Microsoft's Scroogled Ad Campaign Appears To Be Working

The Scroogled advertising campaign undertaken by Microsoft to ding and scuff its rival Google appears to be an effective effort, according to statistics recently published by AdWeek. That publication's report details data collected for Microsoft by GfK Roper indicating that, following a visit to Scroogled.com, Google's favorability gap with Bing with users fades from 45 points, to 5.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/a7LgXqQ26U0/
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Dozens Die In Philippines After Powerful Earthquake

People inspect damage to the Church of San Pedro in the town Loboc, Bohol, after a powerful earthquake struck the region early on Oct. 15, 2013. The earthquake hit near one of the Philippines key tourist hubs, the United States Geological Survey reported.

Robert Michael Poole/AFP/Getty Images

People inspect damage to the Church of San Pedro in the town Loboc, Bohol, after a powerful earthquake struck the region early on Oct. 15, 2013. The earthquake hit near one of the Philippines key tourist hubs, the United States Geological Survey reported.

Robert Michael Poole/AFP/Getty Images

A powerful earthquake has left dozens of people dead in the Philippines. The quake, whose magnitude was first reported as 7.2 and then downgraded to 7.1, struck near the city of Catigbian in the inland area of Bohol, one of the central Visayas Islands.

At least 93 people have been reported dead, and the casualty count is likely to grow as rescue and recovery teams reach areas that were cut off by rubble and other obstructions.

The earthquake struck just after 8 a.m. local time Tuesday, a national holiday observing the Muslim Eid al-Adha festival. At least 10 quakes with a magnitude of 5 or higher were detected in the hours that followed, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

"Low-rise buildings collapsed on at least two islands and historic churches cracked and crumbled during the quake," Reuters reports, "which sparked panic, cut power and transport links and forced hospitals to evacuate patients."

The quake also damaged tourist attractions, such as the famed Chocolate Hills of Bohol. A photo of the damage to one hill that was posted to Twitter by tourist Robert Michael Poole.

Churches that have stood for hundreds of years also suffered damage, including the 16th-century Basilica of the Holy Child in Cebu, the AP reports.

The death toll was worsened by at least two stampedes of panicked people who had gathered to receive payments in a social welfare program for families with young children; a government agency says a four-year-old child died in one of the incidents, and that at least 35 people were injured.

The U.S. Geological Survey gives us some background on the area's tectonics:

"The Philippine Islands straddle a region of complex tectonics at the intersection of three major tectonic plates (the Philippine Sea, Sunda and Eurasia plates). As such, the islands are familiar with large and damaging earthquakes, and the region within 500 km of the October 15 earthquake has hosted 19 events of M6 or greater, a dozen of which have been shallow (0-70 km). One of these, a M 6.8 earthquake 70 km to the east of the October 15, 2013 event in 1990, caused several casualties."

Patients are treated at a temporary shelter following a 7.1-magnitude quake that struck near Cebu, in the Philippines, Tuesday. Many churches and hospitals were damaged by the quake.

Jay Directo/AFP/Getty Images

Patients are treated at a temporary shelter following a 7.1-magnitude quake that struck near Cebu, in the Philippines, Tuesday. Many churches and hospitals were damaged by the quake.

Jay Directo/AFP/Getty Images

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/10/15/234650489/dozens-die-in-philippines-after-powerful-earthquake?ft=1&f=
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Malta urges 'clear EU strategy' on migrants after twin tragedies

Valletta (AFP) - Malta on Sunday called on the European Union to develop a "clear strategy" to deal with migrants fleeing conflicts to their shores after two shipwrecks claimed hundreds of lives.

"We are no superpower," Prime Minister Joseph Muscat told AFP. "But we do not only control our border but also Europe's borders, and Italy is doing the same."

Also Sunday, Syrian refugees who survived a boat capsize off Malta said they were fired on by "militiamen" as they set out on their perilous journey from Libya.

At least 36 people perished after the boat sank on Friday, a week after another shipwreck off Italy left at least 359 dead.

"Those people had a life and a stable job in their country but could not live there any longer," Muscat said. "The group that arrived (in Malta) yesterday included 10 medical doctors and a neurosurgeon."

The prime minister complained of the "very little response" Malta had received in appeals for EU solidarity over the humanitarian crisis.

"This situation cannot be solved with money but with political commitment and a clear strategy," he said.

Earlier Sunday, Muscat held a surprise meeting in Libya with his counterpart Ali Zeidan, saying afterwards that the north African country was "part of the solution".

A boat carrying up to 400 migrants, mostly Syrians, left the western Libyan port of Zwara on Thursday.

Some of the more than 200 survivors said Libyan militiamen shot wildly at them, leaving several people dead and causing the vessel to take on water and sink.

Syrian national Mohammed, 34, wept as he recalled his desperate search for his missing pregnant wife and seven-year-old daughter after he and his other five-year-old daughter managed to reach safety.

Mohammed said he had paid $4,800 (3,500 euros) to seek a better life in Europe, crossing through Egypt to Libya.

"When we got on the boat, Libyan militia put their machine guns to our heads and demanded more money. I had $5,000 and they took this too," Mohammed said from a detention camp in Malta.

He said the Libyan gunmen followed them for four or five hours.

"All of a sudden, they started shooting at us and the boat... All I could think of at that time was to protect my two young children.

"Then they started shooting more bullets at the boat and they managed to puncture it. Lots of water started coming in.... We all ended up in the sea. I grabbed my daughter. She swallowed water but I managed to swim and we got onto a raft rescuers threw in the water," Mohammed said.

'I lost practically all I had'

'Asking us for money, our kidneys'

Another survivor, 25-year-old Aisha from Lebanon, told AFP the militiamen "pointed their guns at us, asking us for money, for our kidneys and our livers. When no one gave in, they started shooting at us, injuring two."

Citing other survivors' accounts, the UN refugee agency spoke of several injured, saying shots were fired "perhaps by militiamen who shot to kill".

Molhake al-Roarsan, 22, interviewed by Italy's La Stampa daily, said he thought the attacks were related to a dispute between different groups of human traffickers.

"There was a furious fight, screaming on the radio and on the phone with someone who demanded that we return to land, but the captain did not stop."

Once they reached Malta, the Tunisian captain was arrested after being recognised by survivors, according to media reports.

'I lost practically all I had'

Ashur, a Syrian, said he and his family were fleeing the civil war in his home country. When the vessel capsized he managed to save his two-year-old daughter but lost his son and wife who was pregnant with twins.

"I lost practically all I had. What I have left to live for is my daughter who I will not let go out of my arms," Ashur told AFP.

Meanwhile searches were continuing after 180 migrants from Egypt, Somalia and Eritrea who were rescued overnight Friday arrived Sunday in Porto Empedocle, in Sicily.

The town is also where the first 150 coffins containing the victims of the October 3 shipwreck off the Italian island of Lampedusa were taken for burial.

Italian and Maltese forces on Sunday rescued a total of 386 people aboard two boats and escorted them to Sicily. Around 100 were taken to Malta.

Italian customs police meanwhile rescued around 200 migrants who were expected to head to southern Italy.

Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta has announced an "Italian sea and air humanitarian mission" in the Mediterranean on Monday that would triple available vessels and add aviation to ward off further tragedies.

Foreign Minister Emma Bonino stressed that patrols should serve to rescue migrants rather than "telling them to stay where they are".

Italy has also appealed to fellow EU states for help in managing the crisis and wants migration to be put on the agenda of summit talks in Brussels later this month.

According to UNHCR estimates, some 32,000 migrants have arrived in Malta and Italy this year.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/malta-shipwreck-survivors-shots-were-fired-boat-000101525.html
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Italy rescues 300 migrants, sends navy ships, drones on patrols

By Steve Scherer

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's navy rescued about 300 migrants in the waters between Sicily and Libya on Tuesday as the government deployed ships, helicopters and unmanned drones to help avert further shipwrecks that have already drowned hundreds this month.

A naval frigate and a patrol boat set out late on Monday when two separate migrant boats used satellite phones to call for help, a navy statement said. They were recovered and brought to the southern island of Lampedusa on Tuesday.

The boats risked the dangerous sea passage despite a shipwreck on October 3 that killed more than 360, mostly Eritreans, less than a kilometer from Lampedusa. Last Friday, at least 34 more migrants drowned when their boat capsized, though the true figure may be above 200.

Lampedusa, which lies southwest of Sicily and just 70 miles from the coast of Tunisia, has been a stepping stone for migrants seeking a better life in Europe for two decades.

Now the Syrian civil war and unrest in Egypt and other Arab and African countries are fuelling the flow of refugees, many of whom have to pass through an increasingly unstable Libya.

To try to stem the flow of rickety boats and prevent further tragedies, Italy began on Tuesday to ramp up its military presence in the waters between Italy, Tunisia and Libya.

Italy will deploy an amphibious assault ship with an on-board hospital and long-range helicopters, five more naval vessels, several more helicopters and an airplane equipped with night-vision, plus unmanned drone aircraft.

"It will be a military and humanitarian operation to reinforce surveillance and rescue capabilities in the open sea which will increase safety levels and save lives," Defense Minister Mario Mauro said late on Monday when the plan was agreed.

MILITARISATION

However, humanitarian organizations are concerned about an increased militarization of the border.

It may save refugees from drowning, but it may also leave more of them stranded in the Sahara desert or delivered into the hands of Libyan militias and crime groups, which are known to have beaten, raped and imprisoned migrants in the past.

"It's not a given that if an Italy navy ship intervenes that the migrants will be brought to an Italian port. It will depend on where the operation takes place," Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso was heckled on Lampedusa last week by islanders who said the European Union was partly responsible for the October 3 shipwreck.

Italy and Malta, the main points of arrival for most migrants from North Africa, have asked for more EU funds and have called for the migrant emergency to be put on the agenda of the next European Council meeting on October 24-25.

(Editing by Gareth Jones)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/italy-rescues-300-migrants-sends-navy-ships-drones-094747294.html
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Tigers turn to Verlander after Game 2 collapse

DETROIT (AP) — The last time Justin Verlander took the mound, his team's season was on the line.

The stakes won't be quite that high for his next start, but the Detroit Tigers could certainly use another brilliant performance from their star right-hander after blowing a chance to take control of the AL championship series.

Detroit wasted a five-run lead Sunday night in Game 2, allowing the Boston Red Sox to even the series with a 6-5 victory. David Ortiz's tying grand slam in the eighth inning snapped the Red Sox out of a hitting funk, and if Boston goes on to win the pennant, there may be little doubt about the turning point in this series.

Verlander's job is to steady the defending AL champion Tigers.

"Obviously that was a tough one," Verlander said. "At the same time you know this series is going to be a dogfight. Nobody is going to walk over anybody."

The Tigers looked like they were ready to roll through the series after they won the opener and took a 5-0 lead in Game 2. Anibal Sanchez held Boston hitless for six innings on Saturday, and Max Scherzer allowed a run and two hits in seven innings Sunday.

Boston trailed 5-1 in the eighth in Game 2 before a remarkable rally against four relievers. Ortiz tied it with a two-out grand slam off closer Joaquin Benoit.

"I made a mistake that I take full responsibility for," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "I should have just reminded him that we didn't want Ortiz to really beat us. He tried to make a great pitch. He tried to get it low and away out of the strike zone, but he didn't get it there."

Boston managed to win one of two at home despite striking out 32 times — eight more than the previous record for the first two games of an LCS, set by the Los Angeles Dodgers a day earlier. The Red Sox are hopeful their bats will come around, starting against Verlander in Game 3 at Comerica Park on Tuesday.

"I think we certainly gained some confidence in the last couple innings," Boston manager John Farrell said. "The work of Sanchez and Scherzer has been nothing short of spectacular. ... We feel like tomorrow's starter in Verlander is going to be a similar, if not a more difficult, challenge than what we faced already."

After a pedestrian regular season by his standards, Verlander pitched15 scoreless innings in the division series against Oakland, including eight in a winner-take-all Game 5. The Tigers have taken no-hitters into at least the sixth inning in three straight games, a remarkable feat even for a staff that set a major league record with 1,428 strikeouts during the regular season.

Detroit's starters have picked up where they left off during last year's American League playoffs, when the Tigers' rotation posted a 1.02 ERA through the division series and ALCS. Detroit won the AL pennant before being swept by San Francisco in the World Series.

"We've got a starting rotation that's relentless, and I said that before the series started. Every guy has their unique ability to shut down a team in their own way," Verlander said. "I'm just one of the four guys right now."

The Red Sox will send John Lackey to the mound to face Verlander. Lackey was able to make 29 starts during the regular season, posting a 3.52 ERA after missing all of 2012 following elbow ligament-replacement surgery.

Lackey will try to hold Detroit's offense in check and hope the Red Sox can become the first team this postseason to break through against Verlander.

"We've got a great lineup. I'm going into the game with a great group of guys behind me," Lackey said. "Those guys are going to fight him. He's kind of our lineup's problem. I've got my own problems with their lineup."

Leyland says he'll probably play Jhonny Peralta at shortstop for a second straight game, with Andy Dirks in left field instead of Don Kelly. Boston's Mike Napoli is expected to be back at first base in a lineup similar to what the Red Sox used in Game 1.

Those are minor adjustments, obviously. Don't expect too many drastic changes as this series progresses. Both teams rely on established stars who have played in their share of big postseason games.

"It's always nice to have Justin Verlander on the mound no matter what the situation is," Leyland said. "There won't be any carry-over for our guys from that game last night. That's over with."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tigers-turn-verlander-game-2-collapse-204325482--spt.html
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Shutdown's Reach Extends To South Pole

Research season was just getting started when the government shutdown put McMurdo Station into "caretaker" mode, halting data collection. Host Scott Simon speaks to Gretchen Hofmann, a professor at University of California, Santa Barbara, about the government shutdown's impact on research in Antarctica.

Copyright © 2013 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News, I'm Scott Simon. The U.S. government shutdown is reaching all the way to the poles of the Earth. The research season in Antarctica runs during the warmer months there in the southern hemisphere, roughly from October to February, and that means scientists were just getting started when they had to shut down. Gretchen Hofmann is a professor at University of California, Santa Barbara. She's the lead researcher on a project at the McMurdo Station in the Antarctic. She joins us from her office in Santa Barbara. Thanks very much for being with us.

GRETCHEN HOFMANN: You bet, Scott. Happy to be here, although I wish it was under a little bit of different circumstance.

SIMON: Well, tell us what happened.

HOFMANN: Well, I guess the story starts where, as researchers, we fly down to the Antarctic via help from the United States' Air Force leaving from Christchurch, New Zealand. And we fly on these large planes. We land on this sea ice. And about a week ago, I deployed one of the researchers in our program, Dr. Amanda Kelly. She flew from Christchurch, New Zealand and landed on the sea ice to find out in fact McMurdo Station, our U.S. research station, had gone into caretaker mode. She's currently there in the Antarctic right now. I just learned that she's done bag drag, which is where you take your gear to the airplane, and she's flying out. So, sort of Christmas has been cancelled as far as science is concerned in the Antarctic.

SIMON: And what are the implications of this?

HOFMANN: Well, Scott, I guess I can say that as a senior scientist now - I'm tenured and I run my own lab - we stand to lose data as a community that runs the gamut from drilling through the Western Antarctic ice sheet to understanding penguin biology and long-term data sets. But one of the casualties, one of the things that we stand to lose right now is important productivity for junior scientists, people who are just starting their careers.

SIMON: What about some of the specific projects that might be facing peril at the moment?

HOFMANN: I think one of the examples I can think of is someone at the University of Alabama. Her name is Samantha Hansen. I know this really well 'cause last season I was there. Samantha - Sam - and I were roommates in our science dorm. Sam's a geologist and she deployed these very interesting, complex remote sensing instruments out in the Antarctic mountains. She's interested in studying the processes that, you know, sort of essentially shape our planet and make mountains. And Sam's instruments right now have data that's really important to her, important to the science world. And if we can't go get them, the data will be lost, the instruments could be buried in snow and it'll be a complete loss for this charismatic young scientist.

SIMON: And don't U.S. research teams work in concert with a lot of teams from other places around the world too?

HOFMANN: Absolutely. You're correct. This is also a devastating blow for Antarctic research programs, particularly in New Zealand. Antarctica, New Zealand has their base at Scott Base, which is literally a beautiful walk away from McMurdo Station. We fly logistics for them. We transport their personnel. We also have strong ties with the Italian group. And, if I might add, one of the key roles that the United States plays down there, through our resources and the presence of our military, is a very strong role in search and rescue activities. And presently, we are sort of dropping the ball from our global Antarctic research community because we are less able to respond to emergencies that come up down there. So, it's really an unfortunate situation.

SIMON: Gretchen Hofmann, who's a professor at the University of California in Santa Barbara and lead researcher on a project at McMurdo Station in Antarctica. Thanks very much for being with us.

HOFMANN: Thank you, Scott. It's been my pleasure.

Copyright © 2013 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. 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.

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Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=232622003&ft=1&f=1007
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Google TV branding to disappear; Android will stay on in your living room says report

A rose by any other name will still prick your fingers

Sources at Gigaom say Google is getting ready to abandon the Google TV branding, but Android will remain embedded in televisions and set-top boxes.  According to "an executive from a consumer electronics manufacturer that has been producing Google TV devices," Google is not yet ready to announce anything, but the "new" product will be called Android TV.

Google has to do something. Google TV, which had a promising start, has languished along, running an old version of Android and seeing very little in the way of support and consumer adoption. We're all about Android here, but even we admit that Google TV only makes sense for those deeply embroiled into the ecosystem, or when one of the units themselves are on a fire sale.

Google has previously announced that they will be updating the platform from Honeycomb (yes, Honeycomb!). Maybe this is part of the plan they have to stay in the living room. Let's hope they can become relevant this time around.

Source: Gigaom

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/akcs7e-sZFA/story01.htm
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