A group of hackers who breached the Senate computer system earlier this week claimed responsibility for problems with the CIA's website Wednesday.
The group, known as Lulz Security, tweeted "Tango down - CIA.gov," and there were difficulties throughout the early evening accessing the agency's website.
The computer mischief appeared to be targeting the CIA's public website, which does not include classified data and has no impact on the CIA's operation. CIA spokeswoman Marie Harf said the agency is looking into the reports.
It is sometimes difficult to tell if a website has been hacked, or if the claim alone drove so many people to the site that it crashed. Efforts to access the website were met with an error message long after the breach began, around 6 p.m. EDT.
Early Thursday the site had returned to normal operation and could be accessed from various parts of the country, according to a review by analysts at Keynote, a mobile and internet cloud monitoring company based in San Mateo, Calif.
Lulz has claimed credit for hacking into the systems of Sony and Nintendo and for defacing the PBS website after the public television broadcaster aired a documentary seen as critical of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
On Monday, the group accessed a Senate server that supports the chamber's public website but did not breach other files, according to a Capitol Hill law enforcement official. The hackers said the release was a "just for kicks" attempt to help the government "fix their issues."
Senate Deputy Sergeant-at-Arms Martina Bradford said in a statement that while the intrusion was inconvenient, it did not compromise the security of the Senate's network, members or staff.
Lulz Security claimed that it had added a Senate file to its list of successful, high-profile intrusions at a time when governments and corporations are on high guard for cyber intrusions.
The group has suggested it is trying to highlight cyber security weaknesses.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Technology Headlines for June 15 2011 ( Wednesday ) !!
1. Pandora, highly praised U.S.-based Internet radio service, has just priced its IPO. It's selling 14.7 million ordinary shares at $16 per share, which values the firm at $235.2 million. The move is important in the digital music world, as it could blaze a trail for other similar services, like Rdio, to follow, just as the industry is facing an onslaught from Google, Amazon, and Apple's own cloud music efforts.
2. Henry Kissinger and the former U.S. Ambassador to China are calling for a detente between the U.S. and China on the subject of cyberattacks--placing the high-level conflict on the same politically charged footing as nuclear proliferation and the militarization of space. Meanwhile the Wall Street Journal has a prominent article by a former White House security official alleging massive infiltration of U.S. digital properties by the Chinese government, and calls for official comment. The Cold Cyber War just got real.
3. Color, the highly lauded then criticized social photo sharing startup has apparently lost its president and founder Peter Pham, less than three months after the company launched with a huge $41 million venture investment. There's no word on why Pham left, and it's unclear what effect it'll have on the company's operations, but it does shine an uncomfortable spotlight on one of this year's hottest tech startups.
4. Rumors are suggesting the next generation Xbox will be unveiled at the huge E3 game show next year, in 2012. This seems far off, given that 2011's E3 just finished, but it's critical given the long development process games consoles seem to need. Plus the rumor's surfaced immediately after excitement about the Wii U (due in early 2012) has begun to swirl. Test hardware may already have gone to games writers, it's claimed.
5. Forget the iPhone "halo effect," and instead feel its devilish horns: The rise of touchscreen smartphones with GPS has slammed the stand-alone GPS market, with intra-industry price wars having a similarly damaging effect, and now once-giant Garmin is buying up popular European GPS maker Navigon. If approved, the move will boost the composite firm's chances of future success in the new order: Both companies have popular, competing iPhone apps.
( Source: Fast Company )
Automakers are gearing up for mass-market production of hydrogen-powered cars starting in 2015, but the fuel cell technology has plenty of skeptics, including President Obama.
After being championed by former President George W. Bush as a pollution-free solution for weaning America off its dependence on foreign oil, the vehicles are in danger of losing research and development funding under the Obama administration, which argues that plug-in electric cars are a more practical bet.
However, major automakers and other proponents of hydrogen-fueled cars managed to thwart similar attempts to cut funding for programs for fuel-cell research in 2009 and hope to do so again.
Nevertheless, they're worried about the signal the Obama administration’s stance is sending to the marketplace and to investors about the vehicles, which create electric power from hydrogen and emit nothing but clean water from their tailpipes.
“We’re prepared to make thousands of these cars,” says Mike O’Brien, vice president of product planning at Hyundai Motor America. “But it really comes down to how many fuel stations there are at that point. It’s a chicken and egg story for us.”
Energy Secretary Steven Chu maintains that hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles need technological miracles too distant to warrant funding when electric cars are a far more promising near-term prospect to give American consumers an alternative to the roughly 230 million gas-guzzlers on the road.
Automakers, who have pumped billions of dollars into hydrogen technology, say Chu’s assessment is out of date and doesn’t reflect breakthroughs and developments that are dramatically bringing down costs.
Several automakers already have hydrogen-powered cars on the road, including the FCX Clarity, a make that Honda leases to roughly 20 customers in Southern California.
Critics say the car, early iterations of which cost more than a million dollars each to build, shows the technology is too expensive.
Stephen Ellis, manager of fuel cell marketing for American Honda Motor Co., says that thinking is flawed.
“If we made the Honda Odyssey in these quantities, they would be $1 million vehicles,” says Ellis. “When we have a dedicated assembly line and we calculate with scale in 2015 to 2020, what the price will be then is what’s relevant.”
When the FCX Clarity initially revs up production for the mass market, it will likely be sold at luxury-car prices, says Ellis. “But we’re not going down a path that has some dead end. Every environmental vehicle we put on the road to date has had an incremental cost reduction.”
With production costs falling, the major remaining roadblock to large-scale production of fuel-cell vehicles is finding a cost-effective way to build a network of hydrogen fueling stations.
Shortly after becoming governor of California in 2003, Arnold Schwarzenegger pledged to build a “hydrogen highway” of as many as 200 fueling stations by 2010. To date, however, only a handful of stations have been built and they are mainly clustered around Los Angeles.
Tom Sullivan, an entrepreneur who hoped to build a similar hydrogen highway on the East Coast from Maine to Miami, put the brakes on his plan in the spring; he now plans a slow. limited roll out of station clusters in Connecticut, Washington, New York and Boston until demand picks up.
The 51-year-old founder of Lumber Liquidators isn’t sure he’ll ever make money on the investment. Even he has doubts that hydrogen-fueled cars will ever make it into mass-market production.
“I’m not counting on this for retirement,” he says. “I’m just as happy if technology comes up with something different to eliminate the country’s dependence on foreign oil. Until that comes along, I think hydrogen makes the most sense. Instead of importing a billion dollars worth of oil a day, the United States could export the equivalent in hydrogen technology.”
Automakers say they're puzzled why the Obama administration is picking winners and losers when they believe all options need to be on the table if the country wants to be a leader in clean technology.
Oliver Hazimeh, head of the global e-mobility practice at consulting firm PRTM, says electric cars will probably cost less than $35,000 by 2015, while hydrogen-powered cars might have a price tag of $50,000 or more.
“Commercialization readiness is not the same as tech readiness,” he says. “For electric cars, the time horizon is much more visible.”
By 2020, he expects electric plug-in cars to account for 10 percent of car sales and 2 percent to 2.5 percent of all cars on the road.
Hydrogen-fueled vehicles, meanwhile, would probably only get to a half-percent of car sales, but demand could get a boost starting in 2020, particularly with significant technological breakthroughs, he says.
Automakers and industry observers say the road has room for both technologies, but that hydrogen-powered cars offer some key advantages, including speedy refueling times, as well as the ability to go longer distances and power SUV-sized vehicles.
John DeCicco, a faculty fellow at the University of Michigan’s Energy Institute, isn’t optimistic that sales for either type of vehicle will take off.
“I don’t think there’s a way to short circuit this other than legislation that sets a legal limit on carbon emissions,” he says. “There has to be a consequence. Then automakers and oil companies will figure it out.”
( Source: CNBC )
1) CPI ( Consumer Inflation ) rose to the fastest pace nearly three years. The Labor Department said Wednesday its Consumer Price Index, excluding food and energy, increased 0.3 percent, the largest gain since July 2008, after rising 0.2 in April.
Overall CPI increased 0.2 percent, slowing from a 0.4 percent advance in April, as gasoline prices fell. That compared to expectations for for a 0.1 percent gain.
But in the 12 months to May, consumer prices rose 3.6 percent, the biggest jump since October 2008, and well above expectations for a 3.4 percent increase.
2) The New York Fed's "Empire State" general business conditions index fell to -7.79 from, contracting for the first since November, from 11.88 in May, surprising economists who had expected a rise to 12.50.
3) Homebuilders sentiment fell to record low. After six months of holding steady the National Association of Home Builder's sentiment survey fell three points in June to 13, as builders face not only competition from distressed properties, but rising costs of materials. Fifty is the line between positive and negative sentiment on the survey.
4) Factory output rose in may after decline in April. The Federal Reserve says factory production increased 0.4 percent last month. The increase follows April's decline of 0.5 percent. A rise in business equipment and construction materials offset the second straight decline in auto production.
Industrial production has risen nearly 11.5 percent since a recession-low in June 2009. Production remains 7 percent below its pre-recession peak in September 2007.
5) Applications for U.S. home mortgages saw their biggest jump in three months last week, fueled by demand for refinancing as interest rates continued to fall, an industry group said on Wednesday.
The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity, which includes both refinancing and home purchase demand, surged 13 percent in the week ended June 10, the biggest percent gain since March.
The MBA's seasonally adjusted index of refinancing applications jumped 16.5 percent, while the gauge of loan requests for home purchases climbed 4.5 percent.
PRNewswire-- NF Energy Saving Corp. (NASDAQ: NFEC) ("NF Energy" or the "Company"), a leading provider of energy management services and producer of energy efficiency products, announced today that the Company will hold its annual general meeting of stockholders ("the meeting") on Monday, June 27, 2011 in Shenyang, China.
The time and venue of NF Energy's annual meeting of shareholders are as follows:
Date:
Monday, June 27, 2011
Time:
09:00 a.m. Local Time
Venue:
Liaoning Hotel
97 Zhongshan Road,
Heping District, Shenyang,
Liaoning Province, PRC, 110001
At the annual meeting of stockholders, the following proposals have been submitted for stockholder approval and are fully described in the Proxy Statement issued on May 25, 2011. The Company's proxy and annual report are also available for download on the Company's corporate website: http://www.nfenergy.com/en/2011.asp
To elect eight directors to serve for the ensuing year and until their successors are elected.
To ratify the selection by the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors of HKCMCPA Company Limited as the Company's independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2011.
To conduct any other business properly brought before the meeting.
If you are interested in attending, please RSVP by contacting CCG Investor Relations via email mark.collinson@ccgir.com or phone 310-954-1343.
About NF Energy Saving Corporation
NF Energy Saving Corporation (NASDAQ: NFEC) is a China-based provider of integrated energy conservation solutions utilizing energy-saving equipment, technical services and energy management re-engineering project operations to provide energy saving services to clients. The Company's customers are mainly concentrated in the electrical generation (large-scale thermal power generation, hydroelectric power, wind power, and nuclear power), water supply, and heat supply industries. The majority of revenues are from energy efficient flow control equipment and energy efficiency projects. For more information, visit http://www.nfenergy.com
Safe Harbor Statement
The statements contained herein that are not historical facts are considered "forward-looking statements." Such forward-looking statements may be identified by, among other things, the use of forward-looking terminology such as "believes," "expects," "may," "will," "should," or "anticipates" or the negative thereof or other variations thereon or comparable terminology, or by discussions of strategy that involve risks and uncertainties. In particular, statements regarding the efficacy of investment in research and development are examples of such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements include risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, the effect of political, economic, and market conditions and geopolitical events; legislative and regulatory changes that affect our business; the availability of funds and working capital; the actions and initiatives of current and potential competitors; investor sentiment; and our reputation. We do not undertake any responsibility to publicly release any revisions to these forward-looking statements to take into account events or circumstances that occur after the date of this report. Additionally, we do not undertake any responsibility to update you on the occurrence of any unanticipated events, which may cause actual results to differ from those expressed or implied by any forward-looking statements. The factors discussed herein are expressed from time to time in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission available at http://www.sec.gov.
Company Contact:
Investor Relations Contact:
Ms. Lihua Wang, Director & CFO
Mr. Mark Collinson, Partner
Tel: +86 24-8563 1159
Tel: +1 310-954-1343
Email: wlh@nfenergy.com
Email: mark.collinson@ccgir.com
NF Energy Saving Corp.
CCG Investor Relations
Website: www.nfenergy.com
Website: www.ccgirasia.com
Today's IPO listing of Pandora Media Inc ( NYSE: P ), an online radio service provider, jumped on debut and up more than 27% with a share volumes of 23 million shares.
The stock kicked off trading Wednesday morning on the New York Stock Exchange, surging to $23.18 in early trades.
The company said in its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it expects to have about 159.7 million shares outstanding following the offering, though that number could rise to 161.9 million if underwriters exercise their over-allotment options.
Pandora sold 14.68 million shares in the offering. About 6 million of those shares came from the company, representing a total value of about $96 million under the offering price. The remaining 8.68 million shares came from selling shareholders.
Lead underwriters of the offering were Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan and Citigroup.
The company provides Internet radio services under both a subscription-based and advertising model. The services make use of both user listening patterns and a technology called the Music Genome Project to match up music for listeners tastes.
Pandora has more than 90 million registered users as of April. Most listeners use the service free-of-charge; about 87% of total revenues for the fiscal year ended Jan. 31 came from the company’s ad-supported services.
Total revenue surged by 150% to $137.8 million in the most recent fiscal year, with a net loss of $1.76 million compared to a loss of $16.75 million in the previous year. The company generated about $3.2 million in cash from operations in the most recent fiscal year, compared to a deficit of $27.5 million in the previous year.
One risk facing Pandora is an increase in the costs of music licensing. Content acquisition charges are the largest expense item on the company’s income statement — comprising about 50% of total revenue in the Jan. 31 fiscal year. Royalty rates for music performance are expected to grow by more than a third by 2015
Are the Linked In/Group on IPOs proof we have a new bubble in Tech? Are US Treasuries a bubble? Commodities?There have been numerous attempts by many Fed economists to argue that bubbles cannot be seen as they happen, and they we can only spot them after the fact.I believe they are incorrect. We can spot bubbles as they happen, so long as we rely on a variety of data points.Consider these 10 elements a checklist to identifying bubbles in real time:1. Standard Deviations of Valuation: Look at traditional metrics –valuations, P/E, price to sales, etc. — to rise two or even three standard deviations away from the historical mean.2. Significantly elevated returns: The S&P500 returns in the 1990s were far beyond what one could reasonably expect on a sustainable basis. The years around Greenspan's "Irrational Exuberance" speech suggest that a bubble was forming:
1995 37.58
1996 22.96
1997 33.36
1998 28.58
1999 21.04
And the Nasdaq numbers were even better.
3. Excess leverage: Every great financial bubble has at its root easy money and rampant speculation. Find the leverage, and speculation won't be too far behind.
4. New financial products: This is not a sufficient condition for bubble, but it does seems that each major bubble has new products somewhere in the mix. It may be Index funds, derivatives, tulips, 2/28 Arms.
5. Expansion of Credit: This is beyond mere speculative leverage.With lots of money floating around, we eventually get around to funding the public to help inflate the bubble. From Credit cards to HELOCs, the 20th century was when the public was invited to leverage up.
6. Trading Volumes Spike: We saw it in equities, we saw it in derivatives, and we've seen it in houses: The transaction volumes in every major boom and bust, almost by definition, rises dramatically.
7. Perverse Incentives: Where you have unaligned incentives between corporate employees and shareholders, you get perverse results — like 300 mortgage companies blowing themselves up.
8. Tortured rationalizations: Look for absurd explanations for the new paradigm: Price to Clicks ratio, aggregating eyeballs, Dow 36,000.
9. Unintended Consequences: All legislation has unexpected and unwanted side effects. What recent (or not so recent) laws may have created an unexpected and bizarre result?
10. Employment trends: A big increase in a given field — real estate brokers, day traders, etc. — may be a clue as to a developing bubble.
11. Credit Spreads: Look for a very low spread between legitimately AAA bonds and higher yielding junk can be indicative of fixed income risk appetites running too hot.
12. Credit Standards: Low and falling lending standards are always a forward indicator of credit trouble ahead. This can be part of a bubble psychology.
13. Default Rates: Very low default rates on corporate and high yield bonds can indicates the ease with which even poorly run companies can refinance. This suggests excess liquidity, and creates false sense of security.
14. Unusually Low Volatility: Low equity volatility readings over an extended period indicates equity investor complacency.
The Fed has previously suggested that spotting bubbles in real time a black art; I believe that it can be more science than art, so long as we quantify the various data points and consider them objectively.
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( Source: Biospace )
The Dallas Mavericks' win over the Heat is a huge upset for fans in Miami. Making matters worse, an ad in the local paper has mistakenly congratulated the Heat on winning.
A full-page ad that ran in Monday's Miami Herald reads "Congratulations Miami" next to photos of Heat championship T-shirts and hats from Macy's. One T-shirt reads "Heat 2011 NBA Finals Champions" and the ad shows the Heat's logo on a hat with the words "NBA Champions."
The ad ran under a story about the Heat's loss.
The newspaper has issued a correction and apologized for any inconvenience. A Macy's Inc. spokeswoman called it an unfortunate error and apologized to Heat fans.
The Mavericks beat the Heat 105-95 in game six of the NBA finals on Sunday in Miami.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Imagine you are 22 years old, getting married, and struggling to find a new home.
It helps when Daddy steps in.
Just ask Petra Ecclestone.
Priced at $150 million, Candy Spelling's Holmby Hills mansion is reportedly now off the market.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Ecclestone's father, Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone, has bought his daughter a 56,500-square-foot mansion (plus the 17,000-square-foot attic) that Candy Spelling has had on the market for $150 million, the highest U.S. home price ever.
No word on what it actually sold for, and Spelling isn't talking.
CNBC's Real Estate Correspondent Diana Olick has a poll on that subject on her Twitter feed and you can vote on it here in this post.
But I got a hint a year ago.
I was lucky enough to get a tour of Spelling's sprawling estate on five acres in Holmby Hills. Check it out.
At the end of our interview, I make a (relatively) low-ball offer, and Candy Spelling suggests there's room for negotiation.
