Jimmy Dushku: The 25-year-old who is North Korea's one true Twitter friend

Mother Jones takes a look at a globetrotting young investor who's the only American — and the only human being — Pyongyang follows
Google Chairman Eric Schmidt capped a controversial four-day visit to North Korea on Thursday with a call for the country's censorship-happy communist government to give its people access to the internet, or face further economic decline due to the country's global isolation. It was a strong message from one of the web's most powerful figures, although North Korea watchers seem pretty confident the country's young leader, Kim Jong Un, will ignore it. There's one American, however, Pyongyang does appear to listen to. That would be Jimmy Dushku, a young investor who is one of exactly three Twitter users Kim's government follows on Twitter. What's the story behind this unlikely online bromance? Here, a guide:
Who is Jimmy Dushku?
He's a 25-year-old financial whiz kid from Austin, Texas. Dushku, who also goes by the nicknames "Jimmer" and "Jammy," started a website development business when he was 14, according to Mother Jones, and he parlayed his early earnings into investments that now include everything from construction projects in Europe to real estate in Texas to mines in South America. He's also a rabid Coldplay fan, and when he isn't jetting around the world, he says he likes to play Rachmaninoff on his piano and zoom around on his Ducati Monster motorcycle.
SEE MORE: North Korea's rocket launch: 3 consequences
So how did he become buddies with North Korea?
Dushku tells Asawin Suebsaeng at Mother Jones he's not really sure. "People always ask me how it happened, and I honestly can't remember," he says. "It started sometime back in 2010. I was initially surprised." North Korea followed him, he followed North Korea "out of courtesy." He tweeted back, "Hello my friend," and a relationship was born. Then, the North Korean government, which has piled up some 11,000 followers in two-and-a-half years on Twitter, abruptly whittled down the number of accounts it follows, leaving just three. Dushku made the cut (along with a Vietnam account and another official North Korean handle).
What has Dushku gotten from the relationship?
Death threats, for one thing. Not long after he linked up with North Korea's account, which goes by @uriminzok (or "our nation"), Dushku says he started getting angry messages from exiles and South Koreans. Since then, he has mostly kept a low profile, just to be safe, although he does occasionally grant interviews to foreign publications. For its part, North Korea gets a rare glimpse at the outside world through Dushku, as his is the only account North Korea follows that is regularly updated — the other two haven't tweeted in months. He's also the only human being in the bunch.
Will @JimmyDushku and @uriminzok ever meet in real life?
That's always the question for acquaintances who meet online, isn't it? Dushku says his friendly relationship has won him a standing offer to visit North Korea. Casual observers, however, advise him to proceed with caution. "Am I the only one thinking they picked some random guy so they can lure him into North Korea and use him as a political prisoner/bargaining chip?" one commenter at Gizmodo said. Another suggests that Dushku play it cool, without making Pyongyang angry, saying, "Never unfollow anybody with nuclear weapons."

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What would your signature look like if Jack Lew wrote it? (Interactive)

White House chief of staff Jack Lew's signature has been ridiculed as nothing more than a series of childish loops—a nontrivial point, given that President Barack Obama is expected to nominate Lew as the new Treasury secretary, meaning his signature will adorn new U.S. currency.
Now, Yahoo News exclusively brings you the Jack Lew Signature Generator. Just type in your name, hit the button, and see what your name would look like in his, er, signature style.

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Gasoline prices predicted to fall in 2013

NEW YORK (AP) — At least gasoline should cost you less in 2013.
Hamburger, health care and taxes are all set to take a bigger bite out of the family budget this year. But drivers' annual gas bills are expected to drop for the first time in four years.
Forecasters say ample oil supplies and weak U.S. demand will keep a lid on prices. The lows will be lower and the highs won't be so high compared with a year ago. The average price of a gallon of gasoline will fall 5 percent to $3.44, according to the Energy Department.
"Everything is lining up to lead to softer prices this year," said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service.
That would still be the third-highest average price ever. But a discount of 19 cents per gallon from 2012 would save the typical household $205 this year and free up $25 billion that could go instead to restaurants, malls or movie theaters — the kind of consumer spending that accounts for 70 percent of American economic activity.
"It's a little benefit to the economy, and it's a little more reason the Fed doesn't have to worry about inflation," said James Hamilton, an economist at the University of California at San Diego who studies energy prices.
Forecasters caution that they can't predict other factors like Middle East tensions, refinery problems or hurricanes along the U.S. Gulf Coast — in other words, the same events that caused gasoline prices to spike in 2011 and 2012. Any or all of those troubles could crop up again in 2013 and push pump prices above last year's record average of $3.63 a gallon.
The government expected gas to average about $3 during 2011. Then came the Arab Spring, which included the shutdown of Libya's oil production. Oil prices shot up, and gasoline averaged $3.53 for the year. The government's forecast for last year also turned out to be too low, by 18 cents per gallon.
And, Hamilton said, consumer spending might not see a boost from lower gasoline prices because most Americans will be paying higher taxes. The expiration of last year's payroll tax reduction will cost an extra $579 for households making $40,000 to $50,000 in 2013, according to the Tax Policy Center, a non-partisan Washington research group.
But after average gas prices rose in 2010, 2011, and 2012, a little relief will be welcome in 2013.
Gas prices set records each of the past two years for a few reasons. Global demand has risen as the developing economies of Asia, Latin America and the Middle East burn more gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. At the same time, unrest in the Middle East has sparked fears of widespread supply disruptions in a region that produces a quarter of the world's oil. That makes traders willing to pay higher prices up front for oil as a way to protect against possible dramatic price spikes in the future.
In the U.S. last year, several refineries and pipelines had problems that reduced gasoline supplies, especially on the West Coast and in the Midwest, helping to push pump prices even higher.
This year, global oil demand is expected to rise slightly again, but increased production, especially in the U.S., should keep supplies ample. The U.S. Energy Information Administration said this week that American production will grow next year by 900,000 barrels per day, the nation's biggest single-year increase ever. By 2014, U.S. production will reach its highest level since 1988.
At the same time, U.S. gasoline consumption is back down to 2002 levels because of more fuel-efficient cars and the tepid economy. It isn't expected to rise this year or next, according to the Energy Department.
That means the U.S. will need to import less oil, which will increase global supplies and help tamp down prices somewhat.
The current average retail price of gasoline is $3.31 per gallon, 6 cents lower than last year, according to AAA, OPIS and Wright Express. AAA predicts gas won't surpass $3.80 a gallon this year.
The peak last year was $3.94, reached in April. The auto club also says average pump prices could drop as low as $3.20, a level that the country hasn't seen since February 2011.
Tom Kloza of OPIS expects price differences between regions of the country will remain large, and local prices could be volatile as supplies build and dwindle. In Utah, drivers are paying $2.88 per gallon on average, while in New York drivers are paying $3.75. Just in the last four months, gasoline supplies on the West Coast fell to their lowest level in a generation, then rose to where they are now, their highest level in a generation.
AAA forecasts the national average will peak between $3.60 and $3.80 in the spring, then drop to between $3.20 and $3.40 by mid-summer. It will rise again during the hurricane season along the Gulf Coast, the nation's oil-refining hub, before moving lower toward the end of the year.
It's that up-and-down movement that will dictate drivers' moods. Drivers tend to remember what they paid for their last fill-up — not that they may have paid a little less a year ago, Hamilton said.
"People have a short reference point," he said.

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Everything You Need to Know About Steubenville High's Football 'Rape Crew'

In the past 24 hours, the story of an alleged rape in the small, football-driven Ohio town of Steubenville has transformed from a local controversy with a curious social-media angle to an all-out Internet crusade, with potential cover-ups, allegations of prosecutors colluding with coaches, disgusting new video, and hackers to the rescue. Here's a primer on what looks like it may become one of the most emotional and controversial news narratives of the new year:
RELATED: Inside the Anonymous Hacking File on the Steubenville 'Rape Crew'
So there was a rape in this small town?
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Well, it's not that simple, but allegedly yes: Two 16-year-old boys from Steubenville High are each facing a rape charge for the assault in August of a 16-year-old girl apparently from across the Ohio River in Weirton, West Virginia.
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How come we're only hearing about this now?
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Because a lengthy New York Times story on the case last month got lost in the spotlight on the Newtown school shootings, maybe, or because the Anonymous hacking collective started calling major attention to it this week.
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But what makes this rape case different?
You see, Steubenville is the stuff of Friday Night Lights. The 19,000-person eastern Ohio town is a giant football community, and this alleged rape involves member of their storied Big Red team. "Everybody around here goes to games on Friday nights, and I mean everybody — people come for miles," a local told the Times's Juliet Macur and Nate Schweber. "It's basically the small-town effect. People live and die based on Big Red because they usually win and it makes everybody feel good about themselves when times are tough."
So how did this assault take place?
Well, back on the night of August 11, the alleged victim was at an end-of-summer party and had a lot to drink, police said, when Trent Mays and Malik Richmond allegedly approached her: "Richmond was behind her, with his hands between her legs, penetrating her with his fingers, a witness said," reported the The Times.
And how is that different from all the other assaults against young women in this country?
Here's the chilling part: the alleged victim didn't know she was assaulted until she started to find out about it on social media the next day.
Really? That's pretty gross. How did she find out?
Instagram, YouTube, and some pretty disgusting tweets. And the girl's mother told The Times that her daughter didn't even know the full extent of the attack until a local paper wrote about it the next day. On August 22, Mays and Richmond (right) were arrested on charges of rape and kidnapping. (Defense attorneys did not respond to requests for comment from The Atlantic Wire.)
Why only those two? They were at a party, right? And there were all those tweets?
Well, word spread among the students at or around the party quickly, and as the Cleveland Plain-Dealer reported, "Before the 16-year-old girl’s parents reported the crime to Steubenville police, many of the online posts had been deleted — or so students thought."
We live in an age when social media exists as evidence that can't just disappear, and Alexandria Goddard, who runs a crime blog called Prinniefied.com, turned up those deleted pictures from the night in question. Like this one:

What happened when that got out?
Goddard started posting on August 26, and attorneys for Mays and Richmond filed a defamation lawsuit October 25 — it was dismissed on December 27. But the local press had already picked up the story, and Goddard's site now carries the student Instagram photographer's apology:
“I deeply regret my actions on the night of August 11, 2012. While I wasn’t at the home where the alleged assault took place, there is no doubt that I was wrong to post that picture from an earlier party and tweet those awful comments. Not a moment goes by that I don’t wish I would have never posted that picture or tweeted those comments. I want to sincerely apologize to the victim and her family for these actions. I also want to acknowledge the work of several bloggers, especially Ms. Goddard at Prinniefied.com, in their efforts to make sure the full truth about that terrible night eventually comes out. At no time did my family mean to stop anyone from expressing themselves online – we only wanted to correct what we believed were misstatements that appeared on Ms. Goddard’s blog. I am glad that we have resolved our differences with Ms. Goddard and that she and her contributors can continue their work.” – Cody Saltsman
How come the other kids at the party didn't get in trouble? Isn't that aiding and abetting?
It's not like the cops didn't try: "The thing I found most disturbing about this is that there were other people around when this was going on," Steubenville Police Chief William McCafferty told the Times. "Nobody had the morals to say, 'Hey, stop it, that isn’t right.' ... If you could charge people for not being decent human beings, a lot of people could have been charged that night."
So what happened to the social media evidence? Isn't this supposed to be a case of our times?
That's where the investigation — a preliminary trial is scheduled for February 13 — runs into problems. Despite all the Instagramming and social media sharing, Chief McCafferty told the Times that witnesses failed to come forward:
The city’s police chief begged for witnesses to come forward, but received little response. In time, the county prosecutor and the judge in charge of handling crimes by juveniles recused themselves from the case because they had ties to the football team.
And, well, some of the evidence went "missing":
That player told the police that he was in the back seat of his Volkswagen Jetta with Mays and the girl when Mays proceeded to flash the girl’s breasts and penetrate her with his fingers, while the player videotaped it on his phone. The player, who shared the video with at least one person, testified that he videotaped Mays and the girl “because he was being stupid, not making the right choices.” He said he later deleted the recording.
Is anyone questioning the two boys' guilt?
Yes. About half the town of Steubenville, actually. Five months later, local students are still blaming the alleged victim for bringing the attack upon herself — she has been referred to on Facebook as "train whore":

And some, like one of Steubenville High's 19 football coaches, are blaming her for shaming the storied program:
"The rape was just an excuse, I think," said the 27-year-old Hubbard, who is No. 2 on the Big Red’s career rushing list.
"What else are you going to tell your parents when you come home drunk like that and after a night like that?” said Hubbard, who is one of the team’s 19 coaches. "She had to make up something. Now people are trying to blow up our football program because of it."
If not everyone believes the rape happened, aren't the town's football allegiances going to get in the way of a fair trial?
Well, yes, there's this from the Times report: "the county prosecutor and the judge in charge of handling crimes by juveniles recused themselves from the case because they had ties to the football team."
Wait, is this some sort of cover-up?
Well, that's why the hacktivist collective known as Anonymous — and, more specifically, one of its  cells known as Knightsec — got involved. The hackers, and their partners at the site LocalLeaks, are "giving a voice to the victim of this horrible crime" by rounding up new information that the police haven't been able to — or at least that hasn't been made publicly available in advance of next month's trial. They seem to believe that there are more people involved, that there are more victims, that the accused are getting special treatment because they are football players, and that there's a bigger group of boys involved, which Anonymous has dubbed the "Rape Crew." Oh, and they've set up Occupy Steubenville protests too.
Why do they think there's a cover-up, exactly?
For starters, Steubenville High head coach Reno Saccoccia didn't even bench the players involved. The Times wrote:
Saccoccia, pronounced SOCK-otch, told the principal and school superintendent that the players who posted online photographs and comments about the girl the night of the parties said they did not think they had done anything wrong. Because of that, he said, he had no basis for benching those players.
....
Approached in November to be interviewed about the case, Saccoccia said he did not "do the Internet," so he had not seen the comments and photographs posted online from that night. When asked again about the players involved and why he chose not to discipline them, he became agitated.
"You made me mad now," he said, throwing in several expletives as he walked from the high school to his car.
Nearly nose to nose with a reporter, he growled: "You're going to get yours. And if you don't get yours, somebody close to you will."
So is the country prosecutor trying to get her son and his teammates off the hook?
That's one of many new alleged details Anonymous and Local Leaks claim they have evidence of, in a document dump that started Wednesday, which they're calling The Steubenville Files. We detailed the findings already, and we're not sure of their sourcing, but their leaks suggest that the football coach and the country Sheriff are friends. And even though the boys will now be tried as juveniles, they allege that Saccoccia has ties in the juvenile court system.
Wait, how many moer people are involved in the assault?
The hackers allege that there are more than two boys who perpetrated the alleged crime. They also suggest that one of the parties that the unconscious girl was dragged to actually took place at the county prosecutor's house. The leaks read:
When the family of the victim went to file the charges, Jane Hanlin [the prosecutor] was present. She strongly discouraged them from filing. Hanlin frightened not only the victim, but the parents as well. Telling them that her name was going to be dragged through the mud, she will be in and out of court for well over two years, the press wouldn’t leave any of the family alone once the crime was made public. Scared out of their wits, the parents said they didn’t want that and Hanlin then said not to worry just leave it up to her and the detectives on the case.
And the hackers even dug up this video that had been deleted, which we showed and warned you about yesterday, of a former Steubenville student laughing about the attack:
Should we trust this new info?
Anonymous is notorious for doing borderline criminal fact-finding with good intentions. Just by bringing more Internet attention to the case, they've already pushed it forward. They continue to ask for the witness accounts that the town police chief has been asking for.
But the kid in that video up there will have his name attached to this case for years to come. And while he might deserve it, there's also a question of vigilanteism, since Anonymous has already published the personal information of certain other students it's convinced belong to this "Rape Crew":

How emotional should everyone get about all this before the trial?
Well, just this week Congress failed to pass the Violence Against Women Act, which is supposed to help protect women against assault and encourage them to come out in public when assaults do happen. The bill's failure, for the first time since 1994, is sort of poetic.

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Turkish agency blamed by U.S. companies for intercepted Web pages

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - An agency of the Turkish government deployed a deceptive version of some Google Inc web pages, possibly to monitor activity by its employees, major Internet companies said on Thursday.
The reports are the latest in a series of incidents in which hackers or governments have taken advantage of the loose rules surrounding the standard security for financial and other sensitive sites, those with Web addresses starting with Https.
In the most recent case, an Ankara public transit agency known as EGO, obtained the capacity to validate such Web pages from a Turkish Internet authority called TurkTrust, which is among the hundreds of entities treated as reliable by all major Internet browsers, Microsoft Corp said in a blog post.
Last month, EGO issued an improper certificate that told some visitors to Google they had reached it securely when they had not, Google said. The ruse was detected because unlike other browsers, Google's Chrome warns users and the company if an unexpected certificate is authenticating a Google site.
Google asked TurkTrust, which said it had "mistakenly" granted the right to authenticate any site to two organizations in August 2011. Google also warned browser makers including Microsoft and Mozilla, makers of Internet Explorer and Firefox, and all three will now block sites that were authenticated by EGO and another TurkTrust customer.
Though only Google was demonstrably faked, giving EGO access to Gmail and search activity, many other pages could have been faked without any of the real companies knowing about it. Spokesmen for the Turkish Embassy in Washington and the consulates in New York and Los Angeles could not be reached for comment.
Few details were provided by the technology companies, but one person involved with the issue said that it appeared that the fake Google.com had been displayed on one internal network.
"The logical theory is that the transportation agency was using it to spy on its own employees," said Chris Soghoian, a former Federal Trade Commission technology expert now working for the American Civil Liberties Union.
Validation authority alone isn't enough to intercept traffic, the most likely goal of the project. The authenticator would also have to come in contact with the Web user.
A similar situation developed in 2011, when Dutch certificate authority DigiNotar said it had been hacked and that certificates had been stolen. Google later warned that a fake certificate for its site was showing up in Iran, and it warned Gmail users in that country to change their passwords.
Soghoian and other technologists have complained for years that the system behind Https sites is broken, but the industry has been slow to change.
Among other issues, the certificate authorities can resell the right to authenticate and don't have to disclose who their customers are.
"The entire Web relies on every single certificate authority being honest and secure," Soghoian said. "It's a ticking time bomb.

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Huawei launches the Ascend P1 in the U.S. for $450 through Amazon

Despite its attempts to attract new customers with high-end phones, Huawei (002502) remains relatively unknown to U.S. consumers. The company is looking to change that and on Thursday announced the availability of the Ascend P1 smartphone. The Android-powered device is equipped with a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED display, a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM and an 8-megapixel rear camera. The handset is also one of the thinnest smartphones on the market, measuring in at 7.6 millimeters. BGR reviewed the Ascend P1 earlier this year and found it to be a decent smartphone. Huawei is offering the device carrier-unlocked through Amazon (AMZN) for $449.99. Read more for Huawei’s press release.
[More from BGR: Samsung confirms plan to begin inching away from Android]
Huawei’s Ascend P1 Launches in U.S.
[More from BGR: ‘iPhone 5S’ to reportedly launch by June with multiple color options and two different display sizes]
Super thin Huawei Ascend P1 comes with 1.5 GHz dual-core processor and Android 4.0 ICS OS
PLANO, Texas, Jan. 3, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, today announced an unlocked version of the Huawei Ascend P1 is available to U.S. consumers through Amazon.com. The Huawei Ascend P1 comes equipped with 1.5 GHz dual-core processor and is one of the fastest models in class, capable of handling 3D games effectively.
“The Ascend P1 is perfect for consumers looking to get the most out of their device,” said Michael Chuang, Executive Vice President of Huawei Device USA. “Whether it’s for playing games, streaming music and videos, or sharing multimedia in the home or workplace, the Ascend P1 offers unparalleled performance and a truly unique mobile experience.”
The Ascend P1 offers users a movie theatre-quality cinematic experience with its super AMOLED, 4.3 inch screen and 5.1 Dolby Surround Sound System. In addition, at only 7.69 mm thick, the Huawei Ascend P1 is one of the thinnest smartphones on the market. The 64.8 mm frame allows the Ascend P1 to sit comfortably in the user’s palm, giving them the ability to navigate all the phone’s features with a single hand.
The Huawei Ascend P1 is available online at Amazon.com for $449.99.

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China's Huawei expects profit jump after reporting drop in 2011

HONG KONG (Reuters) - China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, the world's No.2 telecom equipment maker, expects a 2012 profit gain after reporting a sharp drop a year ago, thanks to new projects and increased sales in high-end mobile phone markets such as Japan.
Net profit is expected to be around $2.4 billion, rotating and acting Chief Executive Officer Guo Ping said in a New Year message to employees on Friday. That would be a rise of 29 percent from 11.6 billion yuan ($1.86 billion) in 2011, based on his forecast.
Revenue is expected to exceed $35 billion, Guo said. In 2011, sales rose 11.7 percent to 203.9 billion yuan, or about $32 billion.
Privately held Huawei and its crosstown rival ZTE Corp have been expanding their footprint in the global telecom equipment and mobile phone sectors over the past few years.
While Huawei has boosted sales and gained market share in Europe, Africa and Asia, it ran into a few obstacles last year in other markets such as the United States and Australia due to national security and cyber espionage concerns.
Slower telecom spending stemming from a weak global economy and stiff competition in the increasingly crowded mobile phone sector have also weighed on the outlook of equipment providers and handset manufacturers.
"We should devote our limited energy to specific business objectives, and avoid the impulse to expand business blindly," Guo said. "Managers who expand business blindly must be held accountable."
Last October, ZTE, the world's fourth-biggest maker of mobile phones and No.5 telecom equipment maker, reported its biggest quarterly loss since it was listed due to narrowing margins, project delays and accounting changes in China.
Guo did not provide a breakdown of the revenue figures by business segment. Huawei is expected to announce audited figures in the next few months, although no date has been set yet.
Rival Ericsson has yet to report its full-year figures, so it is unclear whether the Chinese company had surpassed the Swedish giant as the top telecom equipment maker in the world.
Huawei was founded in 1987 by Ren Zhengfei, a former People's Liberation Army officer. Huawei has denied repeatedly any links with the Chinese military and says it is a purely commercial enterprise.

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Samsung, Nokia and others hit with fresh patent infringement lawsuit

InterDigital (IDCC) on Thursday filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission against Samsung (005930), Nokia (NOK), Huawei (002502), and ZTE (000063) for selling devices that allegedly infringe upon seven of its 3G and 4G wireless patents. The company has asked the ITC to block sales of the infringing products, which incorporate WCDMA, CDMA2000, LTE and Wi-Fi technologies. The ITC has 30 days to decide whether it will launch an investigation into the claims. InterDigital also filed a similar lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware, seeking a permanent injunction and damages based on willful infringement.
[More from BGR: Samsung confirms plan to begin inching away from Android]
“Wireless technology continues to advance at tremendous speed based on the contributions that InterDigital and others have made to core connectivity technology,” said Lawrence F. Shay, President of InterDigital’s patent holding subsidiaries. “For InterDigital, that effort represents roughly one billion dollars of research and development involving hundreds of wireless engineers over decades. While the vast majority of our dozens of licensees recognize our contributions and choose to license our portfolio based on discussions alone, in some cases we’re forced to resort to legal action.

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James Cameron Relives Voyage to Ocean's Deepest Spot

SAN FRANCISCO — The first thing James Cameron saw 7 miles below the sea was man-made: tracks from a remotely operated vehicle.
"When I got to the bottom, I saw skid marks from the ROV," Cameron said yesterday (Dec. 4) here at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, referring to a 2009 survey by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. Scientific results of the film director's expedition to the Mariana Trench were presented at the meeting this week, and Cameron and the researchers described the highlights to a packed crowd.
Cameron reported a new, corrected depth for his landing — 35,803 feet (10,912 meters) — which beats by five feet (1.5 m) the record set by U.S. Navy Lt. Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard in 1960 at the same spot. However, "because the error [calculating the depth] on Don's dive is much greater, we're just going to have to call it a tie," Cameron said.
Deepsea Challenger
Cameron's Deepsea Challenger expedition made dives to the New Britain Trench and the Mariana Trench in the southwestern Pacific Ocean between Jan. 31 and April 3, with one manned dive by Cameron to the Mariana's Challenger Deep, the deepest spot in any ocean.
Unusual, never-before-seen species were snared and brought back to the surface. A bizarre microbial mat community was discovered living on altered rocks in the Sirena Deep, another deep pool 6.77 miles (10.9 kilometers) below the surface.
Changes in temperature and salinity starting at 26,200 feet (8 km) deep hint at an unknown current coming into the Challenger Deep, said Doug Bartlett, a microbiology professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.
The filmmaker journeyed inside a high-tech lime-green machine — a steel sphere encased in foam — dubbed the Deepsea Challenger. The expedition traveled with two unmanned seafloor "landers" — large contraptions hoisted over the side of a ship and dropped to the seafloor. Once on the bottom, bait attached to the lander lured seafloor creatures to the craft, and a suite of instruments took samples, photographs and data. [Images: James Cameron's Historic Deep-Sea Dive]
The two contraptions working together proved to be a very good system, Cameron said. "We could rendezvous on the bottom and see the results of that bait running for six to eight hours, and that's how Doug could find a new species of giant arthropod," Cameron said.
Challenging journey
The March 26 dive proved to be a physical and mental challenge for Cameron. "I did yoga for six months so I could contort myself into the sphere," he said.
As he sank through the water, Cameron said he "burned though my whole checklist," designed to distract him during the long hours of the dive. "I still had 3,000 meters left to go with pretty much nothing left to do but sit quietly and think about the pressure building up around the hull," he said.
The sub touched down gently, and Cameron immediately took a sample of the seafloor, as planned. This was a good contingency, because the sub's hydraulic fluid line then burst, leaving him unable to collect more samples.
To his surprise, the sub's voice communications worked perfectly. "We actually expected they wouldn't, and I would have to default to texting," he said. "Texting while driving is not a good thing, especially if you're using two hands to operate seven joysticks and you're 7 miles down."
Cameron first drove the sub about 200 meters, finding the seafloor elevation stayed the same. In fact, Challenger Deep turned out to be remarkably flat, and the sub was easy to drive. "The vehicle was quite nimble, the sub's yaw rate was very good," he said. (Yaw describes the left-to-right rotation of a craft.)
A quick return
After about three hours, some of the submersible's batteries had low charge readings, the steering was problematic, and it was time to return to the surface. The mission should have lasted five to six hours. "I hate this. I hated having to go back," Cameron recalled thinking.
The trip to the top was mercifully short at 73 minutes. The submersible covered nearly 7 miles in a little over an hour — slow in a car, but like riding a missile for a human in a metal ball. Cameron said the surface trip is when he noticed the aches and pains from the cramped sub. "That's when your butt is really sore, and when you notice how much it hurts." [Infographic: James Cameron's Mariana Trench Dive]
The sub now sits in a barn in Santa Barbara, waiting for Cameron or another group with enough money to send it back to the deep ocean. He declined to say how much it cost to build and mount the expedition.
"I would love for the sub to dive again," he said. "I personally feel that we just barely got started before we had to turn back and there's just so much out there."
"And if not, at the very least, the technical innovations can be incorporated into other vehicle platforms," Cameron added. "As far as I'm concerned, it's an open source situation.

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Are Online Degrees as Valuable as Traditional College Diplomas?

Millennials are the first generation to grow up with constant technology and personal computers. That might explain why they see such a value in online education.
A recent poll by Northeastern University showed that 18 to 29 year olds had a more negative view about attending college because of the high cost, and a more positive opinion about online classes than their older counterparts. The survey also showed more than half of the millennials had taken an online course.
Online education is attracting hundreds of thousands of students a year. Perhaps this is why more brick-and-mortar universities are searching for an online identity.
This week Wellesley College announced that it will offer free online classes to anyone with an Internet connection as part of the nonprofit project edX. Earlier this year, Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology teamed up to fund and launch the online platform.
More: Harvard and MIT Want to Educate You for Free
Online education was even the talk in Washington this week when a group of panelists convened to discuss Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC), which is an open source network like edX. These courses are very much like correspondence classes in the early 20th century.
But there are still those universities that only exist in a virtual world and students pay to attend. Are they as beneficial to students as attending a two- or four-year college?
“It depends at what level and what subject,” says Isabelle Frank, dean of Fordham College of Liberal Studies. “In general, fully online degrees are not valued as highly as degrees from brick-and-mortar institutions. This is because online-only universities do not have the faculty quality and interaction that occurs with full-time faculty and secure positions.”
She says that Fordham has online master programs and some online courses, but the model is “that of a small seminar style class with a lot of faculty feedback and involvement.”
Just like a physical college, a quality online education depends on the institution.
For example, students at Arizona State University’s W. P. Carey School of Business take online classes and communicate with other students around the world—something students 25 years ago couldn’t have dreamed of doing.
“This affords the opportunity to learn leadership, team-building and managerial skills by solving problems and coordinating efforts for projects through the process of establishing real-time meetings, coordinating time zones and dealing with potential language issues,” Sher Downing, executive director of online academic services at the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, said. “This value cannot be mirrored as easily in a traditional classroom, and for many companies with offices located around the world, this is a valuable skill, when the workforce is required to handle these types of situations.”
Downing said that students can save money by taking online classes because they no longer have to commute, live on or near a campus or relocate.
The millennials surveyed by Northeastern University are keen to take online courses. In fact, nine in 10 said online classes should be used as a tool and mixed with other teaching methods. The poll also found that students want flex i bility, which is exactly what online colleges offer.
Employers may not yet see an online degree in the same light as a traditional university but that is likely to change in the near future. It may just be that millennials, who don’t want to go in debt for an education like some of their parents did, are just a bit ahead of educators and employers.

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Red Hat divulgará los resultados del tercer trimestre del año fiscal 2013 a través de un webcast

Red Hat Inc. (NYSE: RHT), proveedor líder mundial de soluciones de código abierto, analizará los resultados del tercer trimestre del año fiscal 2013 el jueves, 20 de diciembre de 2012, a partir de las 5:00 p. m., hora del Este.
Se puede acceder a un webcast en vivo en la página de Relaciones con los Inversores de Red Hat en http://investors.redhat.com y la reproducción se encontrará disponible a partir de aproximadamente dos horas luego de finalizados los eventos en vivo.
Acerca de Red Hat, Inc.
Red Hat es el proveedor líder mundial de soluciones de software de código abierto; utiliza un enfoque basado en la comunidad para tecnologías confiables y de alto rendimiento en la nube, Linux, middleware, almacenamiento y virtualización. Red Hat también ofrece servicios galardonados de consultoría asistencia y capacitación. Como centro de conectividad de una red global de empresas, socios y comunidades de código abierto, Red Hat ayuda a crear tecnologías relevantes e innovadoras que liberan recursos para el crecimiento y preparan a los clientes para el futuro de la tecnología de la información. Obtenga más información en: http://www.redhat.com.
Declaraciones a futuro
Ciertas declaraciones del presente comunicado de prensa pueden constituir “declaraciones a futuro” dentro del significado de la Ley de Reforma de Litigios Sobre Valores Privados (Private Securities Litigation Reform Act) de los EE. UU. de 1995. Las declaraciones a futuro ofrecen expectativas actuales de eventos futuros en base a determinados supuestos e incluyen cualquier declaración que no se relaciona directamente con cualquier hecho actual o histórico. Los resultados reales pueden diferir sustancialmente de los indicados por dichas declaraciones a futuro, como resultado de varios factores importantes, incluso: riesgos relacionados con retrasos o reducciones en el gasto en tecnología de la información; los efectos de la consolidación del sector; la capacidad de la Compañía de competir en forma eficaz; la incertidumbre y los resultados adversos en litigios y acuerdos relacionados; la integración de adquisiciones y la capacidad de comercializar en forma exitosa las tecnologías y productos adquiridos; la incapacidad de proteger adecuadamente la propiedad intelectual de la Compañía y el posible incumplimiento o violación de reclamaciones de licencia o relacionadas con la propiedad intelectual de terceros; la capacidad de entregar y estimular la demanda de nuevos productos e innovaciones tecnológicas en forma oportuna; los riesgos relacionados con la vulnerabilidad de la seguridad de datos y de información; la gestión ineficaz de, y control sobre las operaciones internacionales y el crecimiento de la Compañía; las fluctuaciones en las tasas de cambio; y cambios en el personal clave y una dependencia del mismo, así como otros factores presentes en nuestro más reciente Informe Trimestral en el formulario 10-Q (copias del cual se encuentran disponibles en el sitio Web de la Comisión de Bolsa y Valores en http://www.sec.gov), incluidos los que se encuentran en el título "Factores de riesgo" y "Análisis y Discusiones de la Gerencia sobre Condiciones Financieras y Resultados de Operaciones". Además de estos factores, el desempeño futuro real, y los resultados pueden diferir sustancialmente debido a más factores generales que incluyen (entre otros) las condiciones generales del mercado y de la industria y las tasas de crecimiento, las condiciones económicas y políticas, los cambios en las políticas públicas y gubernamentales y el impacto de los desastres naturales como terremotos e inundaciones. Las declaraciones a futuro incluidas en este comunicado de prensa representan las opiniones de la Compañía a la fecha de este comunicado de prensa y estas ideas podrían cambiar. Sin embargo, si bien la Compañía puede elegir actualizar estas declaraciones a futuro en algún momento, la Compañía en forma específica renuncia a cualquier obligación de hacerlo. No debe confiar en estas declaraciones a futuro como si representaran las opiniones de la empresa a partir de cualquier fecha posterior de la fecha de este comunicado de prensa.
Red Hat y JBoss son marcas comerciales de Red Hat, Inc. registradas en los EE. UU. y en otros países. Linux® es la marca comercial registrada de Linus Torvalds en los EE. UU. y en otros países.
El texto original en el idioma fuente de este comunicado es la versión oficial autorizada. Las traducciones solo se suministran como adaptación y deben cotejarse con el texto en el idioma fuente, que es la única versión del texto que tendrá un efecto legal.

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Big-data analytics company Cloudera raises $65 million

It's a point-and-shoot digital camera, with the back side replaced by a smartphone-sized tablet. It's a smartphone that can't make voice calls, and has a big camera lens sticking out of the back. It's the Samsung Galaxy Camera, and it combines the equivalent of a $199 digital camera with the Android OS and hardware performance of Samsung's Galaxy S III smartphone.
Tech gadget reviewers like The Verge's Aaron Souppouris like the concept, and agree that the Galaxy Camera has many advantages over a normal point-and-shoot. But they also point out some huge disadvantages, for holiday buyers to consider.
​The price tag
"Image quality is no better than a $200 camera," Souppouris' review lists as one of the Galaxy Camera's cons. But it doesn't cost $200; its $499 price tag puts the Samsung Galaxy Camera in the same pricing tier as Apple's full-size iPad.
On top of that, expect to pay a lot for AT&T's HSPA+ data plan, because the Galaxy Camera uses a ton of bandwidth to upload its 16 megapixel photos. Reviewer Liam Spradlin of the Android Police blog "used close to 2GB in data simply syncing photos and videos" while reviewing the camera, an amount which you would need at least a $30 AT&T plan to cover. It's possible to take photos at lower resolutions, he says, "but that kind of defeats the purpose of such a dense sensor."
$499 plus $30 a month is still cheaper than buying an unlocked Galaxy S III and a normal AT&T plan. However, besides the fact that it can't make voice calls there's also ...
​The size and shape
The Samsung Galaxy Camera is not a smartphone with an exceptional digital camera, the way the Nokia Lumia 920 is. It's more like a point-and-shoot digital camera, complete with protruding handgrip and lens, which can run Android apps like Instagram. Unfortunately, some of them don't work that well on a gadget that's shaped like a camera. Souppouris reports having to "cradle the inch-thick camera in one hand" while being careful not to smudge the lens, because Instagram would only run in portrait mode.
​The battery life
Cramming an Android device with an Exynos quad-core processor into a digital camera's chassis severely reduces its battery life. Mashable's Pete Pachal found that his Galaxy Camera review unit was down to less than half of its battery life after "a few hours of taking pics, on and off." It's roughly on par with Android smartphones, but can't go for as long without recharging as a typical camera can. The battery door is about as easy to open as a camera's is, but you can probably expect to pay as much as you would for an extra smartphone battery if you're thinking of buying a spare.
One way Samsung tried to save battery life is by putting the Galaxy Camera into "a sort of hibernation," according to Spradlin, where it takes a few seconds to start up and start taking pictures if you've left it alone for too long. This feature is optional, however.
Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.

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Modern Etiquette: A bit of netiquette will keep Christmas real

 Christmas is a convivial time of year when people get together for celebrations and conversation. It's all about human contact so it's important that you're discriminating about how you use your digital devices.
It's fine if they're used to facilitate get-togethers and spread seasonal cheer. But Christmas is a real, not a virtual event, so it's important to discard the phones, tablets and computers and enjoy festive celebrations in the real world.
Christmas cards are still an invaluable and personal way of keeping in touch with far-flung friends and relations.
In these straitened times, however, you might want to cut down the number of cards you send, so it's fine to explain to your nearest and dearest that you won't be sending them cards - a personalized seasonal message by text, phone call or email, sent out to individuals, is quite acceptable.
Avoid sending out generic e-cards. They're lazy and impersonal, and many people will find them lacking in Christmas spirit or just baffling.
If you're emailing instead of sending a Christmas card, make sure that you send out unique - and individual - messages to each of your recipients. Group emails, like round robins, are to be avoided.
It's fine to put general seasonal messages on social networking sites, but avoid posting compromising photos.
This is the time of year when we all let our hair down, but not everyone will appreciate the evidence being posted for all to see in cyberspace.
Don't get too carried away with seasonal cyber-cheer. Spamming your friends and followers with endless Christmas wishes and updates will soon get tedious.
Christmas Day is all about socializing with family and friends, and enjoying good food and good conversation. So don't spend the big day glued to your phone, rather than interacting with your family.
Ban all phones from the Christmas table.
Eating together is all about sociability and it's a real insult to the host and/or cook to be transfixed by your texts rather than the turkey and table talk.
Be a good digital host.
Technology is part of our everyday life and Christmas is no exception. If you have friends or family staying in your home, make sure that you have your WiFi password to hand. Offer them access to your network, and hope that everyone adheres to good festive netiquette.
Christmas is the perfect time to make a video call, but choose your timing carefully. Nobody wants to be talking to virtual visitors during lunch or present opening.
Remember the power of the written word.
If you are the lucky recipient of a generous present or lavish hospitality, then hand-writing a proper thank you letter is a much more elegant gesture than texting or emailing, and will be noted and appreciated. It is fine to email or text your thanks for small presents.
(This story has been refiled to fix dateline)
(Jo Bryant is an etiquette advisor and editor at Debrett's, the UK authority on etiquette and modern manners (www.debretts.com). Any opinions expressed are her own. Debrett's "Netiquette" is a definitive guide to digital dilemmas and outlines a code of manners for modern communication.)

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In Newtown, an anguished debate over gun rights, controls

Two days after a gunman opened fire in a Connecticut elementary school, killing 26 people, several dozen parents and children gathered in a circle at Newtown's public library to draw something positive from the town's sudden, tragic notoriety.
After several hours of anguished discussion about gun control, and of the responsibilities of parents and community members to prevent more bloodshed, Newtown United was born.
A Facebook and Twitter presence is on the way, and the group is already talking about meetings with elected officials and forming alliances with neighboring towns to push for such action as local automatic weapon bans.
"We have the benefit and the misfortune of being on the national stage right now," said Craig Mittleman, a 49-year-old father of four and an emergency physician. "In a week, everybody's going to be gone and Newtown is going to be just like Columbine, just like Virginia Tech. We're going to be on a list of towns victimized by this insanity."
The group's initial discussion took place as the emotional wounds from the massacre were still raw in this community. After 20-year-old Adam Lanza's mother was killed at their home, he drove 5 miles to Sandy Hook Elementary School, shot his way in and opened fire on staff and students, leaving 20 first-graders and six adults dead before killing himself.
Still, the purpose of the group is not entirely clear. More direct names like Newtown Against Guns and Act Now Newtown were rejected, and the group is also talking about simpler gestures, like building a memorial for the victims.
In Newtown, where it seems like everyone is connected in some way to Friday's massacre, an anguished debate has broken out: how to protect the rights of responsible gun owners, including hunters, while working to prevent another massacre.
Indeed, in this state with a long history of gun manufacturing but some of the strictest gun laws in the country, some residents say they are not ready to lay down their arms. Newtown itself has an active gun culture, residents say.
There is even a vocal minority that argues that if a school official had been armed, Friday's outcome might have been different.
"The gun is not the issue. If someone else there had a gun, maybe they could have stopped this," Benjamin Torres, owner of Betor Roofing in Danbury, said over breakfast at a Newtown diner. "The bad guys are going to get guns illegally anyway."
In the shooting's wake, the complexity of the issue was underscored by geography. Just up the street from Newtown's Reed Intermediate School, where volunteers had set up a grief counseling center, sits the headquarters of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, considered one of the nation's leading gun lobbies after the National Rifle Association.
A PLACE FOR RESTRICTIONS
New England, and specifically Connecticut, was once a center of gun-making. Colt's Patent Manufacturing Co was founded in Hartford, and Remington, Sturm Ruger and Co, and Savage Arms all have Connecticut roots.
The subject of guns took center stage almost immediately after the shooting. A local hunting club suspended outings to avoid tormenting grieving families with the sound of gunfire.
"We thought it would be rather disrespectful considering what they're going through," said Frank Hufner, president of the Newtown Fish and Game Club, which has some 300 members who fish and hunt in the heavily forested hills surrounding Newtown's Sandy Hook neighborhood, where the eponymous school sits.
At Shooters Pistol Range, a firing range in nearby New Milford, the owner said gun owners are being given a bad name, but he largely declined to answer questions.
"I live in that town. My children went to that school. This is not a time to make news," said the range's white-bearded owner, who declined to give his name. "Holiday season is a tough time to lose someone, especially kids, and I'm not going to add to their misery."
He also said he did not trust the press to accurately portray gun enthusiasts. "Many of us are college-educated. I myself have a masters' degree."
On Saturday afternoon at a Dick's Sporting Goods store in Danbury, shoppers milled about the hunting section.
One shopper, 19-year-old Peter Griffin from nearby Redding, said the shooting only strengthened his enthusiasm for guns because killers are more likely to go where there are no guns.
"Personally, I feel safer where there's guns. I don't want to go to any gun-free zones any more," said Griffin, an apprentice cabinet maker who owns three guns.
Newtown-area gun businesses say sales have picked up since President Barack Obama's election, as gun owners fear a crack-down.
"It's absolutely booming right now - anything about guns. People are scared out of their wildest dreams that the FBI is going to come and knock down their doors," said Sean Eldridge, owner of Parker Gunsmithing in nearby Bethel, who specializes in repairing and restoring guns.
TAKING LEADERSHIP
Len Strocchia, 46, who lives 10 houses down from the Lanzas, is no stranger to gun violence. His alma mater, Virginia Tech, was the site of a mass shooting in 2007. He also lost a high school classmate in the 1993 shooting on the Long Island Railroad in New York, which left six people dead and 19 others wounded.
"I'm disgusted that this mass murder took place with legally purchased firearms," said Strocchia, who attended the Newtown meeting with his daughter.
On Sunday, Tim Northrop, a 49-year-old Newtown resident whose next-door neighbor, Anne Marie Murphy, a mother of four, was among the teachers killed, sent letters to Connecticut's U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal and Senator-elect Chris Murphy.
"The people of your state have been assaulted and murdered. We demand that you take leadership in pursuing new gun control legislation," the letter said. "Be the leader that this country is sorely lacking. Have the courage to stand up for those kids that were murdered.

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Internet ayatollah: Iran's supreme leader "likes" Facebook

 Facebook - banned in Iran due to its use by activists to rally government opponents in 2009 - has an unlikely new member: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Launched a few days ago, the Facebook page "Khamenei.ir" displays photographs of the 73-year-old cleric alongside speeches and pronouncements by the man who wields ultimate power in the Islamic Republic.
While there are several other Facebook pages already devoted to Khamenei, the new one - whose number of "likes" quadrupled on Monday to over 1,000 - appeared to be officially authorized, rather than merely the work of admirers.
The page has been publicized by a Twitter account of the same name that Iran experts believe is run by Khamenei's office.
Both U.S-based social media sites are blocked in Iran by a wide-reaching government censor but they are still commonly used by millions of Iranians who use special software to get around the ban.
In 2009, social media were a vital tool for those Iranians who believed the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was rigged. Facebook was used to help organize street protests of a scale not seen since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
The protests - which the government said were fuelled by Iran's foreign enemies - were eventually stamped out by the security forces and their political figureheads remain under house arrest.
Khamenei's Facebook page has so far shared a picture of a young Khamenei alongside the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in the early 1960s.
It shares a similar tone, style and content with accounts devoted to disseminating Khamenei's message on Twitter and Instagram and to the website www.khamenei.ir, a sophisticated official website published in 13 languages.
Experts said the social media accounts showed that Iran, despite restricting access to such sites inside the country, was keen to use them to spread its world view to a global audience.
"Social media gives the regime leadership another medium of communication, one that can share their message with a younger and far more international demographic," said Afshon Ostovar, a Middle East analyst at CNA, a U.S.-based research organization.
Iran is locked in a decade-long dispute with the West over its nuclear program, which the U.S. and its allies suspect is aimed at developing a bomb, something Iran has repeatedly denied. Iran, the West and regional states are also often opposed on issues such as the violence raging in Syria and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Iranian authorities have said they are trying to build a national intranet, something skeptics say is a way to further control Iranians' access to the global web. Tehran tried to block Google Inc.'s email service this year but soon reopened access.

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Shine America, Jack Black's Electric Dynamite Producing Comedy Series for Yahoo

 Shine America and Jack Black's Electric Dynamite Productions have partnered to produce "Ghost Ghirls," a new comedy series that will debut in the Spring on Yahoo! Screen, the web giant's video portal.
Jeremy Konner, Amanda Lund and Maria Blasucci created the show, which stars Lund and Blasucci as a pair of hapless investigators on the hunt for paranormal activity. It has begun production on a first season of 12 episodes.
Konner, who directed Funny or Die's "Drunk History" videos, will direct and executive produce with Lund, Blasucci, Black and Priyanka Matoo of Electric Dynamite.
"‘Ghost Ghirls' is the funniest idea for a TV show that we've seen since I've been in the business," Black said in a statement. "Jeremy Konner is an electrifying director, and Amanda and Maria are dynamite comedic talents. I'm very proud to be associated with such a powerful project."
Konner, Lund and Blasucci pitched the show to Eletric Dyanmite, which then brought it to Shine America. Shine is funding it.
No numbers were disclosed, but it has "a very healty budget for a digital series," according to Vivi Zigler, president of Shine 360 and Digital for Shine America.
"This one is pretty broad comedy," Zigler told TheWrap. "There is physical comedy, there's some very funny situational comedy that occurs."
Yahoo also airs Shine's "Who Knew," a news-focused web series.
Black, whose production company is based in Shine America's office building, will make a cameo in the series. He has also recruited assorted friends and comedians like Molly Shannon and Jason Schwartzman to do the same.
"Once Jack starts calling his friends, we almost have a play happening at the set," Zigler said.

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As online voting begins, Oscars take extra steps not to leave voters behind

The Academy opened online voting for the first time in his history on Monday. But in the days leading up to the unprecedented move away from paper ballots, AMPAS also took measures to make sure that chunks of its membership aren't left on the sidelines by the digital revolution.
"We're trying to enfranchise as many members as possible," AMPAS COO Ric Robertson told TheWrap.
Months ago, the organization set up stations in the lobby of its Beverly Hills headquarters where members could register to vote electronically and also receive answers to questions about the process.
In November, the organization extended the deadline for voters to request paper ballots.
And in the week before that new December 14 deadline, AMPAS took an extra step that essentially made that deadline irrelevant. Academy officials, worried about the number of members who hadn't chosen either option, decided to mail paper ballots to every one of its 5,856 members whose dues were current but who hadn't signed up for the online-voting option.
"If you've paid your dues and you haven't registered to vote electronically, we're going to send you a paper ballot whether or not you've asked for one," said Robertson.
That final decision by AMPAS officials, he said, will make the percentage of potential nominating voters commensurate with what it has been in prior years, when all voters whose dues were paid automatically received paper ballots.
"Between those who registered to vote electronically and those who are receiving paper ballots, we're at a number that is similar to what we've had in the past," he said.
As for the breakdown in this first year of online voting, Robertson said that "the majority of voting members" have registered to cast their votes by computer.
The move to online voting, he added, is particularly important this year, when the deadline to return nominating ballots is January 3, two weeks earlier than usual.
"The voting period for nominations is essentially the holiday season," he said. "Whether you're vacationing in Hawaii or working in Mexico, it's now much easier to vote - and you don't have to worry about being out of town while your ballot is sitting in your mailbox back in West L.A."
Still, Robertson admits that not every AMPAS voter has embraced moving into the online age.
"We have some members who are not shy in any way about saying, 'I'm going to vote paper and I'm not changing,'" he said. "But I was really pleasantly surprised that the number of people who registered to vote electronically was higher than I anticipated."
Throughout the year, he added, the Academy has had focus groups with members to explain the online voting process. And though the Screen Actors Guild had its nominations leaked early last week through an error on its website, Robertson insists that the Academy is not worried.
"I am confident about it," he said. "We have taken extensive measures to make sure our system is secure and protected."
While in past years, PricewaterhouseCoopers partners have told TheWrap that a large number of members voted and returned their nominating ballots immediately after receiving them, Robertson said he doesn't expect a similar early rush this time.
"Most of our members are still trying to see the movies," he said. "I don't think too many people are going to be voting right away this year."

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Analysis: Apple's swoon exposes risk lurking in mutual funds

The nearly 28 percent decline in shares of Apple Inc since mid-September isn't just painful to individual shareholders. It's also being felt by investors who chased hot mutual funds that loaded up on Apple as the stock raced to a record $705 per share.
Apple makes up 10 percent or more of assets in 117 out of the 1,119 funds that own its shares, according to data from Lipper, a Thomson Reuters company. Those big stakes have contributed positively to each fund's annual performance to date, with Apple still up about 32 percent for the year. It was trading at $527.73 soon after the opening on Friday.
But that year-to-date outcome may not accurately reflect the performance of the funds for individual investors. All told, approximately $4.5 billion has been added to funds with overweight stakes in Apple this year, according to Morningstar data. The majority of these dollars were invested after March and after Apple first exceeded $600 per share - meaning many investors have been riding down with the decline.
The $302 million Matthew 25 fund, for instance, holds 17.4 percent of its assets in Apple, according to Lipper. The fund's 31.9 percent gain through Thursday makes it one of the top performing funds for the year.
Most of its Apple shares were bought years ago at a bargain basement price of about $125 per share. But $158.9 million of the fund's assets - or 53 percent - were invested after the end of March, when Apple was trading near $615 per share, according to Morningstar data.
For those investors that bought after March, all that concentration in Apple hasn't led to a stellar gain but rather a drag on the portfolio. Someone who invested in Matthew 25 in early April has seen the value of the fund's Apple stake fall about 19 percent, while someone who invested at the beginning of September has watched that outsized Apple stake drop 27.2 percent.
In turn, the majority of the fund's investors have reaped a much more modest performance than its year-end numbers suggest. Since the end of March, the fund has gained 6.7 percent, according to Morningstar data, far less than its 31 percent year-to-date gain and about two percentage points more than the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 index.
Since, September the fund is down nearly 3 percent through Thursday's close, compared with a 1.1 percent decline in the S&P 500 in that period.
The impact of Apple's falling stock price shows some of the drawbacks of portfolio concentration, experts say. These stakes can leave the funds overexposed to the ups and downs of one company - counter to what most mutual funds are supposed to do for investors.
"Any time you get over 10 percent of the portfolio in one company it's a red flag," said Michel Herbst, director of active fund research at Morningstar. Many fund managers do have risk management rules that prevent them from devoting more than 5 percent to 6 percent of their portfolio to any one stock, he said.
Then again, some funds purposely invest in just a few stocks. Mark Mulholland, the portfolio manager of the Matthew 25 fund, said that taking concentrated positions in companies is the only way to beat an index over longer periods of time.
'RIGHT-SIZING' PORTFOLIOS
Along with concerns about iPhone sales in China and tax-motivated selling among people who want to avoid potentially higher capital gains taxes in 2013, the wide fund ownership of Apple may be a factor in the size of the stock's recent declines, fund managers said. In addition, with so many funds already heavily invested in the high-priced stock, there may be fewer marginal buyers available to push prices up again when shares begin to dip.
"The stock didn't go from $700 to $520 because people didn't like the new iPad. It's become a favorite short of hedge funds because they know they can get in on this," said Mark Spellman, a portfolio manager of the $300 million Value Line Income and Growth fund with a small position in Apple.
Short interest in the stock rose to 20.6 million shares at the end of November from 15.1 million shares at the end of September, according to Nasdaq.
"Some of my competitors have 12 percent of their assets in Apple, which I think is ludicrous", said Spellman, who said the company is no longer trading on its fundamentals.
Sandy Villere, who has a 2.5 percent weighting of Apple in his $276 million Villere Balanced fund, said that some mutual fund managers are selling shares because of the over-weighting.
"Right now many people who did take huge overweight positions are right-sizing their portfolios to get it in line with their regular weightings," he said.
Still, some bullish investors see the stock's recent declines as a buying opportunity.
Mulholland, the Matthew 25 portfolio manager, continues to say that shares should be priced at over $1,000 per share based on his valuation of the company at 10 times enterprise value divided by earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA). Apple trades at about 7 times that figure now.
Wall Street analysts' average price target as of Thursday is $742.56, according to Thomson Reuters data. But Mulholland is happy to be more bullish than his peers.
"I'm glad that I'm able to get it at these prices," he said.

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EU charges Samsung with abusing vital telecoms patent

The European Commission charged Samsung Electronics on Friday with abusing its dominant position in seeking to bar rival Apple from using a patent deemed essential to mobile phone use.
The Commission sent a "statement of objections" to the South Korean group, with its preliminary view that Samsung was not acting fairly.
"Intellectual property rights are an important cornerstone of the single market. However, such rights should not be misused when they are essential to implement industry standards, which bring huge benefits to businesses and consumers alike," Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said in statement.
Apple and Samsung, the world's top two smartphone makers, are locked in patent disputes in at least 10 countries as they vie to dominate the lucrative mobile market and win over customers with their latest gadgets.
The filing of competition objections is the latest step in the Commission's investigation. After notifying Samsung in writing, the company will have a chance to reply and request a hearing before regulators.
If the Commission then concludes that the firm has violated the rules, it could impose a fine of up to 10 percent of the electronics firm's total annual turnover.
Technology companies are increasingly turning to the European Commission as the European Union's competition authority, to resolve their disputes. The Commission is also investigating Google and Microsoft.
In the case of Samsung, its standard-essential patents (SEPs) relate to the EU's 3G UMTS standard. When this was adopted in Europe, Samsung committed to license the patents fairly to competitors, the Commission said.
However, it began seeking an injunction in 2011 in various EU member states against Apple's use of these patents. The Commission opened its investigation in January 2012.
Samsung said it was studying the Commission's statement. It said it would cooperate fully and "firmly defend ourselves against any misconceived allegations".
"Samsung is confident that, in due course, the Commission will conclude that we have acted in compliance with European Union competition laws

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Vatican says pope beats Justin Bieber on re-tweets

Pope Benedict, white-haired, 85, and a neophyte to social media site Twitter, has beaten out 18-year old heartthrob Justin Bieber to set a percentage record for re-tweeting by his followers, the Vatican said on Thursday.

The Vatican newspaper said that as of noon Italian time on Thursday the pope had 2.1 million followers on Twitter, eight days after his first tweet was sent.

While Canadian singer-songwriter Bieber has roughly 15 times as many followers - 31.7 million - the Vatican newspaper said Benedict had beaten Bieber on re-tweets.

It said about 50 percent of the pope's followers had re-tweeted his first tweet on December 12 while only 0.7 percent of Bieber's followers had re-tweeted one of the singer's most popular tweets on September 26, when he commented on the death by cancer of a six-year-old fan.

The Vatican said this was part of a wider trend in which people were looking for more spiritual content.

The pope already tweets in English, German, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish and Arabic. The newspaper said he will start tweeting in Latin and Chinese soon.

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