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.
MOSCOW (AP) ? A former National Security Agency contractor wanted by the United States for revealing highly classified surveillance programs was believed to have landed in Russia on Sunday ? possibly as a stopover before traveling elsewhere ? after being allowed to leave Hong Kong.
Edward Snowden was on an Aeroflot flight from Hong Kong that arrived in Moscow on Sunday afternoon and was booked on a flight to fly to Cuba on Monday, the Russian news agencies ITAR-Tass and Interfax reported, citing unnamed airline officials. The reports said he intended to travel from Cuba to Caracas, Venezuela.
Snowden did not leave Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport with the other passengers. Interfax reported that he was spending the night in the transit zone of the airport because he did not have a visa to enter Russia and had rented a room in a capsule hotel.
Snowden had been in hiding in Hong Kong for several weeks after he revealed information on the highly classified spy programs. The WikiLeaks anti-secrecy group said it was working with him and he was bound for an unnamed "democratic nation via a safe route for the purpose of asylum."
The White House said President Barack Obama has been briefed on Sunday's developments by his national security advisers.
Snowden's departure came a day after the United States made a formal request for his extradition and gave a pointed warning to Hong Kong against delaying the process of returning him to face trial in the U.S.
The Department of Justice said only that it would "continue to discuss this matter with Hong Kong and pursue relevant law enforcement cooperation with other countries where Mr. Snowden may be attempting to travel."
The Hong Kong government said in a statement that Snowden left "on his own accord for a third country through a lawful and normal channel."
It acknowledged the U.S. extradition request, but said U.S. documentation did not "fully comply with the legal requirements under Hong Kong law." It said additional information was requested from Washington, but since the Hong Kong government "has yet to have sufficient information to process the request for provisional warrant of arrest, there is no legal basis to restrict Mr. Snowden from leaving Hong Kong."
The statement said Hong Kong had informed the U.S. of Snowden's departure. It added that it wanted more information about alleged hacking of computer systems in Hong Kong by U.S. government agencies which Snowden had revealed.
Hong Kong's decision to let Snowden go on a technicality appears to be a pragmatic move aimed at avoiding a drawn out extradition battle. The action swiftly eliminates a geopolitical headache that could have left Hong Kong facing pressure from both Washington and Beijing.
Hong Kong, a former British colony, has a high degree of autonomy and is granted rights and freedoms not seen on mainland China, but under the city's mini constitution Beijing is allowed to intervene in matters involving defense and diplomatic affairs.
Hong Kong has an extradition treaty with the U.S., but the document has some exceptions, including for crimes deemed political.
Russian officials have given no indication that they have any interest in detaining Snowden or any grounds to do so. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that Russia would be willing to consider granting asylum if Snowden were to make such a request.
Russia and the United States have no extradition treaty that would oblige Russia to hand over a U.S. citizen at Washington's request.
WikiLeaks said it was providing legal help to Snowden at his request and that he was being escorted by diplomats and legal advisors from the group. WikiLeaks' founder, Julian Assange, who has spent a year inside the Ecuadorean Embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden to face questioning about sex crime allegations, told the Sydney Morning Herald that his organization is in a position to help because it has expertise in international asylum and extradition law.
The Cuban government had no comment on Snowden's movements or reports he might use Havana as a transit point.
In Ecuador, a high-ranking source at the presidency said there was no information about whether Snowden would seek asylum there. The source spoke on condition of anonymity for lack of authorization to speak on the issue.
Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said last week that if Snowden asked for asylum, Ecuador would study the request.
The Obama administration on Saturday warned Hong Kong against delaying Snowden's extradition, with White House national security adviser Tom Donilon saying in an interview with CBS News, "Hong Kong has been a historically good partner of the United States in law enforcement matters, and we expect them to comply with the treaty in this case."
Michael Ratner, Assange's lawyer, said he didn't know Snowden's final destination, but that his options were not numerous. "You have to have a country that's going to stand up to the United States," Ratner said. "You're not talking about a huge range of countries here."
Ratner added that a country's extradition treaty with the U.S. is "not going to be relevant" because the country he ends up going to will likely be one willing to give him a political exemption.
Snowden's departure came as the South China Morning Post released new allegations from the former NSA contractor that U.S. hacking targets in China included the nation's cellphone companies and two universities hosting extensive Internet traffic hubs.
He told the newspaper that "the NSA does all kinds of things like hack Chinese cellphone companies to steal all of your SMS data." It added that Snowden said he had documents to support the hacking allegations, but the report did not identify the documents. It said he spoke to the newspaper in a June 12 interview.
With a population of more than 1.3 billion, China has massive cellphone companies. China Mobile is the world's largest mobile network carrier with 735 million subscribers, followed by China Unicom with 258 million users and China Telecom with 172 million users.
Snowden said Tsinghua University in Beijing and Chinese University in Hong Kong, home of some of the country's major Internet traffic hubs, were targets of extensive hacking by U.S. spies this year. He said the NSA was focusing on so-called "network backbones" in China, through which enormous amounts of Internet data passes.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said it was aware of the reports of Snowden's departure from Hong Kong to Moscow but did not know the specifics. It said the Chinese central government "always respects" Hong Kong's "handling of affairs in accordance with law." The Foreign Ministry also noted that it is "gravely concerned about the recently disclosed cyberattacks by relevant U.S. government agencies against China."
China's state-run media have used Snowden's allegations to poke back at Washington after the U.S. had spent the past several months pressuring China on its international spying operations.
A commentary published Sunday by the official Xinhua News Agency said Snowden's disclosures of U.S. spying activities in China have "put Washington in a really awkward situation."
"Washington should come clean about its record first. It owes ... an explanation to China and other countries it has allegedly spied on," it said. "It has to share with the world the range, extent and intent of its clandestine hacking programs."
____
Chan reported from Hong Kong. Sylvia Hui in London, Paul Haven in Havana, Gonzalo Solano in Quito, Ecuador, and Anne Flaherty and Julie Pace in Washington contributed to this report.
NEW YORK (AP) ? A construction worker has been slightly injured during demolition of a departures runway at the now-vacant Terminal 3 at Kennedy International Airport.
A spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said the worker was struck in the leg by falling debris Sunday morning. Spokesman Steve Coleman says the worker did not appear to be seriously injured but was walking with a slight limp afterward.
The terminal, also known as the Worldport, is memorable for its shape, which resembles a flying saucer. Constructed more than a half century ago, the terminal once housed Pan American World Airways. Delta Air Lines began using it in 1991, but left the terminal last month. Plans call for it to someday be used for parking airplanes.
Results from world's largest human cognitive performance dataset published in Frontiers in Neuroscience
Lumosity, the leading brain training company, today announced a new web-based, big data methodology for conducting human cognitive performance research. Lumosity's research platform, the Human Cognition Project, contains the world's largest and continuously growing dataset of human cognitive performance, which currently includes more than 40 million people who have been tracked for up to 6 years. The study, published today in the open-access journal Frontiers in Neuroscience, examined how Lumosity's dataset can provide insights into the lifestyle correlates of cognitive performance and the impact of age on learning rate.
Human cognitive performance research is typically conducted through experiments in the laboratory, with small numbers of participants often limited to university undergraduates and requiring in-laboratory follow-ups. This approach limits the kinds of questions that can be studied, the number and demographics of participants, and can be time-consuming and costly.
"New technologies and research platforms have the potential to transform the speed, scale, efficiency and range of topics in which neuroscience research is conducted," said P. Murali Doraiswamy, Professor of Psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center and member of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, and co-author of the study. "This study is interesting because it brings to light the possibilities of what we can uncover by taking a big data approach to cognitive performance research."
The study presented two examples of research that can be conducted using Lumosity's dataset. Using survey results and a subset of the dataset tied to baseline performance on three cognitive exercises, the first study examined the effects of sleep and alcohol consumption on cognitive abilities, including speed (N = 162,462), memory (N = 161,717), and flexibility (N = 127,048). The study found that cognitive performance in all three tasks was most efficient, on average, for users reporting seven hours of sleep each night. The study also found that low to moderate alcohol intake a self-reported one or two drinks per day was associated with better performance in all three tasks, with brain performance scores decreasing steadily with every additional drink.
The second study examined how learning ability changes over the lifespan and how aging might affect learning across distinct cognitive abilities. The study included adults ages 18-74, and looked at how age influences improvement over the course of the first 25 sessions of a cognitive task. Tasks that rely on fluid intelligence, which contribute to learning, problem solving, and the ability to adapt to novel challenges such as working memory (N = 22,718) and spatial memory tasks (N = 23,109), were compared to tasks that rely on crystallized knowledge, which draws on accumulated knowledge and skills from your life experience such as verbal fluency (N = 107,478) and basic arithmetic (N = 41,338). The study found that the amount of improvement decreased as age increased, and that performance on tasks that rely on fluid intelligence decreased with age at a faster rate than the tasks that rely on crystallized intelligence. This finding supports the notion that, although raw cognitive performance peaks in young adulthood, the lifelong accumulation of knowledge compensates such that older adults can still perform at a high level.
"The goal of the Human Cognition Project is to rapidly and efficiently advance our understanding of the brain," said Daniel Sternberg, Ph.D, Data Scientist at Lumosity and lead author of the study. "We're excited for the potential that big data holds for conducting large-scale, collaborative, global research on human cognition. We're particularly interested in applying the knowledge we gain from this research in real-world settings where they can help people live better, fuller lives."
The Human Cognition Project works with researchers worldwide to study human cognitive performance. The technology supports both experimental research, where independent researchers design and conduct studies on the effects of computerized cognitive training, and observational research, where collaborators explore data from Lumosity's continuously growing database. Researchers interested in exploring Lumosity's de-identified dataset can submit research proposals at http://hcp.lumosity.com/get_involved/researcher.
###
About Lumosity
Lumosity is committed to pioneering the understanding and enhancement of the human brain to give each person the power to unlock their full potential. Lumosity's online and mobile programs train core cognitive abilities such as memory and attention. Launched in 2007, Lumosity now has more than 40 games, 40 million members, and paying subscribers from 180 countries. Lumosity's games are based on the latest discoveries in neuroscience, with continuing independent third-party studies being conducted by researchers at Harvard, Stanford, and other academic institutions. Lumosity is available at Lumosity.com and on the iPhone. Lumosity is headquartered in San Francisco, California. For more information, please visit http://www.lumosity.com.
About Frontiers
Frontiers, a partner of Nature Publishing Group, is a community driven scholarly open-access publisher and research networking platform. Based in Switzerland, and formed by scientists in 2007, Frontiers is one of the largest and fastest growing publishers and its mission is to empower all academic communities to drive research publishing and communication into the 21st century with a whole ecosystem of open science tools.
The "Frontiers in" series of journals publish around 500 peer-reviewed articles every month, which receive 5 million monthly views and are supported by over 25,000 editors and reviewers. Frontiers has formed partnerships with international organizations, such as, the Max Planck Society and the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS). For more information, please visit: http://www.frontiersin.org.
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Lumosity's big data provides new approach to understanding human cognitionPublic release date: 20-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Results from world's largest human cognitive performance dataset published in Frontiers in Neuroscience
Lumosity, the leading brain training company, today announced a new web-based, big data methodology for conducting human cognitive performance research. Lumosity's research platform, the Human Cognition Project, contains the world's largest and continuously growing dataset of human cognitive performance, which currently includes more than 40 million people who have been tracked for up to 6 years. The study, published today in the open-access journal Frontiers in Neuroscience, examined how Lumosity's dataset can provide insights into the lifestyle correlates of cognitive performance and the impact of age on learning rate.
Human cognitive performance research is typically conducted through experiments in the laboratory, with small numbers of participants often limited to university undergraduates and requiring in-laboratory follow-ups. This approach limits the kinds of questions that can be studied, the number and demographics of participants, and can be time-consuming and costly.
"New technologies and research platforms have the potential to transform the speed, scale, efficiency and range of topics in which neuroscience research is conducted," said P. Murali Doraiswamy, Professor of Psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center and member of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, and co-author of the study. "This study is interesting because it brings to light the possibilities of what we can uncover by taking a big data approach to cognitive performance research."
The study presented two examples of research that can be conducted using Lumosity's dataset. Using survey results and a subset of the dataset tied to baseline performance on three cognitive exercises, the first study examined the effects of sleep and alcohol consumption on cognitive abilities, including speed (N = 162,462), memory (N = 161,717), and flexibility (N = 127,048). The study found that cognitive performance in all three tasks was most efficient, on average, for users reporting seven hours of sleep each night. The study also found that low to moderate alcohol intake a self-reported one or two drinks per day was associated with better performance in all three tasks, with brain performance scores decreasing steadily with every additional drink.
The second study examined how learning ability changes over the lifespan and how aging might affect learning across distinct cognitive abilities. The study included adults ages 18-74, and looked at how age influences improvement over the course of the first 25 sessions of a cognitive task. Tasks that rely on fluid intelligence, which contribute to learning, problem solving, and the ability to adapt to novel challenges such as working memory (N = 22,718) and spatial memory tasks (N = 23,109), were compared to tasks that rely on crystallized knowledge, which draws on accumulated knowledge and skills from your life experience such as verbal fluency (N = 107,478) and basic arithmetic (N = 41,338). The study found that the amount of improvement decreased as age increased, and that performance on tasks that rely on fluid intelligence decreased with age at a faster rate than the tasks that rely on crystallized intelligence. This finding supports the notion that, although raw cognitive performance peaks in young adulthood, the lifelong accumulation of knowledge compensates such that older adults can still perform at a high level.
"The goal of the Human Cognition Project is to rapidly and efficiently advance our understanding of the brain," said Daniel Sternberg, Ph.D, Data Scientist at Lumosity and lead author of the study. "We're excited for the potential that big data holds for conducting large-scale, collaborative, global research on human cognition. We're particularly interested in applying the knowledge we gain from this research in real-world settings where they can help people live better, fuller lives."
The Human Cognition Project works with researchers worldwide to study human cognitive performance. The technology supports both experimental research, where independent researchers design and conduct studies on the effects of computerized cognitive training, and observational research, where collaborators explore data from Lumosity's continuously growing database. Researchers interested in exploring Lumosity's de-identified dataset can submit research proposals at http://hcp.lumosity.com/get_involved/researcher.
###
About Lumosity
Lumosity is committed to pioneering the understanding and enhancement of the human brain to give each person the power to unlock their full potential. Lumosity's online and mobile programs train core cognitive abilities such as memory and attention. Launched in 2007, Lumosity now has more than 40 games, 40 million members, and paying subscribers from 180 countries. Lumosity's games are based on the latest discoveries in neuroscience, with continuing independent third-party studies being conducted by researchers at Harvard, Stanford, and other academic institutions. Lumosity is available at Lumosity.com and on the iPhone. Lumosity is headquartered in San Francisco, California. For more information, please visit http://www.lumosity.com.
About Frontiers
Frontiers, a partner of Nature Publishing Group, is a community driven scholarly open-access publisher and research networking platform. Based in Switzerland, and formed by scientists in 2007, Frontiers is one of the largest and fastest growing publishers and its mission is to empower all academic communities to drive research publishing and communication into the 21st century with a whole ecosystem of open science tools.
The "Frontiers in" series of journals publish around 500 peer-reviewed articles every month, which receive 5 million monthly views and are supported by over 25,000 editors and reviewers. Frontiers has formed partnerships with international organizations, such as, the Max Planck Society and the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS). For more information, please visit: http://www.frontiersin.org.
[ | 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.
Register for the Roswell Mayor?s Ride now, or stop by the event to enjoy a day of special events and activities.
The 12th Annual Historic Roswell Criterium returns on Sunday, April 28 with an expanded race course in the heart of historic Roswell, according to information provided by organizers.?
The schedule of events includes:
a recreational bicycle ride,
kids bicycle rodeo,
11 bicycle races,
Moncrief Heating & Air Kids' Zone,
Vendor Village and Expo,
and two New Belgium Beer Gardens.
The Historic Roswell Criterium, which began in 2002, has established itself as the largest pro/am criterium in the Southeast and second largest single-day race in the United States. It has surpassed 750 total race registrations for the day, according to a recent press release.
For the first time in 12 years, the Historic Roswell Criterium will introduce a new race course. The criterium loop will be extended to 1.2 miles in length, now including Heart of Roswell Park as the southern-most turn of the race route.? The long straightaway on Canton Street passes many of the popular restaurants and shops in Historic Roswell where spectators will enjoy a prime viewing experience.
"All the merchants and restaurants in the area are excited to be part of a longer course for the races. The Historic Roswell Criterium is a showcase for cycling and a showcase for Roswell. It has become an open house for merchants and restaurants to shine in front of thousands of people. Roswell is becoming an event destination," said Sally Johnson, president of the Historic Roswell Merchant?s Association and organizer of Alive After 5 Roswell, which starts back up for the summer beginning this week, Thursday, April 18.
The challenging four corners of the course will require each of the 75-150 cyclists in each race to use high speeds and precise skills to navigate the turns. The start/finish line will remain on Canton Street in front of the Fickle Pickle Restaurant.
Race Day Schedule and Activities:
Race day, April 28, will kick off with the Roswell Mayor?s Ride, a recreational ride to showcase the city of Roswell. The event, organized by Bike Roswell, is suitable for all ages and abilities and is the perfect way to begin the day of bicycling fun in Roswell. There are three ride options:
a family six mile ride
20-mile ride
and a 42-mile ride
All of the rides begin at 8 a.m. from Roswell Area Park. Advanced registration is open at BikeReg.com, $30 per individual, $75 per three-person family, $80 for a four-person family and $10 per each family member beyond four. The six-mile family ride is free.
Beginning at 10 a.m. are the 11 races, with categories for Juniors (ages 10-14 and 15-18), Masters (ages 35 and over) and different levels of amateur men and women racers. The men?s and women?s professional races (Men?s Pro 1/2 and Women?s Pro 1/2/3) at the end of the day will feature some of the best cyclists in North America.
The Historic Roswell Criterium continues for a fourth season as part of the USA CRITS Speed Week Series. This racing series has a combine prize purse of more than $120,000 for eight days of racing in Georgia and South Carolina. Advance registration fees for all adult races range from $45 to $50.
Two junior races return this year for up-and-coming pros of tomorrow. Registration is $30 for boys and girls ages 10-14 and 15-18. For younger children on bicycles and tricycles, it will be the 12th year for the annual Kids Races and Rodeo. The Kiwanis Club of Historic Roswell Safety Rodeo begins at 3 p.m. (registration begins at 2 p.m.) next to the Roswell United Methodist Church and is free for children six to 12 years of age with a signed waiver. All Rodeo graduates are then invited to participate in Kids Races at 5 p.m.?
An expanded Vendor Village and Expo will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. along Canton and Webb streets at the south end of the bicycle race course. Some of the professional teams will park official support vehicles in this area so that fans can easily take photos and receive athlete autographs. The Moncrief Heating & Air Kids' Zone will be part of the Expo and will be open until 5 p.m. One New Belgium Beer Garden will be located on Elizabeth Way this year, with a second location at the north end of Canton Street next to Woodstock Street. Throughout the day, spectators should look for restaurant and shop specials in Historic Roswell. ??
"The Historic Roswell Criterium has become so much more than just a day of bicycle races in our community. It is a tradition that focuses on fitness, family, food and fun," said Roswell Mayor Jere Wood. "It?s a great springtime showcase for our city. This event is special because people of all ages can enjoy a variety of activities throughout the day and explore Historic Roswell."
Sponsors for the 12th Annual Historic Roswell Criterium include Moncrief Heating and Air, city of Roswell, New Belgium Brewing Co., Maxxis, NALLEY Automotive Group, Children?s Orthopaedics of Atlanta, Kiwanis Club of Historic Roswell, North Georgia Cycling Association, and USA CRITS Speed Week Series.
For details on registration for races, kids rodeo and all event information, visit the criterium website. For advance registration for the Roswell Mayor?s Ride, click here.
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Public release date: 20-Jun-2013
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