Hey, I'm new around EC. =) This is probably going to be a long post, so I apologize in advance, and I'll try not to add too many personal details. I'd really appreciate some outside perspective on this... There is a tl;dr section at the bottom, too, just in case.
I'm a freshman in college, about to finish the school year. Last semester, I started the year with the intention of focusing on my studies, without planning on getting involved in any romance. But about halfway through the semester, one of my close college friends told me he liked me, and I thought he was a sweet guy, so I agreed to date him. Once I let myself really look at him, I fell for him hard, and quickly. He seemed like such a sweet, deep guy.
He was my first serious relationship, and what I felt for him was the deepest connection I have ever felt with another human being, and it caught me by surprise. So by the end of the first semester (during finals week, I should add... I'm really not proud of that, haha) I gave him my virginity. He was always more physically expressive than I was, and that was what he wanted, so I wanted him to have it. I never let him know it, but giving him that part of me was a particularly big deal for me, because I have some deep trust issues.
I never really enjoyed it much, until the last night before winter break, when I was finally able to relax with him (despite the fact that he was drunk, which upset me). But just as I was about to leave for my dorm, he told me that his hall mates called me his "fuck buddy." At this point in our relationship, neither of us was entirely sure if the other person wanted more than a friends with benefits relationship, but I knew I definitely wanted a deep, caring relationship, and the thought of a friends with benefits relationship with him was not appealing at all. I told him that it seemed like they were right, but that I hoped we had something deeper than that. He then basically told me that the night had just been a booty call, and then during break, we had little to no contact. I was so hurt and confused... I talked to a close mutual friend about it, and she said it seemed like he didn't want that kind of relationship either.
But then when we got back from break, he came out to me and it all made sense. I was the first person he came out to. And the way he told me was so sweet, again, and I just wanted to be there for him as a really close friend, even though it really hurt. And through the process of supporting him as he came out to the rest of our friend group, it forced me to stop ignoring the part of me that has always known that I am not completely straight, either.
So you would think that after such an intense relationship, we'd be the best of friends, right? But instead, it's been really off and on. We were best friends for a few weeks, but then I'd start to feel used again, and back off, but I still love him, so I'd come back and he'd use me some more. Well, it's the last few weeks of the second semester, and I need to be focusing on finals again, but I'm too stressed out from this broken relationship. And I can't tell if my strong preference for women is because I'm actually lesbian, not bi, or if it's because of so much hurting coming from this recent breakup.
I've essentially cut him out of my life now, deleted his number from my phone and stopped talking to him, but it's really difficult because we share the same group of close friends, so we keep running into each other, every day. Meanwhile I'm not out to anyone except him and three other really close friends, and I'm trying to keep our mutual friends out of this split, and it's taking its toll on me. It should be easier to avoid him next year because I'll be living on campus, and he'll be off campus, but it still really hurts, because as much as I don't want him to keep using me selfishly, I still love him, and I can't completely convince myself that I want to cut him from my life, even though logically it's the best for both of us (or is it?).
tl;dr: I'm hopelessly confused about the place my ex should take in my life, and about my orientation.
Contact: Katherine Leitzell leitzell@iiasa.ac.at 43-223-680-7316 International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
As temperatures warm, plants release gases that help form clouds and cool the atmosphere, according to research from IIASA and the University of Helsinki.
The new study, published in Nature Geoscience, identified a negative feedback loop in which higher temperatures lead to an increase in concentrations of natural aerosols that have a cooling effect on the atmosphere.
"Plants, by reacting to changes in temperature, also moderate these changes," says IIASA and University of Helsinki researcher Pauli Paasonen, who led the study.
Scientists had known that some aerosols particles that float in the atmosphere cool the climate as they reflect sunlight and form cloud droplets, which reflect sunlight efficiently. Aerosol particles come from many sources, including human emissions. But the effect of so-called biogenic aerosol particulate matter that originates from plants had been less well understood. Plants release gases that, after atmospheric oxidation, tend to stick to aerosol particles, growing them into the larger-sized particles that reflect sunlight and also serve as the basis for cloud droplets. The new study showed that as temperatures warm and plants consequently release more of these gases, the concentrations of particles active in cloud formation increase.
"Everyone knows the scent of the forest," says Ari Asmi, University of Helsinki researcher who also worked on the study. "That scent is made up of these gases." While previous research had predicted the feedback effect, until now nobody had been able to prove its existence except for case studies limited to single sites and short time periods. The new study showed that the effect occurs over the long-term in continental size scales.
The effect of enhanced plant gas emissions on climate is small on a global scale only countering approximately 1 percent of climate warming, the study suggested. "This does not save us from climate warming," says Paasonen. However, he says, "Aerosol effects on climate are one of the main uncertainties in climate models. Understanding this mechanism could help us reduce those uncertainties and make the models better."
The study also showed that the effect was much larger on a regional scale, counteracting possibly up to 30% of warming in more rural, forested areas where anthropogenic emissions of aerosols were much lower in comparison to the natural aerosols. That means that especially in places like Finland, Siberia, and Canada this feedback loop may reduce warming substantially.
The researchers collected data at 11 different sites around the world, measuring the concentrations of aerosol particles in the atmosphere, along with the concentrations of plant gases, the temperature, and reanalysis estimates for the height of the boundary layer, which turned out to be a key variable. The boundary layer refers to the layer of air closest to the Earth, in which gases and particles mix effectively. The height of that layer changes with weather. Paasonen says, "One of the reasons that this phenomenon was not discovered earlier was because these estimates for boundary layer height are very difficult to do. Only recently have the reanalysis estimates been improved to where they can be taken as representative of reality."
###
Reference
Paasonen, P., et. al. 2013. Evidence for negative climate feedback: warming increases aerosol number concentrations. Nature Geoscience doi: 10.1038/NGEO1800
For more information please contact:
Pauli Paasonen
IIASA Guest Research Scholar
Mitigation of Air Pollution and Greenhouse Gases
Tel: +43 2236 807 498
Mob: +43 699 17 253 365
paasonen@iiasa.ac.at
Ari Asmi
Research Coordinator
University of Helsinki, Department of Physics, Division of Atmospheric Sciences
Tel: +358 9 191 50181
Mob: +358 40 770 9729
ari.asmi@helsinki.fi
Markku Kulmala
Academy professor
University of Helsinki, Department of Physics, Division of Atmospheric Sciences
Tel: + 358 9 191 50756
Mob: +358 40 596 2311
markku.kulmala@helsinki.fi
IIASA is an international scientific institute that conducts research into the critical issues of global environmental, economic, technological, and social change that we face in the twenty-first century. Our findings provide valuable options to policy makers to shape the future of our changing world. IIASA is independent and funded by scientific institutions in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Oceania, and Europe. http://www.iiasa.ac.at
[ | 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.
Contact: Katherine Leitzell leitzell@iiasa.ac.at 43-223-680-7316 International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
As temperatures warm, plants release gases that help form clouds and cool the atmosphere, according to research from IIASA and the University of Helsinki.
The new study, published in Nature Geoscience, identified a negative feedback loop in which higher temperatures lead to an increase in concentrations of natural aerosols that have a cooling effect on the atmosphere.
"Plants, by reacting to changes in temperature, also moderate these changes," says IIASA and University of Helsinki researcher Pauli Paasonen, who led the study.
Scientists had known that some aerosols particles that float in the atmosphere cool the climate as they reflect sunlight and form cloud droplets, which reflect sunlight efficiently. Aerosol particles come from many sources, including human emissions. But the effect of so-called biogenic aerosol particulate matter that originates from plants had been less well understood. Plants release gases that, after atmospheric oxidation, tend to stick to aerosol particles, growing them into the larger-sized particles that reflect sunlight and also serve as the basis for cloud droplets. The new study showed that as temperatures warm and plants consequently release more of these gases, the concentrations of particles active in cloud formation increase.
"Everyone knows the scent of the forest," says Ari Asmi, University of Helsinki researcher who also worked on the study. "That scent is made up of these gases." While previous research had predicted the feedback effect, until now nobody had been able to prove its existence except for case studies limited to single sites and short time periods. The new study showed that the effect occurs over the long-term in continental size scales.
The effect of enhanced plant gas emissions on climate is small on a global scale only countering approximately 1 percent of climate warming, the study suggested. "This does not save us from climate warming," says Paasonen. However, he says, "Aerosol effects on climate are one of the main uncertainties in climate models. Understanding this mechanism could help us reduce those uncertainties and make the models better."
The study also showed that the effect was much larger on a regional scale, counteracting possibly up to 30% of warming in more rural, forested areas where anthropogenic emissions of aerosols were much lower in comparison to the natural aerosols. That means that especially in places like Finland, Siberia, and Canada this feedback loop may reduce warming substantially.
The researchers collected data at 11 different sites around the world, measuring the concentrations of aerosol particles in the atmosphere, along with the concentrations of plant gases, the temperature, and reanalysis estimates for the height of the boundary layer, which turned out to be a key variable. The boundary layer refers to the layer of air closest to the Earth, in which gases and particles mix effectively. The height of that layer changes with weather. Paasonen says, "One of the reasons that this phenomenon was not discovered earlier was because these estimates for boundary layer height are very difficult to do. Only recently have the reanalysis estimates been improved to where they can be taken as representative of reality."
###
Reference
Paasonen, P., et. al. 2013. Evidence for negative climate feedback: warming increases aerosol number concentrations. Nature Geoscience doi: 10.1038/NGEO1800
For more information please contact:
Pauli Paasonen
IIASA Guest Research Scholar
Mitigation of Air Pollution and Greenhouse Gases
Tel: +43 2236 807 498
Mob: +43 699 17 253 365
paasonen@iiasa.ac.at
Ari Asmi
Research Coordinator
University of Helsinki, Department of Physics, Division of Atmospheric Sciences
Tel: +358 9 191 50181
Mob: +358 40 770 9729
ari.asmi@helsinki.fi
Markku Kulmala
Academy professor
University of Helsinki, Department of Physics, Division of Atmospheric Sciences
Tel: + 358 9 191 50756
Mob: +358 40 596 2311
markku.kulmala@helsinki.fi
IIASA is an international scientific institute that conducts research into the critical issues of global environmental, economic, technological, and social change that we face in the twenty-first century. Our findings provide valuable options to policy makers to shape the future of our changing world. IIASA is independent and funded by scientific institutions in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Oceania, and Europe. http://www.iiasa.ac.at
[ | 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.
LONDON (Reuters) - Stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Wall Street on Friday, with futures for the S&P 500, the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq 100 falling 0.1 to 0.3 percent.
U.S. economic growth likely rebounded in the first quarter after almost stalling at the end of 2012 as Americans shrugged off higher taxes and stepped up spending, but the trend is likely temporary.
Japan will give the green light later on Friday for Boeing Co's 787 Dreamliner to resume flights, the transport minister said, allowing top customers Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways to get the cutting-edge jet back in the air.
Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers release final April consumer sentiment index at 1355 GMT. Economists expect a reading of 73.2, compared with 72.3 in the preliminary April report.
Samsung Electronics grabbed more smartphone market share from arch-rival Apple in the latest quarter, with sales of its phones jumping to account for one third of the global market.
Economic Cycle Research Institute releases its weekly index of economic activity for April 19 at 1430 GMT. In the prior week, the index read 130.6.
Weyerhaeuser Co reported $0.26 earnings per share in the first quarter, while sales were $2 billion. It increased quarterly dividend by 18 percent and said dividend was set at 20 cents per share.
Other companies announcing results include Chevron , Tyco International , D.R. Horton and Goodyear Tire & Rubber .
Amazon.com Inc's revenue growth slowed in the first quarter as the world's largest Internet retail struggled overseas, but margins jumped on lower shipping expenses and the expansion of more profitable new businesses.
AT&T Inc will kick off its home security and monitoring service in 15 U.S. markets on Friday, seeking to develop revenue streams beyond cellphone services.
Microsoft Corp came out on top in the first of two patent trials versus Google Inc's Motorola Mobility unit on Thursday, as a federal judge in Seattle ruled largely in its favor.
European shares fell 0.5 percent early on Friday, cooling after five straight sessions of gains, with some disappointing earnings weighing on indexes.
U.S. stocks rose on Thursday, lifted by stronger-than-expected earnings and a large drop in weekly jobless claims.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> rose 24.50 points or 0.17 percent, to 14,700.80 at the close. The S&P 500 <.spx> gained 6.37 points or 0.40 percent, to 1,585.16. The Nasdaq Composite <.ixic> added 20.33 points or 0.62 percent, to close at 3,289.99.
(Reporting by Atul Prakash; Editing by Toby Chopra)
LONDON (Reuters) - More than half of British consumers refuse to spend money unless it is "absolutely necessary" in a weak economy, with prosecco now more likely to mark a special occasion than champagne, according a new consumer trend report released on Friday.
Global research firm Mintel's annual "British Lifestyles" report said one day after the country skirted a "triple dip" recession that consumers have made paying their bills and saving for a rainy day their top priorities.
Britain's Office for National Statistics provided some relief for Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron's government on Thursday when it reported that the economy grew faster than expected in the first three months of the year.
But the legacy of a sluggish economy that has flatlined since 2010 appeared clear in a report which showed that the top financial priority for 82 percent of British consumers was just keeping up with their bills.
"British consumers are adjusting to the new economic reality, with financial prudence and savvy shopping already the default for many," Mintel consumer analyst Ina Mitskavets said in a statement with the report.
Beyond paying the bills, Britons put saving up for rainy days and big ticket purchases as their other top priorities.
British consumers were also working longer hours, taking fewer holidays and more than a third said things have become more difficult in the past year.
In other trends highlighted in the report, more people were cooking and baking from scratch at home and beauty product sales remained strong because it was an affordable way for women to lift their mood, the so-called "lipstick effect."
In a sign of cooling interest in the high life for ordinary people, value sales of champagne dropped by 32 percent between 2007 and 2012 as drinkers reached for prosecco, cava and other sparkling wines instead when out in bars and restaurants.
"If you are out with all your friends celebrating your birthday you don't want to lose that celebration moment to pop the cork," Mintel drinks analyst Chris Wisson said.
"If you can save money while doing it, why wouldn't you? ... I think that's the rationalisation people have come to."
Mitskavets said other factors appearing on the horizon included a generation of youngsters who were taking on the parsimony of their parents after formative years spent watching the family struggle with the bills.
"The younger generation are also growing up extremely frugal because they came of age in that age of austerity," Mitskavets said. "The next generation is going to always have that in the back of their minds. We need to save as much money as possible."
(Reporting by Paul Casciato; editing by Mike Collett-White)
Boost Therapy is a mobile speech pathology and occupational therapy service for children in Brisbane. Occupational Therapist Christine Wyatt and Speech Pathologist Kate Sharma can travel to your home, your child?s school or educational facility so that assessment and therapy are easy and convenient for you. We are experienced therapists and believe that working together with families is very important.
How OT and Speech Therapy Can Help
Our Occupational therapist, Christine can help children who have difficulties in self-care (e.g. toilet and sleep routines), play skills, fine motor and gross motor skills, sensory processing and school skills. Speech pathology can assist children who have difficulty understanding or using language, using correct speech sounds to make themselves understood, stuttering, literacy difficulties, play skills and social skills difficulties. Kate and Christine can both work with children who have Autism, learning difficulties and other developmental delays.
Why Work With Boost Therapy?
One of the great advantages of working with us at Boost Therapy is that we work together very closely ? if your child needs both speech therapy and occupational therapy, then we are able to work together to look at your child holistically and ensure that they are getting the best out of both their speech therapy and occupational therapy sessions. We frequently receive positive feedback about the benefits of our co-ordinated approach to therapy as well as the convenience of home visits for busy families.
Where We Travel in Brisbane
We service most areas in Brisbane that are within 30 minutes of the CBD, and may charge a small additional fee for families residing outside this area. We also service Logan.
Funding Options
We are registered with Medicare and most private health funds. Your child may be eligible for an Enhanced Primary Care Plan (EPC) if your GP has provided a referral. An EPC comes with a rebate of $50 for 5 sessions. Ask your GP for details.
We are also registered providers of the Helping Children with Autism Package (HCWA).
?Our Approach
We understand that kids need to be kids, therefore we use fun and stimulating activities so that your child will want to participate in our sessions. We aim to make our sessions as individualised as possible so that they suit your child.
Head to our website at http://boosttherapy.com.au for further details or give us a call on 0422 891 012 (Kate ? Speech Therapist) or 0434 282 804 (Christine ? Occupational Therapist) to make an enquiry or book an appointment.
Link building is one of the most basic methods that Web professionals use to grow their businesses online. It?s a pretty great system because there are so many different ways to build links on the Internet, but it?s also really difficult because there are so many ways to build links, meaning there are a lot of ways to screw it up.
So, while getting links is an essential task for website owners, they should also make sure that they?re doing it the right way. Otherwise, their brand can be seriously (and in drastic cases, even irreparably) damaged. But with so many options for link building, how do you know what to do and what not to do? That?s easy! Just check out this Website Magazine guide to link building no-nos.
Irrelevant or Duplicate Content If you?re trying to garner links from websites, the first thing you should do is make sure you?re worth linking to! That means producing original and valuable content that is going to have some relevance to the people visiting the pages you want links from. Also, avoid running duplicate content (either content previously published on your site, or that you?ve written and published elsewhere) and writing guest blog posts for irrelevant sites. This will make your site feel authoritative and be more attractive to high-quality links.
Don?t Spam or Leave Irrelevant Comments Look, nobody on the Web likes a spammer, so don?t be that guy (or gal). It?s fair game for you to want to visit websites or forums that are relevant to your audience or niche and spread the word about your great site in hopes of building a few links, but that doesn?t mean you should just drop in context-less comments or replies that don?t really help progress any discussions or provide value to other readers, all in hopes that they?ll pay attention to you. Instead, take part in ongoing discussions to build your presence as an authority, and only add references or links to your site when it will add value to other visitors. And if you?re on a forum, you can even include a link to your site in your signature.
Be Social ? Not Pushy Social media marketing is basically a necessity on the Web these days; you?re just not going to get anywhere without it. However, just having a profile on Facebook, Twitter, etc. is not enough ? you also have to be social and engage with your fans/followers and other big names in your niche. Be friendly and open, and under no circumstances should you simply and blatantly engage in self-promotion, or spam the walls (and news feeds) of your fans with promotional links.
Don?t Buy Crappy Links The ultimate goal for people looking to build links is to find those that are high-quality and relevant to your site, so not only is it a waste for you to try to buy links from low-quality sources, it?ll also get you in trouble with Google, which keeps a cautious eye on low quality link sites that engage in a nefarious practice called ?link farming.? When it comes to getting quality links, your site and content should be all you need. And while you?re at it, don?t bother with ?trading? links with low quality sites just to have them. You?re better than that?
Slow Down on Submitting to Directories Directories, either paid or free, are great because they can seem like they're these big fields where links grow just for you, but don?t be tempted to just submit your site to a bunch of directories the week it goes live. Remember, good links come naturally and are built up over time. Plus, search engines can totally tell when you?ve just acquired a lot of links by going directory crazy, and that?s going to do more harm than good for your site in the immediate future.
Don?t Over-Link to Your Own Site If you?re a hard-working content marketer, chances are you?re producing articles and blog posts pretty regularly, including for other websites or blogs that you don?t run. Naturally, you may want to drop a link to your site once, maybe twice, in said article, if there?s a natural and not-totally-obvious way to do it (most authors save this for their bio section attached to the article). Be careful not to ?over-link? to your site in these articles, though. Remember, you?re supposed to be offering relevant and valuable information to your readers, not promoting your website, so never drop in more than one link to your site. Besides, Google is open about the fact that it only reads the first link anyway, so more than one link is not only annoying, but also useless.
Link to Various Pages on Your Site One of the biggest mistakes that people make when linking to their websites is to link only to their home pages. This is a bad idea, because (A) it makes users have to dig to find certain information, so just link to the pages you want them to see, and (B) it gives your site a bad deep link ratio and negatively affects how well your deeper ?child? pages will rank on the search engines. But also, if your site has a canonical issue that gives you a ?/index.html? URL in addition to your domain URL, make sure that when you DO link to your home page, it doesn?t send users to this index page (or any other home page extensions).
Change Up the Anchor Text When you?re targeting a specific term that you want associated with your website, you may think it?s a good idea to use the same anchor text in your links over and over again. It?s not. In fact, this kind of narrow targeting will actually hurt you on the search engines. Instead, try to vary the anchor text you use to include OTHER relevant or related terms, or terms specific to the page you?re linking to. This will help your site rank for more terms, obviously. Plus, it would be helpful to include your company or website name in a percentage of your links, as well.
WARSAW, April 25 (Reuters) - Borussia Dortmund striker Robert Lewandowski played down his stunning one-man demolition of Real Madrid, saying he had played better than Wednesday's four-goal masterclass. The Poland international scored all his team's goals in a 4-1 win over the nine-times champions in their Champions League semi-final first leg. "In the second half Real Madrid did not know how they should play, at some moments they were helpless," Lewandowski told the Polish pay-TV platform nc+. "We took the first step (towards the final). "I felt confident, but there were even better matches. ...
ANN ARBOR TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) ? Neil Sauter (SAW'-ter) walks 9 feet off the ground. But he's more concerned with distance than height these days.
Sauter plans to trek 400 miles across his home state during the next month as part of an effort to raise money for the United Cerebral Palsy of Michigan nonprofit.
The 29-year-old Deerfield resident has mild cerebral palsy.
His "Walk for No Limits" kicked off April 12 in Ann Arbor. His journey is scheduled to end May 19, not far from his southern Michigan home.
Five years ago, Sauter stilt-walked 830 miles across the state and raised about $85,000 in the process. This time, he's looking to walk less and raise more.
Sauter says that when he looks back, he's "going to be really proud of these trips."
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An influential Democratic senator said on Wednesday he was working on a bipartisan bill to boost President Barack Obama's ability to negotiate trade deals, but Republicans have made clear that more White House involvement is needed to pass the measure.
"I would like to see a bipartisan TPA (trade promotion authority) bill introduced by June," Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus said at a hearing on the Trans-Pacific Partnership pact, a proposed free trade agreement among 12 countries on both sides of the Pacific.
Approving the measure would help the White House conclude the three-year-old Asia-Pacific trade talks, which were expanded on Saturday to include Japan, Baucus said.
The Montana Democrat, who has been a driving force in Congress behind trade legislation, announced on Tuesday that he plans to retire at the end of his term next year.
Passing trade promotion authority this year would be a major achievement, setting the stage for votes on both the Trans-Pacific Partnership pact and another proposed free trade agreement with the European Union.
Representative Dave Camp, the Republican chairman of the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, also wants to move quickly on a bill on trade promotion authority, said a spokeswoman for that panel.
Karan Bhatia, a former U.S. trade official now a senior counsel and vice president at GE, underscored the need to pass TPA to finish the Trans-Pacific deal, which is expected to cover about 40 percent of global economic output.
"If the goal is to close this agreement done this year, I think we need to get TPA and we need to get it relatively soon," Bhatia referring to the current target of finishing talks on the Trans-Pacific pact in 2013.
Trade promotion authority, also known as "fast-track" trade legislation, allows the White House to submit trade deals to Congress for straight up-or-down votes without any amendments.
The legislation, which expired in 2007, is considered essential to assure other countries that any deals they reach with the United States will not be picked apart by Congress.
Staff on both the Senate Finance Committee and the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee have already begun work on TPA legislation, which could face strong resistance from many Democratic who believe trade deals lead to U.S. job losses.
Senator Robert Casey, a Pennsylvania Democrat, said he had a "high degree of skepticism" about the Trans-Pacific Partnership pact because of the potential for job losses in the U.S. auto sector and other industries.
Obama has not formally requested TPA from Congress, although acting U.S. Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis told the Senate Finance Committee last month the administration was prepared to work with lawmakers on a bill.
Senator John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, said he worried that White House foot-dragging on the legislation could lead to delays in concluding the Trans-Pacific talks.
"We know renewal of TPA is likely to be contentious and it's going to take time, obviously, for Congress to work through the process," Thune said, urging the White House to put a greater priority on passing the bill.
Senator Orrin Hatch, the senior Republican on the Finance Committee, echoed those concerns.
"I have yet to see any real commitment on the part of the White House to achieving (TPA's) quick consideration and approval in Congress," he said.
"A formal request from the administration for TPA would send a strong signal to our negotiating partners and the proponents of the Trans-Pacific Partnership that the president is serious about making sure the rhetoric surrounding the agreement meets the reality of the negotiating table," Hatch said.
(Reporting by Doug Palmer; Editing by Neil Stempleman and Christopher Wilson)
ROME (AP) ? Silvio Berlusconi's top political aide says issues on economic policy must be resolved before his conservative forces can join a center-left party in a coalition government for Italy.
But Angelino Alfano said after meeting Premier-designate Enrico Letta on Thursday that progress was made toward an agreement.
Letta, a center-left leader, is trying to find common ground among political blocs mired in deadlock since inconclusive February elections.
Ex-Premier Berlusconi's "recipe" for reviving economy includes abolishing a property tax some consider crucial to Italy's surviving the eurozone debt crisis.
Daughter Violet Grace Devereux Sanford arrived at 7:57 a.m., weighing in at 6 lbs., 12 oz. and measuring 19.5 inches long, the actress confirms to PEOPLE exclusively.
FILE - In this Thursday, July 19, 2012 file photo, a UPS truck stops in front of a Sprint store at the Derby Street Shoppes in Hingham, Mass. Sprint Nextel Corp. reports quarterly financial results before the market opens on Wednesday, April 24, 2013 (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)
FILE - In this Thursday, July 19, 2012 file photo, a UPS truck stops in front of a Sprint store at the Derby Street Shoppes in Hingham, Mass. Sprint Nextel Corp. reports quarterly financial results before the market opens on Wednesday, April 24, 2013 (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)
NEW YORK (AP) ? The flow of new customers to Sprint stopped in the latest quarter, even as the company weighs the offers of two corporate suitors.
Sprint Nextel Corp. on Wednesday said it added a net of just 12,000 customers to its Sprint brand in the quarter, and it would have lost 252,000 if it wasn't for Nextel customers moving over now that their network is being shut down.
The number of new Sprint customers was the lowest for any quarter since 2009, and suggests that CEO Dan Hesse's carefully engineered turnaround of the company is on shaky ground. There are just 1 million Nextel customers left, raising the question of what Sprint's subscriber trends will look like when they're gone.
In the short term, having fewer new customers helps a phone company's bottom line, since it doesn't have to pay out as much in phone subsidies. Phone companies pay hundreds of dollars in subsidies to put new phones in customer hands for $199 or less.
Sprint, which has posted a net loss in every quarter for the last six years, narrowed its first-quarter net loss to $643 million, or 21 cents per share. A year ago, it lost $863 million, or 29 cents per share.
Revenue edged up 0.7 percent to $8.79 billion.
Both figures beat analyst estimates. According to FactSet's survey, Wall Street expected Sprint to report a loss of 32 cents per share on revenue of $8.73 billion.
Sprint has agreed to sell 70 percent of itself to Japan's Softbank Corp. for $20.1 billion, but last week got a competing $25.5 billion offer from Dish Network Corp. for the whole company.
Sprint shares slipped 2 cents to $7.08 in premarket trading, suggesting that investors don't believe the latest quarterly results will change the strategies of its suitors.
TORONTO (AP) ? Two men were arrested and charged with plotting a terrorist attack against a Canadian passenger train with support from al-Qaida "elements" in Iran, police said Monday.
Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, and Raed Jaser, 35, who live in Montreal and Toronto, were planning to derail a Via Rail passenger train in Toronto but posed no immediate threat, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said.
"This is the first known al-Qaida planned attack that we've experienced in Canada," Superintendent Doug Best told a news conference.
RCMP Assistant Commissioner James Malizia said the two men had "direction and guidance" from "al-Qaida elements located in Iran," though there was no reason to think the planned attacks were state-sponsored. Police said the men did not get financial support from al-Qaida, but declined to provide more details.
"It was definitely in the planning stage but not imminent," RCMP chief superintendent Jennifer Strachan said. "We are alleging that these two individuals took steps and conducted activities to initiate a terrorist attack. They watched trains and railways."
Strachan said they were targeting a route, but didn't say if it was a cross border route.
Bruce Riedel, a CIA veteran who is now a Brookings Institution senior fellow, said al-Qaida has had a clandestine presence in Iran since at least 2001 and that neither the terror group nor Tehran speak openly about it.
"The Iranian regime kept some of these elements under house arrest," he said in an email to The Associated Press. "Some probably operate covertly. AQ members often transit Iran traveling between hideouts in Pakistan and Iraq."
Charges against the two men include conspiring to carry out an attack and murder people in association with a terrorist group. Police said the men are not Canadian citizens, but declined to say where they were from or why they were in the country.
RCMP Chief Superintendent Jennifer Strachan (R), Assistant Commissioner James Malizia (C) and Chief Superintendent Gaeten Courchesne (L) speak during a news conference in Toronto, Ontario, April 22, ... more? RCMP Chief Superintendent Jennifer Strachan (R), Assistant Commissioner James Malizia (C) and Chief Superintendent Gaeten Courchesne (L) speak during a news conference in Toronto, Ontario, April 22, 2013. Canadian police said on Monday they had arrested and charged two men with an "al Qaeda-supported" plot to derail a VIA passenger train. The RCMP said it had arrested Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, of Montreal, and Raed Jaser, 35, of Toronto in connection with the plot, which authorities said was not linked to the Boston Marathon bombings, but likely had connections to al-Qaeda. REUTERS/Aaron Harris (CANADA - Tags: CRIME LAW TRANSPORT CIVIL UNREST) less? They had been in Canada "a significant amount of time." He would not say how long, but said they had been under investigation since last fall.
Authorities were tipped off about one of the suspects by members of his community, said Best, who would not specify which community.
The investigation was part of a cross-border operation involving Canadian law enforcement agencies, the FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
There is no connection between the Canadian terrorist plot and the Boston Marathon bombings, said a U.S. Justice Department official in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity because the source was not permitted to speak on the record about the matter.
Strachan said the two men will attend a bail hearing in Toronto on Tuesday.
A spokeswoman for the University of Sherbrooke in Montreal said that Esseghaier studied there in 2008-2009. More recently, he has been doing doctoral research at the Institut national de la recherche scientifique, a sokeswoman at the training university confirmed. A Linked In page says a man with Esseghaier's name and academic background helped author a number of biology research papers, including on HIV and cancer detection. The page carries a photo of a black flag inscribed with the Islamic declaration of faith.
The arrests just a few months after two Canadians were found among militants killed in a terrorist siege at a gas plant in Algeria. The siege killed at least 38 hostages and 29 militants, including Ali Medlej and Xristos Katsiroubas, two high school friends from London, Ontario.
In 2006 Canadian police foiled the so-called Toronto 18 home grown plot to set off bombs outside Toronto's Stock Exchange, a building housing Canada's spy agency and a military base. The goal was to scare Canada into removing its troops from Afghanistan. The arrests made international headlines and heightened fears in a country where many people thought they were relatively immune from terrorist strikes.
___
Associated Press writers Rob Gillies in Toronto and Pete Yost in Washington contributed to this story.
Sen. Max Baucus, the veteran Finance Committee chairman who's had a hand in major tax and health care legislation for decades, will not seek re-election next year.
"After??much consideration and many conversations with my wife Mel and our family, I have decided not to seek reelection in 2014. I will serve out my term, and then it will be time to go home to Montana," the Montana Democrat announced Tuesday.
First elected in 1978, Baucus heads the powerful Senate committee charged with writing tax and health care legislation. He was instrumental in crafting the 2010 law overhauling the federal health care system, and was embarking on a new effort to revamp the tax code.
But Baucus, 71, faced re-election trouble in his increasingly conservative state. Last week, he joined four other Democrats in voting against a gun control measure, toughening background checks, pushed hard by President Barack Obama.
Baucus had been painted as too friendly to Washington lobbyists, and some liberals Tuesday hailed a retirement.
"Goodbye, Senator K Street. Max Baucus has a history of voting with
corporate interests and not the interests of Montana voters -- taking
millions from Wall Street, insurance companies, and lobbyists. Montana
will finally have a chance to have a senator with its best interests at
heart, and we hope Brian Schweitzer jumps into the race immediately,"
said Stephanie Taylor, Progressive Change Campaign Committee co-founder.
Reactions
from the two parties varied along predictable lines. Republicans were
pleased that Baucus, who has the ability to raise millions, is stepping
down -- though former Gov. Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat, could seek the
seat.
Nonetheless, Rob Collins, National Republican Senatorial Committee director, chided Baucus over the health care law.
"Its?architect Max Baucus waved the white flag rather than face voters," Collins said.
"The
2014 electoral map is in free?fall for Democrats, who were already
facing a daunting challenge," he said. Republicans are defending 21
seats to the Democrats' 35. Republicans need a net gain of six seats to
win control of the Senate.
Sen.?Michael
Bennet, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chairman,
disagreed. Bennet said Baucus would be "sorely missed," and noted that
Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., won a tough race last year.
"Democrats
built an unprecedented ground game in Montana in 2012 when Senator
Tester was reelected, and we will continue to invest all the resources
necessary to hold this seat," Bennet?said.
Baucus said he would "continue to work on simplifying and improving the tax code, tackling the nation?s debt, pushing important job-creating trade agreements through the Senate, and implementing and expanding affordable health care for more Americans.
"Deciding not to run for re-election was an extremely difficult decision," he said. "After thinking long and hard, I decided I want to focus the next year and a half on serving Montana unconstrained by the demands of a campaign. Then, I want to come home and spend time with Mel, my son Zeno, and our family enjoying the Montana public lands we?ve fought hard to keep open and untarnished.
A contact lens on the bathroom floor, an escaped hamster in the backyard, a car key in a bed of gravel: How are we able to focus so sharply to find that proverbial needle in a haystack? Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have discovered that when we embark on a targeted search, various visual and non-visual regions of the brain mobilize to track down a person, animal or thing.
That means that if we're looking for a youngster lost in a crowd, the brain areas usually dedicated to recognizing other objects, or even the areas attuned to abstract thought, shift their focus and join the search party. Thus, the brain rapidly switches into a highly focused child-finder, and redirects resources it uses for other mental tasks.
"Our results show that our brains are much more dynamic than previously thought, rapidly reallocating resources based on behavioral demands, and optimizing our performance by increasing the precision with which we can perform relevant tasks," said Tolga Cukur, a postdoctoral researcher in neuroscience at UC Berkeley and lead author of the study to be published Sunday, April 21, in the journalNature Neuroscience.
"As you plan your day at work, for example, more of the brain is devoted to processing time, tasks, goals and rewards, and as you search for your cat, more of the brain becomes involved in recognition of animals," he added.
The findings help explain why we find it difficult to concentrate on more than one task at a time. The results also shed light on how people are able to shift their attention to challenging tasks, and may provide greater insight into neurobehavioral and attention deficit disorders such as ADHD.
These results were obtained in studies that used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to record the brain activity of study participants as they searched for people or vehicles in movie clips. In one experiment, participants held down a button whenever a person appeared in the movie. In another, they did the same with vehicles.
The brain scans simultaneously measured neural activity via blood flow in thousands of locations across the brain. Researchers used regularized linear regression analysis, which finds correlations in data, to build models showing how each of the roughly 50,000 locations near the cortex responded to each of the 935 categories of objects and actions seen in the movie clips. Next, they compared how much of the cortex was devoted to detecting humans or vehicles depending on whether or not each of those categories was the search target.
They found that when participants searched for humans, relatively more of the cortex was devoted to humans, and when they searched for vehicles, more of the cortex was devoted to vehicles. For example, areas that were normally involved in recognizing specific visual categories such as plants or buildings switched to become tuned to humans or vehicles, vastly expanding the area of the brain engaged in the search.
"These changes occur across many brain regions, not only those devoted to vision. In fact, the largest changes are seen in the prefrontal cortex, which is usually thought to be involved in abstract thought, long-term planning and other complex mental tasks," Cukur said.
The findings build on an earlier UC Berkeley brain imaging study that showed how the brain organizes thousands of animate and inanimate objects into what researchers call a "continuous semantic space." Those findings challenged previous assumptions that every visual category is represented in a separate region of visual cortex. Instead, researchers found that categories are actually represented in highly organized, continuous maps.
The latest study goes further to show how the brain's semantic space is warped during visual search, depending on the search target. Researchers have posted their results in an interactive, online brain viewer. Other co-authors of the study are UC Berkeley neuroscientists Jack Gallant, Alexander Huth and Shinji Nishimoto.
###
University of California - Berkeley: http://www.berkeley.edu
Thanks to University of California - Berkeley for this article.
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Reddit provided a forum coordinate aid for victims of the Boston Marathon bombings. Overnight, thousands donated everything from pizzas to transportation to housing.
By Leslie Meredith,?TechNewsDaily.com / April 16, 2013
A candlelight vigil honors the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing in Boston Public Garden, April 16, 2013 in Boston, Massachusetts. In the immediate aftermath of Monday's explosions, Reddit emerged as a tool for coordinating relief efforts.
Ann Hermes/The Christian Science Monitor
Enlarge
The power of social media was revealed when Redditors rallied to provide aid to victims of the Boston Marathon bombings. Overnight, heroes were recognized and thousands donated everything from pizzas to places to take a hot shower or just recharge a cellphone.
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Food, shelter, transportation donations pour in
By early on the evening of April 15, a post by user superdude4agze's had risen close to the top of the subreddit "inthenews." The post provided essential resources offered by Redditors, including offers of places to stay, rides, food and hundreds of thousands of frequent flyer miles for those who needed to leave Boston and to victims' family members who needed a flight into the city.
Reddit was uniquely prepared to get food out to those in need. Through its subreddit "Random Acts of Pizza," where users can send each other pizzas just to be nice, rescue workers and those who had been hospitalized were the beneficiaries of?Redditor generosity . Restaurant Anytime Pizza is leading the effort.
"Spoke with an Anytime Pizza employee (Perry) this morning. They pulled in their entire staff last night to cook and deliver pizzas," Redditor iamnotevenperturb, who moderates the pizza subreddit, reported. "You'll be happy to know, though, that they were getting police escorted around and were working straight through the night."
Heroes of Reddit
Perry, the pizza man of Anytime Pizza, is poised to become a?Reddit hero. He has said that regardless of donations, he will continue to deliver pizzas. This afternoon he will be sending them to shelters and fire stations.
"He could just post "Hi, I'm Perry" and provide proof and we would all probably piss ourselves," Redditor anotherguy2 posted, referring to another popular Reddit feature called IAMA, in which people come on Reddit to answer questions. Past participants include President Barack Obama and Bill Gates.
Today (April 16), the man who used a belt as a tourniquet for a victim whose leg had been blown off by the second bomb hosted an "IAMA" and has invited readers to "Ask Me Anything" ? AMA in Reddit shorthand.
The generosity of Redditors has made an impact and the effort continues. A ?Redditor wrote, "This is such a wonderful thing you are all doing for those affected. I've done all I can from here in FL, but this is actually bringing tears to my eyes to see how many people are doing so much!!"
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San Antonio Spurs' Manu Ginobili, right, of Argentina, is pressured by Los Angeles Lakers' Jodie Meeks (20) and Antawn Jamison (4) during the first half of Game 1 of their first-round NBA playoff basketball series, Sunday, April 21, 2013, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
San Antonio Spurs' Manu Ginobili, right, of Argentina, is pressured by Los Angeles Lakers' Jodie Meeks (20) and Antawn Jamison (4) during the first half of Game 1 of their first-round NBA playoff basketball series, Sunday, April 21, 2013, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
San Antonio Spurs' Tony Parker (9), of France, asks an official for a goaltending call during the first half of Game 1 of their first-round NBA playoff basketball series against the Los Angeles Lakers, Sunday, April 21, 2013, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Los Angeles Lakers' Steve Blake, center, is surrounded by San Antonio Spurs', from left, Danny Green, Tony Parker, Tim Duncan and Tiago Splitter as he tries to drive to the basket during the first half of Game 1 of their first-round NBA playoff basketball series, Sunday, April 21, 2013, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
San Antonio Spurs' Tim Duncan (21) grabs a rebound between Los Angeles Lakers' Jodie Meeks (20), Antawn Jamison (4) and Pau Gasol (16) during the first half of Game 1 of their first-round NBA playoff basketball series, Sunday, April 21, 2013, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Los Angeles Lakers' Jodie Meeks, center, loses control of the ball as he drives to the basket against the San Antonio Spurs during the first half of Game 1 of their first-round NBA playoff basketball series, Sunday, April 21, 2013, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
SAN ANTONIO (AP) ? Manu Ginobili cautioned against expecting too much from him in his second game back from a hamstring injury.
All he did is help the San Antonio Spurs snap a three-game skid and win their playoff opener against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Ginobili and Tony Parker scored 18 points each as the Spurs led from early in the first quarter and beat the Lakers 91-79 on Sunday.
"It was great to have Manu back," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "He does what he does. He makes big shots. He creates problems for the opponent and he's got a great will, a great desire. I'll worry all night about how he'll feel in the morning. If he says he feels great, then that will be a good sign for our team."
In his 11th season, Ginobili has battled leg injuries all season and was playing for the second time following a nine-game absence due to a strained right hamstring. He looked like his old self, going 6 for 13 from the field and 3 for 5 on 3s in 19 minutes.
"I feel good," Ginobili said. "I'm very happy that I played the whole game, that I didn't get hurt and that I scored a little bit."
Tim Duncan added 17 points and 10 rebounds, Matt Bonner had 10 points and Kawhi Leonard had eight points and 11 rebounds for San Antonio.
Dwight Howard had 20 points and 15 rebounds, Steve Nash scored 16 points and Pau Gasol added 16 points and 16 rebounds for Los Angeles.
Despite the double-doubles from Howard and Gasol, the Lakers failed to take full advantage of their inside presence, much to the consternation of the injured Kobe Bryant, who watched the national broadcast.
"Post. Post. Post," Bryant, sidelined with a torn Achilles, tweeted in reference to the Lakers' offense.
"Yea, that's what we did," D'Antoni said when asked about Bryant's tweet. "It's great to have that commentary."
Los Angeles' height caused San Antonio problems early as the Spurs missed their first three shots ? all inside the paint ? as they altered their shots to avoid Howard and Gasol.
Nash, who returned after missing nine games with a hip/hamstring injury, gave the Lakers their only lead with a jumper on the game's opening possession.
Duncan broke the drought, hitting a pair of jumpers over Gasol that gave San Antonio a 4-2 lead with 9:33 remaining and the Spurs led the rest of the way.
"It was a very physical game," Duncan said. "It was a good start to our playoff run. We shook off a lot of cobwebs we've had over the past 10 games or so. It was great to have everybody back out there together. It was a good start overall."
The Lakers shot 35 percent from the field in the first half, primarily missing shots from 11 feet and out. Los Angeles had 10 points in the paint, but could not consistently work the ball inside for attempts.
"There's no reason other than you're playing San Antonio," D'Antoni said. "That's a good team."
Los Angeles pulled to 28-24 with 7 minutes left as Howard had four points in an 8-0 run, including an alley-oop dunk off a feed from Gasol to cap the run.
It was the closest Los Angeles would come as San Antonio extended its lead to 10 points in the quarter.
San Antonio shot 38 percent from the field overall, but Los Angeles failed to take advantage of it, committing 18 turnovers while shooting 41 percent.
"It was the first game," Howard said. "We can't get discouraged because we lost the first game. San Antonio did what they were supposed to do tonight, but we've just got to come in the second game. We saw a couple of things we could have done a lot better. We will do a better job in the second game. Overall, they just came out and played extremely well. They just made a lot of shots and we missed a lot of shots."
The Lakers shot 50 percent from the field in the second quarter, but also had seven turnovers.
"What I would say if I was there right now," Bryant tweeted. "Pau get ur (butt) on the block and don't move till u get it."
D'Antoni was asked if Bryant's tweets were appropriate.
"Yea, that's fine," he said. "He's a fan right now. He's a fan and you guys (the media) put a little more importance on that kind of fan, but he's a fan. He gets excited and he wants to be a part of it, so that's good."
Los Angeles went on an 11-4 run to cut San Antonio's lead to 54-50 with 5 minutes left in the third, but the Spurs rebuilt their lead once again.
Ginobili hit a pair of 3s to give San Antonio a 70-57 lead to close the third.
"I knew I was usually going to play in the third quarter," Ginobili said. "That used to be my moment. Now I know that I am not in my best shape physically, I thought I had a little window there and it went well."
Leonard blocked a 3-point attempt by Metta World Peace and then made a layup on the ensuing fast break. Leonard faked an attempt, sending World Peace flying past him for an open shot that gave San Antonio a 76-63 lead with 8 minutes left.
NOTES: Duncan and Parker have won 594 games in 12 seasons, which is three shy of tying the Lakers' Derek Fisher and Kobe Bryant for fourth all-time. ... San Antonio evened their overall series with Los Angeles at 75 wins apiece, giving the Spurs a .500 or better record against every team in the NBA. ... Ginobili was asked if it was true his freestyling play caused Popovich's hair turned from gray to white. "Yeah, and he lost a bunch, too," Ginobili said. "We both did."
What is different now, said Mitchell Hoffman, an economist and postdoctoral researcher at the Yale School of Management, is the amount and detail of worker data being collected. In the past, he said, studies of worker behavior typically might have involved observing a few hundred people at most ? the traditional approach in sociology or personnel economics.
But a new working paper, written by Mr. Hoffman and three other researchers, mines data from companies in three industries ? telephone call centers, trucking and software ?- on a total of more than one million job applicants and more than 70,000 workers over several years.
The measurements can be quite detailed including call ?handle? times and customer satisfaction surveys (call centers), miles driven per week and accidents (trucking), and patent applications and lines of code written (software).
Their subject is worker referrals, and the paper is titled,??The Value of Hiring Through Referrals.?
...
Mr. Cowgill, a doctoral student at the University of California, Berkeley..
The data in work force science is observational data rather than data from experiments, which is the gold standard in science. What much of Big Data research lacks, Mr. Cowgill said, is the equivalent rigor of randomized clinical trials in drug-testing. That is, controlled experiments. (Blogmaster tip: Cukier's book Big Data says why worry about randomized sampling (bias, error, etc...) when you "can have it all, n (sample size)=all" + correlations vs. causation)
Observing how large numbers of people behave, Mr. Cowgill noted, can be extremely valuable, pointing to powerful correlations . But without controlled experiments, he added, you often do not get to the deeper understanding of the causes of observed behavior ? understanding causation rather than merely identifying correlation.
..."I wouldn?t sell short being able to see the correlations??said Erik Brynjolfsson, an economist at M.I.T.?s Sloan School of Management...
HANOVER, Maryland (Reuters) - A U.S. Air Force Academy team on Friday beat out rivals from other elite military colleges after a three-day simulated cyber "war" against hackers from the National Security Agency that is meant to teach future officers the importance of cybersecurity.
Nearly 60 government experts ? sitting under a black skull and crossbones flag ? worked around the clock this week to break into computer networks built by students at the Air Force, Army, Navy, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine academies. Two military graduate schools also participated.
The annual Cyber Defense Exercise (CDX), now in its 13th year, gives students real world practice in fighting off a increasing barrage of cyber attacks aimed at U.S. computer networks by China, Russia and Iran, among others.
It also allows the NSA's top cyber experts and others from military reserves, National Guard units and other agencies hone their offensive skills at a time when the Pentagon is trying to pump up its arsenal of cyber weapons.
While the students sleep or catch up on other work, some of the NSA's "red cell" attackers use viruses, so-called "Trojan horses" and other malicious software to corrupt student-built networks or steal data ? in this case, long sets of numbers dreamt up by the officials coordinating the exercise.
But the job gets tougher every year, says Raphael Mudge, an Air Force reservist who develops software and training to protect private computer networks.
"It's challenging. The students are hungry to win," said Mudge. "It forces all of us to get better."
Army General Keith Alexander, who heads both the Pentagon's Cyber Command and the NSA, stopped by to see the "red cell" hackers in action at a Lockheed Martin Corp facility near NSA headquarters on Thursday, said spokeswoman Vanee Vines.
Alexander often speaks about the need to get more young people engaged in cybersecurity given the exponential growth in the number and intensity of attacks on U.S. networks.
The Pentagon's budget for cyber operations rose sharply in the fiscal 2014 request sent to Congress, reflecting heightened concerns about an estimated $400 billion in intellectual property stolen from U.S. computer networks in recent years.
Martin Carlisle said his 28-member team fought hard for first place after a hardware failure the first day. It was their fourth win in 13 years.
"Our nation is under attack. We need to train up a new generation of leaders," he said.
Shawn Turskey, a senior NSA official, said the goal was to raise awareness among future military commanders.
"The real payoff of this program is going to be seen 10, 15 years down the road when these individuals are admirals and generals," he said.
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Public release date: 28-Apr-2013
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