New House GOP plan as debt-limit deadline nears

Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, walks away from the microphone during a news conference after a House GOP meeting on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013 in Washington. The federal government remains partially shut down and faces a first-ever default between Oct. 17 and the end of the month. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, walks away from the microphone during a news conference after a House GOP meeting on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013 in Washington. The federal government remains partially shut down and faces a first-ever default between Oct. 17 and the end of the month. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., speaks with reporters before going to the White House to meet with President Barack Obama, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013, as Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Assistant Minority Leader James Clyburn, D-S.C., right, listen. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Specialist Frank Masiello watches a television monitor on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange showing a Washington news conference by House Speaker John Boehner, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013. Leaders in the House of Representatives and Senate were negotiating separate but similar plans Tuesday to reopen the U.S. government and prevent a default on American debt that economists say could tip the global economy back into recession. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, arrives for a news conference after a House GOP meeting on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013 in Washington. House GOP leaders Tuesday floated a plan to fellow Republicans to counter an emerging Senate deal to reopen the government and forestall an economy-rattling default on U.S. obligations. But the plan got mixed reviews from the rank and file and it was not clear whether it could pass the chamber. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Time growing desperately short, House Republicans pushed for passage of legislation late Tuesday to prevent a threatened Treasury default, end a 15-day partial government shutdown and extricate divided government from its latest brush with a full political meltdown.

There was no immediate reaction from the White House to the measure, which was revised from a version unveiled only hours earlier that had been stocked with conservative priorities and had drawn swift condemnation from Democrats.

While the House readied for a possible Tuesday night vote, the immediate result was to impose a daylong freeze on Senate negotiations on a bipartisan compromise that had appeared ready to bear fruit.

As a day of secret meetings and frenzied maneuvering unfolded in all corners of the Capitol, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., stood on the Senate floor at midafternoon and declared, "We are 33 hours away from becoming a deadbeat nation, not paying its bills to its own people and other creditors."

Officials said that under the revised bill prepared by House Republicans, the Treasury would be permitted to borrow normally until Feb. 7 and the government reopened with sufficient funds to carry it to Dec. 15.

Additionally, members of Congress, the president, vice president and thousands of aides would no longer be eligible to receive employer health care contributions from the government that employs them.

"The House will vote tonight to reopen the government and avoid default," Michael Steel, a spokesman for Speaker John Boehner said in a statement.

He said the legislation would "end Obamacare subsidies for elected officials and staff in Washington, D.C., and pressure Senate Democrats to accept more sensible" time frames for reopening the government and renewing Treasury's borrowing authority.

Gone from the measure was a pair of provisions that had drawn objections, one a plan to delay a medical device tax created under the new health care law known as Obamacare. The other would have imposed tougher income verification standards on individuals and families seeking subsidies for care under the law.

Democrats had viewed both as concessions to Republicans, and deemed their inclusion as a violation of Obama's vow not to pay a "ransom" to the GOP for passing essential funding and borrowing measures.

Even with the changes, it was unclear whether Boehner and the GOP leadership had the votes to pass their measure.

The day's events prompted an outbreak of partisan rhetoric, mixed with urgent warnings that both the U.S. and global economies could suffer severe damage quickly unless Congress acted by Thursday.

Even something of an appeal for heavenly aid was thrown in, as Rep. Steve Southerland of Florida led House Republicans in a rendition of "Amazing Grace" at the beginning of a rank-and-file meeting called to discuss a way out of the impasse.

Speaking with reporters, Boehner said, "I have made clear for months and months that the idea of default is wrong and we shouldn't get anywhere close to it."

But the first measure the leadership produced evidently came up short on votes, and the White House trashed it as an attempt to "appease a small group of tea party Republicans who forced the government shutdown in the first place. "

Democrats jumped on Boehner and the plan he produced.

In unusually personal remarks, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the Ohio Republican had "once again tried to preserve his role at the expense of the country."

That was a reference to a rebellious rank and file in the House, who routinely seek to push Boehner and the rest of the leadership to the right. A group met Monday night with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who last summer played a public role in a campaign to demand defunding of Obamacare as the price for preventing a partial government shutdown.

The Democratic attacks were too much for some Republicans who have been among those most vocal in calling for a bipartisan solution to the impasse.

"It's piling on and it's not right," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said of the response from the Democrats. "To categorically reject what the House and the speaker are doing — and I think he's pretty courageous in what he's doing — in my view is not serving the American people."

The House had been effectively sidelined in recent days as Reid and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell engaged in intense negotiations to reopen the government and raise the debt limit.

That changed emphatically when details began circulating of some of the elements of the terms under discussion.

In addition to ending the shutdown and raising the debt limit, the two Senate leaders were considering a plan to delay a $63-per-person fee that the health care overhaul would impose on anyone who receives health care coverage under an employer-provided plan.

Some Republicans balked, complaining that was a concession to labor unions who are among the Democrats' most loyal political supporters.

Many unions have announced their opposition to the fee, but so, too, have businesses.

Reid and McConnell also have been discussing provisions to give federal agencies flexibility in adjusting to across-the-board spending cuts imposed under legislation that Obama signed in 2011.

Another element of their negotiations would call for House-Senate negotiations on a possible deficit reduction measure to take the place of the across-the-board cuts.

The twin crises began more than three weeks ago, when some lawmakers in the House insisted on seeking the defunding of Obamacare as the price for preventing a partial shutdown of the government.

The White House refused, and the Democratic-controlled Senate rejected legislation to achieve the GOP goal, as well as subsequent legislation that contained scaled-back concessions on the health care overhaul.

The partial shutdown, which began on Oct. 1, swiftly merged with the approaching debt crisis.

According to Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, unless Congress acts by Oct. 17, the government will lose its ability to borrow, and would be required to meet its obligations relying only on cash on hand and incoming tax receipts.

While it was unclear how long that would suffice, the date stood as a deadline. The closer it approached, the more urgent became the pleas of businesses and bankers in this country as well as officials overseas for the United States to put its finances into order.

Whatever the outcome, the all-out assault on Obamacare that became a tea party rallying cry last summer was long gone, repulsed by the president and his Democratic allies in Congress.

Instead, Republican disapproval ratings have plummeted in public opinion polls in the past two weeks, vindicating warnings from Boehner, McConnell and other party elders that the original strategy of threatening to shut down the government in hopes of wiping out the overhaul was badly flawed.

"We got ourselves in a ditch," McCain said. "And we got to stop digging."

___

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

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-10-15-Budget%20Battle/id-25b72ff0e3f6487f80d2443070c9746c
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electrical - What does wire loops on the wall for? - Home ...

My guess is that it's a circuit for lighting, and the reason that it's a loop is the wire comes out from the stucco and then heads back in to go to the next light. It's quicker to do it this way then to cut the wire.

If I'm correct, there is a switch somewhere that energizes this circuit. If you can get a non-contact voltage detector, you can use that to verify which switch is hooked up to the circuit. Once you know that, it's simple to turn off that circuit and then put up fixtures. They would mount directly to the stucco.

Source: http://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/32662/what-does-wire-loops-on-the-wall-for
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Tigers nearly no-hit Red Sox, win ALCS opener 1-0

BOSTON (AP) — Lose the no-hitter, win the game.

That's a trade Anibal Sanchez and the Detroit Tigers were happy to make to take the lead over the Boston Red Sox in the AL championship series.

Sanchez and four relievers came within two outs of the first combined no-hitter in postseason history, striking out 17 to beat Boston 1-0 in the series opener on Saturday night.

"At this point, especially in this series, it's not about throwing a no-hitter," said Sanchez, who was pulled after 116 pitches in six innings. "As soon as you get some zeroes ... it's more important. It's more important than the no-hitter at this point."

Sanchez struck out 12 — including a record-tying four in the first inning — but also walked a season-high six and was pulled after six innings and 116 pitches. Al Alburquerque, Jose Veras, Drew Smyly and Benoit stretched the no-hitter through eight innings.

With one out in the ninth, Daniel Nava lined a single to center field off Joaquin Benoit to end Detroit's bid for the third postseason no-hitter ever.

"I'm not going to lie to you. I wanted it," Tigers catcher Alex Avila said. "But had to think about the next hitter with a 1-0 game."

Stephen Drew flied out to right and, with the potential tying run on second, Xander Bogaerts hit a game-ending popout to shortstop that put the Tigers ahead in the best-of-seven series. Boston's Clay Buchholz will face major league wins leader Max Scherzer in Game 2 on Sunday night.

Jhonny Peralta had an RBI single off Jon Lester in the sixth for the game's only run. Peralta, who missed most of August and September while serving a 50-game suspension for violating baseball's drug rules, was taunted with chants of "Steroids!" and "User!" as he looped a single to center to bring home Miguel Cabrera.

It was a day for pitching in the playoffs — St. Louis beat the Dodgers 1-0 in the second game of the NLCS, marking the first time in postseason history two games ended by that score on one day.

"That tells you the quality of pitching in the postseason," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "We've got to do a lot better with our opportunities, but in this one we were able to hold on."

The majors' highest-scoring team during the regular season, the Red Sox were shut out at Fenway Park in the postseason for the first time in 95 years.

"You give up one run and you like your chances," said Lester, who allowed six hits and a walk, striking out four in 6 1-3 innings. "It was a great game. That was playoff baseball."

The AL's regular-season ERA champion, Sanchez loaded the bases in the sixth on three walks. But he struck out Stephen Drew to end the inning, coming off the mound with a celebratory arm pump and high leg kick.

Alburquerque pitched a perfect seventh, Veras got two outs and Smyly retired David Ortiz on a harmless fly ball to center to end the eighth. Drew kept the score close for Boston in the bottom of the eighth, racing into shallow center field to make a juggling, over-the-shoulder catch on Prince Fielder's looper with runners on second and third.

Benoit struck out Mike Napoli to start the ninth before Nava singled to end the no-hit bid.

"Whether it was Sanchez or every guy they brought out of the bullpen, it was power stuff," Red Sox manager John Farrell said. "To chase a very good starter after six innings, I thought we succeeded in that right. We're down a run. That game is still very much in the balance with every time we come to the plate. ... We achieved what we set out to do and that was to get in the bullpen in the middle innings. And, unfortunately, it didn't work out."

Two nights after Justin Verlander took a no-hit bid into the seventh to finish off Oakland in the AL division series, Sanchez had a similar effort against the Red Sox. His four strikeouts in the first inning — thanks to a third-strike wild pitch to Shane Victorino — tied the major league record for a postseason game set by the Cubs' Orval Overall in the 1908 World Series.

It's the first time in baseball postseason history a team has had back-to-back games in which its starting pitcher had a no-hitter through five innings.

On a brisk night with the wind blowing in from center, the Tigers got the only run they needed in the sixth after Cabrera drew a one-out walk and moved to second when Fielder was hit by a pitch. Victor Martinez hit a sharp grounder to short for the force at second, but he beat the relay throw to first by inches to keep the inning alive.

Peralta then knocked a 2-2 pitch to center to score Cabrera from third.

Detroit threatened when Martinez doubled to lead off the fifth, but he was caught off second base on Omar Infante's sharp grounder to first. Alex Avila singled, and Infante took third when Victorino bobbled the ball in right.

On Jose Iglesias' grounder, third baseman Will Middlebrooks threw the ball home to retire the lead runner. Austin Jackson flied out to right, ending the inning.

NOTES: Don Larsen threw a perfect game for the New York Yankees against Brooklyn in the 1956 World Series, and Roy Halladay pitched a no-hitter for Philadelphia in the 2010 NL division series. ... The Red Sox were shut out for only the second time in 78 postseason games at Fenway Park, the first since losing to the Chicago Cubs 3-0 in Game 5 of the 1918 World Series. ... No Tigers pitcher had ever struck out four batters in an inning before, regular season or postseason. ... Victorino's stolen base in the first gave the Red Sox seven in the postseason, tying a franchise record set in 2004. ... The Red Sox sent Sanchez to the Florida Marlins in the deal that brought Mike Lowell and Josh Beckett to Boston after the 2005 season. He was traded to Detroit last season. ... It was Lester's fourth Game 1 start, surpassing Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez and Beckett for most in franchise history. ... The 17 strikeouts by Tigers pitchers tied the record for a nine-inning postseason game. It happened twice before. ... It was only Boston's second shutout in 78 postseason home games, according to STATS. The other was in the 1918 World Series, when the Cubs beat them 3-0 in Game 5.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tigers-nearly-no-hit-red-sox-win-alcs-041021017--spt.html
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Imagination dispatches Warrior CPU core to battle ARM and Intel

Imagination Technologies will deliver its first Warrior CPU core to device makers by the end of the year, beginning a campaign to make the MIPS architecture a more potent rival to ARM and x86.

Imagination's graphics chips are already used in most of the top smartphones and tablets, including the iPhone and iPad, and last year it bought MIPS Technologies to try to build a CPU business as well.

[ Keep up on the day's tech news headlines with InfoWorld's Today's Headlines: Wrap Up newsletter. ]

MIPS chips are widely used in network gear such as routers and gateways, and in home media products including TVs and set-top boxes. Imagination wants to bring them to low-power servers as well, and to a wider range of Android smartphones and tablets.

The Warrior chips, also called MIPS Series 5, are part of its effort to do that.

The first product, the MIPS P5600, is a 32-bit design that will be offered with as many as six cores and a clock speed of 2GHz or more, Imagination said Monday. It provides up to twice the performance of the current proAptiv MIPS chips at the same clock speed and manufacturing process, the company said.

Imagination doesn't manufacture chips itself. Like ARM, it comes up with the designs and licenses them to other chip makers. The P5600 will be available for licensing in the current quarter, Imagination said, which means it should appear in consumer products in about 18 months.

Improvements include the ability to handle 128-bit SIMD, which allows more instructions to be run in parallel, improving performance in areas such as video and audio playback, said Mark Throndson, Imagination's director of processor technology marketing.

It's also the first MIPS CPU design to get hardware virtualization capabilities, he said. That should improve security, because multiple operating systems will be able to run on a single core without those data sets being able to interact.

That should be useful for set-top boxes that have to handle security schemes for multiple services, such Hulu, Amazon and Netflix. It could also be useful for banking apps that handle sensitive data, for example.

Despite being a 32-bit chip, the P5600 provides a wider data address space of 40 bits, Throndson said. That will allow it to address more memory than existing 32-bit MIPS processors do.

Paul Teich, an industry analyst with Moor Insights & Strategy, said the CPU design is an important first step for Imagination. "It's good to see them doing it, because it means they're locking down their road map and executing," he said.

MIPS Technologies was struggling financially when Imagination bought it, and one of Imagination's first tasks is to convince MIPS customers that the architecture has a good future.

But Teich thinks "the real meat" will come with future Warrior announcements. The company has said it will release further Warrior designs next year, including the first 64-bit Warrior CPU.

The type of smartphones MIPS chips are used in today don't really need the 40-bit address space, he said, and the hardware virtualization will be more useful when a 64-bit chip arrives.

"They can start to use it with network gear now, but frankly, with Intel and AMD already at 64 bits for their small-core architectures, and ARM moving to 64 bits shortly, I see that as more of a forward-looking story for them."

James Niccolai covers data centers and general technology news for IDG News Service. Follow James on Twitter at @jniccolai. James's e-mail address is james_niccolai@idg.com

Source: http://www.infoworld.com/d/computer-hardware/imagination-dispatches-warrior-cpu-core-battle-arm-and-intel-228731
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Brokers simplify, confuse health exchange shopping

This month's glitch-filled rollout of the health insurance marketplaces created by federal law is a business opportunity for brokers and agents, but regulators warn that it also opened the door for those who would seek to line their pockets by misleading consumers.

New Hampshire's insurance commissioner sent a cease-and-desist letter last week to an Arizona company he accused of building a website to mislead health care shoppers into thinking it was the official marketplace. The site was taken down Friday.

Regulators in Washington state and Pennsylvania also have told agents to change websites that seemed likely to convince consumers they were connecting to government-run sites. Connecticut's insurance department warned agents and brokers this summer that it will take action against agents who mislead consumers or design sites to replicate the state-run exchange.

An organization run by the top insurance regulators in each state recently issued an alert on the potential for scams related to the marketplaces. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners advised consumers that bogus sites have been spotted and warned people to beware of unsolicited calls by people claiming they need personal information to help them enroll in insurance.

Not all insurance agents are licensed to sell insurance on the exchanges, and buying a policy from one of them could leave consumers without the tax subsidies that make the health insurance affordable. Consumers who seek an insurance professional's help are urged to make sure they know who they're dealing with.

"We all need to be on the lookout right now. We don't want consumers to get confused," said Jessica Waltman of the National Association of Health Underwriters, a trade association representing agents and brokers.

Susan Johnson, the Northwest regional director for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said while some brokers are passionate about helping, others are seeking to take advantage.

In one such case, a state-licensed broker in suburban Seattle bought the domain name washingtonhealthplanfinder.org and built a website with fewer computer glitches than the state's new health insurance marketplace, wahealthplanfinder.org. The brokerage's site told customers: "Welcome to the Exchange!" in big print until the state insurance commissioner asked for changes to avoid confusion.

"You don't want to go to the wrong portal," Johnson said.

The insurance broker, Jeff Lindstrom, said he thought he was being creative when he bought 40-50 domain names to bring in new customers. He said he is not trying to confuse the public. Lindstrom's toll free phone number was also very close to the official call center number, said Stephanie Marquis, a spokeswoman for Washington's insurance commissioner.

In New Hampshire, newhampshirehealthexchange.com offered free price quotes on insurance, but it wasn't affiliated with the state or the federal government, which is running New Hampshire's official online market. The site was taken down days after the state sent a cease-and-desist letter.

"It put itself forward as offering health insurance through the exchange, and consumers are naturally misled by that into thinking it's the government site," said Deputy Insurance Commissioner Alex Feldvebel.

The insurance department took action after getting a complaint from a small business owner who called a phone number on the misleading site.

"He called and ended up talkng to someone who said, 'Unless you make a choice today, the price is going to go up,'" Feldvebel said.

A man who answered the phone declined to comment at the company identified as running the site, Arizona-based Steffen Financial.

In Pennsylvania, a consumer law group this summer tipped off regulators about a licensed broker's website that featured a logo mimicking the state seal and telling visitors: "Welcome to the Pennsylvania Health Exchange!" The broker took down PAhealthexchange.com a day after the state insurance department's enforcement bureau called.

The top online search result using the terms "texas health insurance exchange online" is for Texas Health Insurance Exchange, which sells unsubsidized insurance policies. The broker who owns the website is Scott Thiltgen, a state-licensed insurance agent in Cedar Park, Texas. He said he's also marketing on his Facebook page, Texas Health Insurance Marketplace.

Thiltgen said he's not out to confuse consumers.

"It's basically there to have someone they can talk to that knows about the exchange," he said.

He said he's earned the federal certification needed to sell subsidized policies on exchanges, and plans to start once the federal marketplace sorts out its glitches.

"Right now I've got a list of people that are ready to sign up for subsidized exchange plans, but can't," Thiltgen said.

While regulators have warned consumers, they don't have any reports of people being cheated. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners and state agencies in Pennsylvania, Virginia and North Carolina report no complaints since the marketplaces launched on Oct. 1.

Those with industry experience warn whenever there's money and confusion, consumers should be alert. Fraudsters saw opportunities when Medicaid Part D prescription drug insurance plans hit the market a decade ago, said Waltman, of the agents and brokers trade association.

"I think that we have to be concerned that this has happened a variety of times in the past," Waltman said.

The first line of defense is checking whether a broker or agent is licensed by the state insurance department where they operate. Usually that can be done online.

The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services doesn't have a similar option to check whether an agent has completed training necessary to work for consumers on a federally run exchange. The federal agency recommends consumers ask agents to provide a copy of the certificate showing they've completed training.

Some states that operate their own exchanges plan to identify marketplace-certified brokers, but that has not yet happened in all states, leaving a temporary gap for consumers. More than 2,600 state-licensed brokers cleared to work on New York's exchange were expected to be listed on its website soon, the state's health department said.

Still, spreading the word that subsidized health insurance is available and explaining how consumers should buy it leaves a legitimate role for brokers, Waltman said. Brokers earn commissions paid by insurance companies and not consumers.

Some brokers are under pressure to add customers because the commissions they earn on each policy are shrinking as the law rolls out.

Boise, Idaho, insurance agent Tom Shores estimates he'll need to pick up 3,000 new customers to offset commissions cut to about $9 per policy each month. Shores estimates a quarter of his brokerage's 4,000 existing health insurance customers also might learn they're eligible for Medicaid, the government insurance for low-income people, once they enter their financial data into the exchange system.

"The only way we're going to make money is to get more people," Shores said late last month.

The two largest companies on South Carolina's exchange are paying commissions of about $28 per policy per month for the first year, dropping to $14 a month after that, said John Adair, a broker in Greer, S.C.

"The law is complicated and making any sort of insurance purchase can be complicated — which plan to choose, deductibles, co-insurance, co-pays, network of providers," said Adair, who built a website and licensed his business in states nationwide to capture new customers. "With what we're seeing with the federal exchange, and some of the glitches, the agents themselves are very much in high demand."

____

Emery Dalesio can be reached at http://twitter.com/emerydalesio

____

Contributing to this story were Associated Press writers Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire; Donna Gordon Blankinship in Seattle; and Susan Haigh in Hartford, Conn.; John Miller in Boise, Idaho; and Michael Virtanen in Albany, N.Y.,

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/brokers-simplify-confuse-health-exchange-shopping-155714742.html
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Canada's Munro wins Nobel literature prize for her short stories

By Sven Nordenstam and Cameron French

STOCKHOLM/TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian Alice Munro won the Nobel Prize for Literature on Thursday for her tales of the struggles, loves and tragedies of women in small-town Canada that made her what the award-giving committee called the "master of the contemporary short story."

"Some critics consider her a Canadian Chekhov," the Swedish Academy said in announcing the award on its website, comparing Munro to the 19th-century Russian short story writer.

The 82-year-old Munro, who revealed in 2009 that she had undergone coronary bypass surgery and cancer treatment, said it was "surprising and wonderful" to receive the award.

"I am dazed by all the attention and affection that has been coming my way this morning," she said in a statement. "I hope it fosters further interest in all Canadian writers. I also hope that this brings further recognition to the short story form."

Despite the honor and attention it would bring to her work, she told CBC News that the award would not change the decision she announced earlier this year to retire from writing.

SHORT, BUT RICH, STORIES

The short story, a style more popular in the 19th and early 20th century, has long taken a back seat to the novel in popular tastes.

Munro's merit, in the eyes of her admirers, was to introduce into her stories a richness of plot and depth of detail usually more characteristic of novels.

The characters in her stories are often girls and women who lead seemingly unexceptional lives but struggle with tribulations ranging from sexual abuse and stifling marriages to repressed love and the ravages of aging.

"Suddenly you find yourself being fascinated by the life of this chambermaid, or this bean farmer, or this Vancouver housewife," Douglas Gibson, her longtime editor and publisher, said in a CBC interview. "These are ordinary people, ordinary stories, but she has the magic."

The award triggered an outpouring of pride in Canada. Social media website Twitter was flooded with congratulations.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a statement, "I am certain that Ms. Munro's tremendous body of work and this premier accomplishment will serve to inspire Canadian writers of all ranks to pursue literary excellence and their passion for the written word."

Reporters who gathered early on Thursday at the hotel in Victoria, British Columbia, where Munro was staying were asked to leave by hotel staff, who said she did not want to be disturbed.

EPIPHANIES

Born in 1931 in Wingham, a small town in the region of southwestern Ontario that serves as the setting for many of her stories, Munro started writing in her teens and has published more than a dozen short-story collections over the years.

Munro's works include "Lives of Girls and Women" in 1971, "Runaway" in 2004 and "Too Much Happiness" five years later.

Her story "The Bear Came over the Mountain, from her 2001 collection "Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage," was adapted into the Oscar-nominated film "Away from Her," directed by Sarah Polley.

Munro becomes the second Canadian-born writer to win the Nobel for Literature, although she is the first winner to be thought of as distinctly Canadian. Saul Bellow, who won the award in 1976, was born in Quebec but raised in Chicago and is widely considered an American writer.

"Her texts often feature depictions of everyday but decisive events, epiphanies of a kind, that illuminate the surrounding story and let existential questions appear in a flash of lightning," the Nobel Academy said in appraising Munro.

That sentiment was echoed by fellow Canadian writer Margaret Atwood, who described Munro in a 2008 tribute as being among the major writers of fiction in our time.

"Munro has been among those writers subject to periodic rediscovery, at least outside Canada. It's as if she jumps out of a cake - Surprise! - and then has to jump out of it again, and then again," Atwood wrote.

The former Alice Laidlaw married James Munro in 1951 and moved to Victoria, where the two ran a bookstore that still operates today. They had four daughters - one died just hours after being born - before divorcing in 1972. Afterwards, Munro moved back to Ontario.

Her second husband, geographer Gerald Fremlin, died this past April, which her publisher Gibson said factored in to her decision to quite writing this year. Munro also threatened to retire in 2006, but then changed her mind and published two more collections.

"She lost her husband in the spring and she's quite frail. And when she said 'no more' this time I believe her. I didn't believe it the first time, but I believe it now," he said.

The literature prize, which comes with an award of 8 million crowns ($1.25 million), is the fourth of this year's crop of Nobel prizes, which were established in the will of Alfred Nobel, the Swede who invented dynamite. The prizes were awarded for the first time in 1901.

Munro also won the Man Booker International Prize in 2009, and has won the Giller Prize - Canada's most high-profile literary award - twice.

(With additional reporting by Niklas Pollard in Stockholm, Euan Rocha and Allison Martell in Toronto and Jennifer Kwan in Victoria; Editing by Alistair Scrutton, Ralph Boulton and Michael Roddy, Jeffrey Hodgson and Vicki Allen)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/alice-munro-wins-nobel-prize-literature-academy-110756859.html
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iPhone 6 will raise screen size close to 5 inches, says analyst

Amid reports that the iPhone 6 will boost its display size, analyst Brian White says he's confident the screen will approach 5 inches.

The iPhone 4S (left) next to the iPhone 5.

(Credit: CNET)

Apple's iPhone 6 will jump in screen size to almost 5 inches from the current 4 inches. At least, that's the claim from Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Brian White.

After meeting recently with an Apple supplier, White expressed confidence that a new big-screen iPhone will emerge next year, as reported by Boy Genius Report.

"Our meeting with a tech supply chain vendor highlighted a bigger iPhone is in the works, and our contact expects a launch in the 2Q:14/3Q:14 time frame," White said in an investors note released on Thursday. "Nearly a year ago, our research in Asia uncovered early stage work on a larger iPhone, and we indicated in our Apple initiation report dated 9/4/13 that 'a larger screen size on the iPhone is possible in 2014 that could approach 5 inches.' Given today's meeting, we are confident that a larger iPhone (approximately five inches) will become a reality in 2014."

White's prediction follows a similar claim from Jefferies analyst Peter Misek that the iPhone 6 will sport a 4.8-inch screen. Misek's forecast followed a meeting between him and Apple suppliers in Asia. DisplaySearch analyst David Hsieh also is eyeing a larger screen for next year's iPhone, specifically one that's 4.7 inches.

Other reports have suggested even bigger screen sizes for a future iPhone, anywhere from 5.7 inches to 6 inches.

Apple has lost a large chunk of market share to the Android world, which offers a huge array of big-screened smartphones. Some rival phones are growing in size to 5.5 inches and even 6 inches. But Apple is unlikely to go that large, so a size somewhat under 5 inches sounds feasible. Apple could also offer a couple of different sizes to hedge its bets.

In his report, White also chimed in with some interesting thoughts on an Apple smartwatch. The analyst's contact at the Apple supplier described an iWatch as "much more than an extension of your iPhone but as a multi-purpose gateway in allowing consumers to control their home (i.e., heating/cooling, lights, audio, video, etc.)."

White expects Apple to launch its iWatch before the end of 2014.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57606901-37/iphone-6-will-raise-screen-size-close-to-5-inches-says-analyst/?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=News-Apple
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