Keen On… Nolan Bushnell: How To Find The Next Steve Jobs

There are few figures more legendary in Silicon Valley than Nolan Bushnell, the Atari co-founder who gave Steve Jobs his first tech job and the guy who turned down the offer to buy a third of Apple for $50,000. Bushnell has a new book out called Finding The Next Steve Jobs which, he told me, is designed to help companies find that "quirky" fellow who can do the "strange things" that will change the world.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/QDaF9cIZv54/
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House GOP unveils bill to counter Senate debt plan

WASHINGTON (AP) — House GOP leaders Tuesday pitched a plan to fellow Republicans to counter an emerging Senate deal to reopen the government and forestall an economy-rattling default on U.S. obligations. But they stopped short of promising a vote later in the day after the plan got mixed reviews from the rank and file.

Top Republicans unveiled a plan that would suspend a new tax on medical devices for two years and take away the federal government's contributions to lawmakers' health care and top administration officials, in addition to funding the government through Jan. 15 and giving Treasury the ability to borrow normally through Feb. 7.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said he's "trying to find a path forward" but that "there have been no decisions about exactly what we will do." He told a news conference "there are a lot of opinions about what direction to go."

The move came as a partial shutdown entered its third week and less than two days before the Treasury Department says it will be unable to borrow and will rely on a this cash cushion to pay the country's bills.

The House GOP plan wouldn't win nearly as many concessions from President Barack Obama as Republicans had sought but it would set up another battle with the White House early next year.

"The jury is still out," said Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas.

Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., said he was not sure he could vote for the plan because it did not address the debt. "I have to know a lot more than I know now," he said.

The House move comes after conservative lawmakers rebelled at the outlines of an emerging Senate plan by Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and GOP leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. Those two hoped to seal an agreement on Tuesday, just two days before the Treasury Department says it will run out of borrowing capacity.

The White House and Democrats quickly came out against the Republican plan. Obama planned to meet with House Democratic leaders Tuesday afternoon as negotiations continue.

"The latest proposal from House Republicans does just that in a partisan attempt to appease a small group of tea party Republicans who forced the government shutdown in the first place," said White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage. "Democrats and Republicans in the Senate have been working in a bipartisan, good-faith effort .... With only a couple days remaining until the United States exhausts its borrowing authority, it's time for the House to do the same."

"GOP's latest plan is designed to torpedo the bipartisan Sen solution," tweeted Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md. "Plan is not only reckless, it's tantamount to default."

Political pressure is building on Republicans to reopen the government and GOP leaders are clearly fearful of failing to act to avert a default on U.S. obligations.

Republicans are in a difficult spot, relinquishing many of their core demands as they take a beating in the polls. Rep. Steve Southerland, R-Fla., led GOP lawmakers in several verses of "Amazing Grace."

"We have to stick together now," said Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas.

Like the House GOP bill, the emerging Senate measure — though not finalized — would reopen the government through Jan. 15 and permit the Treasury to borrow normally until early to mid-February, easing dual crises that have sapped confidence in the economy and taken a sledgehammer to the GOP's poll numbers.

"There are productive negotiations going on with the Republican leader," Reid said as he opened the Senate Tuesday. "I'm confident we'll be able to reach a comprehensive agreement this week in time to avert a catastrophic default."

On Wall Street, stocks were mixed early Tuesday, with investors somewhat optimistic over a potential deal.

"We're willing to get the government open. We want to get the government open," Scalise said. "Hopefully they get something done that addresses the spending issue."

The competing House and Senate plans are a far cry from the assault on "Obamacare" that tea party Republicans originally demanded as a condition for a short-term funding bill to keep the government fully operational. It lacks the budget cuts demanded by Republicans in exchange for increasing the government's $16.7 trillion borrowing cap.

Nor do either the House or Senate frameworks contain any of a secondary set of House GOP demands, like a one-year delay in the health law's mandate that individuals buy insurance.

Another difference between the Democrats and Republicans involves a Democratic move to repeal a $63 fee that companies must pay for each person they cover under the big health care overhaul beginning in 2014. Unions oppose the fee and Senate Democrats are pressing to repeal it, but House Republicans are positioning to block them and Senate Republicans are adamantly opposed as well.

Democrats were standing against a GOP-backed proposal to suspend a medical device tax that was enacted as part of the health care law, but might not be able to win a floor vote since many Democrats oppose the tax too.

Democratic and Republican aides described the outlines of the potential agreement on condition of anonymity because the discussions were ongoing.

But with GOP poll numbers plummeting and the country growing weary of a shutdown entering its third week, Senate Republicans in particular were eager to end the shutdown — and avoid an even greater crisis if the government were to default later this month.

Any legislation backed by both Reid and McConnell can be expected to sail through the Senate, though any individual senators could delay it.

But it's another story in the House. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, signaled that conservative members of the House were deeply skeptical. He said any bill had to have serious spending cuts for him to vote to raise the debt ceiling and said he thought Obama and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew had more flexibility than they had said publicly.

"No deal is better than a bad deal," Barton said.

Asked whether the emerging package contained any victories for Republicans, Rep. James Lankford, R-Okla., a member of the House GOP leadership, said, "Not that I've seen so far, no."

In addition to approving legislation to fund the government until late this year and avert a possible debt crisis later this week or month, the potential pact would set up broader budget negotiations between the GOP-controlled House and Democratic-led Senate. One goal of those talks would be to ease automatic spending cuts that began in March and could deepen in January, when about $20 billion in further cuts are set to slam the Pentagon.

Democrats also were seeking to preserve the Treasury Department's ability to use extraordinary accounting measures to buy additional time after the government reaches any extended debt ceiling. Such measures have permitted Treasury to avert a default for almost five months since the government officially hit the debt limit in mid-May, but wouldn't buy anywhere near that kind of time next year, experts said.

The House GOP plan would repeal the extraordinary measures, which would make the Feb 7 date a hard deadline to revisit the fight.

___

Associated Press writers Donna Cassata, David Espo, Henry C. Jackson, Julie Pace and Alan Fram contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/house-gop-unveils-bill-counter-senate-debt-plan-142903804--finance.html
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Libyan arrives in US to face terrorism charges

FILE - This file image from the FBI website shows Anas al-Libi, an al-Qaeda leader connected to the 1998 embassy bombings in eastern Africa and wanted by the United States for more than a decade. Gunmen in a three-car convoy seized Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, known by his alias Anas al-Libi, outside his house Saturday, Oct. 5, 2013, in the Libyan capital, his relatives said. Two law enforcement officials say a team of U.S. investigators from the military, the intelligence community and the Justice Department has been deployed to question Abu Anas al-Libi, according to two law enforcement officials. (AP Photo/FBI, File)

FILE - This file image from the FBI website shows Anas al-Libi, an al-Qaeda leader connected to the 1998 embassy bombings in eastern Africa and wanted by the United States for more than a decade. Gunmen in a three-car convoy seized Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, known by his alias Anas al-Libi, outside his house Saturday, Oct. 5, 2013, in the Libyan capital, his relatives said. Two law enforcement officials say a team of U.S. investigators from the military, the intelligence community and the Justice Department has been deployed to question Abu Anas al-Libi, according to two law enforcement officials. (AP Photo/FBI, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — After a weeklong interrogation aboard a U.S. warship, a Libyan al-Qaida suspect is now in New York awaiting trial on terrorism charges, U.S. officials said Monday.

Abu Anas al-Libi was grabbed in a military raid in Libya on Oct. 5. He's due to stand trial in Manhattan, where he has been under indictment for more than a decade on charges he helped plan and conduct surveillance for the bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998.

Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York, confirmed that al-Libi was transferred to law enforcement custody over the weekend. Al-Libi was expected to be arraigned Tuesday, Bharara said.

President Barack Obama's administration took criticism years ago when it decided to prosecute admitted 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York, rather than at the naval prison at Guantanamo Bay. After reversing course, however, the government has successfully prosecuted several terrorism cases in civilian courts.

A federal law enforcement official and two other U.S. officials said al-Libi arrived in New York on Saturday. The officials insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the matter.

Intelligence officials interrogated him for a week aboard the U.S.S. San Antonio in the Mediterranean. Interrogations at sea have replaced CIA black sites as the U.S. government's preferred method for holding suspected terrorists and questioning them without access to lawyers.

Al-Libi's al-Qaida ties date back to the terrorist group's early years, according to court documents. That would make him a valuable source of information about the group's history.

It's unclear whether he could offer fresh intelligence on the group, the core of which has been battered and fragmented.

Al-Libi has longstanding health issues and will get medical testing while in custody to determine whether he needs treatment, U.S. officials said. Where exactly al-Libi is being held and where that testing would take place is unclear.

Al-Libi, whose full name is Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, used to be on the FBI's list of most wanted terrorists. His family denies he was in al-Qaida.

Known as one of al-Qaida's early computer experts, al-Libi is believed to have used an early-generation Apple computer to assemble surveillance photographs in Kenya before a bombing there killed more than 200. That information was presented to Osama bin Laden, who approved the bombing, a former federal law enforcement official has said.

___

Associated Press writers Lara Jakes and Tom Hays contributed to this report.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-10-14-Terror%20Trial/id-014b3259b9d244cc92aadbea50c846a2
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Important New Theory Explains Where Old Memories Go

Think back to your first childhood beach vacation. Can you recall the color of your bathing suit, the softness of the sand, or the excitement of your first swim in the ocean? Early memories such as this often arise as faded snapshots, remarkably distinct from newer memories that can feel as real as the present moment. With time, memories not only lose their rich vividness, but they can also become distorted, as our true experiences tango with a fictional past.


The brain’s ability to preserve or alter memories lies at the heart of our basic human experience. The you of today is molded not only by your personal history, but also by your mental visits to that past, prompting you to laugh over a joke heard yesterday, reminisce about an old friend or cringe at the thought of your awkward adolescence. When we lose those pieces of the past we lose pieces of our identity. But just where in the brain do those old memories go? Despite decades studying how the brain transforms memories over time, neuroscientists remain surprisingly divided over the answer.


Some of the best clues as to how the brain processes memories have come from patients who can’t remember. If damage to a particular brain area results in memory loss, researchers can be confident that the region is important for making or recalling memories. Such studies have reliably shown that damage to the hippocampus, a region nestled deep inside the brain, prevents people from creating new memories. But a key question, still open to debate, is what happens to a memory after it’s made. Does it stay in the hippocampus or move out to other areas of the brain? To answer this, scientists have studied old memories formed before brain damage, only to discover a mix of inconsistent findings that have given rise to competing theories.


One popular theory proposes that the hippocampus is critical only for recent memories, but not older ones. Over time, the hippocampus teaches the surrounding brain – the cortex – how to represent a memory. As the memory matures, the hippocampus kicks it out to reside independently in the cortex. If you lost your hippocampus today, you could still remember your childhood vacation to Florida, but the memory from last weekend’s dinner party would be lost. This is the exact pattern scientists have observed in many patients, including the celebrated amnesic H.M. After surgery to remove a large chunk of his hippocampus, H.M. could recall some very old memories, but could no longer make new memories or remember the years leading up to his surgery.


But researchers have seen other patients with hippocampal damage who have memory deficits extending back through most of their life. An alternative theory accounts for these discrepancies by proposing that the hippocampus selectively stores one type of memory – “episodic” – while the surrounding cortex stores another – “semantic.” Episodic memories are usually rich in details about our past experiences, whereas semantic memories are based on impersonal, factual knowledge. As a memory ages, the model proposes, it is copied many times in both the hippocampus and the cortex. All of those cortical copies generate a new semantic memory, representing only the gist or key facts about the experience, without all of its elaborate episodic details. Intriguingly, this theory is also backed by patients who exhibit memory problems depending on the type of memory, rather than its age. Without a hippocampus, such patients couldn’t remember the experience of their childhood Florida trip – an episodic memory – but could remember the fact that they visited Florida – a semantic memory.

Both theories have camps of staunch advocates, drawing support from particular amnesia cases that only their model can explain. But as neither theory perfectly fits together all pieces of the puzzle, the field has entered a stalemate.


Researchers from Johns Hopkins University have come up with a new theory that just might settle some of this controversy. Their explanation rests on the premise that memories are transformed each time we revisit them. According to this theory, a memory is first encoded by the coordinated activity of neurons in the hippocampus and cortex. The hippocampus acts as the brain’s director, telling the cortex which particular neurons to activate. Each time we recall that memory, a similar, but not identical set of neurons are activated. Neurons that are frequently activated become part of the permanent memory trace in the cortex, while the rarely activated ones are lost. Every reactivation re-encodes the memory, and depending on what cortical neurons are engaged, can strengthen, weaken or update particular memory features.


On the surface, this new model sounds a lot like the earlier ones. But it breaks the longstanding stalemate by proposing that what we do with a memory, rather than its age or type, determines where it’s stored in the brain. While the competing theories debated whether the hippocampus is only needed for recent memories or episodic memories, the new model suggests that what really matters is how often you revisit the memory. When a memory is recalled often, it will more rapidly become stored in the cortex, become less episodic and become independent of the hippocampus. But a memory that’s rarely revisited will remain dependent on the hippocampus. Older memories might be recalled more often, but the relationship isn’t perfect. This would explain why one amnesic’s memory impairment extends back forty years, while another’s extends only ten years.


The theory also nicely accounts for our subjective sense for how our memories change over time; namely, how the hippocampus and cortex collaborate to gradually fade or distort our memories. Say you’re reminded of that beach vacation every summer. With each memory reactivation, some features are reinforced while others disappear, explaining why the memory seems to get fuzzy over time. And the more details that are lost, the less “episodic” and the more “semantic” the memory becomes, accounting for the sense of personal detachment often associated with very old memories. Each time you think back to your Florida vacation, you re-encode fewer details, making the memory feel less vivid now than it did decades ago. Today, you might still be able to recall your striped blue bathing suit even though the smell of the ocean air is lost. 


Each mental trip back to Florida is not only an opportunity to strengthen or weaken the memory, but also to incorporate fictional tidbits. You used to be sure that vacation was in Fort Lauderdale, but your sister always talks about the fun family trip to Miami. Every time you reminisce together, the memory of Fort Lauderdale is reactivated, but so is a competing representation of Miami. Next time you think of the vacation, the Fort Lauderdale and Miami representations conflict, causing uncertainty over where you actually went. Recall the beach in Miami enough times and voilà, a false memory is born!


Memories fade and transform as they age. This intriguing new theory suggests that these changes have to do less with the age or content of a memory, and more with what we do with that memory. Changing the past just might be easier than we thought. Chances are, you do it every time you remember.


Are you a scientist who specializes in neuroscience, cognitive science, or psychology? And have you read a recent peer-reviewed paper that you would like to write about? Please send suggestions to Mind Matters editor Gareth Cook, a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist and regular contributor to NewYorker.com. He can be reached at garethideas AT gmail.com or Twitter @garethideas.



Follow Scientific American on Twitter @SciAm and @SciamBlogs.
Visit ScientificAmerican.com for the latest in science, health and technology news.

© 2013 ScientificAmerican.com. All rights reserved.



Source: http://news.yahoo.com/important-theory-explains-where-old-memories-103000377.html
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Missouri QB Franklin out 3-5 weeks

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — No. 14 Missouri got the SEC's attention upsetting Georgia on the road. The Tigers will try to retain momentum without their most indispensable player.

Quarterback James Franklin is hurt again, out three to five weeks with a sprained right shoulder. Coach Gary Pinkel said Monday he's confident redshirt freshman Maty Mauk can do the job in his first career start on Saturday at home against No. 22 Florida.

Pinkel expects teammates to help make it work. They're accustomed to playing without Franklin after the quarterback's injury-plagued junior season.

"Bottom line, it doesn't matter. We're wasting our time talking about it," Pinkel said. He added, "How about them playing to a high level, every one of them?"

Just like Franklin, Mauk likes to run. All he lacks is experience.

"I'm going to be busting my butt 100 percent and they know that," Mauk said. "We're going to have a good week of practice and we're going to be ready."

Franklin was injured in the fourth quarter of the upset at No. 7 Georgia, interrupting a very good senior comeback season, and showed up for media interviews with his right arm in a sling. He has 14 touchdown passes with three interceptions and is the third-leading rusher with 290 yards, a 4.5-yard average and three more TDs.

Pinkel said Franklin had been playing "as good as any quarterback we've ever had."

"It's a good thing it's a team sport," Franklin said. "It stinks that I went down but we still have a lot of talent. I know that we can do it."

Franklin missed four starts last year and frequently played hurt. Missouri (6-0, 2-0) struggled with or without him in a 5-7 SEC debut season, the school's first losing record since 2004.

Missouri had myriad injury problems last year, notably on the offensive line. That made the fill-in job a lot tougher for Corbin Berkstresser, who began this year No. 3 on the depth chart and will be Mauk's backup.

"Last year, we got hit with a wrecking ball," Mauk said. "This year, everyone's healthy."

Multiple reports said earlier in the day, Pinkel told the school's Tiger Quarterback Club that he would complain to the SEC about a late hit. At his news conference, the coach hedged.

"I don't know, they're going to have to determine that. I'm not supposed to (comment) and I shouldn't. We have a process to go through and it's a good process, and thorough."

Franklin threw the ball out of bounds on a rollout near the sideline and then was tackled by two Georgia players. Franklin said "it doesn't matter" whether he was hurt on a late hit.

Pinkel said he won't change the offense or condense the playbook for Mauk, who has played sparingly but can lean on high school stardom. He has encouraged Mauk, known best at Missouri for a scooter mishap that got him arrested, to just be himself.

"You don't want him to be a robot out there," Pinkel said. "You've got good people around you, just go play. He's going to be nervous, he'll do fine."

Mauk broke national records for yards passing (18,932), touchdown passes (219), completions (1,353) and total offense (22,681), and was a Parade All-American and two-time Gatorade Ohio Player of the Year.

He's been used sparingly, usually one series. He's 5 for 6 for 41 yards, and got sacked twice in three plays against Toledo.

Senior cornerback E.J. Gaines, a key player on defense, is questionable this week with a strained left quadriceps. Freshman Aerion Penton and redshirt freshman John Gibson are backups on the depth chart at cornerback and both figure to see playing time this week.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/missouri-qb-franklin-3-5-weeks-231428799--spt.html
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Syria and Society: Two Takes | Daily Gazette

Posted in News, WNR
By War News Radio

October 10, 2013

This piece was written, produced, and edited by Caroline Batten, Sabrina Merold, Dylan Okabe-Jawdat, and Aaron True for War News Radio.

War and violence never exist in a vacuum; intrastate conflict often has far-reaching effects that extend outside a nation’s borders. War News Radio’s Dylan Okabe-Jawdat and Aaron True spoke to two Swarthmore College professors–Anthropology professor Farha Ghannam and Religion professor Sarah Kistler–on the complicated social ramifications of the Syrian civil war.

Source: http://daily.swarthmore.edu/2013/10/10/syria-and-society-two-takes/
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Navarrette: Cruz is right about Obamacare (CNN)

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