Contemplating Privacy and Radio Communications 6 - The Silicon ...

Some miscellaneous thoughts:

First off, back a few days ago, an anonymous commenter asked

Do you know of any available resources to build freq hopping and encrypted radios available to the public. It might be a good project to get some of your engineers working on, perhaps using this as a foundation: http://greatscottgadgets.com/hackrf/
All you need is a laptop and the Hackrf USB radio, throw on a GUI that makes signal strength and frequency selection easy, encryption and frequency hop loads, and you've got a military grade radio.?

I haven't kept up with this tech - the last time I saw similar things (and it may have been a dead end on the Internet) it was certainly not military grade, and I wasn't even sure it was Belkin grade.? That is, I'm not sure it was as good as commercial WiFi you can buy anywhere pretty cheaply.? I can't say I'm an expert at this, having just looked it over, but this is not a usable radio; it's a digital board that allows you to experiment with software defined radios (SDRs). ? The HackRF page on Ars Electronica says

There are relatively few people in the world with the knowledge and tools required to develop new radio communications hardware, but there are many millions of people who have the ability to program a computer. General purpose computers are widely deployed, and opportunities to learn how to program them are available to a huge number of people.? HackRF gives all of those people the capability to explore the radio spectrum and develop creative new ways to communicate.

The difference is that HackRF doesn't seem to have any receiver sophistication and only a very low power transmitter stage that I can see.? I freely admit I could be wrong, but the block diagram sure doesn't show anything.? One of the paradoxes of SDRs is that they don't eliminate the need for filters; if anything, they become more important due to the aliases they respond to.? He describes it as combining "Licorice, Lemondrop, and Jellybean into a single USB-powered software radio".? Maybe I'm searching in all the wrong places, but a few searches with Bing retrieve nothing on them.? I don't think this is a GUI away from being useful, but hey!, prove me wrong!

SDRs for experimenters are not new at all.? Hams play with SoftRock, (also) a low power CW transceiver (Continuous Wave, the name hams tend to use for Morse code communications) that plugs into a USB port and a sound card.? These guys produce an HF SDR, transmit and receive, that is architecturally very similar to one I recently completed for a commercial design (naturally, I prefer the design trade choices that I made over theirs).? RFSpace has a product line of SDR receivers.?? FlexRadio is a staple in the ham world; their SDRs are considered among the finest radios on the market.?

I recommend getting an amateur radio license because it brings with it the privileges to experiment with new modes and new technologies all on your own.? You can buy an FRS radio to talk to someone, but if you're a ham, you can invent your own mode with an outwardly similar radio, because you're expected to understand the technical requirements.? The technician class license conveys all amateur privileges above 30 MHz, plus it gives holders some privileges in the HF spectrum (high frequency or shortwave - capable of worldwide communication).? The American Radio Relay League is the dedicated organization that is closest to a "universal American ham club", although like the NRA, the ARRL is often criticized by non-member hams (well, not as often as the NRA).? If you want a completely non-official page, this guy seems pretty good. ?

If you want to experiment with modes that require more than audio bandwidth, you need to be above 30 MHz, and you're going to need to experiment with radios (or have someone in your group that knows radio design).? Simply, most amateur gear is either surplus commercial gear or designed from the ground up for the narrowband modes that dominate.? Except for TV - hams have done regular TV at 400 MHz and above and are now doing digital TV.? A few months ago, I met hams who were buying surplus video equipment at WiFi frequencies and above.? They were playing with extending it out to long distances, and had made WiFi connections at 125 miles.? There is a ham band that overlaps the band allocated to WiFi, so the surplus gear is being used for ham purposes all the time.

As I said the other day, the use of ham radio to send encrypted messages, like a PGP-encrypted text file, is illegal, although the Feds have routinely allowed all sorts of things when a disaster happens.? If there is a total failure of civil order, I can't imagine this would be an enforcement priority.? Sort of like this old Far Side cartoon:

I think if you're going to learn how to set up and use communications, a ham license gets you the ability to do it in a licensed and permitted way. You can save the encrypted stuff for when you need it.
Simply using UHF or microwaves on a point to point link (no repeaters) will give you almost total anonymity.?

Finally, a couple of people (here and in email) have asked for book titles or other ways to learn about this field.? Most of the books I know of are at least somewhat mathematical.? Electronic Communications by Robert Schrader is a very good book, often used as a junior college text or supplement in ham classes.? Spread Spectrum Systems by Robert C. Dixon is one of the standard books.? Both of these are available in several editions and are often found used or in library sales.? The ARRL Handbook, published every year, has long been considered a very complete summary of modern ham radio theory and practice.? There's a difference between books published for working engineers and those published for school, where the aim is to impress the professors enough to become the textbook.? Because of this, I have a tendency to pick up old textbooks written from the working engineer's perspective.? I've often thought I've learned more from magazines and ham radio publications than my engineering texts, as those books have more insights per square inch than textbooks do.?

Source: http://thesilicongraybeard.blogspot.com/2013/03/contemplating-privacy-and-radio_31.html

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Smith leads Louisville to 77-69 victory over Ducks

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) ? Louisville coach Rick Pitino is baffled by Russ Smith.

Not by the star guard himself, who is managing to outdo himself each time he steps on the court. No, Pitino doesn't understand why the rest of the country isn't as impressed with Smith as he ? and every opponent who's faced him ? is.

"I look at (player of the year) lists, and I don't see Russ Smith. I don't see him on the All-America teams," Pitino said. "I'm baffled, just baffled, because it wasn't like he was a Johnny-come-lately. He carried us on his back to a Final Four last year."

And he's one game from doing it again.

With Louisville having a rare off night, Smith lifted the Cardinals to a 77-69 victory over Oregon on Friday that put them in the Midwest Region finals. He matched his career high of 31 points, including seven during what would wind up being the game's decisive run.

Smith is averaging 27 points through the first three games of the tournament.

"Russ Smith is a talented young man," Oregon coach Dana Altman said. "When he got going, we didn't have an answer."

Louisville (32-5) plays Duke on Sunday, the first time Pitino and Mike Krzyzewski have met in a regional final since Christian Laettner's shot in 1992.

The 12th-seeded Ducks managed to make a game of it, though, which is more than most of Louisville's recent opponents can say.

After Louisville went up 66-48 with 9:01 left, Oregon made six straight field goals to close to 70-64. But Kevin Ware scored on a layup and Chane Behanan threw down a monstrous dunk to put the game out of reach.

Ware finished with 11, topping his previous career best by one, and Gorgui Dieng had 10 points, nine rebounds and four blocked shots.

E.J. Singler's 15 points led five Ducks in double figures. But Damyean Dotson had an off night, held without a field goal until five minutes were gone in the second half, and Oregon could never recover from its poor start.

Early foul trouble didn't help, with Johnathan Loyd picking up his third before halftime and Dominic Artis and Carlos Emory playing the last six minutes of the half with two.

"If it wasn't for the beginning, it would have been a completely different game," Loyd said. "We just came out, we weren't ready and we got smacked. If we were playing the way were playing in the second half the whole game, it's a completely different story."

The Cardinals were barely tested in either of their first two games in the NCAA tournament, beating North Carolina A&T by 31 and Colorado State by 26. They set an NCAA tournament record with 20 steals against A&T, outrebounded one of the country's best rebounding teams in Colorado State and left both teams with ugly shooting lines.

But a hacking cough that Smith has had the last few days is making its way around the Louisville team, and it was clear from the start this wasn't going to be another juggernaut performance by the Cardinals.

Peyton Siva spent the last 15:19 of the first half on the bench after picking up his second foul, and Louisville wasn't nearly as stingy on defense as it's been. The Cardinals (13) actually had more turnovers than the Ducks (12), and Oregon is only the third team to shoot 44 percent or better during Louisville's winning streak.

Thanks to Smith, however, the Cardinals finished like they always do lately: with a win.

After Siva went out, Smith hit a 3 to spark a 14-3 run that put Louisville up 24-8. When he capped the spurt with a layup, it was Russ Smith 9, Oregon 8.

"We really dug ourselves a big hole," Singler said. "We tried to figure back as much as possible, but Louisville's a really, really good team. They just played better than us today."

But the Ducks aren't a team that gives in.

After losing six of their last 11 regular-season games, the Ducks have been on a tear. They won the Pac-12 tournament, then upset Oklahoma State and Saint Louis last weekend.

They went on a 16-4 run that cut Louisville's lead to six points, the smallest it had been since the opening minutes of the game.

"We watched film and seen how they run, and we kind of figured out that would happen," Chane Behanan said.

Instead of panicking, the Cardinals regrouped and regained control. After Ware and Behanan's baskets, Smith shot 3-of-4 from the line to seal the win.

"Coach has been telling me to fight through (his cold), fight through it, dig in. My teammates as well," Smith said. "We're fighting through it and just doing whatever we can to get a win."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/smith-leads-louisville-77-69-victory-over-ducks-013024595--spt.html

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Deal of the Day ? Alienware X51 Core i7 mini Gaming PC with GeForce GTX 660 and Blu-ray

LogicBUY’s Deal for Friday is the configurable?Alienware X51 Core i7-3770 “Ivy Bridge” 3.4GHz Quad-core mini gaming PC for $999. ?Included features: 8GB RAM 2TB SATA III hard drive and Blu-ray (slot-loading DVD burner) 1.5GB GeForce GTX 660 graphics USB 3.0 Wireless-N AlienFX System Lighting Technology $1349 – $250 instant savings – $100 coupon code?= $999 [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2013/03/29/deal-of-the-day-alienware-x51-core-i7-mini-gaming-pc-with-geforce-gtx-660-and-blu-ray/

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5 Headaches of Modern Publishing | Digiday

The economics of publishing are harder than ever, but there?s a raft of other challenges those on the sell side face. Whether it?s a Byzantine RFP process or uncertainty with mobile, publishers have a lot on their minds these days. Digiday spoke to publishers to narrow down the five areas giving them migraines.

The RFP Mess
There?s one thing both sides agree on: the RFP process is a stone-cold mess. This is best illustrated in the intricate flowchart constructed by NextMark detailing the cumbersome RFP process. By this count, there are some 42 steps. It?s a pain on all sides.

But for publishers it gets worse. Buyers are notoriously unrealistic, and firmly in control thanks to the vast supply-demand imbalance. That means asking publishers for what seems like the impossible. It can be to create products and programs that have never been done, something that?s innovative. And to top it off, publishers are asked to scramble and have it done in 10 minutes ? and with measurable results.

Click Pressure
Eighteen years ago, when banner ads arrived on the scene, their creators made the understandable decision to differentiate this new advertising medium by adding interactivity. That?s why the first banner copy read, ?Have you clicked here? You will.?
It turns out not that many people do click anymore. That doesn?t stop media buyers from hunting for clicks. Many will tell you it?s not all about clicks. These same people will turn around for a brand advertising campaign and hold a publisher accountable for, yes, clicks. The lesson: When they say it?s not about the click, it?s always about the click.

?People will call us up and say, ?We?ll give you this brand campaign? but will cancel it because the click-through rate wasn?t good,? said Larry Burstein, publisher of New York Magazine. ?But wait a minute. You?re asking for a very specific to a campaign about branding. Click-through rates mean nothing.?

The Mobile Morass
The Internet was bad enough for publishers, but then mobile came around. The old saw with the Web was it was trading analog dollars for dimes. With mobile, it?s down to fractions of pennies. This has moved from an annoyance to an existential threat as publishers typically see more than a third of their audiences on smartphone or tablets. (Tablets are, admittedly, a somewhat easier challenge on the monetization front.)

The challenge is pretty simple: Mobile ads are tiny, the opportunity for real creativity that will excite brands pretty much negligible. Most mobile banners on smartphones are difficult to even read, much less evoke emotion.

?Advertisers like a canvas to paint with, and mobile devices don?t allow for truly creative, custom or integrated advertising solutions,? said Brian Fitzgerald, co-founder of Evolve Media. ?For publishers, this means more of our inventory transitions to mobile, which doesn?t currently have the same revenue opportunity as PC.?

Standards Flux
The Internet ad community has long struggled to find the right balance between innovation and standardization. As a mass media, the Web needs standards to cut down on transaction costs. Yet in the case of banner ads, many blame those same standards for creating vanilla units that became irrevocably commoditized.

Native advertising has emerged as the great hope to fight against that commoditization. And yet here publishers run into the problem of scale. Ironically, in order to really become a meaningful part of the Internet ad economy, native-type products might need the same distribution mechanisms built for the banner world.

Programmatic Pressures
The separation of audience data from media context was akin to splitting the atom for publishers. The world changed. The rise of automated systems allowed advertisers to find their target audiences ? only their target audiences ? wherever they are on the Internet. This was an advertiser-driven innovation that?s left many publishers holding the bag. The promise of private exchanges, which theoretically give publishers the efficiency of exchange buys with protections they need, hasn?t yet panned out.

?This allows for the cost-effective and time-efficient practice of buying cookies and not consumers,? Fitzgerald said. ?Clients do value brands, content and environment and intrinsically understand the value of engaging influencers in the right context or environment and converting them into brand advocates. This can?t and doesn?t happen in a programmatic buying channel when targeting audiences by cookies outside the environments that are most likely to influence and engage them.?

Image via Shutterstock

Source: http://www.digiday.com/publishers/10-digital-plagues-of-publishing/

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Full War Declaration Statement From DPRK

The moves of the U.S. imperialists to violate the sovereignty of the DPRK and encroach upon its supreme interests have entered an extremely grave phase. Under this situation, the dear respected Marshal Kim Jong Un, brilliant commander of Mt. Paektu, convened an urgent operation meeting on the performance of duty of the Strategic Rocket Force of the Korean People's Army for firepower strike and finally examined and ratified a plan for firepower strike.

Read the whole story at Reuters

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/30/full-declaration-war-state_n_2982530.html

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Americans oppose paying for storm-ravaged beaches

WASHINGTON (AP) ? More than 4 out of 5 Americans want to prepare now for rising seas and stronger storms from climate change, a new national survey says. But most are unwilling to keep spending money to restore and protect stricken beaches.

The poll by Stanford University released Thursday found that only 1 in 3 people favored the government spending millions to construct big sea walls, replenish beaches or pay people to leave the coast.

This was the first time a large national poll looked at how Americans feel about adapting to the changes brought on by global warming, said survey director Jon Krosnick, a professor of political science and psychology at Stanford.

The more indirect options the majority preferred were making sure new buildings were stronger and reducing future coastal development. New building codes rated the highest with 62 percent of those surveyed favoring it.

Three in 5 people want those who are directly affected by rising seas to pay for protection, rather than all taxpayers.

Krosnick said the low favorability of sea walls and sand replenishment "reflect the public's fatalistic sense that it's more realistic to just give up the beach than to try to save it when other storms in the future will just wash it away again."

The nationally representative survey of 1,174 Americans conducted online by GfK Custom Research has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.

University of Miami geology professor Harold Wanless, who wasn't involved in the survey, said he was at a Miami Beach meeting on Thursday with business and political leaders on how to try to keep from losing their "hugely expensive" land. But they are afraid of spending money in vain attempts that won't work.

There are three ways the public can deal with the effects of rising seas on beaches, said coastal geology professor S. Jeffress Williams of the University of Hawaii. He is an expert on sea level rise and methods of adapting to it. You can "hold the line" with expensive sea walls, retreat and leave the beach, or compromise with sand dunes and beach replenishing.

Sand dunes helped protect the New Jersey town of Seaside Park more than its dune-less neighbor Seaside Heights when Superstorm Sandy hit last fall, said Laurie Mcgilvray, a government coastline science expert.

Williams said the public's attitude about not doing much to protect current beach development would be fine if it were 100 years ago. "But we've got tremendous trillions of dollars of a tourist economy that depends on the coast.

"You should expect that if you are going to use the coast, you need to put some money in to maintain it," he said.

But people surveyed said money is an issue.

When it came to the general question of who should pay to protect the coast, 60 percent of the public said it should be paid for by local property owners and businesses, not the general taxpayers. And when it comes to specific solutions, about 80 percent of those surveyed said the money should come from local property taxes, not federal or state income taxes.

Nearly half, 47 percent, said the government should prohibit people from rebuilding structures damaged by storms.

The survey also found that 82 percent of the public believes global warming is already happening. About 3 out of 4 people said rising sea levels caused by global warming is a serious problem.

___

Online:

Stanford study: http://stanford.io/16kTvKo

___

Seth Borenstein can be followed at http://twitter.com/borenbears

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-03-28-Climate%20Poll/id-4bb2c34e6cdc4a05b7f40cf5d7fcfb03

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Marilyn Monroe ?Crazy? Letter Up For Auction

Marilyn Monroe “Crazy” Letter Up For Auction

Marilyn Monroe wrote of her despair and the feeling she was going “crazy” in letters to her acting mentor. The actress, who died from an overdose, opened up in the sad letters about her struggles in front of the camera. The handwritten letter is expected to sell for $30,000 to $50,000 in the May 30 ...

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Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2013/03/marilyn-monroe-crazy-letter-up-for-auction/

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New fossil species from a fish-eat-fish world when limbed animals evolved

Thursday, March 28, 2013

"We call it a 'fish-eat-fish world,' an ecosystem where you really needed to escape predation," said Dr. Ted Daeschler, describing life in the Devonian period in what is now far-northern Canada.

This was the environment where the famous fossil fish species Tiktaalik roseae lived 375 million years ago. This lobe-finned fish, co-discovered by Daeschler, an associate professor at Drexel University in the Department of Biodiversity, Earth and Environmental Science, and associate curator and vice president of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, and his colleagues Dr. Neil Shubin and Dr. Farish A. Jenkins, Jr., was first described in Nature in 2006.This species received scientific and popular acclaim for providing some of the clearest evidence of the evolutionary transition from lobe-finned fish to limbed animals, or tetrapods.

Daeschler and his colleagues from the Tiktaalik research, including Academy research associate Dr. Jason Downs, have now described another new lobe-finned fish species from the same time and place in the Canadian Arctic. They describe the new species, Holoptychius bergmanni, in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.

"We're fleshing out our knowledge of the community of vertebrates that lived at this important location," said Downs, who was lead author of the paper. He said describing species from this important time and place will help the scientific community understand the transition from finned vertebrates to limbed vertebrates that occurred in this ecosystem.

"It was a tough world back there in the Devonian. There were a lot of big predatory fish with big teeth and heavy armor of interlocking scales on their bodies," said Daeschler.

Daeschler said Holoptychius and Tiktaalik were both large predatory fishes adapted to life in stream environments. The two species may have competed with one another for similar prey, although it is possible they specialized in slightly different niches; Tiktaalik's tetrapod-like skeletal features made it especially well suited to living in the shallowest waters.

The fossil specimens of Holoptychis bergmanni that researchers used to characterize this new species come from multiple individuals and include lower jaws with teeth, skull pieces including the skull roof and braincase, and parts of the shoulder girdles. The complete fish would have been 2 to 3 feet long when it was alive.

"The three-dimensional preservation of this material is spectacular," Daeschler said. "For something as old as this, we'll really be able to collect some good information about the anatomy of these animals."

The research on Holoptychius bergmanni was led by Downs, a former post-doctoral fellow working with Daeschler who also teaches at Swarthmore College. Other co-authors of the paper with Downs and Daeschler are Dr. Neil Shubin of the University of Chicago, and the late Dr. Farish Jenkins, Jr. of Harvard University, who passed away in 2012.

Honoring a Modern Arctic Explorer and Supporter of Science

The researchers named the new fossil fish species Holoptychius bergmanni in honor of the late Martin Bergmann, former director of the Polar Continental Shelf Program (PCSP), Natural Resources Canada, the organization that provided logistical support during the team's Arctic research expeditions spanning more than a decade. Bergmann was killed in a plane crash in 2011 shortly after the team's most recent field season in Nunavut.

"We decided to choose Martin Bergmann to honor him, not ever having met him, but with the understanding that his work with PCSP made great strides in opening the Arctic to researchers," said Downs. "It's an invaluable project happening in the Canadian Arctic that's enabling this type of work to happen."

Bergmann's organization assisted the research team with many aspects of expedition logistics including difficult flight operations to carry supplies and research personnel to remote research sites on Ellesemere Island. Daeschler described the pilots as capable of landing a Twin Otter aircraft almost anywhere, as long as the ground was solid ? a condition they tested by briefly touching down the airplane and circling back to see if the tires left a deep mark in the mud.

Daeschler and colleagues intend to return to Ellesemere Island for another field expedition in the summer of 2013 to search for fossils in older rocks at a more northerly field site than the one where they discovered T. roseae and H. bergmanni.

A Deeper Look at the Devonian

Daeschler and a different co-author described another new species of Devonian fish in addition to H. bergmanni, in the same issue of the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences. More information about this new placoderm from Pennsylvania is available at http://newsblog.drexel.edu/2013/03/27/dusting-for-prints-from-a-fossil-fish-to-understand-evolutionary-change/.

###

Drexel University: http://www.Drexel.edu/

Thanks to Drexel University for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127495/New_fossil_species_from_a_fish_eat_fish_world_when_limbed_animals_evolved

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Here Are 6 People Who'll Get Google Glass Before You

Google's finally starting to reveal the winners of its #ifihadglass promotion, and surprise! You're not one of them. Not yet, anyway, unless you happen to be one of the following six golden ticket recipients. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/qSmakt6Eqx8/here-are-6-people-wholl-get-google-glass-before-you

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Tom Stoppard pens Pink Floyd radio drama

LONDON (AP) ? He wrote a play called "Rock 'n' Roll," and now Tom Stoppard is returning to the topic with a radio drama inspired by Pink Floyd.

The play marks the 40th anniversary of the release of the band's "The Dark Side of the Moon."

The BBC said Thursday it is "a fantastical and psychedelic story based on themes from the seminal album."

Pink Floyd formed in 1965 and soon became stars of London's psychedelic scene. "The Dark Side of the Moon," released in 1973, has sold more than 40 million copies.

Stoppard, who scripted Oscar winner "Shakespeare in Love," has also written "Arcadia" and "The Real Thing."

Stoppard's play "Dark Side" is due for broadcast on BBC radio in August, with a cast including Bill Nighy and Rufus Sewell.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tom-stoppard-pens-pink-floyd-radio-drama-155607843.html

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Cypriots fear run on banks as branches prepare to reopen after almost two weeks

Yiannis Kourtoglou / AFP - Getty Images

Employees of the Bank of Cyprus frown as they demonstrate outside the main office of the bank in Nicosia on Tuesday.

By Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, Correspondent, CNBC

NICOSIA, Cyprus - Anguished Cypriots fear a run on banks when branches on the tiny tax haven reopen for first time in almost two weeks on Thursday.

Since March 16, customers have only been able to withdraw limited amounts of cash from ATMs after banks closed to allow Cypriot officials and European leaders to hammer out a 10-billion euro ($13-billion) rescue meant to avert a chaotic national bankruptcy.

However, some believe the deal will instead push the country further into economic crisis as thousands of bank employees lose their jobs. The country's unemployment rate is about 14 percent.

Under the terms of the EU bailout, accounts of more than 100,000 euros ($128,460) at the islands' two biggest banks will be frozen. Depositors with accounts at Laiki Bank, which is being liquidated, won't get paid for years and won't get all of their money back. CNBC sources estimate those with bank accounts in Laiki above 100,000 euros could lose 40 to 70 percent of their deposits.

Deposits above 100,000 euros with the Bank of Cyprus will be frozen and 40 percent of each account will be converted into bank stock. Accounts in both banks with balances under 100,000 euros will be fully protected.

Katia Christodoulou / EPA

A woman walking past a boarded up branch of the Bank of Cyprus branch in Nicosia on Wednesday.

Many Cypriots say they do not feel reassured by the bailout deal and are expected to besiege banks as soon as they open their doors Thursday.

"We have an uncertain future in in Cyprus," said Chris Sofroniou, as he waited in an ATM line in Nicosia. "There's uncertainty in our future in our children, and we are very, very disappointed with the European Union. We are being treated like third-class citizens and we are very, very angry."

A spokeswoman for the island's central bank said banks would not reopen until 12 p.m. local time (6 a.m. ET) on Thursday, according to Reuters.

The spokeswoman said banks would open their doors between midday and 6 p.m. (1600 GMT). The Cypriot authorities are expected later on Wednesday to detail the capital controls they plan to impose to prevent a flight of funds.?

The last-minute deal was reached Monday, just hours before the EU was due to cut off the country?s financial lifelines.

The agreement ended a week of protests in Cyprus, long lines at cash machines, and a tense geopolitical standoff after European officials made the unprecedented demand that ordinary Cypriot savers share in the cost of any bank bailout.

Cyprus promoted itself as an offshore financial haven by making depositing money there attractive to foreigners. The result? A financial sector that dwarfed the rest of the economy.

Without that deal, Cyprus? banks would have collapsed, dragging down the economy and potentially pushing it out of the euro zone.

'Extremely unfair'
While the country?s president, Nicos Anastasiades, called the deal ?painful? but essential, Nobel laureate economist Christopher Pissarides said the bailout was ?extremely unfair to the little guy.?

?For the first time in the euro zone, depositors are (being) asked to bail out failing banks," he said. "Now that used to be the case in the 1930s, especially United States (and) caused big bank runs. It has been decided since then that we shouldn?t allow that to happen again.?

As Cyprus celebrates its Independence Day, the ?government is defending the last-minute bailout deal it's negotiated with the European Union. This means shutting down the country's second biggest bank, with big savers facing ?losses. ?ITV's Emma Murphy reports.

Finance Minister Michael Sarris said that the government was implementing measures to halt a run on the banks when they opened on Thursday, although he did not go into detail, according to Reuters.

It isn?t only bankers and the wealthy who are angry, however. On Wednesday, around 3,000 high school students protested the plan agreed to with the European Union, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank.

"They've just got rid of all our dreams, everything we've worked for, everything we've achieved up until now, what our parents have achieved," a student named Thomas told Reuters.?

So as Cyprus waited to see what Thursday would bring, citizens mourned what they saw as the end of an era.?

?It?s the destruction of the country,? Cypriot Aristos Sardi said. ?Who they think they are? For this country the colonial days finished in the 1960s.?

?I am heartbroken,? he added.

NBC News' F. Brinley Bruton, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Related:?

In Cyprus deal, Russia may have the last laugh

Cypriots: Hope, but also fear they 'will be like slaves' to Russia

EU to Cypriots: Let us raid your savings or no bailout

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This story was originally published on Wed Mar 27, 2013 11:00 AM EDT

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Moniker Is Looking To Crowdfunding To Create A Custom Guitar Business

Austin-based Moniker Guitars is running a Kickstarter campaign to create a line of semi-hollow-body guitars for discerning git-fiddlists. The company will offer their first guitars for a $700 pledge, not bad for a hand-made guitar from rockabilly city.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/faXh3ZkcfoU/

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Google picks 8,000 winners for Glass

Staff , The Associated Press ? ? ? 56 min.

Google is starting to notify 8,000 people who will be invited to buy a test version of the company's much-anticipated Internet-connected glasses for $1,500.

The invitations are being sent to the winners of a contest conducted a month ago. Google asked U.S. residents to submit applications through Twitter or its Plus service to explain in 50 words or less how they would use a technology that is being hailed as the next breakthrough in mobile computing.

The product is called Google Glass. It's supposed to perform many of the same tasks as smartphones, except the spectacles respond to voice commands instead of fingers touching a display screen. The glasses are equipped with a hidden camera and tiny display screen attached to a rim above the right eye.

? 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Soy tied to better lung cancer survival among women

By Andrew M. Seaman

New York (Reuters Health) - Women with lung cancer who ate the most soy before their diagnosis might live a little longer than those who ate the least, according to a new study.

Of 444 Chinese women with lung cancer, researchers found those who consumed the most soy milk, tofu and similar products were 7 to 8 percent less likely to die over a 13-year period, compared to women who ate an average amount of soy.

"To our knowledge this is the first study to suggest this association. Although this finding is promising, it would be premature to make any recommendation based on the findings of a single study," said Dr. Gong Yang, the study's lead author from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee.

Another study from Yang's group published last year found women who ate the most soy were less likely to develop lung cancer in the first place.

"Based on that study, we hypothesized people with a history of eating a lot of soy food - if they're diagnosed with lung cancer, their lung cancer would be less aggressive," he said.

Laboratory and animal research has also suggested phytoestrogens - plant-based estrogens similar to those produced by women's ovaries, which are present in soy - can prevent tumor cells from spreading.

According to the researchers, only 15 percent of U.S. women who develop lung cancer are still alive five years after their diagnosis. So any improvement in survival could be meaningful.

For the new study, the researchers used information from the Shanghai Women's Health Study, which began in 1997 and surveys 75,000 women every two to three years.

Between 1997 and 2010, 444 women in the study developed lung cancer, and 318 of them died. They were - on average - 66 years old at diagnosis, and 92 percent of them had never smoked.

Before the women were diagnosed, they had eaten an average of 16 grams of soy from food each day, according to diet questionnaires.

The researchers found women who consumed more than that - 21 to 31 g of soy per day - were about seven to 8 percent less likely to die during the study, compared to women who ate 16 g daily.

On the other hand, women who only ate about 6 g of soy per day were over 40 percent more likely to die during that time.

"This longitudinal follow-up study provides the first evidence that soy food consumption before cancer diagnosis may favorably affect clinical outcomes of lung cancer in women," the researchers wrote in the Journal of Clinical Oncology on Monday.

But Matthew Schabath, a lung cancer researcher who was not involved with the new study, stressed that it can't prove eating soy prevents people with lung cancer from dying.

For example, Schabath, from the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida, told Reuters Health women who eat a lot of soy may be in better health to begin with, and would be expected to live longer than women in poorer health.

Researchers also said more studies on soy and lung cancer are needed to confirm the findings.

"We need to take it with a grain of salt until this data is validated in clinic trials," Schabath said.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/YRxkFf Journal of Clinical Oncology, online March 25, 2013.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/soy-tied-better-lung-cancer-survival-among-women-172225635.html

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Five year-olds who watch TV for three or more hours a day more likely to be antisocial: But the risk of this behaviour is very small

Mar. 25, 2013 ? Five year-olds who watch TV for three or more hours a day are increasingly likely to develop antisocial behaviours, such as fighting or stealing by the age of seven, indicates research published online in Archives of Disease in Childhood.

But the risk is very small, say the authors, who additionally found that time spent playing computer/electronic games had no impact on behaviour.

Prolonged screen viewing time has been linked to various behavioural and emotional problems in children, say the authors, but most research has focused exclusively on television, and almost all of it has been carried out in the US.

They wanted to explore what psychological and social impact time spent watching TV and playing electronic games might have on children between the ages of five and seven.

They included a representative sample of just over 11,000 children, all of whom were part of the Millennium Cohort Study, which has been tracking the long term health and development of UK children born between 2000 and 2002.

When they were five and then again when they were seven, the children's mothers were asked to describe how well adjusted their offspring were, using a validated Strengths and Difficulties (SDQ) questionnaire.

This contains five scales, measuring conduct problems, emotional symptoms, poor attention span/hyperactivity, difficulties making friends, and empathy and concern for others (pro-social behaviours).

The mums were also asked to report how much time their children spent watching TV and playing computer and electronic games at the age of five.

When they were five, almost two thirds of the children watched TV for between one and three hours every day, with 15% watching more than three hours. Less than 2% watched no TV.

But at this age, they spent considerably less time playing electronic games, and only 3% spent three or more hours engaged in this activity every day.

After taking account of influential factors, including parenting and family dynamics, watching TV for three or more hours a day was significantly associated with a very small increased risk of antisocial behaviour (conduct problems) between the ages of five and seven.

But spending a lot of time in front of the TV was not linked to other difficulties such as emotional problems or attention issues. And spending time playing electronic games had no similar impact, the analysis showed, although this might reflect the fact that children spent less time playing games than they did watching TV, say the authors.

They point out that the links between heavy screen time and mental health may be indirect, rather than direct, such as increased sedentary behaviour, sleeping difficulties, and impaired language development, and that the child's own temperament may predict screen time habits.

But they conclude that their study "suggests that a cautionary approach to the heavy use of screen entertainment in young children is justifiable in terms of potential effects on wellbeing, particularly conduct problems, in addition to effects on physical health and academic progress shown elsewhere."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by BMJ-British Medical Journal, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. A. Parkes, H. Sweeting, D. Wight, M. Henderson. Do television and electronic games predict children's psychosocial adjustment? Longitudinal research using the UK Millennium Cohort Study. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 2013; DOI: 10.1136/archdischild-2011-301508

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/mind_brain/consumer_behavior/~3/FGrHuNnt6NU/130325202559.htm

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The art of the nap: Tilda Swinton at MoMA

Actress Tilda Swinton performs the art of sleeping in her one-person piece called "The Maybe," in New York's Museum of Modern Art, Monday, March 25, 2013. In "The Maybe," first performed at the Serpentine Gallery in London in 1995, Swinton lies sleeping in a glass box for the day. The exhibit will move locations within the museum every time Swinton performs. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Actress Tilda Swinton performs the art of sleeping in her one-person piece called "The Maybe," in New York's Museum of Modern Art, Monday, March 25, 2013. In "The Maybe," first performed at the Serpentine Gallery in London in 1995, Swinton lies sleeping in a glass box for the day. The exhibit will move locations within the museum every time Swinton performs. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Actress Tilda Swinton performs the art of sleeping in her one-person piece called "The Maybe," in New York's Museum of Modern Art, Monday, March 25, 2013. In "The Maybe," first performed at the Serpentine Gallery in London in 1995, Swinton lies sleeping in a glass box for the day. The exhibit will move locations within the museum every time Swinton performs. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Actress Tilda Swinton performs the art of sleeping in her one-person piece called "The Maybe," in New York's Museum of Modern Art, Monday, March 25, 2013. In "The Maybe," first performed at the Serpentine Gallery in London in 1995, Swinton lies sleeping in a glass box for the day. The exhibit will move locations within the museum every time Swinton performs. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Actress Tilda Swinton performs the art of sleeping in her one-person piece called "The Maybe," in New York's Museum of Modern Art, Monday, March 25, 2013. In "The Maybe," first performed at the Serpentine Gallery in London in 1995, Swinton lies sleeping in a glass box for the day. The exhibit will move locations within the museum every time Swinton performs. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Actress Tilda Swinton performs the art of sleeping in her one-person piece called "The Maybe," in New York's Museum of Modern Art, Monday, March 25, 2013. In "The Maybe," first performed at the Serpentine Gallery in London in 1995, Swinton lies sleeping in a glass box for the day. The exhibit will move locations within the museum every time Swinton performs. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

NEW YORK (AP) ? It's not the kind of performance that will win her another Academy Award, but Tilda Swinton certainly has them buzzing at the Museum of Modern Art.

But keep it down, please. She's trying to sleep.

The "Moonrise Kingdom star has been engaging in a different kind of performance art. She's presenting a one-person piece called "The Maybe," in which she lies sleeping in a glass box for the day. The first performance was over the weekend, and the museum won't say if there's a schedule for when exactly it will come back for six other performances.

On Monday, the display drew a line of spectators that wound through a whole second-floor gallery into a museum hallway.

Erwin Aschenbrenner, a bemused German tourist, said it "just what you'd expect to see at MoMA."

The actress "is so pale and not moving in there that she looks like she's dead," said Robbie von Kampen, 20, a philosophy major at Bard College, north of New York City.

But after about seven hours a day of the shuteye pose on a white mattress in the glass box ? with only a carafe of water and a glass to get her through ? Swinton can stretch and walk off into the Manhattan night. But only when spectators leave.

So what's the point?

"This makes me think about myself, looking at her," said Quinn Moreland, 20, also a Bard student, majoring in art history.

"You don't usually get to stare at somebody like this; it makes me self-conscious," she explained.

Added von Kampen, "Yeah, it's socially unacceptable ? it's kinda creepy."

No one, not even museum curators, could say whether the thin, mostly immobile Swinton is actually getting some sleep while people stare at her.

At least Swinton was comfortable. She wore a pair of grubby sneakers, dark sporty slacks and a checkered shirt. Her glasses lay on the mattress.

But no snacks were in sight. And none could be offered in the closed chamber.

Swinton also starred in a glass box in 1995 at London's Serpentine Gallery ? seven days, eight hours a day ? in an exhibition seen by 22,000 people.

The next year, she repeated the spectacle at the Museo Barracco in Rome.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-03-25-People-Swinton/id-c3a30c9d1f514e848a4bece6236ff406

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'Walking Dead' shocks with heartbreaking death

By Drusilla Moorhouse, TODAY contributor

As 'The Walking Dead' nears the conclusion of its third season, fans have been bracing for the death of at least one major character. Even so, many of us gasped aloud at the shocking demise of someone we've loved to hate since season one.

You know the drill: spoilers ahead.

Gene Page / AMC

RIP, Merle Dixon. By the standards of the redemption-equals-death TV trope, the villain's fate was sealed the moment he released Michonne. After secretly capturing her -- because he correctly predicted Rick would change his mind about sacrificing her to the Governor to save his group -- Merle had a change of heart.

As "This Sorrowful Life" slowly drifted to its horrifying final scene, a cloud of doom hovered above Daryl's incredibly damaged but increasingly sympathetic brother. Even Glenn, who aside from Michonne had the most reason to hate Merle, seemed to accept him as part of the group -- if not actually forgive him for humiliating his fianc?e.

Gene Page / AMC

With Hershel's blessing, Glenn proposed to Maggie, offering another ray of hope -- like the birth of Judith -- in the midst of so much tragedy and conflict. So what if he didn't buy his ring at Tiffany's? (And the bonus of hacking it off a zombie's finger means his bride also has "something borrowed." Win!)

But the Dixon brothers' bond was the true essence of this season's penultimate episode.

Daryl arrived at the Governor's armistice ambush too late to save Merle from his suicide mission. After setting up as a sniper with an army of walkers to back him up, Merle fired on the Woodbury contingent but was inevitably captured. And of course he was fed to the undead by the man who ordered him to kill 16 innocent people.

When Daryl arrived on the scene, it was too late: the Governor's gang was long gone -- and so was his brother. His discovery Merle devouring one of his victims (first revealed with a closeup of his homemade prosthesis) was both gruesome and heartbreaking.

Gene Page / AMC

At least Merle won't distract the troops -- now declared a democracy by Rick -- when they go to war in next week's finale.

Will you miss Merle? Who else do you think will fall in the finale's bloody battle? Tell us on our Facebook page!

Related links:

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Source: http://theclicker.today.com/_news/2013/03/25/17457969-walking-dead-shocker-horrifying-heartbreaking-death-and-redemption?lite

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Hyundai dips toe in high-end market

Paul A. Eisenstein , The Detroit Bureau ? ? ? 9 hrs.

If the name Hyundai evokes an image of low-cost econoboxes, you may want to check out the Korean carmaker?s nearest showroom. Prepare to be surprised.

At next week?s New York Auto Show, Hyundai will spotlight the 2014 Equus, the mid-cycle update of its premium-luxury sedan. The sedan will compete with high-end makes, such as the Mercedes-Benz S-Class and BMW 7-Series.

Although you can buy a basic Hyundai Accent for $15,000, a fully-equipped Equus will nudge you over the $70,000 mark.

Don?t expect much of a discount at the dealer. The average Hyundai went out the door with givebacks around $1,420, according to data gathered by TrueCar.com, a lower figure than any other major manufacturer but Honda.

The good news for Hyundai is that it broke its all-time sales record last year, and did it again in January and February. The bad news is that it is losing market share because it can?t keep up with the pace of the U.S. automotive recovery.

?We just can?t build anymore,? Hyundai Motor America CEO John Krafcik said in San Diego, where he was presiding over the first media drive of the new 3-row 2014 Hyundai Santa Fe crossover-utility vehicle. ?We?re just out of production capacity.?

In recent months, Hyundai dealers have had to get by with about half the 60- to 65-days of inventory considered normal in the automotive business.

(?A tough problem to have,? smirks analyst Joe Phillippi of AutoTrends Consulting.)

This has allowed Hyundai to trim its incentives and allowed dealers to prey on a ?scarcity value? to fend off the bargain shoppers of Hyundai?s past. The average transaction price ? the actual figure the typical customer paid after working in discounts and options ? jumped by 5 percent, year-over-year, to $22,549 in February, according to TrueCar.

Phillippi and other analysts say they?re surprised by Hyundai?s success. It?s been just four months since the maker ? and its Korean sibling Kia -- acknowledged the two brands fudged test results and would have to restate the fuel economy numbers on 13 different models, some by six miles per gallon.

Since then, the Korean makers have settled a lawsuit and agreed to provide substantial reimbursement to the 900,000 owners affected.

Hyundai?s transition from a fire sale brand has required a shift in focus that began by targeting once-endemic quality problems and backing that up with an industry-leading, 10-year warranty program. The maker has steadily gained ground in a variety of third-party measures, notably the quality and customer service surveys by J.D. Power and Associates. The current version of the Equus outscored Lexus, the overall top brand in Power?s latest Customer Service Index.

That has Hyundai management confident they can continue to expand their presence in the luxury market. The maker will show off what it describes as a ?luxury sports coupe concept,? the HND-9, at the Seoul Motor Show next week. While the unusual ?butterfly doors? are likely a show gimmick, industry observers expect the HND-9 is a clear hint of new products to come.

That gets back to the question of where to build the cars. Hyundai has added a third shift at its Alabama factory Alabama and it has crossovers rolling out of the Kia plant in Georgia.

While Krafcik says there are ?no plans, yet,? for adding more capacity in the U.S., analysts like Phillippi stress that could change quickly. The Koreans appear to be using the moment as an opportunity to decide whether to expand, and few would be surprised if an announcement didn?t come sometime this year.

But Hyundai has learned from watching competitors? mistakes, especially when it comes to overstocking. The goal, Krafcik says, is to follow the strategy of the most successful luxury brands, and ?always be one car short of demand.?

Related content on TheDetroitBureau.com:

The 10 Least, Most Expensive States for Car Insurance

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Jaguar Gets New 550-hp Flagship Sedan

Copyright ? 2009-2013, The Detroit Bureau

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Berezovsky family believe his death was natural - source : Voice of ...

0"We can now? say with 100%? certainty that the? cause of death? was natural," a source told Interfax, citing Berezovsky's relatives.

0"The place of his? possible burial has not? bee discussed yet.? The family don't? even? know yet? when? the investigative? actions? will? be completed, when the final death certificate will be issued, and when the body will be given to the relatives," the source said.

0Speaking about when? the body? will likely? be handed? over to? the relatives, the source recalled that the investigative actions? following the death of Berezovsky's? business partner Badri Patarkatsishvili? took some two weeks.

0When asked? whether the? relatives will? ask for? Berezovsky to? be buried in Russia, the source said: "I think there is little? probability of that because many of Berezovsky's? friends were unable to attend? the funeral for various reasons.? Although it would? be great if? Berezovsky was buried in Russia."

0Voice of Russia,?Interfax

Source: http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_03_24/Berezovsky-family-believe-his-death-was-natural-source/

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Scientists unravel genetic code of esophageal cancer | The Raw Story

By Agence France-Presse
Sunday, March 24, 2013 14:52 EDT

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Scientists said Sunday they had found mutations in 26 genes that may cause oesophageal cancer, a breakthrough they hope will lead to new drugs for the deadly and increasingly frequent disease.

A team of experts in the United States unravelled the genetic code of tumour cells from 149 patients, which they compared to healthy cells to identify a mutation signature for oesophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC).

This type of cancer of the oesophagus or gullet, the muscular tube that moves food from the mouth to the stomach, has a five-year survival rate of only about 15-20 percent.

EAC often originates from a disease called Barrett?s oesophagus, which in turn is caused by chronic acid reflux.

Incidence of the cancer has increased by 600 percent over the last 30 years ? particularly in Western countries, according to the study.

Oesophageal cancer kills about 15,000 people in the United States alone every year ? and a total 400,000 worldwide.

Now, the biggest genetic analysis yet of this type of cancer has revealed common mutations that may be specifically targeted by new drugs.

?Finding the mutations helps us understand what makes the cancer tick,? study co-author Adam Bass of the Harvard Medical School told AFP.

?It can also help us find new therapies.?

Cancer develops when a human cell?s DNA is mutated so that its normal function is disrupted and it starts growing and spreading out of control.

There are different causes, including obesity, smoking, exposure to the sun?s UV rays or environmental pollution.

Mutations of different genes have been implicated in different cancers, but there are also vast differences even among people with the same form of the disease.

?We looked at which genes were mutated more frequently than would be expected by chance,? said Bass.

?Doing so, we found 26 genes that may be contributing to this cancer type.?

Genes are segments of DNA that carry the instruction manuals for cells.

The team found a frequent repetition of one particular type of mutation, suggesting it may be caused by some sort of exposure ? perhaps linked to acid reflux disease.

?Why this is especially interesting is that the rates of oesophageal adenocarcinoma have risen greatly in the last several decades,? said Bass.

?We suspect that there may be some factor in the reflux which is causing this specific type of DNA damage.

?If this is so and we can pin down what type of specific factor is responsible for these mutations, we may be able to develop new approaches to prevent these cancers or at least to diagnose them at an earlier point.?

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[DNA illustration via mathagraphics / Shutterstock]

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Source: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/24/scientists-unravel-genetic-code-of-oesophageal-cancer/

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Police: No sign of 3rd party in Berezovsky death

British police officers cordon off a road near a residence in Ascot, a town 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of London, Saturday, March 23, 2013. Boris Berezovsky, 67, a self-exiled and outspoken former Russian oligarch who had a bitter falling out with Russian President Vladimir Putin, was found dead Saturday in southeast England. Thames Valley police said his death was being treated as unexplained. They would not directly identify him, but when asked about him by name they read a statement saying they were investigating the death of a 67-year-old man at a property in Ascot. A mathematician turned Mercedes dealer, Berezovsky amassed his wealth during Russia's chaotic privatization of state assets in the early 1990's. The one-time Kremlin powerbroker fell out with Putin and sought political asylum in Britain in the early 2000's. He has lived in the U.K. ever since. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

British police officers cordon off a road near a residence in Ascot, a town 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of London, Saturday, March 23, 2013. Boris Berezovsky, 67, a self-exiled and outspoken former Russian oligarch who had a bitter falling out with Russian President Vladimir Putin, was found dead Saturday in southeast England. Thames Valley police said his death was being treated as unexplained. They would not directly identify him, but when asked about him by name they read a statement saying they were investigating the death of a 67-year-old man at a property in Ascot. A mathematician turned Mercedes dealer, Berezovsky amassed his wealth during Russia's chaotic privatization of state assets in the early 1990's. The one-time Kremlin powerbroker fell out with Putin and sought political asylum in Britain in the early 2000's. He has lived in the U.K. ever since. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

FILE - In this Jan. 26, 2000 file photo Russian tycoons Boris Berezovsky, left, and Roman Abramovich, then both lawmakers, walk after the session of the State Duma, parliament's lower house, in Moscow, Russia. United Kingdom police have said that Berezovsky has been found dead Saturday March 23, 2013. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev, File)

British police officers cordon off a road near a residence in Ascot, a town 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of London, Saturday, March 23, 2013. Boris Berezovsky, 67, a self-exiled and outspoken former Russian oligarch who had a bitter falling out with Russian President Vladimir Putin, was found dead Saturday in southeast England. Thames Valley police said his death was being treated as unexplained. They would not directly identify him, but when asked about him by name they read a statement saying they were investigating the death of a 67-year-old man at a property in Ascot. A mathematician turned Mercedes dealer, Berezovsky amassed his wealth during Russia's chaotic privatization of state assets in the early 1990's. The one-time Kremlin powerbroker fell out with Putin and sought political asylum in Britain in the early 2000's. He has lived in the U.K. ever since. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

FILE - A Wednesday, July 18, 2007 photo from files showing Russian exile Boris Berezovsky, a close friend of former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko who was poisoned by Polonium 2-10, speaking to the media in a news conference in London. United Kingdom police have said that Berezovsky has been found dead Saturday March 23, 2013. (AP Photo/Sang Tan, File)

FILE - A Friday, Aug. 31, 2012 photo from files showing Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky talking to the media after losing his case against Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich as he leaves the High Court in London. United Kingdom police have said that Berezovsky has been found dead Saturday March 23, 2013.(AP Photo/Sang Tan, File)

LONDON (AP) ? British police said Sunday they have no evidence to suggest third-party involvement in the death of Boris Berezovsky, the self-exiled Russian tycoon who went from Kremlin kingmaker to fiery critic.

With an investigation underway, police are treating the death of Berezovsky ? who fled to Britain in the early 2000s after a bitter falling out with Russian President Vladimir Putin ? as unexplained. But the former oligarch survived assassination attempts and recently faced financial difficulties, prompting speculation as to whether his death was part of a conspiracy ? or suicide.

Police said Sunday it would be wrong to speculate on how Berezovsky died pending the results of an autopsy but that they had no reason to suspect

"We are at the early stages of the investigation and we are retaining an open mind as we progress," said Detective Chief Inspector Kevin Brown. "The investigation team is building a picture of the last days of Mr. Berezovsky's life, speaking to close friends and family to gain a better understanding of his state of mind."

Police released some details on the circumstances that triggered their investigation into his demise and a subsequent check for hazardous materials at the property in Ascot, a town 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of London where Berezovsky's body was found on Saturday.

A call came into police from the local ambulance service at 3:23 p.m. GMT (11:23 a.m. EDT) Saturday saying a man had been found dead, Thames Valley Police said in a statement on Sunday.

The police said an employee of Berezovsky told how he had called an ambulance after becoming concerned for Berezovsky's welfare and forced open a bathroom door locked from the inside to find the tycoon's body on the floor.

The employee was the only person in the house when Berezovsky's body was discovered, police said. Members of the ex-oligarch's family arrived at the home while the paramedic was on scene.

Police explained that after a paramedic declared Berezovsky dead and left the scene, a device measuring his exposure to radiation was triggered, which is why chemical and radiations experts were called to examine the property.

"Officers found nothing of concern in the property and we are now progressing the investigation as normal," a statement from police said earlier, adding that the majority of the cordon put in place around the property has now been lifted.

Berezovsky ? who had survived a number of assassination attempts ? amassed a fortune through oil and automobiles during Russia's chaotic privatization of state assets following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.

Once a member of Russian President Boris Yeltsin's inner circle, Berezovsky fell out with Yeltsin's successor, Putin, and fled Britain in the early 2000s to escape fraud charges that he said were politically motivated.

He became a strident and frequent critic of Putin, accusing the leader of ushering in a dictatorship, and accused the security services of organizing the 1999 apartment house bombings in Moscow and two other Russian cities that became a pretext for Russian troops to sweep into Chechnya for the second war there in half a decade.

Putin's spokesman acknowledged Sunday that the Russian president considered Berezovsky an enemy with clearly stated intentions to fight.

"We know for certain that he spared no expense in support of processes, within Russia and beyond, that could be said to have been directed against Russia and Putin," spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on the independent cable television channel Rain. "He definitely was Putin's opponent, and unfortunately not only his political opponent, but most likely in other dimensions as well."

In recent years, Berezovsky fended off legal attacks that often bore political undertones ? and others that bit into his fortune.

Russia repeatedly sought to extradite on Berezovksy on a wide variety of criminal charges, and the tycoon vehemently rejected allegations over the years that he was linked to several deaths, including that of slain journalist Anna Politkovskaya and ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko.

Berezovsky won a libel case in 2010 against a Kremlin-owned broadcaster that aired a show in which it was suggested he was behind the poisoning of Litvinenko, who had fled Russia with Berezovsky's help after accusing officials there of plotting to assassinate political opponents.

He took a hit with his divorce from Galina Besharova in 2010, paying what was at the time Britain's largest divorce settlement. The figure beat a previous record of 48 million pounds ($73.1 million) and was estimated as high as 100 million pounds, though the exact figure was never confirmed.

Last year, Berezovsky lost a multibillion-pound High Court case against fellow Russian Roman Abramovich and was ordered to pay 35 million pounds ($53.3 million) in legal costs.

Berezovsky had claimed that Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea Football Club, cheated him out of his stakes in the oil group Sibneft, arguing that he blackmailed him into selling the stakes vastly beneath their true worth after he lost Putin's good graces.

But a judge threw out the case in August, ruling that Berezovsky was a dishonest and unreliable witness, and rejected Berezovsky's claims that he was threatened by Putin and Alexander Voloshin, a Putin ally, to coerce him to sell his Sibneft stake.

It also recently emerged that Berezovsky ran up legal bills totaling more than 250,000 pounds in just two months of a case against his former partner, Elena Gorbunova, with whom he had two children and who claimed the businessman owed her millions.

Earlier this week, The Times of London newspaper reported that Berezovsky was selling property ? including an Andy Warhol portrait of the former Soviet Union leader Vladimir Lenin ? to settle his debts and pay expenses owed to lawyers.

News of Berezovsky's death has prompted conspiracy theories along with speculation as to his state of mind, given his recent financial setbacks.

Ilya Zhegulev, a journalist with the Russian edition of Forbes magazine, said he spoke with Berezovsky the day before he died and discussed the tycoon's decision to flee Russia in 2000.

The journalist quoted Berezovsky as saying that during his years in London he had lost the meaning of life.

"I no longer want to be involved in politics," Zhegulev quoted Berezovsky as saying in a story published Saturday on the Forbes.ru website.

He said Berezovsky told him that he wanted nothing more than to return to Russia. The former oligarch said he had changed his views on Russia, saying he now understood that it should not look to Europe as a model.

"I had absolutely, idealistically imagined that it was possible to build a democratic Russia. And idealistically imagined what democracy was in the center of Europe. I underestimated the inertia of Russia and greatly overestimated the West. This took place gradually. I changed my understanding of Russia's path," he quoted Berezovsky as having said.

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AP writer Lynn Berry in Moscow contributed to this report. Cassandra Vinograd can be reached at http://twitter.com/CassVinograd

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-03-24-Britain-Berezovsky/id-1d34f2b3d16540ea97c1a2a0fba8ff80

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