It might be a good thing that T-Mobile's in the crosshairs of a MetroPCS merger, as the company again shed revenue, customers and profits. Total revenue dropped to $4.9 billion from $5.2 billion last year, while profits were down a whopping 25.1 percent over Q4 2011 to $1.05 billion. Meanwhile the company dropped 515,000 branded contract customers compared to 492,000 last quarter, representing a 'churn' rate of 2.5 percent, a slight improvement over last year. All that culminated in a rather miserable year for the carrier, which despite showing income of $4.9 billion for the year, took a whopping $11.3 billion in depreciation and impairment charges, resulting in a full year loss of $6.4 billion. Meanwhile, Deutsche Telecom said recently that T-Mobile would soon fall under its umbrella along with MetroPCS as early as April -- which sounds like it can't come soon enough.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke strongly defended the U.S. central bank's monetary stimulus before Congress on Tuesday, easing financial market worries over a possible early retreat from bond buys.
The Fed chairman also urged lawmakers to avoid sharp spending cuts set to go into effect on Friday, which he warned could combine with earlier tax increases to create a "significant headwind" for the modest economic recovery.
Bernanke said Fed policymakers are cognizant of potential risks from their extraordinary support for the economy, including the possibility that it might fuel unwanted inflation or stoke asset bubbles.
But, in testimony on the central bank's semi-annual report on monetary policy, he said the risks did not seem material at the moment, adding the central bank has all the tools it needs to retreat from its monetary support in a timely fashion.
"To this point, we do not see the potential costs of the increased risk-taking in some financial markets as outweighing the benefits of promoting a stronger economic recovery and more rapid job creation," Bernanke told the Senate Banking Committee.
In response to the financial crisis and deep recession of 2007-2009, the Fed not only slashed official interest rates to effectively zero but also bought more than $2.5 trillion in mortgage and Treasury debt in an effort to push down long-term interest rates and spur hiring.
The Fed is currently buying $85 billion in bonds each month and has said it plans to keep purchasing assets until it sees a substantial improvement in the outlook for the labor market.
Minutes of the Fed's January 29-30 policy meeting, released last week, showed a number of officials felt the potential risks posed by the bond purchases could warrant tapering or ending them before hiring picks up. However, several others argued there was a danger in halting them prematurely.
Bernanke appeared to be in the latter camp. "The benefits of asset purchases, and of policy accommodation more generally, are clear," he said, citing improvements in the housing and auto sectors and tracing them in part to the Fed's stimulus.
"There is no risk-free approach to this situation," he said. "The risk of not doing anything is severe as well. So, we are trying to balance these things as best we can."
NO SHIFT IN POLICY COURSE
The testimony helped offset jitters in U.S. stock markets over Europe's debt crisis, with major indexes rising in the afternoon, while bond prices fell.
"What Bernanke is saying, bottom line, indicates that there will not be a reversal anytime soon in the stimulus program," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital in New York.
When asked pointedly by Republican Senator Bob Corker about whether the Fed's easy monetary policy was contributing to competitive currency devaluations globally and laying the groundwork for inflation, Bernanke was unequivocal.
"My inflation record is the best of any Federal Reserve chairman in the post-war period," he retorted. "We are not engaged in a currency war."
Democrats, for their part, seized on Bernanke's remarks to fuel their argument that looming budget cuts could have a dire economic impact, as they sought to gain political advantage over Republicans, who would rather see spending cuts than higher taxes.
Committee newcomer Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, pressed Bernanke on what she said is an implicit subsidy that large banks receive in the form of lower borrowing costs from being perceived as too big to fail.
Bernanke countered that Dodd-Frank financial reform rules had given regulators more power to wind down failing financial institutions, making the issue less of a concern.
"The subsidy is coming because of market expectations that the government would bail out these firms if they fail. Those expectations are incorrect," Bernanke said.
A PLEA ON BUDGET CUTS
In unusually direct remarks on fiscal policy, Bernanke warned the near-term spending cuts known as the sequester, which are set to take hold later this week, would threaten an already challenged economic expansion.
"The Congress and the administration should consider replacing the sharp, frontloaded spending cuts required by the sequestration, with policies that reduce the federal deficit more gradually in the near term but more substantially in the longer run," Bernanke said.
The U.S. economy braked sharply in the fourth quarter, but is forecast to grow around 2 percent or more this year. The unemployment rate has remained elevated, and registered 7.9 percent in January.
Bernanke, who appears for a second day of testimony before a House of Representatives panel on Wednesday, said persistent joblessness was a scourge with potentially long-lasting effects.
"High unemployment has substantial costs, including not only the hardship faced by the unemployed and their families, but also the harm done to the vitality and productive potential of our economy as a whole," Bernanke said.
The central bank's semi-annual report also downplayed the possibility the Fed's bond-buying might be stoking asset bubbles in certain markets.
"There has been limited evidence so far of excessive buildups of duration, credit risk, or leverage, but the Federal Reserve will continue both its careful oversight and its implementation of financial regulatory reforms designed to reduce systemic risk," it said.
(Reporting by Pedro Nicolaci da Costa; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A gauge of planned U.S. business spending recorded its largest increase in more than a year in January, suggesting growing confidence in the durability of the economic recovery.
The case for the economy's resilience was further bolstered by another report on Wednesday showing that contracts to buy previously owned homes approached a near three-year high last month. Housing is expected to underpin growth this year.
Non-defense capital goods orders excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business spending plans, jumped 6.3 percent, the biggest gain since December 2011. These so-called core capital goods orders had slipped 0.3 percent in December.
"The encouraging tone of this report suggests that the business sector is beginning to feel sufficiently confident about the improving economic outlook to commit to investment activity," said Millan Mulraine, a senior economist at TD Securities in New York.
In a separate report, the National Association of Realtors said its pending home sales index increased 4.5 percent to its highest since April 2010, just before a home-buyer tax credit expired.
The rise in signed purchase contracts, which become sales after a month or two, added to data such as building permits and house prices that have suggested a decisive turnaround in the housing market.
Home building added to growth last year for the first time since 2005 and economists expect another contribution this year.
Still, the reports are unlikely to change the Federal Reserve's very easy monetary policy stance. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, testifying before Congress for a second straight day, pointed to the pick-up in housing as a sign the U.S. central bank's aggressive easing of monetary policy is gaining traction.
However, he signaled a willingness to press forward with efforts to spur an even stronger recovery and lower the jobless rate, which remains at a lofty 7.9 percent.
Stocks on Wall Street ended more than 1 percent higher on the data and Bernanke's comments, with the Standard & Poor's 500 posting its best daily percentage gain since January 2. The U.S. dollar weakened against a basket of currencies, while prices for U.S. government debt fell.
FACTORY ACTIVITY COOLING
Although shipments of core capital goods, used to calculate equipment and software spending in the government's measures of gross domestic product, fell last month, economists were little worried.
"The balance between orders and shipments of capital goods is looking healthier as backlogs of core capital goods orders rose for the first time in eight months," said John Ryding, chief economist at RDQ Economics in New York.
"Our take is that manufacturing activity - especially in the capital goods area - is bouncing back after cautious behavior ahead of the fiscal cliff."
U.S. factory activity, which helped lift the economy from recession, has cooled in recent months, held back by sluggish domestic demand, tighter fiscal policy in Washington and slowing global growth.
While business investment plans looked strong, the report showed that overall orders for durable goods - items ranging from toasters to aircraft that are meant to last three years or more - tumbled 5.2 percent as demand for civilian and defense aircraft collapsed. It was the first drop since August.
Orders for civilian aircraft, which are very volatile and which tend to fall at the start of the year, dived 34 percent.
Boeing received orders for only 2 aircraft, down from 183 in December. Economists said the decline was probably not related to the grounding of Boeing's 787 Dreamliners after problems with overheating batteries.
"I haven't heard any reports about airlines canceling their orders. This could be a one-month lull rather than something greater," said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Pierpont Securities in Stamford, Connecticut.
Defense aircraft orders plunged 63.8 percent after soaring 58.5 percent in December, likely as orders were pushed forward ahead of $85 billion in government-wide spending cuts set to kick in on Friday.
Overall defense capital goods orders plummeted 69.5 percent in January, the sharpest fall since July 2000.
But durable goods orders excluding transportation increased 1.9 percent last month, also the largest gain since December 2011, after increasing 1 percent in December. That was a sign factory activity continues to plod along.
(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Neil Stempleman and James Dalgleish)
While some notable big names in Android were mostly missing, Mobile World Congress 2013 still had a lot of Android to show off -- not counting what was in Phil's shoulder bag. We saw this years upcoming gear from Huawei, ZTE, ASUS, and more. Some of it looks absolutely fabulous, some not so much. But that's just our opinion, and we want to hear yours.
We've set up a poll so you can sound off and tell us what you liked best. Will it be the Fonepad from ASUS? How about the ZTE Grand Memo? Hit the break, or look for the poll in the sidebar to the right and let us know, then discuss it all in the comments.
Contact: Iqbal Pittawala iqbal@ucr.edu 951-827-6050 University of California - Riverside
UC Riverside research shows hovering hummingbirds generate two trails of vortices under their wings, challenging 1-vortex consensus
RIVERSIDE, Calif. As of today, the Wikipedia entry for the hummingbird explains that the bird's flight generates in its wake a single trail of vortices that helps the bird hover. But after conducting experiments with hummingbirds in the lab, researchers at the University of California, Riverside propose that the hovering hummingbird instead produces two trails of vortices one under each wing per stroke that help generate the aerodynamic forces required for the bird to power and control its flight.
The results of the study could find wide application in aerospace technology and the development of unmanned vehicles for medical surveillance after natural disasters.
The researchers used high-speed image sequences 500 frames per second of hummingbirds hover-feeding within a white plume (emitted by the heating of dry ice) to study the vortex wake from multiple perspectives. They also used particle image velocimetry (PIV), a flow-measuring method used in fluid mechanics, to quantitatively analyze the flow around the hummingbirds. PIV allowed the researchers to record the particles surrounding the birds and extract velocity fields.
The films and velocity fields showed two distinct jets of downwards airflow one under each wing of the hummingbird. They also revealed that vortex loops around each jet are shed during each upstroke and downstroke.
The researchers therefore propose in their paper published online last month in the journal Experiments in Fluids that the hummingbird's two wings form bilateral vortex loops during each wing stroke, which is advantageous for maneuverability.
"Previous studies have indicated that slow-flying bats and faster flying birds produced different structures in their wakes," said Douglas Altshuler, formerly an assistant professor of biology at UC Riverside, whose lab led the research. "We have been investigating the wake structure of hovering hummingbirds because this allows us to decouple the effects of different types of wings bat versus bird from different forward flight speeds.
Hummingbirds each weigh 2-20 grams. Because they can hover with high precision, they are able to drink nectar from flowers without any jiggling movement to their bodies. Besides using upstrokes and downstrokes, hummingbirds can rotate their wings. They can even flap their wings from front to back with a 180-degree amplitude.
"We began this study to investigate how the hummingbird used its tail while hovering," said Marko Princevac, an associate professor of mechanical engineering and a coauthor of the research paper. "After all, many insects also hover, but they have no tail. Instead, however, our research showed something interesting about the hummingbird's wings: the bilateral vortex structure. Hummingbirds hovering should cost a lot of energy but these birds are able to hover for long periods of time. Ideally, unmanned vehicles need to be operated with a very limited energy supply, which is why understanding how the hummingbird maximizes its use of energy is tremendously beneficial."
Sam Pournazeri, a former Ph.D. graduate student in Princevac's lab and a co-author on the paper, explained that in a downstroke, the air pressure difference developed as a result of wing movement creates flow from the bottom to the top of the wing. The result is a circular movement or vortex.
"Based on theories in fluid mechanics, this vortex should close either on the wing/body or create a loop around it," he said. "It's these loops that provide circulation around the wings and cause the hummingbird to overcome its weight. Hovering requires the bird to create a lift that cancels its body weight. Although the two-vortex structure we observed increases the hummingbird's energy consumption, it provides the bird a big advantage: a lot more maneuverability."
Next, the research team plans to study the hummingbird in a wind tunnel to closely observe how the bird transitions from hovering to forward motion, and vice versa.
"Current technology is not successfully mimicking how living things fly," Princevac said. "Drones don't hover, and must rely on forward motion. Research done using hummingbirds, like ours, can inform the development of the next generation of drones."
###
The research was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation to Altshuler, now a faculty member at the University of British Columbia, Canada.
Paolo S. Segre, a former UCR graduate student working with Altshuler at the University of British Columbia, also participated in the study. Pournazeri and Segre contributed equally to the research.
The University of California, Riverside is a doctoral research university, a living laboratory for groundbreaking exploration of issues critical to Inland Southern California, the state and communities around the world. Reflecting California's diverse culture, UCR's enrollment has exceeded 21,000 students. The campus will open a medical school in 2013 and has reached the heart of the Coachella Valley by way of the UCR Palm Desert Center. The campus has an annual statewide economic impact of more than $1 billion. A broadcast studio with fiber cable to the AT&T Hollywood hub is available for live or taped interviews. UCR also has ISDN for radio interviews. To learn more, call (951) UCR-NEWS.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Contact: Iqbal Pittawala iqbal@ucr.edu 951-827-6050 University of California - Riverside
UC Riverside research shows hovering hummingbirds generate two trails of vortices under their wings, challenging 1-vortex consensus
RIVERSIDE, Calif. As of today, the Wikipedia entry for the hummingbird explains that the bird's flight generates in its wake a single trail of vortices that helps the bird hover. But after conducting experiments with hummingbirds in the lab, researchers at the University of California, Riverside propose that the hovering hummingbird instead produces two trails of vortices one under each wing per stroke that help generate the aerodynamic forces required for the bird to power and control its flight.
The results of the study could find wide application in aerospace technology and the development of unmanned vehicles for medical surveillance after natural disasters.
The researchers used high-speed image sequences 500 frames per second of hummingbirds hover-feeding within a white plume (emitted by the heating of dry ice) to study the vortex wake from multiple perspectives. They also used particle image velocimetry (PIV), a flow-measuring method used in fluid mechanics, to quantitatively analyze the flow around the hummingbirds. PIV allowed the researchers to record the particles surrounding the birds and extract velocity fields.
The films and velocity fields showed two distinct jets of downwards airflow one under each wing of the hummingbird. They also revealed that vortex loops around each jet are shed during each upstroke and downstroke.
The researchers therefore propose in their paper published online last month in the journal Experiments in Fluids that the hummingbird's two wings form bilateral vortex loops during each wing stroke, which is advantageous for maneuverability.
"Previous studies have indicated that slow-flying bats and faster flying birds produced different structures in their wakes," said Douglas Altshuler, formerly an assistant professor of biology at UC Riverside, whose lab led the research. "We have been investigating the wake structure of hovering hummingbirds because this allows us to decouple the effects of different types of wings bat versus bird from different forward flight speeds.
Hummingbirds each weigh 2-20 grams. Because they can hover with high precision, they are able to drink nectar from flowers without any jiggling movement to their bodies. Besides using upstrokes and downstrokes, hummingbirds can rotate their wings. They can even flap their wings from front to back with a 180-degree amplitude.
"We began this study to investigate how the hummingbird used its tail while hovering," said Marko Princevac, an associate professor of mechanical engineering and a coauthor of the research paper. "After all, many insects also hover, but they have no tail. Instead, however, our research showed something interesting about the hummingbird's wings: the bilateral vortex structure. Hummingbirds hovering should cost a lot of energy but these birds are able to hover for long periods of time. Ideally, unmanned vehicles need to be operated with a very limited energy supply, which is why understanding how the hummingbird maximizes its use of energy is tremendously beneficial."
Sam Pournazeri, a former Ph.D. graduate student in Princevac's lab and a co-author on the paper, explained that in a downstroke, the air pressure difference developed as a result of wing movement creates flow from the bottom to the top of the wing. The result is a circular movement or vortex.
"Based on theories in fluid mechanics, this vortex should close either on the wing/body or create a loop around it," he said. "It's these loops that provide circulation around the wings and cause the hummingbird to overcome its weight. Hovering requires the bird to create a lift that cancels its body weight. Although the two-vortex structure we observed increases the hummingbird's energy consumption, it provides the bird a big advantage: a lot more maneuverability."
Next, the research team plans to study the hummingbird in a wind tunnel to closely observe how the bird transitions from hovering to forward motion, and vice versa.
"Current technology is not successfully mimicking how living things fly," Princevac said. "Drones don't hover, and must rely on forward motion. Research done using hummingbirds, like ours, can inform the development of the next generation of drones."
###
The research was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation to Altshuler, now a faculty member at the University of British Columbia, Canada.
Paolo S. Segre, a former UCR graduate student working with Altshuler at the University of British Columbia, also participated in the study. Pournazeri and Segre contributed equally to the research.
The University of California, Riverside is a doctoral research university, a living laboratory for groundbreaking exploration of issues critical to Inland Southern California, the state and communities around the world. Reflecting California's diverse culture, UCR's enrollment has exceeded 21,000 students. The campus will open a medical school in 2013 and has reached the heart of the Coachella Valley by way of the UCR Palm Desert Center. The campus has an annual statewide economic impact of more than $1 billion. A broadcast studio with fiber cable to the AT&T Hollywood hub is available for live or taped interviews. UCR also has ISDN for radio interviews. To learn more, call (951) UCR-NEWS.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
First fruits of a groundbreaking art-science tie-up
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WWE Divas Alicia Fox and Natalya will visit refugee camps in Rwanda this week as part of their alliance with the United Nations Foundation?s Nothing But Nets campaign to help raise awareness and funds to fight malaria in sub-Saharan Africa. WWE?s Divas will help distribute life-saving bed nets to help protect refugee families, who are fleeing conflict in neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo, from malaria. They will also meet with officials from the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNCHR) to learn about the humanitarian situation there.
?Refugees already face unimaginable hardships,? said Chris Helfrich, Director of Nothing But Nets. ?A simple bed net can stop mothers and children from worrying about a deadly mosquito bite. We?re proud to show the WWE Divas?and WWE fans everywhere?how malaria prevention tools like bed nets keep families safe. With more than 140 million social media fans, WWE and its Divas have an incredible opportunity to spread the buzz about stopping malaria.?
Nothing But Nets has partnered with UNHCR since 2008, working together to provide vulnerable refugee families fleeing conflict or natural disasters with insecticide-treated mosquito nets that can keep them safe from malaria. The partners have provided more than 1 million bed nets to refugees living in camps across Africa; as a result, malaria dropped from the leading killer of refugees to the number five cause of death.
?WWE is proud to partner with Nothing But Nets to raise awareness and funds to protect families from deadly malaria,? said Stephanie McMahon, WWE Executive Vice President, Creative. ?Through our partnership, WWE will continue to reach out to our passionate fan base to spread the message about preventing this disease. It is our hope that when WWE fans learn that a child dies from malaria every 60 seconds, they will be inspired to send a net and save a life.? WWE aims to send 20,000 bed nets to refugees.
The trip is part of Nothing But Nets? alliance with WWE, announced at the 2012 Social Good Summit. There, UN Foundation Resident Entrepreneur Elizabeth Gore appeared with McMahon and WWE Divas Layla and Alicia Fox, who urged their fans to support Nothing But Nets online and offline.
Since 2006, Nothing But Nets has raised more than $45 million from hundreds of thousands of grassroots supporters, and sent more than 7 million bed nets to families across Africa. Anyone?from students to CEOs?can help protect families in Africa from malaria. To learn more and to donate, visit NothingButNets.net.
Feb. 24, 2013 ? Small stretches of DNA in the human genome are known as "pseudogenes" because, while their sequences are nearly identical to those of various genes, they have long been thought to be non-coding "junk" DNA.
But now, a new study led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) shows how pseudogenes can regulate the activity of a cancer-related gene called PTEN. The study also shows that pseudogenes can be targeted to control PTEN's activity.
Published in the latest issue of the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, the team's findings suggest a much larger role for pseudogenes than previously thought -- a discovery that changes our understanding of the internal landscape of living cells, adding a new layer of complexity to an already crowded topography marked by multiple, overlapping, interacting gene networks.
Understanding how pseudogenes interact and control gene networks in the human body may lead to new ways of addressing diseases tied to problems that arise due to disruptions in these gene networks, said TSRI scientist Kevin Morris, PhD, who led the research in collaboration with scientists at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, and The University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.
"This has improved our knowledge of how genes in cancer are regulated and how we may now be able to control them," Morris said.
Genes and Pseudogenes at Work
The focus of the human genome project, which decoded our entire DNA sequence a decade ago, was largely on genes -- the genetic sequences that encode proteins and thus control processes that govern and regulate all biological functions. But these genes are only a small part of the genome. The vast majority of DNA in the human genome is non-coding, meaning that it does not make protein.
In the early days of molecular biology, scientists called these vast stretches of DNA "junk" because of their presumed inactivity. Pseudogenes, which make up vast swaths of non-coding DNA, were considered part of the junk -- even though they resembled genes -- because they did not code for proteins.
The results from the new study contradict that view by showing these bits of genetic material playing a profound role in controlling the activity of human genes. The control or loss of control of genes can make the difference between healthy and diseased tissue. In cancer, for instance, some genes become more active, while other genes that should normally shut down a cancerous growth become suppressed.
In the new work, Morris and his colleagues showed that pseudogenes can influence the activity of a human gene known as the phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN). PTEN has long been implicated in cancer and is categorized as a "tumor suppressor" gene, meaning that it has the ability to arrest the growth of a tumor. But in many forms of cancer, PTEN is shut down, allowing the tumor to grow unchecked.
Intriguing Possibilities
Morris and his colleagues found that pseudogenes sharing sequences in common with PTEN can regulate the gene in two ways -- knocking it down by suppressing the "promoter" for the PTEN gene, preventing the gene from being expressed, or soaking up PTEN-targeted regulatory micro-RNAs affecting the PTEN protein after the gene transcripts have been expressed.
Some companies are already looking at pseudogenes such as PTEN as targets of potential new drugs, Morris said, and the new work is a proof of principle that targeting pseudogenes can modulate the growth of cancer cells grown in the laboratory.
The same principle may be applicable to other diseases where the aberrant activity of a normal human gene is in play -- or in infectious diseases, as a way of shutting down certain crucial genes belonging to viruses or bacteria.
Morris noted, however, there are many practical issues with controlling pseudogenes. Designing a drug targeting pseudogenes directly would be difficult to administer with current technology, as these drugs would need to be delivered into the exact cells where they are needed without spreading to other, healthy tissues where they could be toxic.
The article, "A pseudogene long noncoding RNA network regulates PTEN transcription and translation in human cells," by Per Johnsson, Amanda Ackley, Linda Vidarsdottir, Weng-Onn Lui, Martin Corcoran, Dan Grand?r, and Kevin V. Morris appears in the February 24, 2013 issue of the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology.
This work was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease and the National Cancer Institute, both components of the National Institutes of Health, though grants #R56 AI096861-01, #P01 AI099783-01, #R01 CA151574 and #R01 CA153124. Additional support was provided by The Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation, The Swedish Cancer Society, Radiumhemmets Forskningsfonder, the Karolinska Institutet PhD support programme, Vetenskapsr?det, and the Erik and Edith Fernstrom Foundation for Medical Research.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Scripps Research Institute, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
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Journal Reference:
Per Johnsson, Amanda Ackley, Linda Vidarsdottir, Weng-Onn Lui, Martin Corcoran, Dan Grand?r, Kevin V Morris. A pseudogene long-noncoding-RNA network regulates PTEN transcription and translation in human cells. Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.2516
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Rapper MC Hammer performs onstage during the 40th American Music Awards held at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on November 18, 2012. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
DUBLIN, Calif. -- MC Hammer suggests he was a victim of racial profiling when he was stopped and arrested by police in the Northern California city of Dublin.
The `90s rap star tweeted on Saturday that an officer approached him in his car and asked "Are you on parole or probation?"
He says that as he handed over his ID, the officer reached inside the car and tried to pull him out.
Dublin police Lt. Herb Walters told the Oakland Tribune (http://bit.ly/YPesHt) that Hammer, who was born Stanley Burrell, was arrested Thursday for investigation of obstructing an officer in the performance of their duties and resisting an officer.
He declined to comment to KTVU about Hammer's version of the arrest.
Hammer tweeted that he wasn't bitter and considered what happened "a teachable moment."
I am reaching out to HN because I know there are many transit apps out there that have the same functionality: letting users know when the next bus will arrive using a third-party API (from NextBus, or GTFS Realtime for example).
So, if anyone has dealt with Dovden or has had a similar experience (or ArrivalStar in the US), please contact me at barum.rho@gmail.com
More details: My apps use the API provided by NextBus who apparently licensed these patents. The patents describe a system that includes a vehicle unit (GPS) and a central server that processes GPS locations, neither of which are part of my app. They offered a "discounted" licensing fee, but my apps have generated income nowhere near the amount.
Please upvote for a better chance of finding other transit app developers.
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Public release date: 25-Feb-2013
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