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It was one week ago this Tuesday that a hacked AP account tweeted, ?Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured? to its 1.9 million followers.
Moments later, the @AP twitter handle released a statement saying they had been hacked and that President Obama was fine, but the markets had already reacted. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 150 points and lost $136 billion in value before rebounding.
The Syrian Electronic Army, a group that backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and attacks western media for what they believe to be unfair coverage of the country's ongoing conflict, has taken responsibility for the hack.
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is investigating the Twitter hoax and will hold a panel discussion on ?market issues resulting from the April 23 twitter attack? at tomorrow?s pre-scheduled CFTC technology meeting.
The CFTC?s technology committee is made up of bankers, scholars, and traders who, according to The New York Times, are looking at 28 different futures contracts to determine exactly how the AP?s erroneous tweet impacted markets.
While the CFTC has indicated that high frequency trading played a big part in the flash crash that followed the twitter hack, The Daily Ticker?s Henry Blodget disagrees. ?The problem here is not the high frequency traders, that?s a different discussion,? Blodget says.
In the United States, Blodget explains, hacking a Twitter account is still considered a harmless prank. ?This is serious. We live in an information economy, huge dollars are tied to it and it should be treated as such,? he says.
The Daily Ticker?s Aaron Task believes that the CFTC should be speaking with Twitter representatives, not just traders. ?Now that the SEC is allowing public companies to make these announcements on social media platforms, it does raise the possibility that somebody else?s account gets hacked and publically traded information gets out there that?s just all wrong,? Task says.
?It will,? confirms Blodget. ?It?s definitely going to happen.?
In the wake of the AP scandal, Twitter is reportedly testing a two-step security verification process that will make it more difficult for hackers to take over accounts.
Still, ?no system is unhackable,? says Blodget. ?This will continue to happen.?
Rationalizing the hack, Blodget claims that news and misinformation leaks occurred long before Twitter and they will continue no matter what security measures are put into place-- markets understand this.
?It doesn?t need to be this national crisis,? says Blodget.
Still, ?it absolutely does need to be taken extremely seriously when somebody does something that in certain communities might be considered a prank that actually has serious impact on markets and the economy and corporations,? he says.
You can contact the reporter on Twitter: @NicoleGoodkind.
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Public servants shout slogans during a protest in front of the Parliament in Athens, Sunday April 28, 2013. A few hundreds public servants protested peacefully outside the Greek Parliament as lawmakers vote on new austerity bill.(AP Photo/Kostas Tsironis)
Public servants shout slogans during a protest in front of the Parliament in Athens, Sunday April 28, 2013. A few hundreds public servants protested peacefully outside the Greek Parliament as lawmakers vote on new austerity bill.(AP Photo/Kostas Tsironis)
A protester burns an effigy depicting a Greek worker during a protest in front of the Parliament in Athens, Sunday April 28, 2013. A few hundred public servants protested peacefully outside the Greek Parliament as lawmakers voted on new austerity bill.(AP Photo/Kostas Tsironis)
Public servants shout slogans during a protest in front of the Parliament in Athens, Sunday April 28, 2013. A few hundred public servants protested peacefully outside the Greek Parliament as lawmakers vote on new austerity bill.(AP Photo/Kostas Tsironis)
A protester (not seen) waves a labour union flag during a protest in front of the Parliament in Athens, Sunday April 28, 2013. A few hundreds public servants protested peacefully outside the Greek Parliament as lawmakers vote on new austerity bill.(AP Photo/Kostas Tsironis)
Public servants cast their shadows on a banner of a labour union during a protest in front of the Parliament in Athens, Sunday April 28, 2013. A few hundred public servants protested peacefully outside the Greek Parliament as lawmakers voted on new austerity bill.(AP Photo/Kostas Tsironis)
ATHENS, Greece (AP) ? Greece's Parliament approved an emergency bill Sunday to pave the way for thousands of public sector layoffs and free up 8.8 billion euros ($11.5 billion) in international rescue loans.
The bill, which passed in a 168-123 vote, will allow for the first civil service layoffs in more than a century. About 2,000 civil servants will be laid off by the end of May, with another 2,000 following by the end of the year and a further 11,500 by end-2014, for a total of 15,500.
The legislation is the latest wave of Greece's draconian austerity program. It agreed this month with its bailout rescue lenders ? the European Union and International Monetary Fund ? to implement the measures as a condition to receive new emergency loans worth 8.8 billion euros ($11.5 billion).
The permanence of civil servant jobs has been enshrined in all constitutions since 1911, a form of protection from wholesale sacking when the government changes hands.
To get around the constitutional protection, the bill stipulates the first layoffs will take place in state agencies that will be disbanded or merged. A provision also aims to bypass, if needed, the notoriously slow and lenient disciplinary councils, which have refused to lay off even people convicted of felonies. More than 2,000 such cases are pending, nearly 600 on appeal.
The civil servants' union, ADEDY, bitterly opposed the bill's provisions and called for a protest outside Parliament. Authorities took strict security measures, such as barricading a Parliament entrance since Sunday morning and diverting traffic and shutting down a subway station two hours before the announced start of the protest. In the end, fewer than 300 people showed up.
The bill contained many unrelated provisions, from the payment of back taxes and social security contributions to the end of bakeries' monopoly in baking bread.
To shorten debate and to present the bill as a sort of confidence vote, the government bundled 110 pages of legislation into a single article. Debate in committee lasted a single day and so did debate in the full Parliament, despite opposition protests and claims of a "parliamentary coup."
FILE - In this Saturday, April 27, 2013 file photo, visitors pause at a makeshift memorial in Copley Square for victims of the Boston Marathon bombings, in Boston. Rep. Michael McCaul, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, says he believes the Boston Marathon bombing suspects had some training in carrying out their attack. McCaul is citing the type of device used in the attack, the shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs, and the weapons' sophistication as signs of training. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)
FILE - In this Saturday, April 27, 2013 file photo, visitors pause at a makeshift memorial in Copley Square for victims of the Boston Marathon bombings, in Boston. Rep. Michael McCaul, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, says he believes the Boston Marathon bombing suspects had some training in carrying out their attack. McCaul is citing the type of device used in the attack, the shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs, and the weapons' sophistication as signs of training. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)
FILE - In this Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2010 file photo, House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct ranking member Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, arrives for a closed door executive session on Capitol Hill in Washington. McCaul, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, says he believes the Boston Marathon bombing suspects had some training in carrying out their attack. McCaul is citing the type of device used in the attack, the shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs, and the weapons' sophistication as signs of training. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)
FILE - This file image from a Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Homeland Security joint bulletin issued to law enforcement and obtained by The Associated Press, shows the remains of a pressure cooker that the FBI says was part of one of the bombs that exploded during the Boston Marathon. Rep. Michael McCaul, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, says he believes the Boston Marathon bombing suspects had some training in carrying out their attack. McCaul is citing the type of device used in the attack, the shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs, and the weapons' sophistication as signs of training. (AP Photo/FBI, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee said Sunday that the FBI is investigating in the United States and overseas to determine whether the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing received training that helped them carry out the attack.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, is charged with joining with his older brother, Tamerlan, who's now dead, in setting off the shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs. The bombs were triggered by a remote detonator of the kind used in remote-control toys, U.S. officials have said.
U.S. officials investigating the bombings have told The Associated Press that so far there is no evidence to date of a wider plot, including training, direction or funding for the attacks.
A criminal complaint outlining federal charges against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev described him as holding a cellphone in his hand minutes before the first explosion.
The brothers are ethnic Chechens from Russia who came to the United States about a decade ago with their parents.
"I think given the level of sophistication of this device, the fact that the pressure cooker is a signature device that goes back to Pakistan, Afghanistan, leads me to believe ? and the way they handled these devices and the tradecraft ? ... that there was a trainer and the question is where is that trainer or trainers," said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, on "Fox News Sunday."
"Are they overseas in the Chechen region or are they in the United States?" McCaul said. "In my conversations with the FBI, that's the big question. They've casted a wide net both overseas and in the United States to find out where this person is. But I think the experts all agree that there is someone who did train these two individuals."
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said he thought it's "probably true" that the attack was not linked to a major group. But, he told CNN's "State of the Union," that there "may have been radicalizing influences" in the U.S. or abroad. "It does look like a lot of radicalization was self-radicalization online, but we don't know the full answers yet."
On ABC's "This Week," moderator George Stephanopoulos raised the question to the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee about FBI suspicions that the brothers had help in getting the bombs together.
"Absolutely, and not only that, but in the self-radicalization process, you still need outside affirmation," responded Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich.
"We still have persons of interest that we're working to find and identify and have conversations with," he added.
At this point in the investigation, however, Sen. Claire McCaskill said there was no evidence that the brothers "were part of a larger organization, that they were, in fact, part of some kind of terror cell or any kind of direction."
The Missouri Democrat, who's on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, told CBS' "Face the Nation" that "it appears, at this point, based on the evidence, that it's the two of them."
Homemade bombs built from pressure cookers have been a frequent weapon of militants in Afghanistan, India and Pakistan. Al-Qaida's branch in Yemen once published an online manual on how to make one.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev was an ardent reader of jihadist websites and extremist propaganda, officials have said. He frequently looked at extremist sites, including Inspire magazine, an English-language online publication produced by al-Qaida's Yemen affiliate.
In recent years, two would-be U.S. attackers reported receiving bomb-making training from foreign groups but failed to set off the explosives.
A Nigerian man was given a mandatory life sentence for trying to blow up a packed jetliner on Christmas Day 2009 with a bomb sewn into his underwear. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had tried to set off the bomb minutes before the Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight landed.
The device didn't work as planned, but it still produced smoke, flame and panic. He told authorities that he trained in Yemen under the eye of Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical American-born cleric and one of the best-known al-Qaida figures.
A U.S. drone strike in Yemen killed al-Awlaki in 2011.
In 2010, a Pakistani immigrant who tried to detonate a car bomb in New York's Times Square also received a life sentence. Faisal Shazad said the Pakistan Taliban provided him with more than $15,000 and five days of explosives training.
The bomb was made of fireworks fertilizer, propane tanks and gasoline canisters. Explosives experts said the fertilizer wasn't the right grade and the fireworks weren't powerful enough to set off the intended chain reaction.
Clint Eastwood At Tribeca: 'It Would Be Great To Be 105 And Still Making Films'
"Reluctant Fundamentalist" US Premiere - 2013 Tribeca Film Festival
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 22: Actress Kate Hudson attends the 'Reluctant Fundamentalist' US Premiere during the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival on April 22, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival)
Tribeca Talks - "I Got Something To Tell You" Premiere And Panel - 2013 Tribeca Film Festival
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 22: Director Whoopi Goldberg speaks onstage at the Tribeca Talks - 'I Got Something To Tell You' Premiere And Panel during the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival on April 22, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival)
"Kiss The Water" Premiere - 2013 Tribeca Film Festival
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 22: Actor Jerry Seinfeld attends the 'Kiss The Water' Premiere during the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival on April 22, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival)
"Reluctant Fundamentalist" US Premiere - 2013 Tribeca Film Festival
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 22: Actor Dean Winters and guest attend the 'Reluctant Fundamentalist' US Premiere during the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival on April 22, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival)
Will Forte
This April 19, 2013 photo shows actor Will Forte, right, with director Steph Green in New York. Forte, a cast member on "Saturday Night Live," stars in his first dramatic role in "Run and Jump," a film being shown at the TriBeca Film Festival. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Invision/AP)
Jessica Seinfeld, Jerry Seinfeld
Comedian Jerry Seinfeld, right, and his wife Jessica Seinfeld, attend the "Kiss the Water" premiere during the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival on Monday, April 22, 2013, in New York. (Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP)
Jerry Seinfeld
Comedian Jerry Seinfeld attends the "Kiss the Water" premiere during the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival on Monday, April 22, 2013, in New York. (Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP)
Julie Delpy
Actress Julie Delpy attends the "Before Midnight" premiere during the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival on Monday, April 22, 2013, in New York. (Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP)
Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke
Actress Julie Delpy, left, and actor Ethan Hawke, attend the "Before Midnight" premiere during the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival on Monday, April 22, 2013, in New York. (Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP)
Emma Roberts
Emma Roberts attends the premiere of "Adult World" during the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival on Thursday, April 18, 2013 in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
"Teenage" World Premiere - 2013 Tribeca Film Festival
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 20: Jason Schwartzman attends the 'Teenage' world premiere during the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival on April 20, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival)
"Teenage" World Premiere - 2013 Tribeca Film Festival
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 20: Adam Horovitz of The Beastie Boys attends the 'Teenage' world premiere during the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival on April 20, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival)
Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival Gala: "Big Shot" - 2013 Tribeca Film Festival
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 19: Tribeca Film Festival co-founder Robert De Niro (L) and filmmaker Kevin Connolly attend the Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival Gala: 'Big Shot' during the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival on April 19, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival)
Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival Gala: "Big Shot" - 2013 Tribeca Film Festival
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 19: Filmmaker Kevin Connolly and Lydia Hearst-Shaw attend the Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival Gala: 'Big Shot' during the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival on April 19, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival)
Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival Gala: "Big Shot" - 2013 Tribeca Film Festival
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 19: Filmmaker Kevin Connolly and Lydia Hearst-Shaw attend the Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival Gala: 'Big Shot' during the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival on April 19, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival)
Felicity Huffman, Clark Gregg, Amanda Peet
Felicity Huffman, left, Clark Gregg and Amanda Peet attend the premiere of "Trust Me" during the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival on Saturday, April 20, 2013 in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
Sam Rockwell
Sam Rockwell attends the premiere of "Trust Me" during the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival on Saturday, April 20, 2013 in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
"The Pretty One" World Premiere - 2013 Tribeca Film Festival
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 20: Actor Zoe Kazan attends the 'The Pretty One' World Premiere during the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival on April 20, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival)
"The Pretty One" World Premiere - 2013 Tribeca Film Festival
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 20: Julian Wass and Jenee LaMarque attend the 'The Pretty One' World Premiere during the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival on April 20, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival)
Tribeca Talks Director's Series: Mira Nair With Bryce Dallas Howard - 2013 Tribeca Film Festival
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 20: Actress Bryce Dallas Howard attends Tribeca Talks Director's Series: Mira Nair With Bryce Dallas Howard during the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival on April 20, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images)
HBO's "Moms Mabley: I Got Somethin' To Tell You" Premiere At Tribeca Film Festival
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 20: (L-R) Robert De Niro, Whoopi Goldberg, Grace Hightower and Tom Leonardis attend HBO's 'Moms Mabley: I Got Somethin' To Tell You' premiere at Tribeca Film Festival on April 20, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Donald Bowers/Getty Images for HBO)
HBO's "Moms Mabley: I Got Somethin' To Tell You" Premiere At Tribeca Film Festival
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 20: (L-R) Tom Leonardis, Grace Hightower, Whoopi Goldberg and Robert De Niro attend HBO's 'Moms Mabley: I Got Somethin' To Tell You' premiere at Tribeca Film Festival on April 20, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Donald Bowers/Getty Images for HBO)
Tribeca Film Festival 2013 After Party "Trust Me" Sponsored By Ciroc
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 20: Director Clark Gregg attends the Tribeca Film Festival 2013 after party for 'Trust Me' sponsored by Ciroc on April 20, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for 2013 Tribeca Film Festival)
Tribeca Film Festival After Party 2013 "The Pretty One" Sponsored By BR Guest
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 20: Dan Stevens attends the Tribeca Film Festival after party 2013 for 'The Pretty One' sponsored by BR Guest on April 20, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for 2013 Tribeca Film Festival)
Tribeca Film Festival After Party 2013 "The Pretty One" Sponsored By BR Guest
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 20: Zoe Kazan attends the Tribeca Film Festival after party 2013 for 'The Pretty One' sponsored by BR Guest on April 20, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for 2013 Tribeca Film Festival)
Tribeca Film Festival After Party 2013 "The Pretty One" Sponsored By BR Guest
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 20: Actor Frankie Shaw attends the Tribeca Film Festival after party 2013 for 'The Pretty One' sponsored by BR Guest on April 20, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for 2013 Tribeca Film Festival)
Tribeca Film Festival 2013 Portrait Studio - Day 3
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 21: Actor Will Forte of the film Run and Jump poses at the Tribeca Film Festival 2013 portrait studio on April 21, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images)
Tribeca Film Festival 2013 Portrait Studio - Day 3
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 21: Actors Will Forte, Maxine Peake, and Edward MacLiam pose with Director Steph Green of the film Run and Jump at the Tribeca Film Festival 2013 portrait studio on April 21, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images)
Tribeca Film Festival 2013 Portrait Studio - Day 3
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 21: Michael Chen, Alex Wolff and Katie Chang, actors in the film A Birder's Guide To Everything pose at the Tribeca Film Festival 2013 portrait studio on April 21, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images)
Tribeca Film Festival 2013 Portrait Studio - Day 3
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 21: Director Rob Meyer and screenwriter Luke Matheny of the film A Birder's Guide To Everything pose at the Tribeca Film Festival 2013 portrait studio on April 21, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images)
"Some Velvet Morning" World Premiere - 2013 Tribeca Film Festival
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 21: Actress Alice Eve attends the 'Some Velvet Morning' World Premiere during the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival on April 21, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival)
"Some Velvet Morning" World Premiere - 2013 Tribeca Film Festival
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 21: Filmmaker Neil LaBute and actress Alice Eve attend the 'Some Velvet Morning' World Premiere during the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival on April 21, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival)
"Gasland Part II" World Premiere - 2013 Tribeca Film Festival
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 21: Director Josh Fox attends 'Gasland Part II' World Premiere at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival on April 21, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images)
"Gasland Part II" World Premiere - 2013 Tribeca Film Festival
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 21: Yoko Ono (C) and Josh Fox (R) attend 'Gasland Part II' World Premiere at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival on April 21, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images)
"The Director" World Premiere - 2013 Tribeca Film Festival
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 21: Actor/producer James Franco attends 'The Director' World Premiere during the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival on April 21, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images)
"The Director" World Premiere - 2013 Tribeca Film Festival
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 21: Director Christina Voros and producer/actor James Franco attend 'The Director' World Premiere during the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival on April 21, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images)
Padma Lakshmi
Padma Lakshmi attends the premiere of "Sunlight Jr." during the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival on Saturday, April 20, 2013 in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
Naomi Watts, Matt Dillon
Naomi Watts and Matt Dillon attend the premiere of "Sunlight Jr." during the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival on Saturday, April 20, 2013 in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
Jennifer Grey, Joel Grey
Jennifer Grey and Joel Grey attend the premiere of "Trust Me" during the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival on Saturday, April 20, 2013 in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
Norman Reedus
Norman Reedus attends the premiere of "Sunlight Jr." during the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival on Saturday, April 20, 2013 in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
Robert De Niro, Liza Minnelli
Liza Minnelli and Robert De Niro attend the premiere of "Mistaken For Strangers" during the opening night of the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival on Wednesday April 17, 2013 in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
Richard Belzer
Richard Belzer attends the premiere of "Mistaken For Strangers" during the opening night of the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival on Wednesday April 17, 2013 in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
Ari Graynor
Ari Graynor attends the premiere of "Mistaken for Strangers" during the opening night of the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival on Wednesday April 17, 2013 in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
Matt Berninger, Tom Berninger, Carin Besser
Tom Berninger, from left, Carin Besser and Matt Berninger attend the premiere of "Mistaken for Strangers" during the opening night of the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival on Wednesday April 17, 2013 in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
Josh Radnor
Josh Radnor attends the premiere of "Mistaken for Strangers" during the opening night of the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival on Wednesday April 17, 2013 in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
Riley Keough
Riley Keough attends the premiere of "Mistaken For Strangers" during the opening night of the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival on Wednesday April 17, 2013 in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
Josh Lucas, Jessica Henriquez
Josh Lucas, right, and Jessica Henriquez attend the premiere of "Mistaken For Strangers" during the opening night of the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival on Wednesday April 17, 2013 in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
Mira Sorvino
Mira Sorvino attends the premiere of "Mistaken For Strangers" during the opening night of the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival on Wednesday April 17, 2013 in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
Tribeca Film Festival Opening Night Co-Sponsored By American Express
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 17: Deborah Curtis, Vice President, Entertainment Marketing and Sponsorships, American Express, director Tom Berninger (C), Rich Lehrfeld (2nd R) and The National attend Tribeca Film Festival Opening Night co-sponsored by American Express on April 17, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for American Express)
2013 Tribeca Film Festival Opening Night After Party For "Mistaken For Strangers" Sponsored By American Express
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 17: Kenneth Lonergan and Jay Smith Cameron attend the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival opening night after party for 'Mistaken For Strangers' sponsored by American Express on April 17, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images for 2013 Tribeca Film Festival)
Tribeca Film Festival Opening Night Co-Sponsored By American Express
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 17: A general view of atmosphere at the Tribeca Film Festival Opening Night co-sponsored by American Express on April 17, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for American Express)
HIGHLANDS, N.J. (AP) ? New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Monday that President Barack Obama "has kept every promise he's made" about helping the state recover from Superstorm Sandy.
Hours later, Obama's housing secretary approved New Jersey's plans to spend $1.83 billion in federal money to help the state rebuild and recover from the storm.
Speaking on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program six months after the deadly storm, the Republican governor said presidential politics were the last thing on his mind as he toured storm-devastated areas with Obama last fall.
When it comes to helping New Jersey rebuild from the storm, "the president has kept every promise he's made," said Christie, widely considered a potential candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. "I think he's done a good job. He kept his word."
Christie's warm embrace of Obama after the storm angered some Republicans, who said it helped tip a close presidential election to the Democrat and away from Mitt Romney, who Christie endorsed and for whom he campaigned last fall.
Christie says he and Obama have fundamentally different views on governing. But he said the two men did what needed to be done for a devastated region.
"I've got a job to do," he said. "You wake up and 7 million of your 8.8 million citizens are out of power, you're not thinking about presidential politics."
Christie challenged his critics to put themselves in his shoes while dealing with the massive storm, predicting none of them would have done anything differently.
"I have a 95 percent level of disagreement with Barack Obama," Christie said. But that did not come into play while dealing with the storm.
"We saw suffering together," Christie said. "Everything the president promised me they'd do, they've done. I don't have any complaint this morning on the issue of disaster relief."
Sandy destroyed about 360,000 homes or apartment units in New Jersey, and some areas along the shore are still devastated.
Later Monday, U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan appeared with Christie at a press conference and announced federal approval of New Jersey's plans to spend more than $1.8 billion in federal grants on storm rebuilding and recovery.
"Today is the beginning of us getting to phase two of return to normalcy," Christie said. "For the overwhelming majority of New Jerseyans, their life is back to normal. For those who have not been able to leave it behind, I can still see the emotion on their faces, the sense of loss they still carry close to the surface. We are not here today to take a victory lap."
Congress approved more than $60 billion in Sandy relief funds, most of it for New Jersey and New York, despite opposition from many Congressional Republicans who voiced concerns over how some of it would be spent.
At a press conference at a popular seafood restaurant, where reporters and cameramen were pressed up against diners, Christie said it has been easy to work with Donovan on Sandy recovery.
"There's an old joke, right? Someone from the government comes into town and they say, 'I'm from Washington and I'm here to help' and everybody starts to laugh," Christie said. "Shaun Donovan is ruining that joke for me."
Donovan returned the compliment, praising the Republican governor "for his remarkable and relentless leadership in helping this town, this shore and this state recover from one of the toughest blows it has ever endured."
This is the first round of disaster relief money to be allocated. Two more rounds of block grants are expected later.
The grants will be focused in the nine counties with the worst damage from the storm. The first round of grants will help an estimated 26,000 homeowners with their primary residences, 5,000 renters and 10,000 small businesses, in addition to local governments.
The programs the Republican governor wants to implement ? offering grants to rebuild damaged homes, no-interest loans for small businesses and giving landlords cash incentives to repair homes and rent them ? are standard for states receiving federal assistance after natural disasters. Some areas where the state says there are problems, such as repairing infrastructure and restoring the fishing industry, are not included in the plan. An expanded home buyback program for people living in flood-prone neighborhoods will be included in a later funding application.
The plan submitted to HUD includes $825 million for elevation and reconstruction of damaged primary residences; $255 million for displaced renters whose primary residences were damaged by the storm; and $300 million in small business grants. A $25 million allocation to promote storm-impacted shore communities is also included, as is $50 million to help municipalities continue to provide essential services without increasing taxes. Developers of public housing could see $104.5 million in zero- and low-interest loans of up to $120,000 per unit to create new permanent housing
___
Wayne Parry can be reached at http://twitter.com/WayneParryAC
NEW ORLEANS (AP) ? At 101 years old, New Orleans jazz trumpeter Lionel Ferbos opened one of 12 stages on the second day of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Billy Joel brought the crowds and ended Day 2.
Couples danced and some sang along to old jazz standards such as "Back Home In Indiana" and "I Can't Give You Anything but Love" on Saturday.
Ferbos is believed to be the oldest actively working musician in the city. He performs regularly at the Palm Court Jazz Club in the French Quarter.
"He epitomizes New Orleans," said New Orleans resident Medora Monigold, a Jazz Fest veteran and fan of Ferbos. "In a day where the elders are not respected, he reminds us that wisdom and talent can exist at any age."
Monigold enjoyed a plate of seafood casserole and fried green tomatoes as she tapped her foot to the music.
Maryruth Senechal, of Hartford, Conn., said Ferbos was excellent. She said she catches his shows often at the Palm Court but prefers his performances at Jazz Fest.
"Here, I can dance and second-line. I love the old traditional brass band jazz," she said.
Senechal and her husband, Jean-Guy, have attended Jazz Fest 14 times and spend most of the festival at the jazz tent, where other acts for the day included trumpeter and singer Wendell Brunious and singer-pianist Tim Laughlin.
Brunious brought couples to their feet as he sang "I Will Never Be the Same" and "Big Chief," an upbeat number commonly performed at Mardi Gras that had many in the crowd dancing and hoisting umbrellas in the tradition known as second line. He closed his set with the New Orleans favorite "When the Saints Go Marching In."
On one of the bigger stages, the brass band Bonerama jammed before a crowd of thousands under sunny skies and a gentle breeze that broke through the warm temperatures.
"The sky is smiling upon us," said Quint Davis, the festival's producer. "We do it rain or shine, but we reach the spirit and zenith when in the sunshine."
Davis said Friday's opening day saw bigger crowds than last year.
That trend seemed to continue Saturday as thousands packed the grass spaces in front of the festival's largest stage to hear the day's final performer, Joel, who opened his set with "Movin' Out." He told the crowd that New York hurt with New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. "After Hurricane Sandy, we're taking inspiration from you guys," he said as the crowd cheered in response.
He also did his classics, "Only the Good Die Young" and "Piano Man."
On a nearby stage, neo-soul singer Jill Scott dazzled fans, singing several of her hits including "It's Love," ''The Way," ''So In Love," and "Quick."
New Orleans native Darnie Williams described herself as Scott's No. 1 fan.
"She's just awesome," she said of Scott in between dancing and singing along with her. "She's just a true soul sister. She's real and her music is so soulful, much like Aretha and Gladys Knight."
Jazz Fest continues through Sunday and then resumes May 2-5. Festival-goers will be treated to traditional jazz, rock 'n roll, Cajun, gospel, blues, hip-hop, funk and zydeco.
Second-weekend headliners include Hall and Oates, Fleetwood Mac, Little Big Town, Aaron Neville and Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews.
___
Associated Press writer Stacey Plaisance in New Orleans contributed to this report.
BEIRUT (AP) ? Syrian rebels seeking to topple President Bashar Assad fought intense battles with his troops on Sunday to try to seize control of three military air bases in the country's north and curtail the regime's use of its punishing air power, activists said.
Rebels, who have been trying to capture the air fields for months, broke into the sprawling Abu Zuhour air base in northwestern Idlib province and Kweiras base in the Aleppo province on Saturday. Fighting raged inside the two facilities Sunday.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least seven fighters were killed in the fighting in Abu Zuhour, in addition to an unknown number of soldiers. The group, which relies on a network of activists on the ground, said the Syrian air force conducted an airstrike on Abu Zuhour village during the fighting to ease pressure on government troops inside the base.
Rebels control much of Idlib and Aleppo provinces, which border Turkey, although government troops still hold some areas including the provincial capital of Idlib province and parts of the city of Aleppo, Syria's largest urban center.
The Aleppo Media Center said rebels also seized 60 percent of the Mannagh helicopter base near the border with Turkey. Rebels from the Islamist al-Burraq Brigades announced that fighters from multiple factions in northern Aleppo have launched a large-scale offensive to seize full control of the facility.
Government troops regularly shell nearby areas from the Mannagh base, including a rocket attack overnight on the town of Tal Rifaat near the border with Turkey that killed at least four people, including two women and a child.
Syria's conflict started with largely peaceful anti-government protests in March 2011 but eventually turned into a civil war. More than 70,000 people have been killed, according to the United Nations.
The Obama administration said Thursday that intelligence indicates that government forces likely used chemical agents against rebels in two attacks.
Washington's declaration was its strongest on the topic so far, although the administration said it was still working to pin down definitive proof of the use of chemical weapons. It held back from saying Damascus had crossed what President Barack Obama has said would be a "red line" prompting tougher action in Syria.
Both sides of the civil war accuse each other of using the chemical weapons.
The deadliest such alleged attack was in the Khan al-Assal village in the Aleppo province in March. The Syrian government called for the United Nations to investigate alleged chemical weapons use by rebels in the attack that killed 31 people.
Syria, however, has not allowed a team of experts into the country because it wants the investigation limited to the single Khan al-Assal incident, while U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged "immediate and unfettered access" for an expanded investigation.
The state-run al-Thawra newspaper on Sunday accused the U.N. secretary general of being a "tool" for the United States and accused him of "bowing to American and European pressures."
In neighoring Lebanon, Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV reported that Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov met Saturday night with the pro-Syrian militant group's leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah. No details emerged of the late night meeting.
The Shiite Muslim group has been drawn into the fighting in Syria and is known to be backing regime fighters in Shiite villages near the Lebanon border. The Syrian opposition accuses fighters from the group of taking part in the Syrian military crackdown inside the country.
At a Sunday morning at a news conference in Beirut, Bogdanov called for a diplomatic solution to Syria's civil war based on the Geneva Communique of June 2012. The communique is a broad but ambiguous proposal endorsed by Western powers and Russia to provide a basis for negotiations.
Immigration reform: While Congress debates, Supreme Court stays clear
The US Supreme Court turned aside an appeal on Monday from the state of Alabama asking the high court to examine whether state governments can pass laws making it illegal to harbor or smuggle illegal immigrants within a state?s borders.
The court action came without comment from the justices. The order noted that Justice Antonin Scalia dissented from the court?s decision not to hear the case.
The denial comes as Congress and the White House are working toward an immigration reform package.
RECOMMENDED: Could you pass a US citizenship test?
At issue in Alabama v. US (12-884), was an Alabama statute that sought to echo the requirements of federal immigration laws that outlaw similar activities.
It was patterned on a controversial immigration law passed in Arizona in 2010 aimed at discouraging illegal immigrants from coming to or remaining in Arizona.
While Alabama argued that its statute was substantively different from those portions of Arizona?s law previously struck down by the Supreme Court, the justices? refusal to take the case lets stand an appellate court ruling that the Alabama law was preempted by federal immigration law.
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Eight other states have similar laws that seek to regulate activities related to the presence of illegal immigrants within state borders. They were adopted in an attempt to compensate for what state officials viewed as lax or ineffective enforcement of US immigration laws by the federal government.
Like it did regarding Arizona?s SB 1070, the Obama administration opposed the Alabama law and successfully sued the state in federal court to prevent it from enforcing any statute that might touch on issues involving illegal immigrants.
That posture toward the states set the stage for a constitutional confrontation pitting the authority of the national government to set immigration enforcement priorities against the power of the states to protect state residents within their own borders.
The Obama administration?s crackdown against aggressive state immigration laws also dove-tailed with a political strategy in the president?s reelection campaign. Candidate Obama used the state-federal disputes and the promise of a kinder, gentler immigration posture by his administration to appeal to Latino voters.
(It worked. In November, the president received 71 percent of the Latino vote.)
Last June, the Supreme Court invalidated three sections of Arizona?s SB 1070, saying they were preempted by federal immigration law. But the justices also upheld the law?s controversial centerpiece ? the ?show-me-your-papers? provision that ordered police to check the immigration status of anyone they had reason to suspect were in the US without authorization.
The question in the Alabama case was whether Alabama?s anti-harboring statute is preempted by federal immigration laws and the more forgiving immigration enforcement priorities of the Obama administration.
In general, laws passed by Congress are the supreme law of the land and thus preempt state laws that either intrude into an area of federal power or conflict with an existing federal statute.
The portion of the Alabama law that was being appealed involved state prohibitions on harboring, inducing the arrival, or transporting illegal immigrants in Alabama.
?These provisions are markedly different from the ones this court invalidated in [the Arizona case],? Alabama Solicitor General John Neiman wrote in his brief to the court.
Mr. Neiman said that rather than attempting to regulate the actions of the illegal immigrants themselves (an area of federal authority), the Alabama statute sought to regulate state residents engaged in unlawful activity that was related to illegal immigrants.
That distinction, Neiman said, differentiated the anti-harboring law from the portions of the Arizona statute struck down last year by the Supreme Court.
?The United States makes no attempt to justify equating laws that operate directly on aliens with those that operate on citizens,? the Alabama solicitor general wrote.
US Solicitor General Donald Verrilli urged the court to not take up the Alabama case. He said the Eleventh US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled correctly when it decided that the Alabama law was preempted by federal immigration law.
Mr. Verrilli quoted the Supreme Court?s decision in the Arizona case. ?The Government of the United States has broad, undoubted power over the subject of immigration and the status of aliens,? he wrote. ?Whatever power a state may have [related to immigration] is subordinate to supreme national law.?
Washington has wide discretion in every area touching on immigration and immigration enforcement, he said.
?The federal government?s exclusive authority to regulate the terms and conditions of an alien?s entry, movement, and residence in the United States includes the authority to establish criminal sanctions against third parties who facilitate an alien?s violation of those terms and conditions and the authority to decide whether and how such criminal sanctions may be imposed,? the solicitor general said.
?Because Congress has occupied this entire field, even complimentary state regulation is impermissible,? Verrilli wrote. He said the Alabama statute ?stands as an obstacle to the operation of federal law.?
Congress provided that state and local law enforcement officials have the authority to arrest individuals for violations of federal immigration law, but it is up to federal officials to decide when ? or whether ? to prosecute those who are arrested, according to the government?s brief.
Arizona and eight other states had asked the high court to take up Alabama?s appeal. They are Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Oklahoma, and South Carolina.
The states? friend of the court brief said the Eleventh Circuit went too far when it ruled that a state law with any connection to immigration is preempted unless specifically authorized by Congress.
?No interest is more fundamental or substantial than the States? interests in protecting their residents from harm,? the friend of the court brief said.
?Some criminal organizations profit by providing the means for illegal entry or transport, or a safe harbor within the United States for unauthorized aliens,? the brief said. ?Other organized crime groups and terrorists exploit immigrants who seek to come to or remain in the United States by forcing the immigrants to commit other crimes, such as drug running or prostitution.?
RECOMMENDED: Could you pass a US citizenship test?
Algeria president in France for tests after minor stroke
By Lamine Chikhi
ALGIERS (Reuters) - Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was transferred to France for medical tests on Saturday night after suffering a minor stroke, Algeria's official news agency said.
Bouteflika, who has ruled over the North African oil and gas producer for more than a decade, had an "transient ischemic attack" or mini-stroke on Saturday but his condition was not serious, the APS agency said, quoting the prime minister.
The 76-year-old is part of an older generation of leaders who have dominated politics in a country that supplies a fifth of Europe's gas imports and cooperates with the West in combating Islamist militancy.
He has rarely appeared in public in recent months, prompting speculation about his health.
"The president felt unwell and he has been hospitalised but his condition is not serious at all," Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal was quoted as saying by APS.
The president was then moved to France, on the recommendation of his doctors.
Bouteflika and other members of Algeria's elite have controlled Algeria since it won independence from France in a 1954-62 war.
In the early 1990s, the military-backed politicians overturned an election which Islamists were poised to win and then fought a conflict with them in which about 200,000 people were killed.
They also saw off the challenge of Arab Spring protests two years ago, with Bouteflika's government defusing unrest through pay rises and free loans for young people.
Bouteflika has served three terms as president of the OPEC member and is thought unlikely to seek a fourth at an election due in 2014.
U.S. diplomatic cables leaked in 2011 said Bouteflika had been suffering from cancer but it was in remission.
More than 70 percent of Algerians are under 30. About 21 percent of young people are unemployed, the International Monetary Fund says, and many are impatient with the gerontocracy ruling a country where jobs, wages and housing are urgent concerns.
A transient ischemic attack is a temporary blockage in a blood vessel to the brain. it typically lasts for less than five minutes and "usually causes no permanent injury to the brain", the American Stroke Association said on its website.
The attacks should be seen as a warning as a third of people who experience them go on to have a full stroke within a year, the organisation added. (Reporting by Lamine Chikhi; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
AAA??Apr. 26, 2013?7:06 AM ET AP PHOTOS: Bangladesh building collapse By The Associated Press??By The Associated Press
A victim's body lies amid rubble at the site of a building that collapsed Wednesday in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh,Thursday, April 25, 2013. By Thursday, the death toll reached at least 194 people as rescuers continued to search for injured and missing, after a huge section of an eight-story building that housed several garment factories splintered into a pile of concrete. (AP Photo/A.M.Ahad)
A victim's body lies amid rubble at the site of a building that collapsed Wednesday in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh,Thursday, April 25, 2013. By Thursday, the death toll reached at least 194 people as rescuers continued to search for injured and missing, after a huge section of an eight-story building that housed several garment factories splintered into a pile of concrete. (AP Photo/A.M.Ahad)
A Bangladeshi garment worker who was pulled alive from the rubble lays in the back of an ambulance after being brought by rescue workers at the site of a building that collapsed Wednesday in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, Friday, April 26, 2013. The death toll reached hundreds of people as rescuers continued to search for injured and missing, after a huge section of an eight-story building that housed several garment factories splintered into a pile of concrete. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)
A Bangladeshi woman survivor is lifted out of the rubble by rescuers at the site of a building that collapsed Wednesday in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, Thursday, April 25, 2013. By Thursday, the death toll reached at least 194 people as rescuers continued to search for injured and missing, after a huge section of an eight-story building that housed several garment factories splintered into a pile of concrete.(AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)
Bangladeshi rescuers work at the site of a building that collapsed Wednesday in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, Thursday, April 25, 2013. By Thursday, the death toll reached at least 194 people as rescuers continued to search for injured and missing, after a huge section of an eight-story building that housed several garment factories splintered into a pile of concrete.(AP Photo/A.M. Ahad)
In this image taken from AP video, garment worker Mohammad Altab moans to rescuers for help while trapped between concrete slabs and next to two corpses in a garment factory that collapsed Wednesday in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, Thursday, April 25, 2013. Deep cracks visible in the walls of the Bangladesh garment building had compelled police to order it evacuated a day before it collapsed, officials said Thursday. More than 200 people were killed when the eight-story building splintered into a pile of concrete because factories based there ignored the order and kept more than 2,000 people working. (AP Photo/AP video)
Garment workers trapped in the rubble plead for help. Rescuers, some in hardhats and others wearing slippers, dig through the broken concrete. They fashion bolts of colorful cloth into makeshift stretchers to lift and carry hurt survivors and dead victims.
Thousands of relatives wail their grief and worry outside a collapsed building in Savar, Bangladesh, where more than 290 people were killed and 2,000 rescued.
It is the worst-ever disaster in Bangladesh's $20 billion-a-year garment industry, which supplies global retailers but is notorious for its poor safety record.
>>>welcome back. right now the
dow
is down about 12 point. but it is much calmer on
wall street
than we witnessed yesterday afternoon. the government is looking into the hacking of the associated press's twitter account which referred to a flash crash. it created a post saying there were explosions at the
white house
and the president was injured. the
dow
plunged more than 140 point wiping out more than $140 billion before gaining it all back. joining me live now,
tyler mathisen
, co-anchor of cnbc's "power lunch." i'm curious, looking at the
tick tock
,
tyler
, how soon before people realize what happened there.
>>it happened quickly. i was on the air at the time,
tamron
, and my cohost,
sue herera
, noticed that
dow
dove about 150 point there, very quickly. and there was a lot of scurrying down on the floor of the new york
stock exchange
. simultaneously, i was hearing in my ear that this hack and presumably, we knew very quickly, that it was a bogus hack, had taken place, and that that probably explained it. it was a matter of a couple of minutes. one of the things we don't know yet,
tamron
, and really one of the focuses of the investigation, is whether this attack was simply a malicious party trying to unnerve a nation already on edge after the boston bombings last week or whether it could have been someone somewhere trying to profit by the very quick down and up that it caused in the
stock market
. because if you put that kind of fake tweet out there, you know that the markets are going to pick it up and react negatively.
>>i think,
tyler
, you know because this is your business. but i think most people would be stunned to know that based on a tweet, that the markets could swing in such a way so give me -- educate us on how that works, of all things that a tweet could cause that.
>>sort of yes and no,
tamron
. the market reacts to rumors all the time. rumors there's been a bombing at an oil installation in nigeria. or things that are filtered through one way or another. somebody tells somebody. what is different now is the speed and the transmission method, in this case, by twitter. and what happened in this case, clearly, is that there are an awful lot of program traders, who are following lots of different feeds. news feeds, twitter feeds, all kind of sources. and those traders' computers pick up the feeds. pick up the language they would see, ap, bombs,
white house
, and immediately, they would send cell signals, ask questions later, or react now. so that how it really happens. is it these were all computerized trades that o were getting executed, based on the alga rhythms in the system. just like google used algorithms to lead you to searches somewhere, those algorithms prompt trading.
>>okay,
tyler mathisen
, thank you. let's we heard
tyler
complain, but it still leaves you scratching your head when you think about the amount of money wiped out, even though it was earned back, how does this happen? what's the next step in making sure it doesn't?
>>i think the more disturbing thing is that unlike a run of the mill rumor, this appeared to be an official ap report. from what we can tell now, someone hack need the twitter page --
>>well, if we learned anything last week, reports could be wrong. if you didn't know it, after last week, you know it now. so the tweet was not verified.
>>we do put a certain amount of credibility in
gate keepers
that we trust. if msnbc came out with a tweet, you would react to it differently than if your friend, joe, came out with a tweet.
charles schwab
, which hosts trillions of dollars of our assets,
bank accounts
and trading, their website was hacked for about an hour and a half. you couldn't get on the website. it happened again this morning for periods of time between
10:00
and
12:00
. imagine if you have a rumor hitting and
charles schwab
's site down because of hacking, this is one of those risk factors. unless you keep your stuff in cash in a mattress or gold, there is nothing can you do about it.
>>does it speak to the biggerish university frailty? we talk about washington, all street and how big women an guys are doing, but nevertheless, this is still a fragile situation.
>>and when it is electronically enhanced, and
tyler
is right, a lot of this is computer driven and al algorithm, it can all spiral down quickly. but it can also spiral up quickly.
Deep, permeable soils buffer impacts of crop fertilizer on Amazon streams
Apr. 24, 2013 ? The often damaging impacts of intensive agriculture on nearby streams, rivers, and their wildlife has been well documented in temperate zones, such as North America and Europe.
Yet a new study in an important tropical zone -- the fast-changing southern Amazon, a region marked by widespread replacement of native forest by cattle ranches and more recently croplands -- suggests that at least some of those damaging impacts may be buffered by the very deep and highly permeable soils that characterize large areas of the expanding cropland.
The study, led by Christopher Neill, director of the Ecosystems Center at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), is published this week in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. This entire journal issue is devoted to the consequences of massive land-use changes in Mato Grosso, Brazil, the Amazon's biggest and most dynamic agricultural frontier.
"Over the past two decades, Mato Grosso has experienced both the highest rates of deforestation (mostly for pasture and soya bean expansion) and the greatest reduction in deforestation rates (associated with [government] policies and macroeconomic factors) in the Amazon," write the editors of the issue, who include Neill's collaborator Michael T. Coe of Woods Hole Research Center. "The regional focus of this issue allows for a deep assessment of the complex ecological and social changes related to agricultural transformation of a tropical forest environment."
Neill's study looked specifically at the impacts of soybean agriculture on water quality and quantity at Tanguro Ranch, a nearly 200,000-acre farm similar in climate and geography to large tracts of the Amazon where soybean production, largely for export as animal feed, is expanding rapidly.
The ranch has watersheds that are entirely forested, as well as watersheds that are now entirely soybean cropland, allowing for a comparison.
"We were surprised to find that, despite intensive agriculture at Tanguro Ranch, the streams do not appear to be receiving a significant amount of either nitrogen or phosphorus, despite a high application of phosphorus fertilizer to adjacent cropland," says Neill.
This is in contrast to many Northern Hemisphere cropland areas where fertilizers are known to add nutrients to the soil that, with rainfall, run off into freshwater streams and rivers, leading to over-fertilization and low-oxygen conditions that endanger fish and other aquatic life.
At Tanguro Ranch, however, "the soils are old and highly weathered, very deep, and likely to be fairly uniform over great depths," Neill says. "Water infiltrates the soil very rapidly, and the soil has a great capacity to absorb the nutrients. It appears to act as an enormous buffer."
However, this situation is in transition, he notes. "The southeastern Amazon is a very fast-moving environment of change. Right now, most soybean fields are not fertilized with nitrogen. But that will change because the Amazon is poised for large increases in nitrogen fertilizer use as double-cropping (soybeans plus corn) becomes more prevalent," Neill says. "So it's quite possible we will see greater effects on water quality in the future."
The study also noted impacts of deforestation on the quantity of water entering streams. Typically, after a forest is cut down,
about four times more surface water runs off into small streams because of reduced evaporation to the atmosphere. However, at Tanguro Ranch, rainfall infiltrates quickly into the soil and streams are fed predominantly by groundwater, so stream levels don't fluctuate dramatically, during either the wet and dry seasons, even in cropland watersheds.
"We don't see large changes to the structure of stream channels in small headwater streams, " Neill says. "But in the bigger rivers, we see a cumulative impact of all the extra water from those small streams piling up. When larger rivers have to handle that extra water caused by deforestation, they change geomorphically; their floodplains get re-arranged. Those are also rivers that people use for water supplies, fishing, and transportation. "
Finally, the study showed that the agricultural streams were warmer than the forested streams, caused both by a reduction in bordering forest and the presence of impoundments (small human-made dams).
"Warmer water has implications for the fish," Neill says, "because it holds less oxygen. Warmer water also increases fish metabolism, so fish need more food. We don't know if warming and other changes associated with expanding cropland also increase fish food supply -- if they don't, some fish may not have enough energy to survive."
Neill has been working at Tanguro Ranch since 2007 with collaborators from Woods Hole Research Center, Brown University, the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM), and the University of S?o Paulo. Other authors in this journal issue include MBL Senior Scientist Linda Deegan; Shelby Riskin and Gillian Galford, both of whom graduated from the Brown-MBL Graduate Program in Biological and Environmental Sciences; and Brown-MBL faculty members Stephen Porder, Leah VanWey, and Jack Mustard.
"Tanguro Ranch is the focus of a huge amount of the science on land transitions and social-ecological dynamics in the Amazon," says Marty Downs, associate director of Brown University's Environmental Change Initiative.
Neill's study was funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, the Fundac?o de Amparo ? Pesquisa do Estado de S?o Paulo, the Packard Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the Brazilian Council for Scientific and Technological Development.
Theme Issue Ecology, economy and management of an agroindustrial frontier landscape in the southeast Amazon, compiled and edited by Paulo M. Brando, Michael T. Coe and Ruth DeFries. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. B, June 5, 2013.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Marine Biological Laboratory. The original article was written by Diana Kenney.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
C. Neill, M. T. Coe, S. H. Riskin, A. V. Krusche, H. Elsenbeer, M. N. Macedo, R. McHorney, P. Lefebvre, E. A. Davidson, R. Scheffler, A. M. e. S. Figueira, S. Porder, L. A. Deegan. Watershed responses to Amazon soya bean cropland expansion and intensification. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2013; 368 (1619): 20120425 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2012.0425
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Thanks to rare alpine bacteria, researchers identify one of alcohol's key gateways to the brain
Thanks to rare alpine bacteria, researchers identify one of alcohol's key gateways to the brainPublic release date: 25-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Adron Harris harris@mail.utexas.edu 512-232-2514 University of Texas at Austin
Discovery is a step on the road to eventually developing drugs that could disrupt the interaction between alcohol and the brain
AUSTIN, Texas Thanks to a rare bacteria that grows only on rocks in the Swiss Alps, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and the Pasteur Institute in France have been the first to identify how alcohol might affect key brain proteins.
It's a major step on the road to eventually developing drugs that could disrupt the interaction between alcohol and the brain.
"Now that we've identified this key brain protein and understand its structure, it's possible to imagine developing a drug that could block the binding site," said Adron Harris, professor of biology and director of the Waggoner Center for Alcohol and Addiction at The University of Texas at Austin.
Harris and his former postdoctoral fellow Rebecca Howard, now an assistant professor at Skidmore College, are co-authors on the paper that was recently published in Nature Communications. It describes the structure of the brain protein, called a ligand-gated ion channel, that is a key enabler of many of the primary physiological and behavioral effects of alcohol.
Harris said that for some time there has been suggestive evidence that these ion channels are important binding sites for alcohol. Researchers couldn't prove it, however, because they couldn't crystallize the brain protein well enough, and therefore couldn't use X-ray crystallography to determine the structure of the protein with and without alcohol present.
"For many of us in the alcohol field, this has been a Holy Grail, actually finding a binding site for alcohol on the brain proteins and showing it with X-ray crystallography," said Harris. "But it hasn't been possible because it is not possible to get a nice crystal."
The breakthrough came when Marc Delarue and his colleagues at the Pasteur Institute sequenced the genome of cyanobacteria Gloeobacter violaceus. They noted a protein sequence on the bacteria that is remarkably similar to the sequence of a group of ligand-gated ion channels in the human brain. They were able to crystallize this protein. Harris saw the results and immediately got in touch.
"This is something you never would have found with any sort of logical approach," he said. "You never would have guessed that this obscure bacterium would have something that looks like a brain protein in it. But the institute, because of Pasteur's fascination with bacteria, has this huge collection of obscure bacteria, and over the last few years they've been sequencing the genomes, keeping an eye out for interesting properties."
Harris and Howard asked their French colleagues to collaborate, got the cyanobacteria, changed one amino acid to make it sensitive to alcohol, and then crystallized both the original bacteria and the mutated one. They compared the two to see whether they could identify where the alcohol bound to the mutant. With further tests they confirmed that it was a meaningful site.
"Everything validated that the cavity in which the alcohol bound is important," said Harris. "It doesn't account for all the things that alcohol does, but it appears to be important for a lot of them, including some of the 'rewarding' effects and some of the negative, aversive effects."
Going forward, Harris and his lab plan to use mice to observe how changes to the key protein affect behavior when the mice consume alcohol.
They're also hoping to identify other important proteins from this family of ligand-gated ion channels. In the long term, he hopes to be involved in developing drugs that act on these proteins in ways that help people diminish or cease their drinking.
"So why do some people drink moderately and some excessively?" he said. "One reason lies in that the balance between the rewarding and the aversive effects, and that balance is different for different people, and it can change within an individual depending on their drinking patterns. Some of those effects are determined by the interactions of alcohol and these channels, so the hope is that we can alter the balance. Maybe we can diminish the reward or increase the aversive effects."
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Thanks to rare alpine bacteria, researchers identify one of alcohol's key gateways to the brainPublic release date: 25-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Adron Harris harris@mail.utexas.edu 512-232-2514 University of Texas at Austin
Discovery is a step on the road to eventually developing drugs that could disrupt the interaction between alcohol and the brain
AUSTIN, Texas Thanks to a rare bacteria that grows only on rocks in the Swiss Alps, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and the Pasteur Institute in France have been the first to identify how alcohol might affect key brain proteins.
It's a major step on the road to eventually developing drugs that could disrupt the interaction between alcohol and the brain.
"Now that we've identified this key brain protein and understand its structure, it's possible to imagine developing a drug that could block the binding site," said Adron Harris, professor of biology and director of the Waggoner Center for Alcohol and Addiction at The University of Texas at Austin.
Harris and his former postdoctoral fellow Rebecca Howard, now an assistant professor at Skidmore College, are co-authors on the paper that was recently published in Nature Communications. It describes the structure of the brain protein, called a ligand-gated ion channel, that is a key enabler of many of the primary physiological and behavioral effects of alcohol.
Harris said that for some time there has been suggestive evidence that these ion channels are important binding sites for alcohol. Researchers couldn't prove it, however, because they couldn't crystallize the brain protein well enough, and therefore couldn't use X-ray crystallography to determine the structure of the protein with and without alcohol present.
"For many of us in the alcohol field, this has been a Holy Grail, actually finding a binding site for alcohol on the brain proteins and showing it with X-ray crystallography," said Harris. "But it hasn't been possible because it is not possible to get a nice crystal."
The breakthrough came when Marc Delarue and his colleagues at the Pasteur Institute sequenced the genome of cyanobacteria Gloeobacter violaceus. They noted a protein sequence on the bacteria that is remarkably similar to the sequence of a group of ligand-gated ion channels in the human brain. They were able to crystallize this protein. Harris saw the results and immediately got in touch.
"This is something you never would have found with any sort of logical approach," he said. "You never would have guessed that this obscure bacterium would have something that looks like a brain protein in it. But the institute, because of Pasteur's fascination with bacteria, has this huge collection of obscure bacteria, and over the last few years they've been sequencing the genomes, keeping an eye out for interesting properties."
Harris and Howard asked their French colleagues to collaborate, got the cyanobacteria, changed one amino acid to make it sensitive to alcohol, and then crystallized both the original bacteria and the mutated one. They compared the two to see whether they could identify where the alcohol bound to the mutant. With further tests they confirmed that it was a meaningful site.
"Everything validated that the cavity in which the alcohol bound is important," said Harris. "It doesn't account for all the things that alcohol does, but it appears to be important for a lot of them, including some of the 'rewarding' effects and some of the negative, aversive effects."
Going forward, Harris and his lab plan to use mice to observe how changes to the key protein affect behavior when the mice consume alcohol.
They're also hoping to identify other important proteins from this family of ligand-gated ion channels. In the long term, he hopes to be involved in developing drugs that act on these proteins in ways that help people diminish or cease their drinking.
"So why do some people drink moderately and some excessively?" he said. "One reason lies in that the balance between the rewarding and the aversive effects, and that balance is different for different people, and it can change within an individual depending on their drinking patterns. Some of those effects are determined by the interactions of alcohol and these channels, so the hope is that we can alter the balance. Maybe we can diminish the reward or increase the aversive effects."
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Public release date: 25-Apr-2013
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