SKorea demands talks with NKorea on closed factory

U.S. Army soldiers ride an armored vehicle during their military exercise near the border village of Panmunjom, that separates the two Koreas, in Paju, north of Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, April 24, 2013. For weeks, North Korea has threatened to attack the U.S. and South Korea for holding joint military drills and for supporting U.N. sanctions. Washington and Seoul said they've seen no evidence that Pyongyang is actually preparing for a major conflict, though South Korean defense officials said the North appears prepared to test-fire a medium-range missile capable of reaching the American territory of Guam. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

U.S. Army soldiers ride an armored vehicle during their military exercise near the border village of Panmunjom, that separates the two Koreas, in Paju, north of Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, April 24, 2013. For weeks, North Korea has threatened to attack the U.S. and South Korea for holding joint military drills and for supporting U.N. sanctions. Washington and Seoul said they've seen no evidence that Pyongyang is actually preparing for a major conflict, though South Korean defense officials said the North appears prepared to test-fire a medium-range missile capable of reaching the American territory of Guam. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

North Korean army Col. Kim Chang Jun stands behind field binoculars on a hilltop overlooking the demilitarized zone which separates the two Koreas, south of Kaesong, North Korea Wednesday, April 24, 2013. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? South Korea on Thursday warned of an unspecified "grave measure" if North Korea rejects talks on a jointly run factory park shuttered for nearly a month ? setting up the possible end of the last remaining major symbol of inter-Korean cooperation.

In a televised briefing with reporters, Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-suk refused to describe what Seoul would do if Pyongyang doesn't respond by a deadline Friday to a demand for formal working-level talks on the industrial complex just over the heavily armed border in the North Korean town of Kaesong. But Seoul's talk of a "grave measure" may be an attempt to signal it will pull out its remaining workers from the complex.

For weeks, until recently, North Korea issued a steady stream of criticism and threats of war aimed at Seoul and Washington, expressing anger over ongoing U.S.-South Korean military drills that the North calls invasion preparations and U.N. sanctions over its February nuclear test.

Amid the rising animosity, North Korea early this month barred South Koreans from crossing the border and entering the factory. It later suspended operations and withdrew the 53,000 North Korean workers who manned assembly lines there.

The factory, a hold-over from an era that saw the Koreas set up various cooperative projects meant to facilitate better ties, has operated with South Korean know-how and technology and with cheap labor from North Korea since 2004. It has weathered past cycles of hostility between the rivals, including two attacks blamed on North Korea in 2010 that killed 50 South Koreans.

Pyongyang has recently eased its rhetoric, and there have been some tentative signs of an interest in dialogue, but tensions between the Koreas remain high.

At the Kaesong factory, food has dwindled, and with no apparent end to North Korea's suspension in sight, a daily trickle of South Korean workers have returned home. Still, Pyongyang hasn't forced South Koreans to leave, and about 175 are still there.

Kim said South Korea set a deadline for the North's reply to talks on the complex because of the food shortage facing the South Koreans remaining at Kaesong.

"Our people are suffering serious difficulties due to the shortage of food and medicine, and our companies are suffering big damages," Kim said.

To resolve deadlocked operations at Kaesong, Kim said North Korea should first allow some South Koreans to cross the border to hand over food and medicine to the remaining managers at the complex.

South Korea on Wednesday proposed talks between the head of a South Korean management office at Kaesong and the North's General Bureau for Central Guidance to the Development of the Special Zone, but the North rebuffed the offer, Kim said.

"It's very regrettable for North Korea to reject (taking) the minimum humanitarian measures for our workers at the Kaesong industrial complex," he said.

Separately, some South Korean businesses have already been quietly mulling giving up on Kaesong altogether.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-04-24-Koreas-Tension/id-8e2b53a197fe4ea4b583a19811d7545f

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Scientists detect 'dark lightning' energy burst linked to visible lightning

Apr. 24, 2013 ? Researchers have identified a burst of high-energy radiation known as 'dark lightning" immediately preceding a flash of ordinary lightning. The new finding provides observational evidence that the two phenomena are connected, although the exact nature of the relationship between ordinary bright lightning and the dark variety is still unclear, the scientists said.

"Our results indicate that both these phenomena, dark and bright lightning, are intrinsic processes in the discharge of lightning," said Nikolai ?stgaard, who is a space scientist at the University of Bergen in Norway and led the research team.

He and his collaborators describe their findings in an article recently accepted in Geophysical Research Letters -- a journal of the American Geophysical Union.

Dark lightning is a burst of gamma rays produced during thunderstorms by extremely fast moving electrons colliding with air molecules. Researchers refer to such a burst as a terrestrial gamma ray flash.

Dark lightning is the most energetic radiation produced naturally on Earth, but was unknown before 1991. While scientists now know that dark lightning naturally occurs in thunderstorms, they do not know how frequently these flashes take place or whether visible lightning always accompanies them.

In 2006, two independent satellites -- one equipped with an optical detector and the other carrying a gamma ray detector -- coincidentally flew within 300 kilometers (186 miles) of a Venezuelan storm as a powerful lightning bolt exploded within a thundercloud. Scientists were unaware then that a weak flash of dark lightning had preceded the bright lightning.

But last year, ?stgaard and his colleagues discovered the previously unknown gamma ray burst while reprocessing the satellite data. "We developed a new, improved search algorithm?and identified more than twice as many terrestrial gamma flashes than originally reported," said ?stgaard. He and his team detected the gamma ray flash and a discharge of radio waves immediately preceding the visible lightning.

"This observation was really lucky," ?stgaard said. "It was fortuitous that two independent satellites -- which are traveling at 7 kilometers per second (4.3 miles per second) -- passed right above the same thunderstorm right as the pulse occurred." A radio receiver located 3,000 kilometers (1864 miles) away at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina detected the radio discharge.

The satellites' observations combined with radio-wave data provided the information that ?stgaard and his team used to reconstruct this ethereal electrical event, which lasted 300 milliseconds.

?stgaard and his team suspect that the flash of dark lightning was triggered by the strong electric field that developed immediately before the visible lightning. This strong field created a cascade of electrons moving at close to the speed of light. When those relativistic electrons collided with air molecules, they generated gamma rays and lower energy electrons that were the main electric current carrier that produced the strong radio pulse before the visible lightning.

Dark and bright lightning may be intrinsic processes in the discharge of lightning, ?stgaard said, but he stressed that more research needs to be done to elucidate the link.

The European Space Agency is planning on launching the Atmospheric Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM) within the next three years, which will be able to better detect both dark and visible lightning from space, said ?stgaard, who is part of the team that is building the ASIM gamma-ray detector.

Dark lightning has remained a perplexing phenomenon due to scientific limitations and a dearth of measurements, ?stgaard explained.

"Dark lightning might be a natural process of lightning that we were completely unaware of before 1991," he noted. "But it is right above our heads, which makes it very fascinating."

A grant from the European Research Council and the Research Council of Norway funded this research.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Geophysical Union.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. N. ?stgaard, T. Gjesteland, B. E. Carlson, A. B. Collier, S. Cummer, G. Lu, H. J. Christian. Simultaneous observations of optical lightning and terrestrial gamma ray flash from space. Geophysical Research Letters, 2013; DOI: 10.1002/grl.50466

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/xhX8u93o0HY/130424210319.htm

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Mormon Bishop With Samurai Sword Runs Off Attacker

SALT LAKE CITY -- A Samurai sword-wielding Mormon bishop helped a neighbor woman escape a Tuesday morning attack by a man who had been stalking her.

Kent Hendrix woke up Tuesday to his teenage son pounding on his bedroom door and telling him somebody was being mugged in front of their house. The 47-year-old father of six rushed out the door and grabbed the weapon closest to him ? a 29-inch high carbon steel Samurai sword.

He came upon what he describes as a melee between a woman and a man. His son stayed inside to call 911 while he approached the man along with other neighbors who came to help. The martial arts instructor didn't hesitate in drawing the sword and yelling at him to get on the ground.

"His eyes got as big as saucers and he kind of gasped and jumped back," Hendrix said by phone Tuesday afternoon. "He's probably never had anyone draw a sword on him before."

The man ran down the street with the barefoot Hendrix and others in pursuit. Hendrix said he couldn't catch the man before he fled in his car, but he picked up ChapStick that the man dropped and memorized his license plate.

"I yelled at him, `I've got your DNA and I've got your license plate: You are so done,'" Hendrix said.

The suspect, 37-year-old Grant Eggersten, turned himself in to police an hour later, said Unified Police Lt. Justin Hoyal. He was booked on charges of robbery, attempted burglary, trespassing and violation of a stalking injunction.

Hendrix, a pharmaceutical statistician, was one of several neighbors who came to the woman's aid after she began yelling for help, Hoyal said.

The incident began just after 7 a.m. when the 35-year-old woman came out of her front door, Hoyal said. Eggersten was hiding behind her carport and attacked her, knocking her to the ground, Hoyal said.

He took her keys and tried to open the door into her house, Hoyal said. That's when the woman ran down the street calling for help.

The woman did the right thing by fighting back and calling for help, Hoyal said. She suffered minor injuries.

Hendrix, a bishop in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said it was the first time in 30 years of practicing martial arts that he's used the sword. He didn't swing it at the man, only showing him he had it.

He said he's proud of his 14-year-old son for alerting him and quickly calling 911. He said the family is still abuzz about the events.

"That kind of thing doesn't happen every day," Hendrix said. "Our neighborhood is a pretty quiet place."

A fourth-degree black belt in the Kishindo form of martial arts, Hendrix owns a collection of swords and weapons that he trains with, said his wife, Suzanne Hendrix. He has trained with the sword he used Tuesday for 20 years and keeps it by his bed.

"Some people have bats they go to," said Hendrix. "I have my sword."

___

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/24/mormon-bishop-samurai-sword_n_3143813.html

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Clenching right fist may give better grip on memory

Apr. 24, 2013 ? Clenching your right hand may help form a stronger memory of an event or action, and clenching your left may help you recollect the memory later, according to research published April 24 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Ruth Propper and colleagues from Montclair State University.

Participants in the research study were split into groups and asked to first memorize, and later recall words from a list of 72 words. There were 4 groups who clenched their hands; One group clenched their right fist for about 90 seconds immediately prior to memorizing the list and then did the same immediately prior to recollecting the words. Another group clenched their left hand prior to both memorizing and recollecting. Two other groups clenched one hand prior to memorizing (either the left or right hand) and the opposite hand prior to recollecting. A control group did not clench their fists at any point.

The group that clenched their right fist when memorizing the list and then clenched the left when recollecting the words performed better than all the other hand clenching groups. This group also did better than the group that did not clench their fists at all, though this difference was not statistically 'significant'.

"The findings suggest that some simple body movements -- by temporarily changing the way the brain functions- can improve memory. Future research will examine whether hand clenching can also improve other forms of cognition, for example verbal or spatial abilities," says Ruth Propper, lead scientist on the study.

The authors clarify that further work is needed to test whether their results with word lists also extend to memories of visual stimuli like remembering a face, or spatial tasks, such as remembering where keys were placed. Based on previous work, the authors suggest that this effect of hand-clenching on memory may be because clenching a fist activates specific brain regions that are also associated with memory formation.

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Journal Reference:

1. Ruth E. Propper, Sean E. McGraw, Tad T. Bruny?, Michael Weiss. Getting a Grip on Memory: Unilateral Hand Clenching Alters Episodic Recall. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (4): e62474 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0062474

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/_QYBoZyfE3E/130424185159.htm

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Reese Witherspoon Arrest: Caught on Tape!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/reese-witherspoon-arrest-caught-on-tape/

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Predictions of ECB rate cut grow as growth fades

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) ? Evidence that Europe's economic downturn is weighing more heavily on its strongest member, Germany, has convinced more and more experts that the European Central Bank will cut interest rates soon.

The latest downbeat sign came Wednesday from the closely watched Ifo index of German business confidence. It fell to 104.4 points in April from 106.7 in March, more than the modest dip foreseen by market analysts to 106.2. That follows surveys earlier this week indicating Germany's manufacturing sector is contracting.

The Ifo index remains at a high level, and the institute's survey chief, Kai Carstensen, said it only means that "the German economy is taking a breather."

But outside analysts said there was now enough doubt about Europe's economic recovery for the ECB's 23-member governing council to cut its key rate from the record low of 0.75 percent, either at its May 2 meeting or on June 6, when it will have new staff economic projections to help justify any decision.

The ECB's benchmark, called the refinancing rate, is what it charges to lend to banks. Through them, the rate influences a host of other rates that determine how much it costs businesses and consumers to borrow.

Low rates in theory encourage borrowing to spend and invest, stimulating the economy. A rate cut also can push investors toward buying stocks and other assets, both in anticipation of growth and by making interest-yielding investments less attractive.

Investors prepared for such a move by buying heavily into European stocks. Germany's stock index is up 3 percent in two days, France's almost 4.5 percent.

ECB President Mario Draghi said in April that the bank remained "ready to act" in case the economic indicators worsened.

In a sign that support for a rate cut may be growing, the head of the German central bank, which has typically been more reluctant to back rate cuts, said last week that a cut could be warranted if economic indicators worsen. Since his comments, they have.

The strength of the German economy is key to the ECB's rate decisions because of its size ? it accounts for 28 percent of the 17-country eurozone's total output. It shrank 0.6 percent in the last three months of 2012.

Germany has been one of the more resilient economies in the eurozone. A slowdown in its economy would make it harder for the region to climb out of recession. The ECB expects the eurozone to contract 0.5 percent for all of this year, with a gradual upturn near year end.

"Resistance to a rate cut will be crumbling," said Christian Schulz, an analyst at Berenberg Bank in London, after the Ifo survey was released.

Analysts at Swiss bank UBS have changed their forecasts and now predict an ECB rate cut on May 2. They had previously expected rates to remain unchanged through the end of next year. Analysts at Royal Bank of Scotland and Nomura also shifted their prediction to a cut to the May meeting.

Other signs of trouble in Europe include unemployment at 12.0 percent, the highest since the euro was introduced in 1999, and auto sales that have fallen for 18 straight months, measured against the same month the year previously.

Analysts say a rate cut might be mostly symbolic and do little to spur lending directly. It could, however, lower the euro's exchange rate, which would help exporters.

Lower rates can push down the euro's exchange rate because they lower the yield on many interest-bearing investments denominated in euros. That reduces demand for the currency.

The ECB has also been looking at unspecified new way to help the economy that go beyond interest rates. Analysts say the ECB might take steps to try to increase bank's willingness to make loans to small and medium size businesses, which provide most of the eurozone's jobs. Ideas that have been floated include loan guarantees from another European Union agency, or permitting banks to bundle loans to small businesses as securities and use them as collateral to get cash loans from the ECB.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/predictions-ecb-rate-cut-grow-growth-fades-114550626--finance.html

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Google Buys Wavii For North Of $30 Million

Google has finally closed the deal on Wavii, a natural language processing startup, for a price that is more than $30 million, we're hearing from a legitimate source. Both Apple and Google were competing for the Seattle-based startup, and Google eventually won. Apple wanted the company, which developed its own aggregation technology and natural summarization algorithms, for its Siri division. The 25-person-strong team including founder Adrian Aoun will be moving down from Seattle to join Google's Knowledge Graph division.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/w4gtkjohp7U/

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