Egypt Islamist party says Mursi must give ground

By Tom Perry

CAIRO (Reuters) - The leader of Egypt's Islamist Nour party urged his sometime ally President Mohamed Mursi to make concessions to avert bloodshed and presented himself on Sunday as a mediator with protesters on the streets.

Mursi's opponents staged the biggest rallies since the downfall of dictator Hosni Mubarak on Sunday to demand the resignation of Mursi a year after he took office.

Younis Makhyoun, whose ultra-Orthodox Islamic Nour Party helped Mursi wield power but has since distanced itself from Islamist factions rallying round him, told Reuters protesters were "wrong" to try to topple Egypt's first elected leader. But he said Mursi could still be brought down unless he compromises.

"There must be concessions, even if they are difficult and bitter, to safeguard the blood of Egyptians," Makhyoun said in a rare interview. "We are worried about an escalation that will be hard to control, and that guns will have the loudest voice."

Mursi could no longer simply ride out protests as he has in the past, Makhyoun said, floating the suggestion that Mursi might be forced to hold referendum on staying in office.

"The president is banking on the idea that this will be a mass protest, like the other protests, and there will be some losses, and then things will settle down," Makhyoun said.

"But this time matters are different." He added: "We don't want to survive this crisis, we want to solve it."

He suggested his own party, which took more than a fifth of parliament seats 18 months ago, could act as mediators: "We have bridged open to all the people".

Nour is the biggest Islamist group after the Brotherhood. It emerged following the 2011 uprising and came second to the Brotherhood in parliamentary elections held later that year. Following Mursi's win, Nour cooperated with the Brotherhood in fast-tracking into law a controversial constitution last year.

But Nour has distanced itself from the Brotherhood this year, joining the critics who accuse Mursi and his movement of seeking to dominate public life. Nour has taken a neutral position in the run-up to the rallies called by Mursi's supporters and opponents, refusing to take part in either.

"NO VISION"

Makhyoun said the Nour Party had met Mursi together with other Islamist parties two days ago, but the president had shown "no vision" in the discussions.

Makhyoun, a 58-year-old dentist, also had harsh words for the loose alliance of liberal and leftists parties known as the National Salvation Front. He said they too were stubborn.

"They are good at talking behind microphones and are trying to ride the wave of anger," Makhyoun said. "They do not represent the Egyptian people."

Outlining one possible way out, Makhyoun said Mursi should call opposition groups for talks to pick a new prime minister who would form a technocratic government to run parliamentary elections, a proposal that has been made in the past.

But he added it may be too late, as the opposition had escalated its demand to insist on early presidential polls.

"What I am afraid of is that the army will be forced to intervene in political life if the country slides into a civil war or anarchy," he said. "If we reach the stage where we are facing a choice of civil war or the army, it is natural, of course, to say 'Yes' to the army."

While Nour has distanced itself from Mursi, other religious groups have drawn closer to the president and the Brotherhood, including the once-armed al-Gamaa al-Islamiya. Makhyoun criticized recent rallies called by the Brotherhood during which one hardline cleric described Mursi's opponents as "infidels".

"This is one of the scandalous mistakes that Dr. Mursi made in the last period," Makhyoun said.

He added: "We are accused by some of the Islamist parties of dividing the Islamic camp, and being against the Islamic project. That is totally untrue. In our opinion, it is what is happening now that is weakening the Islamic project."

(Editing by Alastair Macdonald and Peter Graff)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-islamist-party-says-mursi-must-ground-212431402.html

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New Jersey's Christie vetoes Medicaid expansion bill

(Reuters) - New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on Friday vetoed a bill that attempted to make the state's expansion of Medicaid eligibility permanent under the healthcare law known as Obamacare, his office said on Friday.

Christie's office announced he vetoed eight bills that "would add potentially hundreds of millions of dollars to state and local budgets." He also signed a $32.9 billion budget and three other bills, his office said in a statement.

Among the bills he vetoed was one dealing with Medicaid expansion under the U.S. Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law known as Obamacare.

Christie, a critic of Obamacare, said in February he would accept federal money to expand Medicaid in New Jersey, and the state budget he signed on Friday included $227 million in such funds.

Democrats in the state Senate and Assembly had passed a bill seeking to make that Medicaid expansion permanent, but Christie vetoed it, a spokesman for the governor said.

The vetoed bill would have removed the flexibility to opt out of the Medicaid expansion if the federal government changed the terms of the current favorable matching rate, the spokesman said. The governor had discussed publicly his intention to maintain this flexibility when he signed onto the expansion, the spokesman said.

(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Eric Walsh)

(This story was corrected to show Christie vetoed bill trying to make Medicaid expansion permanent, but did not veto Medicaid expansion for this year)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jerseys-christie-vetoes-medicaid-expansion-bill-015145686.html

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Taylor Swift Picks The Most 'Insane' Moments On Red Tour... So Far

Singer talks to MTV News about taking the stage at Cowboys Stadium and seeing swarms of fans 'as far as you look.'
By Chandra Johnson, with reporting by Cory Midgarden

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1709768/taylor-swift-red-tour-moments.jhtml

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Pakistani Christian accused of blasphemy in Canada

ISLAMABAD -- A Christian girl who was accused of burning Islam's holy book in a case that focused international attention on Pakistan's harsh blasphemy laws was forced to move to Canada over security concerns, her lawyer said Saturday.

The girl left Pakistan with her parents, three sisters and a brother on March 14, attorney Tahir Naveed Chaudhry said.

A Muslim cleric who lobbied for her release, Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi, said she had been facing threats and was moving constantly.

"I am sad that this innocent girl had to leave Pakistan. She had been acquitted by the court, and despite that it was not possible for her to live freely," he said.

Canada's immigration service said privacy concerns prevented them from saying whether she was in the country.

The girl was arrested in August in Islamabad after a Muslim cleric accused her of burning the Quran.

The cleric was later accused of fabricating evidence, and the girl was acquitted.

The case received attention in part because of her young age and questions about her mental abilities. An official medical report at the time put her age at 14 although some of her supporters said she was as young as 11. The medical report also said her mental state did not correspond with her age.

The Associated Press is withholding the girl's name because it does not generally identify underage suspects.

Even though the case against her was thrown out, people accused of blasphemy in Pakistan are often subject to vigilante justice. Mobs have been known to attack and kill people accused of blasphemy, and two prominent politicians who have discussed changes to the blasphemy laws have been killed.

Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/06/29/3477018/pakistani-christian-accused-of.html

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Chinese firm accused of stealing US software

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- China's largest wind turbine company and three people are accused of trade secrets from a U.S. software company, the Justice Department announced Thursday.

An indictment handed up in Wisconsin alleges Sinovel Wind Group and the three individuals stole proprietary wind turbine software technology from Devens, Mass.-based AMSC, formerly known as American Superconductor Inc., cheating the American company out of more than $800 million.

It alleges the defendants stole software that was developed in Wisconsin by downloading it from an AMSC computer in Middleton, Wis., to a computer in Austria.

None of the individual defendants is in custody. The Justice Department said two of them are Sinovel employees who live in China, while one who now lives in Serbia formerly worked for an AMSC subsidiary in Austria.

The indictment charges Sinovel; Su Liying, 36, the deputy director of Sinovel's research and development department; Zhao Haichun, 33, a technology manager for Sinovel; and Dejan Karabasevic, 40, a former employee of AMSC Windtec GmbH, an AMSC subsidiary in Klagenfurt, Austria; with one count each of conspiracy to commit trade secret theft, theft of trade secrets and wire fraud.

Sinovel officials did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

AMSC issued a statement calling on the Obama administration and Congress to re-evaluate the U.S. trade relationship with China. It said the stolen software was used in four Sinovel turbines that have been installed in Massachusetts.

"The fact that Sinovel has exported stolen American intellectual property from China back into the United States ? less than 40 miles from our global headquarters ? shows not only a blatant disrespect for intellectual property but a disregard for international trade law," Daniel McGahn, AMSC's president and CEO, said in a news release.

McGahn said more than 500 AMSC employees around the world have lost their jobs because of Sinovel's actions.

AMSC said it filed four civil actions against Sinovel in China in March 2011 after the company abruptly broke several contracts, and that it asked Chinese police to bring criminal cases against Sinovel and some of its employees after it discovered the theft a few months later, all without any apparent success.

"The allegations in this indictment describe a well-planned attack on an American business by international defendants ? nothing short of attempted corporate homicide," John Vaudreuil, the U.S. attorney for the western district of Wisconsin, said in a news release.

According to the indictment, the AMSC software was designed to regulate the flow of electricity from wind turbines to electrical grids and to keep wind turbines operational when there is a temporary dip in the flow of electricity in the grid.

If convicted, Sinovel faces a maximum penalty on each count of five years of probation and fines on each count of up to $1.6 billion, the Justice Department said. Su, Zhao and Karabasevic each face a maximum penalty of five years in prison on the conspiracy charge, 10 years in prison for theft of a trade secret and 20 years in prison for wire fraud.

___

Online

AMSC: http://www.amsc.com

Sinovel's English site: http://www.sinovel.com/en/index.aspx

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chinese-firm-accused-stealing-us-011930626.html

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Video: Top Stock Pickers' 2012 Report Card

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/video/cnbc/52327531/

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China, South Korea push for North Korea talks

By Ju-min Park and Sui-Lee Wee

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's president welcomed his South Korean counterpart on Thursday as an "old friend of China" and agreed to make a push for new talks with North Korea on Thursday as two of Asia's newest leaders met for the first time.

Park Geun-hye, one of Asia's few women leaders, took office in Seoul in February amid war threats by North Korea, while China's Xi Jinping was appointed in November and has sought to rein in the North's nuclear weapons program, backing tougher economic sanctions against Beijing's traditional ally.

"The two leaders shared a common view on denuclearizing North Korea, maintaining peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and resolving issues through dialogue and negotiations," Park's office said in a statement after they met.

China backed North Korea in the 1950-53 Korean War with late leader Mao Zedong's eldest son dying in the conflict with the South. The 60th anniversary of the end of the war is July 27.

Beijing is the main economic and diplomatic lifeline for the impoverished and isolated state, whose three nuclear weapons tests since 2006 have threatened Asia's security.

China has boosted sanctions on its ally, which this year conducted a nuclear test in defiance of international criticism. It has also closed access for North Korean banks in China.

Xi was appointed Communist Party chairman, China's most powerful position, last November and named president in March.

In April, he told an international forum in southern China that no country "should be allowed to throw a region and even the whole world into chaos for selfish gain".

While Xi did not name North Korea, his comment came amid the highest tension on the peninsula in years, with daily threats from Pyongyang to attack South Korea and the United States.

Xinhua, China's state news agency, appeared to criticize Pyongyang ahead of the visit, saying that "hard-earned trust among concerned parties has been evaporating following unfortunate incidents one after another" since 2009.

In 2009, the North walked out of denuclearization talks brokered by China, carried out its second nuclear test and in 2010 was accused of sinking a South Korean naval vessel and shelling a South Korean island.

ASIAN ECONOMIC POWERHOUSES

China, Asia's largest economy, consumes 15 percent of South Korean exports in annual trade worth $215 billion. North Korea's puny economy trades just $6 billion with China.

Park, 61, was accompanied by a hefty economic delegation from South Korea's huge industrial conglomerates, including the world's largest electronics company, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, and Hyundai Motor Co. .

The two countries' central banks extended a currency swap for 64 trillion Korean won ($55.44 billion) or 360 billion yuan, as part of a defense against financial market instability.

Unlike a military delegation sent by North Korea last month that featured aged generals bedecked with medals, Park appeared to get an enthusiastic welcome from her hosts.

"Park Geun-hye visits China" was the most searched financial and economic topic on Weibo, China's version of Twitter.

In response to an interview with Park by state broadcaster CCTV, one microblogger, Christumn, said: "I am already her fan".

By contrast, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is derided on some Chinese social media sites as "Fatty Kim".

Stylish and mild mannered, Park arrived with self-taught Mandarin skills, and received a warm welcome from state media for a trip she described as "a journey to deepen the mind and trust" between the two countries.

"The visit, which comes months after both countries saw leadership change, is expected to open a new chapter in bilateral relations," Xinhua said.

Park is to deliver an address at Tsinghua University, Xi's alma mater, on Saturday and visit the ancient capital of Xi'an, the site of major South Korean investment, including a $7 billion chip complex by Samsung Electronics.

Park, whose mother was killed by a North Korean-backed assassin, got a guarded welcome from ethnic Koreans in China.

"I feel thankful for South Korea. Its economy has grown to become one of Asia's four dragons and expanded in China... But on the other hand we want North Korea to live well," said Li Jung-ae, 49, who has a PhD in finance from Tsinghua University. ($ = 1154.5000 Korean won)

(Additional reporting by Jack Kim in SEOUL, Terril Jones and Fiona Li in BEIJING; Writing by David Chance; Editing by Ron Popeski)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/china-south-korea-push-north-korea-talks-110451509.html

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The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: No F****** Around In Room 427

This hilarious short film by Danny Sangra illustrates why censorship, even in earnest, is a load of bullsh*t.

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/o7AbSTlcso4/the-weirdest-thing-on-the-internet-tonight-no-f-588517156

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Obama praises Supreme Court on Africa trip

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) ? President Barack Obama on Thursday praised the Supreme Court's ruling on gay marriage as a "victory for American democracy" and said recognition for same-sex unions should cross state lines.

Obama's remarks came in his first stop on a planned weeklong African tour, in a country that outlaws homosexuality. He said while he respects differing religious views on the matter, he wants to send a message to Africans as well about the importance of nondiscrimination under the law.

"People should be treated equally and that's a principal that I think applies universally," he said.

Obama spoke at a news conference after a private meeting with Senegalese President Macky Sall in which Obama said gay rights did not come up. Sall responded that Senegal leads "a very tolerant country" and anti-gay laws are not being prosecuted, "but we are still not ready to decriminalize homosexuality."

"We are still not ready," Sall said, adding that "does not mean we are homophobic."

Obama said he's directing his administration to comb through every federal statute to quickly determine the implications of Wednesday's ruling, which gave the nation's legally married gay couples equal federal footing with all other married Americans.

He said he wants to make sure that gay couples who deserve benefits under the law get them quickly. Obama said he personally believes that gay couples legally married in one state should retain their benefits if they move to another state that doesn't recognize gay marriage.

"I believe at the root of who we are as a people as Americans is the basic represent that we are all equal under the law," he said. "We believe in basic fairness. and what I think yesterday's ruling signifies is one more step towards ensuring that those basic principles apply to everybody."

Obama also offered prayers for former South African President Nelson Mandela, who is gravely ill, ahead of Obama's planned visit to his country this weekend. Obama credited Mandela's example in the anti-apartheid movement of being willing to sacrifice his life for a belief in equal treatment with inspiring Obama's own political activism.

"If and when he passes from this place, his legacy is one that will linger on throughout the ages," Obama said.

Later Obama plans to reflect on the ties many African-Americans share with the continent as he takes a tour of Goree Island, Africa's westernmost point. Africans reportedly were shipped off into slavery across the Atlantic Ocean through the island's "Door of No Return."

Thousands of boisterous revelers welcomed Obama's motorcade Thursday morning in Dakar, cheering and waving homemade signs as the first African-American president made his way to the presidential palace. A large sign outside his hotel gate had pictures of smiling Obama and Sall that read, "Welcome home, President Obama.."

Some in the crowd drummed, danced and sang, and many wore white as a symbol for peace. Sall and his wife, Marieme Faye Sall, greeted Obama and first lady Michelle Obama before entering the palace for a bilateral meeting between the two presidents.

Obama's focus in Senegal is on the modern-day achievements of the former French colony after half a century of independence. Sall ousted an incumbent president who attempted to change the constitution to make it easier for him to be re-elected and pave the way for his son to succeed him. The power grab sparked protests, fueled by hip-hop music and social media, that led to Sall's election.

"Senegal is one of the most stable democracies in Africa," Obama said. "It's moving in the right direction."

But such people-powered democratic transitions are not always the story of the African experience. Fighting and human rights abuses limited Obama's options for stops in his first major tour of sub-Saharan Africa since he took office more than four years ago. Obama is avoiding his father's homeland, Kenya, whose president has been charged with war crimes, and Nigeria, the country with the continent's most dominant economy. Nigeria is enveloped in an Islamist insurgency and military crackdown.

Obama's itinerary in Senegal was designed to send a message, purposefully delivered in a French-speaking, Muslim-majority nation, to other Africans in countries that have not made the strides toward democracy that Senegal has. Obama plans to meet with civil society leaders at the Goree Institute and visit the Supreme Court to speak about the importance of an independent judiciary and the rule of law in Africa's development.

___

Follow Nedra Pickler on Twitter at https://twitter.com/nedrapickler

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-marriage-benefits-cross-state-lines-113509900.html

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Actor James Gandolfini's funeral on Thursday

En esta imagen sin fecha difundida por HBO, el actor James Gandolfini en su papel de Tony Soprano, el jefe de una familia de mafiosos en Nueva Jersey en la serie "Los Soprano". El funeral de Gandolfini ser? el jueves 27 de junio del 2013 en la Catedral de San Juan el Divino en Nueva York. Gandolfini muri? el 19 de junio del 2013 en Italia. Ten?a 51 a?os. (AP Foto/HBO, Barry Wetcher, Archivo)

En esta imagen sin fecha difundida por HBO, el actor James Gandolfini en su papel de Tony Soprano, el jefe de una familia de mafiosos en Nueva Jersey en la serie "Los Soprano". El funeral de Gandolfini ser? el jueves 27 de junio del 2013 en la Catedral de San Juan el Divino en Nueva York. Gandolfini muri? el 19 de junio del 2013 en Italia. Ten?a 51 a?os. (AP Foto/HBO, Barry Wetcher, Archivo)

NEW YORK (AP) ? A funeral service for actor James Gandolfini is scheduled to take place in one of New York City's largest churches.

The ceremony at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine is planned for 10 a.m. Thursday. It comes after a private wake for the former star of "The Sopranos" on Wednesday in New Jersey.

The 51-year-old actor died of a heart attack last week while vacationing in Italy with his son.

Broadway theaters paid tribute by dimming their lights briefly Wednesday night. Gandolfini was nominated for a Tony Award in 2009 as an actor in "God of Carnage."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-06-27-Gandolfini%20Funeral/id-713dcc7328054c8d91893e66075a403e

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Macy's fined over treatment of immigrant workers

Retail

Reuters

3 hours ago

FRANK FRANKLIN II / AP

Pedestrians pass Macy's department store Friday Jan. 14, 2005 in New York.

Macy's Inc has agreed to pay a $175,000 civil fine and improve its practices to resolve a U.S. government probe that found the retailer had discriminated against immigrant employees when verifying their eligibility to continue to work.

The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday said Macy's had engaged in "unfair documentary practices" against some immigrant employees who had previously been authorized to work.

It said this resulted in some affected workers being suspended, terminated, or losing seniority. Macy's agreed to set up a $100,000 fund to compensate these workers.

The settlement covers Macy's Retail Holdings Inc, as well as divisions that contain department store locations in western and southwestern U.S. states, Florida and Puerto Rico.

It also requires Macy's to improve training and employment reverification policies, including the use of the government's "E-Verify" platform that lets employers check workers' legal status, and subjects the retailer to two years of monitoring by the Justice Department.

"Employers must ensure that they follow correct procedures during the reverification of employment authorization of non-U.S. citizens," Gregory Friel, deputy assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's civil rights division, said in a statement.

The department said its probe began in April 2012, based on several calls to a worker hotline regarding Macy's practices. It did not immediately provide details about the specific violations.

Macy's spokesman Jim Sluzewski declined to comment.

According to the settlement agreement, Macy's denied committing immigration-related discrimination or engaging in unfair documentary practices in violation of the federal Immigration and Nationality Act.

That law bars employers from demanding more or different documents, or changing documentation rules, based on people's immigration status or national origin.

Macy's had about 175,700 full- and part-time employees as of Feb. 2, according to its annual report, and operated roughly 840 stores under the Macy's and Bloomingdale's names. The company has offices in Cincinnati and New York.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/663286/s/2de37701/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Cbusiness0Cmacys0Efined0Eover0Etreatment0Eimmigrant0Eworkers0E6C10A467561/story01.htm

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Charge up to four devices with your Bluetooth handset

Here’s another product from Hammacher Schlemmer that will organize your charging setup. ?The Bluetooth Handset Quad Charger comes with?four microUSB and two 30-pin Apple cables to connect smartphones and tablets for charging. ?The built-in dock areas keep everything tidy. ?The Bluetooth handset connects with up to two devices simultaneously, so you won’t miss calls while [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2013/06/25/charge-up-to-four-devices-with-your-bluetooth-handset/

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Poncho: The Best Weather Service You've Never Heard Of

The weather. It's all anyone talks about these days. But there's never been one single service that gets it right, or even bothers to tell you what you actually need to know. Well, Betaworks' Poncho, a new weather service, might have just figured it all out?with a simple text message in the morning.

With constant internet access and real-time data at our disposal, the simple act of checking the weather has gotten rather complicated, when all you need to know is whether or not you need a jacket and/or umbrella. Launched back in mid-April, Poncho is the brainchild of Kuan Huang, a resident hacker at Betaworks, who's looking to change just that.

"We're not a real-time weather service. Poncho is something you read in the morning to help you plan your day. We're trying to help optimize your routine," Huang recently told me.

If anyone can dream up a better system, it's Betaworks. These are the same folks who resuscitated Digg in just six weeks, created one of the most addictive iOS games in recent memory, and launched a new RSS reader this past week.

Ironically, Huang admits to never having checked the weather before joining Betaworks and starting Poncho. He says the most useful weather service was his mother who would alert him to any drastic shifts in temperature while he was in college. "I went to school in China and would study late in the library till 2 or 3 AM. She'd never tell me the exact temperature or wind speed, she'd just tell me the information I needed to know," Huang reminisces. That experience served as inspiration for Poncho's weather service, which is personalized and context-based.

When you sign up for Poncho?limited to New York City for now?you fill out a quick survey of your habits and routines, like what time you wake up or what train you take, and whether or not you have pets or allergies, and when you usually leave work. Once you've done all that, you can opt to have a custom weather forecast texted or emailed to you in the morning when you wake up. Huang and a contract writer come up with the copy the night before and like clockwork, Huang gets up at 5:30 to make sure the information is still accurate for the day before pulling the trigger. Take, for example, a few texts I've received in recent weeks:

• Partly cloudy skies & a clear evening. Temps hitting the low 80s. You guys, could this change our attitudes about Mondays?
• Prime June day in the low 80s. Hot enough, but comfortable. June, you're much chiller than other months. Looking at you, July.
• It'd be all fire hydrant sprinklers if we were in old school NYC. Similar to yesterday with temps in the high 80s. Get tan or get to shade.

Now, if you take the train or drive, the web version of your forecast (below) would tell you of any delays on your particular line or whether or not you had to move your car to the other side of the street. And if I had a dog, it'd even tell me the best time take the pooch out.

Before even writing a line of code, Huang tells me he'd wake up at 5:30 every morning and email 20 people from the Betaworks office to see what information they actually wanted about the weather. He began working on Poncho in February, pulling openly available data from the MTA, New York City Department of Transportation, Weather Underground and Forecast.io, the makers of the Dark Sky iOS app. From those four sources, Poncho is able to tell you exactly what you need to know to go about your day?in plain English.

"My job at Poncho is to explain all that data to people. I don't want to just give you a number," Huang says. "I'll tell you what's actionable."

And an app is in the works, too, though Huang is still figuring out what additional functionality it will give users. For now, he wants Poncho to be a passive experience?something that, in his words, "you'd never have to open." By tracking your habits based on location, Huang thinks he can anticipate your behavior in the future?information that will help him better understand how to deliver the forecast to you.

Obviously not a GIF

In recent weeks, Poncho has rolled out a couple of new features, including an animated GIF that refreshes to reflect the day's weather on the site. And in the coming weeks, users will be able to opt into an afternoon edition that pushes an alert to you before you leave work with traffic and weather updates, along with a forecast for the next day.

I've been using Poncho for the better part of the last two months and it hasn't steered me wrong. I've been caught out in the rain once due to my own idiocy and I've only launched the other weather apps I have to check the extended forecast. Checking the weather just isn't something I need to do anymore.

Poncho is limited to New York City for now, and Huang isn't in a rush to expand just yet, though he is looking at San Francisco or Chicago down the road. When I asked when he would be, he simply said, "Not until it's the best experience that it can be." [Poncho]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/poncho-the-best-weather-service-youve-never-heard-of-574886711

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Men's Wearhouse escalates battle with founder - seattlepi.com

NEW YORK (AP) ? Men's Wearhouse escalated a public battle with its founder and former pitchman George Zimmer on Tuesday, trying to explain why it fired the man who still represents the clothier in many shoppers' minds.

The company said in a statement that its board parted ways with Zimmer because he had difficulty "accepting the fact that Men's Wearhouse is a public company with an independent board of directors and that he has not been the chief executive officer for two years." One bone of contention was that he wanted to sell the company to an investment firm.

On paper, Zimmer's ability to take back control of the company he founded seems limited. But to his fans, he's already winning. Customers are turning to the company's Facebook and other social media outlets to express their outrage. Many were threatening to boycott the chain.

Ultimately, the shoppers themselves could determine what happens next. Zimmer, 64, who founded the company in 1973, has been one of advertising's most recognizable pitchmen, immediately recognizable for his slogan: "You're going to like the way you look. I guarantee it."

"I am kind of sad," said Gerard McLean, 51 a Web developer from Dayton, Ohio. "George Zimmer is a trusted face and voice. Men need to hear that their fashion choices are OK."

McLean said he'll continue to shop there. But he fears the stores' no-nonsense fashion choices may fade and drive him elsewhere. "My concern is that (Men's Wearhouse) will start listening to advice dispensed by the GQ crowd."

Since Men's Wearhouse's terse announcement Wednesday of Zimmer's firing as executive chairman, it had remained tight-lipped about the reasons.

But on Tuesday, Men's Wearhouse said Zimmer, who owns just 3 ? percent of the company's stock, pushed for "significant changes that would enable him to regain control." The chain said Zimmer had refused to support its CEO Doug Ewert and other senior managers unless they gave in to his demands.

The retailer also said Zimmer expected veto power over certain corporate decisions, such as executive compensation, even though it has an independent board committee that sets such policies.

Analysts had speculated that the rift was caused by a power struggle. Last week, Zimmer said in a written statement that over the past several months he and the board have disagreed about the direction of Men's Wearhouse. At the time, Zimmer said that the board chose to silence his concerns. On Monday, Zimmer sent a letter to the company saying he was quitting the board.

In addition, Men's Wearhouse said Zimmer also began arguing for a sale of the business to an investment group, reversing course on his previous position.

Men's Wearhouse said its board unanimously agrees that now is not the time to sell the company. The chain said a deal to go private could load the company down with debt.

Zimmer declined to comment for this story.

Investors may have seized on the hint of a potential buyout in Tuesday's revelations and sent the company's stock up more than 5 percent. The surge came after four straight days of declines. Analysts also said investors may have felt some closure from the company's clarification of the reasons for the firing.

However, Richard Jaffe, a Stifel Nicolaus analyst, said that there's not much Zimmer, with such a tiny stake in the company, can do because mounting a leveraged buyout would be expensive. The stock price is hovering near its post-recession high point, and investors would want a premium to that, as much as $50 a share, he said.

Branding experts said the company's moves threaten to alienate its fans, who could vote with their dollars. It also could create poor morale among workers.

David Johnson, CEO of Strategic Visions LLC, a branding company, said that the board should have come clean with the story last week instead of coming out with it days later. It smacks of bad taste, he said.

"(George Zimmer) has won the PR war already. They look cold and heartless," he added.

Robert Passikoff, president of Brand Keys Inc., a New York customer research firm, agrees.

"Airing boardroom dirty laundry doesn't work for consumers," said Passikoff. "It matters internally, not externally. The reason people are reacting emotionally is because they bonded to the brand via the man."

Founders who have wanted to gain back some control have found mixed success. Last year, Best Buy's co-founder and former Chairman Richard Schulze considered making a buyout bid for the electronics retailer but never made a formal offer. In March, he returned to the Best Buy fold as chairman emeritus.

A key difference from Zimmer's situation: Schulze owned 20 percent of Best Buy. But his quest to regain control also didn't register with shoppers because he wasn't the public face of the brand.

On Tuesday, Men's Wearhouse's Facebook page was covered with hundreds of comments from shoppers who lashed out at the company for ousting the founder. Many said they would stop shopping there.

Men's Wearhouse said Tuesday that it didn't want a total breakdown of its relationship with Zimmer and that it wasn't trying to hurt him. The company said it made "considerable efforts" to find a solution that kept Zimmer involved in the business, but that he wouldn't accept anything other than full control.

Men's Wearhouse also said Zimmer, who had initially supported looking at strategic options for the company's K&G stores, did an about-face and began objecting to the review process.

The retailer announced a strategic review of K&G three months ago. The division accounts for about 15 percent of the retailer's total revenue. It operates stores in largely urban markets that cater to low-income shoppers, who have faced more pressures recently due to the tough economy. K&G's business has declined.

Under Zimmer's stewardship, Men's Wearhouse Inc. grew from one small Texas store using a cigar box as a cash register to one of North America's largest men's clothing sellers with 1,143 locations.

Like many clothing retailers, Men's Wearhouse saw its sales and profits battered during the Great Recession, but over the past two years, business has been recovering. For the latest year ended Feb. 2, revenue rose more than 4 percent to $2.48 billion. Net income rose over 9 percent to $131.7 million.

Shares of Men's Wearhouse climbed $2.00 or 5.7 percent, to close at $37.13. The stock has traded between $25.97 and $38.59 over the past year.

Men's Wearhouse should be hoping for more shoppers like Johnathon Fitzpatrick, who doesn't plan to boycott the chain.

"I have this attachment from growing up seeing him," said Fitzpatrick, 29, from Seattle. "But it's not going to affect my shopping. Price will ? and service."

___

AP Business Writer Michelle Chapman contributed to this report.

Follow Anne D'Innocenzio on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ADInnocenzio

Source: http://www.seattlepi.com/news/texas/article/Men-s-Wearhouse-escalates-battle-with-founder-4620467.php

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Senate faces key vote on immigration

FILE - In this April 18, 2013 file photo, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. At the start of a crucial week for far-reaching immigration legislation backed by the White House, the Senate headed Monday for the first test vote on the measure offering the prize of U.S. citizenship to millions and pouring new technology and manpower into the border. (AP Photo/Molly Riley, File)

FILE - In this April 18, 2013 file photo, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. At the start of a crucial week for far-reaching immigration legislation backed by the White House, the Senate headed Monday for the first test vote on the measure offering the prize of U.S. citizenship to millions and pouring new technology and manpower into the border. (AP Photo/Molly Riley, File)

FILE - In this June 21, 2013 file photo, Sen. John Hoeven, N.D., leaves the Senate chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington. At the start of a crucial week for far-reaching immigration legislation backed by the White House, the Senate headed Monday for the first test vote on the measure offering the prize of U.S. citizenship to millions and pouring new technology and manpower into the border. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama campaigned from the White House for immigration legislation on Monday in advance of a Senate test vote on a bill calling for more than $30 billion worth of new security measures along the border with Mexico and offering a chance at citizenship for millions living in the country illegally.

Far outnumbered, conservative critics attacked without letup in speeches and electronic appeals. "It will encourage more illegal immigration and must be stopped," Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, exhorted supporters, urging them to contact their own senators with a plea to defeat the measure.

After three weeks of desultory debate, the end game was at hand in the Senate for the most ambitious attempt to overhaul the nation's immigration system in decades.

Supporters exuded confidence they had more than the 60 votes required to send the measure over a key hurdle and on its way toward Senate passage by week's end.

Democrats appeared unified on the issue. Republicans were anything but, as evidenced by the divide among potential 2016 presidential contenders. Among them, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida was an enthusiastic supporter of the bill, while Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Cruz were opposed.

Passage would send the issue to the House, where most conservative Republicans in the majority are strongly opposed to citizenship for anyone who came to the country illegally or overstayed their visa.

Some GOP lawmakers have appealed to Speaker John Boehner not to permit any immigration legislation to come to a vote for fear that whatever its contents, it would open the door to an unpalatable compromise with the Senate. At the same time, the House Judiciary Committee is in the midst of approving a handful of measures related to immigration, action that ordinarily is a prelude to votes in the full House.

"Now is the time to do it," Obama said at the White House before meeting with nine business executives who support a change in immigration laws. He added, "I hope that we can get the strongest possible vote out of the Senate so that we can then move to the House and get this done before the summer break" beginning in early August.

He said the measure would be good for the economy, for business and for workers who are "oftentimes exploited at low wages."

As for the overall economy, he said, "I think every business leader here feels confident that they'll be in a stronger position to continue to innovate, to continue to invest, to continue to create jobs and ensure that this continues to be the land of opportunity for generations to come."

Leaving little to chance, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce announced it was launching a new seven-figure ad buy Monday in support of the bill. "Call Congress. End de facto amnesty. Create jobs and economic growth by supporting conservative immigration reforms," the ad said.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated the legislation will reduce the deficit and increase economic growth in each of the next two decades. It is also predicting unemployment will rise slightly through 2020, and that average wages will move lower over a decade.

At its core, the legislation in the Senate would create a 13-year pathway to citizenship for an estimated 11 million immigrants living illegally in the United States. It also calls for billions of dollars to be spent on manpower and technology to secure the 2,000-mile border with Mexico, including a doubling of the Border Patrol with 20,000 new agents.

The measure also would create a new program for temporary farm laborers to come into the country, and another for lower-skilled workers to emigrate permanently. At the same time, it calls for an expansion of an existing visa program for highly-skilled workers, a gesture to high tech companies that rely heavily on foreigners.

In addition to border security, the measure phases in a mandatory program for employers to verify the legal status of potential workers, and separate effort to track the comings and goings of foreigners at some of the nation's airports.

The legislation was originally drafted by a bipartisan Gang of 8, four senators from each party who negotiated a series of political tradeoffs over several months.

The addition of the tougher border security provisions came after CBO informed lawmakers that they could potentially spend tens of billions of dollars to sweeten the bill without fearing higher deficits.

The result was a series of changes negotiated between the Gang of 8 and Republican Sens. John Hoeven of North Dakota and Bob Corker of Tennessee. Different, lesser-noticed provisions helped other lawmakers swing behind the measure.

In a speech on the Senate floor, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, likened some of them to "earmarks," the now-banned practice of directing federal funds to the pet projects of individual lawmakers.

He cited a provision creating a $1.5 billion jobs fund for low-income youth and pair of changes to benefit the seafood processing industry in Alaska. Sen. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., issued a statement on Friday trumpeting the benefits of the first; Alaska Sens. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, and Mark Begich, a Democrat, took credit for the two others.

Grassley also raised questions about the origin of a detailed list of planes, sensors, cameras and other equipment to be placed along the southern border.

"Who provided the amendment sponsors with this list?" asked Grassley, who is a member of the Judiciary Committee that approved an earlier version of the bill. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano "did not provide the committee with any list. Did Sikorsky, Cessna and Northrup Grumann send up a wish list to certain members of the Senate?"

___

Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Jim Kuhnhenn contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-06-24-Immigration/id-9e5eaf5fcab54d499a0ce820fcbf99e8

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Turn up the volume? A better way to broadcast over the noise

June 25, 2013 ? Loud, distorted and repetitive announcements are common in noisy public spaces like airports and train stations. But researchers in Sweden have found that voice manipulation works better than turning up the volume.?

?By manipulating speech before it is sent to the loudspeakers, we can enhance the speech signal and adapt it to the surrounding noise,? says Gustav Eje Henter, PhD student at Communication Theory at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. ?This makes it possible to communicate at much lower volume levels than before.?

Traffic, aircraft, mobile devices and personal music equipment are not the only sources of noise pollution. Public address systems have become part of the escalating problem, which according to the World Health Organization, costs Europeans alone the equivalent of 654,000 years of healthy life annually.

Earlier approaches to the problem focused on making the speech more prominent, while the KTH researchers are paying attention to what is actually said. They do this by working with computer and machine speech recognition, which is modeled on human hearing. By creating speech that is easier for computers to recognise, people should benefit as well, the researchers say.

?Our manipulation, which is suited for a computer speech recogniser, also makes it easier for people to hear the right thing,? says Petko Petkov, also a PhD student at Communication Theory. ?The modified words sound more distinct from each other, making it easier to distinguish them in the noise.?

Petkov and Henter have developed their method together with Professor Bastiaan Kleijn as part of the European collaborative LISTA? or Listening Talker ? project.

A recent global evaluation by the LISTA Consortium at University of Edinburgh showed significant increases in the number of words identified correctly in manipulated speech signals, over unaltered speech. The results of the LISTA evaluation are expected to be published?later this year.?

In some cases, the improvement in understanding is equivalent to turning down the speech volume by more than 5 decibels, which is similar to the difference in the strength between car and truck noise, while still being able to hear what is said just as clearly.

?This enables communication in conditions where speech normally would be impossible to understand,? says Henter.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/S61hvpiE3G0/130625162002.htm

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Qatar ruler hands over power to son

DOHA, Qatar (AP) ? Qatar's ruler said Tuesday he has transferred power to the 33-year-old crown prince in an anticipated move that puts a new generation in charge of the Gulf nation's vast energy wealth and rising political influence.

The 61-year-old emir, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, said in a televised address that the decision has been made to step down following weeks of speculation. Now, the British-educated crown prince, Sheik Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, will begin the process of putting together a new government that may be in direct contrast to the old guard leaders across the Western-backed Gulf Arab states.

Qatar has given no official explanation on the transition, but it is widely believed that Sheik Hamad is suffering from health problems.

Sheik Tamim is not expected to make any immediate policy shifts for Qatar, which has used its riches to propel itself into one of the world's most politically ambitious countries. It has served as a powerful player in the Middle East, including key support for rebels in Libya last year and now in Syria. Qatar also has broken ranks with other Gulf states to offer help to the Muslim Brotherhood, which rose to political dominance in Egypt.

In an important sign of continuity and shared goals, the outgoing emir and Sheik Tamim stood shoulder to shoulder and greeted members of the ruling family and others following the address. Sheik Tamim has been closely involved in all key decisions in recent years and his father is expected to remain a guiding force from the wings.

"Sheik Tamim will be driving his father's car, which is already programed on where to go," said Mustafa Alani, a political analyst at the Gulf Research Center in Geneva.

But the transition ? a rarity in a region where leadership changes are nearly always triggered by deaths or palace coups ? also sends a message the wider Middle East. It appears a sweeping response to the Arab Spring upheavals and their emphasis on giving voice to the region's youth, and reinforces Qatar's bold-stroke political policies.

Under Sheik Hamad, who took power in a bloodless coup in 1995, Qatar has been transformed into a political broker and a center for global investment with a sovereign fund estimated to be worth more than $100 billion. Its portfolio includes landmark real estate, luxury brands and a powerful presence in the sporting world. Tiny Qatar also defeated rivals including the U.S. to win the rights to host the 2022 World Cup.

Qatar has played a role as mediator in conflicts such as Sudan's Darfur region and regional disputes including Palestinian political rifts. Qatar this week hosted a Syrian opposition conference attended by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and is the venue for possible U.S.-led peace talks with Afghanistan's Taliban.

Sheik Tamim became the next in line to rule in 2003 after his older brother stepped aside.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/qatar-ruler-hands-over-power-son-052612831.html

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Justices Send Affirmative-Action Case to Lower Court (WSJ)

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Edward Snowden stops off in Moscow with US extradition request snapping at his heels

Even if he anticipated the risks involved in turning whisteblower, Edward Snowden can't have imagined the rushed, convoluted journey he'd have to take to avoid the full wrath of the US government. First to Hong Kong; most recently to Moscow, and perhaps soon to Ecuador (via Cuba and Venezuela) where he has apparently made a request for asylum. Strongly worded demands for his capture have followed every step of the way, with the White House National Security Council expressing "disappointment" that Hong Kong allowed Snowden to flee and now urging Russia (which has no formal extradition treaty with America) to "expel Mr. Snowden back to the US to face justice for the crimes with which he is charged." In an effort to help the fugitive navigate the maze of diplomatic fault lines, WikiLeaks has stepped up to say that its own legal advisors are "escorting" Snowden towards his final destination, likely making use of the knowledge they gained while protecting Julian Assange, and that it sees US efforts to arrest him as an "assault against the people."

Filed under: Internet

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Source: WikiLeaks, CBS News, @RicardoPatinoEC (Twitter)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/24/edward-snowden-stops-off-in-moscow/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Jon Gosselin: I live in the woods now

Celebs

Gael Fashingbauer Cooper TODAY

53 minutes ago

Michael Buckner / Getty Images file

Jon Gosselin in 2012.

Once Jon Gosselin lived in a large house in Pennsylvania and his life unrolled on television in front of millions. Now, the dad of eight lives "in the woods," and says he doesn't even have an address.

Gosselin didn't clarify exactly where or how he lives, but he confirmed to VH1's "The Gossip Table" that he's taken to a more private life after living in an apartment where paparazzi and others "figured out where I was."

Gosselin, then-wife Kate, and their twins and sextuplets starred on "Jon and Kate Plus 8" for five seasons before divorcing. The show continued as "Kate Plus 8" despite Jon Gosselin suing to prevent filming of his children.

Gosselin was asked if Kim Kardashian and Kanye West should allow their newborn daughter, North, to appear on the reality show "Keeping Up With the Kardashians," and unsurprisingly, he didn't think so.

"I wanted to raise my kids off television, so I changed my mind," he said. "So I would definitely not film with my newborn child."

Gosselin was also asked if he still wore Ed Hardy clothing, the brand he favored at the height of his tabloid fame in 2009. He said no, adding "I gave all my (Hardy clothing) to my mother." Tattoo artist Hardy recently told the New York Post that an association with Gosselin "tanked" his clothing brand.

He also said he'd be interested in appearing on "Dancing With the Stars," as his ex-wife Kate Gosselin famously did in 2010. She was the fourth celebrity eliminated on the show's tenth season, and partner Tony Dovolani later joked he needed "a lot of therapy" after partnering with her.

"I feel like I could probably get further than her," Jon Gosselin said.

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/jon-gosselin-i-live-woods-now-6C10433570

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Zombies roam the animal kingdom ? and some of them might be after us

David Hughes / Penn State

One fungus took over the brain of this zombified ant, but the first fungus was sabotaged by a different type of parasitic fungus.

By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

The zombies in "World War Z" are just actors ??but in the animal world, zombies are a fact of life. Evolution can come up with some fiendish twists: For example, there are some species that bend other creatures to their will to keep their bizarre life cycles going. Or just to feast on their delicious braaaains.

To celebrate the premiere of "World War Z," here's a top-ten list of zombies from the animal kingdom, finishing up with a particularly pernicious parasite that can pose a risk to humans:

---

Zombie ants: There are special kinds of?zombifying fungi that infect carpenter ants?in Thailand and Brazil. The fungus?grows into the ant's brain and compels it to climb down and clamp onto to the low leaves that provide the fungus with its favored breeding ground. After the ant dies, the fungus sprouts from its head and shoots out spores to infect other ants. But this zombie isn't invincible: Scientists recently discovered a different kind of fungus that can?castrate the zombifying fungus before it spreads.

Zombie bees: A parasitic fly known as Apocephalus borealis can inject its eggs into a honeybee's abdomen, where the fly larvae mature. The parasitized bees abandon their hives and walk in circles ? but eventually they fall over. "It really painted a picture of something like a zombie," says San Francisco State University's Andrew Core. About seven days after infection, the mature larvae burst out from the dead bees' bodies, renewing the gruesome circle of life. It gets worse: The zombie bees are spreading.

Zombie birds: Great tits look so cute when they're perched on a branch. You'd never know that they have a taste for bat brains. In Hungary, the birds listen for the calls sent out by the cave-dwelling pipistrelle bats when they rouse themselves from hibernation. Then they track down the groggy bats, crack their skulls open and eat their brains. Researchers found that the trick is passed down from one generation of great tits to the next, providing an example of cultural transmission in avian species. The great tits helped inspire the title of Becky Crew's book about bizarre biology, "Zombie Birds, Astronaut Fish and Other Weird Animals." ??

Zombie caterpillars: You don't want to be around when a zombified caterpillar turns to goo. There's a species of baculovirus that infects gypsy moth caterpillars and sends them up into the treetops to die. When the caterpillar's body liquefies, the ooze drips down onto other caterpillars?? creating more zombies. Scientists say a single gene in the virus interferes with the caterpillar's hormones, apparently triggering the uncharacteristic urge to climb during the day.?

Zombie crabs: A tiny barnacle called Sacculina?can latch onto male crabs?and blast them with so much estrogen that they dig empty nests, made to order?for the barnacle to lay its eggs inside. If the crab host happens to be a female, no problem: The barnacle merely wipes out the host's reproductive system, and then sets her digging.

A zombie cricket jumps into a pool and dies, which gives the mind-controlling parasitic worm inside the cricket its opportunity to swim away.

Zombie crickets: Parasitic hairworms have been known to invade crickets, take over their nervous system and then force their?buggy hosts?to drown themselves?so that the grown worm can swim out and look for a mate. Scientists aren't exactly sure how crickets pick up the parasite,?but it may involve ingesting water or bugs that contain hairworm larvae.

Zombie fish: What could be ickier than having a zombie crustacean eat out your tongue?? and then take its place in your mouth?That's what the beastie known as Cymothoa exigua does to spotted rose snappers. C. exigua latches onto the fish's tongue and sucks the blood out of it until it falls off. Then it attaches itself to the stub that's left behind, and changes its diet from blood to fish mucus. The fish and the parasite carry on that way for the rest of their lives. If you're freaked out by the "Alien" movies, do not look at this picture.

Zombie ladybugs:?Dinocampus coccinellae, a species of parasitic wasp, lays a single egg inside the abdomen of a ladybug. The wasp larva eats its way through the ladybug's insides, then pops out and spins a cocoon. End of story for the ladybug, right? Not necessarily. The ladybug often lives on as one of the undead, partially paralyzed on top of the cocoon. There's evidence that the wasp larva provides resources to keep the ladybug alive, while the ladybug provides an extra layer of protection from bugs that might otherwise eat the larva.?

Zombie spiders: Another kind of zombifying wasp targets the orb spider known as Plesiometa argyra. The wasp temporarily paralyzes the spider, lays an egg on the tip of its abdomen, and leaves it to mature. The orb spider goes about its business, weaving its usual circular webs ? until, one night, the wasp larva sends a chemical signal to the spider's brain. The spider spins a weird-looking web, seemingly designed to provide shelter from rain, wind and predators. The next day, the larva kills the spider ??and moves into the home it programmed the spider to build. ??

Zombie rats ... and humans??The most insidious zombie of the animal world may well be the tiny parasite called Toxoplasma gondii, or Toxo for short. This parasite can reproduce sexually only in cat intestines, which poses a challenge when the little critters wind up in cat poop. Here's how Toxo gets back inside the cat: When mice or rats nibble on the poop, they also gobble up some of the Toxo parasites. The parasites migrate to the brain, where they release chemicals that make the rodents lower their guard when they're around cats. Scientists think that Toxo-infected mice start to regard the smell of cat pee as something sexy rather than a cause for alarm. The cats eat the smitten rats, and the Toxo life cycle begins again.

The scary part is that Toxo can find its way into the human nervous system as well. About 30 percent of the world's population is thought to be infected. Pregnant women should be careful about avoiding infection, because the parasite can pose a risk to the unborn baby. There's also some evidence of a connection between Toxo and changes in mood or personality, and perhaps even conditions such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. The linkage isn't rock-solid, and most of those who are infected suffer no apparent effects. But if you need a plot device for your next zombie-movie script, Toxo is a good place to start.

More science of zombies:

---

Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the NBC News Science Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with NBCNews.com's stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

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