Another weak jobs report has been released, with data on the September labor market. The report is late because of the shutdown — since when is jobs day a Tuesday? Weird! — but it shows that payrolls were up a scant 148,000 last month, though the unemployment rate ticked down a touch, to 7.2 percent from 7.3 percent (and not because people left the job market, which is why the jobless rate fell in earlier months).
Breaking her post-proposal silence, Kim Kardashian Instagrammed an image of her new engagement ring and fiancé Kanye West's scoreboard proposal from San Francisco's AT&T Park on Tuesday, Oct. 22. She captioned the photo, "YES!!!"
The 33-year-old reality starlet was surprised when her rapper beau popped the question after the "Black Skinhead" emcee rented out the entire stadium, inviting Kardashian's friends and high-profile family to be there for the big event.
The E! mainstay has been married twice before, to NBA player Kris Humphries in 2011 for 72 days and in 2000 to music producer Damon Thomas, divorcing in 2004.
Kardashian and West welcomed daughter North West in June 2013 and have since made several public appearances together, including their recent trip to France for Paris Fashion Week.
The "Yeezus" rapper started dating Kardashian in April 2012 after years of friendship, and recently gushed about his baby mama on future mother-in-law Kris Jenner's now-canceled talk show.
"So someone could say, ‘The paparazzi surround you — if you don’t like paparazzi why would you be with this person? Everyone knows you don’t like paparazzi, why would you be with this person?’" he said. "And I’m like ‘I’m with this person because I love this person and she’s worth it to me.’She is my joy, and she brought my lead joy into the world. I love this person."
Our Apple TV has just alerted us to the fact that we'll be able to watch a livestream of Cupertino's big launch show at 10am Pacific Time (1pm ET, 6pm UK) today. Others are seeing it on their black boxes too, according to Macrumors, but it's still not clear whether the event will be streamed to ...
The "lots more to cover" tag line on Apple's October 22 event invitations have lead many to speculate about updated Smart Covers in general, and Logitech/Microsoft Surface style keyboard covers in specific. Apple has tossed out patent applications for such things in the past, of course, and it's one of the more popular third-party and competitive features. So, prototyping an Apple version that would enjoy better and deeper integration is no surprise. Jamie Ryan:
I’ve been speaking to a couple of people at Apple for the last few days and they have told me that a case for the full size iPad that mimics Microsofts touch cover has been prototyped. It’s not clear whether the process is far enough along to make this Tuesdays event but they did say a few different styles had been in testing for a while. [...] It’s not just keyboards either. I’m told other cover like accessories are also being looked at.
There are always last minute rumors before an Apple event, some cool, some flat out crazy. Unless Apple cancels the Smart Covers, they'll have to update them for the new iPad 5 form factor anyway. I use the Logitech keyboard cover and like it a bunch, so do many other people I know. An Apple branded, Apple integrated version would be great. It's one of the few things I like about Microsoft's Surface. So, I'd be all over this if it turns out to be real.
If the information above is accurate, the only questions are, has Apple taken it/them out of prototype and put it/them into production, and did they do it in time for the October 22 event?
Melissa Block and Audie Cornish read listener responses to a question we asked of Gen-X and Millennial listeners last week: "Who are your generation's future musical legends?" Tupac Shakur, Nirvana, Michael Jackson, and Adele made the list, but by far the most frequently mentioned group was a quartet of Irish baby boomers.
And now, bear with us, please, ALL THINGS CONSIDERED presents yet another baby boomer musical moment.
(SOUNDBITE OF MONTAGE MUSIC)
JAMES BROWN: (Singing) Wow. I feel good.
THE BEATLES: (Singing) Here comes the sun.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: (Singing) Crazy.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: (Singing) I heard it through the grapevine. Not much more...
MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
And here's why. Last week, I spoke with Robbie Robertson of The Band about his new book for kids, "Legends, Icons, and Rebels." It profiles the musicians we just heard, plus 23 more, as artists kids need to know. And it comes with two CDs of songs.
CORNISH: Boomer music.
BLOCK: Indeed. So I asked Robertson if he'd considered any artists from today for the book and here's what he said.
ROBBIE ROBERTSON: You know, for all the artists that are in this book, they have a timeless thing in their music. We had discussed artists from the '80s, and we weren't positive who was going to make that cut. Time is not kind to everything.
CORNISH: Fair enough. But to some of us, not entirely satisfying. So we put the question to you Gen Xers and millennials: What musicians from the '80s up to today do you think will be timeless?
BLOCK: Who are the future legends kids need to know about? Well, the emails and tweets came pouring in.
CORNISH: So now, mark this date. ALL THINGS CONSIDERED presents a Gen X-millennial musical moment.
(SOUNDBITE OF MONTAGE MUSIC)
DAVID BYRNE: (Singing) Watch out, you might get what you're after.
BEASTIE BOYS: (Singing) No sleep till Brooklyn.
PRINCE SINGER: (Singing) Maybe I'm just like my father, too bold.
KURT COBAIN: (Singing) With the lights out, it's less dangerous. Here we are now, entertain us.
CORNISH: Nirvana, Prince, the Beastie Boys, Talking Heads. And this guy, who's already a legend according to many of you: Tupac Shakur.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "KEEP YA HEAD UP")
TUPAC SHAKUR: (Rapping) I think it's time to kill for our women, time to heal our women, be real to our women. And if we don't, we'll have a race of babies that will hate the ladies and make the babies...
BLOCK: About Tupac, Patrick Boughton of Yakima, Washington writes this: When entire college courses are devoted to the study of your hip-hop and poetry, you have done something right.
CORNISH: Other artists in the need-to-know category? Garth Brooks.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FRIENDS IN LOW PLACES")
GARTH BROOKS: (Singing) I got friends in low places.
BLOCK: Bruce Springsteen.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE RISING")
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: (Singing) Come on up for the rising.
CORNISH: Michael Jackson.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BEAT IT")
MICHAEL JACKSON: (Singing) Just beat it. Beat it. Beat it. No one wants to be defeated.
BLOCK: And Public Enemy.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WELCOME TO THE TERRORDOME")
CHUCK D: (Rapping) I got so much trouble on my mind. Refuse to loose. Here's your ticket.
CORNISH: From today's popular artists, several of you picked Pink, Mumford & Sons, and Adele, citing the emotional honesty in their performances.
BLOCK: But hands down, the future legend favorite among our Gen X and millennial listeners is a group of Irish baby boomers.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I STILL HAVEN'T FOUND WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR")
BONO: (Singing) I have climbed highest mountains. I have run through the fields only to be with you.
BLOCK: U2 challenged us to care, tweets Kate Warnock. And a quite a few of you said this song, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," is as timeless as it gets.
CORNISH: Eric Anderson, a Gen Xer parent from Gig Harbor, Washington, told us he schooled his daughters in U2. He writes: Traveling with kids can be a challenge, but they're a captive audience. So what better game to play but what is the meaning of this U2 song?
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY")
BONO: (Singing) How long? How long must we sing this song? How long? How long...
CORNISH: But what do Anderson's backseat captives think? He posed the future legends question to his daughter, Hannah, a college freshman. She and her friends wrote up a playlist. Then she sent this text to her dad.
BLOCK: There was some Death Cab, the Killers, Arcade Fire, Lumineers and U2. When U2 came on, I totally started crying because it reminded me of being little again and riding in the Sequoia with my sisters and mom and dad. It just made me realize that you can't ever get back your childhood, and I'm so happy that you guys made mine worth missing.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BEAUTIFUL DAY")
BONO: (Singing) It's a beautiful day. Don't let it get away. It's a beautiful day.
CORNISH: Well, thanks to Bono, The Edge, Larry and Adam for that, and to all of you who wrote in to share your thoughts on the musicians who will be your generation's legends.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BEAUTIFUL DAY")
BONO: (Singing) Take me to that other place. Teach me. I know I'm not a hopeless case. See the world in green and blue. See China right in front of you. See the canyons broken by clouds. See the tuna fleets clearing...
BLOCK: You're listening to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is likely to have a very long day when she testifies before Congress about the Affordable Care Act website problems.
Mark Wilson/Getty Images
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is likely to have a very long day when she testifies before Congress about the Affordable Care Act website problems.
Mark Wilson/Getty Images
The hottest hot seat in Washington is the one occupied by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, whose office confirmed Monday she'll testify about the Internet disaster that is HealthCare.gov, the Affordable Care Act website.
It's not yet clear when she'll go before Congress, but it won't be soon enough for the Republicans who are calling for her resignation. Sebelius originally declined to appear before the House Energy and Commerce Committee Thursday, saying she had a scheduling conflict.
Many Democrats are also fuming at the shambolic roll out of the federal health exchange website, which isn't just an embarrassment to the administration but a threat to President Obama's legacy.
When she does testify, here are five questions Sebelius will almost certainly get:
What did she know and when did she know it?
This is a Washington classic, a staple of any investigatory effort. Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., chairman of the House committee holding Thursday's hearing, has signaled that he wants to know why Sebelius and others told lawmakers the federal government would be ready to go on Oct. 1 when that was far from true.
"Top administration officials repeatedly testified everything was on track, but the broad technological failures reveal that was not the case," Upton said in a news release. "Either the administration was not ready for launch, or it was not up to the job."
How many people have actually "enrolled" in health insurance through the health exchanges?
HHS on Sunday said there were "nearly a half million applications for coverage." But that's a vague number, as is the definition of enrollment. To some, it means submitting an application; to others, it means actually paying for insurance. The administration has been notably reticent about providing details. Which is why the Republican National Committee is trying to pry them out through a Freedom of Information Act request. Expect plenty of questions from House Republicans seeking hard numbers.
How can anyone trust that the problems will be fixed in time when past Obama administration assurances proved so wrong?
The Affordable Care Act's open enrollment period is scheduled to end Dec. 15. In a speech Monday that defended the law while also expressing frustration with the website, Obama said: "We are doing everything we can possibly do to get the websites working better, faster, sooner. We got people working overtime, 24/7, to boost capacity and address the problems."
Still, experts question whether the website can be made to function as well as it needs to in the remaining time. Expect much skepticism about any assurances Sebelius gives.
Do the problems with Obamacare support delaying the individual mandate for a year?
This is likely to be a major line of questioning for Sebelius from Republicans. Obama previewed her likely response when he said that Obamacare is "not just a website" — his point being that the law itself is working just fine, and the flaws of one component aren't enough to delay it. Sebelius is likely to be forced to repeatedly push back against this line of questioning.
Given the scope of the problem, shouldn't she resign?
This is also likely to be a recurring theme during the hearing. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., a longtime acquaintance, has called for her resignation, as have Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and several House members.
Sebelius has shown no signs that she is considering stepping down and was prominently seated in the front row for Obama's Monday speech. If Sebelius, a holdover from the first term, did step down, it would not only give Obamacare's Republican opponents their biggest trophy yet but would also create more turbulence at a critical moment for the law. So it's unlikely to happen. But that won't stop Republicans from repeatedly posing the question.
A Closer Look At Microsoft’s New Surface 2 And Surface Pro 2 Tablets
Over the past few days, we’ve had in our hot hands the new Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 tablets. We published an initial video clip and hands-on notes last evening and today, we’re sharing a short video run-through of the hardware.
Surface, of course, is Microsoft’s hardware gambit that places it in contention with its traditional OEM partners. The company’s new devices replace its earlier efforts, which produced decidedly mixed sales.
So, enjoy the above clip, and then strap in: Apple’s iPad event is tomorrow morning, and you’re going to need your rest.
Contact: Karthika Muthukumaraswamy karthika@siam.org 267-350-6383 Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
Mathematical models estimate the value of pension plans
Philadelphia, PAThere comes a time in each of our lives when we consider starting a pension plan either on the advice of a friend, a relative, or of our own volition. The plan of choice may depend on various factors, such as the age and salary of the individual, number of years of expected employment, as well as options to retire early or late.
One possible plan is a defined pension plan, where the benefit amount is typically based on the employee's number of years of service at the time of retirement and the salary and/or average salary over an employment period. For instance, the employee may receive a fraction of the average salary during a certain number of years.
In a paper published last month in the SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics, authors Carmen Calvo-Garrido, Andrea Pascucci, and Carlos Vzquez present a partial differential equation (PDE) model governing the value of a defined pension plan including the option for early retirement.
"The employer bears the liability of the pension and the value of this liability is understood as the value of the pension plan," says author Carlos Vzquez. "It is important to develop mathematical models to compute the value of this liability in order to estimate the financial situation of the institution or company that has the obligation with the pension plan member."
The analysis in the paper uses modeling tools similar to those used in quantitative finance, for instance, for pricing American options.
The model assumes that the wage or salary of an employee at any given time is governed by a stochastic differential equation, which in turn depends on the time of recruitment, current salary of the employee and age of entry. Uncertainty of the salary is assumed to depend only on volatility, which refers to the uncertainty or risk associated with a value or asset. "Models need to reproduce the uncertainties associated with the underlying factors of the plan (salary, interest rate and so on) and should allow one to compute the pension plan price in order to reproduce situations in different scenarios," author Andrea Pascucci explains.
The authors obtain the value of a defined benefit pension plan including the option for early retirement for the employee, thus computing the value of the pension plan as well as the region of early retirement. "If the pension plan incorporates the option of early retirement by the member, then the additional question arises: when is it optimal to retire? Mathematical modeling tools allow us to pose the problem in terms of partial differential equations," says Vzquez.
The optimal retirement problem is a "free boundary problem" for the underlying PDE. Most applications of PDEs involve domains with boundaries, and certain boundary conditions need to be satisfied in order to solve the PDEs. Free boundary problems deal with solving PDEs where part of the boundary is unknown in advance, referred to as a free boundary. Thus, in addition to standard boundary conditions, an additional condition must be imposed at the free boundary. The free boundary in this problem is the optimal retirement boundary between the region where it is optimal to retire and the region where it is optimal to continue working.
"The practical solution of the PDE model to obtain pension plan prices from the data requires the use of suitable numerical algorithms to be run on a computer," says author M. Carmen Calvo-Garrido. "From the numerical solutions, we can identify at each date, for a given salary and average salary, if it is optimal to retire or not, and also to obtain the value of the pension plan in any case."
Mathematical analysis provides rigorous justification of the correctness of the model, also proving the expected qualitative properties.
Future directions may involve the application of similar modeling techniques to study the evolution of wages and salaries. "We are working on a more complete model for salaries evolution that includes the possibility of jumps (due to economic crisis, sudden increase or decrease in salaries, etc)," says Vzquez. "PDE problems including realistic, stochastic interest rate models also present a very challenging topic. The calibration of model parameters is an interesting and difficult problem due to the need of suitable real data."
###
Source article:
Mathematical Analysis and Numerical Methods for Pricing Pension Plans Allowing Early Retirement
M. Carmen Calvo-Garrido, Andrea Pascucci, and Carlos Vzquez
SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics, 73(5), 1747-1767 (Online publish date: September 4, 2013). The source article is available for free access at the link above until February 21, 2014.
About the authors:
M. Carmen Calvo-Garrido is a researcher and Carlos Vzquez is a full professor at the Department of Mathematics in the University of A Corua in Spain. Andrea Pascucci is a full professor at the Department of Mathematics in the University of Bologna in Italy. This research was partially funded by Spanish Ministery of Science and Innovation and by Galician Regional Government (Xunta de Galicia).
About SIAM
The Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is an international society of over 14,000 individual members, including applied and computational mathematicians and computer scientists, as well as other scientists and engineers. Members from 85 countries are researchers, educators, students, and practitioners in industry, government, laboratories, and academia. The Society, which also includes nearly 500 academic and corporate institutional members, serves and advances the disciplines of applied mathematics and computational science by publishing a variety of books and prestigious peer-reviewed research journals, by conducting conferences, and by hosting activity groups in various areas of mathematics. SIAM provides many opportunities for students including regional sections and student chapters. Further information is available at http://www.siam.org.
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Are you ready to retire?
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
21-Oct-2013
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Contact: Karthika Muthukumaraswamy karthika@siam.org 267-350-6383 Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
Mathematical models estimate the value of pension plans
Philadelphia, PAThere comes a time in each of our lives when we consider starting a pension plan either on the advice of a friend, a relative, or of our own volition. The plan of choice may depend on various factors, such as the age and salary of the individual, number of years of expected employment, as well as options to retire early or late.
One possible plan is a defined pension plan, where the benefit amount is typically based on the employee's number of years of service at the time of retirement and the salary and/or average salary over an employment period. For instance, the employee may receive a fraction of the average salary during a certain number of years.
In a paper published last month in the SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics, authors Carmen Calvo-Garrido, Andrea Pascucci, and Carlos Vzquez present a partial differential equation (PDE) model governing the value of a defined pension plan including the option for early retirement.
"The employer bears the liability of the pension and the value of this liability is understood as the value of the pension plan," says author Carlos Vzquez. "It is important to develop mathematical models to compute the value of this liability in order to estimate the financial situation of the institution or company that has the obligation with the pension plan member."
The analysis in the paper uses modeling tools similar to those used in quantitative finance, for instance, for pricing American options.
The model assumes that the wage or salary of an employee at any given time is governed by a stochastic differential equation, which in turn depends on the time of recruitment, current salary of the employee and age of entry. Uncertainty of the salary is assumed to depend only on volatility, which refers to the uncertainty or risk associated with a value or asset. "Models need to reproduce the uncertainties associated with the underlying factors of the plan (salary, interest rate and so on) and should allow one to compute the pension plan price in order to reproduce situations in different scenarios," author Andrea Pascucci explains.
The authors obtain the value of a defined benefit pension plan including the option for early retirement for the employee, thus computing the value of the pension plan as well as the region of early retirement. "If the pension plan incorporates the option of early retirement by the member, then the additional question arises: when is it optimal to retire? Mathematical modeling tools allow us to pose the problem in terms of partial differential equations," says Vzquez.
The optimal retirement problem is a "free boundary problem" for the underlying PDE. Most applications of PDEs involve domains with boundaries, and certain boundary conditions need to be satisfied in order to solve the PDEs. Free boundary problems deal with solving PDEs where part of the boundary is unknown in advance, referred to as a free boundary. Thus, in addition to standard boundary conditions, an additional condition must be imposed at the free boundary. The free boundary in this problem is the optimal retirement boundary between the region where it is optimal to retire and the region where it is optimal to continue working.
"The practical solution of the PDE model to obtain pension plan prices from the data requires the use of suitable numerical algorithms to be run on a computer," says author M. Carmen Calvo-Garrido. "From the numerical solutions, we can identify at each date, for a given salary and average salary, if it is optimal to retire or not, and also to obtain the value of the pension plan in any case."
Mathematical analysis provides rigorous justification of the correctness of the model, also proving the expected qualitative properties.
Future directions may involve the application of similar modeling techniques to study the evolution of wages and salaries. "We are working on a more complete model for salaries evolution that includes the possibility of jumps (due to economic crisis, sudden increase or decrease in salaries, etc)," says Vzquez. "PDE problems including realistic, stochastic interest rate models also present a very challenging topic. The calibration of model parameters is an interesting and difficult problem due to the need of suitable real data."
###
Source article:
Mathematical Analysis and Numerical Methods for Pricing Pension Plans Allowing Early Retirement
M. Carmen Calvo-Garrido, Andrea Pascucci, and Carlos Vzquez
SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics, 73(5), 1747-1767 (Online publish date: September 4, 2013). The source article is available for free access at the link above until February 21, 2014.
About the authors:
M. Carmen Calvo-Garrido is a researcher and Carlos Vzquez is a full professor at the Department of Mathematics in the University of A Corua in Spain. Andrea Pascucci is a full professor at the Department of Mathematics in the University of Bologna in Italy. This research was partially funded by Spanish Ministery of Science and Innovation and by Galician Regional Government (Xunta de Galicia).
About SIAM
The Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is an international society of over 14,000 individual members, including applied and computational mathematicians and computer scientists, as well as other scientists and engineers. Members from 85 countries are researchers, educators, students, and practitioners in industry, government, laboratories, and academia. The Society, which also includes nearly 500 academic and corporate institutional members, serves and advances the disciplines of applied mathematics and computational science by publishing a variety of books and prestigious peer-reviewed research journals, by conducting conferences, and by hosting activity groups in various areas of mathematics. SIAM provides many opportunities for students including regional sections and student chapters. Further information is available at http://www.siam.org.
[
| E-mail
Share
]
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Netflix's results for the third quarter have arrived, and one of its most important numbers, the total amount of US subscribers (not including trial accounts) has reached 29.93 million, more than HBO's last count of 28.7 million. Last year at this time it had notched 25.1 million US customers, and Including trial subscribers it passed HBO's customer base back in April. Internationally it's up to 9.19 million subscribers and is anticipating that it will add more than three million customers total in the next quarter. New original series Orange is the New Black has been a hit and while Netflix still isn't releasing viewing numbers, it says the show will end the year "as our most watched original series ever."
Regarding its original content push, Netflix has already rolled out some of the stand-up comedy specials it promised (Aziz Ansari's is next up on November 1st) and says it will expand soon into original documentaries, largely based on the popularity of that kind of content among its customers.
In case you missed it, late Friday afternoon Microsoft pulled the Windows RT 8.1 update. Enough customers complained about BSODs and completely bricked machines -- including, notably, Microsoft Surface RT machines -- after applying the RT-to-RT 8.1 upgrade, that the update was yanked entirely.
There's also been a steady stream of complaints about the Win8-to-Win8.1 update, including an inability to connect with Remote Access Website connections. Here's an overview of what we know so far has happened, and how you may be able to recover.
Microsoft released the Windows 8.1 upgrade early in the morning (U.S. time) on Oct. 17. For consumers and others who don't have Volume License agreements with Microsoft, the update was directly accessible through the Microsoft Store. Volume Licensees had access through the VLSC. And, of course, MSDN and TechNet members have had access to the Windows 8.1 Enterprise (but not the Windows RT 8.1) bits for a month.
Windows RT customers (those with retail copies of Windows RT, not volume licensees) encountered unresolved Blue Screen 0xc000000d errors with notification that "Your PC needs to be repaired / The Boot Configuration Data file is missing some required information / File: \BCD". On Oct. 19 -- two days after the update was released -- Microsoft MVP Wesley_P posted on the Answers Forum: "Why isn't the Windows RT 8.1 upgrade available in the Microsoft store?"
Apparently it took Microsoft about 48 hours to pull the upgrade. In a post without a time stamp, on a rather obscure site , Microsoft issued this advisory:
Microsoft is investigating a situation affecting a limited number of users updating their Windows RT devices to Windows RT 8.1. As a result, we have temporarily removed the Windows RT 8.1 update from the Windows Store. We are working to resolve the situation as quickly as possible and apologize for any inconvenience. We will provide updates as they become available.
I have seen no further comment from Microsoft, no acknowledgment or description of the problem, and certainly no fix.
Ozzie Scott Williams, on his technical blog kickthatcomputer ("Annoying stuff I figured out / I really hate computers"), has come up with an ingenious workaround. Big problem: the method requires a USB recovery drive for your Windows RT computer, and few people have one sitting around.
However, following the steps he outlines, if you trust him (disclaimer: I don't know Williams), you can create a Windows RT recovery USB drive. Using the recovery USB drive, there's a way to bring up an old-fashioned command prompt, and type in a one-line command to rebuild the trashed BCD. Once the BCD is fixed, apparently Windows RT 8.1 will boot.
Score one for the DOS command line. Hard to believe it would bring a borked Surface RT back to life.
The other major, solvable Windows 8.1 bug I've seen makes it impossible to connect Internet Explorer to a Remote Web Access website running on a Small Business Server 2011 server. Poster Yves describes it on the TechNet forum:
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Residents of a Syrian town besieged by President Bashar al-Assad's forces appealed to the world to "save us from death" in an open letter describing desperate conditions and suffering.
Hundreds of men, women and children in Mouadamiya had died and thousands had been wounded, they said.
Mouadamiya, on the southwest outskirts of the capital Damascus, was occupied by anti-Assad rebels last year and the government has been trying to win it back since then.
"For nearly one year, the city of Mouadamiya has been under siege with no access to food, electricity, medicine, communications, and fuel," said the letter, distributed by the opposition Syrian National Council on Monday.
"We have been hit by rockets, artillery shells, napalm, white phosphorous, and chemical weapons," it said.
The writers, who did not give their names, said they had managed to find enough power to run a computer and connect to the internet to send the letter.
The SNC said nearly 12,000 people face starvation and death in Mouadamiya. About 90 percent of Mouadamiya has been destroyed, few doctors remained, and residents were eating "leaves of trees".
Reuters cannot confirm reports from the besieged town due to government restrictions. The government says the residents of Mouadamiya are being "held hostage" by terrorists, the term it uses for armed opposition groups. It denies using chemical weapons.
United Nations humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said last week that despite the government evacuating 3,000 people this month, thousands more remain trapped inside Mouadamiya.
She said that United Nations teams had been denied access.
Local doctors have told Reuters that hunger has become severe in recent months.
RENEWED BOMBING
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring organization said on Monday that rebels and government forces clashed on the edges of Mouadamiya overnight and the army bombed the town.
"We appeal to your sense of humanity not to forget us," the residents' letter said. "We implore you to deliver our message to the whole world.
"Save us from death. Save us from the hell of Assad's killing machine."
More than 100,000 people have died during the war, which started with peaceful protests against four decades of Assad family rule in March 2011 then escalated into a civil war with sectarian overtones.
Western powers have mostly backed opposition forces while Russia and Iran support Assad. Moscow and Washington are planning to hold peace talks in Geneva next month but the warring parties have not expressed a willingness to compromise.
Soldiers stand next to pieces of a Lao Airlines plane on Thursday after it crashed into the Mekong River near Pakse, Laos.
Pornchai Kittiwongsakul/AFP/Getty Images
Soldiers stand next to pieces of a Lao Airlines plane on Thursday after it crashed into the Mekong River near Pakse, Laos.
Pornchai Kittiwongsakul/AFP/Getty Images
The crash of a turboprop in southern Laos that killed all 49 people aboard was caused by a violent storm that prompted the pilot to miss a runway and careen into the Mekong River, authorities say.
"Upon preparing to land at Pakse Airport the aircraft ran into extreme bad weather conditions and was reportedly crashed into the Mekong River," the Laos Ministry of Public Works and Transport said in a statement.
The Lao Airlines' ATR-72 had 44 passengers aboard. In addition to 17 Lao nationals, the flight included several passengers from France, Australia and Thailand; three from Korea; two from Vietnam; and one person each from the United States, Canada, Malaysia, China and Taiwan. Five crew members were also killed.
The state-run news agency of Laos quoted an eyewitness to the crash as saying that the plane "appeared to be hit by a strong wind, causing its head to ascend and pushing it away from the airport area."
The Bangkok Postreports that one of the plane's propellers, as well as passengers' backpacks and passports, were among the debris in the Mekong River:
" 'So far eight bodies have been found. We don't yet know their nationalities,' said Yakao Lopangkao, director-general of Lao's Department of Civil Aviation, who was at the crash site in Pakse, the main town in the southern Lao province of Champassak. 'We haven't found the plane yet. It is underwater. We're trying to use divers to locate it.'
"He ruled out finding survivors. 'There is no hope. The plane appears to have crashed very hard before entering the water.' "
"Lao Airlines, the national airline of the impoverished and landlocked nation of six million people, operates domestic as well as international services. Its fleet includes six aircraft of the type involved in the crash.
"Paske, the capital of Champasak province, opposite the Thai province of Ubon Ratchathani, is the largest city in southern Laos.
"The area is a popular destination for tourists who visit coffee plantations of the Bolaven Plateau and a former royal principality."
Bad news, men everywhere ... Kristen Bell is officially off the market -- TMZ has learned, she and longtime boyfriend Dax Shepard have finally tied the knot.
The couple had a no-frills ceremony at the Beverly Hills County Clerk Office. We're told there was a photographer present, and Kristen was crying.
According to eye witnesses, Kristen and Dax went to the clerk office just to get their marriage license -- but when a court employee offered to marry them on the spot, they agreed ... and conducted the ceremony in a nearby courtroom.
Not a huge surprise ... Kristen has talked about wanting a courthouse marriage in the past, saying, "I feel like we get enough attention in our daily lives and we just want something sort of private that involves pen and paper."
Dax famously proposed to Kristen after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the gay marriage ban in June ... kind of a solidarity thing. Mazel tov!
Ad agency M&C Saatchi has come up with a rather dubious but clever way of marketing LG's G2 smartphone. Its banner ads sense your own handset and will taunt its shortcomings while suggesting, naturally, an LG G2 instead. For instance, an HTC One-based ad suggests that you'll get 30 percent more ...
An engaging, free-rolling and faux-shambolic 16mm homage to lives lived for film far beyond the outer reaches of the film industry.
Venue
London Film Festival
Director
Jonas Trueba
The Wishful Thinkers, JonasTrueba’s virtually home-made follow-up to the altogether less interesting Every Song Talks about Me, is a black and white celebration of open-handed film making as well as of those old chestnuts: art and life. This black and white portrayal of a group of young Spaniards who share an innocent, unconditional love of film has become something of a cult item amongst film literati in Spain with an inevitably lengthy run of festival screenings likely to extend its appeal to those in the know.
An on-screen text opens things by stating that the film will seek to be transparent, which it pretty much achieves. Wannabe scriptwriter Leon (rumple-haired Francesco Carril) lives with wannabe actor Bruno (Vito Sanz) in the center of Madrid, leading the quasi-bohemian lives of twenty-somethings everywhere – pulling all-nighters in bars talking about life, love books and having no money. Early on, we meet the Swiss Lilian (Isabelle Stoffel), who’s decided to return home because there is no work for her in Madrid, but the rest of the characters are indeed wishful thinkers. Perhaps the most entertaining is film bookshop owner Perucho (Luis Miguel Madrid).
A wishful thinker of romance, Leon also strikes up a hesitant relationship with Sofia (the relatively well-known Aura Garrido), and together they explore Madrid by night. Trueba reinvents the capital as a film maker’s city, and many locations will be recognizable to any lover of film who has ever spent even a couple of nights there.
But the film is also shot through with an air of nostalgia for the golden, pre-digital days when, for example, projectionists had a role to play: at one point, Bruno walks out of a screening to complain that the print he’s watching is surely damaged. “It’s Blu-Ray,” the projectionist informs him.
In the main, the actors are playing people like themselves, which gives their dialog, largely improvised anyway, a fresh, unrehearsed quality. What could so easily have become ponderous and pretentious never does, since Trueba seems determined to keep things grounded and lively. Several sequences, including one where Leon means the real-life director Javier Rebollo – a darling of the Spanish arthouse who’s duly adored by Bruno to the extent that he dreams about Rebollo – are laugh-aloud entertaining. Performances are quietly persuasive, their apparent spontaneity underwritten by SantiagoRacaj’s (incidentally Rebollo’s regular d.p.) intimate, quasi-documentary and strikingly shadowed camerawork, with only Garrido occasionally coming over as over-stated and theatrical.
Music – including a grungy full-length song by El Hijo – and onscreen text by thinkers and poets including Emily Dickinson – are also thrown into the mix. But Trueba’s eye for the telling image – a slow, long shot of three friends making their early-morning way home across Madrid’s Plaza Mayor is especially evocative – reveal that there is a careful, controlling eye at work. Although there's no screenwriter or editor credit, things are not as haphazard as they seem.
The Wishful Thinkers is cinema of the self-reflexive kind and viewers are continually reminded by people holding clapperboards and microphones hoving into view that they’re watching a film about its own making. The effect is sometimes wearisome, as are several oh-so-long shots and its tendency to wordiness over its final reel. But it does mean that the film can itself stand as the affirmation of what its characters so badly want to believe – that it’s still possible for young, creative people to make exactly the kinds of films they want to make. Particularly in a Spain where the film industry is currently under direct threat from poverty, piracy and politicians, The Wishful Thinkers is an affirmation that deserves to be seen.
The film is dedicated to Fernando Trueba, the director's one-time Oscar-winning father, without whom presumably none of this would have been possible.
Cast: Francesco Carril, Aura Garrido, Mikele Urroz, Vito Sanz, Isabelle Stoffel, Luis Miguel Madrid Director: Jonas Trueba Director of photography: Santiago Racaj Production designer: Miguel Angel Rebollo Editor: Marta Velasco Sound: Victor Puertas, Eduardo G. Castro Sales: Oberon Cinematografica No rating, 73 minutos
A whole lotta people are going to need ice cold showers!
Leave it to Miley Cyrus to bring the heat with a scantily clad pic she happily shared all over Twitter.
While we've seen plenty of mostly nekkid pics from Mileybird, you really can't ever have too many nekkid pics! And Queen Miley knows that because she shared a pic of herself in a super sexalicious red swimsuit.
We know some states are already full of chilly weather, but maybe they need more Mileybird to heat things up!
Ben Zion Shenker (right) is a world-renowned composer in the Modzitzer tradition of Chasidic Judiaism.
Joel Lowy/Courtesy of the artist
Ben Zion Shenker (right) is a world-renowned composer in the Modzitzer tradition of Chasidic Judiaism.
Joel Lowy/Courtesy of the artist
The role of music in Jewish life was elevated by a Polish rabbi known as the Baal Shem Tov, who is credited with founding the Chasidic movement in the 18th century. He taught that melody is one of the paths to divine service.
"One of the innovations of the Baal Shem Tov was to allow for greater musical expression during the prayers," says Rabbi Meir Fund, who leads his own congregation in Brooklyn. "And music became a very important ladder of ascent."
Over the past 200 years, a sect of Chasidic Jews known as the Modzitzers has become known for beautiful melodies — thousands of them. Modzitz is the name of the town in Poland where the sect eventually settled.
"There's a certain depth and aesthetic beauty in Modzitzer melodies that really defies words, but that sets Modzitz apart as the pinnacle of Jewish Chasidic music," Fund says.
By all accounts, the one living Modzitzer who has made the greatest contribution to music is 88-year-old Ben Zion Shenker. One of the most prolific and respected Modzitzer composers, Shenker lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Yiddish Book Center/YouTube
Ben Zion Shenker tells the story of how his first choral teacher persuaded his parents to let him join a choir.
His connection to Modzitz began when he was a teenager. The Modzitzer rebbe, or chief rabbi, moved to Brooklyn as the Holocaust consumed much of Chasidic Jewry in Eastern Europe. On a Sabbath afternoon in 1941, the rebbe noticed Shenker humming Chasidic melodies written out in a book.
"The rebbe turned around and asked me, 'You know how to read notes?' " Shenker says. "I was all of 15 years old, and [he] couldn't believe that a kid of that age could read music. I said, 'A little.' After that, I became what you'd call his musical secretary, actually. Anything he composed, I used to notate. And he used to sing for me things that he had in mind."
Shenker had not only studied music theory; he also sang in a boys' choir and performed on his own radio show on a Yiddish station. A 13-year-old Shenker even made a record in 1938.
Shenker grew up to become an ordained rabbi. He made his living in the garment and jewelry industries while composing Modzitzer melodies — nigunim, as they're known in Hebrew — that are used throughout the Orthodox Jewish world.
Shenker composed a melody for the Psalm of David, also known as the 23rd Psalm. Orthodox Jews sing it during the third meal of the Sabbath on Saturday afternoon — the melody came to Shenker after he finished the third meal one day in 1946. His melody was later recorded by Cantor Yitzhok Meir Helfgott and violinist Itzhak Perlman. Shenker himself recorded the first album of Chasidic music in 1956.
Ben Zion Shenker recorded an album of Modzitzer liturgical melodies in 1956.
Courtesy of the artist
Ben Zion Shenker recorded an album of Modzitzer liturgical melodies in 1956.
Courtesy of the artist
Hankus Netsky is chairman of the Improvisation Department at the New England Conservatory of Music. He says that Shenker realized the gravity of his work.
"He realized that these were like symphonies," Netsky says. "These were like some of the greatest compositions ever written, and that these were emblematic compositions for the Jewish people, and that's really where he wanted to put his efforts. ... He doesn't call attention to himself and yet, as soon as he opens his mouth, everybody turns around and says, 'What is that?' And it's his music that does it."
Though Shenker's music is largely unknown outside the Orthodox world, many Orthodox musicians take inspiration from it.
"In Modzitz, the melodies are so powerful that you can reach really deep meditative states, and it's also a way of purifying yourself," says klezmer and bluegrass virtuoso Andy Statman, who is a neighbor of Shenker's and worships with him in the Modzitzer synagogue. "This music is really set up for that."
Shenker served as the prayer leader in the Modzitzer synagogue in Brooklyn for more than five decades. He has stopped on the advice of his doctor, but he has in no way retired. During the recent holiday of Sukkot, he sang for two hours.
"I compose new material every year," Shenker says. "I made seven new songs this year for the text that we say on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. When those prayers come up, I'm the one that starts it, and the singing adds so much to the spirit of the prayers. I mean, when you sing it, you really understand it."
Shenker has composed some 500 nigunim, but he's particularly proud of a melody he composed 60 years ago for the proverb "Woman of Valor," which is sung in observant Jewish households as the Sabbath arrives on Friday night. Shenker says that when he walks home from the Modzitzer synagogue, he hears it sung in almost every Jewish home in his neighborhood.
On Friday, Oct. 18, 2013, Joyce Jackson holds a drawing made by her son Bobby Gerald Bennett, in Dallas. Jackson says Bennett, who is a schizophrenic, wanted to take the drawing with him out of the house leading to an argument that caused her to call police Monday. Surveillance video from a neighbor's camera shows Bennett standing as two officers approach him. Seconds later, Officer Cardan Spencer fires at Bennet who now remains in a hospital intensive care unit. Dallas police have opened a criminal investigation and placed the officer on administrative leave indefinitely. (AP Photo/Nomaan Merchant)
On Friday, Oct. 18, 2013, Joyce Jackson holds a drawing made by her son Bobby Gerald Bennett, in Dallas. Jackson says Bennett, who is a schizophrenic, wanted to take the drawing with him out of the house leading to an argument that caused her to call police Monday. Surveillance video from a neighbor's camera shows Bennett standing as two officers approach him. Seconds later, Officer Cardan Spencer fires at Bennet who now remains in a hospital intensive care unit. Dallas police have opened a criminal investigation and placed the officer on administrative leave indefinitely. (AP Photo/Nomaan Merchant)
This image from video courtesy of Maurice Bunch shows Bobby Gerald Bennett, left, standing as two Dallas Police officers approach him. Seconds later, Officer Cardan Spencer fires at Bennet who now remains in a hospital intensive care unit. Dallas police have opened a criminal investigation and placed the officer on administrative leave indefinitely after he shot and wounded Bennet who is a schizophrenic. (AP Photo/Maurice Bunch)
This image from video courtesy of Maurice Bunch shows Bobby Gerald Bennett , left, after Dallas Police Officer Cardan Spencer shot Bennet, who now remains in a hospital intensive care unit. Dallas police have opened a criminal investigation and placed the officer on administrative leave indefinitely after shooting the schizophrenic man. (AP Photo/Courtesy of Maurice Bunch)
DALLAS (AP) — Surveillance video showing a Dallas police officer shooting a mentally ill man standing still about 20 feet away contradicts the assertion of an officer that the man threatened his safety by lunging at him with a knife.
Bobby Gerald Bennett remains hospitalized after being shot in the stomach Monday. The officer who shot him, Cardan Spencer, is on indefinite administrative leave pending a criminal investigation after a neighbor released surveillance video that captured the incident.
Bennett was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon on a public servant, but Police Chief David Brown announced Friday that the charge would be dropped.
Bennett's mother, Joyce Jackson, said in an interview Friday that her 52-year-old son has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and that he was off his medication at the time of the shooting. Jackson said she was arguing with Bennett when she called the police. She was told that officers who have been trained in dealing with the mentally ill would arrive to assist her.
The officers arrived outside her southeast Dallas home around noon to find Bennett sitting on a chair in the street holding a knife. At this point, accounts of the incident differ.
Spencer wrote in a police report that Bennett refused to drop the knife and moved toward him and another officer "in a threatening manner." Spencer says that's when he fired at Bennett four times from about 20 feet away, wounding him.
The video tells a different story. Although the police report says Bennett "lunged" at the officers with a knife, in the video he stands up from the chair but then doesn't appear to move at all until the gun is fired and he crumples to the ground.
The surveillance video doesn't include audio, and Spencer wrote in his report that Bennett yelled at them, "You all are gonna need more officers than this!" But it doesn't show that the incident "escalated, which led an officer to fire his weapon upon the individual," as police spokesman Warren Mitchell said in a statement a few hours after the shooting.
Police Chief David Brown said in a statement Thursday night that Spencer has been placed on indefinite administrative leave pending a "thorough criminal investigation."
Jackson said she and her son had been arguing about whether he could take an ink drawing of a rose he had done for his late grandmother, she said. The drawing is framed on the wall of her home.
The argument soon escalated to the point where Jackson felt she needed police assistance.
"I'm devastated that I felt the need to call 911," Jackson said.
Jackson said her son struggles with mental illness and often leaves her home to sleep on the streets, but said he is an avid artist and reader and isn't violent. According to state criminal records, he was convicted of larceny, vehicle theft and forgery in the 1980s but has no recent arrests.
"I was expecting help from someone that's a lot more knowledgeable than me," she said. Mitchell, the police spokesman, declined to say Friday whether the two officers sent to Jackson's home had any specific mental health training.
Jackson did not see the shooting. She was inside her home when she heard four gunshots. She said it was a "miracle" that her neighbor's camera recorded the incident. Otherwise, "I wouldn't have had a leg to stand on," she said.
Maurice Bunch installed the surveillance camera two years ago after a trailer was stolen from his driveway.
___
Follow Nomaan Merchant on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/nomaanmerchant
Our Apple TV has just alerted us to the fact that we'll be able to watch a livestream of Cupertino's big launch show at 10am Pacific Time (1pm ET, 6pm UK) today. Others are seeing it on their black boxes too, according to Macrumors, but it's still not clear whether the event will be streamed to ...
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Ad agency M&C Saatchi has come up with a rather dubious but clever way of marketing LG's G2 smartphone. Its banner ads sense your own handset and will taunt its shortcomings while suggesting, naturally, an LG G2 instead. For instance, an HTC One-based ad suggests that you'll get 30 percent more ...
