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The WIFI Airline Dilemma

Posted on March 28, 2012

Washington (CNN) – As competition expands among airlines to offer passengers the latest in-flight entertainment options, intercontinental routes have been slow to add Internet service.

Because in-flight Internet relies on transmitting signals to the ground, intercontinental flights have yet to find a reliably cost-effective means of providing passengers with Wi-Fi service while over water. The main drawbacks are cost and the added weight of the equipment needed for satellite transmission.

Several airlines have plans to roll out transcontinental Internet service this year.

This month, Qantas is partnering with a company called OnAir to test satellite-based Internet service aboard flights from Australia to Los Angeles.

Japan’s JAL intends to roll out Internet service to passengers flying from Japan to Europe and North America this summer. United Airlines is reportedly exploring Internet service on international flights. Emirates Airlines says it plans to test satellite based internet service on its A380 double-deck, wide-body jets.

Meanwhile, nearly all U.S. airlines have announced plans to install Internet service and added amenities on domestic aircraft in recent years.

In-flight Internet service provider GoGo announced Wednesday that it has reached a deal to expand service aboard US Airways fleet of Airbus A319, A320 and Embraer 190 aircrafts.

Delta Airlines recently announced it was partnering with Amazon to provide passengers with free access to shop the online retail giant’s website onboard all of Delta and Delta Connection flights with in-flight Wi-Fi service.

Hunger Games Inspired Travel

Posted on March 28, 2012

(CNN) — The young stars of “The Hunger Games” may remember the blockbuster movie as the one that propelled their careers to the next level. But the biggest breakout star of the “The Hunger Games” may well turn out to be the state of North Carolina.

 

With $152.5 million opening weekend at the box office, the movie based on the New York Times bestseller by Suzanne Collins had the third best opening weekend of all time (and the best ever opening for a non-sequel), according to Hollywood.com. And its frenzied fans are already showing up at movie locations around the state to see where scenes were shot.

 

“People are obsessed with ‘The Hunger Games,’ ” says Marnee Revri, a Raleigh-based travel agent affiliated with Frosch Entertainment, who booked travel for the movie’s cast and crew and blogged about it. “I think there will be a bigger interest in people coming to visit, the same as the ‘Twilight’ movies. Kids are going to want to (see) where it was filmed.”

 

Many scenes were filmed in the woods of DuPont State Forest, a 10,400-acre wilderness where waterfalls, lakes and fishing streams made ideal settings for the movie’s outdoor scenes. Fans are likely to follow forest trails in search of character Katniss Everdeen’s pond, the bottom of Triple Falls waterfall and the remnants of the fireball sequence. A hike to Hooker Falls, Triple Falls and High Falls is part of the Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy’s eight-hike challenge. Rated “easy,” the 2.6-mile waterfall hike has an elevation gain of 160 feet. (Triple Falls also stars in Michael Mann’s movie “The Last of the Mohicans.”)

 

It’s true that the abandoned Henry River Mill Village, about 70 miles from Asheville in the small town of Hildebran, was home to the film’s “District 12″ Mellark family bakery and the Everdeens’ shanty. But it’s private property — so just look as you’re driving by — and respect any “No Trespassing” signs.

 

Parents of tweens and teens on this movie tour, take note. The movie’s stars spent their after-work hours in Asheville, a town you’ll enjoy independent of your child’s movie obsession. With its funky architecture, independent spirit and thriving restaurant and brewing scene, artsy Asheville didn’t need a movie to confirm its tourist appeal.

 

Actors reportedly dined at the Laughing Seed Café, Lexington Avenue Brewery, Wasabi and the Southern Kitchen and Bar. They also stopped by Malaprop’s Bookstore/Café, the local independent bookseller.

 

Cast member Woody Harrelson enjoyed the 46-foot rock-climbing wall at the U.S. National Whitewater Center in Charlotte, which served as the capitol in the film. (The center will host the U.S. Olympic Trials for canoe slalom April 12-14.) Harrelson also enjoyed playing chess with locals at Amélie’s French bakery in Charlotte.

 

You could still be inspired to learn some post-apocalyptic survival skills. If you’re in decent physical shape, learn to survive in the wilderness by taking courses at Nantahala Outdoor Center. Summer programs at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown include courses on cooking over an open fire, cooking with wild edibles, beekeeping and woodworking.

 

If you prefer the work of Patrick Swayze, Kevin Costner or Daniel Day Lewis, you’re in luck. “Dirty Dancing,” “Bull Durham” and “The Last of the Mohicans” were all shot in North Carolina. While your younger family members obsess on “The Hunger Games,” you can celebrate the 25th anniversary of “Dirty Dancing” this year with the 3rd annual Dirty Dancing Festival at Lake Lure (August 17-19).

 

Fans of the “Ironman” series can expect the third installment of the movie, which is in pre-production in Wilmington, to draw attention to that location. And with North Carolina’s tax incentives for productions filmed in the state, expect more movie and television shows to bring their projects there.

 

Don’t want to plan your entire trip yourself? The North Carolina Division of Tourism has made it easy for movie fans to make their “Hunger Games” plans. The office has a four-day itinerary and a list of 12 places to experience the movie.

Luxury cruise liner involved in collision off Vietnam

Posted on March 28, 2012

(CNN) — A luxury cruise ship collided in deep fog with a container ship off Vietnam, punching a hole in the container ship and knocking passengers off their feet, a passenger told CNN Monday.

“The foghorn at the back of the ship had been going off consistently, throughout the morning,” passenger Andrew Lock said Monday from Hong Kong about the incident, which occurred Friday morning when the Silver Shadow was about five miles from the coast.

 

“But there was a certain point in time when the foghorn at the front of the ship suddenly sounded. And it was much much louder. And it caused us to look up. And in fact we looked up straight out of the window. And through the fog, to our horror, we saw this Vietnamese container ship appear, sideways on. And it was as if our ship was perfectly lined up to hit it in the side.

 

“So, it was a horrifying moment. And in less than about five seconds after the ship appeared. We did in fact collide right in the side of it.”

Lock said he and his wife had braced themselves for the impact and stayed upright. That was more than could be said of the other vessel.

 

“The Vietnamese ship rolled over — at a 90-degree angle. In fact, we thought it was going to capsize. It then righted itself. And with the forward momentum of our ship, it pushed the Vietnamese ship around, so that it actually came down the side, the length of our ship, scraping along the side as it went. And from that viewpoint, we could see just how much damage had been done to THAT ship, and it was substantial.”

 

He said he wasn’t aware of any injuries aboard the luxury vessel, which had a hole dug in its bow, but said the other vessel was badly damaged.

 

“We struck the other ship in several places that we could see — we struck it at the bridge, where they would operate from. We literally crushed the ship inwards. And we also struck the sides of the ship, causing a tear along the side, a vertical tear, quite substantial. And as we passed by the other ship, I personally saw several of their crew members just lying on the deck.”

 

After the impact, he said, passengers gathered a few of their possessions and headed to the muster stations. “The crew was calm, but the passengers — some were scared, or even frantic,” Lock said.

But after about 10 minutes, the captain announced that there was no imminent danger, he said.

 

The ship went on to anchor in Ha Long Bay, as had been planned.

“The next day, we went to a nearby port and once we were off the ship we could see how extensive the damage was,” Lock said.

In a statement, Silversea Cruises said the Silver Shadow “was involved in a minor incident on March 16, 2012, at around 4:20 GMT as it was approaching the pilot station in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam. There was contact between Silver Shadow and a local commercial vessel. Silver Shadow incurred limited minor dents and guests’ safety was never compromised. The ship was fully operational and continued on its course to Ha Long Bay, where all shore tours operated normally.”

Lock disputed the cruise line’s characterization of the incident. “It was a major collision,” he said.

 

Silversea said it will carry out a full investigation into the incident.

 

The 28,258-ton Silver Shadow was built in 2000. It was refurbished last year and is registered in the Bahamas. It carries a maximum of 382 passengers and a crew of 302. It is scheduled to depart March 28 on a seven-day voyage starting and ending in Singapore, according to Silversea’s website. Best available fare is listed as $3,599.

 

Silversea is based in Monaco and has offices in the United States, Britain, Australia and Singapore.

JetBlue Pilot Suspended

Posted on March 28, 2012

(CNN) — The JetBlue pilot whose behavior prompted an emergency landing Tuesday has been suspended pending further investigation, the company told CNN on Wednesday.

 

Clayton Osbon was captain of Flight 191 from New York to Las Vegas, which landed in Amarillo, Texas, after crew and passengers subdued him.

 

He has been taken off active duty and is still being paid, JetBlue spokeswoman Tamara Young added.

 

He has worked for the company for 12 years, she said.

CEO Dave Barger said he has known Osbon for “a long time” and that he has always been a “consummate professional.”

 

On NBC’s “Today” show, Barger was asked about Osbon’s reported erratic behavior, which allegedly involved him screaming and trying to get back into the cockpit after his co-pilot locked him out.

 

“What happened at altitude is we had a medical situation,” he said. But, he added, “it became a security situation.”

 

Without using Osbon’s name, Barger said the captain was receiving medical care under the custody of the FBI.

 

Asked about his condition, JetBlue tweeted that it will not share details out of respect for his privacy.

 

No federal charges have been filed so far, said Kathy Colvin, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Texas.

 

“We’re still investigating,” said Lydia Maese, an FBI spokeswoman. “We coordinated with the FAA, TSA, Amarillo Police Department and the airport police.”

 

Osbon has not made a public statement, and no attorney has made one on his behalf.

 

The Twitter page for a Clayton F. Osbon describes him as “JetBlue Flight Standards Captain” for the Airbus320, as well as a leadership coach. Tuesday’s Flight 191 from New York to Las Vegas was on an Airbus 320.

 

The Twitter page shows no tweets since January.

 

Both the Twitter and LinkedIn pages in Osbon’s name also describe him as a director of Body By Vi. The LinkedIn page says the company helps “people to a better life” through health and financial prosperity.

 

A Facebook page for a Clayton Osbon says he is married and lives in Savannah, Georgia.

 

The blog Writer Killing Darlings carries a profile of Osbon, which it says was published last year in the magazine Richmond Hill Reflections.

 

“Clayton lives with his wife of six years, Connye, and enough animals to make a lint-brush essential,” the story says.

 

In addition to his love of flying, Osbon “wants to be a motivational speaker down the road,” the story says.

 

“It starts with a greater enhanced knowledge of one’s being… you know, I’d like to think the world is more than just getting up in the morning, making a cup of coffee, going to work, coming home, kissing your wife good-night and going to bed,” it quotes him as saying.

 

A search of public records showed no criminal history for Osbon. It turned up a traffic violation in 2005 which involved no fine.

 

JetBlue spokeswoman Alison Croyle said she is not aware of any fallout in bookings or any cancellations as a result of the incident.

 

When asked about passengers jumping in to help, Croyle said, “I know that our flight crews are trained for different levels of incidents in that regard. In this instance we do believe they acted within guidelines.

 

They are trained to ask for passenger help if needed.”

Barger told NBC, “We always take a look at procedures” involving

screening for pilots, but said the company has confidence in the

 

JetBlue and industry-wide procedures in place.

He repeatedly praised the JetBlue crew and passengers for their response and the “consummate training” the crew showed when “called into action” during what was a “tough event, to say the least.”

 

The co-pilot, concerned by his colleague’s “erratic” behavior, locked the door behind the captain when he left the cockpit during the flight, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

 

Passengers described to CNN what happened next.

 

“The pilot ran to the cockpit door, began banging on it and said something to the effect of, ‘We’ve gotta pull the throttle back. We’ve gotta get this plane down,’” said Laurie Dhue.

 

“At that point, the two flight attendants tried to subdue him, and then seemingly out of nowhere, about six or seven large guys stormed to the front of the plane and wrestled the captain of the plane down to the ground and had him subdued in a matter of moments. It was really like something out of a movie,” she said.

 

Amateur video of the incident showed a commotion as several men were moving in the aisle. A voice, purportedly that of the pilot, can be heard.

 

“Oh my God. I’m so distraught!” he shouts. The voice mentions Israel and Iraq.

 

In another video, passengers appeared to be standing over something, or someone, presumably the subdued pilot.

 

Paul Babakitis, another passenger and a retired New York police officer, said he was one of the men who helped wrestle the captain to the ground.

 

“I felt if he got in the cockpit, he was going to try to take that plane down, and not for a safe landing,” he said.

 

Law enforcement met the aircraft, cuffed the pilot and took him off the plane, Babakitis said. Video showed someone being carried off the plane in a sort of chair.

 

“I’m not foreign to situations like this, but I don’t expect them at 30,000 feet,” he said.

 

Babakitis and some other passengers reported hearing the captain say the word “bomb” at one point. However, passenger Jason Levin said he did not hear him say that.

 

Levin was sitting in the front row of the plane, full of people on their way to a security conference, when the pilot came out of the cockpit.

 

“It just seemed like something triggered him to go off the wall. He would be calm one minute and then just all of sudden turn,” he said. “If it was going to happen, it happened at the right time and the right

place.”

 

Passenger Tony Antolino hailed the co-pilot as a hero.

 

“The co-pilot of the flight, he really — I think — is the hero here because he had the sense to recognize that something was going horribly wrong, and he was able to persuade the pilot out of the cockpit,” he told CNN.

 

The flight left New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport at 7:28 a.m.

 

“At roughly 10 a.m. CT/11 a.m. ET, the pilot in command elected to divert to Amarillo, Texas, for a medical situation involving the captain. Another captain, traveling off duty, entered the flight deck prior to landing at Amarillo and took over the duties of the ill crew member once on the ground,” JetBlue said.

 

The crew member was taken off the plane and transported to a medical facility, it added.

 

Everything considered, passenger Antolino said he felt thankful. “This could have had a horrific outcome.”

How safe is the cargo on passenger flights?

Posted on February 16, 2012

Editor’s note: This report is based on a one-year investigation by CNN into air cargo security in light of a thwarted plot by al Qaeda in October 2010 to blow up cargo jets over the United States. CNN’s Nic Robertson’s report “Deadly Cargo” airs on CNN Presents, Saturday and Sunday February 18, 19 at 8 p.m. ET.

 

London (CNN) — The call came into the London Metropolitan Police bomb squad in the early hours of the morning. Isolated at the East Midlands airport in central England was a UPS package dispatched from Yemen, containing a laser printer that Saudi intelligence believed had been converted into a bomb.

 

Before dawn a bomb squad arrived on the scene. The plane had been cleared and left at 4:20 am, without the package identified by its waybill number as the laser printer. Officers inspected the printer and lifted out the ink cartridge but found no explosive device. According to security sources, they also brought in specially trained dogs and passed the printer through an X-ray scanner, but those, too, failed to locate any explosives.

 

The security cordon around the area where the laser printer had been isolated was lifted. But Saudi counter-terrorism officials implored British authorities to re-examine the printer. When they did, they found 400 grams of the high-explosive PETN inside the ink cartridge.

 

The bomb had been timed to explode hours earlier. But the bomb squad had inadvertently defused the device earlier when they had lifted the printer cartridge out of the printer, disconnecting the explosives from the timer.

 

A similar drama had been playing out at an airport in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, where another printer bomb had been located that same day. These were some of the most sophisticated explosive devices ever seen from al Qaeda.

 

These discoveries on October 29, 2010, sent shock waves through Western capitals. Not only had these bombs gone through screenings at several airports without being detected, they also had traveled on passenger jets during the first legs of their journeys.

 

And most disturbing of all: For many hours, the explosives went undetected by bomb experts in two countries, despite being right in front of them.

 

A few weeks after the incident, U.S. Senator Susan Collins asked Transportation Security Administration chief John Pistole whether the bombs would have been detected by the country’s current security

system.

 

“In my professional opinion, no,” Pistole replied.

 

The group that claimed responsibility for the plot — the Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula — appeared to have found the Achilles heel of international aviation.

 

While much airport security is concentrated on screening passengers and their checked bags, about half the hold on a typical passenger flight is filled with cargo. In fact, over a third of cargo by volume that entered the United States in 2010 was shipped on passenger jets, according to the Department of Transportation. That is 3.7 billion tons.

 

Another 7.2 billion tons of air cargo came in on all-cargo aircraft, according to the DOT.

 

And the screening requirements for such cargo are not as strict as they are for passengers and their checked bags.

 

If it took authorities in Britain and Dubai hours to identify a bomb that was right in front of them, what are the chances of finding such devices amid the millions of tons of air cargo flying into the United States each day?

 

 

U.S. authorities were already aware of the potential for terrorists to take advantage of lax cargo security. A law that required screening for all cargo on domestic and inbound international passenger flights had taken effect two months before the printer bomb scare.

 

While the Transportation Security Administration was able to ensure the screening of all domestic cargo, it fell short when it came to screening all inbound international cargo, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

 

So the TSA announced that the 100% requirement would be brought into effect for inbound flights by January 2012. Now, the TSA has indefinitely deferred this goal in favor of a risk-based approach, according to Massachusetts Rep. Ed Markey.

 

Following the 2010 bomb plot, the United States and its international partners took a number of steps to bolster air cargo security. They banned cargo shipments assessed as too high a risk that originated from or transited through Yemen and Somalia. U.S. authorities implemented enhanced screening for passenger jet cargo assessed as having an elevated risk and tightened procedures for incoming mail.

 

Those requirements have not been made public. The Department of Homeland Security brought in enhanced screening for U.S.-bound shipments on all-cargo aircraft.

 

While industry insiders say progress has been made, some lawmakers on Capitol Hill express concern about any approach that doesn’t involve the screening of all cargo.

 

“The low-risk cargo does not receive anywhere near the level of security as the high-risk cargo,” said Markey, who co-authored legislation mandating screening on passenger jets by August 2010.

 

“There is no such thing as low-risk cargo because, in the hands of al Qaeda, that cargo becomes high risk.”

 

But some of those on the frontlines of air cargo security point out that the risk-based approach stems from on-the-ground realities.

 

“Identifying high-risk cargo wherever it is in the supply chain and singling it out for physical screening is the better approach to securing cargo on an international scale,” said David Brooks, the head of American Airlines air cargo.

 

And the industry says TSA mandates are not easy to enforce when they involve other countries that may face logistical challenges in conforming to U.S. inspection standards. Economic factors also played a role in the U.S government’s delay in imposing 100% inbound screening.

 

It was a quandary that al Qaeda exploited. “(Our goal was to) force upon the West two choices: You either spend billions of dollars to inspect each and every package in the world or you do nothing and we keep trying again,” al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula announced after the package bomb plot.

 

 

Even if 100% of all plane cargo is screened, it’s no panacea for keeping bombs off airplanes.

 

Single-view X-ray machines — the technology still used at a significant number of air cargo warehouses around the world — lack the resolution to thoroughly vet the contents of shipments, according to industry insiders. The machines find it difficult to distinguish PETN from similar powdered substances, explosive detection experts told CNN.

 

It was a weakness that al Qaeda exploited in the printer bomb plot by filling the ink cartridges with PETN.

 

“The toner cartridge contains the toner which is carbon based and that is an organic material. The carbon’s molecular structure is close to that of PETN,” AQAP boasted after the attempted attack.

 

Under TSA guidelines, cargo screening can involve a variety of methods including physical inspection, dogs, a variety of single-view or multiview X-ray machines, and “explosive trace detection” — which involves running a hand-held device over the surface or insides of a package, which “sniffs” the air for minute quantities of explosive.

 

Dogs also are used to sniff for bombs, but for years, TSA officials have had reservations about relying on canine teams to screen for explosives. According to explosive detection experts, PETN in particular is difficult for sniffer dogs to detect, because very little of it disperses into the air.

 

Physical inspection of every package is impractical given the volume of cargo and the ease with which PETN can be hidden.

In order to keep one step ahead of the terrorists, airlines and air cargo handlers are investing millions of dollars in the latest generation of advanced X-ray machines and explosive trace detection.

 

“PETN can be found quite easily in very small amounts using trace detection equipment and in bulk form by (advanced) X-ray machines,” said Kevin Riordan, technical director at Smiths Detection, a British company that is one of the leading producers of explosive detection equipment.

 

If the British bomb squad at East Midlands airport had such equipment, they would have been able to see the PETN inside the printer cartridge, according to another UK detection expert.

 

But Riordan conceded that even if authorities had the latest equipment, al Qaeda could take steps to make detection more difficult.

 

“We’d have to say there is always a way through,” he told CNN. “The risk is never removed totally.”

 

Air cargo industry insiders say that combining several layers of screening is the best protection against future al Qaeda bomb plots.

 

And all those interviewed by CNN stressed the critical role of intelligence.

 

“There is no 100%, foolproof system for all cargo,” U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told CNN, “but what we can do and are doing is maximizing our ability to prevent such a plot from succeeding.

 

That included “good intel, good information sharing.”

 

 

The new generation of multiview X-ray machines and explosive detection equipment is now routinely used to scan all checked and hand luggage at airports in the United States and Europe, according to explosive detection experts, but not yet all air cargo.

 

Parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia are lagging behind in deploying this technology at air cargo departure points, according to air cargo industry insiders. U.S. officials say they’ve put a high priority on new global standards to plug the technology gap.

 

“The global supply chain presents some challenges because the weakest link in that global supply chain can adversely affect the security throughout that supply chain,” said TSA administrator Pistole.

 

Scanning air cargo presents unique challenges because a high proportion of it has been consolidated into large pallets by the time it arrives at airports and is ready to be loaded onto planes. TSA has yet to license any technology that can reliably detect explosives within pallets.

 

In the United States this had led to more than half of cargo screening being conducted at off-airport sites, according to Brandon Fried, executive director of the Air Forwarders Association. The shift towards screening of smaller configurations of cargo at these sites before palletization helped U.S. authorities meet the 100% screening mandate for domestic cargo.

 

But other parts of the world are lagging behind in adopting such initiatives.

 

Homeland security experts say the private sector must step up to the plate if air cargo is to be secured.

 

“The U.S. has policies on how much cargo needs to be screened inbound. We can control that to some degree, but we are very much reliant on our partners,” said Robert Liskouski, a former director of infrastructure protection at the Department of Homeland Security.

 

U.S. flag carriers say they have taken steps to bolster cargo security since the package bomb plot. In April 2011, TSA air cargo security chief Doug Brittin told the International Air Cargo Association that airlines were screening 80% of inbound air cargo and some U.S. flag carriers as much as 95%.

 

After missing the August 2010 deadline, the United States has yet to set a new timeline to implement the 100% screening mandate for inbound cargo flights, according to a letter from TSA’s Pistole to U.S. legislators in December 2011. But he said he expects to meet that goal no later than 2013.

 

Industry insiders hope a voluntary pilot program called Air Cargo Advance Screening, in which airlines send manifest data to U.S.

 

Customs and Border Protection several hours before departure, will further bolster inbound screening. But U.S. authorities say challenges lie ahead in bringing the program fully on stream.

 

Despite last year’s elimination of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, the threat from the terrorist group still remains a major concern. Recent months have seen AQAP, the group responsible for the 2010 printer bomb plot, take advantage of political turmoil in Yemen to expand its operations. Saudi Arabia’s counterterrorism service believes this will bolster the group’s ability to target the United States. And it believes Ibrahim al Asiri, the group’s master bomb-maker, has trained several apprentices in how to make sophisticated PETN-based bombs.

Markey says that time is not on the United States’ side.

 

“Every day that goes by is another day that al Qaeda might exploit that opening — and once again successfully terrorize our country,” he told CNN.

Apple hits a new all-time high

Posted on January 31, 2012

Apple (AAPL) capped a post-earnings surge by closing Tuesday at $456.48, a new all-time record high.

In intraday trading it reached as high as $458.24, also a record.

Measured by market capitalization (price per share times number of shares outstanding), Apple is now worth more than $425 billion, making it the world’s most valuable company by far.

No. 2 Exxon Mobil (XOM) trails by nearly $24 billion.

Speaking of oil companies, Neowin’s Owen Williams points out that according to the Wikipedia chartcopied below the fold, Apple’s net profit of $13.06 billion last quarter ranks as the fourth largest of all time. What’s interesting about the list is that Apple is the only company on it that’s not in the oil and gas business.

Deadline passes; Occupy DC remains

Posted on January 31, 2012

Washington (CNN) – Living in a public park as a means of protest is not protected by the First Amendment, a federal judge said Tuesday in rejecting an Occupy DC demonstrator’s request to keep park police from enforcing a ban on camping.

Dane Charles Primarano sought a temporary restraining order prohibiting the National Park Service and its police department from taking action against protesters found sleeping in or in possession of camping gear in Washington’s McPherson Park and Freedom Square.

Primarano, who represented himself, argued that camping at the park is a form of constitutionally protected free speech. Judge James Boasberg disagreed, saying it is a matter of public policy, not constitutional law.

The setback for protesters came on the first full day of the camping ban enforced by U.S. Park Police. Authorities told protesters Monday that they had to remove camping gear such as sleeping bags and housekeeping materials but could keep their tents so long as one flap remains open at all times.

Protesters said Tuesday that police had told them they had “a few hours” to remove a large blue tarp they had draped over a statue of the park’s namesake, Civil War Gen. James B. McPherson. Protesters have dubbed the tarp, covered with stars, the “tent of dreams.”

They decided later to let police decide what to do with the tarp. Authorities did not immediately remove it.

Separately, an unidentified man attempted to tear the tarp down. He was stopped by protesters and removed by police.

Protesters who had struggled to stay awake overnight vowed to stay strong early Tuesday.

“I had more fun in the park last night than the whole time I’ve been here,” said demonstrator Amanda Rickard. “We were out here playing guitar, singing, playing drums, Scrabble, card games, you know, just stuff to keep us busy so we can stay here and stay awake.”

But one protester said he wouldn’t be surprised if the mandate against camping gear and sleeping in the park takes its toll on protesters.

“To be honest, I don’t know how long we can keep this up,” Kevin Wiley said after a sleepless night.

It was clear protesters did not like the rules. “No justice, no sleep,” one protester scrawled on a tent.

Another sign, written in white paint on a blue tarp, said: “Evicted from home by the banks. Evicted from the tent by the police. 99% has no safe place to rest.”

But Wiley said they were trying to abide by the rules to “show we are law-abiding citizens.”

“We’re not out here just trying to have a good time. We are out here for a political message,” he said.

Protesters had made arrangements to sleep off-site in shifts, said Rickard, who acknowledged nodding off for about 10 minutes overnight.

In another court hearing Tuesday on a case brought by Occupy DC protesters, Boasberg said he would rule within two days on a request that park officials be prohibited from seizing tents and other property without evidence of a crime, an emergency or a warrant.

Occupy DC is part of a larger activist surge that began last year in New York and quickly spread across the country.

While the protesters have highlighted a number of causes, the overarching theme has remained largely the same: populist anger over what activists portray as an out-of-touch corporate, financial and political elite.

On Monday, City Hall in Oakland, California, reopened after a violent weekend clash between police and protesters that resulted in about 400 arrests. Authorities said protesters broke into the building and committed acts of vandalism inside.

Police in Charlotte, North Carolina, also dismantled several tents at an Occupy camp there.

“We’re doing the right thing, peacefully and quietly,” protester Malachi Vinson told CNN affiliate WCNC. “We’re expressing ourselves in a better way than anyone else would.”

Party over for Zuckerberg?

Posted on January 31, 2012

(CNN) — We all knew he’d eventually get around to it: Mark Zuckerberg is expected to finally bring Facebook public. The company is reported to be preparing to file for an IPO — initial public offering — through which anyone will be able to buy shares of the social networking company on an open stock exchange.

 

As a media theorist, I used to ignore these business shenanigans. Who cares if these companies are private or public, profitable or in the red? How many non-Wall-Street-Journal readers even knew what an IPO was back before the Internet created the likes of AOL, Netscape, and Google?

 

But the fact is we do now think about the stock market. Many of us are aware that Apple’s market capitalization is fast approaching half a trillion dollars, making it either the largest or second-largest company in the world behind Exxon Mobil - depending on the week. So when we hear that Facebook is preparing for an IPO that will likely dwarf

 

Google’s entrance to the public markets in 2004, particularly considering that the company doesn’t sell tangible goods or services in the traditional sense, we can’t help but wonder what this will mean for the future of Facebook, its users, its competitors, and the greater economy.

 

The way it appears at first glance - particularly for those who have been following Mr. Zuckerberg since he launched “The Facebook” from his college dorm or, better, those who have seen the movie “The Social Network” - is that the Zuckerberg juggernaut is continuing unabated.

 

This new form of media — social networking — will not only redefine the Internet, change human relationships, create a new marketing landscape, and challenge Google, but it will now rescue and alter the economy itself. Like virtual kudzu, it will infiltrate the financial markets, creating new sorts of opportunities for this peer-to-peer “social” economy to take root. We will all make our living playing Farmville, or designing new versions of it, or investing in companies that do.

 

In reality, however, I don’t think we are witnessing Facebook’s victory over the financial markets as much as its acquiescence to them. Yes, Apple challenged Microsoft for software supremacy, just as Facebook now challenges Google for Internet supremacy. But there’s another operating system churning away beneath all this high tech activity, and it’s called corporate capitalism. If a company is big enough — and that means simply holding enough money — then sooner or later that money influences the rest of the company’s activities.

 

In Facebook’s case, it meant approaching the legal limit of 500 investors, which triggers a requirement to open the books to regulatory scrutiny. It also meant dealing with a few thousand coveted employees who took jobs at Facebook instead of Google or Apple or anywhere else because they were hoping to get in on a big thing. The promise of cashing in a few million dollars worth of stock options helps many a programmer make it through a late night of coding.

 

The same goes for those who invested in Zuckerberg five or more years ago and want to cash in before the “social web” bubble pops, if it’s going to. Facebook was taking so long to get to market that many people had begun selling their shares privately on what are known as secondary markets, putting Facebook’s valuation even further out of the company’s own hands.

 

Simply becoming a multi-billion-dollar company changes the essence of its goals, activities, and purpose. Its bloodstream becomes filled with cash, and cash has its own agenda. For just like print, TV, or the Internet, money is a medium, too. It has biases, or tendencies, programmed right into it. The kind of money we happen to use — bank-issued central currency — is biased toward lending. That’s why we call our system “capitalism.” It’s about the capital: Our money is designed to favor those who lend it to others who actually use it to build companies or create value.

 

The more money a company takes in, the more obligated it becomes to function in accordance with the properties and rules of money. For example, since becoming public, Google has had to prove its devotion to its shareholders’ interests by cutting pet programs, showing earnings’ growth, and demonstrating focus over big dreams. Out with public experiments like Google Labs, in with products like Android try to compete with Apple’s iOS and G+ to compete with Facebook. No more touting that employees get 20% of their work hours to do whatever they want. It’s a real corporation, now, and has to behave like one.

 

By all accounts, Zuckerberg was trying to delay this eventuality as long as possible. He knows that becoming the CEO of a public company will not be nearly as much fun, or as free, as running an Internet startup.

However much we may not like his vision for our future, his primary purpose was to change the world. He wanted to create the operating system on which human social activity took place.

 

What he has ultimately succumbed to, however, is the fact that Facebook was running on top of another operating system all along. Instead of revolutionizing our reality, by filing an IPO Mark Zuckerberg is finally getting with the program.

North Korea denies punishing citizens for not mourning enough

Posted on January 16, 2012

Seoul, South Korea (CNN) — North Korea has angrily denied allegations that it punished some of its citizens for inadequately mourning the death of its late leader Kim Jong Il.

Kim died last month after 17 years of repressive rule over the secretive state, setting off deep uncertainty about North Korea’s future.

The North Korean regime commemorated his death with elaborately choreographed ceremonies broadcast on state-run media that showed crowds of mourners beating their chests and wailing with grief in the snow-covered streets of Pyongyang.

Over the weekend, a report from the state-run Korean Central News Agency lashed out at “misinformation” that citizens who had “failed to show tears at memorial services were sent to a concentration camp.”

It attributed the allegations to “reptile media under the control” of a group of “traitors” that it said were connected to President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea.

The news agency appeared to be referring to a report last week by the South Korean news website Daily NK, which monitors developments in the North through a network of sources inside the country.

Citing an unidentified person in North Korea, Daily NK reported that “the authorities are handing down at least six months in a labor-training camp to anybody who didn’t participate in the organized gatherings during the mourning period, or who did participate but didn’t cry and didn’t seem genuine.”

The president of Daily NK, Park In-ho, said that the information for its report had come from a North Korean citizen in North Hamgyong Province, which borders China. The unidentified North Korean relayed the information to a Daily NK reporter using an illegal Chinese mobile phone — commonly used items among people living in the border areas — Park said.

Information from the North is usually communicated to Daily NK reporters in China, who then pass it on to South Korea, according to Park.

North Korea significantly restricts the ability of international news organizations to freely report within its territory.

Daily NK was founded and then spun off by the Network for North Korean Democracy and Human Rights Network, a nonprofit organization that aims to promote human rights in North Korea. Daily NK has received tens of thousands of dollars in funding from the National Endowment for Democracy, a U.S. nonprofit organization that is supported financially by the U.S. Congress through the Department of State.

The Korean Central News Agency report over the weekend expressed anger that the Daily NK report had coincided with Pyongyang’s own announcement of a prisoner amnesty in connection with the birthdays this year of two late North Korean dictators — Kim Jong Il and his father, Kim Il Sung, the founder of the North Korean nation.

“This evil deed could be done only by the despicable guys hell-bent on letting loose invectives and telling lies,” the KCNA report said.

North Korea has not specified how many prisoners will be released under amnesty, due to begin February 1.

International organizations estimate that the North Korean regime holds approximately 200,000 political prisoners.

Two survivors rescued from grounded cruise ship

Posted on January 16, 2012

Porto Santo Stefano, Italy (CNN) — Rescuers reached two trapped honeymooners in the interior of a cruise ship more than 24 hours after it ran aground off a picturesque Italian island, killing three people, injuring 20 and leaving dozens unaccounted for.

The South Korean passengers, each 29, heard searchers calling out on the Costa Concordia, Italy’s ANSA news agency reported early Sunday. They were located in a cabin and taken ashore. Video showed them being taken to a waiting ambulance.

The captain of the ill-fated vessel, which turned over on its side after the grounding, was arrested late Saturday and was being investigated for abandoning ship and manslaughter, a local prosecutor said.

With perhaps up to 50 people unaccounted for, divers suspended their efforts at dark, with plans to resume the search in the azure waters off the island of Giglio at dawn Sunday.

Accounts of the chaos from many of the 3,200 passengers were reminiscent of a maritime disaster 100 years ago this April — the loss of the RMS Titanic.

“For me, the worst part of the whole ordeal” was when a lifeboat crew member told those boarding that it was “women and children first,” said passenger Benji Smith of Boston.

“All these families who were clinging to each other had to be separated,” Smith told CNN.

Some passengers fell into the chilly waters during the rescue, ANSA reported.

Questions abounded: Why was the colossal ship so close to the shore? How fast was it moving? How well did the crew respond? According to many passengers, the evacuation was disorganized and no one seemed in charge.

“Every crew member who walked past shouted instructions, but the instructions contradicted each other,” Smith said.

Concordia’s captain, Francesco Schettino, was interviewed earlier Saturday about what happened when the ship struck rocks in shallow water off Italy’s western coast Friday evening, said officer Emilio Del Santo of the Coastal Authorities of Livorno. Local fishermen say the island coast of Giglio is known for its rocky sea floor.

Schettino said “that rock was not indicated on the chart,” according to ANSA. “Me and the crew, we were the last to abandon ship,” he said.

The ship was 2.5 miles off route when it struck the rocky sandbar.

“There are rocks, they are on the maps,” said Capt. Cosimo Nicastro of the Italian Coast Guard. “What we know is the ship went really close to these rocks. … We don’t yet know why.”

The ship began taking on water Friday evening and the crew kept going because they believed the vessel could normally keep sailing, Nicastro said. Realizing there was a significant safety problem, the commander steered the Costa Concordia closer toward port.

Authorities also were looking at why the ship didn’t hail a mayday during the accident.

“At the moment we can’t exclude that the ship had some kind of technical problem, and for this reason moved towards the coast in order to save the passengers, the crew and the ship. But they didn’t send a mayday. The ship got in contact with us once the evacuation procedures were already ongoing,” Del Santo said prior to the announcement of the captain’s arrest.

Giuseppe Orsina, a spokesman with the local civil protection agency, said 43 to 51 people were missing, though authorities are reviewing passenger lists to confirm the exact figure.

“These people could be still on the island of Giglio, in private houses or in hospitals,” Orsina said.

Two French tourists and a crew member from Peru were killed, Port authorities in Livorno said. One of the victims was a 65-year-old woman who died of a heart attack, according to authorities.

Nautilus International, a maritime employees trade union, called the accident a “wake-up call” to regulators.

“Nautilus is concerned about the rapid recent increases in the size of passenger ships — with the average tonnage doubling over the past decade,” said Nautilus general secretary Mark Dickinson in a statement. “Many ships are now effectively small towns at sea, and the sheer number of people onboard raises serious questions about evacuation.”

Gianni Onorato, president of Genoa-based Costa Cruises, expressed “deep sorrow for this terrible tragedy,” but said the cruise line was unable to answer all the questions that authorities are now investigating.

The vessel, plying the waters from Civitavecchia to Savona, Italy, struck a submerged rock, Onorato said in a statement before the announcement of the captain’s arrest.

“Captain Schettino, who was on the bridge at the time, immediately understood the severity of the situation and performed a maneuver intended to protect both guests and crew, and initiated security procedures to prepare for an eventual ship evacuation,” he continued. “Unfortunately, that operation was complicated by a sudden tilting of the ship that made disembarkation difficult,” Onorato said.

Rosalyn Rincon, a member of the cruise ship staff, said the captain told passengers there was an “electrical problem.”

Concordia was carrying about 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew members when it ran aground.

“I’m not surprised that it (the ship) would wind up tipping like this,” said Neil Gallagher, professor of naval architecture at the Webb Institute on Long Island, New York. “Something had to go wrong with either the controls or the navigation to get it to this condition.”

Chris B. McKesson, adjunct professor of naval architecture at the School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering at the University of New Orleans, said, “from the size of the gash, she must have been steaming at a pretty good pace.”

Fear and panic aboard crippled ship

Panic spread as people scrambled to find lifeboats in the dark as the ship quickly leaned to one side late Friday. Access to some lifeboats was hampered by the ship’s tilt into the water.

With the ship’s staircases flooded, Smith and others made rope ladders to climb from the outer fourth deck to the third. They were eventually rescued more than three hours later by a lifeboat that had returned from dropping passengers ashore.

At least three lifeboats, each with a capacity of more than 100 people, apparently malfunctioned due to technical or crew error, Smith said. “The people manning these boats were just cooks and shopkeepers,” Smith said.

Cmdr. Buddy Reams, chief of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Cruise Ship National Center of Expertise, said, “when it comes to cruise ships, in the event of emergency, cabin stewards or others would have safety roles,” he said.

The Coast Guard inspects foreign-flagged cruise ships in U.S. waters twice a year, studying the competency of the crew during fire and abandon-ship drills, Reams said.

Many passengers asked why they had not yet received an obligatory safety briefing when disaster struck around dinner time, only hours into their journey. The timing of the safety briefings and muster drills depend on the length of the cruise, Reams told CNN.

Many of those rescued in the early hours were taken to small churches and other buildings around the island for shelter. Some were still wearing the pajamas and slippers they had on as the ship went down.

Vivian Shafer, a passenger from Maryland, told CNN there was no initial announcement after the vessel began its tilt. Others reported being unable to clearly hear instructions.

Once ashore, no one from the crew assisted them, Shafer said. Rather, it was up to islanders.

“There didn’t seem to be anybody in charge,” she said.

Costa Cruises, owned by parent company Carnival Corp., said it was focusing on the final stages of the emergency operation and helping passengers and crew return home.

“It is a tragedy that deeply affects our company. Our first thoughts go to the victims and we would like to express our condolences and our closeness to their families and friends,” the line said on its website.

The Concordia, built in 2006, was on a Mediterranean cruise from Rome with stops in Savona, Marseille, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Cagliari and Palermo.

Most of the passengers on board were Italian. CNN affiliate America Noticias, in Peru, said a group of 32 Peruvians were also onboard. Brazil’s state-run Agencia Brasil said 53 Brazilians were on the cruise ship. An estimated 126 Americans were also on board, according to the U.S. State Department. There were no reports of injured Americans though the U.S. Embassy in Rome said it was unable to account for all U.S. citizens believed to be on board the ship at the time of the accident.

Another Costa ship was involved in a deadly 2010 accident when the Costa Europa crashed into a pier in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh during stormy weather, killing three crew members.

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