DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Co gave Chief Executive Dan Akerson an $11.1 million pay package last year, a GM official familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, after the CEO's salary came under scrutiny this week.
The figure reflects $2 million in restricted stock units that Akerson received in 2011, but only vested in 2012, according to the GM official, who requested anonymity.
Akerson's compensation last year also includes $1.7 million in cash, $7.3 million in stock and other incentives.
Several media outlets reported late Monday that GM asked U.S. officials to allow for a pay increase of more than 20 percent for Akerson in 2013.
Compensation of GM executives is governed by a special paymaster from the U.S. government as part of provisions put in place after GM's U.S.-funded bankruptcy restructuring in 2009.
GM issued a statement on Tuesday denying the request for the 2013 pay bump. The U.S. automaker said its compensation request was misinterpreted for political gain before a congressional hearing Tuesday on executive pay at companies that received federal bailouts.
The $11.1 million figure was included in GM's compensation request, but it referred to Akerson's 2012 pay package and was not a request for 2013, the GM official said.
The largest U.S. automaker has set a $9 million target for Akerson's compensation. In 2011, Akerson's pay came to $7.7 million, including $1.7 million cash and $5.3 million in stock.
GM has repaid about $29 billion of the $50 billion that the U.S. government poured into GM to keep the automaker afloat in 2009. In December, Treasury said it would sell 200 million shares back to GM for $5.5 billion and sell its remaining holdings.
After the $5.5 billion buy back, the U.S. Treasury's holding in GM was whittled down to 19 percent.
(Reporting By Deepa Seetharaman; editing by Andrew Hay)
(Reuters) - Priceline.com, the online travel agency known for its name-your-own-price auction, on Tuesday topped analysts' estimates for quarterly profit, citing improved hotel and car-rental reservations, and its shares rose more than 3 percent in extended trading.
Gross bookings, or the dollar value of all travel services purchased, rose 32.9 percent to $6.6 billion in the fourth quarter. Priceline said it expected those bookings to rise 30 percent to 37 percent in the current first quarter from a year earlier.
Priceline, which owes much of its success to international bookings on its Booking.com European travel site, forecast profit excluding items of $4.90 to $5.30 a share for the first quarter on a revenue increase of 17 percent to 24 percent. Analysts, on average, have forecast profit of $5.14 per share for the current quarter.
In the fourth quarter, hotel room-night reservations and booked rental-car days rose about 38 percent and 37 percent, respectively, compared with a 1.7 percent rise in airline tickets booked. Priceline said newer markets such as Asia-Pacific were contributing more to growth.
The quarterly results showed "very strong execution across international markets and in the domestic U.S. market," said Morningstar analyst Dan Su. "The foreign currency headwind that the company experienced in the past several quarters was not really a major negative impact."
The company, which competes with Expedia Inc and Orbitz Worldwide, said fourth-quarter net income was $288.7 million, or $5.63 per share, compared with $225.7 million, or $4.41 per share, a year earlier.
On a non-GAAP basis, profit was $6.77 per share. Analysts, on average, had expected $6.54 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Quarterly revenue rose 20 percent to $1.19 billion.
Shares of Priceline.com rose 3 percent from their Nasdaq close of $678.49 after the company announced its financial results.
Jennifer Teresa-Kim lives in a beautiful one-story house at the top of a gentle hill in the town of Nuevo, southeast of Riverside. Getting there is a little tricky. A sharp left turn off a two-lane blacktop is required, followed by a little jaunt up a slithery dirt road.
Ambulance drivers know it well.
Jennifer Teresa-Kim, who underwent a new surgical technique for her severe asthma condition last December, sits in the hills near her home in Nuevo.
STEVEN GEORGES, FOR THE REGISTER
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Teresa-Kim figures she has been whisked away under flashing lights to the hospital eight times in the past five years because of an asthma attack that gripped her chest at some unpredictable hour of the day or night. The last time, the worst time, came in June 2012, about 8 p.m. Thankfully, her daughter was sleeping, so she didn't have to see what this one did to her mom.
"It kind of broke me ? I guess that was it," Teresa-Kim said. "That's all I could take. I was like, I can't do this anymore. I'm done."
She learned about a new treatment called bronchial thermoplasty. The airways inside the lungs are heated with a catheter, reducing the smooth muscle tissue inside the airways that often tightens during an asthma attack. The FDA approved the device in April 2010, making it the first nondrug treatment for asthma on the market. Since undergoing the three-step process between October and December, Teresa-Kim can take deep breaths for the first time in years.
"It's totally changed my life, even my outlook on life," she said. "It gave me hope. I do have a future. Because for a while I was thinking, 'I ain't gonna make it to 40. I ain't gonna make it out of this year. This thing's gonna kill me.'"
Grim statistics
Asthma affects 18.9 million American adults (about 8 percent of the population) and 7.1 million children (9.5 percent), according to data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2011. About 3,400 people die from it each year, and it's a huge drain on the health-care system: The CDC estimates asthma costs about $20.7 billion every year in hospitalizations, regular doctor visits, medications and lost work hours.
About 10 percent of asthma patients have the most severe form of the disease, but this group accounts for more than half of asthma-related costs. Difficulty breathing is a part of everyday life, and the symptoms can be worsened by air pollution and seasonal allergies.
Teresa-Kim, 38, believes she's had asthma since she was 2. It has hindered her life for as long as she can remember. She didn't play sports, and she struggled to explain to others what her condition was.
"I felt embarrassed, because they'd be like, 'What's wrong with you? Just ch-chk and you're fine,'" she said, mimicking the spritz of an inhaler filled with a steroid or some other drug. "But it's not like that for me. I don't just ch-chk. I'm not better. I could do that all day and I'm not better. So I got to the point where I didn't want to talk about it and didn't want to tell anybody."
Her illness forced her to take time off from work as a school nurse, and she couldn't take part in the activities of her active daughter Katelynn, 11.
"I was a sideline mom," she said. "I could only play for a second, then I'd have to sit down."
She estimates she was on as many as 18 medications, including methotrexate, a drug used in cancer treatment; and Xolair, an asthma medication that costs $30,000 to $40,000 a year; and Prozac, to treat the depression that arrived as her condition persisted throughout the years. The steroids made her put on weight, and nothing seemed to help anyway.
"A lot of asthmatics are so desperate for something, and their doctors say, 'Well, I have nothing else to offer you,'" said Dr. Robert Goldberg, a pulmonologist at Mission Internal Medical Group in Mission Viejo who is the first physician in Orange County to perform the outpatient treatment.
How it works
As it happened, Teresa-Kim was losing all hope at the time when bronchial thermoplasty was becoming widely known in the United States. The device used in the procedure, called the Alair, was developed by a Silicon Valley company called Asthmatx, which was then acquired by Boston Scientific.
Goldberg was among the first wave of doctors to receive training on the device after its approval. So far, he has treated four patients, including Teresa-Kim. The treatment is for those 18 and older, and it's only for patients with the most severe form of asthma, when other treatments have failed.
Once a patient has met the criteria, it's a remarkably simple process: The patient goes in three times, three weeks apart, and usually doesn't have to stay the night at the hospital. Before her final treatment in December, Teresa-Kim looked nervous in her bed at Mission Hospital before she was wheeled in for a 45-minute session.
The gadget has a heating coil on the end that pops out of a bronchoscope, a tube that is inserted into the mouth or nose and snaked down into the lungs. The right lower lobe, with all its branches, is done first; then the left lower lobe the next session; and finally both upper lobes.
Metal prongs come out of the scope, like aluminum branches of an umbrella unfolding. The wires are heated through radio frequency energy to 149 degrees Fahrenheit, just cooler than a fresh cup of coffee. The scope is inserted as far as the doctors can see, into each bronchial tube. On the monitor, it looks like a sci-fi movie, with an astronaut peering into dark tunnels lined with mucus.
The wires touch the walls of the tube at four points, heating them up for 10 seconds. The scope is then withdrawn a half-centimeter at a time, and the heating begins again.
The largest clinical trial of the Alair system, which was published in 2010 and played a big role in the FDA's approval, showed that patients who underwent bronchial thermoplasty showed immediate and long-lasting improvement in their symptoms.
Among the 558 patients ? treated at 30 centers in six countries ? there was an 84 percent reduction in ER visits and a 73 percent reduction in hospitalizations over the course of a year, compared with the control group.
But it's not a cure for asthma, and patients likely will need to continue medication, though some have reduced the dosage.
Boston Scientific also acknowledges that about 3.4 percent of patients have an asthma attack afterward that's severe enough to require hospitalization. During the 2010 trial, 8.4 percent of bronchial thermoplasty patients had to be admitted during the treatment phase, compared with 2.4 percent who received a "sham" treatment.
This is partly why some insurers won't pay for the treatment, which costs around $20,000.
Proponents of the treatment, including groups representing respiratory doctors, say the one-time costs of the treatment are far lower than continued ER trips and expensive drugs. Gold-berg has spent much of his time fighting for prospective patients to get approval from their insurers, and he notes that some plans already are covering it.
Teresa-Kim is with Kaiser, which paid for it. As of Jan. 1, Medicare pays for it without prior approval.
"I think that's a testament to their understanding that this is a viable procedure that makes a large difference in people's lives," Goldberg said.
Teresa-Kim didn't expect much from the new treatment, since everything else had failed. But it has opened up new possibilities for life with her husband and daughter.
"I'm a shallow breather," she said. "I never could take a deep breath. And I saw Dr. Goldberg a couple weeks ago. He was like, 'Let me listen.' He said, 'Take a deep breath.' And I was like, 'Whhhh.' He said, 'Oh, my God! You can take a deep breath!'"
Contact the writer: 714-796-2221 or lhall@ocregister.com
Is it a good thing that T-Mobile's in the crosshairs of a MetroPCS merger? We'll, see, but meanwhile the operator again shed revenue, customers and profit in Q4 2012. Total revenue dropped during the quarter to $4.9 billion from $5.2 billion last year, while income was down a whopping 25.1 percent to $1.05 billion year-over-year. Meanwhile the company lost 515,000 branded contract customers compared to 492,000 last quarter, representing a 'churn' rate of 2.5 percent in that category, a slight improvement over last year. All that culminated in a rather miserable year for the carrier, which earned $424 million less than in 2011 ($4.9 billion), while showing a total loss of $6.4 billion thanks to depreciation and impairment charges. Meanwhile, parent Deutsche Telecom said recently that MetroPCS would merge with T-Mobile as early as April -- which sounds like it can't come soon enough.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Neil Heslin says it's all about his slain son, Jesse.
The 50-year-old construction worker is set to testify to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday in support of legislation by Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein of California to ban assault weapons.
Heslin says he's gotten involved because of his boy, 6, who was one of 20 first-graders and six staffers who were fatally shot at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
Other witnesses include William Begg, an emergency room doctor who treated Newtown victims that day.
Across the Capitol, the House Education and Workforce Committee planned to hear from school safety experts and counselors about how to keep students safe. Witnesses before the Republican-controlled House panel were expected to emphasize the role of school resource officers, who are sometimes armed.
Waste from the production of US nukes is on the loose. Toxic cargo is escaping from six of the 177 ageing tanks at the Hanford site in Washington state where the nation stores two-thirds of its high-level nuclear waste, most of it from the production of nuclear bombs.
The site houses 200 million litres of radioactive and hazardous waste, and 67 tanks have leaked waste before. The new leaks undermine recent reassurances that the dump is now secure.
The biggest worry is that highly radioactive sludges containing heat-generating isotopes are corroding the bottoms of the tanks, following work to drain off most of the liquid waste which allowed the isotopes to collect there, says Bob Alvarez of the Institute of Policy Studies in Washington DC.
"There is no immediate public health risk," said Lindsey Geisler, a spokesperson for the Department of Energy. However, much of the waste has already contaminated groundwater, says Tom Carpenter of Hanford Challenge, an environmental watchdog in Seattle, Washington.
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VATICAN CITY (AP) ? Pope Benedict XVI basked in an emotional sendoff Wednesday from a massive crowd at his final general audience in St. Peter's Square, recalling moments of "joy and light" during his papacy but also times of difficulty when "it seemed like the Lord was sleeping."
An estimated 150,000 people, many toting banners saying "Grazie!" ("Thank you!"), jammed the piazza to bid Benedict farewell and hear his final speech as pontiff. In this appointment ? which he has kept each week for eight years to teach the world about the Catholic faith ? Benedict gave deep thanks to his flock for respecting his decision to retire.
Benedict clearly enjoyed the crowds, taking a long victory lap around the square in an open-sided car and stopping to kiss and bless half a dozen children handed to him by his secretary. A total of 70 cardinals, some tearful, sat in solemn attendance.
But Benedict made a quick exit, foregoing the typical meet-and-greet session that follows the audience; the Vatican has said there were simply too many people who would have wanted to say goodbye.
Given the historic moment, Benedict also changed course and didn't produce his typical professorial Wednesday catechism lesson. Rather, he made his final public appearance in St. Peter's a personal one, explaining once again why he was becoming the first pope in 600 years to resign and urging the faithful to pray for his successor.
"To love the church means also to have the courage to take difficult, painful decisions, always keeping the good of the church in mind, not oneself," Benedict said to thundering applause.
He noted that a pope has no privacy: "He belongs always and forever to everyone, to the whole church." But the pope promised that in retirement he would not be returning to private life ? instead taking on a new experience of service to the church through prayer.
He recalled that when he was elected pope on April 19, 2005, he questioned if God truly wanted it. "It's a great burden that you've placed on my shoulders," he recalled telling God.
During his eight years as pope, Benedict said, "I have had moments of joy and light, but also moments that haven't been easy ... moments of turbulent seas and rough winds, as has occurred in the history of the church when it seemed like the Lord was sleeping."
But he said he never felt alone, that God always guided him, and he thanked his cardinals and colleagues for their support and for "understanding and respecting this important decision."
Under a bright sun and blue skies, the square was overflowing with pilgrims and curiosity-seekers. Those who couldn't get in picked spots along the main boulevard leading to the square to watch the event on giant TV screens. Some 50,000 tickets were requested for Benedict's final master class. In the end, the Vatican estimated that 150,000 people flocked to the farewell.
"It's difficult ? the emotion is so big," said Jan Marie, a 53-year-old Roman in his first years as a seminarian. "We came to support the pope's decision."
With chants of "Benedetto!" erupting often, the mood was far more buoyant than during the pope's final Sunday blessing. It recalled the jubilant turnouts that often accompanied him at World Youth Days and events involving his predecessor, Pope John Paul II.
Benedict has said he decided to retire after realizing that, at 85, he simply didn't have the "strength of mind or body" to carry on.
"I have taken this step with the full understanding of the seriousness and also novelty of the decision, but with a profound serenity in my soul," Benedict told the crowd Wednesday.
Benedict will meet Thursday morning with cardinals for a final time, then fly by helicopter to the papal residence at Castel Gandolfo south of Rome.
There, at 8 p.m., the doors of the palazzo will close and the Swiss Guards in attendance will go off duty, their service protecting the head of the Catholic Church over ? for now.
Many of the cardinals who will choose Benedict's successor were in St. Peter's Square for his final audience. Those included retired Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony, the object of a grass-roots campaign in the U.S. to persuade him to recuse himself for having covered up for sexually abusive priests. Mahony has said he will be among the 115 cardinals voting on who the next pope should be.
Also in attendance Wednesday were cardinals over 80, who can't participate in the conclave but will participate in meetings next week to discuss the problems facing the church and the qualities needed in a new pope.
"I am joining the entire church in praying that the cardinal electors will have the help of the Holy Spirit," said Spanish Cardinal Julian Herranz, 82.
Herranz has been authorized by the pope to brief voting-age cardinals on his investigation into the leaks of papal documents that exposed corruption in the Vatican administration.
Vatican officials say cardinals will begin meeting Monday to decide when to set the date for the conclave.
But the rank-and-file faithful in the crowd Wednesday weren't so concerned with the future; they wanted to savor the final moments with the pope they have known for years.
"I came to thank him for the testimony that he has given the church," said Maria Cristina Chiarini, a 52-year-old homemaker who traveled by train from Lugo in central Italy with some 60 members of her parish. "There's nostalgia, human nostalgia, but also comfort, because as a Christian we have hope. The Lord won't leave us without a guide."
___
Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield
Journalist Emily Bazelon investigates the psychology of bullying, and what can be done to help
By Gareth Cook
Emily BazelonImage: Nina Subin
In January of 2010, a teenage girl named Phoebe Prince walked home from school, let herself into the family apartment and hung herself in a stairwell. Prince, who?d recently moved from Ireland, been bullied for months at school, and the bullying continued even after her death, with vicious commentary on her Facebook page. The case drew national attention and a fresh round of hand-wringing about the casual cruelty of teenagers, and the continuing failure of adults to stop it. Emily Bazelon, a reporter at Slate, distinguished herself from the rest of the journalistic pack with a combination of in-depth reporting and hard-headed analysis. Now Bazelon, who has two sons, has written a book about the culture of bullying, Sticks and Stones. She answered questions from Mind Matters editor Gareth Cook.??
Cook: Why did you set out to write a book about bullying??
Bazelon: Four years ago, I noticed a lot of news stories raising the alarm about ?cyberbullying,? treating it as brand new, alarming, and epidemic. I wondered if that was true. I started working on a series for Slate, where I?m on staff, and I realized pretty quickly that 1)? there is no epidemic and 2) cyberbullying is mostly a new expression of a familiar behavior. It?s very much related to bullying that takes place in person. At the same time, moving online changes the dynamics of bullying?and what the experience feels like for targets?in important ways. So I set out to explore that.
Reporting on bullying connected to my longstanding interest in the role empathy plays in our lives, and in what makes kids resilient. I have two sons, who are now 10 and 13, so I also think about all of this as a mother?how to build character, what limits to set on technology, and other questions along those lines.
Cook: How big of a problem is bullying? Bazelon: Bullying isn?t an epidemic, as you sometimes hear, and it?s also not on the rise, according to the studies that have tracked it over the past 25 years. But bullying does feel more pervasive for a lot of kids when it happens, because it often extends to the Web, which they can access 24/7. Going home from school used to give kids a break. That?s often no longer true. And now that bullying takes place on social networking sites, it is more lasting, more visible, more viral. That?s how the problem has changed over the last decade.
Cook: What do you think the public most misunderstands about the mind of the bully??
Bazelon: I think people typically have two images of bullies. The first (a boy) is the thug who steals your lunch money?Nelson on the Simpsons. The second is the Mean Girl who uses her social power to turn the school against you. Those bullies exist, in more three-dimensional, non-cartoon versions. But they?re not the whole picture. For example, there are also kids, known as bully-victims, who are both victims and bullies at different moments. They often have serious psychological problems, and for them, bullying is a cry for help. Even if that?s not true for the other types of bullies.
Cook: What are the links between bullying behavior and empathy??
Bazelon: In the moment, kids who act like bullies can seem frighteningly devoid of empathy?they freeze out those feelings, in a way that?s chilling. But in fact, for almost all kids, that is a temporary lapse: They are capable of empathy underneath the cold fa?ade. One girl who was being mean to one of the main characters in my book (who is a 7th grader in Connecticut named Monique) made me cringe when she said at one point, ?If she killed herself, it would be her own insecure problem.? But then later that same girl said, ?I feel like Monique was just depressed, because she didn?t have a lot of friends. I could see that she?d walk in the hallways with her head down.? So she did understand how Monique felt, when she let herself.
Cook: People often have in mind a sense that certain kids are likely to be targets of bullies. What is actually known about this? ?
If you think you need to carry all of your digital files (especially videos and multimedia) with you at all times, stop reading this and go read a review for a more power user-oriented system. Still here? Okay, the Dell XPS 10 ($679.99 bundled with keyboard dock) has one of the longest battery life test results we've seen. You can use this convertible tablet on the longest flight in the world, and still have battery power left over to check your email when you land. An even better use would be for a busy student or business corridor nomad who rarely has a chance to plug in: 20+ hours of battery life means that you can stay connected all day and well into the night. If "Office and the Internet" are your primary needs on a computer, then our new (and first) Editors' Choice winner for Windows RT tablets is the everyday computer you can carry everywhere.
Design and Features
The XPS 10 follows the now familiar hybrid tablet format. Primarily, it's a slate tablet, measuring a slim 0.36 by 11 by 7 inches (HWD) and weighing 1.36 pounds. Connected to its keyboard dock, the system grows to just under an inch thick (0.94 inch) while keeping its other dimensions, and the combo weighs in at 2.63 pounds.
Like other tablets, the XPS 10 is constructed from magnesium alloy and has a soft touch finish. The screen is covered by seamless Asahi Dragontail glass, and has a five-point touch capability. (Asahi Dragontail glass is a strengthened glass competitor to Corning's Gorilla Glass.) The tablet latches to the keyboard dock easily, and can be removed just as easily by pushing a sliding tab on the keyboard dock hinge. When the two are connected, the XPS 10 looks and acts like a small laptop, with a comfortable keyboard and one-piece multitouch trackpad.
Around the edges of the XPS 10 are the tablet's docking/charging connector, a micro-USB port (with included full sized USB port dongle), volume control, micro-SD card slot, and headset jack. The keyboard dock has a pair of USB 2.0 ports, a mini-HDMI port (with included mini-HDMI to full HDMI dongle), and charging port. You can plug the AC adapter into the dock or the tablet's docking connector for charging, one AC adapter is included with the tablet, and one with the keyboard dock ($180). Since you have both chargers, you can leave one at home and carry the other with you in your travel bag. If you're in a pinch, you can use a standard micro-USB cable and USB charger to recharge or power the XPS 10, albeit at a slow trickle rate.
One nicety we found during testing are the keyboard dock's built-in speakers. When the tablet is used alone, the sound is fine for Web surfing and alert sounds. When you connect the keyboard dock, the speakers in the dock work in concert with the speakers in the tablet to give you a louder, richer audio experience. The combo won't replace an external soundbar for critical viewing/listening, but with this combo you won't have to turn on closed captioning to understand what's going on (in dialogue-heavy movies), especially if you're sharing the screen with a friend.
The XPS 10's IPS screen measures 10.1 inches (diagonally), which matches the screen size of its other hybrid docking tablet rival, the Asus VivoTab RT. Both screens are physically smaller than the 10.6-inch screen on the Microsoft Surface with Windows RT, even though all three screens sport a 1,366-by-768 resolution. The XPS 10's IPS screen is easily viewable from many angles, and its resolution supports 720p HD video. Any 1080p HD video can be downscaled for viewing on the system's screen, but it's a better viewing experience to watch 720p videos natively instead.
Accelerometers make sure the screen is always pointing "up" whether you are holding the system in portrait or landscape mode. Taps and swipes on the screen were responsive, as were the controls on the physical keyboard dock and trackpad. The responsive trackpad is an improvement over the VivoTab RT and even some ultrabooks like the Vizio 14-Inch Thin + Light (CT14-A4) .
There are two major drawbacks with Windows RT: compatibility and the closed ecosystem. Since the XPS 10 and other RT-based systems run a version of Windows over an ARM processor (the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4), older programs are not compatible with RT. The only source for programs is the Windows Store in the system's Start screen. You can't download and install your favorite browser, you can't buy programs from a third party site (like Steam or Origin), and you can't install many browser plug-ins either. The one plus on the program side is that the system comes with Microsoft Office 2013 RT (Home and Student) pre-loaded, and that the system is somewhat protected from viruses (through Windows Defender and the fact that x86 code won't run on it).
The system is bloatware free, since the only pre-loaded programs are Office, Skype, Dell Shop (physical products from Dell), Getting Started with Windows RT (a help program), and Dell dock settings. Getting Started with Windows RT is a good set of videos and documentation to help new users learn how to use Windows RT and the new user interface. When we pulled the XPS 10 out of its box, we noticed that it only has 15.9GB free out of a 23.8GB indicated. This means that you better view most of videos from online, as you won't have too much local storage unless you pop a microSD card into the XPS 10. Still, 16 GB should be enough for Office files like Word documents and Excel spreadsheets. You can also use Microsoft's SkyDrive for cloud storage.
When connected to the Web, the XPS 10 is an excellent tool. Internet Explorer starts up quickly, and websites load quickly as well. Programs like Netflix and Hulu+ work as you'd expect. However, as stated above, the number of Windows RT compatible apps is still severely limited compared with those for Android Tablets and iPads. About the only thing that RT tablets have over the other mobile platforms are the fully compatible copy of Office and the fact that the OS on RT tablets acts like a typical Windows OS. The XPS 10 comes with a one-year warranty standard with options for extending that warranty through Dell's ProSupport service.
Performance
Because of its ARM-based processor, the Dell XPS doesn't run our Windows benchmark tests like 3DMark 11 or PCMark 7. The test that we can run is one of the most important: battery life. The XPS 10 lasts a staggering 11 hours and 34 minutes alone, and tops 20-and-a-half hours (20:36) when connected to its fully charged keyboard dock. This is a phenomenal amount of battery life. It's certainly enough to last the whole flight between virtually any two nonstop points on the planet (currently the Newark to Singapore flight SQ21, at 18 hours, 50 minutes). This means the XPS 10 and dock last a lot longer than the Asus VivoTab RT with its dock (16:03) or alone (9:37). The XPS 10 also outlasted the Microsoft Surface RT (7:45). While all of the RT tablets outlast laptops and tablets with ultrabook-class processors like the Microsoft Surface Pro (4:58), Atom-powered tablets can give you full Windows 8 compatibility and long battery life like the Dell Latitude 10 (19:38 with extended battery).
Essentially, it comes down to what you need out of your tablet. If you need the ultimate in portability and don't care at all about compatibility with Windows, then grab an iPad or Google Nexus 7. If you absolutely, positively need legacy program support or Windows 8 Pro compatibility, then a full-blown Windows 8 tablet like the Editors' Choice Dell Latitude 10 or Microsoft Surface Pro is worth the added expense. However, if you need insanely long battery life and your critical "Windows compatibility" needs are limited to Office documents, then you can get a Windows RT tablet like the Dell XPS 10. It's one of the better RT tablets we've seen so far, and our new Editors' Choice for Windows RT tablets.
COMPARISON TABLE Compare the Dell XPS 10 with several other laptops side by side.
More laptop reviews: ??? Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2 ??? Dell XPS 10 ??? Dell Latitude 10 ??? MSI GT70 One-609US Dragon Edition ??? Microsoft Surface Windows 8 Pro ?? more
Government agencies need some tablet love, too. Dell knows this, and the company's looking to make some headway in that space, along with other areas like healthcare companies and financial institutions that require a high level of protection on their CE devices. The enhanced security version of the Latitude 10 Windows 8 slate features all manner of safe-keeping technologies, including dual-authentication with a smart card and fingerprint reader. There's also a Trusted Platform Module, BitLocker Drive Encryption, Computrace Support and a Noble Lock Slot. All of those security measures help the device comply with regulations like Sarbanes-Oxley Act, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and Federal Information Processing Standard. You can pick up all that security, along with a dual-core Atom processor today for $779.
Invention opens the way to packaging that monitors food freshnessPublic release date: 27-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Eugenio Cantatore e.cantatore@tue.nl 31-613-478-250 Eindhoven University of Technology
New plastic electronics can greatly reduce food waste worldwide
Millions of tons of food are thrown away each year because the 'best before' date has passed. But this date is always a cautious estimate, which means a lot of still-edible food is thrown away. Wouldn't it be handy if the packaging could 'test' whether the contents are still safe to eat? Researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology, Universit di Catania, CEA-Liten and STMicroelectronics have invented a circuit that makes this possible: a plastic analogdigital converter. This development brings plastic sensor circuits costing less than one euro cent within reach. Beyond food, these ultra-low-cost plastic circuits have numerous potential uses, including, pharmaceuticals. The invention was presented last week at the ISSCC in San Francisco, the world's most important conference on solid-state circuits.
Consumers and businesses in developed countries throw away around 100 kilograms of food per person (*), mainly because the 'best before' date on the packaging has passed. That waste is bad for consumers' budgets and for the environment. Much of this wastage results from the difficulty in estimating how long food will stay usable. To minimize the risk of selling spoiled food to consumers, producers show a relatively short shelf life on their packaging.
Less than one cent
To fight food waste, producers could include an electronic sensor circuit in their packaging to monitor the acidity level of the food, for example. The sensor circuit could be read with a scanner or with your mobile phone to show the freshness of your steak, or whether your frozen food was defrosted. Researcher Eugenio Cantatore of Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e): "In principle that's all already possible, using standard silicon ICs. The only problem is they're too expensive. They easily cost ten cents. And that cost is too much for a one euro bag of crisps. We're now developing electronic devices that are made from plastic rather than silicon. The advantage is you can easily include these plastic sensors in plastic packaging." The plastic semiconductor can even be printed on all kinds of flexible surfaces, which makes it cheaper to use. And it makes sensor circuits costing less than one eurocent achievable.
The very first printed ADC
The researchers have succeeded in making two different plastic ADCs (analog-to-digital converters). Each converts analog signals, such as the output value measured by a sensor, into digital form. One of these new devices is the very first printed ADC ever made. "This paves the way toward large area sensors on plastic films in a cost-effective way through printing manufacturing approaches", says Isabelle Chartier, Printed Electronics Business developer at CEA-Liten. The ISSCC rated the papers on these inventions as highlights of the conference.
Missing link
The new plastic ADCs bring applications in the food and pharmaceuticals industries within reach. A sensor circuit consists of four components: the sensor, an amplifier, an ADC to digitize the signal and a radio transmitter that sends the signal to a base station. The plastic ADC has been the missing link; the other three components already exist. "Now that we have all of the pieces, we need the integration," says Cantatore. He expects that it will still take at least five years before we can expect to see the new devices on supermarket shelves. Other potential applications are in pharmaceuticals, man-machine interfaces and in ambient intelligence systems in buildings or in transport.
Complex mathematics
Making this development was no easy task. The electrical characteristics of 'ordinary transistors' are highly predictable, while those of plastic transistors vary greatly. "All plastic transistors behave differently in the low-cost production processes at low temperatures," explains Cantatore. "That makes it much more difficult to use them in devices. You need complex mathematical models to be able to predict their behavior accurately."
The printed ADC circuit offers a resolution of four bits, and has a speed of two hertz. The circuits printed by CEA-Liten include more than 100 n- and p-type transistors and a resistance level on transparent plastic substrates. The carrier mobility of the printed transistors are above the amorphous silicon widely used in the display industry.
###
This development falls under the Cosmic project supported by the EU and the ORICIS project supported by Dutch Technology Foundation STW and the Holst Centre/TNO.
(*) 'Global Food Losses and Food Waste', a study by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2011
About Eindhoven University of Technology
Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) is a research-driven, design-oriented university of technology with a strong international focus. The university was founded in 1956, and has around 7,200 students and 3000 staff. TU/e has defined strategic areas focusing on the societal challenges in Energy, Health and Smart Mobility. The Brainport Eindhoven region is one of world's smartest; it won the international title Intelligent Community of the Year 2011. Further information on www.tue.nl
About CEA-Liten
CEA-Liten (Laboratory of Innovation for New Energy Technology and Nanomaterials) is an internationally recognized technological research organization part of the CEA's Technological Research Division. Liten aims at developing and transferring technologies to industrial partners. Liten has a staff of 1000 people, an annual budget of 170M and an active portfolio of 840 patents. LITEN Printed Electronics activity focuses on large area printing processes development, covering a large range of materials and devices for System On Foil applications: passive devices (R,L,C), sensors (organic photodiodes, pressure, temperature),organic transistors and logic circuits. CEA PICTIC is the French Printing technology platform dedicated to the ramp-up of printing processes, prototyping and small series production of printed electronics systems for applications in the field of sensors on foils, smart packaging, user interface to accelerate industrial transfer and minimize associated risks. CEA : Commissariat l'nergie atomique et aux nergies alternatives.
About Universit di Catania
The University of Catania (UNICT) is a partner of the EU project COSMIC through its "Dipartimento di Ingegneria Elettrica Elettronica e Informatica" (DIEEI). This department has 8 research groups whose activity covers several fields within the area of the information technology, i.e. electrical, electronics, systems, and computer engineering. The research groups are also involving in national and international collaborations with industries and public institutions. Presently, the research staff of the DIEEI includes 55 teaching members.
Within the DIEEI, the Microelectronic Group has a long-standing experience in the field of analog integrated circuits. The group is supported by STMicroelectronics of Catania, Italy, and can take advantage of design and measurement labs, which are well equipped with modern CAD tools and high-performance test instrumentations.
About STMicroelectronics
ST is a global leader in the semiconductor market serving customers across the spectrum of sense and power technologies and multimedia convergence applications. From energy management and savings to trust and data security, from healthcare and wellness to smart consumer devices, in the home, car and office, at work and at play, ST is found everywhere microelectronics make a positive and innovative contribution to people's life. By getting more from technology to get more from life, ST stands for life.augmented. In 2012, the Company's net revenues were $8.49 billion. Further information on ST can be found at www.st.com.
Note for editors (not for publication)
You can read a longer story about this invention on the website of TU/e magazine Cursor: http://www.cursor.tue.nl/en/news-article/artikel/chips-voor-chips/
Attached is a photo which can be used provided that reference is made to the source: Eindhoven University of Technology/Bart van Overbeeke.
Photo caption: The plastic analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The ADC shown is still relatively large, in its final form it will be smaller.
You can also contact Science Information Officer ir. Ivo Jongsma
tel. 31-40-247-2110 (office)
31-6-4194-2160 (mobile) i.l.a.jongsma@tue.nl
Commissariat l'Energie Atomique:
Vincent Coronini, Press Officer
33-04-38-78-44-30 vincent.coronini@cea.fr
Isabelle Chartier
Printed Electronics laboratory
Business developer Isabelle.chartier@cea.fr
Romain Coppard, Head of Printed Electronics laboratory romain.coppard@cea.fr
Universit di Catania:
Giuseppe Palmisano
39-09-57-38-23-05 giuseppe.palmisano@dieei.unict.it
STMicroelectronics:
Michael Markowitz, Director Technical Media Relations
1-781-591-0354 michael.markowitz@st.com
[ | 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.
Invention opens the way to packaging that monitors food freshnessPublic release date: 27-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Eugenio Cantatore e.cantatore@tue.nl 31-613-478-250 Eindhoven University of Technology
New plastic electronics can greatly reduce food waste worldwide
Millions of tons of food are thrown away each year because the 'best before' date has passed. But this date is always a cautious estimate, which means a lot of still-edible food is thrown away. Wouldn't it be handy if the packaging could 'test' whether the contents are still safe to eat? Researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology, Universit di Catania, CEA-Liten and STMicroelectronics have invented a circuit that makes this possible: a plastic analogdigital converter. This development brings plastic sensor circuits costing less than one euro cent within reach. Beyond food, these ultra-low-cost plastic circuits have numerous potential uses, including, pharmaceuticals. The invention was presented last week at the ISSCC in San Francisco, the world's most important conference on solid-state circuits.
Consumers and businesses in developed countries throw away around 100 kilograms of food per person (*), mainly because the 'best before' date on the packaging has passed. That waste is bad for consumers' budgets and for the environment. Much of this wastage results from the difficulty in estimating how long food will stay usable. To minimize the risk of selling spoiled food to consumers, producers show a relatively short shelf life on their packaging.
Less than one cent
To fight food waste, producers could include an electronic sensor circuit in their packaging to monitor the acidity level of the food, for example. The sensor circuit could be read with a scanner or with your mobile phone to show the freshness of your steak, or whether your frozen food was defrosted. Researcher Eugenio Cantatore of Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e): "In principle that's all already possible, using standard silicon ICs. The only problem is they're too expensive. They easily cost ten cents. And that cost is too much for a one euro bag of crisps. We're now developing electronic devices that are made from plastic rather than silicon. The advantage is you can easily include these plastic sensors in plastic packaging." The plastic semiconductor can even be printed on all kinds of flexible surfaces, which makes it cheaper to use. And it makes sensor circuits costing less than one eurocent achievable.
The very first printed ADC
The researchers have succeeded in making two different plastic ADCs (analog-to-digital converters). Each converts analog signals, such as the output value measured by a sensor, into digital form. One of these new devices is the very first printed ADC ever made. "This paves the way toward large area sensors on plastic films in a cost-effective way through printing manufacturing approaches", says Isabelle Chartier, Printed Electronics Business developer at CEA-Liten. The ISSCC rated the papers on these inventions as highlights of the conference.
Missing link
The new plastic ADCs bring applications in the food and pharmaceuticals industries within reach. A sensor circuit consists of four components: the sensor, an amplifier, an ADC to digitize the signal and a radio transmitter that sends the signal to a base station. The plastic ADC has been the missing link; the other three components already exist. "Now that we have all of the pieces, we need the integration," says Cantatore. He expects that it will still take at least five years before we can expect to see the new devices on supermarket shelves. Other potential applications are in pharmaceuticals, man-machine interfaces and in ambient intelligence systems in buildings or in transport.
Complex mathematics
Making this development was no easy task. The electrical characteristics of 'ordinary transistors' are highly predictable, while those of plastic transistors vary greatly. "All plastic transistors behave differently in the low-cost production processes at low temperatures," explains Cantatore. "That makes it much more difficult to use them in devices. You need complex mathematical models to be able to predict their behavior accurately."
The printed ADC circuit offers a resolution of four bits, and has a speed of two hertz. The circuits printed by CEA-Liten include more than 100 n- and p-type transistors and a resistance level on transparent plastic substrates. The carrier mobility of the printed transistors are above the amorphous silicon widely used in the display industry.
###
This development falls under the Cosmic project supported by the EU and the ORICIS project supported by Dutch Technology Foundation STW and the Holst Centre/TNO.
(*) 'Global Food Losses and Food Waste', a study by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2011
About Eindhoven University of Technology
Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) is a research-driven, design-oriented university of technology with a strong international focus. The university was founded in 1956, and has around 7,200 students and 3000 staff. TU/e has defined strategic areas focusing on the societal challenges in Energy, Health and Smart Mobility. The Brainport Eindhoven region is one of world's smartest; it won the international title Intelligent Community of the Year 2011. Further information on www.tue.nl
About CEA-Liten
CEA-Liten (Laboratory of Innovation for New Energy Technology and Nanomaterials) is an internationally recognized technological research organization part of the CEA's Technological Research Division. Liten aims at developing and transferring technologies to industrial partners. Liten has a staff of 1000 people, an annual budget of 170M and an active portfolio of 840 patents. LITEN Printed Electronics activity focuses on large area printing processes development, covering a large range of materials and devices for System On Foil applications: passive devices (R,L,C), sensors (organic photodiodes, pressure, temperature),organic transistors and logic circuits. CEA PICTIC is the French Printing technology platform dedicated to the ramp-up of printing processes, prototyping and small series production of printed electronics systems for applications in the field of sensors on foils, smart packaging, user interface to accelerate industrial transfer and minimize associated risks. CEA : Commissariat l'nergie atomique et aux nergies alternatives.
About Universit di Catania
The University of Catania (UNICT) is a partner of the EU project COSMIC through its "Dipartimento di Ingegneria Elettrica Elettronica e Informatica" (DIEEI). This department has 8 research groups whose activity covers several fields within the area of the information technology, i.e. electrical, electronics, systems, and computer engineering. The research groups are also involving in national and international collaborations with industries and public institutions. Presently, the research staff of the DIEEI includes 55 teaching members.
Within the DIEEI, the Microelectronic Group has a long-standing experience in the field of analog integrated circuits. The group is supported by STMicroelectronics of Catania, Italy, and can take advantage of design and measurement labs, which are well equipped with modern CAD tools and high-performance test instrumentations.
About STMicroelectronics
ST is a global leader in the semiconductor market serving customers across the spectrum of sense and power technologies and multimedia convergence applications. From energy management and savings to trust and data security, from healthcare and wellness to smart consumer devices, in the home, car and office, at work and at play, ST is found everywhere microelectronics make a positive and innovative contribution to people's life. By getting more from technology to get more from life, ST stands for life.augmented. In 2012, the Company's net revenues were $8.49 billion. Further information on ST can be found at www.st.com.
Note for editors (not for publication)
You can read a longer story about this invention on the website of TU/e magazine Cursor: http://www.cursor.tue.nl/en/news-article/artikel/chips-voor-chips/
Attached is a photo which can be used provided that reference is made to the source: Eindhoven University of Technology/Bart van Overbeeke.
Photo caption: The plastic analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The ADC shown is still relatively large, in its final form it will be smaller.
You can also contact Science Information Officer ir. Ivo Jongsma
tel. 31-40-247-2110 (office)
31-6-4194-2160 (mobile) i.l.a.jongsma@tue.nl
Commissariat l'Energie Atomique:
Vincent Coronini, Press Officer
33-04-38-78-44-30 vincent.coronini@cea.fr
Isabelle Chartier
Printed Electronics laboratory
Business developer Isabelle.chartier@cea.fr
Romain Coppard, Head of Printed Electronics laboratory romain.coppard@cea.fr
Universit di Catania:
Giuseppe Palmisano
39-09-57-38-23-05 giuseppe.palmisano@dieei.unict.it
STMicroelectronics:
Michael Markowitz, Director Technical Media Relations
1-781-591-0354 michael.markowitz@st.com
[ | 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.
MEXICO CITY (AP) ? Mexico's new government denied Wednesday that politics drove the arrest of the head of the national teacher's union but experts and ordinary Mexicans said the jailing of the nation's most powerful woman clearly showed the former ruling party reasserting authority over the country it once dominated.
Elba Esther Gordillo was expected to make her first appearance in a courtroom in a grim prison in eastern Mexico City, a dizzying fall from power for a woman who traveled on private jets and maintained properties worth millions of dollars in Southern California.
Gordillo was charged with embezzling 2 billion pesos (about $160 million) from union funds and was arrested Tuesday afternoon as she returned from San Diego for a meeting of leaders of the 1.5 million-member National Union of Education Workers she has led for nearly a quarter-century. She was heading the union's fight with President Enrique Pena Nieto's administration over the country's most sweeping educational reform in more than 70 years.
Her arrest came a day after the president signed the reform into law.
"This is a case that has absolutely no political motivation," Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam told the Televisa television network.
But most Mexicans scoffed at the idea that prosecutors had just found out that Gordillo ? known for her designer clothes, luxury cars and plastic surgery ? might be corrupt. Many saw it as a shot across the bow of potential foes by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which ran the country for seven decades, was thrown out of power in 2006 and won back the presidency last year.
The message: Don't commit Gordillo's mistake of publicly opposing the president's reform efforts.
"The message is that, if this can happen to Elba Esther, it can happen to anyone," former Mexico City Mayor Manuel Camacho Solis told MVS Radio. Prosecutors said they had detected nearly $3 million in purchases at Neiman Marcus stores using union funds, as well as $17,000 in U.S. plastic surgery bills and the purchase of a million-dollar home in San Diego.
The arrest immediately sparked calls for prosecutors to bring similar cases against other union leaders known for lavish spending. The main opposition parties specifically named the leader of the country's oil workers' union, accused by local news media of giving his son a $2 million Ferrari, a report that has never been confirmed or denied.
The arrest of Gordillo sidelines a powerful opponent of the PRI while showing the party as unafraid to take on a figure many blame for the dire state of the Mexican education system. Gordillo was a PRI leader for decades before splitting from the party, which was accused of corruption and authoritarian practices during its decades in power.
"This can be something very good for the country, but also for the government and for the PRI," said Jose Antonio Crespo, a political analyst at the Center for Economic Research and Teaching in Mexico City. "It cleans up the image of the PRI, as if to say, "Yes, we will be a different PRI, we're moving forward, not backward."
Pena Nieto is also proposing reforms that would open the state-owned oil company to more private investment, a move that could awaken similar opposition from that union.
But teacher's union members had been the only ones marching in the streets against reform in recent weeks, and the fiery Gordillo, who rose from teenage school teacher to a maker of presidents, vowed to keep fighting.
"I want to die with the epitaph: Here lies a warrior. She died like a warrior," Gordillo said in a speech on her 68th birthday this month.
She has not spoken or appeared publicly since her arrest.
Asked if he would go after other corrupt union bosses, as opposition parties have demanded, Murillo Karam said "I don't have evidence as clear as in this case."
In a news conference minutes after Gordillo's detention, he said the investigation started in December, just after Pena Nieto took office, when Banco Santander alerted authorities to transfers of billions of pesos, according to the attorney general.
Some funds eventually ended up in bank accounts in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, according to Assistant Attorney General Alfredo Castillo, who said that in one case, $1 million went to a Swiss account for a company owned by Gordillo's mother. Those funds were then used to buy a million-dollar house on the Coronado peninsula near San Diego.
For years, Gordillo has beaten back attacks from union dissidents, political foes and journalists who have seen her as a symbol of Mexico's corrupt, old-style politics. Rivals have accused her of corruption, misuse of union funds and even a murder, but prosecutors who investigated never brought a charge against her.
She was expelled from Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party in 2006 for supporting other parties' candidates and the formation of her own New Alliance party. Her support was considered key in giving a razor-thin victory that year to former President Felipe Calderon.
After Pena Nieto's victory, his first legislative achievement was a reform that creates a system of uniform standards for teacher hiring and promotion based on merit instead of union connections. It also allows for the first census of Mexico's education system, which Gordillo's union has largely controlled for decades, allegedly padding the payroll with thousands of phantom teachers.
So great is the union's control that no one knows exactly how many schools, teachers or students exist in Mexico.
The Mexican education system has been persistently one of the worst performers among the world's developed economies, with few signs of improvement.
Mexico spent a higher percentage of its budget on public education than any other country in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development except New Zealand but had the lowest expenditure per child in 2009.
Nearly every Mexican 4-year-old is in pre-school, but only 47 percent are expected to graduate high school. In the U.S., the number is closer to 80 percent.
In a television interview last week about education reform, the interviewer told Gordillo that she was the most hated woman in Mexico.
"There is no one more loved by their people than I," Gordillo answered. "I care about the teachers. This is a deep and serious dispute about public education."
Columnist and political analyst Raymundo Riva Palacio said Gordillo is an experienced political fighter who may have lost the keen sense of political calculation that kept her in power for so many years.
"She lost clarity," Riva Palacio said. "Having so much to lose on the issue on which they finally got her, the money, she calculated badly."
Gordillo's arrest recalled the 1989 arrest of another once-feared union boss, Joaquin Hernandez Galicia, known as "La Quina." The longtime head of Mexico's powerful oil workers union, Hernandez Galicia was arrested during the first months of the new administration of then-President Carlos Salinas.
In 1988, he criticized Salinas' presidential candidacy and threatened an oil workers' strike if Salinas privatized any part of the government oil monopoly, Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex. On Jan. 10, 198, ? about a month after Salinas took office ? soldiers used a bazooka to blow down the door of Hernandez' home in the Gulf Coast city of Ciudad Madero.
He was freed from prison after Salinas left office.
_____
Associated Press writers Mark Stevenson, Adriana Gomez Licon and Michael Weissenstein contributed to this report.
In this rendering provided by Blue Star Line, the Titanic II is shown cruising at sea. The ship, which Australian billionaire Clive Palmer is planning to build in China, is scheduled to sail in 2016. Palmer said his ambitious plans to launch a copy of the Titanic and sail her across the Atlantic would be a tribute to those who built and backed the original. (AP Photo/Blue Star Line)
In this rendering provided by Blue Star Line, the Titanic II is shown cruising at sea. The ship, which Australian billionaire Clive Palmer is planning to build in China, is scheduled to sail in 2016. Palmer said his ambitious plans to launch a copy of the Titanic and sail her across the Atlantic would be a tribute to those who built and backed the original. (AP Photo/Blue Star Line)
Australian billionaire Clive Palmer speaks during a news conference about his intention to build the Titanic II in New York, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013. Palmer is planning to build the ship in China and it is scheduled to sail in 2016. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
In this rendering provided by Blue Star Line, the grand staircase on the Titanic II is shown. The replica ship, which Australian billionaire Clive Palmer is planning to build in China, is scheduled to sail in 2016. Palmer said his ambitious plans to launch a copy of the Titanic and sail her across the Atlantic would be a tribute to those who built and backed the original. (AP Photo/Blue Star Line)
NEW YORK (AP) ? What could possibly go wrong?
An Australian billionaire is getting ready to build a new version of the Titanic that could set sail in late 2016.
Clive Palmer unveiled blueprints for the famously doomed ship's namesake Tuesday at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York. He said construction is scheduled to start soon in China.
Palmer said 40,000 people have expressed interest in tickets for the maiden voyage, taking the original course from Southampton, England, to New York. He said people are inspired by his quest to replicate one of the most famous vessels in history.
"We all live on this planet, we all breathe the same air and, of course, the Titanic is about the things we've got in common," he said. "It links three continents."
The original Titanic was the world's largest and most luxurious ocean liner when it hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank on April 15, 1912. Only 700 people of the more than 2,200 on board survived the most famous maritime disaster in history, partly because there were not enough lifeboats to carry everyone.
Palmer said an unknown when the original ship sailed ? climate change ? may play into a positive for the new ship's fate.
"One of the benefits of global warming is there hasn't been as many icebergs in the North Atlantic these days," Palmer said.
Passengers on board the replica will dress in the fashion of that period and eat dishes from the original menu, in dining rooms copied from the ill-fated predecessor.
Joining Palmer on Tuesday was Helen Benziger, the great granddaughter of Titanic survivor Margaret "Molly" Brown. Benziger, who agreed to serve on the advisory board for the Titanic II, said her great grandmother, who died in 1932, would have loved to see the Titanic rebuilt and complete the journey it never got to finish.
In what some may consider a temptation of fate for a remake of a notoriously "unsinkable" ship that sank, a representative of the Finnish designer of the Titanic II said it will be the "safest cruise ship in the world."
Markku Kanerva, director of sales for marine design company Deltamarin said that while the vessel is modeled after the legendary liner ? the diesel-powered ship will even have four decorative smoke stacks mimicking the coal-powered originals ? it will meet modern navigation and safety requirements.
In addition, plans call for a new "safety deck" featuring state-of-the-art lifeboats, safety chutes and slides. The new ship will also have amenities unknown a century ago, like air conditioning.
Palmer, who is funding construction of the ship himself, built his fortune in real estate and coal. Australia's BRW magazine estimated his net worth last year at $4 billion, although Forbes puts it at $895 million.
"I want to spend the money I've got before I die," he said. "You might as well spend it, not leave it to the kids to spend, there will be enough left for them anyway."
Back in our day, software engineering training in junior high and high school meant a couple of Apple IIs and a game of Snake on our graphing calculators (if we were lucky). These days, it's becoming something of a necessity for students, and New York City mayor, Michael Bloomberg, is looking to get out in front of the curve, with the launch of the city's new Software Engineering Pilot program, a curriculum set to kick off at the beginning of the next school year. The program, which will serve 1,000 students (that number jumping to 3,500 in 2016), was designed to help kids prepare for higher education and jobs in the tech sector. We've got to admit, we're feeling a bit jealous of the list of topics, which includes not only things like programming and web design, but also embedded electronics, robotics, animation and 3D printing. The full list of schools can be found in the press release after the break.
BEIRUT (AP) ? An international human rights organization says the Syrian military fired at least four ballistic missiles into the embattled northern city of Aleppo over the past week, killing more than 140 people, including 70 children.
Human Rights Watch says the attacks by the regime of President Bashar Assad on residential areas of Aleppo mark an "escalation of unlawful attacks against Syria's civilian population."
A researcher with the U.S.-based group, who visited Aleppo last week to inspect the targeted sites, said up to 20 buildings were destroyed in each area hit by a missile. There were no signs of any military targets in the residential districts, located in rebel-held parts of Aleppo, the group said in a report Tuesday.
Aleppo has seen some of the heaviest fighting in Syria's nearly 2-year-old conflict.
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Public release date: 27-Feb-2013
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