What is rooting?

If you’re an Administrator on a Windows machine, you have access to the entire operating system and you can do whatever you like. That’s essentially what happens if you root your Android device. With root access, you can get around any restrictions that your manufacturer or carrier may have applied. You can run more apps; you can customize your device to a greater degree; and you can potentially speed it up in a variety of ways.

The process involves backing up your current software and then flashing (installing) a new custom ROM (modified version of Android).

Read more: http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/how-to-root-android/#ixzz2iUaZEZw9

If you've spent much time in Google Play, you know you're not exactly hard-up for good apps. But why settle for good when you can have great. Once you're rooted not only can you get more apps, but the apps you have access to can get way down deeper into your phone's brains. In some cases you'll be able to do things that carriers, manufacturers, and/or Google may not want you to do. Some will allow you to do things of questionable legality. For example, Network Spoofer uses your device to set up a fake wireless network. When your houseguests sign in, you can make ever image they see inverted, or all of the text fuzzy. It's a harmless prank, but of course it could (but shouldn't!) also be used for stealing passwords and other nefarious things.
http://gizmodo.com/5982287/reasons-to-root-your-android-device

There are essentially three potential cons to rooting your Android.

Voiding your warranty: Some manufacturers or carriers will use rooting as an excuse to void your warranty. It’s worth keeping in mind that you can always unroot. If you need to send the device back for repair, simply flash the original backup ROM you made and no one will ever know that it was rooted.
Bricking your phone: Whenever you tamper too much, you run at least a small risk of bricking your device. This is the big fear everyone has. The obvious way to avoid it happening is to follow instructions carefully. Make sure that the guide you are following works for your device and that any custom ROM you flash is designed specifically for it. If you do your research and pay attention to feedback from others, bricking should never occur.
Security risks: Rooting may introduce some security risks. Depending on what services or apps you use on your device, rooting could create a security vulnerability. For example, Google refuses to support the Google Wallet service for rooted devices.


Read more: http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/how-to-root-android/#ixzz2iUbxeF5M

Published: October 17th, 2013 at 12:10 pm ET
By ENENews


Alexandra Morton’s Blog, Oct. 11, 2013: [...] The sockeye returns to the Skeena watershed in northern British Columbia crashed this year. This was completely unexpected. Sockeye salmon returns have plunged to historic lows in the Skeena River system of northwestern British Columbia, forcing drastic, never-before-imposed fishing closures. [...] massive numbers were dying before spawning. This is a Fraser sockeye problem. This is called prespawn mortality (PSM). [...] Now, the Skeena sockeye appear to be exhibiting a similar characteristic. [...] On the first day we came across a First Nation fishery and found pink salmon that were a deep, canary yellow [...] parts of their hearts are yellow, their gill arches and spines are yellow, the cartilage in their head is yellow. Their spleens are swollen and enlarged, and their livers are spotted. In some cases their eyes were bugged out. Guys who have fished this region their whole lives told me they have seen the occasional yellow salmon over the years, but never in the numbers seen this year. [...]http://enenews.com/biologist-finds-pink-salmon-that-are-canary-yellow-on-canadas-pacific-coast-insides-also-yellow-heart-parts-gill-arches-spines-cartilage-in-head-spleens-swollen-livers-spotted-some-with

In recent months, sunny Arizona has been the scene of a shady dark money-fueled battle pitting Arizona's largest electricity utility against the burgeoning solar power industry. Over the weekend, the fight took an interesting turn: The utility, the Arizona Public Service Company (APS), outed itself as a funder of two secretive nonprofits fueling the anti-solar fight—and revealed that it had funneled its anti-solar money through a political operative associated with the Koch brothers and their donor network.

Follow that? Some backstory might help.

The fight between APS and the solar industry concerns an issue called net metering. The way net metering works, private consumers who use solar panels can transfer extra energy they generate back to the power grid; the credits they receive for that excess energy, proponents argue, make solar an economical and smart choice for energy generation. APS wants changes to the net metering program that would, in effect, add $50 to $100 a month to power bills of solar users. That additional money, solar companies argue, would make solar power look uneconomical and do serious damage to the industry's business.

Earlier this year, a coalition of solar companies, including SolarCity and Sunrun, launched TUSK (short for "Tell Utilities Solar won't be Killed&quot and hired Barry Goldwater Jr., the son of the onetime presidential candidate, to fight the net metering changes. TUSK accused APS of being anti-solar and trying to kill the burgeoning solar energy industry. In response, a pair of secretly funded nonprofit groups began running ads on TV, radio, and online calling net metering credits "corporate welfare" and comparing SolarCity and Sunrun to Solyndra, the solar panel company that accepted $500 million in government loans and then went bankrupt.
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/10/arizona-solar-dark-money-aps-net-metering-sean-noble?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Motherjones%2Fmojoblog+%28MotherJones.com+|+MoJoBlog%29

Alexander Litvinenko was a former officer of the Russian Federal Security Service, FSB and KGB, who fled from court prosecution in Russia and received political asylum in the United Kingdom. According to his wife and father, he was working for MI6 and MI5 after receiving the asylum.

Upon his arrival to London, he continued to support the Russian oligarch in exile, Boris Berezovsky, in his media campaign against the Russian government.

In the UK, Litvinenko became a journalist for a Chechen separatist site, Chechenpress. Litvinenko wrote two books, Blowing up Russia: Terror from within and Lubyanka Criminal Group, where he accused the Russian secret services of staging Russian apartment bombings and other terrorism acts to bring Vladimir Putin to power.

On 1 November 2006, Litvinenko suddenly fell ill and was hospitalized. He died three weeks later, becoming the first confirmed victim of lethal polonium-210-induced acute radiation syndrome. According to doctors, "Litvinenko's murder represents an ominous landmark: the beginning of an era of nuclear terrorism".

Litvinenko's allegations about the misdeeds of the FSB and his public deathbed accusations that Russian president Vladimir Putin were behind his unusual malady resulted in worldwide media coverage.

The Russian government prevented the Polish president's plane from landing four times to divert him from a ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre, according to an MP.

Artur Gorski said the Russians 'came up with some dubious reasons' that the aircraft couldn't land because they feared President Leck Kaczynski's presence would overshadow a similar event hosted by the Russian prime minister a few days before.

And their alleged plan ended in disaster when the Polish pilots made one final and disastrous attempt to land, killing Mr Kaczynski, his wife, and 94 others on board the plane.
The coffin of Polish president Lech Kaczynski is laid out at the Presidential Palace chapel in Warsaw, Poland

Memorial: The coffin of Polish president Lech Kaczynski is laid out at the Presidential Palace chapel in Warsaw, Poland

'One version of events says that the plane approached the airport four times, because every time the Russians refused it permission to land - they wanted to send the plane with the president to an airport in Moscow or Minsk,' Mr Gorski claimed in an interview published in the newspaper Nasz Dziennik.

'They came up with some dubious reasons: that there was fog over the airport, and that the navigation system didn't work as it was under renovation, and that airport had a short landing strip.'
Enlarge Polish air crash

Scene: This satellite image provided by DigitalGlobe shows the site, lower right, of a Tu-154 plane crash outside of Smolensk, Russia
Captain Arkadiusz Protasiuk

The pilot: Captain Arkadiusz Protasiuk was flying the Polish presidential plane that crashed near Smolensk airport

The claims were made as shocking new details emerged of the final minutes of the flight before it crashed into a Russian forest on Saturday morning.

One of the Russian air traffic controllers involved in the tragedy said he believes the Polish air force pilot Arkadiusz Protasiuk, 36, was under severe pressure 'to land at any cost' so that the president would not miss the commemoration of the death of 22,000 Poles slaughtered by Stalin.

But he claims there were also serious language problems between the control tower at the military airport near Smolensk and the crew as the aircraft began its descent, and final approach, 'without our permission'.

The crew failed to report to the ground their altitude readings, said Colonel Anatoly Muraviev, a former pilot.

He believes the captain 'was desperate to land because of the high ranking passengers he was carrying. It killed both the crew and the passengers.'

NATO members' state flags fly at half-mast during an extraordinary meeting of the North Atlantic Council of Nato in Brussels to express its condolences to Poland

Mark of respect: NATO members' state flags fly at half-mast during an extraordinary meeting in Brussels to express its condolences to Poland

It was known that Mr Kaczynski once fired a flight crew when they refused to land at Tbilisi - and flew to another airport, he said.

'Now try to imagine yourself in chief pilot's shoes. Fear, false shame, thinking that going to another airport is a disgrace - all this led to the fact that the crew died and killed all the others. I am a former pilot myself, I understand all this very well.'

The tapes of the conversations with the flight crew have not been released - so it is unclear if there is specific evidence of an order to the captain from either the president or the military top brass on board.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown adds his name to the book of condolence

Prime Minister Gordon Brown adds his name to the book of condolence, accompanied by his wife Sarah

Polish investigators said they will probe whether there were 'any suggestions made to the pilots' from other people aboard the plane.

Colonel Muraviev claimed there were a number of specific causes of the crash - 'weather conditions, maybe a mistake of the pilot who did not watch his altitude, and also the pilot's wish to land at any cost'.

He said the controllers and flight crew stumbled in Russian and broken English to understand each other in the final decisive seconds of the flight.

Col Muraviev claimed that the fog 'was worsening' as the Polish president's plane came into land. One flight had landed earlier but another had been redirected to Moscow.
A minute's silence is observed during the NATO meeting for the 96 killed in the plane crash

Poignant: A minute's silence is observed during the NATO meeting for the 96 killed in the plane crash

Of Kaczynski's flight, he said: 'At first it was descending OK, according to the rules, no problems. Soon our air traffic controllers began to worry. The head of our group three times ordered the pilots to stop this attempt to land, and try one more time, while also preparing to fly to another airport because of bad visibility.

'The crew did not listen to him. So the traffic control warned them about bad visibility and the necessity to fly to another airport.

'The crew did not obey, so the controllers had only one thing to do - to carry on leading in the plane and see what happens. There was only one attempt to land and the plane crashed.'

Because it was a civilian flight, they did not have the authority to order them to another airport, he said.

He said 'mainly we spoke Russian to the crew, partly bad English. Understanding was hard.'

The Polish pilots 'began to land without our permission' and 'did not report to us with their altitude data', he added.

Another controller Pavel Plyusnin confirmed the understanding was '50-50' as the plane approached its tragic end.

'It was hard to guess here if the pilot understood us properly,' said Col Muraviev. 'The language barrier did not help of course. I think it could have affected the result of this flight along with other circumstances.'

The Polish air force yesterday defended father-of-two Captain Protasiuk, saying he 'often flew with the president and other VIPs'.

A spokesman said it was 'ruled out' that the president could have forced the pilot to land at Smolensk.

The body of Poland's first lady Maria Kaczynska was identified yesterday by her wedding ring - with her husband's name inscribed on the inside - and the colour of her finger nails. Many of the bodies are so badly mangled they will require DNA matching.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1265482/Leck-Kaczynski-Russia-engineered-plane-crash-claims-Polish-MP.html#ixzz2iJX7LugV
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The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) is a trade association of the food industry.[1] It represents the world's largest branded food, beverage and consumer product companies.

Board of directors
Chair

Gary Rodkin, CEO of ConAgra Foods.[5]

Vice-Chair

Ken Powell, Chairman and CEO of General Mills.[5]

Treasurer/Secretary

William B. Cyr, President and CEO of Sunny Delight Beverages.[5]

Members

Jeffrey Ansell, Chairman, President and CEO of Sun Products.[5]
J.P. Bilbrey, President and CEO of The Hershey Company.[5]
J.S. Brown III, President and CEO of Bruce Foods.[5]
John Bryant, President and CEO of Kellogg Company.[5]
Mark Clouse, President for North America of Mondelēz International.[5]
Sean Connolly, CEO of Hillshire Brands.[5]
Brian C. Cornell, CEO of Pepsico Americas Foods.[5]
James R. Craigie, Chairman and CEO of Church & Dwight.[5]
George E. Deese, Chairman and CEO of Flowers Foods.[5]
J. Alexander M. Douglas Jr., President for North America of The Coca-Cola Company.[5][6]
Brian J. Driscoll, CEO of Diamond Foods, Inc.[5]
Stanley K. Dunbar, President and CEO of Moody Dunbar.[5]
Gregg L. Engles, Chairman and CEO of Dean Foods.[5]
Jeffrey M. Ettinger, Chairman, President and CEO of Hormel.[5]
Tom Ferriter, President and CEO of Bush Brothers and Company.[5]
Joseph E. Gallo, President and CEO of E & J Gallo Winery.[5]
Robert J. Gamgort, CEO of Pinnacle Foods.[5]
David N. Geise, Chairman and CEO of Furmano Foods.[5]
William G. Gisel Jr., President and CEO of Rich Products.[5]
Paul Grimwood, Chairman and CEO of Nestlé USA, Inc.[5]
Kenneth E. Guise Jr., President and CEO of Knouse Foods.[5]
James B. Hannan, CEO and President of Georgia-Pacific.[5]
Melanie L. Healey, Group President for North America of Procter & Gamble Company.[5]
Kevin J. Hunt, President and CEO of Ralston Foods.[5]
Bradley C. Irwin, President and CEO of Welch's.[5]
William R. Johnson, Chairman, President and CEO of the H.J. Heinz Company.[5]
Donald R. Knauss, Chairman and CEO of Clorox.[5]
Kees Kruythoff, President for North America for Unilever.[5]
Christopher D. Lischewski, President and CEO of Bumble Bee Foods.[5]
Reid V. MacDonald, President and CEO of Faribault Foods.[5]
Apu Mody, President for North America of Mars, Incorporated.[5]
John S. Morgan, Chairman and CEO of Morgan Foods.[5]
Denise M. Morrison, President and CEO of Campbell Soup Company.[5]
Gregory R. Page, Chairman and CEO of Cargill.[5]
Randy C. Papadellis, President and CEO of Ocean Spray.[5]
Clement Pappas, CEO of Clement Pappas.[5]
Christopher J. Policinski, President and CEO of Land O'Lakes.[5]
C. Larry Pope, President and CEO of Smithfield Foods.[5]
Gary J. Prince, President of Bimbo Bakeries USA.[5]
Richard K. Smucker, CEO of The J.M. Smucker Co..[5]
Thomas Stokes, President and CEO of Tree Top, Inc..[5]
W. Anthony Vernon, President for North America of Kraft Foods.[5]
David J. West, President and CEO of Del Monte Foods.[5]
Alan D. Wilson, Chairman, President and CEO of McCormick & Company.[5]
David J. Yanda, President and CEO of Lakeside Foods.[5]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grocery_Manufacturers_Association

Imagine if a prestigious group announced that this year’s “World Environmental Prize” will be awarded to BP for its unique contribution to the ecology of the Gulf of Mexico. Too absurd, you say?

Right, but try this one: An Iowa group announces that the “World Food Prize” will go to Monsanto for pushing its patented, pricey, genetically-tampered Frankenseeds on impoverished lands as an “answer” to global hunger. This would be so morally perverse that the “cyn” in cynical would be spelled S.I.N. Yet, it’s actually happening.

Rather than encouraging sustainable farming and self-sufficiency in impoverished communities as a way to alleviate poverty and malnutrition, the World Food Prize has been “won” by a profiteering, biotech, seed-and-chemical monopolist that’s the freakish opposite of sustainability. Monsanto is globally infamous for bullying family farmers, bribing and corrupting governments, stiffing independent scientific inquiries into its hokum, running false ads and fraudulent PR campaigns, and going all out to keep consumers from knowing that the crops produced by its seeds contain alien, bioengineered DNA and have not been tested for longterm health and environmental problems.

Why would this avaricious outfit get any sort of award, much less one that can give it a false legitimacy as a corporate “savior” for the world’s poor? Perhaps because Monsanto is a major funder of the World Food Prize. Indeed, the foundation that hands out the award is headquartered in downtown Des Moines in a historic building that recently got a spiffy remodeling, thanks to a $5 million donation from – you guessed it – Monsanto.

How cynical is that? Even Lily Tomlin wouldn’t have imagined it.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20131017/OPINION01/310170035/Bonus-column-Monsanto-buys-a-food-prize?Opinion