The Justice Department could sue Apple Inc as early as Wednesday over alleged electronic book price-fixing, while settling with several publishers as early as this week, two people familiar with the matter said.
The Justice Department is investigating alleged price-fixing by Apple and five major publishers: CBS Corp's Simon & Schuster Inc; HarperCollins Publishers Inc; Lagardere SCA's Hachette Book Group; Pearson and Macmillan, a unit of Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH.
A lawsuit against Apple, one of the parties not in negotiations over a potential settlement, could come as early as Wednesday but no final decision had been made, the people said.
Apple declined to comment. The Justice Department and the five publishers could not be reached for comment.
The Justice Department is investigating whether deals Apple cut two years ago with the quintet of major publishers - when the consumer electronics maker launched its iPad tablet computer - were done with the intent of propping up prices for digital books, sources have said.
As part of those agreements, publishers shifted to a model that allowed them to set the price of e-books and give Apple a 30 percent cut of sales, the sources have said.
Talks between the Justice Department and some publishers had been proceeding, with settlements expected as soon as this week, one of the two sources familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity, because the discussions were not public.
Long after the guns fell silent at Antietam, the earth yielded up gruesome reminders of the bloodiest day of the American Civil War: bodies, bones, buttons and entire severed limbs – one of which is now the focus of intense study at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine.
A Sharpsburg-area farmer is said to have found the human forearm while plowing a field two weeks after the 1862 battle.
Officials at the museum in Frederick, Md., are trying to learn more about the limb in hopes of verifying that it's a relic of the Battle of Antietam and exhibiting the well-preserved specimen during the battle's 150th anniversary in September.
The muddy-looking right forearm, with skin and hand attached, was donated anonymously to the museum earlier this year, said Executive Director George Wunderlich. It had been displayed for several decades at a private museum in Sharpsburg in a glass-topped, pine case with a placard reading, "Human arm found on the Antietam Battlefield."
Though there is little hope of identifying the young man who lost it, Wunderlich said forensic experts may be able to discern his nationality and whether the arm was, as Wunderlich suspects, torn from his body by a bullet or artillery round.
"Being able to put the story of this unknown person before this country is very important to us," Wunderlich said. "His remains will tell a story that will relate us back to his sacrifice. This was what they gave for what they believed. If done properly, it's a very poignant story."
The unidentified farmer who found the limb put it in a barrel of brine, according to Thomas McGrath's 1997 book, "Maryland September: True Stories from the Antietam Campaign." The farmer reportedly gave it to a Boonsboro physician, who is said to have more permanently preserved it with embalming fluid.
The arm eventually ended up in a private museum that was sold in the 1960s to John G. Ray Jr. After Ray died in 2001, his widow had the museum's contents sold at an auction, according to battlefield historian Ted Alexander.
Alexander grew up nearby and remembers seeing the arm on display.
"It was quite an attraction," he said. "It was macabre and something to see as kid."
The arm's owner was probably a small man less than 20 years old, said William Gardner, a former Marshall University forensic medicine instructor who examined it in March.
1. Believe in yourself : People who are exposed to positive messages about preserving memory into old age do better on memory tasks.
2. Economize your brain use : Take advantage of calendars, planners, maps and file folders. Designate a place at home for your glasses, keys and other items of frequent use.
3. Organise your thoughts : Information broken into smaller chunks such as city code and area code of a phone number is easier to remember than a single long list.
4. Use all your senses : The more senses you use while learning something, the more of your brain will be involved in retaining the learning.
5. Expand your brain : Widen the brain region involved in learning by reading aloud, drawing a picture or writing down the information you want to learn.
6. Repeat it aloud : Repeat it aloud, something which you just heard or thought about.
7. Space it out : Spacing out your learning instead of cramming in a short period is very valuable especially while learning complicated information.
8. Make a mnemonic : Mnemonics such as acrostics is a creative way to remember information. Another helpful mnemonics is to create story linking the items you want to remember.
9. Challenge yourself : Engaging in activities that require you to concentrate and tax your memory will help you maintain skills as you age. Do crossword puzzles, try new recipes, travel and undertake projects or hobbies that require skills you aren't familiar or comfortable with.
10. Take a course : Memory improvement courses are becoming more common. Select a course that focuses on practical ways to manage everyday challenges. Stay away from courses that center on computer or concentration games. Choose one, run by health professionals or experts in psychology or cognitive rehabilitation.
Courtesy Harvard Medical School
This granny's ganja wasn't for glaucoma -- turns out she might have been the biggest pot dealer in town.
When cops kicked down the door of an elderly woman's Oklahoma home on Monday, they said they knew they'd find some marijuana. What they didn't expect was that 73-year-old Darlene Mayes was packing 4 pounds of pot, $276,000 in cash, a semiautomatic pistol and a revolver, The Daily reported.
Investigators had been following Mayes' alleged drug ring for years, but they didn't know she was the kingpin until Monday, KJRH-TV reported. They believe she supplied about 40 percent of the marijuana circulating in the vicinity, which includes Tulsa and parts of Arkansas, Kansas and Missouri.
"That was quite a surprise," Vinita Police Chief Bobby Floyd told The Daily, an iPad-only news site. "She is in very good shape for her age."
Cops alleged that Mayes had plenty of dealers working for her -- including her son Jerry, who was arrested Monday, accused of carrying thousands of dollars in cash and nearly 2 pounds of pot that he intended to sell.
In Mayes' house, cops found the supply in her bedroom, which reeked of weed. A vacuum-sealed bag full of the stuff was found in the closet, and bundles of bills labeled "$15,000" were found under her box spring. They found a pipe and another bag of weed in the bathroom, and a total of $200,000 in more vacuum-sealed bags in a guest room where Mayes' grandchildren reportedly slept.
Mayes allegedly first told officers that the money was for her retirement fund.
"She knew exactly what she was doing and supplying and exactly who she’s profiting from," Mark Woodward, spokesman for the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics, told The Daily.
The granny was charged with marijuana possession with intent to distribute, maintaining a dwelling where drugs are kept or sold, and firearm possession in commission of a felony.
It's a general situation - you meet someone new, and then moments later you've forgotten their name! Names, passwords, pin and telephone numbers... the list is endless - with so much to memorize is it really possible to improve how much you can remember?.
Everyone either he is student or a layman want to improve his memory.We always in the search of some technics or any method that can be beneficial in improving our memory.Before you study for your next exam, you might want to use a few strategies to boost your memory of important information. There are a number of tried and tested techniques for improving memory. There are some technics or tips can be useful to improve your memory.
1. Focus or concentrate your attention on the materials you are studying.
Attention is one of the major part of memory. In order to improve short memory to long term memory you need to actively read this information. Try to study in a place free of disturbance such as television, music, and other diversions.
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2. Avoid cramming study regularly
Many research has shown that students who study regularly remember the material far better that those did all of their studying in one marathon session.
3. Structure and organize the information you are studying.
Always structure and organize the information you are going to remember for a long term. Try grouping similar concepts and terms together, or make an outline of your notes and textbook readings to help group related concepts.
4. Utilize mnemonic devices to remember information.
Mnemonics are techniques for remembering information that is otherwise quite difficult to recall:Mnemonic devices are a technique often used by students to aid in recall. A mnemonic is simply a way to remember information. For example, you might associate a term you need to remember with a common item that you are very familiar with. The best mnemonics are those that utilize positive imagery, humor, or novelty. You might come up with a rhyme, song, or joke to help remember a specific segment of information. The idea behind using mnemonics is to encode difficult-to-remember information in a way that is much easier to remember.
Our brains evolved to code and interpret complex stimuli such as images, colors, structures, sounds, smells, tastes, touch, positions, emotions and language. We use these to make sophisticated models of the world we live in. Our memories store all of these very effectively.
Unfortunately, a lot of the information we have to remember in modern life is presented differently – as words printed on a page. While writing is a rich and sophisticated medium for conveying complex arguments, our brains do not easily encode written information, making it difficult to remember. The key idea is that by coding information using vivid mental images, you can reliably code both information and the structure of information. And because the images are vivid, they are easy to recall when you need them.
5. Elaborate and rehearse the information you are studying.
In order to recall information, you need to encode what you are studying into long-term memory. One of the most effective encoding techniques is known as elaborative rehearsal. An example of this technique would be to read the definition of a key term, study the definition of that term, and then read a more detailed description of what that term means. After repeating this process a few times, your recall of the information will be far better.
6. Relate new information to things you already know.
When you are studying unfamiliar material, take the time to think about how this information relates to things that you already know. By establishing relationships between new ideas and previously existing memories, you can dramatically increase the likelihood of recalling the recently learned information.
7. Visualize concepts to improve memory and recall.
Many people benefit greatly from visualizing the information they study. Pay attention to the photographs, charts, and other graphics in your textbooks. If you don’t have visual cues to help, try creating your own. Draw charts or figures in the margins of your notes or use highlighters or pens in different colors to group related ideas in your written study materials.
8. Teach new concepts to another person.
Research suggests that reading materials out loud significantly improves memory of the material. Educators and psychologists have also discovered that having students actually teach new concepts to others enhances understanding and recall. You can use this approach in your own study by teaching new concepts and information to a friend or study partner.
Learning Tips 1
One sure way to become a more effective learner is to simply keep learning. An article reported that people who learned how to juggle increased the amount of gray matter in their occipital lobes, the area of the brain is associated with visual memory.1 When these individuals stopped practicing their new skill, this gray matter vanished.
So if you're learning a new language, it is important to keep practicing the language in order to maintain the gains you have achieved. This "use-it-or-lose-it" phenomenon involves a brain process known as "pruning." Certain pathways in the brain are maintained, while other are eliminated. If you want the new information you just learned to stay put, keep practicing and rehearsing it.
Learning Tip 2.
Learn in Multiple Ways
Focus on learning in more than one way. Instead of just listening to a podcast, which involves auditory learning, find a way to rehearse the information both verbally and visually. This might involve describing what you learned to a friend, taking notes or drawing a mind map. By learning in more than one way, you’re further cementing the knowledge in your mind. According to Judy Willis, “The more regions of the brain that store data about a subject, the more interconnection there is. This redundancy means students will have more opportunities to pull up all of those related bits of data from their multiple storage areas in response to a single cue. This cross-referencing of data means we have learned, rather than just memorized.”
.Learning tip 3
Teach What You've Learned to Another Person
Teaching can improve your learning. By teaching to the rest of the class, your teacher hoped you would gain even more from the assignment. You can apply the same principle today by sharing your newly learned skills and knowledge with others.
Learning tip 4
Start by translating the information into your own words.
This process alone helps solidify new knowledge in your brain. Next, find some way to share what you’ve learned. Some ideas include writing a blog post, creating a podcast or participating in a group discussion.
Learning Tip5.
Utilize Previous Learning to Promote New Learning
Another great way to become a more effective learner is to use relational learning, which involves relating new information to things that you already know. For example, if you are learning about Romeo and Juliet, you might associate what you learn about the play with prior knowledge you have about Shakespeare, the historical period in which the author lived and other relevant information.
Raspberry Pi
Those lucky few who were able to order a Raspberry Pi before the mini-computer sold out the day of its February 29 launch will finally be receiving their $35 credit card-sized, Linux-based PC this coming week.
One of Raspberry Pi's distributors, RS Components, announced on April 12 that it had taken its first delivery of a Raspberry Pi shipment.
In addition, a spokesperson for Premier Farnell, the other of Raspberry Pi's distributors, told the BBC that it will be receiving a "large batch of machines" on April 13 and will be sending them out to customers later in the day; they should expect their devices within seven days of them being sent.
Unfortunately, everyone else who wants to order one will have to wait. Those who had registered their interest in the device on RS Components' website following its sell-out on February 29 will receive an invitation to place an order for the Raspberry Pi in order of when they registered, according to a press release; however, RS Components also noted that it would only be inviting orders when delivery of a Raspberry Pi can be guaranteed and that the one-per-customer rule still remains. It's unclear whether or not Premier Farnell is following the same procedure, though customers are still able to register their interest on the company's website.
Shipment of these $35 Model B Raspberry Pis -- which can plug into a TV and keyboard and come equipped with 256 MB RAM, 2 USB ports, and an Ethernet port -- has experienced quite a few delays in the past several weeks. Ars Technica reported last month that the Raspberry Pi's manufacturer used Ethernet jacks without integrated magnetics, or "built-in transformers that provide DC-isolation and help filter noise," so they had to be removed and replaced. Previously, the Raspberry Pi had suffered from a more minor problem with its manufacturer, who, according to Ars, "had difficulty sourcing a component."
More recently, shipment was delayed because, according to a March 29 ZDNet report, Raspberry Pi's distributors refused to sell the device until it received "the Conformité Européenne (CE) mark, which consumer products sold in the European Economic Area need to bear."
The Raspberry Pi Foundation -- the UK charity who developed the cheap mini-computer in order to inspire kids to program -- finally announced on April 6 that the device had passed EMC testing and would be ready for delivery. In addition, the Raspberry Pi complies with regulations in the US, Australia, and Canada.
Now, nearly six years after the device's inception, the tiny Raspberry Pi will soon be reaching the hands of thousands of people everywhere. Even Eben Upton, executive director of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, was surprised by its success so far. He told The Huffington Post UK:
Apple has followed through with its promise to develop software that will detect and remove the malicious Mac Flashback trojan, which infected more than 600,000 Mac laptops worldwide.
On April 12, the company released yet another Java update that "removes the most common variants of the Flashback malware." While the update is meant only for OS X Lion and Mac OS X v10.6, Apple suggested previously that users with Macs running Mac OS X v10.5 or earlier disable Java in order to better protect their devices from the Flashback trojan.
When the company on April 10 announced it would be developing a malware removal tool, Apple also mentioned it is currently working with Internet service providers (ISPs) across the world to shut down the network of computer servers presumably hosted by the malware authors and currently supporting the Flashback trojan.
This is Apple's third software update to Java in nine days; however, this latest update release is the first one actually designed to detect and remove the Flashback trojan from Mac laptop devices, as well as patch up the Java vulnerabilities of which the trojan took advantage.
According to PCMag, another function of the update is to "disable the Java plugin on all Web browsers (not just Safari) and turn off applet execution by default." In addition, Apple explained in its support document for the Java update, "Users may re-enable automatic execution of Java applets using the Java Preferences application. If the Java web plug-in detects that no applets have been run for an extended period of time it will again disable Java applets."
The Flashback trojan has been around in various forms since last September, but it wasn't until recently that it seemed to become a huge problem, prompting Java developer Oracle to release a security update back in February.
While Apple has been criticized for its slow response to the Flashback trojan, at least it seems its Java security updates have been working.
On April 12, ZDNet reported the results of a study conducted by security software developer Symantec, which found that the number of infected Macs has dropped to around 270,000 from more than 600,000 just last week.
On Wednesday a Kickstarter campaign for the inPulse Pebble, a smartwatch that is compatible with both Android and iPhone, met with almost instant approval and reached its fundraising goal of $100,000 in just two hours. Now, Sony has announced its own smartwatch that is designed to sync solely with Android.
The devices are similar in that they both run applications that sync with smartphone operating systems and allow for control of those apps from a convenient wrist-mounted display. So is there an advantage to buying a smartwatch that works with one leading device instead of two?
In short: No.
Let's be realistic -- the mere fact that the Pebble works with two operating systems puts the Sony watch at a disadvantage, especially since the watches are both priced at $149, according to the Web sites of inPulse and Sony. A user who wanted the flexibility to move from Android to iPhone or vice versa would be better served by the Pebble.
There are other key differences. The Sony watch has a snazzy touch display, but the functional e-paper watch face of the Pebble is viewable in direct sunlight. The battery life of the Pebble claims to last for seven or more days, while a CNET review of the Sony device puts its longevity at two days, max.
In terms of aesthetic differences, the Sony watch offers a variety of colored watch bands to liven up its product, while the Pebble so far only comes in three colors -- with a fourth to be decided -- but has customizable watch faces.
The watches appear to offer similar apps, such as remote controls for music and stats displays for jogging and cycling, and both companies plan to release a software development kit so that more applications can be created.
However, in a video (above) by the Wall Street Journal's Digits blog, Ina Fried of AllThingsDigital surmises that developers "are only going to build [apps] if [the watch] starts selling well." With the competition offered by the Pebble, that might be a big if. The only thing that Sony seems to have going for it is that its Android-compatible watch is already available for purchase.
Interns are so hot right now. On the heels of the news that Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson will co-star in the comedy "The Internship," comes word that Tina Fey will lead "The Intern." Deadline.com reports that Fey is attached to star in the new comedy from writer-director Nancy Meyers.
The film will apparently focus on a platonic friendship between a businesswoman and her 70-year-old male intern. No word yet on which elder actor will star in the film, but apparently Meyers already has someone on her radar. Considering she's worked with Jack Nicholson in the past, just start crossing your fingers now that the soon-to-be 75-year-old actor is Meyers' choice. After all, who wouldn't want to see Fey battle wits with Jack onscreen?
This is the second Meyers project announced in the last day. She's also going to direct "The Chelsea" with star Felicity Jones. That film was written by Meyers' daughter. Whether "The Chelsea" or "The Intern" will shoot first is unclear, but the idea is to start filming "The Intern" in the first quarter of 2013.
For more on the project, including why Meyers wanted to make the film with Fey, head over to Deadline.com.
