Social media spreads and splinters Brazil protests

Social media

Caroline Stauffer Reuters

6 hours ago

UESLEI MARCELINO / REUTERS

A demonstrator holds a sign next to street structures set on fire during a protest against the Confederations Cup and President Dilma Rousseff's government, in front of the National Congress in Brasilia June 20, 2013.

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil's biggest protests in decades are a confusing, conflicting mix of people and messages. Blame Facebook.

Social media tools like Facebook and Twitter enabled mass protests of the sort that have not happened in Latin America's biggest country in more than two decades.

As a result of the speed, efficiency and anonymity of online activism, though, an amorphous, unwieldy movement has emerged that is beyond the control of any of those who first began pushing for change.

"Social media has helped us organize without having leaders," said Victor Damaso, 22, demonstrating on Sao Paulo's main Paulista Avenue on Thursday night. "Our ideas, our demands are discussed on Facebook. There are no meetings, no rules."

The demonstrations have been mostly peaceful, but as more than a million Brazilians took to the streets on Thursday, vandals and looters cast a violent pall over some of the protests. Police and security forces have responded with teargas, rubber bullets and pepper spray.

Facebook pages set up for logistical coordination and Twitter hash tags have cropped up for protests in hundreds of cities across Brazil. Rival groups appear to be vying for control of one of the most-viewed organizing pages on Facebook and an associated Twitter feed.

"Any movement risks attracting unaffiliated groups and individuals," said Angela Alonso, a sociologist at the University of Sao Paulo. "It's a price of growth. In this case there is no centralized leadership, administration is more difficult and it is even becoming uncontrollable."

The Free Fare movement, a group of 40 activists who marched for - and got - lower transportation rates, said on Friday it was suspending any further marches for now because of mounting tension and violence.

Sparked by Free Fare's protests, the nationwide call for reform quickly evolved into what is now known online as Anonymous Brazil.

The group appears to use encrypted Web browsers that make it difficult to identify page administrators and has adopted the Guy Fawkes mask, the symbol for the global cyber group of hackers known as Anonymous, as its mascot, although it is not clear if the two have a formal link.

While that opens the door to all sorts of fringe groups, the people at the core of the protests generally share a commitment to better public services. Their rallying cries, found on Twitter and Facebook and on traditional signs at the protests, range from ending political corruption to lambasting more than $12 billion being poured into soccer stadiums and other preparations for the 2014 World Cup.

The demonstrators, mostly educated, middle class and under age 30, want nothing to do with established groups that were behind the causes of their parents' generation.

Online organizing
Unlike Brazil's movement for redemocratization in the 1970s and 1980s and protests for the impeachment of President Fernando Collor de Mello in the early 1990s, today's demonstrations have no clear leadership or political affinity.

"The recent protests are not partisan, and they do not have centralized leadership," said Alonso, the sociologist. "This has to do with new technologies that allow for organization without centralization, and also with the fact that the activists are from a new generation that is no longer guided by ideals like socialism, and doesn't want state power."

Indeed, Brazil's protests do not target any specific leader or political party. That makes them different from the Arab Spring, a series of uprisings against autocratic leaders in the past few years, or even this year's demonstrations in Turkey against the government of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.

While some of the Arab governments blocked access to the Internet to disrupt the planning of protests, Brazil's intelligence agency, Abin, has beefed up efforts to monitor calls for demonstrations online and on popular smart phone chat tool WhatsApp.

President Dilma Rousseff, a leftist guerrilla in the 1970s, has praised the protests as democratic.

Anonymous Brazil's Facebook page, which has nearly 1 million followers, briefly disappeared from the Web on Friday. The group later said via Facebook that its Twitter account had been "robbed" by one of its own members, generating conflicts on its linked Facebook platform.

The group says competing Twitter accounts like @AnonymousBr4sil and #AnonymousFuel are run by "usurpers."

Of the 53.5 million Brazilians online, almost a third of the population, 86 percent use some kind of micro blog or social media tool, according to polling firm Ibope.

(Additional reporting by Silvio Cascione; Editing by Paulo Prada and Mohammad Zargham)

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653377/s/2da7054c/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Ctechnology0Csocial0Emedia0Espreads0Esplinters0Ebrazil0Eprotests0E6C10A4180A84/story01.htm

barbara walters 24 kermit gosnell revenge revenge Chris Hadfield golden state warriors

Super full moon shines brightly this weekend

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? A "supermoon" rises this weekend.

The biggest and brightest full moon of the year graces the sky early Sunday as our celestial neighbor swings closer to Earth than usual.

While the moon will appear 14 percent larger normal, skywatchers won't be able to notice the difference with the naked eye. Still, astronomers say it's worth looking up and appreciating the cosmos.

"It gets people out there looking at the moon, and might make a few more people aware that there's interesting stuff going on in the night sky," Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval Observatory said in an email.

Some viewers may think the supermoon looks more dazzling but it's actually an optical illusion. The moon looms larger on the horizon next to trees and buildings.

The moon will come within 222,000 miles of Earth and turn full around 7:30 a.m. EDT, making it the best time to view.

As in any supermoon event, high tides are forecast because of the moon's proximity, but the effect is expected to be small.

Forget about the myths that swirl every time a supermoon appears. There's no link to higher crime or bizarre behavior. Scientists say that's just lunacy.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/super-full-moon-shines-brightly-weekend-163728260.html

leah remini black and tan dwight howard trade ncaa bracket 2012 kyle orton kyle orton 2012 ncaa bracket

The Engadget Podcast is live at 3:30PM ET!

We're all coming down from the high that was E3 / WWDC week. But while there aren't any huge conferences to speak of, there's no shortage of tech news to talk about this week. Join Tim, Brian and Peter after the break, for the latest installment of the Engadget Podcast.

Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/20/podcast/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

ny jets the situation tim tebow jets katy perry part of me video photoshop cs6 beta cate blanchett nfl news

Google: We're not handing over data to NSA 'willy-nilly'

Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg

David Drummond, senior vice president of corporate development and chief legal officer with Google Inc., went on the PR trail Wednesday, answering questions in a live Q&A about the company's data privacy policies.

Staff Portland Business Journal

Google?s top privacy executive ditched the legal script Wednesday, launching a spirited defense of his company?s relationship with the National Security Agency, writing, ?We?re not in cahoots with the NSA.?

As the Silicon Valley Business Journal reports, David Drummond's plainspoken approach was a big shift from Google?s legalese in the days after journalists revealed details about the NSA?s top-secret Prism program.

Google CEO Larry Page issued a carefully crafted statement the day after news of the story broke, writing, ?We have not joined any program that would give the U.S. government... direct access to our servers.?

Source: http://feeds.bizjournals.com/~r/vertical_47/~3/GBGscQEKxf8/google-were-not-handing-over-data-to.html

south by southwest i want to know what love is courtney mercury retrograde bath salts heart shaped box lucid

In California, Obama and Xi seek to build new ties

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (AP) ? Seeking a fresh start to a complex relationship, President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping are retreating to a sprawling desert estate for two days of talks on high-stakes issues, including cybersecurity and North Korea's nuclear threats.

Obama's efforts to press Xi to halt China's alleged hacking against the U.S. could be overshadowed by revelations that Obama's own administration has been secretly seizing phone records from millions of Americans.

There are significant differences between China's reported cyberattacks against U.S. interests and the Obama administration's court-approved domestic surveillance program. But both underscore the vast technological ? and in some cases, legal ? powers that governments have to access information covertly from individuals, companies and other governments.

The setting for the talks that begin Friday is the 200-acre Sunnylands estate just outside Palm Springs, Calif., marking a departure from the formality that typically greets Chinese leaders during state visits at the White House. U.S. officials hope the relaxed atmosphere will facilitate a more candid and free-flowing discussion between the leaders of the world's two largest economies.

Obama was due to arrive Friday afternoon following a health-care event and a Democratic fundraiser in Northern California. He and Xi will hold a bilateral meeting Friday evening, then take questions from reporters. They'll also have discussions during a working dinner Friday night and hold additional talks Saturday morning.

The media availability with reporters will likely mark Obama's first public comments on the revelation that the National Security Agency, under the cover of a top-secret court order, is accessing the telephone records of millions of U.S. customers of Verizon.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Thursday that the NSA phone record program is a "critical tool" in keeping Americans safe.

"The top priority of the president of the United States is the national security of the United States and protecting this homeland," Earnest said. "And we need to make sure that we have the tools we need to confront the threat posed by terrorists, to disrupt plots that may exist and to otherwise protect the homeland."

The debate over U.S. government-sanctioned surveillance will be juxtaposed with Obama's warnings to Xi against Chinese spying on the American government and businesses.

China has publicly denied that it is using computer network technology to spy on the U.S. But Obama administration officials say they've seen some signals in private meetings with Chinese counterparts that Beijing may be ready to address the issue.

The economy is also expected to be a major topic during the talks, with Xi likely to press China's claims of business discrimination in U.S. markets. The leaders are also certain to discuss North Korea's provocative nuclear threats.

Obama and Xi first met before the Chinese leader took office in March. They weren't slated to meet again until September, on the margins of an international economic summit in Russia, but both countries saw a need to move up their first meeting of the year, given the myriad issues that define their relationship.

The China summit kicks off a heavy foreign policy-focused stretch for Obama that includes trips to Europe and Africa later this month. It also comes as the White House grapples not only with the NSA disclosure, but also controversies over the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative political groups, the Justice Department's seizure of phone records from Associated Press journalists, and the resurgent investigation into the attack on Americans in Benghazi, Libya.

___

Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/california-obama-xi-seek-build-ties-074541658.html

new york jets etch a sketch romney sean payton saints bounty program toulouse france ny jets ny jets

24 hours later, search continues in Philly

By Dave Warner

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Nearly 24 hours after a building under demolition collapsed on shoppers and staff at a neighboring thrift store, killing six people and injuring 14 others, rescue crews searched through the rubble for survivors.

About 75 percent of the site in downtown Philadelphia had been scoured by early Thursday morning as part of an around-the-clock search for life amid the mountain of crumbled concrete and splintered wood, Mayor Michael Nutter said at a news conference on Thursday.

Late on Wednesday, 12 hours after the 10:45 a.m. EDT collapse, a 61-year-old woman was pulled from the debris and rushed to the hospital in critical condition. Earlier in the day, six people were found dead and 13 others were rescued with minor injuries.

At the news conference on Thursday, Fire Commissioner Floyd Ayer said his team "stayed the course" and would do so until the entire site was searched.

"All of the despair with the people who were deceased, that person being pulled out alive is what every rescue is all about," Ayer said.

Investigators were trying to determine what caused the four-story building that was being demolished to collapse onto a neighboring Salvation Army Thrift Store, burying shoppers in the debris. On the scene investigating were Philadelphia police, Philadelphia Licenses and Inspection and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The mayor suggested at a late-night news conference on Wednesday that the number of casualties could rise.

"We still do not know how many people were inside the thrift store or possibly on the sidewalk" at the time of the collapse, Nutter said. "If someone else is in that building, they will find them."

Authorities declined to identify the dead other than to say that they included one man and five women who had all been inside the store when the building next door came down.

Most of the injured were also thought to have been inside the store or on the sidewalk in front of it at the time. Aside from the last woman rescued, most were said to be in stable condition or have already been released from the hospital.

Witnesses to the sudden collapse, which occurred at 22nd and Market streets in the heart of Philadelphia's busy Center City district, said it shook the ground and knocked people on the nearby sidewalk off their feet.

One witness, Dan Gillis, 31, a construction worker from New Jersey who was on a job across the street, said he saw a crane remove a supporting beam from the front of the building and then the wall next to the thrift store began to sway.

Jeffrey Fehnel, 48, of Philadelphia, said a backhoe hit the rear side of the building at about the same time. "The building came down. It was like a big blast," he told Reuters.

Authorities said the building that was being demolished had housed an X-rated book and video store.

(Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Maureen Bavdek)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/death-toll-philadelphia-building-collapse-rises-six-mayor-033918247.html

st louis university mario manningham mario manningham williams syndrome hoya casa de mi padre corned beef and cabbage

MRI study: Breastfeeding boosts babies' brain growth

June 6, 2013 ? A study using brain images from "quiet" MRI machines adds to the growing body of evidence that breastfeeding improves brain development in infants. Breastfeeding alone produced better brain development than a combination of breastfeeding and formula, which produced better development than formula alone.

A new study by researchers from Brown University finds more evidence that breastfeeding is good for babies' brains.

The study made use of specialized, baby-friendly magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to look at the brain growth in a sample of children under the age of 4. The research found that by age 2, babies who had been breastfed exclusively for at least three months had enhanced development in key parts of the brain compared to children who were fed formula exclusively or who were fed a combination of formula and breastmilk. The extra growth was most pronounced in parts of the brain associated with language, emotional function, and cognition, the research showed.

This isn't the first study to suggest that breastfeeding aids babies' brain development. Behavioral studies have previously associated breastfeeding with better cognitive outcomes in older adolescents and adults. But this is the first imaging study that looked for differences associated with breastfeeding in the brains of very young and healthy children, said Sean Deoni, assistant professor of engineering at Brown and the study's lead author.

"We wanted to see how early these changes in brain development actually occur," Deoni said. "We show that they're there almost right off the bat."

The findings are in press in the journal NeuroImage and available now online.

Deoni leads Brown's Advanced Baby Imaging Lab. He and his colleagues use quiet MRI machines that image babies' brains as they sleep. The MRI technique Deoni has developed looks at the microstructure of the brain's white matter, the tissue that contains long nerve fibers and helps different parts of the brain communicate with each other. Specifically, the technique looks for amounts of myelin, the fatty material that insulates nerve fibers and speeds electrical signals as they zip around the brain.

Deoni and his team looked at 133 babies ranging in ages from 10 months to four years. All of the babies had normal gestation times, and all came from families with similar socioeconomic statuses. The researchers split the babies into three groups: those whose mothers reported they exclusively breastfed for at least three months, those fed a combination of breastmilk and formula, and those fed formula alone. The researchers compared the older kids to the younger kids to establish growth trajectories in white matter for each group.

The study showed that the exclusively breastfed group had the fastest growth in myelinated white matter of the three groups, with the increase in white matter volume becoming substantial by age 2. The group fed both breastmilk and formula had more growth than the exclusively formula-fed group, but less than the breastmilk-only group.

"We're finding the difference [in white matter growth] is on the order of 20 to 30 percent, comparing the breastfed and the non-breastfed kids," said Deoni. "I think it's astounding that you could have that much difference so early."

Deoni and his team then backed up their imaging data with a set of basic cognitive tests on the older children. Those tests found increased language performance, visual reception, and motor control performance in the breastfed group.

The study also looked at the effects of the duration of breastfeeding. The researchers compared babies who were breastfed for more than a year with those breastfed less than a year, and found significantly enhanced brain growth in the babies who were breastfed longer -- especially in areas of the brain dealing with motor function.

Deoni says the findings add to a substantial body of research that finds positive associations between breastfeeding and children's brain health.

"I think I would argue that combined with all the other evidence, it seems like breastfeeding is absolutely beneficial," he said.

Other authors on the study were Douglas Dean, Irene Piryatinsky, Jonathan O'Muircheartaigh, Lindsay Walker, Nicole Waskiewicz, Katie Lehman, Michelle Han and Holly Dirks, who all work with Deoni in the Baby Imaging Lab. The work was funded by the National Institutes of Mental Health.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/lME9x2o8erw/130606141048.htm

free agents nfl 2012 milwaukee bucks bear grylls us news law school rankings gael glen rice jr bars