Remember When The Sony Walkman Was Considered High-Tech?

Do you remember a time when the Sony Walkman was as high-tech as the iPhone 5? Even though we have the modern advantage of rechargeable batteries, the idea of having a portable cassette or CD player today seems laughable. However, when the transistor radio was invented in the 1950?s, the world suddenly had an idea that music could be handheld. Inventions like the boom box dominated certain decades, but it was the introduction of the Walkman by Sony in 1979 that would shape music listening for the next twenty years.

A Brief History Of The Walkman

Despite the fact that Sony launched the product, the actual inventor of the portable personal stereo audio cassette player was a man named Andreas Pavel. He filed a patent for a device he called a ?Stereobelt? in 1977. Since Pavel?s patent was rejected by the United States, Sony was able to gain a market there with their Walkman model. However, Pavel eventually reclaimed his financial losses from Sony and gained the title of ?Original Inventor of the Personal Stereo.? Nevertheless, it was Sony that made the Walkman popular. For the record, the first Sony Walkman was released in 1979.

The Walkman Takes Over America

Over the course of the 1980?s, the Sony Walkman became a household name. In fact, when other brands picked up the manufacturing of personal stereo products, consumers would still refer to it as their Walkman despite the fact it was not made by Sony. Similar to the way smartphones are regarded today, children in the 1980?s were usually encouraged to avoid using a Walkman because the first models were easy to break. In the mid-1980?s, Sony resolved this issue by producing a line of Walkman toys for children called My First Sony. This was one of many ways that Sony responded to the complaints of their customers. Other examples of improvements to the original design include their slim-line, waterproof and battery-efficient models.

The Walkman Goes Solar

Available in white or yellow, the solar revolution was part of the Walkman history. In 1987 when the Solar Walkman was released on the market, the solar-powered calculator was already prominent. Clearly, the WMF107 Solar Walkman was one of the next steps in getting rid of the need to buy AA batteries every week. Sadly, the Solar Walkman was never perfected, and the unit would not work at full capacity unless the sun was extremely bright. The first run model was also expensive for consumers and the rechargeable battery was difficult to care for.

The Walkman Says Good-Bye

Despite its absence in the modern marketplace, this product did not decline in popularity as early as you think. After decades of being a sought-after piece of technology, Sony finally announced that it would cease production of the device. It made one final batch of Walkmans, and then told the press that these were the final units. By the end of 2011, the days of the Walkman were drawn to a close. There are still many models for sale throughout the world, but you can no longer buy them from the manufacturer. Sony has stated in several reports that the main cause of decline for this product was the invention of the MP3 player.

And with that, the world says good-bye to another great must-have piece of technology.

This piece was written by Pete Salinsky, a freelance writer based in Baton Rouge, LA. Pete enjoys writing about gadgets, gadget accessories, computers, cell phones and other associated topics; those searching for iPad accessories should check out the Kensington iPad cover from kensington.com.

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Source: http://www.guysgab.com/remember-when-the-sony-walkman-was-considered-high-tech/

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The Time Harvard Expelled Its Gay Students

A gay pride parade in Santiago, Chile.???

Photo by Claudio Santana/AFP/Getty Images

Every weekend, Longform shares a collection of great stories from its archive with Slate. For daily picks of new and classic nonfiction, check out Longform or follow @longform on Twitter. Have an iPad? Download Longform?s app to read the latest picks, plus features from dozens of other magazines, including Slate.

Hiding in Uniform
Jane Gross ? New York Times ? April 1990

On being gay in the military, three years before ?don?t ask, don?t tell.?

?A vast majority of those interviewed had been interrogated at least once, and what they described was nearly the same. They said those under suspicion of homosexuality suffer bright lights in their eyes and sometimes handcuffs on their wrists, warnings that their parents will be informed or their hometown newspapers called, threats that their stripes will be torn off and they will pushed through the gates of the base before a jeering crowd.

?Further, those who have been interrogated said, they were told that someone else had already identified them and so they might as well talk. They said they were promised an easier time if they would also supply investigators with information about others?first names, maybe, or a tip about a certain ship with a large gay contingent. Several people who had children said they had been threatened with loss of custody. A few reported verbal and physical abuse.?

Gay Marriage?s Jewish Pioneer
Eli Sanders ? Tablet ? June 2012

Meet Faygele ben Miriam (formerly John Singer), the radical activist ?beyond the leading edge? of the same-sex marriage fight.

?But by that time Singer was on to his next fight, and a new name, Faygele ben Miriam, which he took to simultaneously tweak homophobes (?Faygele? is Yiddish for ?little bird? or ?faggot?) and honor his mother, Miriam Singer. This uniquely insistent man, who died 12 years ago this week, was in his time a huge force in Washington state?s gay politics, and at the leading edge?really, beyond the leading edge?of what would eventually become the national push to achieve same-sex marriage rights. ?He matters because he was part of that first wave of couples challenging the unjust and unfair denial of the freedom to marry,? said Evan Wolfson, founder of the advocacy group Freedom to Marry and author of Why Marriage Matters. ?And he spoke for millions, at a time when, in some respects, gay people were just beginning to speak for full inclusion and the right to be let in, not just left alone.?

Here Comes the Groom
Andrew Sullivan ? New Republic ? August 1989

A conservative case for gay marriage.

?There's a less elaborate argument for gay marriage: it's good for gays. It provides role models for young gay people who, after the exhilaration of coming out, can easily lapse into short-term relationships and insecurity with no tangible goal in sight. My own guess is that most gays would embrace such a goal with as much (if not more) commitment as straights. Even in our society as it is, many lesbian relationships are virtual textbook cases of monogamous commitment. Legal gay marriage could also help bridge the gulf often found between gays and their parents. It could bring the essence of gay life--a gay couple--into the heart of the traditional straight family in a way the family can most understand and the gay offspring can most easily acknowledge. It could do as much to heal the gay-straight rift as any amount of gay rights legislation.?

The Secret Court
Benoit Denizet-Lewis ? The Good Men Project ? June 2010

In 1920, Harvard University officials suspected that some students were gay. So they kicked them all out.

?For more than eighty years, this remarkable story, recounted in some five-hundred pages of typed and barely legible handwritten letters and school documents, sat untouched in a locked filing cabinet at University Hall. Then Amit Paley, a Harvard student and an editor of the student-run Harvard Crimson, came upon a strange reference to Court documents while working on another assignment. Paley was eventually granted access to the files and wrote of their existence in the Crimson. (Though Harvard blocked out the names of the students involved, Paley was able to identify them after six months of research).

?A further examination of the five-hundred pages of files, which now reside in the Harvard Archives, along with old yearbooks, freshman-student reports, and 25th- and 50th- anniversary class reports, tell a fascinating, tragic story about gay life at Harvard in 1920 and the administration?s ferocious response to the discovery of homosexual ?degenerates? on its campus.?

The activists, politicians, and social trends that led to 2012?s gay marriage victories.

?That marriage should be a central fight of the gay-rights movement was sometimes a tough sell. Other battles, particularly at the height of the AIDS crisis, seemed more vital; many activists questioned whether gays should even want to participate in the ultimate heteronormative social institution. And in a society where sodomy laws would not be struck down by the Supreme Court until 2003, marriage seemed impossibly far-fetched. Wolfson saw it partly from a legalistic point of view -- without the ability to get married, gays were denied many legal protections afforded to other Americans. He was adamant that civil unions, which offer some of the rights of marriage under a distinct legal category, represented an unacceptable ?separate but equal? status. (?I had a long argument over civil unions with Evan in 2004,? a former Log Cabin Republicans board member told me ruefully. ?He won.?)?

Gay Politics Goes Mainstream
Jeffrey Schmalz ? New York Times ? October 1992

As tens of thousands come out of the closet, gay political activism heats up.

?For years, homosexuals have, for the most part, been politically apathetic. Rarely did a candidate stir their enthusiasm; when homosexuals did vote, many of the more affluent ones tended to go Republican. But now the gay and lesbian community appears to be united for the first time in a Presidential race behind a single candidate -- Bill Clinton. And the money is pouring into the Clinton campaign?$2 million so far from identifiably gay sources, according to Democratic Party estimates. ?The gay community is the new Jewish community,? says Rahm Emanuel, the Clinton campaign's national finance director. ?It's highly politicized, with fundamental health and civil rights concerns. And it contributes money. All that makes for a potent political force, indeed.??

The Making of Gay Marriage?s Top Foe
Mark Oppenheimer ? Salon ? February 2012

A profile of Maggie Gallagher, founder of National Organization for Marriage.

?Counterfactual history is a dangerous business, but it seems fair to say that Gallagher?s was the non-marriage that changed the world. If that sophomore cad had married Gallagher, she might never have become a writer. ?I don?t know what I would have done,? she tells me. ?I became a writer because I had a baby and had to make money.? And what she writes about is same-sex marriage: why it?s bad for children, bad for America, simply bad. In her books and newspaper columns, and above all in her fundraising and political organizing, Gallagher has done more than any American to stop same-sex marriage. The organization she founded in 2007, the National Organization for Marriage, helped organize the successful effort in 2008 to pass Proposition 8 in California, overturning that state?s same-sex-marriage statute. (A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that it violated the Constitution, setting up a likely appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.) In 2009, her organization contributed over 60 percent of the entire budget of Stand for Marriage Maine, the primary organization behind Proposition 1, the referendum that overturned Maine?s same-sex marriage law. In 2010, National Organization for Marriage money helped determine the election that ousted three Iowa Supreme Court justices who had upheld same-sex marriage.?

The Wedding
Katherine Goldstein ? Slate ? July 2012

Erwynn Umali, Will Behrens, and the first gay wedding on a military base.

?Legally, Will and Erwynn?s ceremony at McGuire-Dix will have to be a civil union, since New Jersey doesn?t recognize same-sex marriage. But to them, it?s a wedding, and they plan to get legally married in New York after the ceremony. When I met them in December, they pled ignorance about how to plan a reception. Each of them had been married, but like many other grooms, they had relinquished the planning to their brides. (Will says his only job back then was to pick up his suit before the ceremony.) Neither of them has attended a same-sex wedding before. But by April, both men were on a first-name basis with the saleswomen at the crafts store where they purchased supplies for their homemade centerpieces. By Friday, June 22, their house has become wedding command central. Their kids, who hadn?t seen one another for a year, are in the basement playing games and singing and dancing to pop songs. Will is captain of the checklists, keeping track of everything and bagging stuff up to take over to the base.?

Have a favorite piece that we missed? Leave the link in the comments or tweet it to @longform. For more great writing, check out Longform?s complete archive.

Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/longform/2013/06/gay_marriage_don_t_ask_don_t_tell_the_conservative_case_for_marriage_equality.html

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Finding Work After College More Important Than Graduating, Americans Say In Gallup Poll

In finding the right college, Americans care less about whether its students are likely to graduate, and more about whether the ones that do land a solid job, a Gallup poll released Friday finds.

Forty-one percent identified the percentage of graduates able to obtain a good job as the most important factor in choosing a college, with the percentage increasing among respondents who have higher monthly incomes.

The price of the college, 37 percent said, was the most important, and just 16 percent selected the percentage of students who graduate from the college or university. Both of those choices tended to be more vital to lower income respondents in the poll.

The Gallup poll was conducted among 1,012 adults nationwide on May 28 and 29 on behalf of Lumina Foundation.

The U.S. Department of Education has pushed schools for more disclosure of the number of their graduates able to find gainful employment, but mostly has focused on vocational programs and for-profit institutions. Lawmakers have debated retooling policies at public universities to steer graduates toward majors they believe are more likely to result in well-paying jobs, much to the chagrin of liberal arts proponents.

The Gallup poll suggests Americans are more concerned about return on investment than anything else when selecting a college. But they aren't convinced that higher tuition represents a better quality education.

Forty-five percent of respondents told Gallup they disagreed or strongly disagreed with a higher tuition price indicating higher quality, while just 10 percent said they strongly agreed with the correlation. A majority of Americans, 61 percent, consider an annual college tuition of $20,000 or less to be affordable.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/28/finding-work-college-graduating-poll_n_3517561.html

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Fears of unrest in Egypt as mass protests pit neighbor against neighbor

As Egypt approaches a weekend of confrontation, the divide between those who love and those who despise President Mohammed Morsi and his pro-Islamist government is wider than ever. NBC's Charlene Gubash reports.

By Charlene Gubash and Alastair Jamieson, NBC News

Egypt risks sliding into civil war, the country?s leading religious authority warned Friday, as the nation braced itself for mass nationwide protests.

Organizers of ?June 30? demonstrations -- which mark one year since Islamist President Mohammed Morsi's election -- claim they have the backing of an estimated 15 million Egyptians who want him to resign.

?Only God knows what will happen [on Sunday],? said Gamal Abdul Aziz, a pro-Morsi car mechanic in Madba?a, a blue-collar district in Cairo.

NBC News

Gamal Abdul Aziz, left, a pro-Morsi car mechanic, argues with anti-Morsi computer science student Mohamed Abdul Munim, right, while being interviewed this week.

Building on discontent about a range of social and economic issues, Morsi?s opponents hope to force early presidential elections.

His supporters, meanwhile, have promised they will also take to the streets to defend the Muslim Brotherhood-backed government.

?Vigilance is required to ensure we do not slide into civil war,? clerics of the Al-Azhar institute said in a statement broadly supportive of Morsi, Reuters reported.

It blamed ?criminal gangs? who besieged mosques for street violence which the Brotherhood said has killed five of its supporters in a week.

There were ominous signs on Friday. A Health Ministry source told Reuters that at least 36 people were wounded when hundreds scuffled outside a local office of the Muslim Brotherhood.

A Reuters reporter saw about a dozen men break off from an anti-Morsi march on the seafront to throw rocks at the building's guards. They responded and bricks and bottles flew. Gunshots were also heard.

In an example of just how polarized the debate over Egypt?s future has become, Aziz and his family became embroiled in a shouting match with a nearby resident, anti-Morsi computer science student Mohamed Abdul Munim, 23, while being interviewed this week.

Amr Nabil / AP

Egyptian drivers wait outside in long lines at a gasoline station in Cairo on Tuesday.

The argument, which took place after NBC News filmed a political discussion between the two, ended when Munim stormed off.

The dispute and recent violence -- one man was shot dead and four wounded in an attack on a Muslim Brotherhood office on Thursday -- was an ill omen for Sunday?s marches that will be held a year to the day after Morsi became Egypt's first freely elected leader.

The country's powerful army, which helped protesters topple Hosni Mubarak's authoritarian regime in 2011, has reinforced its presence in cities like Cairo and Port Said.

Munim said he believed ?most? of Egypt?s registered 50 million voters will be out on the streets, supporting one side or the other.

?We are sure that we will go out and get beaten up by the [Muslim] Brotherhood [but] we are going out despite this," he said. ?There is no security, there is economic collapse, the electricity cuts off and everybody is suffering. They will say Morsi is not at fault, but electricity didn?t cut off when the military governed.?

Aziz, meanwhile, said his life had improved under Morsi, and accused the mostly-secular opposition of ?waging a war against Islam.?

?Can you build a house in a day? No, it takes time. What can a president do in one year when a country is in ruins? The old [Mubarak] regime stole the country and left it destroyed.?

In a sign of the nervousness many felt, Egyptians were stocking up on food, fuel, water and cash in the days leading up the protests.

The Daily Show's Jon Stewart took his satire to Cairo Friday, appearing on a show hosted by the man known as "Egypt's Jon Stewart" and who has faced investigation for insulting the country's president and Islam. "If your regime is not strong enough to handle a joke then you don't have a regime," said Stewart. TODAY's Jenna Wolfe reports.

Morsi?s supporters claim the demonstration? organized?by an opposition umbrella group named "Tamarod," meaning "Rebel"?? is setting the stage for a repeat of the 2011 Arab Spring revolution.

Mahmoud Badr, a 28-year-old journalist and founder of the Tamarod movement, dismissed a televised speech by Morsi on Wednesday night in which the president appealed for calm.

"Our demand was early presidential elections and since that was not addressed anywhere in the speech then our response will be on the streets on [Sunday]," he told the?English-language Egypt Independent news site.?

The U.S.?Embassy announced Tuesday it would be closing its doors for the day of the demonstrations, but added that ?potentially violent protest activity may occur before June 30,? and urged U.S. citizens to ?maintain a low profile? from Friday onwards.

Underscoring fears of violence, defenders of Morsi on Tuesday revealed plans to form vigilante groups to protect public buildings from opposition demonstrations, the Egypt Independent reported, quoting Safwat Abdel Ghany, a member of Islamic umbrella organization Jama'a al-Islamiya.?

?If chaos sweeps across the country, Islamist groups will secure state institutions and vital facilities against robbery by thugs and advocates of violence," he was quoted as saying.

Members of Tamarod were so confident that they?would force Morsi from power that the organization set out a constitutional ?road map? that it said would take Egypt forward without a president until new elections.

Eric Trager, fellow at the Washington Institute think tank, said this week that battle lines were drawn between ?an enraged opposition? and ?an utterly incapable, confrontational ruling party that now counts some of Egypt's most violent political elements as its core supporters.?

?Rising food prices, hours-long fuel lines, and multiple-times-daily electricity cuts -- all worsening amidst a typically scorching Egyptian summer -- have set many Egyptians on edge, with clashes between Brotherhood and anti-Brotherhood activists now a common feature of Egyptian political life," he said.

?Whatever happens on [Sunday], it can't end well,? he added.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Related:

This story was originally published on Fri Jun 28, 2013 5:30 AM EDT

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'Corkscrew' Light Could Turbocharge Internet

Different-shaped beams could be used to increase fiber-optic capacity, thereby easing online congestion

By Maggie McKee and Nature magazine

Twisting light could create a new lane of traffic on the information superhighway. Image: Wikimedia Commons/?berraschungsbilder

• 

  Showcasing more than fifty of the most provocative, original, and significant online essays from 2011, The Best Science Writing Online 2012 will change the way...

  Read More??

Twisty beams of light could boost the traffic-carrying capacity of the Internet, effectively adding new levels to the information superhighway, suggests research published today in Science.

Internet traffic is growing exponentially and researchers have sought ways to squeeze ever more information into the fiber-optic cables that carry it. One successful method used over the last 20 years essentially added more traffic lanes, using different colors, or wavelengths, for different signals. But to compensate for the added lanes, each one had to be made narrower. So, just as in a real highway, the spacing could get only so tight before the streams of data began to jumble together.

In the last few years, different groups of researchers have tried to encode information in the shape of light beams to ease congestion, using a property of light called orbital angular momentum. Currently, a straight beam of light is used to transmit Internet signals, but certain filters can twist it so that it corkscrews around with varying degrees of curliness as it travels.

Previous experiments using this effect have found that differently shaped light beams tend to jumble together after less than a meter.

Now, a team of researchers from Boston University in Massachusetts and the University of Southern California in Los Angeles has found a way to keep the different light beam shapes separated for a record 1.1 kilometers.

The researchers designed and built a 1.1-kilometer-long glass cable, the cross section of which had a varying index of refraction ? a measure that describes how fast light can travel in a particular medium. They then sent both twisty and straight beams of light down the cable.

The team found that the light output matched the input ? light beams of each shape were not getting muddled together. The varying index of refraction apparently affected each light shape uniquely, so that different shapes moved at different speeds down the cable. "That meant that I could keep them separated," says Siddharth Ramachandran, an electrical engineer and leader of the Boston University team.

Improving infrastructure
The work published today used clockwise and anticlockwise versions of twisted light with a specific curliness, but Ramachandran says that the team has since done other research that suggests that about ten different beam shapes can be used to convey information.

That is exciting because each shape could potentially act as an entirely new level of traffic on the information superhighway. On each level, streams of data could be further divided into narrow lanes of color, maximizing flow. "We showed a new degree of freedom in which we could transmit information," says Ramachandran.

Translating the work from the lab to the real world will take time, however, in part because current Internet cables carry only straight beams of light. A more immediate goal, says Ramachandran, might be to install cables that are capable of carrying twisty light on the short distances between servers on giant 'server farms', used by large Web companies such as Facebook.

Miles Padgett, an optical physicist at the University of Glasgow, UK, is impressed with the work and is optimistic about its potential. "One day, more bandwidth will mean we can all Skype at the same time," he says.

This article is reproduced with permission from the magazine Nature. The article was first published on June 27, 2013.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/~r/sciam/basic-science/~3/VqOC7e7qJXk/article.cfm

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Ecuador heats rhetoric as Obama downplays Snowden

A woman sits at her vegetable stand at a market in downtown Quito, Ecuador, Thursday, June 27, 2013. Unlike with China, Russia or Cuba, countries where the U.S. has relatively few tools to force Edward Snowden's handover, the Obama administration could swiftly hit Ecuador in the pocketbook by denying reduced tariffs on cut flowers, artichokes and broccoli if it grants Snowden's request for asylum. Those represent hundreds of millions of dollars in annual exports for this country where nearly half of foreign trade depends on the U.S. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

A woman sits at her vegetable stand at a market in downtown Quito, Ecuador, Thursday, June 27, 2013. Unlike with China, Russia or Cuba, countries where the U.S. has relatively few tools to force Edward Snowden's handover, the Obama administration could swiftly hit Ecuador in the pocketbook by denying reduced tariffs on cut flowers, artichokes and broccoli if it grants Snowden's request for asylum. Those represent hundreds of millions of dollars in annual exports for this country where nearly half of foreign trade depends on the U.S. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

In this photo released by Ecuador's Presidential Press Office, Ecuador's President Rafael Correa talks with journalist during a press conference in Quevedo, Ecuador, Thursday, June 27, 2013. Ecuador said Thursday it is renouncing tariff benefits on hundreds of millions of dollars in trade that are up for renewal by the U.S. Congress at a moment when Ecuador faces U.S. pressure to avoid granting asylum to National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden. Ecuador has been lobbying for continuation of reduced tariffs on hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of trade in products such as cut flowers, artichokes and broccoli. Nearly half Ecuador's foreign trade depends on the U.S. (AP Photo/ Ecuador's Presidential Press Office)

Ecuador's Foreign Minster Ricardo Patino speaks to members of the media as he arrives for a reception at Singapore's Shangri-la Hotel on Thursday, June 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Joseph Nair)

A woman sits by her flowers for sale at a market in Quito, Ecuador, Thursday, June 27, 2013. Ecuador said Thursday it is renouncing tariff benefits on hundreds of millions of dollars in trade that are up for renewal by the U.S. Congress at a moment when Ecuador faces U.S. pressure to avoid granting asylum to National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden. Ecuador has been lobbying for continuation of reduced tariffs on hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of trade in products such as cut flowers, artichokes and broccoli. Nearly half Ecuador's foreign trade depends on the U.S. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

Flowers in packaging that reads in Spanish "Direct from Ecuador" sit for sale at a market in Quito, Ecuador, Thursday, June 27, 2013. Ecuador said Thursday it is renouncing tariff benefits on hundreds of millions of dollars in trade that are up for renewal by the U.S. Congress at a moment when Ecuador faces U.S. pressure to avoid granting asylum to National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden. Ecuador has been lobbying for continuation of reduced tariffs on hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of trade in products such as cut flowers, artichokes and broccoli. Nearly half Ecuador's foreign trade depends on the U.S. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) ? President Barack Obama tried to cool the international frenzy over Edward Snowden on Thursday as Ecuador stepped up its defiance and said it was preemptively rejecting millions in trade benefits that it could lose by taking in the fugitive from his limbo in a Moscow airport.

The country seen as likeliest to shelter the National Security Agency leaker seemed determined to prove it could handle any repercussions, with three of its highest officials calling an early-morning news conference to "unilaterally and irrevocably renounce" $23 million a year in lowered tariffs on products such as shrimp and frozen vegetables.

Fernando Alvarado, the secretary of communications for leftist President Rafael Correa, sarcastically suggested the U.S. use the money to train government employees to respect human rights.

Obama, meanwhile, sought to downplay the international chase for the man he called "a 29-year-old hacker" and lower the temperature of an issue that has raised tensions between the U.S. and uneasy partners Russia and China. Obama said in Senegal that the damage to U.S. national security has already been done and his top focus now is making sure it can't happen again.

"I'm not going to have one case with a suspect who we're trying to extradite suddenly be elevated to the point where I've got to start doing wheeling and dealing and trading on a whole host of other issues, simply to get a guy extradited so he can face the justice system," Obama said at a joint news conference with Senegal's President Macky Sall.

While the Ecuadorean government appeared angry over U.S. threats of punishment if it accepts Snowden, there were also mixed signals about how eager it was to grant asylum. For days, officials here have been blasting the U.S. and praising Snowden's leaks of NSA eavesdropping secrets as a blow for global human rights.

But they also have repeatedly insisted that they are nowhere close to making a decision on whether Snowden can leave Moscow, where he is believed to be holed up in an airport transit zone, for refuge in this oil-rich South American nation.

"It's a complex situation, we don't know how it'll be resolved," Correa told a news conference Thursday in his first public comments on the case aside from a handful of postings on Twitter.

The Ecuadorean leader said that in order for Snowden's asylum application to be processed, he would have to be in Ecuador or inside an Ecuadorean Embassy, "and he isn't." Another country would have to permit Snowden to transit its territory for that requirement to be met, Correa said.

WikiLeaks, which has been aiding Snowden, announced earlier he was en route to Ecuador and had received a travel document. On Wednesday, the Univision television network displayed an unsigned letter of safe passage for him.

Officials on Thursday acknowledged that the Ecuadorean Embassy in London had issued a June 22 letter of safe passage for Snowden that calls on other countries to allow him to travel to asylum in Ecuador. But Ecuador's secretary of political management, Betty Tola, said the letter was invalid because it was issued without the approval of the government in the capital, Quito.

She also threatened legal action against whoever leaked the document, which she said "has no validity and is the exclusive responsibility of the person who issued it."

"This demonstrates a total lack of coordination in the department of foreign affairs," said Santiago Basabe, a professor of political science at the Latin American School of Social Sciences in Quito. "It's no small question to issue a document of safe passage or a diplomatic document for someone like Snowden without this decision being taken directly by the foreign minister or president."

The renunciation of trade benefits was a dramatic but mostly symbolic threat. The U.S Congress was widely expected to let the benefits lapse in coming weeks, for reasons unrelated to the Snowden case. And if they continued, it appeared highly unlikely that the Ecuadorean government would be able to unilaterally cancel tariff benefits that went directly to their country's exporters.

Behind Ecuador's mixed messages, some analysts saw not confusion but internal divisions in the Ecuadorean government.

Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a think tank focused on Latin America, said many in Washington believed that Correa, a leftist elected to a third term in February, had been telegraphing a desire to moderate and take a softer tack toward the United States and private business.

Harder-core leftists led by Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino may be seeking to maintain a tough line, he said, a division expressing itself in confusing messages.

"I think there really are different factions within the government on this," Shifter said. "Correa wants to become more moderate. That has been the signal that has been communicated in Washington."

Embarrassment for the Obama administration over the surveillance revelations continued as documents disclosed Thursday showed the Obama administration gathered U.S. citizens' Internet data until 2011, continuing a spying program started under President George W. Bush that revealed whom Americans exchanged emails with and the Internet Protocol address of their computer.

The National Security Agency ended the program that collected email logs and timing, but not content, in 2011 because it decided it didn't effectively stop terrorist plots, according to the NSA's director, Gen. Keith Alexander, who also heads the U.S. Cyber Command. He said all data was purged in 2011.

Britain's Guardian newspaper on Thursday released documents detailing the collection, though the program was also described earlier this month by The Washington Post.

The U.S. administration was expected to decide by Monday what export privileges to grant Ecuador under the Generalized System of Preferences, a program meant to spur development and growth in poorer countries.

Although the deadline was set long before the Snowden affair, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said Thursday that Ecuador's application to add a handful of products such as artichokes and cut flowers ? the latter a major industry here ? would not be decided immediately but would remain pending. That gives the U.S. additional leverage over Ecuador while Snowden's fate remains uncertain.

More broadly, a larger trade pact allowing reduced tariffs on more than $5 billion in annual exports to the U.S. is up for congressional renewal before July 21. While approval of the Andean Trade Preference Act has long been seen as doubtful in Washington, Ecuador has been lobbying strongly for its renewal.

On Wednesday, Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, pledged to lead an effort to block extension of U.S. tariff benefits if Ecuador grants asylum to Snowden, who turned 30 last week. Nearly half of Ecuador's billions a year in foreign trade depends on the United States.

The Obama administration said Thursday that accepting Snowden would damage the overall relationship between the two countries and analysts said it was almost certain that granting the leaker asylum would lead the U.S. to cut roughly $30 million a year in military and law enforcement assistance.

Granting asylum to Snowden would cause "great difficulties in our bilateral relationship," State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said. "If they take that step, that would have very negative repercussions."

Alvarado, the communications minister, said his country rejects economic "blackmail" in the form of threats against the trade measures.

"The preferences were authorized for Andean countries as compensation for the fight against drugs, but soon became a new instrument of pressure," he said. "As a result, Ecuador unilaterally and irrevocably renounces these preferences."

Alvarado did not explicitly mention the separate effort to win trade benefits under the presidential order.

He did suggest, however, how the U.S. could use the money saved from Ecuadorean tariffs to train government employees to respect citizens' rights.

"Ecuador offers the United States $23 million a year in economic aid, an amount similar to what we were receiving under the tariff benefits, with the purpose of providing human rights training that will contribute to avoid violations of people's privacy, that degrade humanity," he said.

___

Pace reported from Dakar, Senegal. Gonzalo Solano in Quito, Peter Orsi in Caracas, Venezuela, and Ken Thomas in Washington contributed to this report.

___

Follow Michael Weissenstein on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mweissenstein

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-06-27-NSA-Surveillance/id-72688159f90340f79e5fe822adeb074a

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Microsoft Build 2013 opening keynote liveblog!

Hello, and welcome to sunny San Franciscso where Microsoft is about to kick off its annual Build developer conference. We already know today is the day Windows 8.1 becomes available as a public preview, and the execs in Redmond have hinted they have even more to share about the big OS update. But what else? Will those rumors of WebGL support for IE11 come to fruition? And how 'bout some news indie gaming developers can use? We'll be giving you the blow by blow, starting around 12PM ET today. Stay tuned!

June 26, 2013 12:00:00 PM EDT

Filed under: Microsoft

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/5ZvqPux2Qlk/

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'How NCC'll execute broadband plan with CTO' - Vanguard News

By Prince Osuagwu

FROM all indications, the Nigerian Communications Commission is planning to use the hosting of the next edition of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation forum in Nigeria, to facilitate the execution of the newly approved broadband plan in Nigeria.

This plan manifested as Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, last weekend, disclosed that the forum was deliberately pitched around broadband so that intricacies of implementation would be given adequate attention by stakeholders.

Juwah said the theme of the event, ?Beyond Broadband? will immensely benefit subscribers who have been having it rough with quality of service in recent times.

The forum, scheduled to hold in Abuja from October 7 to 11 is a synergy between the NCC and the Ministry of Communication Technology. It is expected to provide an avenue for extensive discussion on the Broadband Plan 2013-2018 and woo investors to help in facilitating its achievement. According to Juwah, the programme will play host to about 20 foreign ministers of communications technology from around Africa, as well as other key industry experts both in and outside the country.

He reminded participants that he made broadband deployment one of his cardinal programmes when he assumed office over two years ago, stressing that effective deployment of broadband in Nigeria would usher a new phase of competition in the telecom sector. For him, ?effective broadband deployment will put new economic powers in the hands of the Nigerian people wherever they may live.

The Broadband Plan has the objective of promoting pervasive broadband deployment, increase broadband adoption and usage.? ?As the industry regulator, we are prepared to play our role in the broadband plan and ensure that through our regulatory responsibilities and interventions, the plan is speedily and adequately delivered for use in the country.?? Also, Secretary-General of CTO, Professor Tim Unwin, lauded the Nigerian National Broadband Plan 2013-2018, describing it as an ambitious initiative.

He also acknowledged that the event would bring together regulators, governments, operators, vendors and Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) and highlight solutions to broadband infrastructure, revenue management and security challenges. He, therefore, tasked government and private sectors to collaborate with NCC and the ministry to ensure that the benefits of broadband for all are realised.

The broadband policy aims to connect 80 per cent of the population with broadband within five years.

Source: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/06/how-nccll-execute-broadband-plan-with-cto/

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Inductees to 2013 Internet Hall of Fame revealed, class includes 32 new members

Over the course of the past 12 months, the internet has witnessed negotiations between big-name sites, taken us inside the minds of social media innovators, and even given us a front row seat to what could be the biggest privacy-related story of the decade. Thus, it should come as no surprise that the Internet Society decided to debut its Internet Hall of Fame in April of last year, bringing on influential people like Vint Cerf and Al Gore as part of the first set of inductees. Now, it's time for the Class of 2013 to shine, one which ushers in 32 new members who will join the Father of the Internet and former US Vice President in the list of illustrious names "instrumental in the early design and development" of the web.

This year's individuals include the late Aaron Swartz under the Innovators category and more than 30 others spread across the Pioneer Circles and Global Connectors sections. President and CEO of Internet Society, Lynn St. Amour, tells us this is a way to celebrate the accomplishments of these visionaries, adding that she and her organization are always working with the utopian belief of everyone wanting to "participate fully in making the internet a platform that will continue to encourage innovation, communication, commerce, and social interaction for the benefit of people all around the world." The 2013 Hall of Fame ceremony's due to take place August 3rd in Berlin, Germany, but since we have the inductee list in the PR after the break, that means you won't have to wait until then to find out who made it in.

Filed under: Internet, Alt

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Source: Internet Hall of Fame

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/LFz1TG1UHGQ/

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Field Sales Consultants Required In Cork and Waterford For ...

Field Management Ireland

Address: Unit 3a Dundrum Business Park Dundrum Dublin 14, Dublin 14, Ireland

Phone: +353 1 496 3399

Fax: +353 1 496 3089

Field Management Ireland - Field Sales Consultants Required In Cork and Waterford For Leading Energy Company (Basic + Commission)

Location:	Cork and Waterford
Salary:	?21K per annum plus commission. OTE ?35K+
Job type:	Permanent, Full-time

Job description
Field Management Ireland currently have a vacancies for Field Sales Consultants in?Cork and Waterford?representing Ireland's market-leading energy provider. This position offers a basic salary plus generous commission.

This is a highly autonomous role and requires

candidates with a natural desire to succeed, the ability to get on with people of all ages/backgrounds and possessing a 'can-do' attitude.

As a result of deregulation, energy companies are now able to offer residential customers cheaper energy prices/packages for both electricity and gas as well as additional home energy services. This is an exciting opportunity to be part of a major campaign, with a proven track record of success to date, for one of the most well-respected companies in Ireland whilst enhancing your own sales skills and experience. Previous door-to-door sales experience is a distinct advantage for this role.

FMI is one of Irelands leading Field Management companies involved in a wide range of activities including sales, retail services/management, merchandising & auditing, on behalf of many of the leading companies in their fields such as Cadbury, UPC, Canon, Superquinn, BMW, Irish Cancer Society, Esso and ESB Electric Ireland.

The Role

• Working from 'warm' leads of previous customers covering the?Cork and Waterford?areas, offering residential customers new household energy packages and services.?
• Full-time - Must be available 12:00pm to 8pm Monday - Friday
• Basic salary (see below) plus generous commission structure
• Full training provided

The Person

• Excellent communication skills
• Motivated self-starter who is able to work on own initiative
• Portrays a professional image at all times and understands the importance of delivering a first-class customer service experience
• Fluent English is essential
• Previous door-to-door sales experience is a distinct advantage
• Must have own car and full driving licence

Apply below with your CV and cover letter outlining your suitability for this role.

Salary for this role is ?21K plus uncapped commission structure.

Email this job to yourself / a friend

Source: http://www.jobs.ie/ApplyForJob.aspx?Id=1273286

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Quantum engines must break down

Public release date: 26-Jun-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Rosie Waldron
r.waldron@ucl.ac.uk
020-767-99041
University College London

Our present understanding of thermodynamics is fundamentally incorrect if applied to small systems and need to be modified, according to new research from University College London and the University of Gdansk

Our present understanding of thermodynamics is fundamentally incorrect if applied to small systems and needs to be modified, according to new research from University College London (UCL) and the University of Gda?sk. The work establishes new laws in the rapidly emerging field of quantum thermodynamics.

The findings, published today in Nature Communications, have wide applications in small systems, from nanoscale engines and quantum technologies, to biological motors and systems found in the body.

The laws of thermodynamics govern much of the world around us they tell us that a hot cup of tea in a cold room will cool down rather than heat up? they tell us that unless we are vigilant, our houses will become untidy rather than spontaneously tidy? they tell us how efficient the best heat engines can be.

The current laws of thermodynamics only apply to large objects, when many particles are involved. The laws of thermodynamics for smaller systems are not well understood but will have implications for the construction of molecular motors and quantum computers, and might even determine how efficient energy extracting processes such as photosynthesis can be.

In this study researchers used results from quantum information theory to adapt the laws of thermodynamics for small systems, such as microscopic motors, nanoscale devices and quantum technologies.

Small systems behave very differently to large systems composed of many particles. And when systems are very small, then quantum effects come into play. The researchers found a set of laws which determine what happens to such microscopic systems when we heat them up or cool them down. An important consequence of their laws is that there is more fundamental irreversibility in small systems, and this means that microscopic heat engines can not be as efficient as their larger counterparts.

"We see that nature imposes fundamental limitations to extracting energy from microscopic systems and heat engines. A quantum heat engine is not as efficient as a macroscopic one, and will sometimes fail," said Professor Oppenheim, a Royal Society University Research Fellow at UCL's Department of Physics and Astronomy and one of the authors of the research. "The limitations are due to both finite size effects, and to quantum effects."

The researchers investigated the efficiency of microscopic heat engines and found that one of the basic quantities in thermodynamics, the free energy, does not determine what can happen in small systems, and especially in quantum mechanical systems. Instead, several new free energies govern the behaviour of these microscopic systems.

In large systems, if you put pure energy into a system, then you can recover all this energy back to use to power an engine which can perform work (such as lifting a heavy weight). But the researchers found that this was not the case for microscopic systems. If you put work into a quantum system you generally cannot get it all back.

Professor Michal Horodecki of the University of Gdansk, and co-author of the paper, said: "Thermodynamics at the microscopic scale is fundamentally irreversible. This is dramatically different to larger systems where all thermodynamic processes can be made reversible if we change systems slowly enough."

###

Notes for Editors

1. For more information or to speak to the authors, please contact Rosie Waldron in the UCL Media Relations Office on tel: +44 (0)20 7679 9041, out of hours +44 (0)7917 271 364, e-mail: r.waldron@ucl.ac.uk. Please note Rosie will be out of the office on Wednesday 26 June, in her absence please contact Clare Ryan tel: +44 (0)20 3108 3846 email: clare.ryan@ucl.ac.uk.

2. 'Fundamental limitations for quantum and nanoscale thermodynamics' is published in the journal Nature Communications on Wednesday 26 June. For copies of the paper please contact UCL Media Relations.

About UCL (University College London)

Founded in 1826, UCL was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, the first to admit students regardless of race, class, religion or gender and the first to provide systematic teaching of law, architecture and medicine.

We are among the world's top universities, as reflected by our performance in a range of international rankings and tables. According to the Thomson Scientific Citation Index, UCL is the second most highly cited European university and the 15th most highly cited in the world.

UCL has nearly 25,000 students from 150 countries and more than 9,000 employees, of whom one third are from outside the UK. The university is based in Bloomsbury in the heart of London, but also has two international campuses UCL Australia and UCL Qatar. Our annual income is more than 800 million.

http://www.ucl.ac.uk | Follow us on Twitter @uclnews | Watch our YouTube channel YouTube.com/UCLTV

---

[ | 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.

Public release date: 26-Jun-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Rosie Waldron
r.waldron@ucl.ac.uk
020-767-99041
University College London

Our present understanding of thermodynamics is fundamentally incorrect if applied to small systems and need to be modified, according to new research from University College London and the University of Gdansk

Our present understanding of thermodynamics is fundamentally incorrect if applied to small systems and needs to be modified, according to new research from University College London (UCL) and the University of Gda?sk. The work establishes new laws in the rapidly emerging field of quantum thermodynamics.

The findings, published today in Nature Communications, have wide applications in small systems, from nanoscale engines and quantum technologies, to biological motors and systems found in the body.

The laws of thermodynamics govern much of the world around us they tell us that a hot cup of tea in a cold room will cool down rather than heat up? they tell us that unless we are vigilant, our houses will become untidy rather than spontaneously tidy? they tell us how efficient the best heat engines can be.

The current laws of thermodynamics only apply to large objects, when many particles are involved. The laws of thermodynamics for smaller systems are not well understood but will have implications for the construction of molecular motors and quantum computers, and might even determine how efficient energy extracting processes such as photosynthesis can be.

In this study researchers used results from quantum information theory to adapt the laws of thermodynamics for small systems, such as microscopic motors, nanoscale devices and quantum technologies.

Small systems behave very differently to large systems composed of many particles. And when systems are very small, then quantum effects come into play. The researchers found a set of laws which determine what happens to such microscopic systems when we heat them up or cool them down. An important consequence of their laws is that there is more fundamental irreversibility in small systems, and this means that microscopic heat engines can not be as efficient as their larger counterparts.

"We see that nature imposes fundamental limitations to extracting energy from microscopic systems and heat engines. A quantum heat engine is not as efficient as a macroscopic one, and will sometimes fail," said Professor Oppenheim, a Royal Society University Research Fellow at UCL's Department of Physics and Astronomy and one of the authors of the research. "The limitations are due to both finite size effects, and to quantum effects."

The researchers investigated the efficiency of microscopic heat engines and found that one of the basic quantities in thermodynamics, the free energy, does not determine what can happen in small systems, and especially in quantum mechanical systems. Instead, several new free energies govern the behaviour of these microscopic systems.

In large systems, if you put pure energy into a system, then you can recover all this energy back to use to power an engine which can perform work (such as lifting a heavy weight). But the researchers found that this was not the case for microscopic systems. If you put work into a quantum system you generally cannot get it all back.

Professor Michal Horodecki of the University of Gdansk, and co-author of the paper, said: "Thermodynamics at the microscopic scale is fundamentally irreversible. This is dramatically different to larger systems where all thermodynamic processes can be made reversible if we change systems slowly enough."

###

Notes for Editors

1. For more information or to speak to the authors, please contact Rosie Waldron in the UCL Media Relations Office on tel: +44 (0)20 7679 9041, out of hours +44 (0)7917 271 364, e-mail: r.waldron@ucl.ac.uk. Please note Rosie will be out of the office on Wednesday 26 June, in her absence please contact Clare Ryan tel: +44 (0)20 3108 3846 email: clare.ryan@ucl.ac.uk.

2. 'Fundamental limitations for quantum and nanoscale thermodynamics' is published in the journal Nature Communications on Wednesday 26 June. For copies of the paper please contact UCL Media Relations.

About UCL (University College London)

Founded in 1826, UCL was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, the first to admit students regardless of race, class, religion or gender and the first to provide systematic teaching of law, architecture and medicine.

We are among the world's top universities, as reflected by our performance in a range of international rankings and tables. According to the Thomson Scientific Citation Index, UCL is the second most highly cited European university and the 15th most highly cited in the world.

UCL has nearly 25,000 students from 150 countries and more than 9,000 employees, of whom one third are from outside the UK. The university is based in Bloomsbury in the heart of London, but also has two international campuses UCL Australia and UCL Qatar. Our annual income is more than 800 million.

http://www.ucl.ac.uk | Follow us on Twitter @uclnews | Watch our YouTube channel YouTube.com/UCLTV

---

[ | 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.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-06/ucl-qem062513.php

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Click! Onomatopoeia For Your Eyes

By Kalliopi Monoyios?| June 25, 2013 |??

Share ?Email ?Print

---

Whiz, BAM! Boom. Remember onomatopoeia from fifth grade English class? Well here?s a treat for your eyes, a sort of visual onomatopoeia where designer Ji Lee twists letters and words into visual representations of their meanings:

These images are taken from Ji Lee?s book, Word As Image: a collection of 90 altered words, examples of visual onomatopoeia. He has also just come out with an animated version of the same book, showing us that not only can we push our perception of the written word, but also the medium in which it is delivered. Why stick with static words on pages made with cellulose fiber from dead trees when words and the concepts they represent can be delivered dynamically, delighting you with their very existence as well as their meaning?

Want to try visual onomatopoeia for yourself? Here?s the challenge: convey the meaning of a word visually, using only the letters that make up the word itself. If you come up with something you like, Ji Lee is inviting people to share their best efforts at his Facebook page.

About the Author: Kalliopi Monoyios is the illustrator of several best-selling science books including Neil Shubin's The Universe Within, Shubin?s Your Inner Fish, and Jerry Coyne?s Why Evolution is True. Her illustration portfolio can be found at kalliopimonoyios.com. Follow her solo on Twitter at @eyeforscience. For tweets from the whole Symbiartic crew, Follow on Twitter @symbiartic.

More??

The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.

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Source: http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=word-as-image-ji-lee-onomatopoeia-for-your-eyes

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YC-Backed Contractor Directory BuildZoom Raises $1.4 Million Seed Round

BuildZoom, the Y Combinator-backed service designed to connect homeowners with licensed contractors, is today announcing having closed on $1.4 million in seed funding, in a round led by Formation 8 (Joe Lonsdale). The company plans to use the additional funding for hiring and continued product development, with a specific focus on improving some of the site's consumer-facing tools, like its online project gallery, Q&A section, and marketplace.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/GlLIhQ3hW1s/

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'Family Ties' creator Gary David Goldberg dies

Celebs

Randee Dawn TODAY contributor

9 hours ago

Michael Loccisano / Getty Images file

Gary David Goldberg in 2011.

Emmy Award-winning television producer and writer Gary David Goldberg died from brain cancer Sunday at his home in Montecito, Calif., his son-in-law and "The Colbert Report" writer Robert Dubbin confirmed to TODAY.com. He was 68 years old.

Goldberg mined his own life for some of the shows he created, including "Family Ties," the sitcom that made Michael J. Fox a star and ran from 1982-89. He later re-cast Fox in the political comedy "Spin City," which he created with "Cougar Town's" Bill Lawrence. That series ran from 1996-2002.

Initially a sports enthusiast, the Brooklyn-born Goldberg was expelled from two universities; when he met his future wife, flight attendant Diana Meehan, they hitchhiked around the world for a year with his black Labrador Retriever Ubu, a dog who became the symbol of his future production company, Ubu Productions. (The post-credits slate that ran after his shows featured a picture of the dog and Goldberg's voice saying, "Sit, Ubu, sit! Good dog.")

He was 31 when he took a writing class at San Diego State, and encouraged to write for television he took jobs on series like "The Bob Newhart Show" and "Lou Grant." He won a WGA award for a 1978 episode of "M*A*S*H." In 1980 he formed Ubu Productions, and shifted between television and film, also writing and directing 1989's feature "Dad" with Ted Danson and 2005's "Must Love Dogs" starring Diane Lane and John Cusack. Over the years he won two Emmys (for "Lou Grant" and "Family Ties" and was nominated five other times; he also earned a second WGA award, six Humanitas Prizes and a Peabody Award.

In 2008 he penned a memoir: "Sit, Ubu, Sit: How I Went from Brooklyn to Hollywood With the Same Woman, the Same Dog and a Lot Less Hair." (He and Meehan eloped in 1990, over 20 years after they first met.)

Friends and co-workers began immediately Tweeting their condolences and tributes:

As noted by The Hollywood Reporter, Goldberg said in his Archive of American Television interview that he would like to be remembered as "a guy who showed up for work and took the chance on finding out whether I could do it or not. ... I'd like to think I made my success not at the expense of anyone. Success was accidental."

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/family-ties-spin-city-creator-gary-david-goldberg-dies-68-6C10423621

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Why Hezbollah has openly joined the Syrian fight

The face of Abbas Farhat, a combatant with the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah killed recently in Syria, looms down from a banner outside his home in this winding hill village.

He is one of two Hezbollah men from the village to die during fierce fighting last month in the strategic Syrian town of Qusayr, which had been in rebel hands for a year before it was overrun on June 5 after a 17-day Hezbollah-led assault.

A male relative, who asked for anonymity because Hezbollah had instructed the family not to speak to reporters, admits that he and his other kin have been inspired by Abbas? sacrifice.

?I want to talk about Abbas. We are very proud of him,? he says. ?I would go and fight in Syria tomorrow if I could.?

Such comments echo across Shiite-populated areas of Lebanon today, even as dozens of dead Hezbollah men are brought back from the battlefields of Syria for lavish funerals in their towns and villages.

RECOMMENDED: Sunni and Shiite Islam: Do you know the difference? Take our quiz.

The continued support is the result of Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah?s successful efforts to persuade Hezbollah?s core constituency to embrace the party's radical and potentially dangerous new path of intervention in the Syrian civil war.

?The care and time [Sheikh] Nasrallah invested in crafting and marketing this narrative is indicative of Hezbollah?s assessment that their base needs convincing about the party?s involvement in Syria,? says Randa Slim, a scholar with the Middle East Institute in Washington who writes regularly on Hezbollah affairs.

GROWING OPENNESS

Hezbollah?s decision to fully participate in Syria?s bloody two-year war on behalf of the regime of Bashar al-Assad is a dramatic development for an organization that has always been defined as a champion of anti-Israel resistance.

Yet today, Hezbollah finds itself fighting fellow Arab Muslims, albeit Sunnis, who make up the bulk of the Syrian armed opposition. Hezbollah and its patron, Iran, stand to be weakened if their ally, the Assad regime, falls and is replaced by a Sunni-dominated administration that moves closer to the West and Arab Gulf states.

Rumors of Hezbollah involvement in Syria began circulating soon after the uprising broke out in March 2011, but the early claims were generally unconvincing and lacked evidence. In October 2011, Sheikh Nasrallah said in a television interview that accusations that Hezbollah had deployed fighters into Syria were ?absolutely untrue.?

?There are no thousands or a thousand or even half a soldier [in Syria],? he said.

However, by early 2012, it was becoming public knowledge within Lebanese Shiite circles that some Hezbollah fighters were being sent into Syria. That summer there were a flurry of reports in the Lebanese media of funerals for slain Hezbollah fighters. Hezbollah released statements saying that they had died ?while performing their jihadi duty,? a possible allusion to combat-related deaths.

Unusually, there was some quietly muttered dissent in Shiite circles, including within Hezbollah?s support base, about the morality of dispatching fighters to help the Assad regime?s brutal repression of the opposition.

On Oct. 3, 2012, the rebel Free Syrian Army announced that it had killed Ali Nassif, a veteran Hezbollah commander, near Qusayr in Syria. Four days later, Nasrallah called continuing allegations that Hezbollah was fighting in Syria a ?lie.? However, he conceded that Nassif and some other Hezbollah members were voluntarily fighting to defend their homes against rebel attacks in several Shiite-populated villages just inside Syria.

By December 2012, videos allegedly portraying Hezbollah fighters in southern Damascus, home to a shrine revered by Shiites, had emerged.

Meanwhile, any sympathy toward the Syrian opposition was beginning to fade amid increasing evidence of atrocities committed by the armed opposition and the escalation of anti-Shiite rhetoric from groups like the Al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra. Meanwhile, Hezbollah leaders emphasized the threat posed to Lebanon?s stability by ?Takfiri? groups in Syria, a reference to extremist Sunnis who view as apostates anyone that does not share their austere interpretation of Islam.

In April, fighting flared near Qusayr as the Assad regime and Hezbollah fighters launched a campaign to drive rebels from nearby villages before staging an assault on the town. At the end of the month, Nasrallah came closer to admitting Hezbollah was in Syria, saying he was especially proud of the ?martyrs who fell in the past few weeks" and warned that the Assad regime had ?real friends? who would not allow Syria to fall into the hands of ?American or Israel or Takfiri groups.?

On May 19, Hezbollah fighters spearheaded an attack on the rebel-held town of Qusayr. Six days later, Nasrallah finally admitted what by now was common knowledge that Hezbollah was operating in Syria. He said that ?by taking this position, we believe we are defending Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria.?

FRACTURES

While Lebanon?s Shiites have generally accepted Hezbollah?s rationale for intervening in Syria, reactions have ranged from dismay to fury elsewhere in Lebanon and the region. Brief clashes have broken out in several areas of Lebanon between Shiite and Sunni gunmen. Michel Suleiman, the Lebanese president, has urged Hezbollah to withdraw its forces from Syria.

The Lebanese government, presently operating in a limited caretaker capacity, follows a policy of neutrality toward the conflict in Syria, but lacks the heft to force the powerful Hezbollah to retreat.

Still, not all Shiites back Hezbollah?s intervention. A minority of Shiites openly oppose Hezbollah?s dominance of the community. One of them, Hashem Salman, a 27-year-old company manager from Adloun in south Lebanon, was among a group of anti-Hezbollah Shiites who attempted to hold a demonstration outside the Iranian embassy in Beirut two weeks ago. The demonstrators were attacked by suspected Hezbollah men wielding batons. Salman was shot three times in the scuffles and bled to death on the road.

?Hashem died for freedom,? says his brother Hassan during a condolence session at the family home in Adloun. ?They [Hezbollah] don?t fear weapons in the hands of their opponents, they fear open minds and freedom.?

Hezbollah?s popularity within the Shiite community is unlikely to be seriously challenged in the foreseeable future. But loyalists may balk at a lengthy intervention in Syria, especially if the casualty toll remains high, anti-Shiite sentiment continues to flare across the region, and former supporters turn away from the party.

Three weeks ago, Sheikh Youssef Qaradawi, an influential Sunni cleric who once defended Hezbollah, called for jihad against the party which he dubbed the ?Party of Satan.? Hezbollah means the Party of God in Arabic.

There could be economic considerations too. Arab Gulf states have said they will expel Hezbollah members living in their countries.

Hezbollah has given no indication that it intends to pull out of Syria soon. Since Qusayr fell on June 5, Hezbollah fighters reportedly have been engaged in battles around Damascus and are being sent to Aleppo ahead of an anticipated offensive against rebel forces in the northern city.

?I do not think there is a consensus inside Hezbollah?s constituency around a protracted never-ending involvement in Syria,? says Slim, the Hezbollah scholar. ?The higher the death toll, especially as the party moves toward northern Syria, will raise concerns about the costs of this involvement.?

RECOMMENDED: Sunni and Shiite Islam: Do you know the difference? Take our quiz.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/why-hezbollah-openly-joined-syrian-fight-121835008.html

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