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Sunday, June 30, 2013
Verizon: 4G is (mostly) everywhere, but we need to make it faster
Verizon Wireless announced this week that its 4G LTE network now reaches about 95 percent of the American population. With the LTE network now basically complete, Verizon turns its attention to making it faster by deploying extra bandwidth.
Verizon Wireless announced this week that it will begin making improvements to speed up its 4G LTE network, which now covers about 95% of the US population. Here, a photo illustration shows the Verizon icon on a smart phone.
Mike Blake/Reuters/File
EnlargeVerizon Wireless announced this week that it?s confident in its 4G network -- so confident, in fact, that it?s going to start slowly retiring the slower 3G network next year.
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Jeff began writing for the Monitor's Horizons blog in 2011, covering product news and rumors, innovations from companies like Apple and Google, and developments in tech policy.
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If you don?t have a 4G smart phone, don?t worry: Verizon plans to keep the 3G network up and running at least through 2019, although it will slowly begin turning 3G signals into 4G signals in some cities. The company announced in a blog post on Thursday that its 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) network is basically complete -- it now reaches 500 US markets and covers more than 95 percent of the US population. Verizon now turns its attention to making upgrades to the network to try to address speed issues.
Verizon was the first US provider to roll out a 4G network -- the company began offering service back in 2010 -- but third-party tests say AT&T?s data service is faster as of this year. Scott Moritz at Bloomberg reports that this is mainly due to congestion: Verizon has added customers more quickly than other providers, and all those extra devices suck up the once-plentiful bandwidth.
To remedy that, Verizon is eyeing advanced wireless services (AWS), a slice of spectrum that it acquired last year. AWS isn?t a new network; it?s just a way to improve the existing LTE service so it can handle more customers without becoming congested. Verizon says the improvements, which should take effect by the end of the year, will give its LTE network twice the current capacity and double the speed, at which point it'll be referred to as LTE-Advanced. Samsung has already announced a new version of the Galaxy S4 smart phone that?ll work with LTE-Advanced. The new Galaxy S4 will land in South Korea first, where the LTE network is more mature, before making its way to the US.
Verizon also plans to start deploying ?small cells? later this year in densely populated cities. These new towers will relieve congestion in places like New York and San Francisco -- areas where millions of customers are putting strain on LTE networks. Between small cells and the introduction of LTE-Advanced service in parts of the network, Verizon hopes it?ll be able to relieve congestion even as more customers join its network.
It?s worth mentioning that Verizon isn?t the only provider with big plans. The other major cell providers -- AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile -- have promised to turn on LTE-Advanced on their networks in the coming months and years, too.
Do you have 4G service, from Verizon or any other provider, in your area? Is it snappy or sluggish? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
For more tech news, follow Jeff on?Twitter:?@jeffwardbailey.
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Cameron Diaz Will Play Miss Hannigan In 'Annie.' Really?
There's a lot to be excited about regarding the upcoming remake of Annie. First of all, we're eager to hear what producers Jay-Z and Will Smith do with classic showtunes like "Tomorrow." (We've already heard what Jay-Z can do with "Hard Knock Life.") Then there's the cast: adorable young Oscar nominee Quvenzhane Wallis in the title role, and Jamie Foxx as a modernized Daddy Warbucks. However, we're scratching our heads over the just-announced casting of comic villain Miss Hannigan. Cameron Diaz is talented, okay -- but do we really want to see her in a musical?
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Saturday, June 29, 2013
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Rescuers believe American schooner carrying 7 sank
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) ? Rescue crews searching for a classic American schooner carrying seven people now believe the boat sank between New Zealand and Australia, although they haven't given up hope of finding survivors.
A third day of aerial searches Friday turned up no sign of the 85-year-old wooden sailboat or its crew. Named Nina, the boat left New Zealand May 29 bound for Australia. The last know contact with the crew was on June 4. Rescuers were alerted the boat was missing on June 14, but weren't unduly worried at first because the emergency locator beacon had not been activated.
The six Americans on board include captain David Dyche, 58, his wife Rosemary, 60, and their son David, 17. Also aboard was their friend Evi Nemeth, 73, a man aged 28, a woman aged 18, and a British man aged 35.
The leader of Friday's search efforts, Neville Blakemore at New Zealand's Rescue Coordination Centre, said it's now logical to assume the 70-foot (21-meter) boat sank in a storm but added it's possible some crew members survived either in the life raft that was aboard or by making land.
On the day the boat went missing, a storm hit the area with winds gusting up to 110 kilometers (68 miles) per hour and waves of up to 8 meters (26 feet).
Blakemore said the Southern Hemisphere winter months tend to produce the year's worst storms, although he added that he wouldn't normally expect a sturdy and well-maintained craft like the Nina to sink in a storm like the one in early June.
Friday's search focused on the coastline around northern New Zealand, including the small Three Kings islands. Rescuers were looking for wreckage or the life raft.
Blakemore said plane searches earlier this week covered a wide band of ocean between New Zealand and Australia.
He said the logical conclusion is that the boat sank rapidly, preventing the crew from activating the locator beacon or using other devices aboard including a satellite phone and a spot beacon. He said that unlike many locator beacons, the one aboard the Nina is not activated by water pressure and wouldn't start automatically if the boat sank.
Dyche is a qualified captain and he and his family are experienced sailors. Blakemore said the family had been sailing around the world for several years and were often joined on different legs by friends and sailors they met along the way.
Susan Payne, harbor master of the St. Andrews Marina near Panama City, Florida, said the couple left Panama City in the Nina a couple of years ago and sailed to Mystic Seaport in Connecticut where they prepared for the trip.
New Zealand meteorologist Bob McDavitt was the last person known to have been in contact with the schooner.
He said Nemeth called him by satellite phone June 3 and said: "The weather's turned nasty, how do we get away from it?"
He advised them to head south and brace for the storm.
The next day he got a text, the last known communication: "ANY UPDATE 4 NINA? ... EVI"
McDavitt said he advised the crew to stay put and ride out the storm another day. He continued sending messages the next few days but didn't hear back. Friends of the crew got in touch with McDavitt soon after that, and then alerted authorities.
___
Associated Press writer Melissa Nelson-Gabriel in Pensacola, Florida, contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rescuers-believe-american-schooner-carrying-7-sank-053935827.html
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Stop Attacking Male Writers for Being Sexist
Author James Salter has been criticized for the bad behavior of his male characters.
Photo by the Image Gate/Getty Images for IWC
Is it time to stop attacking male writers for being misogynistic if their characters sleep with a lot of people, or not in the right way? Roxana Robinson?s recent attack on James Salter for being a misogynist was infinitely more graceful and nuanced than these sorts of attacks usually are, but the underlying charge that a male writer is sexist if you don?t like their male character is a flawed way to approach the delicate and mysterious possibilities of literature. These sorts of emotionally and politically charged arguments stray too far from the words that are actually on the page, and hold the writer to a standard of behavior that is more suited to who you want to be friends with or sleep with than who you want to read; it becomes character assassination rather than literary criticism.
Robinson writes of Salter?s main character in All That Is: ?Cold and withholding, Bowman?s character denies the deepest and most fundamental aspects of compassion.? She writes that he ?feels entitled to his vindictiveness: He has no scruples and feels no remorse.? She does not, in other words, like him very much.
Of course all of this evokes the recent fracas over Claire Messud?s character being unlikable. Messud implied it was sexist to say a female character should be likable; but Robinson is essentially saying Salter is sexist for his male character being unlikable. Which brings us to the question: Does everyone have to write likable characters? (Robinson seems to think yes, as even Lolita can?t be counted as great literature in her book because Humbert Humbert is not conflicted enough to be sympathetic.) But should our central experience of literature be whether or not we would like to take the protagonist out to dinner? Should we be combing books for friends, or lovers, or even characters whose actions we can wholeheartedly condone?
Writing about feminist literary critics, Joan Didion argues that rigid politics have no place in the free, roaming creative space of fiction: ?That fiction has certain irreducible ambiguities seemed never to occur to these women, nor should it have, for fiction is in most ways hostile to ideology,? she writes in her 1972 essay, ?The Women?s Movement.? Salter?s main character may sleep with a lot of women, but his relation to them is trickier than his sexual history suggests. One of Bowman?s paramours says to him, ?Women are very weak.? And he replies, ?That?s funny. I haven?t found that to be so.?
Here is part of Robinson?s proof of Bowman?s cold, unfeeling nature. When his wife won?t have sex with him: ?He knew he should try to understand, but felt only anger. It was unloving of him, he knew, but he couldn?t help it.? Is every man who feels that particular variety of anger at some point in their life a ?misogynist?? Is admitting the irrational angers and rages that flow through intimate life sexist, or is it the work of literature to show or expose precisely this type of rogue emotional undercurrent? (And as a sidebar: don?t women sometimes feel those kinds of anger too?)
When Kate Millett launched her impressive attack on male novelists for being misogynistic in Sexual Politics, Norman Mailer made a relevant point. He argued that a particularly depressing Henry Miller scene about two men and a hungry prostitute was not a crude celebration of exploitation but an investigation of missed connections, a report from the bleakest frontiers of human loneliness. He argued Miller (and by extension himself, Lawrence, and the others) were often taking on the loneliness in sex as their subject, not just swaggering through an encounter. (And of course one could also argue that swaggering through an encounter is not sexist, always, and women writers have their own versions of this sort of reveling. See for instance Mary McCarthy?s wickedly comic sex scenes.)
One of the important issues is that there is a certain amount of distance between an author and a character. When for instance Salter writes that during Bowman?s wedding, ?Bowman was happy or felt he was,? he is giving the reader a much more complicated and intricate perspective on romantic attachment than Robinson gives him credit for. Salter?s story does not straightforwardly or simple-mindedly endorse all of Bowman?s adventures; it is too cagey, too shrewd, too melancholy for that. Something can be indicted and glamorized at the same time; it can be beautiful and sad.
One of the problems with emotionally fraught criticism is that it often glosses over the words on the page; its loyalty is to some higher interpretation, and it can?t be bothered with small things like the book itself. For instance Robinson writes that Bowman caddishly won?t marry one of his girlfriends: ?She finds him a beautiful house in the Hamptons. He won?t marry her, but he buys the house in both their names.? In fact, Bowman says to Christine, ?It?s going to be very nice living here. We could even get married.? She says, ?Yes, we could.? He says ?Is that an acceptance?? and she hedges. It is she who doesn?t want to marry him, and she who won?t commit. In fact their relationship falls apart because she cheats on him and takes him to court to get the house he bought for them to live in, claiming that he bought it for her, and not for them together. To interpret this affair as Bowman?s crass philandering is to very creatively and deliberately skew the text, to subdue story to idea. I bring this up only to point out the dangers inherent in ideological readings, the somewhat flimsy relation they often have to anything the reader might recognize as the book itself.
Robinson?s main (and most powerful) condemnation of Bowman is ?there is no conflict in this human heart.? But Bowman is conflicted, complicated, though it is true that unlike a male protagonist in a book by a younger male writer, like Jeff Eugenides or Michael Chabon he does not often talk directly or muse endlessly about this conflict. To argue that a conflict doesn?t exist because it is not put into words directly, analyzed with agonizing precision, effusively, guiltily mulled over, would be an error in judgment; it overlooks the great varieties of psychological composition and style. Salter writes conflict, he just writes it more subtly, more indirectly, more in the style of a Hemingway reader, than a post-feminist English major; he shades it in. To ask Bowman?s World War II veteran to speak effusively about his feelings (and to compare him, as Robinson does, to Iago if he doesn?t) is to fundamentally misunderstand the nuances and varieties of the human heart.
To read a book with true openness or receptiveness, we have to let Salter?s character be his character, not a character so upstanding, so compassionate, we would want to marry him ourselves. One of the dangers of rigid politicized reading is that it imposes the ideas of the critic on the novelist, it asks the novelist to dream up a person acceptable to the critic, not a person who acts freely in their own world. One could even argue that an important benefit of fiction is that you learn about other kinds of people, alien people, people you don?t already understand or necessarily relate to, people you don?t like. You hear messages from a different kind of consciousness.
Another fallacy of this type of angry reading is that it often conflates the author with the character. In writing about his character?s relation to love, Robinson says, ?What Salter does is reveal his own incapacity for that huge and engulfing passion.? Is she really trying to argue that Salter himself, that 88-year-old man with the straw hat and twinkling eyes, currently in a long-term attached relationship, by all accounts, is incapable of love? The capaciousness of this indictment reveals some sort of animus against a slippery archetype of the badly behaved man that defies the intellectual neatness of the argument. The elevation of Bowman to a full-scale Shakespearean villain, rather than a guy sort of sadly and sometimes joyously muddling through, reveals perhaps not enough conflict in the critic?s own ?human heart.?
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Banking with your mobile? There will be a fee for that...
35 minutes ago
As more and more customers are using their mobile devices to make deposits or pay bills, the banks are looking for ways to charge them for the service.
While fees for using mobile apps may be inevitable, the banks differ only over how to levy that charge.
Some banks believe it should be a fixed cost per transaction, others believe fees should only come on products that present risks to the bank and provide unique services to the customer, such as Regions Financial for immediate funds, and Wells Fargo for emergency bill pay.
Still others ? who asked not to be identified because the strategy hasn't been announced ? have lobbied for a model resembling "Amazon Prime," where customers pay a flat fee for unlimited transactions.
Birmingham, Ala.-based Regions Financial rolled out its mobile banking app this spring with a tiered fee structure, based on when the customer needed access to funds deposited digitally. For immediate availability, which is a risk to the bank because it then doesn't have time to verify the fees, customers must pay $5, or a percentage of the deposit?whichever is higher. For access two days later, once the funds are verified, the fee is 50 cents?the same fee Minneapolis-based US Bank introduced for all mobile deposits in 2010. It was the first bank to initiate such fees.
"This is just the beginning of the creative ways banks will try to compensate in a low-rate, low-growth environment," said Todd Hagerman, senior research analyst at Sterne Agee. "They have to look for alternative ways to improve their fee income stream."
Customers like Al Falussy, a sales executive on Long Island, NY, are not happy. He is a frequent user of his mobile banking app to get balance alerts, send money to employees and family, and deposit money from places where no branches are nearby.
But if Falussy's bank of choice?JP Morgan Chase?started charging to use the app? He'd switch banks.
"They're making money on my money," Falussy said of the deposits he keeps with the bank. "So for them to actually go there would be kind of petty."
Falussy and other consumers might not like it, but fees for mobile banking are set to become the norm. Slowly but surely, banks are experimenting with ways to build charges into the apps' features and as apps get higher-tech, too, a simple convenience could become costly.
(Read More: Banks Still Raising Fees?and Hiding Them: Study)
Richard Hunt, president of the Consumer Bankers Association, said banks can't afford to give customers all services free of charge, especially because of increased regulatory and legislative pressure. For one example, "checking accounts were often provided at no cost to the customer, but there is a cost to the bank providing them." Innovation on mobile, Hunt said, will fall into that category.
(Read More: Overdraft Protection Will Cost You, But How Much?)
Dave Kaminsky, a senior analyst at Mercator Advisory Group, a research firm focused on the payments industry, explained that users perceive mobile banking's offerings as worth the cost. "Customers tend to look at remote deposit capture or expedited processing as an additional value, so they're willing to pay for it?at least for now."
Customers seem to be embracing mobile banking fees so far. US Bank, a source said, hasn't experienced many customer defections since the fee was introduced in 2010. And even though Regions has the steepest fees yet, CEO Grayson Hall said on the company's last earnings call that mobile "continues to be a rapid growth channel." Perhaps one reason is that mobile, as a platform, is still surging in growth: The number of web-savvy consumers who bank only on their app jumped 55 percent in the last year, according to digital measurement outfit comScore.
Still, customer sensitivity to fees looms large as many big banks are hesitant to be the "first mover" in the space?and potentially lose customers to their competitors. JPMorgan Chase currently offers all its mobile features for free and will continue to do so, according to a person familiar with the matter.
"Deposits will eventually move from ATMs entirely to mobile," said an executive familiar with the strategy. "You want to capture that business, not turn it away." No direct fees are levied for ATM deposits.
Wells Fargo has been the only major bank to experiment with fees thus far. The bank refuses to charge for remote check deposit, which totaled 1.4 million checks in May alone, because it considers the service basic. Instead, it has chosen to charge for what it considers to be premium mobile services, like bank-to-bank transfers and emergency bill pay.
Features like emergency bill pay and immediate availability of funds are risky for banks, since it takes time to verify that the funds exist on the end of the check writer. Because banks must pay for insurance in case the money isn't there, a fee to have the money available immediately would simply cover that insurance. For that reason, at least three big banks have lobbied regulators like the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, according to people familiar with the talks, to discuss options to verify funds without having to charge customers.
At a time when consumers feel buried in fees by their banks, one more charge tacked on to services could prompt more consumers to follow Falussy's game plan to hang up on their bank.
? 2013 CNBC LLC. All Rights Reserved
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Thursday, June 27, 2013
Video: Markets Positioned For Growth Spurt?
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Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/video/cnbc/52327395/
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Sony RX100 II: A Totally New Sensor, a More Perfect Point-and-Shoot
Last year, Sony overhauled basically its entire line of cameras from the very bottom to tippiest top. Surprisingly, the most exciting of the bunch weren't mirrorless cameras or DSLRs, but fixed-lens Cyber-shots: The RX100
What we're looking at here are the Sony Cyber-shot RX100 II (or M2), which at $750 will cost $100 more than the RX100, the and the Sony Cyber-shot RX1R, which at $2800 costs exactly the same as the RX1. Both are available for pre-order using the links above. The older cameras will remain in the line as before.
At a glance, the modifications from one generation to the next might seem minor. Many of the key specs we're used to reciting don't seem to change.These are hardly tweaks?they're big changes. More detailed specs are listed below, but there's too much good stuff to mention all the carry-over from before.
Sony Cyber-shot RX100 II
The key differences between the RX100 and RX100 II are a completely new 1-inch Exmor R image sensor, Wi-Fi and NFC connectivity, as well as a new tilting three-inch LCD display and a new hot shoe.
The former two additions result in visible cosmetic differences to the camera. The tiling LCD adds only slight thickness to the RX100's body but makes it easier to see the screen in certain siutations. Don't worry, This remains the same awesome pocketable shooter as before. Same super-fast f/2 lens.
Sony also added a "multi-interface shoe" on top for attaching external flashes other accessories to the camera.
The new Exmor R sensor is a lovely example of "trickle-up" technology. Exmor R sensors are "back-illuminated", which basically means the traditional sensor architecture has been reworked so that the electronics sit behind the photo-sensitive diodes, allowing more surface area for actually capturing light.
Until now, the Exmor R design has been used only for small sensors in smartphones and junky point-and-shoots because Sony just couldn't figure out how to manufacture these sensors larger. Until now. This one-inch sensor is a first, and Sony claims it'll be up-to 40-times more light sensitive that the RX100's one-inchers. That's impressive.
There are no surprises about the camera's Wi-Fi sharing capabilities, but it's a nice addition to an already loaded camera. This NFC chip inside, however is new, and enables touch sharing between compatible devices, which actually sounds like a brilliant idea.
The main issue we might take with this camera is price. $650 was already a lot of money to pay for a point-and-shoot camera targeted mostly at a mainstream audience. But $750? Sheesh. Most of the cameras you'd consider competitors?like the Canon S110?are priced under $500
? Sensor: 20.2 MP, 1-inch Exmor R CMOS
? Processor: Sony BIONZ
? ISO Range: 100-25600
? Lens: Carl Zeiss 28-100 (3.6) f/1.8
? Display: 1.2 million-dot fixed LCD
? Video: 1920 x 1080 (60, 24 fps), 1440 x 1080 (30 fps), 1280 x 720 (30 fps), 640 x 480 (30 fps)
? Price: $750
? Processor: Sony BIONZ
? ISO Range: 100-25600
? Lens: Carl Zeiss 28-100 (3.6) f/1.8
? Display: 1.2 million-dot fixed LCD
? Video: 1920 x 1080 (60, 24 fps), 1440 x 1080 (30 fps), 1280 x 720 (30 fps), 640 x 480 (30 fps)
? Price: $750
Sony Cyber-shot RX1R
The RX1, was a superbly awesome camera that no-normal soul can afford. The image quality is unrivaled by a camera that size, but at the same time, the fixed focal-length f/2 lens that makes the compact size possible is also quite a limitation. The RX1R option is really a modified version of the former with no optical low-pass filter, which is exactly the kind of change people interested in this camera might consider important.
Without getting to far into the science, cameras use low-pass filters to avoid ripply moire patterns and other distortions that might occur because of the patterned design of image sensors. These days, though, many manufacturers are confident enough in their camera designs to leave the low-pass filter on.
What's the difference you say? Well, when you're using a professional full-frame image sensor like the one in the RX1, pixel peepers will point out that a low-pass filter keeps a sensor from realizing the true potential of its resolution. And sure enough, Sony showed us samples taken with both the RX1 and RX1R, and the new model had better details in some intense situations.
The only cosmetic change you'll notice between the older and newer cameras is the addition of an "R" to the name stamped on the front of its glorious body.
? Sensor: 24 MP, full-frame Exmor CMOS
? Processor: Sony BIONZ
? ISO Range: 100-25600
? Lens: Carl Zeiss 35mm f/2
? Display: 1.2 million-dot fixed LCD
? Video: 1920 x 1080 (60, 50, 25, 24 fps), 1440 x 1080 (30, 25 fps), 1280 x 720 (30 fps), 640 x 480 (30, 25 fps)
? Price: $2800
Source: http://gizmodo.com/sony-rx100-ii-a-totally-new-sensor-a-more-perfect-poi-593962573
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US envoy accosted amid Kosovo vote on Serbia deal
PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) ? Hardline opposition supporters tried but failed to stop Kosovo lawmakers from approving a key deal with Serbia on Thursday ? with hundreds clashing with police outside parliament, lawmakers scuffling with the body's speaker inside, and some protesters even attacking the U.S. ambassador as she tried to enter the building.
The developments underscored the deep passions that arise in this tiny country over any deal with a neighboring state that still refuses to recognize Kosovo's independence.
The agreement, which passed on an 84-3 vote, will see Serbia call off parallel security structures in the Serb-run north of Kosovo and encourage northern Kosovo's Serb population to work with the ethnic Albanian leadership in Pristina in exchange for more self-governance. The accord does not, however, resolve the dispute over Kosovo's 2008 secession from Serbia.
Kosovo police used pepper spray and batons to disperse a crowd of several hundred hardline opposition supporters who tried to stop lawmakers from holding the vote. Dozens of people were detained by police in riot gear outside government buildings.
U.S. Ambassador Tracey Jacobson "was physically accosted by protesters" blocking entrances to the assembly building, the U.S. Embassy in Kosovo said in a statement, adding, "We deplore the use of violent tactics in obstructing the democratic process."
"Vetevendosje tried to stop us, but we got in on our second attempt! #bruised," Jacobson tweeted, using the Albanian name for Self-Determination, an opposition group that is against talks with Serbia and has 12 seats in the 120-seat parliament.
Many lawmakers, including Self-Determination members, did not vote Thursday, but there were enough who did to meet the necessary quorum and pass the deal, which still requires the president's signature.
Members of Self-Determination unfolded banners during the process suggesting the deal gives Kosovo territory to Serbia. And some in the group scuffled with the speaker of Parliament to try to prevent the vote from taking place, but security intervened and removed them.
Belgrade does not recognize Kosovo's statehood and still officially claims the territory as part of Serbia. But both sides hope they will eventually qualify for membership in the European Union and see the agreement as a token of goodwill to overcome their differences.
Serbia's brutal crackdown on separatist ethnic Albanians in Kosovo was halted after NATO's 78-day air war in 1999, which forced Belgrade to give up control of the territory.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-envoy-accosted-amid-kosovo-vote-serbia-deal-185941309.html
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Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Scott Disick Gave Terminal Cancer Patient A Memory She Says She ...
During the June 24 episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Scott Disick overcame one of his fears and visited a terminally ill cancer patient, granting her one of her dying wishes.
?I thought he might be a fun person to meet because he?s just Scott and he looks at things from such a different point of view,? Josie Langsdorf, the cancer patient that Scott visited, tells RadarOnline.com exclusively. ?I thought I could have a good laugh with this guy.?
PHOTOS: Kourtney Kardashian And Scott Disick Dote On Penelope At The Park
Josie never thought it would happen, but after her 18-year-old daughter, Ashley, started a Twitter campaign for her to meet Scott, Scott surprised her.
?Then he actually came here and I got to see the more serious side of him,? Josie says. ?And he was very good to my girls ? I was very surprised how comforting he was to the them.?
On the show, Scott pointed out that visiting Josie was a life-changing event.
PHOTOS:? Scott Disick Turns 30 In Vegas
?When he first got here, he seemed uncomfortable and I didn?t know if he was nervous, but now, I realize that it was the cancer and death side, the sad side, of it that he was nervous about,? Josie explains. ?It?s so easy to get pulled into the negative with it and be depressed and be sad, but at the end of the day, you?re still here and you?ve got to try and find some path and some happiness with it.?
And that?s what this visit was all about for Josie and her girls.
?The fact that he came here, the fact that my girls and I will have that memory to cherish forever is something I?ll never forget or I?ll never lose,? she says. ?So for me, it?s extremely bittersweet because if I didn?t have cancer, that wouldn?t have happened. But I do have cancer, and there was a positive out of it.?
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So, Josie shoots down the critics who suggest that Scott?s visit was just part of the show and a trap to score ratings.
?I didn?t feel that it was done for the show,? she says. ?I felt very genuine, that he meant it.?
She even thinks that Scott?s tough guy act may just be for the cameras.
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?Some of his personality is a cover up to act like he?s this super classless, smart-alec guy, when really he does care,? she says. ?The fact that he came in my house, it was winter, it was cold, I?m shocked that he did that, but it felt genuine.?
In fact, Scott and his producers have stayed in touch with Josie.
?He has been in contact with me a couple of times since the show,? she says. ?And I?m in contact probably once a week with the producers. They really touched me, and I think I touched their lives too.?
PHOTOS:?Scott Disick Leaving London Night Club With Two Mystery Blondes
But, since the visit, Josie?s cancer has unfortunately worsened.
?Back in April, I was diagnosed with some brain mets,? Josie says. ?I had three tumors in my brain, and up until this point, I hadn?t had anything in my brain. So I had a brain stereotactic surgery, where they radiated the tumors.?
Josie also has some tumors on her ribs that are causing her great pain.
PHOTOS:? Kanye West Isn?t Part Of New Keeping Up With The Kardashians Cast Pics
?This is the sickest I?ve been in probably a couple of years,? she says.
But she maintains a positive out outlook on the whole ordeal.
?I?m hanging in there,? she says. ?I?m in pain, but I?m still here and I?m still trying to find the positive in every day.?
PHOTOS: Kourtney Kardashian And Scott Disick All Smiles With Son Amid Paternity Scandal
Josie even has one more wish that she is hoping to knock off her bucket list.
?One thing I?d like to do this summer and if I don?t get it done, I?m going to be really upset, I want to take the girls to Mall of America,? she shares. ?We love to shop and we?ve never been there, so I decided it would be a lot of fun.?
?That is my one goal,? she adds. ?I would like to have it done by the end of July.?
PHOTOS: Kourtney Kardashian And Scott Disick Dote On Penelope At The Park
Josie also shares one piece of advice: ?With cancer, people need to remember, that the sooner that you find it, it?s easier and the more chances they?ll have for a cure.?
?If something is not right, you know your body better than anyone, follow up, follow up, because I was sick for two years before I was diagnosed,? she says. ?At the end of the day, early detection is key.?
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Russia spies may be chatting with 'tasty morsel' Snowden
By Lidia Kelly
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Edward Snowden's disappearance from view has heightened speculation that the former U.S. spy agency contractor may be talking to Russian secret services, which see him as a "tasty morsel" that is too good to miss.
Even a flat denial by President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday is unlikely to end whispers that Snowden may have been interviewed by intelligence officers anxious to get their hands on whatever information he has not yet leaked.
Some experts say Russia might even try to hand him over to the United States in a Cold War-style exchange, although this seemed less likely after Putin ruled out his extradition to face espionage charges back home.
"He is a tasty morsel for any, any secret service, including ours. Any secret service would love to talk to him," said a Russian security source.
Snowden, charged with disclosing secret U.S. surveillance programs, left Hong Kong for Moscow on Sunday and the WikiLeaks anti-secrecy group said he was heading for Ecuador, where he wants political asylum.
Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Reuters. But a former officer of its Soviet predecessor, the KGB, said Russia was unlikely to miss out, assuming Snowden is willing to cooperate.
"It would be silly to pass on such an opportunity to get information that is very difficult, impossible or expensive to get in any other way," said the ex-officer, Lev Korolkov.
U.S. Senator John McCain, a Republican opponent of President Barack Obama, said Putin - also a former Soviet agent - would grab the chance. "He is ... an old KGB colonel apparatchik that has disdain for democracy and the things we stand for and believe in," McCain said on CNN on Tuesday. "If he sees a situation he'll take advantage of it."
Speculation about an FSB role in Snowden's arrival from Hong Kong began with the plane's touchdown on Sunday, when about two dozen plain-clothed security agents were spotted monitoring the transit zone, at times accompanied by uniformed policemen.
Ecuador's ambassador to Russia, Patricio Alberto Chavez Zavala, got to the transit zone soon after Snowden landed. Then the agents and police blocked the entrance to one of the lounges. Some remained all night and into the next day,
But there was no sign of Snowden, who Putin said on Tuesday was still in the transit area at Sheremetyevo airport.
Snowden has said he accepted a job as a systems administrator at contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, where he worked for about three months, to gain access to details of the U.S. National Security Agency's surveillance programs.
U.S. officials said intelligence agencies were concerned they did not know how much sensitive material Snowden had, and that he may have taken more documents than initially estimated which could get into the hands of foreign intelligence agencies.
ASSESSING SNOWDEN'S VALUE
Russian political analyst Pavel Salin suggested the Kremlin's near silence on Snowden for more than 36 hours after he arrived was a stalling tactic. "Now they are assessing how useful he may be. His value depends on the information he has," he said.
Korolkov said that is unclear. "We don't know what really is in his possession and how much of an interest he is. All that he can say could already be known," he said. "But he is of interest (to Russia) for a number of other reasons."
Analysts said Snowden could be useful for a Cold War-style spy swap or as a propaganda tool for Russia, which frequently accuses the United States of violating the principles of freedom and democracy that it tries to press on others.
Putin, asked on Tuesday about the U.S. request to hand Snowden over, questioned whether the American and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is also a fugitive from justice, should be treated as criminals and jailed.
Deputy parliament speaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky has proposed Snowden be exchanged for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer whose jailing in the United States angered Moscow. The United States has refused Russian requests for his repatriation.
Korolkov, and the security service source who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Russia would follow a common international practice in using Snowden in negotiations over Bout. "This is how it is done in the world. It would be in the government's advantage not to give Snowden back," Korolkov said.
The source said: "Russia has some negotiating advantage here."
But there are risks for both countries in taking the dispute over Snowden too far.
"It's a very, very important moment for the entire U.S.-Russia relationship: We are really at a point that will define the relationship for the foreseeable future," said Dmitry Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center think-tank.
Korolkov predicted the Kremlin will tread carefully. "Russia is not at all interested in entering into a conflict with such a geopolitical opponent and political partner as the United States," he said.
(Additional reporting by Gabriela Baczynska, Thomas Grove and Alissa de Carbonnel; Editing by Timothy Heritage, Steve Gutterman and David Stamp)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/russia-spies-may-chatting-tasty-morsel-snowden-202755572.html
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Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Justices block generic drug liability lawsuits
By Lawrence Hurley and Bill Berkrot
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that generic drugmakers cannot be sued under state law for adverse reactions to their products, a decision that consumer advocates called a blow to patient safety.
In a 5-4 vote, the court ruled for Mutual Pharmaceutical Co, owned by Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, overturning a multimillion-dollar jury award to a badly injured patient in New Hampshire who alleged a generic drug she had taken was unsafe based on its chemical design.
The majority opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, said the state's law could not run against federal laws on prescription medicines whose design has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
A Supreme Court ruling in 2011 found that pharmaceutical companies that make branded drugs are liable for inadequacies in safety warnings of a medicine's label, but not the makers of cheaper copies of those medicines.
Consumer watchdog group Public Citizen said the Supreme Court decision on Monday undermines patient safety at a time when about 80 percent of U.S. prescriptions are filled with generic medicines.
"Today's court decision provides a disincentive for generic makers of drugs to monitor safety of their products and to make sure that they have a surveillance system in place to detect adverse events that pose a threat to patients," Michael Carome, director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group, said in an interview.
He pointed out that, in many cases, the potentially dangerous side effects of medicines have not come to light until decades after they were approved and often after there was no longer a branded version on the market.
With the threat of litigation removed, "groups that think this undermines patient safety could be onto something," said David Maris, an industry analyst with BMO Capital Markets. "The blanket protection that they are under now is that if the FDA says you are approved, as long as they (generic company) don't introduce new problems into the drug then they're fine."
UMBRELLA PROTECTION FOR GENERIC DRUGMAKERS
Mutual Pharmaceutical had asked the court to overturn a $21 million jury award to Karen Bartlett, a New Hampshire woman who took Mutual's generic non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, sulindac, in 2004 after her doctor prescribed it for shoulder pain. Sulindac is a generic version of Merck & Co Inc's Clinoril.
Bartlett suffered a rare hypersensitivity reaction three weeks after she started taking it. Her skin began to peel off, leaving her severely disfigured with burn-like lesions over two-thirds of her body and nearly blind.
Mutual, backed by the Obama administration, said federal law trumped state law claims such as those Bartlett had made, pointing to the fact that the drug had already won FDA approval with an agency-approved label carrying safety warnings.
Federal law requires generic drugs to have the same design and warning labels as their brand-name equivalents, Mutual argued.
The high court agreed.
"Because it is impossible for Mutual and other similarly situated manufacturers to comply with both state and federal law, New Hampshire's warning-based design-defect cause of action is pre-empted with respect to FDA-approved drugs sold in interstate commerce," the majority decision said.
In the ruling, the justices said Bartlett's situation was "tragic and evokes deep sympathy," but added a straightforward application of pre-emption law requires that the judgment of the lower court be reversed.
At the time Bartlett filled her prescription, sulindac's label did not specifically refer to the serious skin reaction known as toxic epidermal necrolysis, although the FDA later added the warning for drugs in that class of medicines.
Because the high court had previously ruled that generic companies could not be sued based on safety warnings in the label, Bartlett's lawyers brought their suit under New Hampshire's design-defect cause of action that says manufacturers have a duty to design products reasonably safely for the uses which they can foresee.
They had successfully argued before the lower court that generic manufacturers facing design-defect claims could comply with both federal and state law by choosing not to make the drug at all. The high court said the District court's rationale that Mutual could escape the impossibility of complying with both state and federal laws by ceasing to sell sulindac was not a viable option and incompatible with prior rulings.
Anthony Nguyen, a legal analyst for Wolters Kluwer, said Monday's ruling further protects generic drugmakers on top of the 2011 decision.
"Now they've got that umbrella protection of 'We can't make any changes to our drugs. We can't preemptively make any changes without having to come up with a new drug ourselves and that's not the business that we're in,'" Nguyen said.
"The generic industry dodged a bullet on this one," BMO's Maris said. "Had it gone against them it would have put a big cloud over the industry."
The case is Mutual Pharmaceutical v. Bartlett, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 12-142.
(Reporting by Bill Berkrot and Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Michele Gershberg, Howard Goller, Will Dunham and Andre Grenon)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/supreme-court-justices-block-generic-drug-design-defect-141645354.html
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Volkswagen ponders extra Golf production for holidays
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Volkswagen
Additional production shifts could point to a gradually improving outlook for Europe's mass market carmakers, after export-heavy luxury brands like Mercedes-Benz
"Due to the high demand for the Golf, Volkswagen is examining whether to continue manufacturing in parts of the Wolfsburg plant during the summer holidays," a spokesman for Europe's largest carmaker said on Monday.
Earlier on Monday, German daily Braunschweiger Zeitung reported that VW was looking to find enough personnel to form one or two shifts daily, each building up to 300 cars per shift.
The paper also said, however, that because most workers had already planned holidays during the three-week production pause scheduled between July 15 and August 2, interest had not yet been sufficient.
(Reporting by Christiaan Hetzner in Frankfurt and Jan Schwartz in Hamburg; Editing by Marilyn Gerlach and Patrick Graham)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/volkswagen-ponders-extra-golf-production-holidays-115757311.html
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High court sends back Texas race-based plan
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Affirmative action in college admissions survived Supreme Court review Monday in a consensus decision that avoided the difficult constitutional issues surrounding a challenge to the University of Texas admission plan.
Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the court's 7-1 ruling that said a court should approve the use of race as a factor in admissions only after it concludes "that no workable race-neutral alternatives would produce the educational benefits of diversity."
But the decision did not question the underpinnings of affirmative action, which the high court last reaffirmed in 2003.
The justices said the federal appeals court in New Orleans did not apply the highest level of judicial scrutiny when it upheld the Texas plan, which uses race as one among many factors in admitting about a quarter of the university's incoming freshmen. The school gives the bulk of the slots to Texans who are admitted based on their high school class rank, without regard to race.
The high court ordered the appeals court to take another look at the case of Abigail Fisher, a white Texan who was not offered a spot at the university's flagship Austin campus in 2008. Fisher has since received her undergraduate degree from Louisiana State University.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the lone dissenter. "In my view, the courts below adhered to this court's pathmarking decisions and there is no need for a second look," Ginsburg said in a dissent she read aloud.
Justice Clarence Thomas, alone on the court, said he would have overturned the high court's 2003 ruling, though he went along with Monday's outcome.
Justice Elena Kagan stayed out of the case, presumably because she had some contact with it at an earlier stage when she worked in the Justice Department.
Kennedy said that courts must determine that the use of race is necessary to achieve the educational benefits of diversity, the Supreme Court's standard for affirmative action in education since 1978. The high court most recently reaffirmed the constitutionality of affirmative action in Grutter v. Bollinger in 2003, a case involving the University of Michigan.
"As the Court said in Grutter, it remains at all times the university's obligation to demonstrate, and the judiciary's obligation to determine, that admissions processes 'ensure that each applicant is evaluated as an individual and not in a way that makes an applicant's race or ethnicity the defining feature of his or her application,'" Kennedy said.
University of Texas president Bill Powers said the university plans no immediate changes in its admissions policies as a result of Monday's ruling and will continue to defend them in the courts.
"We remain committed to assembling a student body at the University of Texas at Austin that provides the educational benefits of diversity on campus while respecting the rights of all students and acting within the constitutional framework established by the court," Powers said.
But Edward Blum, who helped engineer Fisher's challenge, said it is unlikely that the Texas plan and many other college plans can long survive. "The Supreme Court has established exceptionally high hurdles for the University of Texas and other universities and colleges to overcome if they intend to continue using race preferences in their admissions policies, said Blum, director of The Project on Fair Representation in Alexandria, Va.
Civil rights activist Al Sharpton said the court "ducked" the big issues in the case. While he would have preferred that the justices affirm the use of race in college admissions, "a duck is better than a no, but not as good as a yes," Sharpton said. Sharpton, along with Martin Luther King III, was leading a National Press Club news conference announcing initial plans to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the march on Washington.
Retired Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and John Paul Stevens, both members of the majority in the Grutter case, were in the courtroom Monday for the Texas decision.
The challenge to the Texas plan gained traction in part because the makeup of the court has changed since the last time the justices ruled on affirmative action in higher education in 2003. Then, O'Connor wrote the majority opinion that held that colleges and universities can use race in their quest for diverse student bodies.
O'Connor retired in 2006, and her replacement, Justice Samuel Alito, has shown himself to be more skeptical of considerations of race in education.
Texas automatically offers about three-quarters of its spots to high school graduates based on their class rank as part of what was called the "top 10 percent" plan under a 1990s state law signed by then-Gov. George W. Bush. Since then the admissions program has been changed so that now only the top 8 percent gain automatic admission.
Race is a factor in filling out the rest of the incoming class. More than 8 in 10 African-American and Latino students who enrolled at the flagship campus in Austin in 2011 were automatically admitted, according to university statistics.
In all, black and Hispanic students made up more than a quarter of the incoming freshmen class. White students constituted less than half the entering class when students with Asian backgrounds and other minorities were added in.
The university said the extra measure of diversity it gets from the slots outside automatic admission is crucial because too many of its classrooms have only token minority representation, at best. At the same time, Texas argued that race is one of many factors considered and that whether race played the key role in any applicant's case was impossible to tell.
The Obama administration, roughly half of the Fortune 100 companies and large numbers of public and private colleges that feared a broad ruling against affirmative action backed the Texas program. Among the benefits of affirmative action, the administration said, is that it creates a pipeline for a diverse officer corps that it called "essential to the military's operational readiness." In 2003, the court cited the importance of a similar message from military leaders.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/high-court-sends-back-texas-race-based-plan-142424792.html
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Westwood dedicates show to Bradley Manning
MILAN (AP) ? Vivienne Westwood, the British designer known for her eccentric fashion, dedicated her latest menswear collection to Bradley Manning, an American soldier currently on trial in the U.S. for leaking classified material to the website WikiLeaks. He was arrested in May 2010 in Iraq.
During the show for next summer, presented Sunday, the second day of Milan Fashion Week, models walked down the runway wearing a large badge with a picture of the soldier on it, and the word "TRUTH" written at the bottom in bold white letters on a red background.
At the end of the show, the designer herself came out for a runway bow wearing the same badge.
The collection was casual chic with African references, from the striped linen used for a long Kaftan shirt or a summer suit, to baggy pants and breeches, to geometric prints, to toe sandals and flip flops.
The show opened with a series of summer khaki slacks worn over classic shirts, perfect for a toney summer evening.
Absent were the usual Westwood menswear gimmicks such as skirts or high heels. Instead the designer made her runway appearance wearing colored stockings with "climate" written on one leg and "revolution" on the other, showing that truth is not her only battle.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/westwood-dedicates-show-bradley-manning-193924148.html
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Monday, June 24, 2013
Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1, 8.0 and 7.0 Coming To The U.S. July 7 For $399, $299 And $199
Samsung's new Galaxy Tab 3 line has been official for a little while now, but U.S. availability and pricing was up in the air until today. The relatively cheap tablets are going to be $199, $299 and $399 for the Galaxy Tab 7.0, 8.0 and 10.1 respectively, and will be available from retailers including Best Buy, Fry's and Amazon beginning on July 7, with pre-orders starting tomorrow, June 25.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/JR89J7njgW0/
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Hong Kong says Snowden has left for third country
FILE - In this June 21, 2013 file photo, a banner supporting Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee who leaked top-secret documents about sweeping U.S. surveillance programs, is displayed at Central, Hong Kong's business district. The Hong Kong government says Snowden wanted by the U.S. for revealing two highly classified surveillance programs has left for a "third country." The South China Morning Post reported Sunday, June 23, 2013 that Snowden was on a plane for Moscow, but that Russia was not his final destination. Snowden has talked of seeking asylum in Iceland. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)
FILE - In this June 21, 2013 file photo, a banner supporting Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee who leaked top-secret documents about sweeping U.S. surveillance programs, is displayed at Central, Hong Kong's business district. The Hong Kong government says Snowden wanted by the U.S. for revealing two highly classified surveillance programs has left for a "third country." The South China Morning Post reported Sunday, June 23, 2013 that Snowden was on a plane for Moscow, but that Russia was not his final destination. Snowden has talked of seeking asylum in Iceland. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)
HONG KONG (AP) ? A former National Security Agency contractor wanted by the United States for revealing two highly classified surveillance programs has been allowed to leave for a "third country" because a U.S. extradition request did not fully comply with Hong Kong law, the territory's government said Sunday.
A statement from the government did not identify the country, but the South China Morning Post, which has been in contact with Edward Snowden, reported that he was on a plane for Moscow, but that Russia was not his final destination.
Snowden, who has been in hiding in Hong Kong for several weeks since he revealed information on the highly classified spy programs, has talked of seeking asylum in Iceland.
Russia's ITAR-Tass news agency, citing an unidentified Aeroflot official, said Snowden would fly from Moscow to Cuba on Monday and then take a flight to Caracas, Venezuela.
Snowden's departure came a day after the United States made a formal request for his extradition and warned Hong Kong against delaying the process of returning him to face trial in the U.S.
The Hong Kong government said Snowden left "on his own accord for a third country through a lawful and normal channel."
It acknowledged the U.S. extradition request, but said U.S. documentation did not "fully comply with the legal requirements under Hong Kong law." It said additional information was requested from Washington, but since the Hong Kong government "has yet to have sufficient information to process the request for provisional warrant of arrest, there is no legal basis to restrict Mr. Snowden from leaving Hong Kong."
The statement said Hong Kong had informed the U.S. of Snowden's departure. It added that it wanted more information about alleged hacking of computer systems in Hong Kong by U.S. government agencies which Snowden had revealed.
Snowden's departure eliminates a possible fight between Washington and Beijing at a time when China is trying to deflect U.S. accusations that it carries out extensive surveillance of American government and commercial operations. Hong Kong, a former British colony, has a high degree of autonomy and is granted rights and freedoms not seen on mainland China, but under the city's mini constitution Beijing is allowed to intervene in matters involving defense and diplomatic affairs.
Hong Kong has an extradition treaty with the U.S., but the document has some exceptions, including for crimes deemed political.
The Obama administration on Saturday warned Hong Kong against delaying Snowden's extradition, with White House national security adviser Tom Donilon saying in an interview with CBS News, "Hong Kong has been a historically good partner of the United States in law enforcement matters, and we expect them to comply with the treaty in this case."
Snowden's departure came as the South China Morning Post released new allegations from Snowden that U.S. hacking targets in China included the nation's cellphone companies and two universities hosting extensive Internet traffic hubs.
He told the newspaper that "the NSA does all kinds of things like hack Chinese cellphone companies to steal all of your SMS data." It added that Snowden said he had documents to support the hacking allegations, but the report did not identify the documents. It said he spoke to the newspaper in a June 12 interview.
With a population of more than 1.3 billion, China has massive cellphone companies. China Mobile is the world's largest mobile network carrier with 735 million subscribers, followed by China Unicom with 258 million users and China Telecom with 172 million users.
Snowden said Tsinghua University in Beijing and Chinese University in Hong Kong, home of some of the country's major Internet traffic hubs, were targets of extensive hacking by U.S. spies this year. He said the NSA was focusing on so-called "network backbones" in China, through which enormous amounts of Internet data passes.
The Chinese government has not commented on the extradition request and Snowden's departure, but its state-run media have used Snowden's allegations to poke back at Washington after the U.S. had spent the past several months pressuring China on its international spying operations.
A commentary published Sunday by the official Xinhua News Agency said Snowden's disclosures of U.S. spying activities in China have "put Washington in a really awkward situation."
"Washington should come clean about its record first. It owes ... an explanation to China and other countries it has allegedly spied on," it said. "It has to share with the world the range, extent and intent of its clandestine hacking programs."
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AP PHOTOS: Supermoon looms bright in night sky
AP PHOTOS: Supermoon looms bright in night sky
By The Associated Press?
?By The Associated PressThe moon is seen in its waxing gibbous stage as it rises behind the helicopter from the original Batman television show, which people can ride at the New Jersey State Fair, Saturday, June 22, 2013, in East Rutherford, N.J. The moon, which will reach its full stage on Sunday, is expected to be 13.5 percent closer to earth during a phenomenon known as supermoon. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
The moon is seen in its waxing gibbous stage as it rises behind the helicopter from the original Batman television show, which people can ride at the New Jersey State Fair, Saturday, June 22, 2013, in East Rutherford, N.J. The moon, which will reach its full stage on Sunday, is expected to be 13.5 percent closer to earth during a phenomenon known as supermoon. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
A "supermoon" rises behind the Home Place clock tower in Prattville, Ala., Saturday, June 22, 2013. The biggest and brightest full moon of the year graces the sky early Sunday as our celestial neighbor swings closer to Earth than usual. While the moon will appear 14 percent larger than normal, sky watchers won't be able to notice the difference with the naked eye. Still, astronomers say it's worth looking up and appreciating the cosmos. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)
A "supermoon" rises behind roadside plants growing in Prattville, Ala., Saturday, June 22, 2013. The biggest and brightest full moon of the year graces the sky early Sunday as our celestial neighbor swings closer to Earth than usual. While the moon will appear 14 percent larger than normal, sky watchers won't be able to notice the difference with the naked eye. Still, astronomers say it's worth looking up and appreciating the cosmos. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)
A full moon rises beside the Bank of America corporate headquarters in downtown Charlotte, N.C., Saturday, June 22, 2013. The larger than normal moon called the "Supermoon" happens only once this year as the moon on its elliptical orbit is at its closest point to earth.(AP Photo/Chuck Burton)
A full moon rises beside an office building in downtown Charlotte, N.C., Saturday, June 22, 2013. The larger than normal moon called the "Supermoon" happens only once this year as the moon on its elliptical orbit is at its closest point to earth.(AP Photo/Chuck Burton)
Look up in the sky for a super sight: the biggest and brightest full moon of the year.
The so-called supermoon will appear 14 percent larger than normal early Sunday as our celestial neighbor swings closer to Earth. Some viewers may think the supermoon looks more dazzling, but it's actually an optical illusion. The moon looms larger on the horizon next to trees and buildings.
The moon will come within 222,000 miles of Earth and turn full around 7:30 a.m. EDT, making it the best time to view.
Here are AP photos of the supermoon:
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