In order to equip enterprise devs with the proper tools to create custom Maps, Google announced the Maps Engine API. The kit allows users to leverage the outfit's cloud muscle to layer appropriate info on a Google Map and publish the results for either internal or widespread use. Direct access to Maps Engine is provided through the API and web, Android, iOS and server-to-server platforms are all in play. A few companies have already put the goods to use -- FedEx is leveraging it to search its locations for the closest shipping option.
>>>of drones by the u.s. overseas. the president gave a speech on the topic. part of the appeal of using drones in place of live personnel is their accuracy but they may not be as precise as many u.s. officials claim. our report on this tonight from our chief foreign correspondent
richard engel
.
>> reporter: look at the tall man in white flanked by body guards. experts say it's
osama bin laden
in
afghanistan
one year before 9/11 in footage captured by the very first
predator drone
mission. but the drone isn't armed. a year later, drones are fitted with rockets and pakistan quickly turns into a
hunting ground
. an estimated 49 drone strikes under
president bush
. more than 300 under
president obama
.
>>conventional
air power
or missiles are far less precise than drones and are likely to cause more
civilian casualties
.
>> reporter: does the u.s. always know who drone strikes are actually killing?
nbc
news has examined classified documents detailing 114 drone strikes in pakistan in
2010
and '11. locations, death tolls, alleged terrorist affiliations. they also reveal what u.s. officials don't know like how many killed. between seven and ten in one strike, 20 to 22 in another. u.s. officials do seem certain they almost never kill civilians. in those 114 strikes, only one acknowledged
civilian casualty
.
>>they want to maintain the myth that civilians are not harmed with drone strikes which is implausible.
>> reporter: what's more, a quarter of those killed are described generically as, quote, other militants. it suggests u.s. oh officih -- officials don't always know how many or who they are killing. targets based on a signature profile. where they live, who they meet, who they talk to. several senior officials informed
nbc
news they had concerns about signature strikes. one told us the u.s. sometimes executes people based on circumstantial evidence. many counter terrorism officials insist drones are more precise than conventional attacks and they work. with a proven track record against
al qaeda
.
>>it's been a tremendous step forward in
military technology
. it's combined the capabilities of oh surveillance strike and long endurance in one platform.
>> reporter: drones are part of war now. but determining from afar who is a terrorist remains less precise than the weapons used to kill them. responding to our story a senior
white house
official told
nbc
news a major justification for many of the drone strikes is protecting
u.s. troops
in and around
afghanistan
.
president obama
has said as u.s. troop numbers in
afghanistan
goes down, so will the strikes.
>>richard engel
with tonight's investigation. thanks for your work.
This Saturday, Joan Rivers, the woman who has rejuvenated her visage so successfully that nobody on Earth has had any notion of her real age for decades, will celebrate her 80th birthday. And I, for one, am outraged. The fact that this occasion has not been declared a national holiday is a shonda of epic proportions. (Expect more Yiddish in the coming paragraphs.) Joan is, quite simply, a national treasure.
We all owe Joan a massive debt of gratitude. Without Joan, life in our celebrity-obsessed society would not be worth living. Joan is our guiding light. She has shown us all that, even though we are force-fed endless drivel about self-important A-listers from morning till night, there is no reason why we have to take that crap lying down. She gives us carte blanche to rip those freebie-crazed red-carpet deities to shreds at every opportunity. Without Joan and her complete lack of respect, we would all be stuck in a perpetual episode of Inside the Actors Studio.
I became aware of Joan?s passion for no-holds-barred celebrity debunkery back in the ?80s. Around this time June Allyson had somewhat recklessly elected to become a high-profile spokeslady for a well-known brand of adult diapers. It is no exaggeration to say that every time one turned on one?s telly, one was subjected to an endless stream of saccharine incontinence-themed testimonials from the gravelly voiced Ms. Allyson. Joan to the rescue. In her nightly monologue, La Rivers would invariably lob a grenade or two at old June: ?Sheesh! It?s so humid in New York today, June Allyson is wearing two pairs of Depends. ? Oh, please ? grow up!!?
June?s only consolation must surely have been that, regularly mocked though she was, at least she wasn?t Elizabeth Taylor. At that point in her career Miss Taylor, and her fluctuating weight, were getting the lion?s share of Joan?s loving attention: ?Liz Taylor! Can we talk? Now she has to put Vaseline on her hips to squeeze through the Golden Arches. Grow up!?
Not all of Joan?s celeb mockery was so brash. Joan has always been capable of exquisitely subtle barbs. I vividly remember Grace Jones riding onto Joan?s stage, posing, growling, roaring, snarling, and sucking in her cheeks (both sets) while straddling a Harley and wearing a bizarre, hired-assassin leather new wave outfit. ?Just a simple girl with a dream,? deadpanned Joan.
Joan and I got acquainted in the mid-1980s when I was working at Barneys in downtown Manhattan. At this point Ms. Rivers was a major TV star and a major customer. We were wardrobing her for her nightly chat show?she favored Chanel, Valentino, Geoffrey Beene, and Karl Lagerfeld?but, unlike the freebie-crazed celebs of today, she always ended up buying most of the high-priced designer schmattas. Cheap she is not.
Joan was at the store constantly for fittings. It was during this time that I got to study this bitchy broad up close ? only to find out that she was anything but. Joan Rivers is shockingly thoughtful, polite, and kind. Quel paradoxe! The viper-tongued vixen is actually a total softie who was idolized by the Barneys staff. She remembered names, birthdays, traumas, hysterectomies, dead pets, live pets. If anybody got pregnant or kicked the bucket, Joan was the first to offer congrats or condolences. Look up the word hamische in the Yiddish dictionary: Next to it you will find a picture of Joan Alexandra Rivers, nee Molinsky.
In 1990 I decided it was time to pay tribute to our favorite customer by creating a Joan Rivers holiday window homage. I commissioned a life-size caricature from artist Martha King. Also in this diorama was a replica of Joan?s beloved Yorkie, Spike. The other major prop was a June Allyson wreath constructed entirely of Depends adult diapers (fresh and unworn). It was quickly edited from the window when I realized it was not producing any laughs, because it resembled a depressingly lumpy life preserver.
The discarded diaper wreath left us in need of a little humorous garnish. Joan to the rescue, again! Before you could say, ?Borscht Belt,? Joan had faxed through some thigh-slapping holiday one-liners, which covered a banner we draped across the back of the window, much to the delight of passersby:
By Tony Jimenez LONDON, June 3 (Reuters) - Jose Mourinho's return to Chelsea throws up a host of thought-provoking sub plots, none more intriguing than the question of whether the new coach feels John Terry and Fernando Torres have a future at the club. Captain Terry was relegated to fourth-choice centre half under interim boss Rafa Benitez last season and, although Torres had his best season in Chelsea blue, the Spain striker has only bagged one goal in the Premier League in 2013. ...
China's President Xi Jinping, center, and his wife Peng Liyuan hold the "Key to the City" given to them by San Jose Mayor Johnny Araya in San Jose, Costa Rica, Monday, June 3, 2013. After Costa Rica, Xi has planned stops in Mexico and the United States. Trinidad, a leading supplier of natural gas, was his first stop of a four-country trip in the region. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)
China's President Xi Jinping, center, and his wife Peng Liyuan hold the "Key to the City" given to them by San Jose Mayor Johnny Araya in San Jose, Costa Rica, Monday, June 3, 2013. After Costa Rica, Xi has planned stops in Mexico and the United States. Trinidad, a leading supplier of natural gas, was his first stop of a four-country trip in the region. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)
China's President Xi Jinping talks during a press conference at the presidential house in San Jose, Costa Rica, Monday, June 3, 2013. After Costa Rica, Xi has planned stops in Mexico and the United States. Trinidad, a leading supplier of natural gas, was his first stop of a four-country trip in the region. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) ? Chinese President Xi Jinping and American counterpart Barack Obama will talk cyber-security this week in California, but experts say the state's Silicon Valley and its signature high-tech firms should provide the front lines in the increasingly aggressive fight against overseas hackers.
With China seeking to grow its economy and expand its technology base, companies like Facebook, Apple, Google and Twitter are inviting targets. In fact, all have been attacked and all point the finger at China, which has denied any role.
The U.S. government has stepped up efforts to thwart cyber-attacks, but those efforts are mainly focused at protecting its own secrets, especially regarding military operations and technologies.
Paul Rosenzweig, a former Department of Homeland Security official whose Red Branch Consulting provides national security advice, said the responsibility for preventing attacks in the private sector lies with the U.S. innovators who created the technology that's being hacked in the first place.
"To some degree, they were getting a pass," he said. "If a car manufacturer made a car that was routinely able to be stolen, they'd be sued. If software is made with gaps that are a liability, they bear some responsibility, and in recent years there's been a sea change in high tech firms accepting that responsibility."
Big firms like Google employ thousands of security experts who can spot a potential attack on just a few individuals and quickly disseminate protection for everyone using their products. Google routinely detects unsafe websites that spread malicious software or trick people into revealing personal information, posting warnings in front of users and contacting webmasters who may have been hacked.
But Chinese hackers have managed to hit even Google, and in a book released this spring, Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt said China is the world's "most sophisticated and prolific hacker."
Cybersecurity is high on the agenda for the meeting between Obama and Xi on Friday and Saturday in Southern California's Rancho Mirage. A recent government report found nearly 40 Pentagon weapons programs and almost 30 other defense technologies were compromised by cyber intrusions from China. Earlier this year, cybersecurity firm Mandiant linked a secret Chinese military unit to years of cyber-attacks against U.S. companies.
Mandiant's chief security officer, Richard Bejtlich, said his firm tracks more than 20 potentially threating groups of hackers in China, some with links to the government and military.
China's government denies any involvement, with Defense Ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng telling reporters Sunday that the U.S. claims "underestimate the intelligence of the Chinese people."
Frustration is growing, however, as the attacks continue. Although none have come out publically, analysts say some U.S. companies even are considering cyber-attacks of their own as retaliation, even though it's illegal. Retaliatory hacking was a hot topic at the 2013 RSA Conference on tech security in March, where attorneys and sitting judges even held a mock trial over an imaginary firm that struck back.
And on May 20, the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property, headed by former U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman and former U.S. Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, recommended that Congress and the Obama administration reconsider the laws banning retaliation.
"If counterattacks against hackers were legal, there are many techniques that companies could employ that would cause severe damage to the capability of those conducting IP theft," they wrote.
Marc Maiffret, chief technology officer at security firm BeyondTrust in San Diego, warns against private firms going on the offensive.
"There are a lot of people lobbying to 'hack back' but I think that is a disastrous idea," said Maiffrett, who was a hacker of government sites before discovering the first Microsoft computer worm, "CodeRed."
"Most of corporate America is failing to secure themselves, let alone become competent hackers to hack back against someone like a China."
Tim Junio, who studies cyber-attacks at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation, doesn't expect much to change because of the Xi-Obama talks.
"China benefits too much by stealing intellectual property from the U.S., so it's really hard to imagine anyone convincing them to slow down," he said.
Indeed, the payoff for successfully stealing critical information can be enormous. For example, if a company spends many millions of dollars developing expensive intellectual property, such as a pharmaceutical firm investing in a new drug, it's very cost-effective for a Chinese firm or government entity to dedicate a small team of hackers to gain access to that company's networks.
A patient approach of sending emails for months, hoping an employee eventually clicks on a link or opens an attachment that they shouldn't, usually works. It's a probabilities game, and the offense has the advantage, especially when targeting a company with thousands of employees. Sooner or later, someone will make a mistake.
Hackers then sell the stolen intellectual property to competing companies, which can try to replicate the product and sell counterfeits at a cut rate. For a developing country like China, this is a great way to stimulate domestic economic growth.
Junio suspects that China's political leaders may not even be aware of the extent of hacking by their own cyber teams, because corrupt government officials may also be using them for personal gain.
James Barnett, former chief of public safety and homeland security for the Federal Communications Commission, said the government's role in fighting Chinese hackers should be to offer high-tech firms tax deductions, credits or liability limits.
"The private sector's role is to continue to innovate, something it can do much better than the government, and something that Silicon Valley does better than just about anywhere in the world," he said.
___
Follow Martha Mendoza on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mendozamartha
Contact: Richard Merritt richard.merritt@duke.edu 919-660-8414 Duke University
DURHAM, N.C. -- Using a novel genetic 'editing' technique, Duke University biomedical engineers have been able to repair a defect responsible for one of the most common inherited disorders, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, in cell samples from Duchenne patients.
Instead of the common gene therapy approach of adding new genetic material to "override" the faulty gene, the Duke scientists have developed a way to change the existing mutated gene responsible for the disorder into a normally functioning gene. The Duke researchers believe their approach could be safer and more stable than current methods of gene therapy.
The researchers are now conducting further tests of this new approach in animal models of the disease.
Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a genetic disease affecting one in 3,600 newborn males. The genetic mutation is found on the X chromosome, of which males have only one copy. (Females, with two X chromosomes, presumably have at least one good copy of the gene.)
Patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy cannot produce the protein known as dystrophin, which is essential in maintaining the structural integrity of muscle fibers. Over time, patients with the disorder suffer gradual muscle deterioration, which leads to paralysis and eventual death, usually by age 25.
"Conventional genetic approaches to treating the disease involve adding normal genes to compensate for the mutated genes," said Charles Gersbach, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering and Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and member of Duke's Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy. "However, this can cause other unforeseen problems, or the beneficial effect does not always last very long.
"Our approach actually repairs the faulty gene, which is a lot simpler," said David Ousterout, the Duke biomedical engineering graduate student in the Gersbach lab who led the work. "It finds the faulty gene, and fixes it so it can start producing a functional protein again."
The results of the Duke study were published online in Molecular Therapy, the journal of the American Society for Gene and Cell Therapy. The project was supported by the Hartwell Foundation, the March of Dimes Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.
The Duke experiments, which were carried out in cell samples from Duchenne muscular dystrophy patients, were made possible by using a new technology for building synthetic proteins known as transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), which are artificial enzymes that can be engineered to bind to and modify almost any gene sequence.
These TALENs bind to the defective gene, and can correct the mutation to create a normally functioning gene.
"There is currently no effective treatment for this disease," Gersbach said. "Patients usually are in a wheelchair by the age of ten and many die in their late teens or early twenties."
Duchenne muscular dystrophy has been extensively studied by scientists, and it is believed that more than 60 percent of patients with this type of mutation can be treated with this novel genetic approach.
"Previous studies indicate that restoring the production of dystrophin proteins will be highly functional and alleviate disease symptoms when expressed in skeletal muscle tissue," said Ousterout.
Similar approaches could be helpful in treating other genetic diseases where a few gene mutations are responsible, such as sickle cell disease, hemophilia, or other muscular dystrophies, Gersbach said.
###
Other members of the team were Duke's Pablo Perez-Pinera, Pratiksha Thakore, Ami Kabadi, Matthew Brown, Xiaoxia Qin, and Olivier Fedrigo. Other participants were Vincent Mouly, Universite Pierre at Marie Curie, Paris, and Jacques Tremblay, Universite Laval, Quebec.
Citation: "Reading frame correction by targeted genome editing restores dystrophin expression in cells from Duchenne muscular dystrophy patients," David Ousterout, et. al, Molecular Therapy, DOI 10.1038/mt.2013.111.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Contact: Richard Merritt richard.merritt@duke.edu 919-660-8414 Duke University
DURHAM, N.C. -- Using a novel genetic 'editing' technique, Duke University biomedical engineers have been able to repair a defect responsible for one of the most common inherited disorders, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, in cell samples from Duchenne patients.
Instead of the common gene therapy approach of adding new genetic material to "override" the faulty gene, the Duke scientists have developed a way to change the existing mutated gene responsible for the disorder into a normally functioning gene. The Duke researchers believe their approach could be safer and more stable than current methods of gene therapy.
The researchers are now conducting further tests of this new approach in animal models of the disease.
Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a genetic disease affecting one in 3,600 newborn males. The genetic mutation is found on the X chromosome, of which males have only one copy. (Females, with two X chromosomes, presumably have at least one good copy of the gene.)
Patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy cannot produce the protein known as dystrophin, which is essential in maintaining the structural integrity of muscle fibers. Over time, patients with the disorder suffer gradual muscle deterioration, which leads to paralysis and eventual death, usually by age 25.
"Conventional genetic approaches to treating the disease involve adding normal genes to compensate for the mutated genes," said Charles Gersbach, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering and Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and member of Duke's Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy. "However, this can cause other unforeseen problems, or the beneficial effect does not always last very long.
"Our approach actually repairs the faulty gene, which is a lot simpler," said David Ousterout, the Duke biomedical engineering graduate student in the Gersbach lab who led the work. "It finds the faulty gene, and fixes it so it can start producing a functional protein again."
The results of the Duke study were published online in Molecular Therapy, the journal of the American Society for Gene and Cell Therapy. The project was supported by the Hartwell Foundation, the March of Dimes Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.
The Duke experiments, which were carried out in cell samples from Duchenne muscular dystrophy patients, were made possible by using a new technology for building synthetic proteins known as transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), which are artificial enzymes that can be engineered to bind to and modify almost any gene sequence.
These TALENs bind to the defective gene, and can correct the mutation to create a normally functioning gene.
"There is currently no effective treatment for this disease," Gersbach said. "Patients usually are in a wheelchair by the age of ten and many die in their late teens or early twenties."
Duchenne muscular dystrophy has been extensively studied by scientists, and it is believed that more than 60 percent of patients with this type of mutation can be treated with this novel genetic approach.
"Previous studies indicate that restoring the production of dystrophin proteins will be highly functional and alleviate disease symptoms when expressed in skeletal muscle tissue," said Ousterout.
Similar approaches could be helpful in treating other genetic diseases where a few gene mutations are responsible, such as sickle cell disease, hemophilia, or other muscular dystrophies, Gersbach said.
###
Other members of the team were Duke's Pablo Perez-Pinera, Pratiksha Thakore, Ami Kabadi, Matthew Brown, Xiaoxia Qin, and Olivier Fedrigo. Other participants were Vincent Mouly, Universite Pierre at Marie Curie, Paris, and Jacques Tremblay, Universite Laval, Quebec.
Citation: "Reading frame correction by targeted genome editing restores dystrophin expression in cells from Duchenne muscular dystrophy patients," David Ousterout, et. al, Molecular Therapy, DOI 10.1038/mt.2013.111.
[ | 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.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - More than 7,000 Syrian refugees in Iraq have crossed back to the rebel-held Syrian border town of Albu Kamal in recent weeks due to better security there, an Iraqi official said on Sunday.
The reverse flow coincides with a lull in battles and air raids by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's military, which has been on the offensive elsewhere in Syria, especially in the western town of Qusair, around Damascus and in the south.
The mayor of the Iraqi border town of al-Qaim said 7,000 out of 11,000 Syrian refugees hosted there had returned home.
"Each week, we receive refugee requests to go back to their towns across the border, they are freely going back," Farhan Ftaikhan told Reuters by telephone.
"The security situation in Albu Kamal is very calm. There have been no clashes or air strikes for about three months."
Around 152,000 Syrian refugees have been registered in Iraq, according to the U.N. refugee agency, most of them Kurds and Sunni Muslims who fled to Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region and the Sunni-dominated western province of Anbar.
Dealing with Syrian refugees has been a tricky question for Iraq's Shi'ite-led government, which fears Sunni Islamist fighters seeping back across the border from Syria's conflict to worsen Iraq's own increasingly sectarian violence.
Iraqi security officials worry that Syrian rebel-held border towns will become bases for Sunni Islamist insurgents and al Qaeda to launch attacks in Iraq. Al Qaeda's local wing has already benefited from the flow of arms and fighters into Syria.
More than 1,000 people were killed in Iraq in May, making it the deadliest month since the Sunni-Shi'ite slaughter of 2006-2007, the United Nations said on Saturday.
The renewed bloodletting reflects worsening tensions between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunnis angered at their treatment since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003 overthrew Saddam Hussein.
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Public release date: 4-Jun-2013
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