Have you updated your Yahoo Fantasy Sports Football app yet? No? Then you better get your ass on over to the App Store. Because as Yahoo so kindly reminded us, Y3K is just around the (thousand-year-long) corner, and it's never too early to start preparing for the end.
Source: http://gizmodo.com/your-yahoo-fantasy-sports-app-is-ready-for-the-y3k-apoc-1446390704WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration's internal projections called for strong enrollment in the states in the first year of new health insurance markets, according to unpublished estimates obtained by The Associated Press. Whether those expectations will bear out is unclear.
Technology glitches have frustrated many consumers trying to sign up for coverage online, and efforts to upgrade and repair healthcare.gov are ongoing.
But the estimates, obtained through a public records request, may be the closest thing to a yardstick for measuring the performance of President Barack Obama's health care law across the states.
The enrollment breakdown by states was included in a draft of an administration report on insurance premiums in the new markets, but it was omitted from a subsequent version that was released to the public last month by the Department of Health and Human Services.
Leading up to the opening of insurance markets Oct. 1, the White House generally deflected questions about its own expectations of how consumers would respond. Officials instead cited a congressional estimate that 7 million people would gain coverage in the first year through the markets, which offer subsidized private insurance to people who don't have a job-based health plan.
The draft, dated Sept. 20, broke down the figure of 7 million among states. It estimated the expected enrollment in California, for example, at 1. 3 million people in 2014. The estimate for Texas was 629,000 and for Florida, 477,000. The report estimated 340,000 people would enroll in Washington state, and 218,000 in New York.
The final report, released Sept. 25, omitted the enrollment estimates, but it was identical in most other respects.
Asked why the estimates were missing from the final report, HHS spokeswoman Joanne Peters said in a statement: "We are focused on reaching as many people as possible about their options. There are many estimates of how many people will enroll in year one." Some states have released their own estimates, she added, and other states are changing theirs based on experience.
The omission puzzled some experts in the field.
"Why there is this reluctance to share internal estimates, I don't know," said health economist Gail Wilensky, who ran Medicare for President George H.W. Bush. "This kind of information has a way of worming its way out into the open, which makes it look like they have something to hide."
While consumer interest in the new health insurance markets has been undeniably strong, it's hard to get a sense of how many people have been able to navigate balky federal and state websites and successfully enroll. Numbers released by states running their own marketplaces suggest upward of 100,000 people have enrolled so far, out of millions of potential interested customers.
The administration refuses to release numbers for the 36 states in which it is taking the lead. Officials at first said the frozen computer screens and other issues were the result of a high volume of interest. They later acknowledged software and design issues were also to blame.
HHS belatedly rolled out a feature that allows consumers to get a look at health plans in their area without first establishing an account. The requirement that people set up an account before shopping was at odds with the normal way e-commerce websites are run, and was blamed for overloading the system.
Appearing earlier this week on MSNBC, former White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the situation is "excruciatingly embarrassing" for the administration.
"This was bungled badly," said Gibbs, adding: "When they get it fixed, I hope they fire some people that were in charge of making sure this thing was supposed to work."
Although Gibbs did not refer to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, White House spokesman Jay Carney said Tuesday she has "the full confidence of the president."
The potential political fallout from the troubled launch of the insurance markets isn't the major issue, however. There are bigger concerns for the impact on average Americans and, if signups remain anemic, on federal taxpayers.
The more uninsured people who buy coverage, the sooner they'll have access to services — well-patient checkups and prescription drugs among them — to help them improve their health and avoid a crisis that could be far costlier than preventive medicine. Their children will have access to services, too.
Just as important, robust enrollment by younger, healthier people is critical because older people and people with illnesses, who are more expensive to insure, are highly motivated to sign up. Insurers will be relying on revenue from policies they sell to younger people who need fewer services to help make up the difference.
An insurance pool tilted toward older, sicker people also would raise costs for the government, which will be subsidizing the coverage.
The AP obtained a copy of the federal enrollment estimates in a public records request with Idaho's health insurance marketplace, Your Health Idaho.
Uninsured people have until Dec. 15 to sign up for coverage to take effect Jan. 1, when most Americans will be required to have health insurance.
___
Miller reported from Boise, Idaho.
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Online: www.healthcare.gov
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-10-15-Health%20Overhaul-Great%20Expectations/id-a6f0f71b86b84e0a9bde7f5182dec410JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African stocks rose for a fifth straight trading session on Wednesday as better-than-expected retail sales numbers gave a boost to chain stores such as Shoprite and Woolworths Holdings.
Sentiment was also buoyed by expectations U.S. politicians would strike a last-minute deal to prevent the world's largest economy from defaulting on its debt.
Retail sales in Africa's largest economy grew at 3 percent in August, well above the 1.2 percent growth economists had expected and alleviating some recent fears about the state of consumer spending.
"To add to the positive sentiment, we had retail sales surprising to the upside, so I suppose that's adding a bit more excitement," said Martin Lentsoane, managing director of brokerage Lehumo Capital in Johannesburg.
The benchmark Top-40 index rose 0.21 percent to 39,674.70.
The broader All-Share index added 0.27 percent to 44,418.01.
Shares of Shoprite, Africa's largest retailer, gained 2 percent to 175 rand.
Woolworths, which sells clothing, organic produce and other high-end food, rose 0.6 percent to 75.52 rand. Rival Massmart also added 0.6 percent, to 162.99 rand.
Separately, an executive at Kenyan retailer Naivas told Reuters on Wednesday the company was no longer in talks to sell a controlling stake to Massmart.
The chairman of unlisted Naivas had said in August the company was in discussions to sell a stake to Massmart, which has said it is looking to expand into east Africa's largest economy.
Banks were also higher as investors shrugged off news of losses this year related to card hacking.
Major banks, including Standard Bank and Barclays Africa Group, have been swindled of millions of dollars this year by an international fraud syndicate that stole card details from restaurant chains, an industry group said.
Standard Bank, Africa's largest lender, rose 2.5 percent to 127.50 rand.
Barclays Africa added 2.1 percent to 157.49 rand.
Trade was active with 170 million shares changing hands on the bourse, according to preliminary data. A total of 177 shares advanced while 122 declined.
Which F1 driver was the best performer during the Japanese Grand Prix weekend?
Review how each driver got on below and vote for who impressed you the most during the last race weekend.
Mark Webber – Webber hasn’t always been close enough to Vettel this year to take advantage when his team mate has a problem but he was at Suzuka and pushed his team mate hard for the victory. Said he was “surprised” to be switched to a three-stop strategy[1] but was able to use his superior speed in the final stint to pass Grosjean. Had he done so more quickly he could have gone after his team mate.
Fernando Alonso – Held his hands up after being beaten by Massa in qualifying and admitted he hadn’t been quick enough[2]. His race pace was better but he spent the first stint stuck behind Massa. He took advantage of traffic in the second stint to get past Massa, then later demoted Hulkenberg when the Sauber driver’s tyres began to drop off. That gave him fourth place, and he felt no more was possible under the circumstances[3].
Felipe Massa – Would Massa “drive for himself”, as he told Brazilian media after being dropped by Ferrari, or would he “definitely help” his team mate[4] as Luca di Montezemolo insisted? That was answered in the first stint when Massa repeatedly ignored Ferrari’s instructions to let Alonso through, delivered through the radio code “Multifunction strategy A”. Hulkenberg took advantage of the situation to jump both Ferraris, then Alonso finally found a way past his team mate, after which Massa picked up a penalty for speeding in the pits and fell to tenth.
Jenson Button – Set the same time to within a tenth of a second on three separate occasions in qualifying and felt he’d wrung all there was from the MP4-28. Driving to the grid he chose to reduce the front wing angle on the car but quickly regretted the decision, suffering understeer which wasn’t cured until the last stint. Held off Massa for ninth.
Sergio Perez – Crashed at Spoon during second practice, which he said was his mistake as he’d touched the artificial grass on entry to the corner. Narrowly missed Q3 but started well, only to lose time when Rosberg came out of the pits immediately in front of him. Like Button he had a slow pit stop as well. His left-rear tyre was punctured in slight contact with Rosberg, which killed his chances of scoring points.
Romain Grosjean – Surely his best F1 performance to date with a solid qualifying effort followed by an outrageous start from which he emerged as an unlikely threat to Red Bull. Led comfortably for almost half of the race and did well to hold off Webber as long as he did before taking another podium finish.
Nico Rosberg – An unsafe release from the pits dropped him back into the pack where he ended up scrapping with Perez. Like his team mate in Korea he spent the latter part of the race stuck behind a Sauber, Gutierrez limiting him to eighth.
Lewis Hamilton – The merest touch of his right-rear tyre against Vettel’s front wing was enough to give him a puncture as he dived between the Red Bulls off the line. From looking likely to take second at the start he was soon out of the race.
Esteban Gutierrez – Points looked unlikely when he lined up 14th on the grid but a superb start, gaining five places, brought him into contention. Gave away a position to Raikkonen though it was one he was always going to struggle to keep.
Paul di Resta – Ended his strong of retirements and took 11th, unable to resist Button in the latter part of the race. Still he was happy with the improved balance of the Force India.
Adrian Sutil – A crash in final practice forced him to change his gearbox, and after failing to escape Q1 he started last. Up to 16th by lap one, he gained two more places by the end of the race despite being passed by both Toro Rossos in one lap later on.
Pastor Maldonado – Went off twice in practice, but the first spin in Q1 was due to a wheel which hadn’t been attached properly and fell off[5]. The stand-out moment of Maldonado’s race was his desperate lunge down the inside of Bottas on his final lap, signalling his eagerness not to finish behind his team mate.
Valtteri Bottas – Impressively out-qualified Maldonado on his first race at a real drivers’ circuit. But his tyres went off badly in the final stint, losing four places in the last three laps.
Daniel Ricciardo – Tried to make an alternative strategy work, starting on the hard tyres. But he became the latest driver to be penalised for completing a pass by going off the track on the outside of the corner, which he was deeply unimpressed with[7]. His drive-through penalty confined him to 13th place.
Charles Pic – Already carrying a ten-place penalty into the race weekend, Pic committed much the same infraction he had in Korea – passing a red light without stopping – and earned an unprecedented drive-through penalty which was declared before the race had begun[8]. Despite that he was quick enough to beat the sole surviving Marussia home.
Giedo van der Garde – Collided with Bianchi at the start, putting both out. “I was squeezed between both the Marussia cars and had nowhere to go,” he said. “I lost my front wing in contact with Bianchi and then the car went straight off and into the wall.”
Jules Bianchi – Hit the barrier at Degner 2 in first practice when his arm got caught against the side of the cockpit. Unfortunately that ruled him out of second practice as well[9]. Beaten in a straight fight by his team mate in qualifying for the first time, he was taken out on lap one of the race. “As I turned into the first corner on the opening lap, van der Garde hit my rear wing which pushed me off track and into the gravel.” A wasted weekend in which he completed just 32 laps, most of which in Saturday’s hour of practice.
Max Chilton – Out-qualified Bianchi on merit for the first time the year. But despite Pic having a drive-through penalty he was caught and passed by the Marussia seven laps from home after his tyres began to go off.
Which driver do you think did the best job this weekend?
Cast your vote below and explain your choice in the comments.
Who was the best driver of the 2013 Japanese Grand Prix weekend?
Total Voters: 552
An F1 Fanatic account is required in order to vote. If you do not have one, register an account here[10] or read more about registering here[11].
Images © Red Bull/Getty, Lotus/LAT, Sauber
LONDON (AP) — Official figures show Britain's unemployment rate dropped slightly to 7.7 percent for the three-month period to August, further evidence that Europe's third-largest economy continues to strengthen.
The Office of National Statistics said Wednesday that the number of those out of work dropped 0.1 percentage points from the three-month period through May. In total, there were 2.49 million unemployed people aged 16 and over, down 18,000 from the previous period.
The unemployment rate is now a key economic indicator for the Bank of England — under its new governor, Mark Carney, the bank has said it won't consider raising interest rates until the jobless rate drops to 7 percent.
The bank's main interest rate has been at a record low of 0.5 percent since March 2009. Policymakers have also refrained from adding more stimulus, after having pumped 375 billion pounds ($600 billion) into the economy through a bond-buying program.
Chris Williamson, the chief economist of Markit.com, says Wednesday's figures add to evidence that a hike in interest rates could come before 2016, when most analysts suggest the rate would be at Carney's target.
"The worry is that any hike in interest rates before real incomes start to revive would set the economic recovery back significantly, as rising demand for staff is still not feeding through to higher wages," Williamson said.
He noted that pay growth continues to run well below inflation — which stands at 2.7 percent, "meaning incomes continue to fall in real terms, as they have done continually since late-2009."
A new system could make space exploration robots faster and more efficient by predicting where they will be in the very near future.
The engineers behind the program hope to overcome a particular snarl affecting our probes out in the solar system: that pesky delay caused by the speed of light. Any commands sent to a robot on a distant body take a certain amount of time to travel and won’t be executed for a while. By building a model of the terrain surrounding a rover and providing an interface that lets operators forecast the how the probe will move around within it, engineer can identify potential obstacles and make decisions nearer to real-time.
“You’re reacting quickly, and the rover is staying active more of the time,” said computer scientist Jeff Norris, who leads mission operation innovations at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Ops Lab.
As an example, the distance between Earth and Mars creates round-trip lags of up to 40 minutes. Nowadays, engineers send a long string of commands once a day to robots like NASA’s Curiosity rover. These get executed but then the rover has to stop and wait until the next instructions are beamed down.
Because space exploration robots are multi-million or even multi-billion-dollar machines, they have to work very carefully. One day’s commands might tell Curiosity to drive up to a rock. It will then check that it has gotten close enough. Then, the following day, if will be instructed to place its arm on that rock. Later on, it might be directed to drill into or probe this rock with its instruments. While safe, this method is very inefficient.
“When we only send commands once a day, we’re not dealing with 10- or 20-minute delays. We’re dealing with a 24-hour round trip,” said Norris.
Norris’ lab wants to make the speed and productivity of distant probes better. Their interface simulates more or less where a robot would be given a particular time delay. This is represented by a small ghostly machine — called the “committed state” — moving just ahead of a rover. The ghosted robot is the software’s best guess of where the probe would end up if operators hit the emergency stop button right then.
By looking slightly into the future, the interface allows a rover driver to update decisions and commands at a much faster rate than is currently possible. Say a robot on Mars is commanded to drive forward 100 meters. But halfway there, its sensors notice an interesting rock that scientists want to investigate. Rather than waiting for the rover to finish its drive and then commanding it to go back, this new interface would give operators the ability to write and rewrite their directions on the fly.
The simulation can’t know every detail around a probe and so provides a small predictive envelope as to where the robot might be. Different terrains have different uncertainties.
“If you’re on loose sand, that might be different than hard rock,” said software engineer Alexander Menzies, who works on the interface.
Menzies added that when they tested the interface, users had an “almost game-like experience” trying to optimize commands for a robot. He designed an actual video game where participants were given points for commanding a time-delayed robot through a slalom-like terrain. (Norris lamented that he had the highest score on that game until the last day of testing, when Menzies beat him.)
The team thinks that aspects of this new interface could start to be used in the near future, perhaps even with the current Mars rovers Curiosity and Opportunity. At this point, though, Mars operations are limited by bandwidth. Because there are only a few communicating satellites in orbit on the Red Planet, commands can only be sent a few times a day, reducing a lot of the efficiency that would be gained from this new system. But operations on the moon or a potential asteroid capture and exploration mission – such as the one NASA is currently planning – would likely be in more constant communication with Earth, providing even faster and more efficient operations that could take advantage of this new time-delay-reducing system.
Video: OPSLabJPL/Youtube
Sony Mobile Communications Brings Its
Premium Waterproof Smartphones, Xperia® Z
Ultra and Xperia® Z1 to the U.S.
Sony Mobile Communications introduces the Xperia Z Ultra and
Xperia Z1 to the U.S., bringing Sony's world-class technologies
to the smartphone like never before. The Xperia Z Ultra and
Xperia Z1 are now available as unlocked devices in the U.S.
market.
Xperia Z Ultra
The Xperia Z Ultra is waterproof, ultra-slim with a lightweight
design so you can enjoy it anytime, anywhere. The Xperia Z
Ultra integrates the latest Sony BRAVIA technologies, a 6.4"
Full HD TRILUMINOS Display for mobile with X-Reality for
mobile, made for thrilling entertainment. It's an ideal business
partner thanks to the super responsive screen with handwriting
recognition which is compatible with a pencil, selected stylus or
pen.
Xperia Z1
Xperia Z1 combines Sony's acclaimed OmniBalance design
that's sleek, waterproof, and dust resistant It delivers the a
similar level of quality and performance as a conventional
compact digital camera. Xperia Z1 captures beautiful, sharp
and bright images even in lowlight conditions. Its high shutter
speeds and 3x clear image zoom prevents shots from being
blurred while enabling them to be captured at distance.
Taking the conventional camera experience to a whole new
level, Xperia Z1 includes an innovative set of camera
applications that deliver new experiences. Xperia Camera
Applications at launch include live social broadcasting,
innovative visual search functions, camera timeshift burst
functionalities and Augmented Reality technology.
Xperia Z Ultra product information
Pricing & availability:
The Xperia Z Ultra is available now at select Sony stores,
store.sony.com and select e-tailers.
MSRP $649.99 (HSPA+, model C6802), $679.99 (LTE,
model C6806) in black, white or purple
Network compatibility:
The Xperia Z Ultra (C6802) supports the following network
bands:
UMTS HSPA+ 900 (Band VIII) 2100 (Band I) MHz, 850
(Band V), 1900 (Band II), 1700 (Band IV)
GSM GPRS/EDGE 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz
The Xperia Z Ultra LTE (C8606) supports the following network
bands:
UMTS HSPA+ 900 (Band VIII) 2100 (Band I) MHz, 850
(Band V), 1900 (Band II), 1700 (Band IV)
GSM GPRS/EDGE 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz
LTE Bands 1,2,4,5,7,8,17
Product Resources:
Xperia Z Ultra product page & demo video
Features and Specs:
6.4" Full HD TRILUMINOS™ Display for mobile powered
by X-Reality for mobile engine for the ultimate viewing
experience
Ultra slim, waterproof and dust resistant (IP55/IP58)
design
Write and sketch with a pencil and selected stylus or pen
8 megapixel camera with Exmor RS for mobile sensor
and HDR for videos and photos
Full accessory ecosystem for premium entertainment and
connectivity
7.06 x 3.62 x 0.25 in.
Available in black, white or purple
Xperia Z1 product information
Pricing & availability:
The Xperia Z1 is available now at select Sony stores,
store.sony.com and select e-tailers.
MSRP $669.99 (HSPA+) in black, white or purple
Network compatibility:
Xperia Z1 is supports the following network bands.
UMTS HSPA+ 850 (Band V), 900 (Band VIII), 1700 (Band
IV), 1900 (Band II), 2100 (Band I) MHz
GSM GPRS/EDGE 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz
Product Resources:
Xperia Z1 product page
Features and Specs:
5.0" Full HD TRILUMINOS™ Display for mobile powered
by X-Reality for mobile engine for the ultimate viewing
experience
Sleek, waterproof and dust resistant (IP55/IP58) design
20.7 megapixel camera with Exmor RS for mobile sensor
and HDR for videos and photos
Full accessory ecosystem for premium entertainment and
connectivity
5.68 x 2.90 x 0.33 in.
Available in black, white or purple
