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Source: http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20130720/FAMU02/307200032/1001/RSS
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Google CEO Larry Page this week revealed that more than 1.5 million Android devices are being activated each day, up from 1.3 million last September. The company previously announced that there were more than 900 million Android devices worldwide, which the executive said is ?pretty amazing given the first Android phone launched less than five years ago.? Google?s app marketplace has also seen unprecedented growth and Page revealed that over 50 billion apps have been downloaded from Google Play, or double the?25 billion apps the company reported last September. Google is expected to pass Apple?s App Store, which reached the same milestone in May, in total app downloads later this year or early next year. The executive also noted that even though it is only four years old, there are now more than 750 million Chrome users worldwide. Google disappointed Wall Street with its second-quarter results, however, reporting earnings of?$9.56 per share on revenues of $14.11 billion.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheBoyGeniusReport/~3/VBLp86bIfCM/
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Truth rating: 10
3:03 pm, July 13th, 2013
(Getty Images)
Amanda Bynes is obsessed with several things ? calling people ugly, losing weight, getting plastic surgery ? but lately her fake hair has been of particular interest.
Earlier this week, the troubled actress showed up for a court date?wearing a blue wig, and after a producer for ?The View? claimed to have watched Bynes eat soup at a New York restaurant, the star blasted the rumor an outlets who were ?putting up fake videos of random girls in wigs posing as me.?
Late Friday, Bynes commented on her current appearance in typically questionable fashion:
not having hair makes me feel like a cancer patient
? amanda bynes (@amandabynes) July 13, 2013
Given that Bynes has previously dropped casual references to Parkinson?s disease and Down syndrome, we can?t say we?re entirely surprised.
Follow?@GossipCop on Twitter!
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Source: http://www.gossipcop.com/amanda-bynes-bald-cancer-patient-no-hair-wig/
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Remember Superleague Formula, where racing cars ran in the liveries of famous football teams? Well imagine the opposite, where Formula One teams had their own football teams. That?s what ajokay, the guy behind the brilliant Circuit Britain, has come up with in these cool concept kits.
Click below to see Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren, Lotus and Mercedes FC.
via
ajokay
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) ? Doctors Without Borders warned Tuesday that rising intellectual property rights are blocking the generic production of newer drugs to treat HIV and are keeping them out of reach for developing countries.
The medical aid group said at an international AIDS meeting here that prices of older drugs long used to treat patients have fallen sharply as India and other countries make generics. But newer drugs that are more effective against the AIDS virus are too expensive, costing up to 15 times more.
"It's good news that the price of key HIV drugs continues to fall as more generic companies compete for the market, but the newer medicines are still priced far too high," said Jennifer Cohn, medical director for Doctors Without Borders' access campaign. "We need the newer treatments for people that have exhausted all other options, but patents keep them priced beyond reach."
Patients can be treated with a combination of three or four older drugs, but those who develop resistance to them need the expensive newer medicines.
According to Doctors Without Borders, the governments of Thailand and Jamaica pay $4,760 and $6,570, respectively, a year per patient for the new drug darunavir alone. Paraguay pays $7,782 for etravirine, while Armenia pays $13,213 for raltegravir. In comparison, a cocktail of older generic drugs costs as little as $139 per person a year.
Doctors Without Borders urged the United States and 11 other countries negotiating a Trans-Pacific Partnership not to sign the free-trade pact. It warned that the pact will increase intellectual property rights across Asia and the Americas, expanding monopoly protection for medicines and threatening cheap access to drugs.
It said the World Health Organization's new guidelines, which recommend earlier treatment for adults, means that an additional 9 million people in developing countries will now be eligible for treatment. At the moment, only about 60 percent of those who need the drugs are getting them.
"Scaling up HIV treatment and sustaining people on treatment for life will depend on bringing the price of newer drugs down," said Arax Bozadijan, an HIV pharmacist for Doctors Without Borders.
The Trans-Pacific pact countries account for nearly 40 percent of global GDP and about a third of world trade, and any agreement could significantly impact prices. President Barack Obama's administration has said it hopes to wrap up talks by the end of the year.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/doctors-patents-keep-hiv-drugs-too-pricy-081915859.html
SANFORD, Fla. (AP) ? A prosecutor began opening statements in George Zimmerman's trial with obscene words the neighborhood watch volunteer whispered under his breath while following 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.
Prosecutor John Guy's first words to jurors Monday were the "f-word" followed by "punks." He was quoting from a call Zimmerman made to a police dispatcher as he followed Martin through the gated community where he lived.
Guy then recounted how Zimmerman followed Martin, a confrontation ensued and Martin was fatally shot in the chest.
Zimmerman is pleading not guilty to second-degree murder, claiming self-defense.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/prosecutor-opens-zimmermans-obscenity-135419217.html
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For 26 years, forests around Chernobyl have been absorbing radioactive elements but a fire would send them skyward again ? a concern as summers grow longer, hotter and drier
Chernobyl reactor Nos. 5 and 6 were under construction at the time of the No. 4 explosion and remain frozen in time. But forests in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone have been absorbing radioactive elements since the 1986 accident, and scientists fear a wildfire could trigger another release. Image: Flickr/Matt Shalvatis
Showcasing more than fifty of the most provocative, original, and significant online essays from 2011, The Best Science Writing Online 2012 will change the way...
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CHERNOBYL, Ukraine ? Most days Nikolay Ossienko patrols the forests surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, clearing brush and dead trees from the grid of fuel breaks that crisscross the 1,000-square-mile area. But on hot July afternoons, when black thunderheads loom on the horizon, he climbs a rusty ladder 75 feet up a rickety fire tower. When he spots smoke, he radios the six other towers to pinpoint the location, then trucks off to the blaze.
"Our number one job is to save the forest from fire," said Ossienko, a burly, blue-eyed Ukrainian whose warm smile winks with a missing tooth.
It?s a job with international consequences. For almost three decades the forests around the shuttered nuclear power plant have been absorbing contamination left from the 1986 reactor explosion. Now climate change and lack of management present a troubling predicament: If these forests burn, strontium 90, cesium 137, plutonium 238 and other radioactive elements would be released, according to an analysis of the human health impacts of wildfire in Chernobyl's exclusion zone conducted by scientists in Germany, Scotland, Ukraine and the United States.
This contamination would be carried aloft in the smoke as inhalable aerosols, that 2011 study concluded.
And instead of being emitted by a single reactor, the radioactive contamination would come from trees that cover some 660 square miles around the plant, said Sergiy Zibtsev, a Ukrainian forestry professor who has been studying these irradiated forests for 20 years.
"There's really no question," he added. "If Chernobyl forests burn, contaminants would migrate outside the immediate area. We know that."
Overcrowded pines
Combined with changes in climate, these overcrowded pines are a prescription for wildfire. In their assessment of the potential risks of a worst-case fire, Zibtsev and the team of international scientists concluded that much of the Chernobyl forest is "in high danger of burning."
Zibtsev has been worrying about catastrophic wildfire in Chernobyl since witnessing runaway wildland fires in the western United States while on a Fulbright Scholarship in 2005. He has watched the threat get worse each passing year. Rainfall in the region is decreasing and seasonal droughts are lasting longer, changes Zibtsev attributes to climate change. Scientists say these patterns of drier and longer summers are contributing to forest drying and increased insect attacks.
The predominantly pine forests themselves are part of the problem. After the explosion ? the worst nuclear accident in human history ? the area surrounding the power plant was evacuated, the fields and forests abandoned. To keep the contamination from moving beyond the area known as the "zone of alienation," the Ukraine government forbade all commercial activity. For forests, this meant a halt to logging, thinning and removing dead trees. While most of Ukraine boasts woodlands that are carefully manicured, the Chernobyl forests have grown into unmanaged thickets with dense brush below and lifeless canopies above.
The risk of fire in these forests has concerned scientists since 1992, a drought year when more than 65 square miles of forests burned. They know that these ecosystems are trapping radionuclides and slowly redistributing them in soil and vegetation, a process called "self-repair." In some places the contamination level is the same as it was in 1986, most of it in the top 10 centimeters of the soil. Absorbing cesium, plutonium and strontium helps contain radionuclides within the exclusion zone, but it dramatically heightens the alarm over wildfire.
Two-acre test fire
A 2002 test fire offers insight on the scope of the radioactive risk. Set to assess plume and radionuclide behavior, the two-acre ground fire near the failed power plant released up to five percent of the cesium and strontium in the biomass. A high-intensity crown fire would release much higher amounts than burning needles and leaf litter, said Vasyl Yoschenko, who set the fire and heads the radioecological monitoring laboratory at the Ukrainian Institute of Agricultural Radiology. Other studies predict that the fine particles emitted from a forest fire could be transported hundreds of miles away.
Source: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=at-chernobyl-radioactive-danger-lurks-in-the-trees
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By P.J. Huffstutter
CHICAGO (Reuters) - A swine virus deadly to young pigs, and never before seen in North America, has spiked to 199 sites in 13 states - nearly double the number of farms and other locations from earlier this month.
Iowa, the largest U.S. hog producer, has the most sites testing positive for Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus: 102 sites, as of June 10. The state raises on average 30 million hogs each year, according to the Iowa Pork Producers Association.
PEDV, most often fatal to very young pigs, causes diarrhea, vomiting and dehydration. It also sickens older hogs, though their survival rate tends to be high.
The total number of pig deaths from the outbreak since the first cases were confirmed May 17 is not known.
Researchers at veterinarian diagnostic labs, who are testing samples as part of a broad investigation into the outbreak, have seen a substantial increase in positive cases since early June, when data on the PEDV outbreak showed it at some 103 sites nationwide.
The data was compiled and released last week by Iowa State University, University of Minnesota, Kansas State University and South Dakota State University.
The virus does not pose a health risk to humans or other animals and the meat from PEDV-infected pigs is safe for people to eat, according to federal officials and livestock economists.
But the virus, which is spreading rapidly across the United States, is proving harder to control than previously believed. In addition to Iowa, Oklahoma has 38 positive sites, Minnesota has 19 and Indiana has 10, according to the data.
PEDV has also been diagnosed in Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and South Dakota.
Swine veterinarians, investigators with the U.S. Agriculture Department and others are trying to determine how the virus is spreading from farm to farm and state to state. Currently the focus is on the nation's livestock transportation system.
PEDV is spread most commonly by pigs ingesting contaminated feces. Investigators are studying physical transmission, such as truck trailers marred with contaminated feces, or a person wearing dirty boots or with dirty nails.
While the virus has not tended to kill older pigs, mortality among very young pigs infected in U.S. farms is commonly 50 percent, and can be as high at 100 percent, say veterinarians and scientists who are studying the outbreak.
The strain of the PEDV virus that is making its way across the nation's hog farms and slaughterhouses is 99.4 percent similar in genetic structure to the PEDV that hit China's herds last year, according to the U.S. researchers.
After PEDV was first diagnosed in China in 2010, it overran southern China and killed more than 1 million piglets, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal.
No direct connection has been found between the U.S. outbreak and previously identified outbreaks in Asia and Europe, say scientists and researchers.
(Reporting by P.J. Huffstutter. Additional reporter by Theopolis Waters.; Editing by Bob Burgdorfer)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/deadly-piglet-virus-spreads-nearly-200-u-farm-215056693.html
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RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) ? The new Palestinian prime minister submitted his resignation to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday, after two weeks on the job, because of a conflict over authority.
It was unclear if Rami Hamdallah, a former university dean, would step down or was using the threat of resignation to obtain more powers from Abbas.
Hamdallah's move signaled disarray in the Palestinian Authority, the self-rule government in parts of the West Bank, and is potentially embarrassing for Abbas.
Abbas received the resignation and will consider it, said Nabil Abu Rdeneh, an adviser to the president.
The prime minister heads the Palestinian Authority which handles day-to-day affairs of Palestinians.
Abbas is in charge overall and deals with diplomacy, particularly efforts to restart negotiations with Israel on the terms of a Palestinian state. Those talks broke down in 2008, but U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has been trying to restart them.
Hamdallah took office June 6 after unexpectedly being plucked by Abbas from a career in academia to replace internationally known Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who resigned in April. Abbas gave Hamdallah two deputies, one for political and one for economic affairs, apparently to make up for his lack of political experience.
Hamdallah's office said Thursday that he submitted his resignation to Abbas because of a "conflict over authority," but did not elaborate.
Abbas had frequently clashed with Fayyad, a political independent who served for six years and was respected by the West as a pragmatist. Leading figures of Abbas' Fatah movement clamored for Fayyad to be replaced, arguing that the prime minister should be close to Fatah. Hamdallah's appointment was seen as a bid by Abbas to consolidate power.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/palestinian-pm-submits-resignation-2-weeks-140603944.html
After being held captive for five days in Syria, NBC's Richard Engel and his team recount being ambushed and blindfolded before being freed at a checkpoint.?
NBC News producer Ghazi Balkiz and several colleagues were kidnapped and held for five days in Syria in December before escaping unharmed. Here is Balkiz's account of his time in captivity.
I heard him enter the room as I lay on the damp mattress on the floor in a cold room. Abu Jaffar paused and cocked his pistol. Then he knelt down and pushed the barrel hard against my head. The metal felt cold against my skin.
Abu Jaffar, whose face I have never seen because he was always wearing a black ski mask when we were not blindfolded, saw that the piece of cloth they used to bind my hands had come loose and thought I was trying to escape.
Now I've had guns put to my head before: once in Iraq in 2003 and another by Abu Jaffar himself just three days earlier. While I did not believe I was going to be shot those other two times, this time I did.
John Brecher / NBC News
Ghazi Balkiz, a London-based producer for NBC News who was held captive for five days in Syria, is seen here on assignment in Rome this week.
It was as if time slowed down and some sort of survival instinct kicked in; there was fear, a lot of it, but this was not the time to deal with it. I told myself that I had to be very careful about what I was going to say in the few seconds to come. This really was a matter of life and death.
I called out to my friend and colleague Ammar, who was kidnapped with us and who was acting as our translator, and through him I urged Abu Jaffar to listen to me before shooting. I explained that the cloth might have come loose because I was scratching my arms because I have psoriasis. I asked permission to sit up and show him, and then rolled up my sleeves and showed him the scars.
He took a look, inquired more about my skin condition and then said "I am sorry" in English and patted my head, which I thought was very condescending. He asked me if a shower would make me feel better.
That's how I ended up taking a shower a day before the rest of the guys kidnapped with me. I joke about this now, saying that this is probably the only time in my life psoriasis led to something good: a shower.
After the shower, I was given new clothes, including a really ugly beige cardigan that I ended up wearing on live television as soon as we crossed the border into Turkey after escaping. I have since received so many comments about this sweater ? none of them complimentary.
Our kidnappers asked me to sit down and talk to them, so I -- feeling fresh and clean after the shower -- talked with Abu Jaffar and another kidnapper named Zain. It was the first time I had had a conversation with two of our kidnappers. Once again my colleague and friend Ammar was our translator.
Over a pot of sweet tea and cigarettes, we talked about poetry. Abu Jaffar told us that he writes poetry. We also talked about what kind of music we each preferred; I told them I liked the Lebanese singer Fairouz.
NBC's Richard Engel and his production team made their homecoming late Thursday night. In their first in-depth interview since being freed, Engel and his team, including cameraman John Kooistra, producer Ghazi Balkiz and two other crew members, tell their story about spending five days in captivity in Syria and the trauma they survived. NBC's Savannah Guthrie reports.
"Like the morning coffee, it enters every house," Abu Jaffar said of her music.
This all sounds like some sort of a friends' gathering, hanging out and talking about life, only in this case, Ammar and I were sitting on the floor, still blindfolded and our hands tied.
This was on the fourth night of our kidnapping in Syria and in the second hide-out we were taken to by our kidnappers -- members of the feared and brutal "shabiha" pro-government militia.
During our conversation, Abu Jaffar talked about how beautiful his country was. He described sitting against a tree on a hill watching the sunset. He talked about the fresh and delicious produce from the farms around his village.
He said he never wanted to leave his country, and how if we had met in different circumstances, I would have seen how beautiful Syria really is. He said if there was no war, we might have even met.
We talked about our families. Abu Jaffar and Zain did not say much about theirs, but I told them about mine, about my parents and how worried they must be by now. I told them about my wife and how much she means to me, about my older brother and how honorable he is. I also told him about my late younger brother, the circumstances of his death and how it had devastated my parents.
I hoped my parents would never have to go through the death of another son again, I told Abu Jaffar.
NBC News
People resisting the army of President Bashar al-Assad in northern Syria cope with loss and prepare for fighting.
By telling them all this, I was trying to make our kidnappers see us as human beings who have people who love them, who have experienced happiness and grief. I thought this might make it harder for them to execute us.
That prompted Abu Jaffar to talk about destiny and fate. So I told them about Paulo Coelho's "The Alchemist" -- at least what I got out of it -- and about how Coelho wrote that understanding "Maktoob" is worth more than gold.
Muslims believe that everything that happens in this world has already been determined by God. "Maktoob" in Arabic means "Everything is written." My kidnappers said that everything they were going through, this war and all, has already been written.
We continued to talk. Unfortunately, I can't remember everything we talked about. Abu Jaffar and Zain also asked Ammar all kinds of questions. We were interrupted when another one of our kidnappers whose name I never got came back to the house. He was not happy that Ammar and I were in the living room.
Then there was the silence. I cannot really say that it was an awkward moment of silence; after all, the whole situation was awkward.
As we sat there in that silence, Abu Jaffar, Zain and another kidnapper whose name I never knew went and sat further away. They talked among themselves, asking each other questions like "How did it come to this? What happened to us that drove us to kidnap people and hold them against their will?" One of them referring to us asked rhetorically, "Don't they have families that are worried about them?"
Our kidnappers, it seems, had a human side after all.
Throughout our captivity, I did my best to hide my feelings of fear and helplessness from our captors. I kept telling myself that I needed to focus on when we get out and not if. I told myself to stay positive.
The mornings were the worst. Waking up cold in a cold room, body stiff. For the first few seconds I would be disoriented and ask myself, "Where am I?" Then the realization of where I was would sink in, and I'd sigh.
Machine guns operated by motorcycle brakes? Get a glimpse at the rebels fighting against Assad's forces in Syria's mountainous Jabal al-Zawiya area.
Time passed and events happened and during our last car ride with our kidnappers, we were rescued by a rebel group. Abu Jaffar and another one of captors in our vehicle were killed in the firefight that led to our freedom.
I am still alive and doing relatively well. I am reunited with my family and friends. But those five days of my life are going to live with me and my family forever.
When we as journalists go into the field, we know the risks we are taking. But I guess we, or at least I, always thought, "It is not going to happen to us." But this time, it did happen to us. This does not stem from an unrealistic approach to things, events and life, because trust me: What I see in the field is very real. We cover war and conflict zones and in those situations, bad things happen and people die. The way I go about it is to plan for the worst but hope for the best.
Now Abu Jaffar is dead. During our captivity, he put his gun to my head twice, and on our first day he ordered the execution of one of the rebels who were with us; the execution was carried out within seconds. He also was "a first-rate killer" as he once described himself to us.
At the end of the day, I remember what my mother went through when my younger brother passed away, and I cannot help but think that even though Abu Jaffar was not a good man, he also had a mother and I am sure that she is in pain just like every mother who loses a son would be.
/
A look back at the conflict that has overtaken the country.
Related:
From December 2012: A window into war-torn Aleppo
From July 2012: Who are the Syrian rebels?
Full Syria coverage from NBC News
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I hav a trouble. I a a Win2k8 server where Bitdefender Management server 3.5.2.216 (french) is installed. I configure my policies, my credentials, push installations, all is ok. The agent is installed then he uninstall GFI Vipre (old antivirus) and the client of Bitdefender is installed.
But I saw during installation of DB client than the Windows Firewall is disabled without any intenvention. I dont want to use the BD firewall because I already manage Windows Firewall via GPO's. I can reactivate this firewall in my domain, but I have a lot of PC's and server where they are not in my domain (other domain that i'm not the manager of Workgroups).
Anyone have and idea?
Thanks.
Mathieu
Source: http://forum.bitdefender.com/index.php?showtopic=43077
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FILE - In this Oct. 11, 2011, file photo, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez points at his head to show that his hair has started to grow back after his last round of chemotherapy at Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela. Venezuela's Communication and Information Minister Ernesto Villegas on Monday, March 4, 2013, reported that President Hugo Chavez's health has deteriorated and remains delicate. Villegas also announced in the national TV broadcaster VTV that the president is undergoing chemotherapy with high impact. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, file)
FILE - In this Oct. 11, 2011, file photo, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez points at his head to show that his hair has started to grow back after his last round of chemotherapy at Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela. Venezuela's Communication and Information Minister Ernesto Villegas on Monday, March 4, 2013, reported that President Hugo Chavez's health has deteriorated and remains delicate. Villegas also announced in the national TV broadcaster VTV that the president is undergoing chemotherapy with high impact. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, file)
FILE - In this Feb. 15, 2013 file photo, a woman holds a newly purchased copy of a photo released by the government, showing Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez with two of his daughters, in Caracas,Venezuela. After more than eight years covering Venezuela, AP reporter Ian James finishes his assignment believing Venezuela's many long-term challenges, such as crime, corruption, a troubled economy and bitter political divisions, can seem as vast as the sea of crude oil that Venezuela sits atop. And with Chavez battling cancer, the country could be headed for big political shifts and possible turmoil. But James takes the view that the country's problems can be solved. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano, File)
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) ? Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has undergone surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation treatment since June 2011 for an undisclosed type of pelvic cancer. Key moments in his medical treatment have included:
? June 30, 2011: Chavez says on television from Cuba that he had a cancerous tumor removed from his pelvic region. He later says the tumor extracted was the size of a baseball.
? July 4, 2011: Chavez returns to Venezuela, but later travels to Cuba periodically for chemotherapy and medical tests.
? Sept. 23, 2011: Chavez says he completed chemotherapy and calls the treatment successful. Says later that tests show no reappearance of cancer cells.
? Feb. 21, 2012: Chavez says his doctors found a new lesion in the same place where the tumor was previously removed, and announces plans to return to Cuba for surgery.
? Feb. 26, 2012: Chavez undergoes operation that removes the tumor from the same location in his pelvic region. Says later that follow-up tests showed the tumor was "recurrence of the initially diagnosed cancer."
? March 24, 2012: Chavez travels to Cuba to begin radiation therapy.
? April 14, 2012: Chavez travels to Cuba for second round of radiation treatment.
? April 26, 2012: Chavez returns to Venezuela following cancer treatment in Cuba, saying his latest round of therapy was successful.
? July 9, 2012: Chavez says at a news conference that tests show he is "totally free" of cancer.
? Oct. 7, 2012: Chavez wins re-election to another six-year term, beating challenger Henrique Capriles.
? Nov. 27, 2012: Chavez says he will travel to Cuba for more medical treatment. He says doctors have recommended he "begin special treatment consisting of various sessions of hyperbaric oxygenation."
? Dec. 9, 2012: Chavez announces that a cancerous tumor reappeared and that he must travel to Cuba for another operation. He says the surgery could be complicated and that if he is unable to stay on as president, Vice President Nicolas Maduro should run in an election to take his place.
? Dec. 10, 2012: Chavez travels to Cuba and undergoes surgery the next day.
? Jan. 10, 1013: Chavez misses his scheduled swearing-in ceremony, which was indefinitely postponed by lawmakers. Supporters stage symbolic inauguration in the streets of Caracas, swearing themselves in in their leader's place.
? Feb. 13, 2013: Maduro says Chavez is undergoing "extremely complex and tough" treatments.
? Feb. 15, 2013: Government shows first photos of Chavez in more than two months, says he is breathing through a tracheal tube.
? Feb. 18, 2013: Chavez returns from Cuba, tweets, "We will live and we will triumph!!" Supporters celebrate in streets. But Chavez heads immediately to a military hospital, making no public personal appearance.
? Feb. 22, 2013: Foreign Minister Elias Jaua reads long letter from Chavez to summit of African and South American leaders.
? March 1, 2013: Maduro says Chavez is receiving chemotherapy and "continues his battle for life." He describes the treatments as "intense and tough."
? March 4, 2013: Communications Minister Ernesto Villegas says Chavez has "a new and severe infection" and is in a "very delicate" condition.
? March 5, 2013: The government announces that Chavez has died.
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Minority students sign up for AP exams at a lower rate than white peers, even if they are likely to pass. Cultivating early interest in math and science is key to fulfilling potential.
Maia Luick marks an answer during a 30-minute science test at the GCI Alaska Academic Decathlon in Anchorage, Alaska, this month. Overall, more high school students are passing Advanced Placement exams, but minority students, even those likely to pass, aren't signing up for tests.
Erik Hill/The Anchorage Daily/AP
EnlargeThe number of high school students passing at least one Advanced Placement (AP) exam is up overall this year, but students from minority groups still lag behind their white peers, particularly in math and science.
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Among members of the class of 2012, more than 32.4 percent (950,000 students) took at least one AP exam, up from 30.2 percent in 2011. A decade ago, the number was 18 percent, according to an annual report released Wednesday by the College Board, which administers the tests.
But the College Board also finds that many minority and low-income students, even those with a high likelihood of succeeding on AP exams, aren?t taking them. For students?deemed likely to pass an AP mathematics exam, only 30 percent of African-American and Hispanic students and 20 percent of American-Indian students signed up for the test, compared with 40 percent of white students and 60 percent Asian and Pacific Islander students.
?It?s really unconscionable that we?re not better as a nation at helping students from underserved backgrounds prepare for and enroll in AP courses,? says Trevor Packer, College Board senior vice president for AP.
Since its inception in the 1950s, the AP program has grown into a staple of the college preparatory curriculum in American high schools. The AP curriculum teaches college-level material to high school students in 31 subjects across a wide range of disciplines, including both traditional courses like physics and US history and atypical specialties like human geography and Japanese language and culture.
Passing an AP exam in high school is correlated to a higher college grade point average and an increased likelihood of graduating from a four-year college, the College Board reports. It can also bring down tuition costs for students who enter college with credits earned through AP scores. Exams are scored on a five-point scale ? three points or higher counts as passing and can be used for college credit or placement at many universities.
Enrollment in AP courses has recently become more diverse. In 2002, less than 18 percent of AP exam takers were so-called ?underserved minorities.? Now the figure is 26 percent. And the number of low-income students in the AP program has grown from 11 percent to nearly 27 percent in the same time period. This is due in part to widespread subsidies to help offset the test's nearly $100 price tag. ?
Mr. Packer says that low-enrollment in AP courses and exams among minority students is often a function of availability.?But other education experts argue that the problem is more systemic. ?
When it comes to math and science, minority students are ?often not recognized as the smart kids in the class,? says Mary Walker, an education professor at the University of Texas in Austin who focuses on math and science education.
If you don?t cultivate students? interest and aptitude for a subject early in their educational careers, she says, increasing their access to AP exams may simply be too little too late.
?If you don?t get them interested at middle school level they won?t be on track to take advanced courses in high school because they won?t have taken the necessary prerequisites,? she says.
The ?high likelihood? that a student will pass an AP exam is determined by looking at a student?s score on the Preliminary Scholastic Assessment Test (PSAT) ? an SAT-style test the College Board offers to high school sophomores and juniors. Students with certain qualifying scores on one or more sections of that exam have at least a 60 percent chance of passing an AP exam, the College Board reports.
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Summary:?? Today we have one example from the flow of comforting words about the government?s deficits. While pleasant reading, written by a knowledgeable expert, it does not withstand close scrutiny.
One of the great oddities of history is why nations adopt policies that were so obviously doomed to failure, or even disaster. It?s a long list, from 17th C economist John Law?s managing the debt of France with the Mississippi Company (latter known as the Mississippi Bubble), to Japan declaring war on almost everybody.? For good reason Barbara Tuchman named her greatest history book?The March of Folly.
There are two constant elements of these stories.? First, warnings from experts. Second, assurances that these obviously crazy policies?this time?would end well.
So it is with the US government debt. We have all heard the warnings. As the debt grows, so do the volume of those saying not to worry. The economists of the Keynesian mainstream provide one form of comfort (fix the deficit later).? The economists of the Modern Monetary Theory school provide another form (debts don?t matter, until they cause inflation or a currency collapse).? A third group provides a vague form of comfort. An example of this is ?Another way to look at the national debt? by Zachary Karabell (President of?River Twice Research), special to the?Washington Post, 8 February 2013 ? Opening:
Welcome to the next chapter of the endless debt debate. The release of a Congressional Budget Office report on the next 10 years of the U.S. economy ends a brief lull in Washington. As we return once again to our regularly scheduled program of ?Crisis and Impasse,? let?s take a moment to consider the following heretical idea: We have no debt problem.
We have spent years demonizing debt, and now have an entire political movement dedicated to the proposition that government debt will destroy America as we know it unless something is done now!
Stand by for a debunking of fears about the debt! I feel better already. The next line starts the analysis:
Yet debt is simply a new form of currency that is issued, bought, priced and sold like any other currency ?
This is false. First, government debt (eg, 30 year Treasury bonds) are not currency in any meaningful form. They vary in price (currency?is the standard of measurement for asset prices, like bonds).? More important, although the government can convert debt into currency by printing money (ie, monetization) the process is not automatic.? It is a?political?decision to inflate away the value of the nation?s loans.
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Which brings us to the key issue: we do?not?owe the debt to ourselves. We owe? it to specific people and institutions, many whom wield great political power ? and will exert it to see that they?re paid in real money.? The memory of the great post-WWII inflation burns in their memories; hence the obsession about inflation by their minions.
? and the fear that it will fatally undermine the nation is much like the belief in the 19th century that paper dollars would destroy value and rob the middle class, or the fear that silver would do the same, or the concern in the 20th century (and now) that unless all value is tethered to gold, economies will collapse. The debt freakout is the latest installment, the only difference being that those who believe debt will destroy us have more political power.
Correct, although Karabell ignores the importance of this in the history lesson that follows this paragraph. The 1% are the creditors of the nation, of both public and private debt. The late 19th deflation served their interests well, crushing the economic and political strength of the small farmer, craftsman, and merchant classes ? debtors who were broken by the increased value in real terms of their loans. The rise and bursting of the housing bubble and the great recession had a similarly beneficial effect for the 1%, further concentrating wealth and power.
Economics were, are, and probably always will be tools of the 1%. Economists are their handmaidens.
Now Karabell reviews some unpleasant historical facts.
The establishment consensus is that there is too little growth and too much government spending everywhere in the developed world. Germany still hasn?t psychologically recovered from the debt and currency traumas of the 1920s. Brazil and much of the rest of Latin America are scarred by the memories of the 1970s and East Asia by the 1990s, when debt debacles nearly sank those economies.
Now for the climax.
Yet an amen chorus is not the truth, and consensus is not fact. Debt can be a fatal liability if used unwisely, but used well it can be a powerful tool. It allows governments, businesses and individuals to expand what they can do in the present in the belief that future gains will ensue. It can fund education, underwrite infrastructure and fuel research and innovation. The fact that debt is so often used poorly, to paper over problems or fund ephemeral spending, represents a serious and potentially crippling problem. But that is not an indictment of debt; it is an indictment of what is done with it.
He sets us up for a sound rebuttal to the fear of debt, showing that we have wisely spent the $6.4 trillion in new Federal public debt since the recession started in December 2007 (a 125% increase).? That would deserve attention, and justify the deficits ? immediate economic stimulus on investments than generate future growth. Instead we get a change of subject.
The current assumption is that debt is out of control and has been for many years. Consumer debt in the early 2000s gave way to sovereign debt today, and Greece and its Mediterranean brethren are held up as Exhibit A in the prosecution?s case. Yet this animus harkens back to moments when shifts in the financial system have triggered anger and panic. Our debt fixation, then, may be less a product of debt itself than one of adjusting to a new currency.
In fact the money we borrowed has been largely squandered. Foreign wars, building a vast domestic security system to defend against non-existent threats, and gifts to the 1% and their corporations. Easy credit often leads to poor spending. Now that $6 trillion of spending is gone along with the winter?s snow, and only the debt remains.
It looks like the deficits will continue, perhaps shrinking as the economy slowly grows, the small tax increase passed in January, and (perhaps) spending cuts take place.? Or the economy might slow more than expected, boosting the deficit. The worst case is that we?ve become Japan, where only massive deficits and zero interest rates have maintained a stable economy for two decades ? with no end in sight.
Either way we can count on a steady flow of assurances that the economy is healthy and the deficits are no problem.? Fiscal deficits are the opiate of the masses.
Oddly enough, Karabell said something different in 2009
Back in 2009, when deficits were desperately needed to stabilize the economy, Karabell worried about deficits:? ?Deficits and the Chinese Challenge?, Wall Street Journal, 12 October 2009 ? ?Debt can become a real liability for a superpower. Recall what happened to postwar Britain.?
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This week on the podcast we're talking about the return of CISPA, re-installing Windows , and working an on-call job without losing your mind. We're also answering your questions about why we give Google so much information, how to use unlimited data effectively, and syncing your files over your local network without the aid of a cloud storage service.
Here's how you can listen to our episode:
Each week we answer five questions from readers and listeners. Here's what we tackled this week.
There are two ways to send in your question:
Please keep your questions as brief as possible. This means about 3-5 sentences for emails and 30-60 seconds for calls and videos. Your questions can be specific, but broader questions are generally better because they'll apply to more people. For example, "how can I breathe new life into my old PDA?" is much better than "what can I do with an old HP iPAQ 210?" Either way, we look forward to hearing from you!
Newspaper, Computer, Clock (by Brandon Hopkins), and Alert (by Dima Yagnyuk) provided by the Noun Project.
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Finola Hughes has called the upcoming 50th anniversary of "General Hospital" a "really sweet" moment."I think the fact that we, at 'GH,' are doing so well right now, and to enter into our 50th anniversary on such a high, it feels really sweet," the actress, who plays Port Charles Police Chief Anna Devane, told Access Hollywood, when asked about the daytime drama's impending anniversary.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/joseph-gordon-levitt-stops-sesame-street-vocabulary-lesson-205655153.html
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Source: http://thenewsstar.com/article/20130213/NEWS01/130213011/-1/rss
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NEW YORK (AP) ? Oprah Winfrey made a surprise appearance Tuesday night at the premiere of Beyonce's HBO documentary, 'Life is But a Dream,' posing with the star and speaking of the candor she showed in making it.
The film takes a no-holds-barred look at moments in the 31-year old singer's life, including her miscarriage, reports of faking her pregnancy, and firing her father as her manager.
While the revelations Beyonce makes about herself in the film are comparable to the results Winfrey usually gets from her tough style of interviewing, the talk show host gave kudos to the singer.
Winfrey said Beyonce did a "much better job" of telling her own story. "I wouldn't have been in the bedroom and in the closet and in the car and on vacation," she said.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/beyonce-joined-oprah-documentary-premiere-054454697.html
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With 40 billion App Store downloads and counting, if you haven't already carved out your own little piece of mobile magic, it's time to get crackin'. Kickstarter, the biggest name in crowdfunding, might be a bit late to the game, but its lack of presence in Apple's mobile shop ends today, with Kickstarter for iPhone. As you might expect, the smartphone-native version of the popular site's online store lets you browse through projects, watch pitch videos and submit a pledge just like you do on the web, but with a much less cumbersome interface. Project creators can also use it to track their own progress, or to post updates on the go. Kickstarter is compatible with iPhone 3GS and later, third-gen iPod touch devices and iPad, though it's optimized for iPhone 5, so tablet users may want to stick with the website for now. The rest of you can hit up our source link to get started -- the app just hit today.
Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Mobile
Via: TechCrunch
Source: Kickstarter, iTunes
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/MUnPspwv2Bs/
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The Mavericks don?t have any All-Stars, nor will any Maverick take part in the various undercard skill competitions this weekend in Houston.
Mavericks 28-year-old rookie center Bernard James, however, will be honored Saturday night at the Toyota Center for his six years of military service, including tours in Iraq, Kuwait and Qatar.
He will be recognized as part of an NBA Cares moment. James said he also is scheduled to make a few public appearances, but he plans to make his visit short, returning to Dallas by Saturday night.
?I?m very appreciative that they?re recognizing me for my military service,? said James, who made his seventh start of the season Wednesday night. ?That is going to be special.?
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The government mandates a lot of equipment on cars for the Maple Lake Minnesota area: emission devices and control computers; safety equipment like airbags; and crash worthiness requirements. All of this is great for the motoring public in Maple Lake Minnesota, but it does add quite a bit to the price of a new car.
Because new cars are more expensive, people are driving their old cars longer. The average car is now over nine years old. 68% of vehicles on the road have more than 75,000 miles/120,000 kilometers. As cars age, their performance drops, they have difficulty idling for long periods and are more sensitive to weather extremes. Fortunately today?s cars are up to the challenge ? but they need a little help to keep on going.
Some owner?s manuals don?t specify service requirements at higher mileage. That doesn?t mean it doesn?t have to be done. In fact, it?s more important than ever to stay on top of routine maintenance for cars with more than 120,000 miles/190,000 kilometers. Just extend regular service intervals out: for instance a service that?s recommended every 24,000 miles/38,000 kilometers should be performed at 24,000 mi/38,000 km; 48,000 mi/77,000 km; 72,000mi/116,000 km, 96,000 mi/154,000 km; and on and on.
Because of the additional stress older engines experience, the severe service maintenance schedule may be more appropriate than the regular schedule. Watch for leaks ? seals and gaskets dry out over time and do not hold the fluids as well as they used to. It is also time to make sure you have a good technician. There are some services and replacements that are scheduled after you put some clicks on the odometer, like timing belts, valve train adjustments, suspension, anti-lock brake service, air bags, etc. And unexpected repairs down the road are just par for the course.
Check for unusual sounds, smells or the way your car feels. These could be hints that trouble is brewing. Better to catch it early before it turns into a costly repair. Regular wash and wax will help maintain your car?s appearance. One of the things you can do to really help your high mileage vehicle is to begin using high mileage formulation fluids. There are special engine oils, coolants, and transmission and power steering fluids that are formulated for cars that have a higher mileage.
High mileage oil is designed to condition seals and gaskets, reduce wear and avoid premature burn off. Older engines are dirtier inside ? and dirty engines contaminate their oil faster. High mileage oil has special additives that clean the engine, removing sludge deposits over time. The result is less stress on the engine, better fuel economy and excellent wear protection. Come into Maple Lake Automotive Repair for a checkup.
Studies have even shown that using high mileage fluids early will actually prevent some of the problems of high kilometer vehicles. So once you hit around 50,000 mi/80,000 km, consider stepping up to high mileage formulations. The fluids cost a bit more than standard fluids because of the additional additives, but they can be worth their weight in gold in terms of preventing repair costs down the road.
It does cost more to properly maintain a higher mileage vehicle ? but it?s much cheaper than a new car payment!
Source: http://www.maplelakeautomotiverepair.com/maplelake/higher-mileage-service-intervals-for-maple-lake
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Let?s face it: HTC may have its hopes pinned on its not-so-secretive M7 smartphone, but that sooner or later the company is going to have to drop the codename and let it fly under another banner. As it turns out, that new name may be more familiar than expected ? prolific leaker EvLeaks noted on Twitter just a little while ago that it would debut simply as the HTC One later this month.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/WdcM1K9Mtok/
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I won?t lie. I walked into the pre-screening of Identity Thief expecting to laugh, but more for the one-note, raunchy, slapstick comedy we?ve been seeing lately in films like this, that is, of the Seth Gordon, Judd Apatow breed. I couldn?t have been more wrong.
Melissa McCarthy, who broke-out in last year?s Bridesmaids, is hilarious from beginning to end, and Jason Bateman, is the perfect foil to McCarthy?s crass, obnoxious character. But the film, in which McCarthy stars as a woman who adopts a variety of identities ? Diana/Sandy/Tanya (the list goes on) ? also manages to match that comedy with a believable and heart-warming poignancy.
The film opens with orange-haired, turquoise-loving Diana shopping (endlessly) for everything from hair spray to jet skis. Diana is a seasoned identity thief, and her latest victim, Bateman?s Sandy Patterson, has unwittingly forked over his personal information (social security number, date of birth). She creates fake ID?s and false credit cards, all under Sandy?s name.
When Sandy?s straight-edged, boring life begins to fall apart as a result of Diana?s crime (he?s arrested, has his credit cards cut up, and almost loses his job), he learns that a woman ?of hobbit height? in Florida is to blame. The police are unable to help him due to matters of jurisdiction, so Sandy is forced to take matters into his own hands, leaving his pregnant wife and two daughters at home to find and bring this woman 2,000 miles back to Denver to clear his name.
Sandy is not the only victim who is hunting down Diana, however. Sandy is joined by a bounty hunter and a couple working for their mob-like boss, who have all been spurned by Diana and are now seeking vengeance. Sandy gets her first, corralling the crook into his car and setting out on a long road trip back to Colorado. In between, cameo appearances from Ellie Kemper (Bridesmaids), as a diner waitress, and Eric Stonestreet (Modern Family), as a newly-widowed cowboy who sleeps with Diana, keep the laughs going.
The comedy, though, is not limited to the talent Gordon and company have assembled for the film. Special effects scenes, including a hilarious moment in the woods involving snakes, keep the film interesting and the humor varied. And stunts, like McCarthy being hit by a car or Bateman being punched ? repeatedly, in the throat ? are both realistic and hysterical.
As these things go, Patterson and Diana?s road trip ends up forming a special bond between the two characters. We learn that Diana was an orphan and doesn?t know her real name; she has no real friends or family. Her character, initially portrayed as ignorant, tasteless and oblivious to those around her, suddenly reveals itself as vulnerable and sensitive. A dramatic and (embarrassingly, for me) emotional makeover sheds light on Diana?s real character, and McCarthy?s talent shines through during a heart-wrenching scene when she explains her past to Patterson.
Identity Thief has it all: guns, laughs, romance, chase scenes, scandal. But unlike other comedies in the genre, it manages to break out of the same routine plot. And thanks to McCarthy and Bateman, who are both hilarious and marvelous, the film manages to delve into themes of appearance, friendship and belonging, albeit in hysterical fashion.
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