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After a dismal May jobs report, U.S. stocks had their worst day in 2012, erasing the gains for the year and touching lows for a number of benchmarks.

 The S&P 500 index fell nearly 2.5 percent to 1,278 as the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell over 2.8 percent to 2,747. The Nasdaq had its worst start to June on a point basis ever. The Dow Jones industrial average fell over 2.2 percent to 12,117.

Paul Larson, chief equities strategist with investment firm Morningstar, said while investor anxiety has sprung from a number of sources of late, today's jobs report tipped the scales toward red.

 The Labor Department reported the U.S. economy added 69,000 jobs in May, fewer than the 150,000 many economists had expected, and the unemployment rate rose to 8.2 percent.

 Concern about Europe's debt crisis and whether Greece will leave the euro zone currency union have clouded the U.S. economic recovery for the past several months.

 "The market is on edge beacuse of that and today we find that the economic recovery here in the  United States while still progressing, is recovering quite anemically," Larson said.

For the second time in as many years, computer security experts have hailed the discovery of a new cyber weapon as one that could change the face of cyber warfare forever.

 Flame, publicly disclosed earlier this week and found in dozens of computers in Iran and the Middle East, is thought to be the biggest cyber espionage program ever, capable of recording just about everything that is done on an infected system, all while staying hidden from the user. Before that, Stuxnet, an offensive cyber weapon found in 2010, was reportedly powerful enough to cause physical damage to an Iranian nuclear facility - a feat that had never been accomplished before. Both of these cyber weapons, experts estimate, cost millions of dollars and many years in research and development, most likely under the direction of some nation's intelligence agency.


But as for how to get that advanced code loaded onto the right computers, some of the best hackers in the world may have been forced to rely on a decidedly low-tech but generally dependable ally: human carelessness.

 A super cyber weapon is no good if it can't get to the target networks and to do that sometimes requires a window to be left open by either a spy on the inside or, more commonly, regular rubes who don't realize they're opening their systems up to a world of hurt.

 As The New York Times reported today, in Stuxnet's case, the powerful worm had to get into the Iranian nuclear facility's system, but the system was air gapped - meaning it was not connected to any outside networks - so there was no way to hack it directly. Instead, someone would have to physically bring the worm in, either on purpose or without knowing it.

 "That was our holy grail," one of the people involved in the Stuxnet operation told The Times. "It turns out there is always an idiot around who doesn't think much about the thumb drive in their hand."

 According to Liam O Murchu, operations manager for the security response team at the U.S.-based cyber security firm Symantec and one of the first to analyze the Stuxnet code, that's likely just how it happened: Someone who had been tricked into downloading Stuxnet onto their personal computer unknowingly transferred the malware to a thumb drive and then, after heading to work at the supposedly secure Iranian facility, plugged the thumb drive into the internal network, letting Stuxnet loose to wreak its havoc - all without knowing a thing was wrong.


Similarly, reports by several international cyber security firms said that analysis of the Flame code suggests it's designed in part to be able to transfer secretly from one network to another by thumb drive as well.

 But carelessness when it comes to thumb drives is not reserved for overseas users. Last June, the Department of Homeland Security ran a test in which it secretly dumped computer discs and thumb drives into the parking lots of U.S. government buildings and private contractors, according to a Bloomberg report. The test found that 60 percent of people who picked up the devices plugged them into their office computers - potentially compromising the entire internal network. If the drive or CD had an official seal on it, the number shot up to 90 percent plugged in.

 Beyond thumb drives, O Murchu said one of the most popular ways hackers attempt to gain access to a network through human error is by spear phishing, a method in which the hacker specifically targets an individual and poses as a friend or colleague in an attempt to trick him or her into downloading a compromised file, usually in the form of an email attachment. It's this way that Duqu, another highly sophisticated espionage program believed to be closely linked to Stuxnet, was able to spread throughout computers in Europe when it was discovered last October, O'Murchu said.

 It's also the method the DHS said earlier this month was being used by a foreign power for months as they targeted the control systems for American gas pipelines. In November, the U.S. State Department reported it had experienced a 35 percent increase in "spear phishing and/or malicious email traffic" over just the year before.

 All this is evidence, O Murchu said, that attackers are increasingly relying on the "human aspects" of cyber attacks, rather than targeting the systems directly, and reiterates a mantra that O Murchu and some other cyber security experts have been repeating for years: no matter how sophisticated the attack or how capable the defenses, the weakest link in cyber security is often the human at the keyboard.

The soundtrack of Anurag Kashyap's Gangs Of Wasseypur is a strikingly flavourful and headily authentic collection of quirky music, writes Raja Sen.



The music review for Anurag Kashyap's magnum opus Gangs Of Wasseypur should have been up on Wednesday, but blame it on Sneha Khanwalkar.

The strikingly talented composer, working with Kashyap after having lent her musical voice to all three of Dibakar Banerjee's prior ventures, threw up a track about a third of the way into Wasseypur that derailed me entirely; a track I couldn't help but loop. But first, the start:

Jiya Tu is a bouncy track built on a riff repeated over and over pretty effectively, and while it seems ordinary at the start, the atmospherics are strongly flavoured and the track is versatile enough to make you wonder just how Kashyap might picture it.
I imagine it'll underscore a gunfight.

Track 2 is Hunter, the Chutney track, a folksy half-Calypso song which scores because of the racy lyrics about The Hunter's 'really long gun', but both song and words gain a lot more impetus when the song shifts gears briefly into Hindi. O Womaniya (Live) caught me by surprise -- primarily because of the vocal bellow it tees off with, and then that crazy O-Womaniya chorus rides in -- but the song doesn't, at first listen, impress as dramatically, perhaps (and ironically enough) because of the authentically unpolished voices.

And there it is that the album halts midway and I spend the rest of the day and night looping one song over and over. Keh Ke Loonga, introduced to me a night ago at a brilliant party, is even better in the cold harsh light of day, when you can observe Piyush Mishra's fantastic lyrics more closely.

Keh Ke Loonga -- something I'd roughly translate to I'll Tell You Before I Make You Bend Over -- gallops on a haunting, kicking bassline, with the reins handled by two singer-composers who get the words as perfectly as can be. Sneha herself sings along with old Kashyap fave Amit Trivedi, and both playfully coax Mishra's serrated-edged verse out of each other.

"Bicchhoo se honth kata ke / lori jehreeli ga ke." Vicious lines. Yet even if you don't hear a word, Khanwalkar outdoes herself with this one -- and the chorus is a smash. What a winner.

Bhoos starts off like an odd lament, and then segues abruptly -- and most entertainingly -- into a joyous folk ditty with genuine energy and frantic harmoniums. Piyush Mishra then shows up to dazzle with the wonderfully old-world Ik Bagal, a gorgeously metaphorical song about blanketing oneself from moonlight with rotis. It's a spectacular track, a lullaby that looks to a bright tomorrow. Timeless magic, this.

Bhaiyya, performed by The Musahar Of Sundarpur, is set to a trippy groove. Then comes Sneha again with Tain Tain To Tu, an irresistible, hypersilly track, an inspired bit of pure cacophony. The chin-chin highlights the rawness of Soona Kar Ke Gharwa, which flows nicely into the fun spoken-word start of Aye Jawanon. Womaniya is next, and while the bass thump is very welcome, the live version works better.

Manmauji is quite beautiful in its whimsy, channeling SD Burman even as the lyrics get frisky. Things get good and chartbustery with Loonga Loonga, and while it feels too long, the repeated Keh Ke Loonga chorus implies Kashyap will use it as a reprise or montage.

Humni Ke Chhodi Ke ends the album on a suitably folksy note.

Khanwalkar's worked hard on this extremely versatile album, and it bloody well shows. It's a strikingly flavourful and headily authentic collection of quirky music, often too grubby for our ears now used to such overprocessed pap. Granted, some of it seems too raw to appreciate at first go -- unlike Khanwalkar's deliciously accessible Oye Lucky Lucky Oye, for example -- but clearly Kashyap and Khanwalkar have prioritised authenticity and flavour above all else, and for this -- and the very scale of the album's ambition -- they must be commended.

Can't wait to see what Kashyap does with this bizarre, brilliant soundtrack, but till then we can loop Keh Ke Loonga a few dozen more times.

Director Rupert Sanders does an impressive job of weaving an old school fairytale with modern day sensibilities with his first film Snowhite And The Huntsman, writes Sukanya Verma.


'Someday my prince will come...'


I can still recall how the syrupy texture of Adriana Caselotti's fanciful aspirations, surrounded by seven attentive dwarves, filled up the cheerful frames of the Disney classic, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Snow White's romantic impulses are so deeply imbued in our psyche; you little expect her to be anything else but a frail and fair picture of adorability at its acutest.

Now to be fair, always the operative word in her case, to the Princess, she's only a child (seven in the original tale and not more than 13 in Disney's version) and it's unreasonable to expect her to do anything beyond wishful thinking. Too bad she wasn't born out of Hayao Miyazaki's imagination. Her original creators, Germany's Brothers Grimm, wrote the tale with little subtext but strong undercurrents of darkness, which even in its meticulously translated skin are hard to miss. Even Disney, known to create a child-friendly experience, is unrelenting in presenting the unsightly facet of the beauty-obsessed Queen/Witch.

But, what if, Snow White was held captive till she blossomed into a wilful adult, escaped the clutches of her ruthless step-mother, fashioned an action-packed fellowship that would make Tolkien smile (and Grimms' squee) and put off the need for any romantic gratification to achieve her mandatory target of a happily ever-after?

The possibility appears to have paid a visit to Writer Evan Daugherty and so he, along with co-writers John Lee Hancock and Hossein Amini weaves an old school fairytale with modern-day sensibilities that respects the enchantment of yore yet creates enough room to accommodate a brand new definition of 'fair.' The iconic elements remain unchanged -- a talking mirror with a final authority on good looks, a tempting apple that kills at first bite and, but of course, the CPR of every fairytale -- true love's first kiss.

There's something exciting to build upon here and director Rupert Sanders accomplishes quite an impressive bit in his first feature film. There are two ways of reimagining a classic fairytale. Either ridicules its very premise with humour, make light of it (as seen just a few weeks back in Julia Roberts-starrer Mirror, Mirror) or embrace in all seriousness and paint in the severest shades of grim.

Snow White and the Huntsman takes the latter approach but its kineticism isn't akin to the showy appeal of obvious blockbusters. The pace is unhurried, exchange between characters is meaningful and if you're paying attention, like the good dwarfs I spoke of above, Snow White's aggression will not seem abrupt, Huntsman's concealed tenderness will strike some chord and the Evil Queen's roots of resentment will open up to you albeit in hushed tones.


Queen Ravenna, played by Charlize Theron, with calculated frostiness and simmering sensuality, is a victim of her own insecurities. At an impressionable age, she was conditioned to believe her good looks are her lifelong weapon. And so she seeks it in permanence with black magic and bloody deeds.  Through fleeting flashbacks and telltale dialogues, Sanders makes an appreciable effort to humanise her somewhat. At the same, her pointy claws, murderous eyes, violent tone and creepy interactions with her creepier brother Finn (Sam Spruell) ensure she's above mercy. Theron's character, often begs for a little wryness, to lend it a dimension that's more than one.

Then again, Snow White and the Huntsman, doesn't really entertain any form of wit in its stern-faced spectacle. The lack of which is, to some extent, made up the glorious visuals it conjures, scene after scene. Whether the setting is a real spot of nature or technology-generated wizardry, magnificent treats welcome one's eyes. Be it the gloomy isolation of a cursed castle, eerie course of the fierce dark woods or the spellbinding enchantment of spotting a forest filled with trolls, fairies and mystical beasts, there's not one dull visual in this fantasy. Guess attractive packaging is a given in a subject whose very theme is the supremacy of beauty.

Speaking of which, Kristen Stewart is a pleasant face, whether you deem her gorgeous or otherwise is individual perception.  She portrays Snow White with awe and regard and embodies her goodness and spirit as her prime weapons. Survival is her nature; she comes back from the dead, doesn't she? Having seen her father's stabbed corpse and faced her Step-Mother/Ravenna's wrath, locked in a remote tower for years and years, she's developed the soul of a saint and the will of a shark.

Stewart realises she doesn't have the physicality of Angelina Jolie's Lara Croft nor the charisma of Charlize Theron. She plays it like a nervous, eager underdog on the offensive. Her show of bravado, unfortunately, comes a little too late in the day in a plot consumed by several twists, some ingenious ones too, and a tempo that should have accelerated in the third act.


As for the men on Snow White's side, there is no Prince or Charming. Instead you got -- the obligatory dwarfs (played by calibre like Bob Hoskins, Ray Winstone, Toby Jones) deliver the goods but aren't likely to replace the memory of Happy, Doc, Grumpy or Dopey. The Hunstman (Chris Hemsworth), with a meatier role and some groovy action to do, has a heftier share of the frame whereas the soft spoken Duke's son (Sam Claflin) has a few moments of his own before he's relegated to a friendly post. Naturally, Hemsworth wins this round. He throws in a Thor-like presence sans the arrogance, hygiene or hammer. Armed with an axe and gravelly baritone, he's the proverbial Teddy stuffed with consideration and compassion for Snow White.

But there's no time for mushy glances and melodious songs (alright, maybe a couple) for a battle has to be fought. Fair and square.

Prabhudheva's 'Rowdy Rathore' is a typical masala film, packed with romance, drama, melodrama and lots of action. The film is loaded with Tamil-style punch lines, slow motion action sequences where blood quietly trickles on to dusty ground and menacing-looking villains who live in a Ramgarh-styled (remember, Sholay) haunt.

The protagonist is a smart small time conman who is ready to mend his ways when he falls in love. Just when he is ready to turn over a new leaf, he runs into a small girl who thinks he is her father and some goons who are people vying for his blood. A few chases and some confusion later, we realize that Shiva (our conman) has been mistaken for Vikram Singh Rathore, an upright and courageous police officer.


Prabhudheva manages to blend the many ingredients that can spice-up this potpourri. However, too much time is spent on the back story. We would much rather see more of Rowdy Rathore than a long tragic flashback.

Akshay Kumar in a double role returns to the action genre after quite a while. He is definitely much better in this film than the over-the-top comic roles that he has been doing lately. There is ample display of the very voluptuous Sonakshi Sinha's curves. While she has little more to do than look good and gyrate to strong pelvic thrusts, she does justice to her role.

If you have a high threshold for mindless nonsense then you must go and watch this movie. Its Akshay Kumar's 'Dabangg', may be not as much fun but definitely watchable.