You might say the week is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workweek, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Weekly Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past seven days -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/Ejf8kAv9xRM/
nbc news msnbc reddit abc news Boston Police Scanner Jeff Bauman cbs news
While you are hanging out on the Internet (in your underwear, maybe?) on a Saturday, kids that are smarter than either you or I are out there getting ready to change the world. 18-year-old Eesha Khare (left), for instance, not only invented a supercapacitor that could someday be a phone battery that charges in just a couple of seconds; she also won $50,000 for it.
Khare is one of the three big winners from the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. She and 17-year-old Henry Lin (right)?who created a model that simulates thousands of galaxies?picked up Intel Foundation Young Scientist Awards. Meanwhile, 19-year-old Ionut Budisteanu won the Gordon E. Moore Award and $75,000 for his AI model that could lead to a cheaper self-driving car. Khare's invention is the one with some really immediate potential though, and quick-charging phones is something we all want.
So far, the supercapcitor has only been tested to light up a LED, but it was able to do that wonderfully and the prototypes new format holds potential to be scaled. It's also flexible and tiny, and should be able to handle 10,000 recharge cycles, more than normal batteries by a factor of 10.
It's a great step in the right direction, especially since we all know that battery life is the most important feature a phone can have
Source: http://gizmodo.com/this-18-year-olds-invention-could-make-your-future-pho-508532491
London 2012 Slalom Canoe Alex Morgan Misty May Treanor Lolo Jones Marvin Hamlisch Megan Rossee grenada
Fussy about boot times, carry-weight or weak battery life? Then you probably gave Lenovo's IdeaPad U310 a wide berth. The thing is, aside from those flaws, it was otherwise a very solid Ultrabook for those whose wallets couldn't stretch to a premium model. We want to know, did you buy one? If so, what did you think of it, and let's imagine you were dreaming up a budget Ultrabook -- what would you change?
social darwinism wisconsin recall election april 4 santa monica college wisconsin primary dallas fort worth airport texas tornados
KAIROUAN, Tunisia (AP) ? Around 11,000 police officers and soldiers blocked an annual conference Sunday at Tunisia's main religious center by a radical Islamist movement that has been implicated in attacks across the country.
Security checkpoints were in place and patrols conducted throughout Kairouan after authorities declared the conference by ultraconservative Muslim group Ansar al-Shariah a threat "to security and public order."
Police briefly scuffled with stone-throwing young men and fired tear gas to disperse them.
The leader of Ansar al-Shariah, Seifallah Ben Hassine is wanted for his involvement in a mob attack on the U.S. Embassy in September and his followers have been accused of attacking art galleries, police stations and cinemas.
The robust response to the conference by security forces is unprecedented since the 2011 overthrow of President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, who presided over a strong police state.
The government, led by the moderate Islamist Ennahda Party, has long been accused by the opposition of being lax with attacks by ultraconservative Muslims, called salafis, on what they deem to be impious in the country.
Ansar al-Shariah's combative rhetoric, however, appears to have united the country against it. In a national dialogue conference involving unions, civil society and political parties Thursday, Ansar al-Shariah was widely condemned. The discovery of al-Qaida-linked militants in mountains along the Algerian border also alarmed people.
Alaya Allami, an expert on Islamic movements in Tunisia, said Ansar al-Shariah's more aggressive stance had resulted in a backlash in society and isolated them further.
"The operation against terrorist groups in Jebel Chambi and the approach of elections has threatened these radical currents and caused them to try to impose themselves more on the social scene," he said.
The spokesman of Ansar al-Shariah, Seifeddine Rais, was detained by authorities Sunday morning and an attempt by hundreds of salafis to hold a rally in a lower income Tunisian suburb was also dispersed by tear gas.
Rais on Thursday said authorities would bear responsibility for any blood spilled if they tried to ban the conference.
Security has been high around Kairouan since Saturday, with police checking IDs and searching the cars of anyone entering the city.
Residents appeared to welcome the security and handed out roses to patrolling police, offering their encouragement.
Since the overthrow of Ben Ali in an uprising that heralded the region-wide Arab Spring, Tunisia's salafis have become increasingly aggressive about preaching their conservative version of Islam.
Last year's Ansar al-Shariah conference in Kairouan drew about 4,000 attendees and featured sword-waving horse riders and martial arts displays, along with a great deal of fiery rhetoric.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tunisia-security-blocks-salafi-conference-123040029.html
rupaul drag race walking dead comic kratom broncos broncos lehigh walking dead season finale
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? A Los Angeles sheriff's spokesman says 'Terminator 2' star Edward Furlong has been arrested on suspicion of violating a restraining order filed by his ex-girlfriend.
Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said that deputies responding to the scene Thursday in West Hollywood found Furlong hiding in a nearby property.
Jail records show he was released Saturday just after noon after being held on $100,000 bail.
In March, the 35-year-old actor had been sentenced to six months in jail for violating his probation in a 2010 case for violating a similar restraining order.
He has been the subject of such orders taken out by both his ex-wife and ex-girlfriend.
The actor was also charged in January of battery of an ex-girlfriend.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/edward-furlong-arrested-west-hollywood-011851520.html
lotto numbers megamillions winners university of louisville louisville ky lotto winners mega ball winning numbers baltimore county
By Karen Brooks
AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - The Powerball jackpot Saturday night could exceed the $600 million figure being advertised, possibly rivaling the largest lottery payoff in U.S. history, a Texas Lottery official said on Saturday.
"Oftentimes, the advertised amount is lower than what the actual jackpot ends up being," said Kelly Cripe, a spokeswoman for the Texas Lottery. "It's entirely possible this $600 million jackpot will end up being a bigger jackpot."
Chances of winning the Powerball on Saturday were one in 175 million, Cripe said, but that did not deter people from buying up tickets at staggering rates. California was selling $1 million in tickets every hour on Saturday, said Donna Cordova, a spokeswoman for the California Lottery, which has only been selling Powerball tickets since April 8.
Texas Lottery officials reported $1.2 million in hourly sales between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. local time, with ticket sales for the Saturday draw topping $18.4 million.
The ticket sale rate on Saturday was nearly double Friday's rate, Cripe said, and a jump of some 686 percent over last Saturday.
The Powerball lottery, which has not had a winner in two months, is offered in 43 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
A Powerball lottery record was set in November with a $587.5 million jackpot that topped the $550 million figure that was advertised, thanks to last-minute sales.
The largest jackpot in U.S. history was the $656 million in the Mega Millions lottery in March 2012. That prize was split between winners in Maryland, Kansas and Illinois.
If Saturday's Powerball drawing yields no winner, all records will be shattered as the jackpot for Wednesday's drawing would go to $925 million.
Many Americans were playing the "if I win" game ahead of Saturday's drawing.
"If I win, I'm going to spend a lot of it on liquor, women and gambling," said Austin lawyer Donald Dickson. "I'll likely squander the rest of it."
In New York City, talent acquisition agent Michelle Amici was more philanthropic.
"Not sure that I'd buy anything," she said. "Rather, I'd attempt to quench my wanderlust by traveling the world. I'd also donate a large portion to education reform."
Lottery players such as Austin marketing professional Becky Arreaga was not discouraged by the long odds.
"As long as the odds are 1 in anything, I'm in," said Arreaga, a partner at Mercury Mambo marketing firm. "I truly believe I could be the one."
"It's only a couple bucks for a small daydream," said Russell Williams, 35, a salesman in Austin, Texas.
Bonnie Carreno of El Paso, Texas, rarely plays but was taking a chance on this one. "I only ever buy a ticket when I see the amazing numbers in the headlines," she said.
The $2 tickets allow players pick five numbers from 1 to 59, and a Powerball number from 1 to 35. The numbers will be drawn Saturday at 10:59 p.m. EDT (0259 GMT on Sunday) in Tallahassee, Florida.
(Reporting by Karen Brooks; Editing by Greg McCune, Doina Chiacu and Bill Trott)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/powerball-jackpot-could-higher-600-million-161816661.html
pro bowl victoria azarenka Royal Rumble 2013 senior bowl norovirus Eclampsia Kendrick Lamar
By Tom Bergin
LONDON (Reuters) - Internet retailer Amazon.com Inc. will be called back to the British parliament to clarify how its activities in the UK justify its low corporate income tax bill, two lawmakers told Reuters.
Amazon will follow search giant Google, which attended another grilling by parliament's Public Affairs Committee (PAC) over its tax affairs on Thursday. A Reuters report earlier this month raised questions over Google's earlier assertions that its UK-based staff don't sell to customers.
Over the past six years, Amazon has paid around $9 million in income tax on over $23 billion of sales to British clients, because it says it operates a single European business out of Luxembourg, rather than a multinational structure of independent subsidiaries in different countries, and should therefore pay tax in Luxembourg.
However, Reuters has uncovered evidence from the company's own statements, job advertisements, statements from three suppliers and five former employees, as well as the profiles of over 140 staff on networking website LinkedIn, which suggests the UK unit has a high degree of autonomy, with local managers deciding on many aspects of its business.
The information, collected during a three-month investigation, suggests that while Amazon depicts itself as a virtual business, its structure may not be so different from its bricks-and-mortar rivals.
"The basic business model wasn't very different to a mail order company in the 1970s or 80s," said Mark Riley, a Business Development Manager at Amazon.co.uk between 2005 and 2008.
Bryan Roberts, Retail Insights Director for consultants Kantar Retail, said apart from the fact buyers seal deals over the Internet, Amazon's UK unit Amazon.co.uk Ltd, which is based in an office block in Slough, near London, was essentially a UK retailer.
"Amazon.co.uk is a British business in that 99 percent of the people who are responsible for merchandising, buying, the online activity, fulfillment, are based in Slough," said Roberts, an expert who advises many Amazon suppliers.
Amazon declined to answer any questions about its UK business.
On Thursday, the Guardian newspaper reported that it had found "extensive UK activities" for Amazon that suggested the UK tax authority could be tougher on taxing its British operations.
Companies, especially those which sell over the Internet, increasingly designate their British subsidiary as a supplier of support services to an affiliate in a low-tax jurisdiction, through which sales are then booked. Firms including Expedia and Microsoft have used such arrangements to minimize tax bills while also employing people in a wide range of roles in Britain, their accounts, employee profiles on their web pages, job advertisements and the LinkedIn profiles of staff show.
Amazon and Microsoft say they follow tax law in every country where they operate. Expedia declined to comment.
The practice is based on international tax rules which allow companies to conduct "preparatory and auxiliary" activities in a country without creating a taxable presence there.
The UK tax authority, Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC), has never sought to define in court the limits of what an internet company can do in Britain before it is deemed to have a taxable presence. Lawyers and academics say this has allowed a wide grey area to emerge.
In the case of Amazon at least, some tax experts said that in conducting a wide range of activity in the UK, it may be on the wrong side of the hitherto undefined boundary.
Yet Jacques Sasseville, head of the tax treaty unit at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which advises rich nations on tax policy, said he wasn't sure if a boundary exists. He said where sales were conducted online, it was almost impossible to prove a taxable presence in a jurisdiction, irrespective of how much activity is conducted in that country.
Member of Parliament Margaret Hodge said she wanted HMRC to look more closely at the company's affairs, to see if Amazon was paying all the tax it should.
She also said she planned to call Amazon representatives back to testify to the committee which she chairs and clarify written evidence and witness testimony the firm gave in November, in which it downplayed its activities in Britain.
"We need to very urgently call back Amazon to question them around what you've uncovered; to look at that in relation to what they actually told us when they gave evidence to us and of course if they were economical with the truth or not totally honest in their evidence to us last time, that is a very serious thing," she said.
Amazon declined to say whether staff at Amazon.co.uk had management oversight or were responsible for profitability for different retail product lines. Amazon's auditor Ernst and Young declined to comment.
FULFILMENT
Amazon.co.uk is funded by fees from Amazon EU, which are just enough to cover its costs but leave little profit to tax. It employs 4,191 full-time staff and thousands more contract staff via outside firms, compared with 500 Amazon staff in Luxembourg.
Amazon.co.uk's principal activity is "the provision of fulfillment and corporate support services to other group undertakings", according to its 2012 accounts.
Amazon's Brussels-based Director of Public Policy, Andrew Cecil, told the committee in November that the UK unit did not operate as an independent business.
"We are operating a single European company ... All the strategic functions for our business in Europe are based in Luxembourg," he said.
Amazon said in subsequent written testimony to the Public Affairs Committee that the UK's roles included customer support, accountancy, tax, legal, human resources, localization and similar back office services; merchandising and marketing support services; and purchasing assistance.
Amazon supplier Gary Braithwaite, who helps manage the Amazon relationship at Elland, North of England-based organic and vegan food distributor Suma Wholefoods, said his cooperative has had no dealings at all with Amazon in Luxembourg, but works with its UK staff.
"We actually deal directly with them. Every so often we go down to visit them in Slough. They're really nice people," he said.
The employment section of Amazon's own corporate website says: "Our Slough teams manage all corporate functions, including vendor management, marketing, software development and legal."
In late March, the careers section of the website advertised dozens of Slough-based jobs in these categories.
A "Senior Vendor Manager - Beauty" with Amazon.co.uk was expected to "Seek out, engage, motivate and build new and existing supplier partnerships," while prospective candidates for Senior Vendor Manager - Mobile Communications were told the job would require them to "Manage existing supplier relationships maximizing sales, market segment share and profitability."
Some former staff said UK-based managers had responsibility for the profitability of product categories. This started with negotiating the best deals with suppliers.
Matt Henderson, who worked in a variety of managerial roles at Amazon from 2004 to 2011, said that little, if any, purchasing occurred on an international level because even international suppliers preferred to deal with Amazon on a national basis, partly to moderate the company's ability to squeeze discounts from them.
Some UK-based managers also had to decide on product pricing, constantly seeking to balance margin against volumes, and decide how products were displayed online.
"The UK front page was owned by the UK category manager," said the former business development manager Riley.
The LinkedIn profiles of current and former staff show employees closely involved in driving profitability at Amazon's UK business.
Aimee-Joanne Teather, Buyer - Kids Clothing & Accessories, said her responsibilities included "Signing new brands, negotiating terms with vendors. Analyzing sales figures and reaching targets."
Teather did not respond to requests for comment.
PREPARATORY OR AUXILIARY
The issue, say lawyers, is one of 'substance'. Amazon UK is a subsidiary of Amazon EU, the official supplier of Amazon goods across Europe.
It pays almost all its profit to a tax-exempt affiliate, also registered in Luxembourg, in fees for the use of Amazon group intellectual property.
The tax authorities in the United States and France have each demanded hundreds of millions of dollars in back taxes from Amazon in relation to this arrangement, Amazon's regulatory filings show. U.S. authorities have argued the price at which Amazon transferred intellectual property between affiliates was inappropriate; Amazon did not specify the French tax authority's objections.
Amazon EU can sell into Britain from Luxembourg without creating a taxable presence because, like most developed countries, the two have a treaty aimed at avoiding double-taxation of profits. That lets its home base Luxembourg collect the taxes instead, said David Quentin, at law firm Farrer & Company, after reviewing the Reuters material.
International tax law deems storage as ?auxiliary' to the main trade of a manufacturer or retailer, so Amazon's vast warehouses, which it calls fulfillment centers, do not create a permanent establishment.
That works up to a point, lawyers say. Amazon EU's activities in Britain do not constitute a taxable entity known as a permanent establishment so long as they are of a "preparatory or auxiliary character".
"If a UK company is conducting the operations from which the profits in substance arise, HMRC could seek to treat the trade as being conducted through the UK company and tax it here," Quentin said.
Whatever the legal situation, Amazon is likely to face tough questions when it appears again in front of lawmakers in coming weeks.
"We will take a much closer look at their internal financial arrangements," said member of parliament Nick Smith, who also sits on the PAC. "Whilst they will be shown every courtesy, Amazon had better put on their tin hats." ($1 = 0.6568 British pounds)
(Edited by Sara Ledwith and Will Waterman)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/google-amazon-grilled-uk-tax-presence-072843511.html
Johnny Manziel ups Aj Mccarron Girlfriend CES 2013 joe budden notre dame notre dame football
