Nikon Image Authentication Software validates Photoshop phonies

It's hard to believe that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Apple man Steve Jobs would get all giggly over a Granny Smith, and that's for good reason: that apple's about as phony as this tiny iPhone. According to a Russian security firm, however, Nikon's Image Authentication Software would tell you otherwise. This rendering is one of a handful used to demonstrate a flaw in the camera maker's image verification software. Programs like Nikon's apply an encrypted signature to image files at the time they are captured, and overwrite those signatures when a file is altered, allowing for verification of a photograph's integrity. According to ElcomSoft, the firm exposed a flaw in the system used by Nikon, as well as a similar program employed by Canon's DSLRs, that allowed them to extract the signature from an unaltered photograph and apply it to phonies like the one above. According to the outfit, neither company has responded to its findings. For more funny fakes, including a shot of Mike Tyson rocking an Angry Birds tattoo, check out the source link below.

Nikon Image Authentication Software validates Photoshop phonies originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Apr 2011 01:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/29/nikon-image-authentication-software-validates-photoshop-phonies/

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What you need to know from this week on ‘The Ultimate Fighter’

Team dos Santos has the momentum from last week's win. Who will win the next fight? Will Brock Lesnar misuse more colloquialisms? Who paints his toenails? Read on for spoilers and a recap this week's episode.

Lollygagging of the week: After the loss, Lesnar is disappointed in the work ethic of his team, making me think that Lesnar learned his coaching style from:

You know what that makes you? Lollygaggers.

Fight announcement of the week: Team dos Santos has this week's pick, so he picks Ramsey Nijem to take on Lesnar's Charlie Rader, who Lesnar called out for lollygagging.

J. Crew model of the week: Nijem has painted toe nails and loves Glee, which give his teammates a reason to make fun of him."Everyone makes fun of me for watching Glee, but those kids are talented," Nijem says. No argument here.

Like a two-year-old, he takes his clothes off at the drop of a hat. He likes to joke around with his teammates, which may be a ruse to throw his opponents off. Perhaps, or perhaps not.

Cameo of the week: Brock Lesnar brings in UFC Hall-of-Famer Matt Hughes to work with his fighters on wrestling. Now, far be it from me to question Lesnar, but he is a former wrestler with pretty strong bona fides, and so he brought it another wrestler ... ? I love wrestling as much as anybody, but wouldn't it make sense to bring in a coach to shore up weaknesses? Nonetheless, Brock's team loves working with Hughes, a legendary welterweight.

As both teams talk about this fight, they're absolutely sure that the other team is underestimating the other. Both teams think that their fighter's advantage will be wrestling. Hmmm.

Misuse of the word disgrace of the week: Lesnar tells Rader that if he doesn't win, it's a disgrace because Nijem paints his toenails. I'd like to see Lesnar call Chuck Liddell a disgrace.

Fight of the week: Ramsey Nijem (Team dos Santos) vs. Charlie Rader (Team Lesnar)

Round One: Nijem starts by driving Rader into the fence in a clinch. They continue to pummel for much of the round until Nijem throws an inadvertent knee to Rader's crotch. Once broken apart, Nijem dives in for another takedown attempt. Though he has trouble getting it, he does inflict damage with knees and short strikes. He finally puts Rader on his back after tons of work. Rader springs back to his feet, but Nijem brings him back to the ground and stays in control for the rest of the round.

Round Two: This time, Nijem has no problem getting the takedown. He takes Rader's back and controls him at the beginning of the round, throwing short strikes until he can flatten Rader out and apply a rear-naked choke. Rader didn't put up much of a fight, and tapped to give Nijem the win.

After the fight, Lesnar said that he was worried from the start of the fight, when he saw the look in Nijem's eyes. He also says that Rader quit, an idea that Dana White backed up.

Quote of the week: "I don't even care. These guys don't want to even be here." -- Brock Lesnar

Lesnar clearly doesn't know how to handle fighters who don't have the same drive as he has. He rips them for choking and not caring. It's going to be a long season if Lesnar and his fighters don't get on the same page.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/What-you-need-to-know-from-this-week-on-The-Ult?urn=mma-wp1370

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Qatar's Libya Role: 'A Logical Next Step'

Qatari Air Force Mirage 2000 jet fighters prepare to takeoff for a mission to Libya at the  military airbase base of Souda on the Greek island of Crete on March 30.
Enlarge Petros Giannakouris/AP

Qatari Air Force Mirage 2000 jet fighters prepare to takeoff for a mission to Libya at the military airbase base of Souda on the Greek island of Crete on March 30.

Petros Giannakouris/AP

Qatari Air Force Mirage 2000 jet fighters prepare to takeoff for a mission to Libya at the military airbase base of Souda on the Greek island of Crete on March 30.

The tiny but influential Arab nation of Qatar was the first Arab state to join the allied effort to stop the bloodshed in Libya. A third of its fighter-jet fleet is now on the Souda air base on the Greek island of Crete. The Qataris, working alongside the French, are helping enforce the NATO-led no-fly zone over Libya.

Two Mirage 2000 jets ? one Qatari, one French ? rev their engines. The pilots turn the sleek planes onto a runway on this craggy stretch of northwestern Crete.

About 20 Qatari men in desert-hued camouflage watch from a shady spot near the runway.

There's a white plastic table with a cup of cardamom-scented coffee. A Qatari mechanic rolls out a rug for midday prayers. The Qatari and French flags are raised near the runway.

Air force contingents from the two countries arrived here late last month, four French and six Qatari. The fighters always fly in pairs, one from each country.

Col. Antoine Guillou, the French commander, watches as the Mirages take off. He's usually based in Doha and trains Qatari fighter pilots to fly the French-built jets. He says the French are used to these missions, the Qataris less so.

"It's a little bit harder for the Qatarian side because the gap is wider, in fact," he says. "But really, together we achieve to fill it, and now they are really absolutely perfect in their job."

The Qatari Air Force did not allow the officers stationed in Crete to talk to NPR. But privately, the officers say they know they're focused on a mission that's important to Qatar's ruler.

"There was clearly a humanitarian catastrophe evolving in Libya," says David Roberts, who is with the Royal United Services Institute, a British think tank in Qatar that studies defense and security issues in the Middle East. "No one else in the Arab world would do anything, and Qatar said, "chalas, as they say in this part of the world, Enough!

"It's time for us to do something."

It seems like an outsized mission for a country roughly the size of Connecticut. Only 1.7 million people live in Qatar, many are temporary foreign workers. But the country is rich with natural gas reserves and also owns Al Jazeera, the most influential news channel in the Arab world.

Blake Hounshell, the managing editor of Foreign Policy magazine who lives in the Qatari capital, Doha, says the Qataris have been a major supplier of humanitarian aid to rebel-held areas during the conflict in Libya.

"Actually, in the Qatari constitution, it says that Qatar's foreign policy should be driven by peacefully resolving disputes in the Middle East," he says. "So, this Libya intervention is kind of a logical next step for them."

The few Libyans who live in Greece say they are pleased the

Qataris are flying missions over Libya.

One man who gives his name as Khaled says he trusts the Qataris because Al Jazeera has given the world stories of what's really happening in Libya. He won't give his real name because he says he's frightened for his family back in the Libyan capital, Tripoli.

"The Qatari people have shown support basically because they've seen all the killing, all the murders that have been happening at the beginning," he says. "So they lived with us through those dangers."

So far only two other Arab states ? the United Arab Emirates and Jordan ? have joined Qatar in sending aircraft to take part in international operations over Libya.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/04/24/135678909/qatar-in-libya-big-mission-for-a-small-country?ft=1&f=1009

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Fed Chief Offers Hints About When Rates Will Rise

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernnake speaks during a press conference Wednesday in Washington.
Enlarge Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernnake speaks during a press conference Wednesday in Washington.

Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernnake speaks during a press conference Wednesday in Washington.

At a historic news conference, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke offered clues Wednesday about when and how the Fed would begin raising interest rates. The Fed's latest outlook foresees lower unemployment than was expected in January.

Bernanke said that as long as the Fed continues to say rates will remain at record lows for "an extended period," rates won't rise until the Fed has met at least twice more. The Fed, which ended a two-day meeting Wednesday, gathers about every six weeks.

The Fed chairman also said any additional steps by the Fed to try to lower unemployment might raise other risks, such as higher inflation. If inflation were to accelerate, it could then reduce employment. That's because the Fed would have to raise rates to slow borrowing and spending and blunt price increases.

In an updated forecast, the Fed projected the economy will grow between 3.1 percent and 3.3 percent this year. That's a downward revision from their last forecast, which saw growth possibly as high as 3.9 percent this year. The new forecast reflects slower growth in the first three months of this year because of higher energy costs.

The unemployment rate, which stood at 9.8 percent in November, has fallen to 8.8 percent. The Fed's new forecast projects the unemployment rate will fall to between 8.4 percent and 8.7 percent by the end of the year.

In his appearance, Bernanke appeared relaxed with reporters, projecting a calming presence and saying nothing that might rattle investors.

He sketched a picture of an economy that is growing steadily but remains weighed down by a prolonged period of high unemployment. He acknowledged the pain unemployment is causing, noting that around 45 percent of the unemployed have been without a job for six months or longer.

"We know the consequences of that can be very distressing because people who are out of work for a long time, their skills tend to atrophy," Bernanke said.

Stocks rose after Bernanke said he expects the economy to continue growing through next year and 2013. The Dow Jones industrial average, which was up about 50 points when Bernanke began speaking, gained another 50 points half an hour before the market closed.

Bernanke acknowledged that higher gasoline prices are creating a financial hardship for many Americans. But he said the Fed doesn't think gas prices will continue to rise at their recent pace.

The news conference was the first time in the Fed's 98-year history that a chairman has begun holding regular sessions with reporters.

It offered Bernanke a chance to drive a debate about Fed policy. Critics have said the Fed's efforts to boost growth raise the risk of high inflation. Investors are seeking clues about when the Fed will start raising interest rates to help slow price increases.

Bernanke said the first step in tightening interest-rate policy could occur when the Fed stops reinvesting the proceeds of its bond holdings. Bernanke would not be specific about when that might occur. He said it will depend on inflation and economic growth in coming months.

He said that step would be a relatively modest one. But it would constitute the Fed's first tightening because it would allow interest rates to creep up.

The news conference, the first of three scheduled this year, is part of a long-standing Bernanke effort to make the Fed more transparent.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/04/27/135775439/fed-sees-better-jobs-outlook-higher-inflation?ft=1&f=1006

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Sony provides PSN update, confirms a 'compromise of personal information' (updated)

http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/26/sony-provides-psn-update-confirms-a-compromise-of-personal-inf/
It's looking like things are just as bad as we feared and that "external intrusion" got a little deeper than we might have liked. In an update on its PlayStation.Blog, Sony just confirmed that the ongoing PSN outage was caused by "malicious actions," which we already knew, but continues by indicating that there has also been "a compromise of personal information." Exactly what that means Sony isn't saying, and it stops short of saying that credit card data for PSN and Qriocity users has been exposed, but the company does say "your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained." Yes, it may have been obtained -- even Sony isn't sure. There's no further ETA for when PSN may be back up online or when you might be able to finally sample Portal 2's delicious online co-op mode, but at least you can still watch Netflix.

Update: Our friends at Joystiq are reporting that Connecticut Senator Blumenthal is rip roarin' mad about the situation, "demanding answers" from SCEA president Jack Tretton. Right now, we're more curious what Kevin Butler has to say about things.

Update 2: Sony UK is shedding more light on just what data has been exposed, and frankly we were happier when it was dark. By the sound of things, everything Sony had about you has been accessed. There's a full list after the break, so only click on through if you dare.

Update 3: Sony's just posted a clarification regarding the delay of their response: in a nutshell, PSN was shut down after the intrusion on April 19th, and the company needed to work with outside experts to "understand the scope of the breach" before posting the full lowdown earlier today. For those interested, Sony has a lengthy FAQ page regarding this incident.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Sony provides PSN update, confirms a 'compromise of personal information' (updated)

Sony provides PSN update, confirms a 'compromise of personal information' (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Apr 2011 16:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/26/sony-provides-psn-update-confirms-a-compromise-of-personal-inf/

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Past House GOP tactic proves useless to Democrats (The Arizona Republic)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A year ago, when Republicans were in the minority on Capitol Hill, they drove Democrats crazy by using an obscure parliamentary maneuver to change, delay and even kill Democratic priorities....
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Geohot accepts challenge to help jailbreak the iPad 2

Geohot has accepted a challenge from p0sixninja to see who can dump the iPad 2 bootrom first.?The iPad 2, with its new Apple A5 chipset, still can?t be Jailbroken and iPhone hacker p0sixninja recently noted that it?s a demanding, time consuming and difficult task very few have the patience, time and skill to do. Damn, [...]

Geohot accepts challenge to help jailbreak the iPad 2 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Looking At College Application Inflation

It's a time of high anxiety for high school seniors. Students across the country have been finding out where they got in to college and where they didn't. For many applying to the most selective schools, the news is not good. While the number of applications has shot up, acceptance rates have hit historic lows. It's been called, "application inflation." Michele Norris talks with Bloomberg News' higher education reporter Janet Lorin about college admissions and "application inflation."

Copyright ? 2011 National Public Radio?. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

ROBERT SIEGEL, host:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.

MICHELE NORRIS, host:

And I'm Michele Norris.

It's a time of high anxiety for high school seniors. Students across the country have been finding out whether or not they got in to colleges, and for many applying to the most selective schools, the news may not be good.

While the number of applications has shot up, acceptance rates have hit historic lows. It's been called application inflation. And Janet Lorin covers higher education and college admissions for Bloomberg News, and she's here with us to tell us more about this.

Welcome to the program.

Ms. JANET LORIN (Reporter, Bloomberg News): Thank you for having me.

NORRIS: So when we talk about application inflation, can you give us some examples?

Ms. LORIN: Well, we know that, for example, Harvard University received almost 35,000 applications for undergraduate admission this year. Columbia University received almost the same number. Columbia started on the common application this year and had a 32 percent increase.

Brown University went on the common application three years ago and has had a 50-percent increase in applications over the last three years.

NORRIS: Now, before you go on, explain what is a common application.

Ms. LORIN: The common application is a online form that students can use to apply to multiple colleges very easily. It's very easy from when I applied 20 years ago, when you actually had to type your information in. You fill it out online, and then most selective schools have additional supplemental essays. But it makes applying to college much easier.

NORRIS: I'm going to come back to that idea of a common application in just a minute, but you've given us the number of applications that have arrived in these schools. I'm curious about the other side of that equation, the actual acceptance rate.

Ms. LORIN: At Harvard, it was down to 6.2 percent this year. Columbia was 6.9 percent this year.

NORRIS: What's at the heart of this? Is it because there is this large cohort of students that are now all going to college, what people like call the echo boom? Or is it really more about the common application or even other factors?

Ms. LORIN: Well, the actual number of students graduating from high school is beginning to decrease, but as students see these very low admit rates, they get a little nervous, and they think: Well, maybe I should apply to a few more schools. So that increases the number of applications.

NORRIS: Is this happening across the board? The schools that you mentioned are fairly selective institutions. Are you seeing the same thing at middle-tier schools, at state schools, at small schools?

Ms. LORIN: Definitely at state schools. Berkeley and the University of North Carolina, for example, both had increases, as well.

NORRIS: Is this in part because schools are marketing themselves more aggressively?

Ms. LORIN: Partly. I did a story about a year and a half ago about the marketing effort at the University of Chicago. And they had a new dean of admission, and they had a very specific marketing campaign that the dean of the college told me he wanted as many applications as Columbia.

And they had a 42 percent increase last year, and what that did was it made them appear to be a lot more selective. In 2009, they accepted 27 percent of applications, and this year, they accepted about 16 percent, and they have a lot more kids applying, and because they didn't really increase the number of spots, you know, it's a math formula, fewer percentage of kids got in.

NORRIS: Is that about rankings?

Ms. LORIN: I think some would argue yes. You want to appear to be more selective. It's a part of the US News & World Report rankings. And it also makes you look more selective, and that's in some ways appealing to students because they are going to a selective place. It also makes it appealing to alumni to think that their college is even more exclusive.

NORRIS: Is this good news for the campuses, that they have this flood of applications? Or does it also present a downside?

Ms. LORIN: Well, when Brown had their flood of applications last year, the admissions office was literally overwhelmed. They were assembling them by paper, and they had to find space on campus to assemble them.

They've also had to hire some part-time readers, as well as Duke because, you know, the volume is very great.

NORRIS: Well, Janet, it's been a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you very much.

Ms. LORIN: Thank you for having me.

NORRIS: Janet Lorin covers higher education and college admissions for Bloomberg News.

Copyright ? 2011 National Public Radio?. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to National Public Radio. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/04/20/135578897/looking-at-college-application-inflation?ft=1&f=1003

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Grass-Fed Beef Is the New Performance Enhancing Drug for Athletes [Food]

Organic! Local! Grass-fed! Fanned with palm fronds! All those terms used to describe food usually mean diddly squat to me because I'm a simpleton eater. If it tastes good, it is good. But athletes—people who need to care about their body—are starting to get into eating grass-fed beef craze because of the health benefits. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/yERxu9pw5UE/grass+fed-beef-is-the-new-performance-enhancing-drug-for-athletes

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