GM halts most Chevy Cruze sales

General Motors has halted the sale of most of the Chevrolet Cruzes now on dealers' lots. The Cruze is GM's best selling U.S. car model.

Spokesman Alan Adler confirmed that GM has ordered a halt to sales of models with the 1.4-liter turbo engine, the most popular version of the compact car. Adler did not give the reason for the halt, and said there hasn't been a recall issued on cars already sold.

The news comes as GM deals with a damaging recall of 1.6 million small cars worldwide to deal with an ignition switch flaw that has been linked to at least 12 deaths.
Shares of GM (GM, Fortune 500) were still slightly higher in mid-morning trading, though the news sent the stock down from earlier highs.

U.S. Navy SEAL training flows into mainstream fitness

 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Training for U.S. Navy SEALs, the special operations force, follows a warrior tradition that harkens back to Samurais, but fitness experts say the tough regime is gaining popularity with entrepreneurs, corporate executives, lawyers and elite athletes.

The workout, geared toward mental as well as physical transformation, is so demanding that the casual gym-goer looking to shed 10 pounds before swimsuit season need not apply.
"We look at training as being as important to our life as eating and sleeping," said retired Navy SEAL commander and fitness instructor Mark Divine, the author of "8 Weeks to SEALFIT: a Navy Seal's Guide to Unconventional Training for Physical and Mental Toughness."

'Small' Nuclear War Could Trigger Catastrophic Cooling

 

Even a relatively small regional nuclear war could trigger global cooling, damage the ozone layer and cause droughts for more than a decade, researchers say.

These findings should further spur the elimination of the more than 17,000 nuclear weapons that exist today, scientists added.

During the Cold War, a nuclear exchange between superpowers was feared for years. One potential consequence of such a global nuclear war was "nuclear winter," wherein nuclear explosions sparked huge fires whose smoke, dust and ash blotted out the sun, resulting in a "twilight at noon" for weeks. Much of humanity might eventually die from the resulting crop failures and starvation. [Doomsday: 9 Real Ways the Earth Could End]

Today, with the United States the only standing superpower, nuclear winter might seem a distant threat. Still, nuclear war remains a very real threat; for instance, between developing-world nuclear powers such as India and Pakistan.

The President On The Section 215 Bulk Metadata Program

In a statement released earlier today, the president outlined his plan to end the bulk collection of phone records by the NSA.

Having carefully considered the available options, I have decided that the best path forward is that the government should not collect or hold this data in bulk. Instead, the data should remain at the telephone companies for the length of time it currently does today. The government would obtain the data pursuant to individual orders from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) approving the use of specific numbers for such queries, if a judge agrees based on national security concerns. Legislation will be needed to permit the government to obtain this information with the speed and in the manner that will be required to make this approach workable.

Shadow Warrior Demo On Steam

If you are looking for a way to kill some time this afternoon, you can always grab the new Shadow Warrior demo and give it a go.

Apple Files For Patent On "Transparent Texting"

This is such an original and innovative idea, I can't believe the USPTO didn't approve this one the instant it was filed.

To enable a "transparent texting" system, Apple proposes that an app's background be modified to display video images continuously captured by an iPhone's rear-facing camera, according to a patent application filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday.

Neighborhood watch sign is a guided missile launcher, sure to give robbers pause

Burglars often prowl rural neighborhoods, hoping to find unwatched homes. But chances are good that any robber who happens to drive by Terry Ulmer’s home is going to seek another town in which to carry out his dirty work.
Ulmer lives in Alpine, in east San Diego County, and it’s impossible to drive along his street without noticing his neighborhood-watch sign: a U.S. Navy surface-to-air guided missile launcher.
“You go into [most] neighborhoods and see a little sign that says ‘Neighborhood Watch.’ Well, this is how we roll out here in Alpine,” Ulmer told Fox 5 San Diego.

HUMAN REVOLUTION - DEUS EX - SHORT FILM

Inside the Secret Service's secret museum

On a downtown Washington street like any other sits a modern office building like any other. Commuters and tourists alike push past its anodyne brick and glass face without giving it a glance, never knowing that it houses the headquarters of the U. S. Secret Service — and the hidden museum that tells the story of the small agency with a big mission.

The museum is not open to the public, only to invited guests. Yahoo News recently got an insider’s tour, complete with a welcome from Secret Service Director Julia Pierson, the first woman to hold the post.

What treasures are in one of the most striking collections you’ll never see? Mainly artifacts reflecting the dangers of public life. There’s the actual window from the armored limousine Ronald Reagan was heading for on that fateful day in 1981 when John Hinckley Jr. tried to assassinate him. One of Hinckley’s six shots struck the glass, leaving a distinctive mark, while others hit the president and three officials, including a Secret Service agent.

There’s the assault rifle Francisco Martin Duran pulled from under his trench coat and used to spray 29 shots at the White House in October 1994. You can get a good look at the road atlas Duran used for his cross-country trip to Washington.

Breathtaking historic gardens around the world

PHOTOS

Dirigible Drones Will Watch the World From 13 Miles Up

With UAVs crowding navigable airspace and plans underway to put giant mega-satellites into orbit, it was just a matter of time before a drone-satellite hybrid was developed to fit between the two spaces.

StratoBus, a new project out of France, is conceptualized to do just that. Designed to be about the length of a football field and 25 yards in diameter, the blimp-shaped vehicle’s shell will be made of carbon fiber.

Without a launcher, StratoBus floats to the lower stratosphere at an altitude of about 13 miles where developers say it will be in a perfect position to carry out a range of functions, including surveillance, border security monitoring, communications reinforcement and facilitating navigation — all from a stationary position with the help of two self-adjusting electric motors. The StratoBus will be able to endure missions of up to a year with a total lifetime of five years.

Guardian: Apple reserves the right to read your iCloud e-mail

FORTUNE -- Microsoft (MSFT) is not the only company that reserves the right to break into its customers' e-mail accounts. According to The Guardian's Alex Hern -- who actually read the user agreements that most of us blindly accept -- Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOG) and Yahoo (YHOO) do as well.

The issue came to light last week when Alex Kibkalo, a Russian-born former Microsoft employee living in Lebanon, was arrested on charges that he was selling off chunks of Windows 8 source code.

The complaint filed against him in a Seattle federal court included Hotmail exchanges between Kibkalo and a French blogger -- e-mail that Microsoft read, according to a statement released Friday, without a specific court order.

WHO: Pollution kills 7 million people every year

LONDON (AP) — Air pollution kills about 7 million people worldwide every year, with more than half of the fatalities due to fumes from indoor stoves, according to a new report from the World Health Organization published Tuesday.

The agency said air pollution is the cause of about one in eight deaths and has now become the single biggest environmental health risk.

"We all have to breathe, which makes pollution very hard to avoid," said Frank Kelly, director of the environmental research group at King's College London, who was not part of the WHO report.

Google Turns Down Military Money For Robot Competition

Why would Google need funding from anyone for anything? This would be more of a story if the military turned down money from Google. 

Google will pay its own way through a robotics competition, deciding against accepting money from the US military for a humanoid robot that topped the charts in a contest for disaster-relief scenarios.

How an Arizona teen turned her jewelry passion into a multimillion-dollar business

Arizona teen Bella Weems wanted a new car when she turned 16. Her parents weren’t planning to buy her one, and she doubted she’d earn enough money babysitting to afford the white Jeep she dreamed of. So in 2010 Weems started selling jewelry at a local mall kiosk. She called the company Origami Owl and logged a remarkable $20 million in sales the first year. Four years later, the company has a professional CEO, employs hundreds of workers and markets its products through 60,000 independent sales representatives nationwide. Retail sales last year surpassed $330 million. Weems, now 17, still oversees the designs of the lockets and charms her company sells and stops by the Chandler, Arizona office almost every day after school.

"I want to be involved in the business for the rest of my life," she says in the video above. "When I was 14, I never thought this would have happened. It's been a dream come true."

My Playground: California’s Central Coast

It's 200 miles of stunning beauty and home to 'America's Happiest City'.

While California’s Central Coast is one of the most beautiful places on Earth, you may be surprised to learn that the vast majority of Californians are unfamiliar with its existence. Though it sits midway between two of the world’s most populous and influential cities—it’s three hours north of Los Angeles and two hours south of San Francisco—most Golden Staters would have a tough time pointing to Big Sur on a map.

Secret Service agent found drunk in hotel room - March 26, 2014

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Secret Service agent found drunk by staff at a Dutch hotel was recalled to the U.S. along with two of his colleagues, the day before President Barack Obama was set to arrive in the Netherlands.

Word of another embarrassing incident to hit the elite agency came as the president was midway through a weeklong, four-country trip to Europe and Saudi Arabia. The Secret Service said the three agents were benched on Sunday for "disciplinary reasons" but declined to elaborate.

The Secret Service was alerted to the situation by U.S. Embassy officials in the Netherlands after hotel staff reported finding the highly intoxicated agent in the hotel, said a person familiar with the situation, who wasn't authorized to discuss the alleged behavior on the record and demanded anonymity. The other two agents were deemed complicit because they didn't intervene despite being in a position to assist the drunken agent or tamp down his behavior, the person said.

"It wasn't like a big, crazy party," the person said.

8 lessons we need to learn from Malaysia Airlines tragedy

Most important, says aviation safety advocate: Re-examine how airline industry monitors aircraft.

Much went wrong during the investigation of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, and millions around the world watched each development. After the Boeing 777's disappearance, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, global media descended on Malaysia — and as with every airline tragedy, numerous false leads emerged, along with dissemination of misinformation and widespread myth-making.

These are some of the lessons that should have been learned, and what should be done differently in the future.

Lesson No. 1: Focusing primarily on terrorism can obscure other threats. Statistically, considering sabotage at the expense of other theories is not only wrong — it’s very wrong. What really causes airline accidents? Despite tremendous progress in both technology and human factors, pilot error remains the leading cause. According to the extensive database compiled by PlaneCrashInfo.com,there were 100 large commercial airline accidents worldwide between 2000 and 2009. More than half were primarily caused by pilot error. Here’s the breakdown:

•  Pilot error: 54 percent
•  Mechanical failures: 24 percent
•  Sabotage (explosive devices/shoot downs/hijackings): 9 percent
•  Weather: 8 percent
•  Other human errors (air traffic control/improper maintenance/etc.): 5 percent

This is not to say MH370 didn’t succumb to sabotage from forces inside or outside the 777. But many airline tragedies are not always what they seem during the initial stages of investigation, so it’s critical to consider all possibilities.

What Is Maker Studios? And Why Does Disney Think It's Worth $500 Million?

If you mostly associate YouTube with amusing cat videos, repurposed late-night show skits, or vintage music clips, you may be puzzled by the news that the Walt Disney Company is buying a YouTube network called Maker Studios for $500 million.

Among other things: What does “YouTube network” even mean?

Let’s back up a second. Much media coverage of YouTube still treats the platform as essentially the home of zany viral one-offs — the enduring cliché summary would be “dogs on skateboards.” A couple of years ago, when YouTube itself announced a slew of new arrangements with high-profile content creators like Madonna and Ashton Kutcher, it was treated as a sort of coming-of-age moment: evolving beyond amateur content, “going pro,” and essentially being absorbed by mainstream Hollywood.

How [the old] GM betrayed its customers

We’re getting a better understanding of what drove General Motors (GM) to bankruptcy in 2009.

Newly unearthed legal documents show GM knew about faulty ignition switches on the Chevrolet Cobalt and other vehicles before it even began selling the models in 2004. It launched the vehicles anyway, figuring owners would be able to get off the road safely if the car shut down during travel. GM made “a business decision not to fix this problem,” a company engineer explained under oath in 2013, according to the Wall Street Journal, as part of a lawsuit involving a Georgia woman who died in a Cobalt that shut down at highway speeds and crashed.

For a moment, put aside the obvious safety problem of cars shutting down on the highway, and think only of a flaw that might make your car inoperable. GM was already in a tailspin in 2004, losing market share to Japanese rivals and getting pummeled by auto critics for the shoddy quality of its vehicles — small cars especially. GM promoted the new Cobalt as an import slayer, on par with standard-bearers such as the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla.

North Korea fires 2 missiles as its rivals meet

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea test-fired two medium-range ballistic missiles on Wednesday, South Korea and the U.S. said, a defiant challenge to a rare three-way summit of its rivals Seoul, Tokyo and Washington that focused on the North's security threat.

The launch of the Rodong missiles — for the first time since 2009 — violates U.N. Security Council resolutions and marks a big escalation from a series of shorter-range rocket launches the North has staged in recent weeks to protest ongoing annual military drills by the U.S. and South Korea that Pyongyang claims are invasion preparation.

The missiles flew about 650 kilometers (400 miles) off North Korea's east coast early Wednesday morning, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said. It wasn't immediately clear where the missiles splashed down. Kim said the missiles were likely fired from a mobile launcher.

HTC Unveils Its New Premium Android Phone, a Followup to Last Year's Critical Favorite

On Tuesday morning HTC introduced the HTC One (M8), its followup to 2013’s critically-acclaimed One smartphone. The One features an all-metal body — distinguishing itself from the plastic of chief rival Samsung’s Galaxy S5 — a high-definition 5.0-inch screen and a “Duo camera” on the back of the phone, which will allow you to refocus your photo after you snap it.

The HTC One (M8)’s screen measures 5.0 inches diagonally, up from 4.7 inches on last year’s model. This makes it about equal in screen size to the Galaxy S5 and its 5.1-inch display. The iPhone 5s, meanwhile, has a smaller, 4.0-inch display.

Facebook Is Buying Virtual Reality Headset Company Oculus for $2 Billion

Facebook announced Tuesday afternoon that it will acquire Oculus, a manufacturer of the anticipated virtual reality headset Oculus Rift. This marks Facebook’s second major purchase of the year, following its blockbuster $19 billion deal for social messaging app WhatsApp.

“Mobile is the platform of today, and now we’re also getting ready for the platforms of tomorrow,” Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement. “Oculus has the chance to create the most social platform ever, and change the way we work, play, and communicate.”

Watch a 2,400-hp semi slide around the Long Beach docks, drift-car style

If the constructing of a 2,400-hp diesel semi truck — i.e., the Mike Ryan/Gale Banks Super-Turbo Freightliner — has a downside, it's the lack of appropriate outlets to test its benefits. There are only so many times you can race up Pikes Peak or belch smoke at a racetrack before those venues start to grow a little boring. Being the only truck of its kind rules out head-to-head racing, and even the state fair circuit would demand an upgrade to jet power.

Post-Birth Photo!? Yeah Right!

How did you look after you'd just given birth? Me? I had bags under my eyes that you could have done your weekly food-shopping in, weird brown skin patches on my face (not a tan so much as looking like I needed a good face wash), and crazy damp hair stuck to my head - basically an overall pale, exhausted shell of myself. No sleep and a C-section will do that to you.

Tire sounds

This is the sound that your tires make as you're driving. Or rather, it's what that sound lookslike. Cars are damn noisy, but (with obvious exceptions) it's not usually because of the noise that the engine makes. Most of what you hear is the noise of tires on the road. and consequently, making cars quieter is more of a concern for tire manufacturers than car companies. Yokohama Rubber partnered with JAXA (the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and its supercomputers to model the turbulent structures found around a tire rolling on a road surface, along with the acoustic waves that these structures generate.

Floating drone ball brings us one step closer to real Quidditch

Drones aren't all gloom and doom. Yes, the Air Force has classified stealth drones, and yes, Amazon probably misled us all about package-delivering drones. But there's a brighter side to drones, and that side could potentially bring us a version of real-life Quidditch that’s getting closer to the version Harry Potter spent so much time playing.

Forget drones, this restaurant delivers your food by parachute

We've all heard of restaurants that deliver sushi or burritos using drones, but what's the most efficient way to get your customers their food when they are seven stories straight down? A pop-up restaurant in Melbourne, Australia thinks it has the answer, and has started to deliver sandwiches using mini parachutes.

The Brutal Ageism of Tech

Is this really an issue? I mean, look at the average age of the people running this industry. I don't see the "brutal ageism" this guy is talking about. Do you?

Silicon Valley has become one of the most ageist places in America. Tech luminaries who otherwise pride themselves on their dedication to meritocracy don’t think twice about deriding the not-actually-old. "Young people are just smarter," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told an audience at Stanford back in 2007. And that’s just what gets said in public.

Megacon 2014 Mega Gallery

Techware Labs has posted a couple hundred pictures from Megacon 2014 today that are certainly worth checking out. The Borderlands guy and Booba Fett are my favorites. All pics are safe for work.

 

Google rejects military funding for its advanced humanoid robot

The tech giant wants to distance itself from the military research lab DARPA, and the feeling is mutual.

Once upon a time, if you wanted money to build humanoid robots, you basically had to get it from the military — specifically, the high-risk, high-reward technology lab known as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA.

California DMV Compromised, Credit Cards Breached

And the winner of this week’s breach of the week goes to the California DMV. The DMV was reported by MasterCard to be the victim of a security breach, exposing thousands of individual’s personal information as well as credit card info in an ongoing attack that may have begun over six months ago.

Statistics from California's DMV show that nearly 12 million online transactions with the DMV were conducted in 2012, an increase of 6 percent from 2011 - an ominous number when considering the potential range of the breach.

Report: California Has a Cyber-Gang Problem

A new report by California Attorney General Kamala Harris says that her state has a cyber-gang problem. Apparently crooks like California because they are richer and more innovative than everyone else.

International criminal enterprises follow the money, and a report being released Thursday says they are increasingly focusing on California because of its wealth and innovation. "California is a global leader on a number of fronts and, unfortunately, transnational criminal activity is one of them," the report states.

Microsoft Announces Stephen J. Luczo Leaving Board Of Directors

Microsoft Corp. announced Thursday that Stephen J. Luczo, chairman and CEO of Seagate Technology PLC, has stepped down from the company’s board of directors.

"It has been a pleasure serving on the Microsoft board, and helping to guide the company through such a historic period of change and reinvention," Luczo said. "With the CEO search completed and Satya off to a strong start, this felt like an appropriate time to make this change so I can turn my full attention to leading Seagate. Seagate and Microsoft have a long history of working together, and I look forward to continued collaboration and partnership under Satya’s leadership."

Yoga Mom and Tiny Tot Take Instagram By Storm

Social media is turning ordinary people into celebrities, and Laura Kasperzak is well on her way. The New Jersey woman has amassed more than 776,000 followers on Instagram with her extraordinarily agile and creative yoga poses. Not only are her followers impressed by her athletic ability, but they’re touched when she posts poses that include her 4-year-old daughter, Jayden, who appears to be following fast in her mother’s footsteps. Click through to see the mother-and-daughter duo go through their paces, and click HERE to see more of Kasperzak’s agility in action. PHOTOS

How a Watchdog Blew the Lid Off the GM Recall Scandal

The alarm bells first went off at the Center for Auto Safety on Feb. 13, when General Motors announced a recall of more than 780,000 model year 2005-2007 Cobalts and Pontiac G5s with faulty ignition switches.

Those ignition switches were so sensitive that even a slight jostle or heavy key ring could immediately shut down the vehicle’s power steering and brakes and prevent air bags from inflating to protect the driver and front seat passenger in case of a crash.

Related: Deadly GM Defect Has Some Consumers 'Petrified'

What really caught the auto safety watchdog’s eye was GM’s disclosure that six people had died in crashes related to the ignition problem.

Man finds live worm in package of fish from Costco

Turn away if you happen to be reading this while eating seafood…or any food, really. Binh Nguyen of Spartanburg, South Carolina, posted a stomach turning sight he witnessed at his local Costco store.

View photo

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A parasitic worm in a package of cod from Costco. (Facebook/Binh Nguyen)

In the footage, you can see a live, wriggling, orange worm in a package of Kirkland “Fresh Wild Pacific True Cod.” Under the Facebook video, Binh writes, “Looks careful when buying "fresh" fishes at local Costco or you will find this!!! Im quitting sushi for now lol. This vid was taken few days ago at Costco Store in Spartanburg SC btw.” Nguyen posted the video (you can watch here) on March 14 and it has already racked up over 270,000 shares. While five people have given the post a “like,” it’s probably safe to say that most people are less enthusiastic about what they saw.

7-Eleven Clerk Who Lost Job Over Good Deed Gets a Better Offer

In a striking example of poetic justice, a Massachusetts teenager who says she was fired from 7-Eleven for giving a cup of coffee to a homeless man has landed a new job within days—at a homeless-services organization. 
“My lesson learned is that good deeds pay off,” Ava Lins, 19, tells Yahoo Shine. “Do what you believe is the right thing, and stand up for what you believe in. Only good things will come of it.”

Satellite Company Says It Predicted Missing Plane's Location 10 Days Ago

A British satellite company said today that it had indications that the missing Malaysia Airlines plane may have crashed into the Indian Ocean as early as two days after the plane's disappearance.

The search for the jetliner did not move into the Indian Ocean until more than a week after the plane vanished in the middle of the night from Malaysian airspace on March 7. 

"This is very troubling, just thinking of the time wasted and what was ever on the water moving farther away," said ABC News consultant Tom Haueter, a former National Transportation Safety Board investigator.

Inmarsat, the maker of satellites, told ABC News that they had an "initial idea" on March 9 and by March 10 were "fairly certain" that the search parties should look in the south Indian Ocean for the vanished plane. 

Soldiers' stories: Book about Iraq war paints intimate portrait of military experience

“We shot dogs.”

Those are the first words of Iraq war veteran Phil Klay's new book, “Redeployment,” that gives readers a glimpse into the chaotic and complicated existence that U.S. armed forces confronted during the Iraq war.

"In that story, I had a friend, Mike Green, who was at the second battle of Fallujah, who talked about seeing … stray dogs in Fallujah who were eating corpses in the streets,” said Klay, whose book is fictional but derived from real-life stories that he and his comrades lived in Iraq.

“[The] second battle of Fallujah was intense urban warfare, and so they shot some of the dogs to try and stop them from doing that and that story is about a guy who's been through that experience and then comes back home to his dog that he loves who's not doing so well and it's about that transition,” Klay told “Power Players.”

When the Marine in the story decides with his wife that it’s time to put down their ailing dog, he decides to shoot the dog himself rather than take him to the vet for the procedure.

“He's not one to let other people do the hard tasks for him,” Klay said of the character. “In a broader sense, it's part of what you sign up for. You sign up to do a really hard, dangerous job so that so your friends and family back home in America don't have to.”

Mitsubishi 3000 Big Brake Kit

LINK & LINK2

This J.C. Penney Worker Was Fired For Telling The Truth About Its 'Fake' Prices

J.C. Penney is going to war against a former employee who outed the department store for its questionable discounting practices.
The department store was drastically hiking prices on items, cutting them back and then advertising huge "discounts," the former employee, Bob Blatchford, told the Today show last July. In one case, a "rack of $7 shorts became $14, and then they were 50 percent off," a separate J.C. Penney worker told the Today show.
"I saw a lot of pricing teams going through the store, raising the prices, mostly doubling -- towels and clothing," Blatchford told NBC's Jeff Rossen. "Then they would go on sale, and they wouldn't always go on sale for 50 percent off. Not only was it a fake sale, but they were actually paying more than they would have been previously."
Ominously, Blatchford told Today, "I don't think Penney's will survive if they keep doing this."
Now it's Blatchford who is fighting for survival. Two days after his appearance on the Today show, he was fired from J.C. Penney in St. Petersburg, Fla., where he was a custom decorating studio coordinator. When he filed for unemployment benefits, J.C. Penney contested his claim, he said. J.C. Penney also recently filed an arbitration petition to get Blatchford to give back any company documents that he might have. But Blatchford thinks the arbitration is really just an attempt to discourage him from speaking out about the company.

'Game of Thrones' and 'Lord of the Rings' Connection: Is Gandalf's Sword on the Iron Throne?



If you're a fantasy geek, here's a dream come true: There may be a connection between HBO's "Game of Thrones" and the "Lord of the Rings" movies.

A Reddit user just pointed out a possible link between the two epic fantasy series. NoMoreHodoring posted a photo of King Joffrey sitting on the Iron Throne, with a particular sword circled. As we know, the Iron Throne was forged by Aegon I Targaryen out of the swords of his enemies.

First Look at 'Game of Thrones' Season 4: New Characters, New Alliances

"Game of Thrones" kicks off its ten-episode fourth season Sunday, April 6 at 9 p.m. on HBO. Based on the popular book series "A Song of Ice and Fire," by George R.R. Martin, this Emmy-winning fantasy series chronicles an epic struggle for power in a vast and violent fantasy kingdom. PHOTOS

NSA Top Lawyer Says Tech Giants Knew About Data Collection

I guess the only thing left to say to the NSA is "prove it." If Google, Apple, Yahoo, AOL, Microsoft and Facebook are all lying, there should be some kind of proof of that...right?

The top lawyer for the National Security Agency and others from the Obama administration made it clear to the US government's independent oversight board that tech titans knew about government surveillance while it was going on. NSA general counsel Rajesh De told the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board on Wednesday that tech titans were aware that the NSA was collecting communications and related metadata both for the NSA's "PRISM" program and for "upstream" communications crossing the Internet. PRISM is a surveillance program designed to collect and process "foreign intelligence" that passes through American servers.

Intel Sets Sights on Reinvention of Desktop Computing

Intel Corporation unveiled a set of roadmap enhancements, platform features and software partnerships to help drive the reinvention of desktop computing. Compelling new form factors such as mini PCs and desktop all-in-ones (AIOs) are driving excitement within the category, and Intel is helping to deliver new capabilities that consumers and businesses want. Enthusiast users are among the most important proponents of desktop computing, and Intel is announcing roadmap enhancements especially for them. Intel’s desktop business was particularly strong in Q4 2013; on a year-over-year basis, desktop platform volume was up 7 percent.

Why The Future Belongs To Google

Why does the future belong to Google? I don't know, so I Googled it...and I found 38,500,000 answers in 0.4 seconds.

Even before I could realise, Search was omnipresent, Chrome was my gateway to the web, Gmail was my go-to email service, YouTube was called upon to catch up on missed episodes, Maps was summoned every time I stepped into an unknown territory, Drive was backing up my photos as soon as I clicked them, and my brilliant Nexus 5 simply became an extension of myself.

Thailand gives radar data 10 days after plane lost - Didn't share BECAUSE they weren't asked..

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand's military said Tuesday that its radar detected a plane that may have been Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 just minutes after the jetliner's communications went down, and that it didn't share the information with Malaysia earlier because it wasn't specifically asked for it.

  

A twisting flight path described Tuesday by Thai air force spokesman Air Vice Marshal Montol Suchookorn took the plane to the Strait of Malacca, which is where Malaysian radar tracked Flight 370 early March 8. But Montol said the Thai military doesn't know whether it detected the same plane.

Thailand's failure to quickly share possible information regarding the fate of the plane, and the 239 people aboard it, may not substantially change what Malaysian officials know, but it raises questions about the degree to which some countries are sharing their defense information, even in the name of an urgent and mind-bending aviation mystery.

More than 100 people found in house in Texas

HOUSTON (AP) — A house overflowing with more than 100 people presumed to be in the U.S. illegally was uncovered just outside Houston on Wednesday, a police spokesman said.

The suspected stash house was found during a search for a 24-year-old woman and her two children, a 7-year-old girl and a 5-year-old boy, that were reported missing by relatives late Tuesday after a man failed to meet them as planned at an undisclosed location on the city's north side, said John Cannon, a spokesman for the Houston Police Department. Many of the people in home that authorities said appeared to be part of a human smuggling operation were dressed only in undergarments and they were sitting in in filthy conditions and surrounded by trash bags full of old clothing, Cannon said.

When police opened the door to the home they found "a large, large group of people, some sitting on top of one another, very confined spaces," Cannon said. "They yell out the woman's name to see if she is in there, and she emerges with the two children. They're OK."

New Wolfenstein: The New Order Trailer

Bethesda has put out a new Wolfenstein: The New Order trailer today called "On a train to Berlin." I don't want to ruin it for you buy it looks like BJ Blazkowicz is on a train with heading to Berlin. Oh yeah, and there are probably Nazis in this game too. Watch the trailer below:

Sprint Lays Off 330 Techs, Closes 55 Stores

In what the company claims is an effort to streamline business, Sprint has laid off 330 techs, closed 150 service centers and shut 55 retail stores.

The Overland Park, Kan., wireless carrier laid off 330 technical consultants, closing 150 service and repair centers across the country, a Sprint representative confirmed to CNET. It also shut down 55 of its worst-performing retail stores. The moves were part of a larger plan for layoffs and cuts that was announced in January.

Christian Bale Top Choice to Play Steve Jobs in Biopic Written by Aaron Sorkin

Director David Fincher, who is in talks to direct the Aaron Sorkin-scripted Steve Jobs biopic based on Water Isaacson’s biography, is hoping to cast Christian Bale in the leading role as Steve Jobs, reports TheWrap.

Though Fincher has not yet officially signed on to direct the film, he has allegedly said that he will take on the project if Christian Bale plays Steve Jobs. Bale has not been approached about the possible role, but he has reportedly been a front runner for the position due to his undeniable resemblance to Jobs.

China announces plans to expand cities

China announces plans to expand cities, railways to support economic growth, raise incomes.

BEIJING (AP) -- China has announced plans to expand its cities and improve public services to support economic growth by allowing millions more rural residents to migrate to urban jobs.

The Cabinet plan issued Sunday calls for raising the share of China's population of almost 1.4 billion people living in cities to 60 percent from 53.7 percent now, a shift of about 90 million people.

The ruling Communist Party sees allowing people to migrate into cities for higher-paid jobs as a pillar of more sustainable growth based on domestic consumption instead of trade and investment.

Malaysia Airlines MH370 - Passengers, crew on board missing Malaysia plane

There were 12 crew and 227 passengers on the Malaysia Airlines jet that disappeared about 40 minutes into a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8. They were from far-flung parts of the world: 14 nationalities that included New Zealanders, Iranians, Americans and Indonesians. Two thirds of the passengers were from China. These are the stories of some of those on board.

— EXPERIENCED CAPTAIN

The flight's pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, joined Malaysia Airlines in 1981 and had more than 18,000 hours of flight experience. People who knew Zaharie from his involvement in opposition political circles in Malaysia and other areas of his life described him as sociable, humble, caring and dedicated to his job.

His Facebook page showed an aviation enthusiast who built his own flight simulator at home and flew remote-controlled aircraft, posting pictures of his collection, which included a lightweight twin-engine helicopter and an amphibious aircraft.

Born in northern Penang state, the captain and grandfather was an enthusiastic handyman and proud home cook. As part of what he called "community service," he had posted several YouTube videos including how to make air conditioners more efficient to cut electricity bills, how to waterproof window panes, and how to repair a refrigerator icemaker.

CIA suspends Iran operations chief - Jonathan Bank

Washington (AFP) - The head of the CIA's Iran operations has been suspended after employees complained about his "abusive" management style, The Los Angeles Times reported Monday, citing unnamed officials.

Jonathan Bank, a career officer with the spy agency, had been placed on administrative leave after an internal probe found he had created a hostile work environment, according to the Times.

Former officials said employees had been in "open rebellion" over the officer's management style and that the division, which oversees spying on Iran and its nuclear program, was in a state of disarray, it said.

Meet the Man Behind Prosthetic Knowledge, One of the Most Influential Tech Tumblrs in the World

A floating orb that records its surroundings. A Steve Reich/Pac-Man mashup. A first-person-hacker Oculus Rift game. A wearable device that produces sounds from a dancer’s movements. A tank “driven” by a goldfish.

Welcome to the world of Prosthetic Knowledge, an influential art-tech Tumblr that features a fascinating and relentless stream of creative projects and experiments from around the world. Anybody with a taste for cutting-edge tech and experimentation has probably encountered the Tumblr—even if only indirectly.

Angelina Jolie Takes Flight in 'Maleficent' Teaser

The Mistress of All Evil has wings!

Disney's most sinister villain has been fitted for flight, it was revealed on Twitter on Monday.

In a new, 30-second "Maleficent" teaser — with accompanying Twitter messages from the villainess herself — we learn Maleficent's tragic backstory. And it better explains her sinister-ness:

Her early days as a winged fairy are showcased in the teaser video (above), which also serves as the warm-up to Tuesday's reveal of a new, full-length "Maleficent" trailer.

Some Smart-Home Products Are Smarter Than Others

“You are the laziest person I’ve ever met,” my daughter said to me the other day. She said this while lying on the couch with her feet up, watching her 12th consecutive episode of Parks and Recreation.

“How do you figure?” I asked, handing her a cup of tea.

“You use a friggin’ remote for everything,” she said. Then she picked up the Roku remote to unpause the show.

It occurred to me then that nicknaming her “Princess” had not been a very good idea. Still, I could see her point. At that moment I was using a handheld remote to dim and undim the lightbulbs in the dining room. I had two different home automation systems attached to doors, windows, lamps, and various other devices, which I controlled via my iPad. Virtually the only thing I couldn’t control at that moment was my daughter.

Diver fends off a sudden shark atta

Jason Dimitri uses pole spear to protect himself from an aggressive Caribbean reef shark in waters off the Cayman Islands.

A diver off the Cayman Islands in the western Caribbean Sea was suddenly forced to fend off a shark attack with the pole spear he had been using to cull the area of the invasive and destructive lionfish. A Caribbean reef shark came out of nowhere, scaring the bejesus out of diver Jason Dimitri, who had just speared a lionfish in about 70 feet of water.

Titanfall Known Issues and Troubleshooting Information

Okay, so you now own the newly released Titanfall and you are running into some annoying glitches that are taking the fun out of the new game. Where do you turn to for help? Check out this helpful information guide straight from EA.

EU Votes in Favor of Universal Mobile Charger

On rare occasions, governing bodies get together and pass a resolution that actually makes some sense. It must be a blue moon this month because the EU has voted to recommend development of a standardized form factor charger for mobile phones to reduce waste and confusion for consumers.

T-Mobile Plans To Bump Their Entire Network to 4G By 2015

T-Mobile has pledged to have their complete network up and running 4G LTE by the middle of next year. The upgrade is almost to the halfway point now and should be completed on schedule in 2015. When pigs fly and all that.

What does this mean for you? Basically: if you’re on T-Mobile but live somewhere where your phone’s data connection hasn’t sped up much in the last decade, things are about to get a whole lot faster.

The 11 Most Impressive iWatch Concepts So Far

Ready or not we are about to be bombarded with the next big thing in technology in the guise of wearable tech, in this case, iWatches. Everyone swears they won’t buy one, but chances are if the trend catches fire, many will be sporting the latest and greatest iWatch sooner or later. Stuff.tv has gathered together what they think is the best of the bunch, so make your choice.

Sony and Panasonic announce successor to Blu-ray

Credit: stock.xchng

During the last generation of video gaming, Sony added Blu-ray technology to its PlayStation 3. This resulted in games with more realistic graphics, unlike anything we’d seen before. Now, Sony, along with Panasonic, are hoping to make that experience even better, by announcing the successor to Blu-ray, called Archival Disc. Each Archival Disc will hold up to 1TB of data.

Robot pole-dancers are hip-swiveling their way to a club near you

Say what you will about the sci-fi oddity that was A.I. Artificial Intelligence, but Spielberg's robot-centric vision of the future just took a pole-dancing, hip-grinding step toward reality. At this year's CeBIT expo in Hannover, Germany a trio of robots took to the stage. Standing at center stage, a megaphone-headed announcer introduced its two companions: pole-dancers with surveillance cameras for their heads.

Carbon solar watch doubles as charger for your dying smartphone

External batteries and battery-pack cases are useful when you know you won't be near an outlet to charge up dying smartphone. But honestly, who really wants to carry around a battery brick? No one, that's who.
The creative minds over at Energy Bionics think they have a better idea: use your watch to charge your smartphone. It's kind of like Brando's wristband battery, only it's a not nearly as ugly. Designed and assembled entirely in the U.S., the Carbon has an 800mAh battery that is good enough to give you up to three hours of talk time or web browsing.

The first full synopsis for Gotham has arrived, and it definitely sets the stage for what we can expect from Fox’s upcoming Batman prequel.

Here's a first clip with stills from the upcoming awesomeness of War of the Worlds: Goliath, a badass indie anime epic directed by Joe Pearson with the help of more than 300 artists, illustrators and animators in four countries. It gives the 19th-century sci-fi novel a distinctive steampunk twist with some brutal battle sequences against the murderous Martian tripods. The spotlight of the story are the 1200-foot-long, armored zepellin aircraft carriers that clog the skies, and the heroic heft of the allied's Goliath machine attempting to halt the voracious alien invasion.