adult and calf moose survival is relatively high.


###


This research was a collaborative project between the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Trent University and was conducted in Wildlife Management Unit 49 (WMU49) in central Ontario -- the area between Huntsville, ON and Parry Sound, ON.


The article "Moose predation by eastern coyotes and coyote wolf hybrids" by John F. Benson and Brent R. Patterson is published today in the Canadian Journal of Zoology.


Direct link to article: http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/abs/10.1139/cjz-2013-0160


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Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/csp-cml102413.php
Tags: CJ Spiller   antigua  

Neurotoxin effectively relieves bone cancer pain in dogs, Penn researchers find

Neurotoxin effectively relieves bone cancer pain in dogs, Penn researchers find


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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

23-Oct-2013



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Contact: Katherine Unger Baillie
kbaillie@upenn.edu
215-898-9194
University of Pennsylvania





By the time bone cancer is diagnosed in a pet dog, it is often too late to save the animal's life. Instead, the goal of treatment is to keep the dog as comfortable and free of pain as possible for as long as possible.


A study out this week in the journal Anesthesiology by University of Pennsylvania veterinarians Dorothy Cimino Brown and Kimberly Agnello has identified a new way of accomplishing this goal. Their trial, conducted in 70 pet dogs with bone cancer, demonstrated that a single spinal injection of a neurotoxin provided more relief from pain than the pain-relieving drugs that are typically used.


Because of the similarities between bone cancer in dogs and the disease in humans, these findings suggest that a similar approach could provide effective pain relief in human bone cancer patients, Brown said.


"Dogs are a really good model for testing these kinds of drugs, so showing that it worked in dogs provides strong evidence that it could be safe and effective in people too," she said. "This study is the direct predecessor to a human clinical trial."


The research focused on a neurotoxin called substance-p saporin, or SAP. Previous work had suggested that SAP could selectively destroy neurons that carry pain signals to the brain, but the compound hadn't been tested in a pet dog population. Brown and Agnello wanted to determine if SAP, which had been subject to toxicology tests in the past, would offer relief from the pain that comes when cancer affects the bone in client-owned dogs.


Bone cancer tends to afflict middle-age and older large-breed dogs. The first sign an owner may notice in their pet is a limp or change in gait. If the pain appears to persist, a veterinarian may perform an orthopedic exam and take an X-ray.


"At the point at which you identify a cancerous lesion on an X-ray, there's already known to be metastatic disease," said Brown.


Treatment at this stage is unlikely to save a dog's life.


"We don't talk about curing them, we just talk about increasing their longevity while maintaining a good quality of life," Brown said.


The most aggressive treatment for this type of cancer involves amputating the affected leg and administering chemotherapy. But surgery and regular visits to the veterinarian's office for chemotherapy is a large financial, logistical, and emotional commitment for a pet owner. For some, it's too much, and they favor a different approach.


"There are a lot of owners who will say, 'I know my dog is terminal so I'm just going to try to keep him as comfortable as I can for as long as I can,'" Brown noted.


It is from this group of owners that Brown and Agnello drew their 70 research subjects, who were divided evenly into two groups. Dogs in one group received standard pain-relieving medications while dogs in the other group each received a single injection of SAP into the fluid around their spinal cords. The owners were "blinded" and did not know which group their pet belonged too, as all the dogs stayed the night in the hospital and had the fur around their necks clipped, as though they received a spinal delivery of the neurotoxin.


To evaluate the pain-relieving effectiveness of these interventions, the researchers asked owners to complete questionnaires about their pets' comfort level. Dogs also wore monitors to track their level of activity, and were in some cases videotaped. In addition, owners brought their dogs back to the vet two weeks after the procedure (or pseudo-procedure) and then once a month for rest of their pets' lives.


The ultimate measure of the treatment's effectiveness, however, was when the owner asked to be "unblinded," and learn whether or not they had received SAP or only traditional pain relieving drugs. For those owners whose pets had not previously gotten the SAP injection, they were offered the treatment at that point.


"Basically we just kept following these dogs until the owners said, 'My dog's comfort level is not what it was before,'" Brown said.


By this gauge, SAP's ability to reduce pain was clear, the researchers found. While 74 percent of dogs in the control group had owners request to be unblinded within six weeks of the procedure, only 24 percent of dogs that received SAP had their owners request unblinding within that time frame. When taken as a whole, dogs treated with the standard-of-care pain relievers required unblinding significantly earlier than dogs that received the SAP injection.


Researchers noted only one major side effect: Some of the dogs with tumors in one of their front legs, who had thus received SAP injections higher in the spine, had wobbly, uncoordinated gaits. Lowering the dose of SAP injected corrected the problem.


Though receiving a SAP injection does require anesthesia, it offers an alternative treatment approach for pet owners who want a middle ground between simple pain-relieving drugs and the more aggressive approach of amputation plus chemotherapy, the researchers said.


"I could see this in wide application in veterinary medicine," Brown said. "For us this is a whole new realm of possibility of treatment."


If found to be effective in humans, spinal injections of SAP would offer an alternative to more extreme measures some cancer patients take, such as surgically severing nerves to alleviate pain, an intervention that can trigger serious side effects.


"People have talked about these neurotoxins as being a molecular neurosurgery," Brown said. "When patients get to the point where medical management isn't working anymore, this might be something for them to consider."


###


The study was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health.




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Neurotoxin effectively relieves bone cancer pain in dogs, Penn researchers find


[ Back to EurekAlert! ]

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

23-Oct-2013



[


| E-mail

]


Share Share

Contact: Katherine Unger Baillie
kbaillie@upenn.edu
215-898-9194
University of Pennsylvania





By the time bone cancer is diagnosed in a pet dog, it is often too late to save the animal's life. Instead, the goal of treatment is to keep the dog as comfortable and free of pain as possible for as long as possible.


A study out this week in the journal Anesthesiology by University of Pennsylvania veterinarians Dorothy Cimino Brown and Kimberly Agnello has identified a new way of accomplishing this goal. Their trial, conducted in 70 pet dogs with bone cancer, demonstrated that a single spinal injection of a neurotoxin provided more relief from pain than the pain-relieving drugs that are typically used.


Because of the similarities between bone cancer in dogs and the disease in humans, these findings suggest that a similar approach could provide effective pain relief in human bone cancer patients, Brown said.


"Dogs are a really good model for testing these kinds of drugs, so showing that it worked in dogs provides strong evidence that it could be safe and effective in people too," she said. "This study is the direct predecessor to a human clinical trial."


The research focused on a neurotoxin called substance-p saporin, or SAP. Previous work had suggested that SAP could selectively destroy neurons that carry pain signals to the brain, but the compound hadn't been tested in a pet dog population. Brown and Agnello wanted to determine if SAP, which had been subject to toxicology tests in the past, would offer relief from the pain that comes when cancer affects the bone in client-owned dogs.


Bone cancer tends to afflict middle-age and older large-breed dogs. The first sign an owner may notice in their pet is a limp or change in gait. If the pain appears to persist, a veterinarian may perform an orthopedic exam and take an X-ray.


"At the point at which you identify a cancerous lesion on an X-ray, there's already known to be metastatic disease," said Brown.


Treatment at this stage is unlikely to save a dog's life.


"We don't talk about curing them, we just talk about increasing their longevity while maintaining a good quality of life," Brown said.


The most aggressive treatment for this type of cancer involves amputating the affected leg and administering chemotherapy. But surgery and regular visits to the veterinarian's office for chemotherapy is a large financial, logistical, and emotional commitment for a pet owner. For some, it's too much, and they favor a different approach.


"There are a lot of owners who will say, 'I know my dog is terminal so I'm just going to try to keep him as comfortable as I can for as long as I can,'" Brown noted.


It is from this group of owners that Brown and Agnello drew their 70 research subjects, who were divided evenly into two groups. Dogs in one group received standard pain-relieving medications while dogs in the other group each received a single injection of SAP into the fluid around their spinal cords. The owners were "blinded" and did not know which group their pet belonged too, as all the dogs stayed the night in the hospital and had the fur around their necks clipped, as though they received a spinal delivery of the neurotoxin.


To evaluate the pain-relieving effectiveness of these interventions, the researchers asked owners to complete questionnaires about their pets' comfort level. Dogs also wore monitors to track their level of activity, and were in some cases videotaped. In addition, owners brought their dogs back to the vet two weeks after the procedure (or pseudo-procedure) and then once a month for rest of their pets' lives.


The ultimate measure of the treatment's effectiveness, however, was when the owner asked to be "unblinded," and learn whether or not they had received SAP or only traditional pain relieving drugs. For those owners whose pets had not previously gotten the SAP injection, they were offered the treatment at that point.


"Basically we just kept following these dogs until the owners said, 'My dog's comfort level is not what it was before,'" Brown said.


By this gauge, SAP's ability to reduce pain was clear, the researchers found. While 74 percent of dogs in the control group had owners request to be unblinded within six weeks of the procedure, only 24 percent of dogs that received SAP had their owners request unblinding within that time frame. When taken as a whole, dogs treated with the standard-of-care pain relievers required unblinding significantly earlier than dogs that received the SAP injection.


Researchers noted only one major side effect: Some of the dogs with tumors in one of their front legs, who had thus received SAP injections higher in the spine, had wobbly, uncoordinated gaits. Lowering the dose of SAP injected corrected the problem.


Though receiving a SAP injection does require anesthesia, it offers an alternative treatment approach for pet owners who want a middle ground between simple pain-relieving drugs and the more aggressive approach of amputation plus chemotherapy, the researchers said.


"I could see this in wide application in veterinary medicine," Brown said. "For us this is a whole new realm of possibility of treatment."


If found to be effective in humans, spinal injections of SAP would offer an alternative to more extreme measures some cancer patients take, such as surgically severing nerves to alleviate pain, an intervention that can trigger serious side effects.


"People have talked about these neurotoxins as being a molecular neurosurgery," Brown said. "When patients get to the point where medical management isn't working anymore, this might be something for them to consider."


###


The study was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health.




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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.




Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/uop-ner102313.php
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