Weak Oracle sales, Cyprus fears weigh on US stocks

Stocks closed lower on Wall Street Thursday after Oracle's weak sales results weighed down big U.S. technology companies. Traders also worried about Cyprus running out of time to avoid bankruptcy.

Major indexes followed European markets lower at the open and remained solidly negative all day. The Dow Jones industrial average fell as much as 129 points by mid-afternoon before paring the loss to close down 90 points.

All three major indexes felt the drag from technology stocks after Oracle reported an unexpected decline in sales in its fiscal third quarter. Oracle's results have an outsized impact on other technology stocks because it reports earlier than most of its peers.

European markets had closed sharply lower. The main indexes in Paris and Frankfurt fell 1.4 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively, on fear that the crisis in Cyprus will intensify. The European Central Bank has threatened to end emergency support of the nation's banks next week unless leaders can secure more funding.

Cyprus must raise about $7.5 billion in the next four days to avoid bankruptcy. Several plans have failed, including a proposal to tax deposits held by the nation's banks. If the Mediterranean banking haven is unable to secure a bailout, its banks will fail and it could be forced to leave the euro currency. Worries about that scenario first hit stock markets Monday.

"It's amazing how quickly things can turn back to Cyprus and Europe," said Oliver Cross, director of research with Carolinas Investment Consulting LLC in Charlotte, N.C. Cross spent his day focused on headlines from Europe, rather than digesting happier news about hiring and home sales in the U.S.

Oracle was the biggest decliner in the S&P 500 index; Juniper Networks also fell steeply. The S&P 500 closed down 12.91 points, or 0.8 percent, at 1,545.80.

The Dow dropped 90.24 points, or 0.6 percent, to 14,421.49. Cisco was the Dow's biggest loser, followed by H-P. IBM also lost ground.

The Nasdaq, which is weighted heavily toward tech stocks, fell a full percentage point. It closed down 31.59 points at 3,222.60.

Despite being down for the week, the Dow remains near a record high. Its run-up has been powered by optimism about the U.S. economy and the Federal Reserve's easy-money policies. The Dow is up 2.6 percent this month. The S&P 500 has gained 2.1 percent in March, and is 20 points from its own all-time high set in October 2007.

Given the market's recent strength, many analysts have been anticipating a sharp decline at the first sign of bad news ? whether from Europe, corporate America or the U.S. economy.

The pullback has not materialized, said Troy Logan, managing director and senior economist at Warren Financial Service in Exton, Penn. He said today's losses could have been much worse.

"We thought Cyprus would be the perfect opportunity for the market to step back, but it looks like the market has shrugged it off," Logan said.

Many of his firm's customers are seeking higher-risk investments with higher potential returns, Logan said ? an indication that stocks may keep rising.

The U.S. job and housing markets continue to improve gradually, according to economic reports released Thursday morning. The Labor Department said the number of people claiming new unemployment benefits last week was roughly flat near a five-year low. Sales of existing homes rose in February to a three-year high, according to the National Association of Realtors.

The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell to 1.92 percent from 1.96 percent earlier Thursday as demand increased for ultra-safe investments.

In the tumbling tech sector, Oracle fell $3.47, or 9.7 percent, to $32.30. Juniper dropped 42 cents, or 2.2 percent, to $18.89. Cisco list 83 cents, or 3.8 percent, to $20.84. H-P declined 60 cents, or 2.6 percent, to $22.32. And IBM declined $2.80, or 1.3 percent, to $212.26.

Outside of technology, here are some stocks that made big moves:

? Struggling drug company AstraZeneca jumped after saying it would cut 2,300 more jobs worldwide and overhaul its research operations. That brings to 11,000 the number of job cuts announced in the past 13 months. Shares rose $1.77, or 3.8 percent, to $47.95.

? Publisher Scholastic Corp. plunged after shrinking demand for its best-selling "The Hunger Games" books forced it to cut its guidance for the year. The company's fiscal third-quarter loss nearly doubled. Shares fell $4.32, or 13.9 percent, to $26.75.

? Movado Group Inc. dropped after the luxury watchmaker said its fiscal fourth-quarter net income fell 26 percent. The stock dropped $3.89, or 10.5 percent, to $33.23.

___

Daniel Wagner can be reached at www.twitter.com/wagnerreports.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/weak-oracle-sales-cyprus-fears-weigh-us-stocks-211827815--finance.html

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MessageMe, Reuters, and More

We've got a nice balance going between utility and fun here in this round of the best iPhone apps of the week. Whether it's texting for free or shopping for, well, money, or catching up on the news and backing up your data, you'll be all set. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/j4XB-ehQWHM/messageme-reuters-and-more

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Amazon CEO raises Apollo engines from seafloor

Long thought to be lost forever on the ocean floor, massive engines that launched astronauts to the moon more than 40 years ago have been recovered by a private expedition led by the founder of Amazon.com.

"We found so much," said Jeff Bezos, the online retailer's CEO, in an update posted Wednesday (March 20) on the Bezos Expeditions website. "We have seen an underwater wonderland ? an incredible sculpture garden of twisted F-1 enginesthat tells the story of a fiery and violent end, one that serves testament to the Apollo program."

When NASA's mighty Saturn V rockets were launched on missions to Earth orbit and the moon in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the five F-1 engines that powered each of the boosters' first stages dropped into the Atlantic Ocean and sank to the seafloor. There they were expected to remain, discarded forever.

Then, almost exactly one year ago, Bezos announced his private ? and until then, secret ? expedition had located what they believed to be theengines from the 1969 Apollo 11 mission?that began the journey to land the first humans on the moon. [Apollo Rocket Engines Recovered by Jeff Bezos (Photos)]

"Nearly one year ago, Jeff Bezos shared with us his plans to recover F-1 engines," said NASA administrator Charles Bolden in a statement that was released Wednesday. "We share the excitement expressed by Jeff and his team in announcing the recovery of two of the powerful Saturn V first-stage engines from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean."

Poetic echoes of lunar missions

When Bezos first revealed that his team had discovered the engines using state-of-the-art deep-sea sonar, he said he wasn't sure what condition they were in.

"They hit the ocean at high velocity and have been in salt water for more than 40 years. On the other hand, they are made of tough stuff, so we'll see," Bezos wrote in 2012.

What they saw, using Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV), was a tangled pile of F-1 engine parts strewn across the ocean floor at a depth of more than 14,000 feet (4,270 meters).

"We photographed many beautiful objects in situ and have now recovered many prime pieces," Bezos wrote in the update Wednesday. "Each piece we bring on deck conjures for me the thousands of engineers who worked together back then to do what for all time had been thought surely impossible."

The scene also evoked the Apollo moon missions themselves.

"We on the team were often struck by poetic echoes of the lunar missions," Bezos wrote. "The buoyancy of the ROVs looks every bit like microgravity. The blackness of the horizon. The gray and colorless ocean floor. Only the occasional deep sea fish broke the illusion."

Bezos and his team are now heading back to port in Cape Canaveral, Fla., after working for three weeks at sea on the Seabed Worker, a multi-purpose support vessel.

Recovery, restoration and display

The Bezos expedition returned enough major components to rebuild two Saturn V F-1 engines ? out of the 65 that were launched between 1967 and 1973 ? for display. Despite claims last year that the engines were specifically from Apollo 11, Bezos now says the history of the engine parts he recovered may not be known.

Inspecting the raised pieces, Bezos reported that many of the parts' original serial numbers are missing or partially missing, which may make mission identification difficult.

"We might see more during restoration," Bezos wrote.

Once the engine parts are back on land, they will undergo a restoration to stabilize the hardware and prevent further corrosion from their decades-long exposure to the ocean's salt water. But Bezos hinted the restoration may not return the engines to like-new condition.

"We want the hardware to tell its true story, including its 5,000 mile per hour re-entry and subsequent impact with the ocean surface," Bezos stated. "We're excited to get this hardware on display where just maybe it will inspire something amazing."

Where the recovered F-1 engines will go on exhibit is still to be decided. Last year, Bezos expressed a desire that if two or more of the engines were successfully raised, one would go on display at The Museum of Flight in Seattle, near where Amazon and Bezos' commercial spaceflight company, Blue Origin, are headquarted.

NASA, which?retains ownership of the engines?and all of its parts, said it would likely offer one to the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.

"We look forward to the restoration of these engines by the Bezos team and applaud Jeff's desire to make these historic artifacts available for public display," Bolden said.

Click through to collectSPACE.com?for more photos and video from Bezos Expeditions? recovery of two Apollo Saturn V rocket F-1 engines.

Follow collectSPACE on Facebook?and on Twitter at @collectSPACE. Copyright 2013 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved.

Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/apollo-moon-rocket-engines-raised-seafloor-amazon-ceo-190956909.html

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House panel backs small-business financing bill

An Arkansas House committee has advanced a proposal to establish a new economic-development program in the state aimed at driving private investment to small businesses.

The House Economic Development Committee unanimously gave its approval to the bill that would allow the state to allocate tax credits to groups of investors who agree to provide financing to qualified small businesses. The investors would sell the tax credits to insurance companies and raise private capital in order to make loans to or invest in small businesses in low-income communities in Arkansas.

Democratic Rep. Darrin Williams of Little Rock sponsored the bill and told lawmakers that the new program will create and retain jobs in the state.

The Department of Finance and Administration says it's unknown how the tax credits would affect state revenue.

Source: http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2013/mar/20/house-panel-backs-small-business-financing-bill/

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Has Voyager 1 left the solar system? Probably not, but it's close.

NASA scientists say that the Voyager 1 spacecraft, launched in 1977, is still inside our solar system. But the probe's radiation sensors indicate that it has entered a new region of space.

By Nancy Atkinson,?Universe Today / March 21, 2013

An artist's concept illustrates the positions of the Voyager spacecraft in relation to structures formed around our Sun by the solar wind.

NASA/JPL/Walt Feimer

Enlarge

A new paper out today reports that the Voyager 1 spacecraft appears to have traveled beyond the influence of the Sun and exited the heliosphere. However, the data they cite is the same as what NASA Voyager scientists claimed in December 2012 was just a new region at the edge of the solar system that scientists previously didn?t know was there. They called it a ?highway? of magnetic particles, shepherding Voyager 1 out into interstellar space, whereas the new paper put out by the American Geophysical Union says Voyager 1 has crossed a ?heliocliff? and into interstellar space.

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JPL spokesperson Jia-Rui Cook had just heard of the paper when Universe Today called this morning to verify the findings of the new paper. ?Our last statement about this was the critical thing we were looking for was a change in the magnetic field data,? she said via phone. ?This paper does not appear to address the magnetic field data.?

?The Voyager team is aware of reports today that NASA?s Voyager 1 has left the solar system,? said Edward Stone, Voyager project scientist based at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif. ?It is the consensus of the Voyager science team that Voyager 1 has not yet left the solar system or reached interstellar space. In December 2012, the Voyager science team reported that Voyager 1 is within a new region called ?the magnetic highway? where energetic particles changed dramatically. A change in the direction of the magnetic field is the last critical indicator of reaching interstellar space and that change of direction has not yet been observed.?

Cook told Universe Today that Voyager Project Scientist Ed Stone was out of the country, and she was trying to get in touch with him to verify the paper?s claims that Voyager has left the solar system, and he obviously wasted no time in setting the record straight.

In another update, the AGU reissued the press release with a different title to ?to better represent the findings reported in the study.? The initial headline was ?Voyager 1 Has Left the Solar System, Sudden Changes in Cosmic Rays Indicate,? and the new headline is ?Voyager 1 has entered a new region of space, sudden changes in cosmic rays indicate.? So, basically, the new paper was just iterating the previous findings.

The authors of the new paper, William Webber and F.B. McDonald, cite the events of last summer when Voyager 1 measured drastic changes in radiation levels, more than 18 billion km (11 billion miles) from the Sun. On July 28, 2012 the level of lower-energy particles originating from inside our Solar System dropped by half. However, in three days, the levels had recovered to near their previous levels. But then the bottom dropped out at the end of August, where anomalous cosmic rays (cosmic rays trapped in the outer heliosphere) all but vanished, dropping to less than 1 percent of previous amounts. At the same time, galactic cosmic rays ? cosmic radiation from outside of the solar system ? spiked to levels not seen since Voyager?s launch, with intensities as much as twice previous levels.

?Within just a few days, the heliospheric intensity of trapped radiation decreased, and the cosmic ray intensity went up as you would expect if it exited the heliosphere,? said Webber in an AGU press release. Webber is a professor emeritus of astronomy at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. He called this transition boundary the ?heliocliff.?

In the Geophysical Research Letters article, the authors say, ?It appears that [Voyager 1] has exited the main solar modulation region, revealing [hydrogen] and [helium] spectra characteristic of those to be expected in the local interstellar medium.?

However, last December in a NASA press conference, the Voyager team said they infered this region is still inside our solar bubble because the direction of the magnetic field lines has not changed. The direction of these magnetic field lines is predicted to change when Voyager breaks through to interstellar space.

?We believe this is the last leg of our journey to interstellar space,? Stone said during the press conference. ?Our best guess is it?s likely just a few months to a couple years away. The new region isn?t what we expected, but we?ve come to expect the unexpected from Voyager.?

We?ll provide more information on this discrepancy between the interpretations of the events when we hear more from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Nancy Atkinson is Universe Today's Senior Editor. She also is the host of the?NASA Lunar Science Institute podcast?and works with the?Astronomy Cast?and?365 Days of Astronomy?podcasts. Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador.

Connect with Nancy on?Facebook?|?Twitter?|?Google +?|?Website

Want to stay on top of all the space news? Follow?@universetoday?on Twitter

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/wo-yuI0to_Y/Has-Voyager-1-left-the-solar-system-Probably-not-but-it-s-close

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The Overblown Death of the PC (part 2) | A Matter of Scale

?The PC Market is collapsing.? ?Business Insider

?Mobile?devices like smartphones and tablets have taken the world by storm. Apple?launched theiPhone?six years ago. Three years later came the?iPad.?Google?sold its first?Android?phone in 2008, five years ago.?Is the PC dead yet?? ?Yahoo Finance with the Business Insider

In Part One of?The Overblown Death of the PC we talked about the reasons people believed the personal computer to be on its way out. I disagreed with almost all of them.

But that conversation on LinkedIn continued and the overall message shifted to virtualization, thin clients, and the much ballyhooed ?Bring Your Own Device? or BYOD premise of bringing whatever you prefer and just connecting it to the company network.

Bring Your Own Device is not a silver bullet.?BYOD is just one of a new strain of network security concerns which continue to abound in our modern age. Malware and other denial of service attacks continue to increase and are working on more sensitive integrated systems every day. As the technology for smarter devices continues to develop and as fast as new apps are being developed, malware is just as quickly propagating across this new interconnected and completely open environment.

What I hear far too little of is an understanding of the new technological ecosystem being developed. In addition to the growing iOS and Android playgrounds where few if any environmental monitoring is being done, almost no malware protections are being enacted and neither security processes, nor human awareness have kept pace with the potential for hackers to invade the privacy of billions of potential devices which lie unprotected for the most part.

Adding to this tech-soup of potential vulnerability are the complexities of virtual computing and remote desktop environments, as well as thin client systems are all becoming dependent on cloud computing technology, wide area networks and client-managed environments. Few are discussing the increasing complexity of these environments where hardware is centralized but use is distributed through a multitude of virtual environments without concern for operational capacity, network stability, and Internet connectivity.

We are seeing more outages of the Internet daily, so much so, there are applications which monitor traffic to let you know which services are currently available:http://www.isitdownrightnow.com/?. Though this tool is primarily for popular web services, Amazon has a version which is also accessible through the internet:http://status.aws.amazon.com/?. Each tool like these is predicated on the idea that no system of computer operation is infallible and the more interconnected we become the more likely we will find the opportunity to see first hand:

For Want of a Nail
For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the message was lost.
For want of a message the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a nail.

The death of the desktop computer is built around the idea we have managed to supersede what the tool has given us.

• That we have managed to secure our environments, to create infrastructure which will support wireless technologies, metropolitan area networks, and the inevitable planetary-area networks we are designing.
• That we are able to effectively isolate and route around failed areas of the largest network which connects us all, the internet. The jury is out.
• That we have greater control of our soon-to-be completely necessary planetary network in such a way, hacking vulnerabilities are a thing of the past, every system which is put on that network is aware of how to deal with potential threats, without human intervention and will do so in a fashion so humans can simply be informed without having to worry about restorations of a failed environment, first.
• That scrupulous use of said planetary network ensures no one will be using it to unlawfully monitor its users, manipulate the users or their data, socially engineer user behavior for profit, perform acts of vandalism or terrorism, using said network as part of a control system and structure for acts of military warfare or sabotage.

So, is the desktop dead? Is that even the right question?

Perhaps the question should be: Is the desktop computer being killed by corporations who want to manipulate users into a cycle of:

• Regular planned obsolescence ? creating underpowered devices which need constant upgrade to deal with software bloat, development issues and a constant need for upgrades.
• Consumerism ? the technology is really being structured around pushing products, dependence and reliance on said devices?(extending the reign of television advertising in the new medium).
• Development Control: by getting rid of users ability to create information this creates a more passive audience waiting for new ?products? and ?fees? for receiving them.?
• Health issues: The long-term effect of using said devices in terms of user health (eyestrain, inattention, psychological distress) and destroying the environment to feed the engine of gadget production.

Is the death of the PC being artificially hastened to sell portable digital technology, even when financial, economic, social, and technological safeguards for that technology are not currently in place? Oh yes, I would say so, just from watching the industry and its lust for profit.

The PC is not dead. But we are sealing it up alive in the coffin for profit?s sake. Think of how much money can be made while new interfaces are being developed. Think of all the planned obsolescence inherently built into each device, replacing it after only 6-12 months. Imagine all of that technological churn being done, the billions spent on advertising new versions of old devices with only minuscule differences making corporations like Apple some of the most profitable agencies on Earth. Think of the ever-expanding app industry estimated to grow to $25 billion dollars in 2013 and continuing to grow. There is so much money to be made by Apple, Samsung, Nokia, Motorola, and other device manufacturers I can?t see them NOT promoting the device/gadget over desktops. The potential profitability is absolutely astounding. Charge as much for a handheld device as you do for a laptop with 1/10 the functionality, but call it mobile. ?Make a gadget cool, and the sheep will follow.?

If the PC is dying, I suspect someone is killing it; for a profit. And it?s not the butler.

See Also: Gadgets: A Perfect Storm of Wrong ? Where I discuss the environmental issues around the constant proliferation of gadget/device technology.

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Source: http://ebonstorm.wordpress.com/2013/03/20/the-overblown-death-of-the-pc-part-2/

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Which areas are the home improvement hotspots ... - Eurofit Direct

By Ryan Hirst | March 19, 2013 | Featured Stories, News Stories

Research from Barbour ABI revealed today at property and construction industry show Ecobuild in London reveals that Westminster heads the list of local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales for home improvements.

It received the highest proportion of planning applications in 2012, with more than seven applications made to improve homes in Westminster for every 100 private homes, or four and a half times the average for Great Britain.

Westminster is followed by Tunbridge Wells in second place with more than six applications for every 100 private homes in the borough, then South Bucks, Uttlesford and St Albans.Areas in the south of England dominate the top 25 places ? London saw a rise of nearly 9%, while applications in the North East fell by 6%.

?Central or local government initiatives can also make a difference to the number of applications submitted for home improvements,? said a spokesman for Barbour aBI. ?For instance, Blaenau Gwent, one of the poorest districts in Wales, saw applications for home improvements leap in 2012 to place it second in the table of home improvement districts in Wales. In previous years it had been ranked towards the bottom. Much of this increase appears to be because of energy saving initiatives leading to an increase in such improvements as external wall insulation. This may be a positive signal for the Government?s recently introduced Green Deal.?

via Which areas are the home improvement hotspots? | Alex Johnson | Independent Property Blogs.

The Green Deal is in place now and has been up and running for sometime. With this in mind I would say I am surprised to note that so many?home-owners?are not taking it upon themselves to renovate their home and make it more eco-friendly. With the use of the Green Deal home-owners are in fact not losing money in the short term and in the long term they are actually saving money too.

Here are a few worthwhile green home improvements you can make:

• Renovating your homes insulation
• Water Heating through things such as water efficient taps
• Energy Efficient Lighting
• Microgenoration ? This is something I would like to discuss in more detail as not so many people know about the improvements that can be made through Microgenoration. Things such as biomass boilers, solar panels and also ground and air source heat pumps are a few of the improvements that we can make.
• Ventilation is another area in which improvements can be made along with this heating tactics in your home can be improved and also air conditioning.

The Green Deal is something I would advise many more people to take a serious look at before renovating your home, if you are not sure how it works check out this article I wrote for a friend of ours at Green Home Design.

If you enjoyed this post, please take a moment to share it with your friends and colleagues using your favourite social network.

Source: http://www.eurofitdirect.co.uk/blog/which-areas-are-the-home-improvement-hotspots-the-green-deal/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=which-areas-are-the-home-improvement-hotspots-the-green-deal

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