বৃহস্পতিবার, ৩১ জানুয়ারী, ২০১৩

Daily Kos: Marriage is meant to protect society from the threat of ...

Charlie Butchart-Cullen, 3, and her sister Sophia Butchart-Cullen, 1, sit in a wagon at the LA Pride parade in West Hollywood, California, June 10, 2012. The parade is part of the annual Los Angeles lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender pride celebration

These kids don't count because they weren't conceived accidentally enough

In the quest to protect 'Merica from the creeping Sharia feminist gay threat, the brave defenders of the sanctity of Newt Gingrich's three marriages have come up with what is quite possibly the most epically ridiculous argument ever:
Marriage should be limited to unions of a man and a woman because they alone can "produce unplanned and unintended offspring," opponents of gay marriage have told the Supreme Court.
Waaaaaaait a second. Only boy-girl sex can produce unplanned pregnancies?and that's a good thing? The very same sanctimonious whiners who say they're only hating gay people to protect family values and the kids and stuff ... Now they want to encourage unplanned pregnancies? Even though all the research in the history of forever shows that unplanned pregnancies actually undermine those precious boy-girl relationships? And are also bad for women. And their children. And society. And the almighty dollar. But let's just put all that stuff aside so the bigots can 'splain how this isn't totally bugfuck crazytalk:
The traditional marriage laws "reflect a unique social difficulty with opposite-sex couples that is not present with same-sex couples ? namely, the undeniable and distinct tendency of opposite-sex relationships to produce unplanned and unintended pregnancies," wrote Clement, a solicitor general under President George W. Bush. "Unintended children produced by opposite-sex relationships and raised out-of-wedlock would pose a burden on society."

"It is plainly reasonable for California to maintain a unique institution [referring to marriage] to address the unique challenges posed by the unique procreative potential of sexual relationships between men and women," argued Washington attorney Charles J. Cooper, representing the defenders of Proposition 8. Same-sex couples need not be included in the definition of marriage, he said, because they "don't present a threat of irresponsible procreation."

Waaaaaaait a second. So unplanned pregnancies are a bad thing after all? And only heterosexual couples can impose this "social difficulty" and "burden on society" by getting accidentally knocked up, so only they need marriage to protect us from the threat of their children? That's the new legal argument against marriage equality? Marriage should be limited to one man and one woman because Bristol Palin's accidental, unplanned out-of-wedlock baby threatens and burdens society.

Well, okay, maybe they have a point. Or maybe, just maybe, they should accept that it's the 21st century, and the number of cranky old people who don't believe in equality is dwindling every day?and most Americans are just fine with that.

Originally posted to Kaili Joy Gray on Wed Jan 30, 2013 at 09:04 AM PST.

Also republished by Daily Kos.

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Source: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/01/30/1183315/-Marriage-is-meant-to-protect-society-from-the-threat-of-Bristol-Palin-s-out-of-wedlock-baby

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How will the decrease in home loan interest rate help the realty ...

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New BlackBerry won't be released in US until March

Thorsten Heins, CEO of Research in Motion, introduces the BlackBerry 10, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013 in New York. The maker of the BlackBerry smartphone is promising a speedy browser, a superb typing experience and the ability to keep work and personal identities separate on the same phone, the fruit of a crucial, long-overdue makeover for the Canadian company. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Thorsten Heins, CEO of Research in Motion, introduces the BlackBerry 10, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013 in New York. The maker of the BlackBerry smartphone is promising a speedy browser, a superb typing experience and the ability to keep work and personal identities separate on the same phone, the fruit of a crucial, long-overdue makeover for the Canadian company. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Thorsten Heins, CEO of Research in Motion, announces that the company will now be known as BlackBerry, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013 in New York. The new BlackBerry smartphone is promising a speedy browser, a superb typing experience and the ability to keep work and personal identities separate on the same phone, the fruit of a crucial, long-overdue makeover for the Canadian company. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Thorsten Heins, CEO of Research in Motion, which is changing its name to BlackBerry, introduces the BlackBerry 10, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013 in New York. The maker of the BlackBerry smartphone is promising a speedy browser, a superb typing experience and the ability to keep work and personal identities separate on the same phone, the fruit of a crucial, long-overdue makeover for the Canadian company. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Thorsten Heins, CEO of Research in Motion, introduces the BlackBerry 10, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013 in New York. The maker of the BlackBerry smartphone is promising a speedy browser, a superb typing experience and the ability to keep work and personal identities separate on the same phone, the fruit of a crucial, long-overdue makeover for the Canadian company. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Stagehands prepare for the introduction of the BlackBerry 10, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013 in New York. The maker of the BlackBerry smartphone is promising a speedy browser, a superb typing experience and the ability to keep work and personal identities separate on the same phone, the fruit of a crucial, long-overdue makeover for the Canadian company. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Research In Motion Ltd. unveiled new, versatile BlackBerrys after excruciating delays allowed Apple, Samsung and others to build commanding leads in an industry that is redefining society. But the first phone won't come out in the United States until March, and one with a physical keyboard will take at least a month longer.

The stock fell 12 percent after Wednesday's kickoff, despite mostly positive reviews about the new BlackBerry 10 operating system. There's concern the phone isn't coming out sooner, and there's worry BlackBerry 10's advances won't be enough to turn the company around.

In a move underscoring the stakes riding on its make-or-break product lineup, RIM used the occasion to announce that it is changing the company's name to BlackBerry. It's a pioneering brand that lost its cachet not long after Apple's 2007 release of the iPhone, which reset expectations for what a smartphone should do.

Pioneered in 1999, BlackBerry became a game-changing breakthrough in personal connectedness. It changed the culture by allowing on-the-go business people to access wireless email. President Barack Obama couldn't bear to part with his BlackBerry. Oprah Winfrey declared it one of her "favorite things." It was so addictive at times that it was nicknamed "the CrackBerry."

As the BlackBerry began to cross over to consumers, rivals came out with a new generation of phones that could do more than just email and messaging, starting with the iPhone and followed by devices running Google's Android system. Suddenly, the BlackBerry looked ancient.

RIM promised a new system to catch up, using technology it got through its 2010 purchase of QNX Software Systems. But it has taken more than two years to unveil new phones that are redesigned for the new multimedia, Internet browsing and apps experience that customers are now demanding.

CEO Thorsten Heins, who one year ago replaced longtime executives who had presided over BlackBerry's fall, formally unveiled the much-delayed smartphones and software Wednesday in New York. Simultaneous events were held in Toronto, London, Paris, Dubai, Johannesburg, New Delhi and Jakarta, Indonesia.

The first device in the new crop of revamped BlackBerrys will be the Z10 ? pronounced "zee-10" in the U.S. and "zed-10" elsewhere. As RIM previously disclosed, it will have only a touch-screen keyboard, like Apple Inc.'s trend-setting iPhone and most phones running Android, including Samsung Electronic Co.'s popular Galaxy line. Although the Z10 will go on sale Thursday in the U.K. and next Tuesday in Canada, it won't be available in the U.S. until March.

The Q10 will follow and will have a physical keyboard, a feature that has kept BlackBerry users loyal over the years because it makes typing easier. RIM said the Q10 will start going on sale on some global carriers in April, but it couldn't say when U.S. carriers will have it.

Heins said U.S. carriers need more time to test the devices. All the major U.S. carriers plan to sell the new BlackBerrys. Verizon Wireless said the Z10 will be available for $200 with a two-year service agreement, in line with what other major smartphones cost. In Canada, it will cost about $150 with a three-year contract.

Frank Boulben, RIM's chief marketing officer, said some of the delay in the U.S. stems from specific testing requirements imposed by the Federal Communications Commission. There was a similar delay when the iPhone first came out, though subsequent models were released more quickly after their announcements.

The U.S. has been one market in which RIM has been particularly hurting, even as the company is doing well in many places overseas. According to research firm IDC, shipments of BlackBerry phones plummeted from 46 percent of the U.S. market in 2008 to 2 percent in 2012. The iPhone and Android now dominate.

BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis said the new phones' tardy arrival in the U.S. threatens to cause even more BlackBerry users to defect. By the time the Z10 goes on sale in the U.S., Gillis suspects many people will be waiting to see what Google plans to unveil in mid-May at an annual conference that usually includes new gadgets and an Android software update. Speculation of a new iPhone also may be building by then.

Wednesday's event flopped on Wall Street. RIM's stock fell $1.88 to $13.78. The stock has more than doubled from its nine-year low of $6.22 in September, but is still nearly 90 percent below its peak of $147 reached in 2008, when the iPhone was still a novelty trying to break into the mainstream.

Despite their limited availability until March, the new BlackBerrys will be hailed in a commercial Sunday during CBS's telecast of the Super Bowl. RIM declined to say how much it is paying, but some 30-second spots during the game have been sold for as much as $4 million. RIM said the spot is designed to signal to U.S. customers that the BlackBerry is back.

RIM also decided to make a touch-only version first, despite its strength with physical keyboards, in hopes of luring new customers.

"The idea that we are launching BlackBerry 10 just to upgrade the existing physical keyboard customer base is wrong," Boulben said in an interview. "The new platform we are introducing will have much wider appeal on the market. It's for all the people looking for the next generation in smartphone experience."

But RIM won't abandon physical keyboards. The Q10 will have a square screen and sport a 35-key physical keyboard with a back light, with language-specific arrangements such as QWERTY and AZERTY depending on the market. It's meant to cater to people who still prefer that over a touch screen.

The touch-screen keyboard itself promises such improvements as learning a user's writing style and suggesting words and phrases to complete, going beyond typo corrections offered by rivals.

The new BlackBerrys also are supposed to run faster and enable people to separate their professional and personal lives with a feature called Balance. They also promise to let people easily switch between multiple applications by swiping on the screen. The new BlackBerrys won't have a home button, which is fundamental to the iPhone.

"Gone are the days of going back and forth and in and out between applications," said Andrew MacLeod, RIM's managing director for Canada. "It's cumbersome, it's inefficient and it's slow."

The new software and BlackBerrys were supposed to be released a year ago, only to be delayed while Apple and Android device makers won more zealous converts to their products. In the meantime, Microsoft Corp. rolled out a new Windows operating system for smartphones, confronting RIM with another technology powerhouse to battle.

The delays in developing the new BlackBerrys helped wipe out $70 billion in shareholder wealth and 5,000 jobs.

"It is the most challenging year of my career," said Heins, whose anniversary leading the company occurred last week. "It is also the most exhilarating and exciting one."

Some analysts have questioned whether the company that helped create the smartphone market will survive, especially as its losses have mounted in the past year.

"We'll see if they can reclaim their glory," Gillis said. "My sense is that it will be a phone that everyone says good things about but not as many people buy."

Ovum analyst Adam Leach said he believes the new system will appeal to existing BlackBerry users, but that won't be enough to undercut the popularity of the iPhone and Android devices. He predicted that BlackBerry "will struggle to appeal to a wider audience, and in the long-term will become a niche player in the smartphone market."

That said, RIM won't need a knockout. As smartphone sales grow overall, RIM can still succeed with the BlackBerry 10 without requiring iPhone and Android users to switch.

Regardless of BlackBerry 10's advances, though, the new system will face a key shortcoming: It won't have as many apps written by outside companies and individuals as the iPhone and Android.

RIM said it plans to launch BlackBerry 10 with more than 70,000 apps, and with 100,000 apps by the time it comes to the U.S. But some of those were developed for RIM's PlayBook tablet, first released in 2011, and weren't necessarily adapted to run on the BlackBerry 10. In addition, popular services such as Instagram and Netflix won't have apps on BlackBerry 10.

___

AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke in San Francisco contributed to this story. Rob Gillies reported from Toronto.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-01-30-RIM-BlackBerry%20Makeover/id-544ae1e84c5e463ebfc383b3a29db402

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Chris Brown Jesus Photo; Star Feeling Crucified in Wake of Frank Ocean Melee?

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/01/chris-brown-likens-self-to-jesus-feeling-crucified-in-wake-of-fr/

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Brad Skypes Into 'The David Pakman Show' to Discuss the Latest GOP Election Rigging Schemes

By Brad Friedman on 1/30/2013, 7:05am PT??

Yesterday, a Virginia State Senate committee killed a GOP plan to completely revamp the state's "winner-take-all" electoral vote system despite a last minute change to the bill by its sponsor in hopes of making it more palatable. The original scheme would have awarded electoral votes by Congressional district instead of "winner-take-all". Had that plan been in place in 2012, Mitt Romney would have been awarded 9 electoral votes to Obama's 4, despite the President winning the popular vote in the state by some 150,000 votes and being awarded all 13 of the VA's electoral votes.

The bill's author, Republican Sen. Charles W. "Bill" Carrico, tweaked the bill at the last minute, so that electoral votes would be awarded proportionally, based on the popular vote, rather than by Congressional district. It didn't help. The scheme was defeated in committee by a bi-partisan vote of 11 to 4.

Before that scheme was killed in the VA Senate on Tuesday, I appeared on the David Pakman Show, via Skype, to discuss that and related issues, , including the impending U.S. Supreme Court threat to the very important Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act...

* * *
Please support The BRAD BLOG's fiercely independent, award-winning coverage of your electoral system, as available from no other media outlet in the nation, with a donation to help us keep going (Snail mail, more options here). If you like, we'll send you some great, award-winning election integrity documentary films in return! Details right here...

Source: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=9842

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Report links A-Rod with PED use; MLB investigates

FILE - In this Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012 file photo, New York Yankees' Alex Rodriguez takes batting practice before Game 4 of the American League championship series against the Detroit Tigers, in Detroit. Major League Baseball says it is "extremely disappointed" about a new report that says records from an anti-aging clinic in the Miami area link Rodriguez and other players to the purchase of performance-enhancing drugs. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)

FILE - In this Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012 file photo, New York Yankees' Alex Rodriguez takes batting practice before Game 4 of the American League championship series against the Detroit Tigers, in Detroit. Major League Baseball says it is "extremely disappointed" about a new report that says records from an anti-aging clinic in the Miami area link Rodriguez and other players to the purchase of performance-enhancing drugs. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 18, 2012 file photo, New York Yankees' Alex Rodriguez prepares to hit in the sixth inning during Game 4 of the American League championship series against the Detroit Tigers in Detroit. Major League Baseball says it is "extremely disappointed" about a new report that says records from an anti-aging clinic in the Miami area link Rodriguez and other players to the purchase of performance-enhancing drugs. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Major League Baseball said it is "extremely disappointed" about new allegations of performance-enhancing drug use against Alex Rodriguez and other players contained in a newspaper report.

The Miami New Times, a popular alternative weekly, said in a story Tuesday that it had obtained files through an employee at a recently closed clinic in south Florida that show Rodriguez purchased HGH and other substances.

"We are always extremely disappointed to learn of potential links between players and the use of performance-enhancing substances. ... Through our Department of Investigations, we have been actively involved in the issues in South Florida," MLB's statement said.

Rodriguez, the New York Yankees slugger currently recovering from hip surgery, has admitted using steroids from 2001-03 but insisted he stopped after that.

"We fully support the Commissioner's Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. This matter is now in the hands of the Commissioner's Office," the Yankees said in a statement. "We will have no further comment until that investigation has concluded."

Other players named by the New Times as appearing in the records at Biogenesis include Melky Cabrera, Gio Gonzalez, Bartolo Colon and Nelson Cruz. Cabrera, the All-Star game MVP for the San Francisco Giants last season, was suspended 50 games in August for failing a drug test. The outfielder has signed with the Toronto Blue Jays as a free agent.

Colon, a pitcher for the Oakland A's, was also suspended 50 games in August.

Gonzalez, who went 21-8 for the Washington Nationals last season, and Cruz, who hit 24 home runs for the Texas Rangers, had not previously been linked to performance-enhancing drugs.

The Rangers said in a statement that after being contacted by the New Times late last week, they notified Major League Baseball. The club said it had no further comment.

Gonzalez posted on his Twitter feed: "I've never used performance enhancing drugs of any kind and I never will, I've never met or spoken with tony Bosch or used any substance."

The report said that the notes of clinic chief Anthony Bosch list the players' names and the substances they received, including human growth hormone and steroids. Several unidentified employees and clients confirmed to the publication that the clinic distributed the substances, the paper said. The employees said that Bosch bragged of supplying drugs to professional athletes but they never saw the sports stars in the office.

Any player found by MLB to use banned, performance-enhancing substances, is subject to suspension.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-01-29-MLB-Drug%20Investigation/id-f7ddaae44e3f4d43ab6713aa69d296bc

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Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade Review - Nintendo Life

Obstacle to fun, maybe

If you were to poll gamers at large and ask them what they felt were the worst things about the Wii, chances are you'd hear "waggle" and "bad minigame collections" pretty frequently. In fact they often went hand in hand, and Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade is trying its hardest to make sure both of things carry over into the Wii U generation. We can only hope that they don't.

Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade ? it just rolls off the tongue, doesn't it? ? is, as you might guess, a collection of short games that you can play with up to three friends. You might also guess that the games would revolve around an "obstacle" theme, but you'd be wrong; many of them are standard rounds of target practice, hide and seek, or, erm, picking the balloon with the number two on it after the game tells you to pick the balloon with the number two on it. That last one's not much of a game really, but there you go.

The collection is given a sort of theme park approach, with the games broken up into smaller, unlockable areas. Again, you'd expect the space area to contain space-themed games and the Western area to host games with a cowboy flair but by and large everything is just thrown at the wall with no regard for where it lands, and there's no telling what you'll encounter where. Fortunately, we guess, whatever you encounter will be reliably awful, so there's that to look forward to.

The games are hosted by a dead-eyed teddy bear with a stare so cold and creepy that we were constantly on edge for that inevitable moment when he'd pull out a knife. Half of his face is frozen in a bizarre semblance of what we can only assume is the developer's attempt at "'tude", while the other half just passively smiles. This, combined with the fact that his lips don't move when he talks, makes it seem like we've walked in on the bear in the middle of a massive coronary that's doomed to go untreated.

The entire package feels like a holdover from the previous generation; none of the graphics come anywhere near the capabilities of Nintendo's newest console, and the Wii U GamePad barely factors in at all, with each of the games requiring instead a Wii Remote and, often, Nunchuk. This means Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade plays identically to every other poorly-responsive, uninteresting, lazily slapped together mini-game collection you've been doing your best to avoid since 2006.

Every game supports four players; if there are fewer human players than that, the CPU will fill the void. Human players can enter any name for themselves that they like, but oddly the game also requires you to choose a separate name for the bear to call you by. This is because the developers only gave the bear a limited bank of audio files from which to draw, so you may tell the game that your name is William, but then you'll have to choose whether it calls you Chano or Shamus or Julio instead. It's bizarre to say the least.

In each game you'll compete against the other three for points. This nearly always involves waggling as quickly as possible, but sometimes it can rely on maneuvering crosshairs around the screen instead. No game is any more complicated than that, and it often feels as though the developer went out of its way to assign the most frustrating control schemes possible. Some games, for instance, are races that see you hopping from platform to platform. Despite the fact that each player has a perfectly good D-Pad and A button to use, Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade requires you to thrust the Wii Remote in the direction you wish to jump. Not that it cares where you actually thrust; it's a crapshoot whether or not the game will ever recognise your input. It's a needless and mandatory use of the least reliable control scheme possible, which is pretty much par for the course here.

The Wii U GamePad only comes into play during the bonus rounds. The rest of the time it features the glass-eyed bear glowing creepily at you and loudly narrating minor gameplay developments without moving his mouth. During the bonus rounds the winner of the previous game spins a roulette wheel, which determines what the bonus game will be. Here the GamePad is used differently than the Wii Remotes, but it's certainly no more fun, and it really does feel like a tacked on addition to what's essentially a low budget Wii cash-in.

The sound effects are beyond terrible, as the four players on-screen avatars laugh and hoot and holler over each other throughout every event, turning everything into a clamorous, cluttered aural monstrosity. The bear barks meaningless platitudes about every minor thing that happens ? from a player grabbing a coin to a player not grabbing a coin ? and while you're not likely to come away from this game feeling fulfilled you're more or less guaranteed a headache.

We'd like to close on a positive note of some kind, but we genuinely can't. This is an absolutely terrible game, and you don't want it. Trust us.

As clunky and poorly considered as its title, Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade is awful. Relying entirely on the shallow and repetitive waggle that should have died along with Wii, there's absolutely no reason to recommend this obnoxious, screaming, clattering monstrosity at all. It's mindless entertainment at its worst, but, on the bright side, it might be the perfect way to cure your childrens' burgeoning video game addiction.

Source: http://www.nintendolife.com/reviews/wiiu/family_party_30_great_games_obstacle_arcade

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মঙ্গলবার, ২৯ জানুয়ারী, ২০১৩

Busy Philipps Glows In Navy at the SAG Awards

The Cougar Town actress (and mom-to-be!) glowed in a custom Gabriela Cadena navy column gown paired with Brian Atwood black satin sandals, a Judith Leiber clutch and Irene Neuwirth statement jewelry.

Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/zDUSPZqJpb4/

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The Real Housewives of Atlanta Recap: She Might Be Cray-Cray ...

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/01/the-real-housewives-of-atlanta-recap-she-might-be-cray-cray/

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Chris Brown investigated for possible assault

FILE - This Oct. 20, 2011 file photo shows Chris Brown performs live as part of the F.A.M.E Tour at The Staples Center in Los Angeles. Brown is under investigation for an alleged assault in a West Hollywood parking lot, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said early Monday, Jan. 28, 2013. Deputies responding to a report of six men fighting Sunday night found the scene clear, but were told by witnesses that there had been a brief fight over a parking space. (AP Photo/Katy Winn, file)

FILE - This Oct. 20, 2011 file photo shows Chris Brown performs live as part of the F.A.M.E Tour at The Staples Center in Los Angeles. Brown is under investigation for an alleged assault in a West Hollywood parking lot, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said early Monday, Jan. 28, 2013. Deputies responding to a report of six men fighting Sunday night found the scene clear, but were told by witnesses that there had been a brief fight over a parking space. (AP Photo/Katy Winn, file)

FILE - Singer Chris Brown appears at a news conference to announce his partnership with Ford's Sync, a voice activated hands free in car communication and entertainment system, in this Nov. 2, 2007 file photo taken in New York. Authorities are investigating allegations that Grammy-winning singer Chris Brown assaulted a man in a West Hollywood parking lot Sunday Jan. 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Peter Kramer, File)

FILE - This Oct. 20, 2011 file photo shows Chris Brown performs live as part of the F.A.M.E Tour at The Staples Center in Los Angeles. Brown is under investigation for an alleged assault in a West Hollywood parking lot, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said early Monday, Jan. 28, 2013. Deputies responding to a report of six men fighting Sunday night found the scene clear, but were told by witnesses that there had been a brief fight over a parking space. (AP Photo/Katy Winn, file)

FILE - Singer Chris Brown appears at a news conference to announce his partnership with Ford's Sync, a voice activated hands free in car communication and entertainment system, in this Nov. 2, 2007 file photo taken in New York. Authorities are investigating allegations that Grammy-winning singer Chris Brown assaulted a man in a West Hollywood parking lot Sunday Jan. 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Peter Kramer, File)

(AP) ? Grammy-winning singer Chris Brown is under investigation for an alleged assault in a West Hollywood parking lot, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said early Monday.

Deputies responding to a report of six men fighting Sunday night found the scene clear, but were told by witnesses there had been a brief fight over a parking space.

"The altercation allegedly led to Chris Brown punching the victim," the department said in a statement released early Monday morning.

The "victim" wasn't identified, but the celebrity website TMZ, which first reported the fight outside the Westlake Recording Studio, said it also involved Frank Ocean, one of the top nominees at the Grammy Awards next month.

In a Twitter posting later, Ocean said he "got jumped by (Brown) and a couple guys" and suffered a finger cut.

It wasn't Brown's first problem in the run-up to the Grammys. His attack on singer Rihanna on the eve of the 2009 awards event overshadowed the show.

Last June, he was injured in a brawl with members of hip-hop star Drake's entourage at a New York nightclub.

No arrests were made. Brown was gone by the time deputies arrived but the department said the investigation is ongoing and Brown would be contacted later.

Email messages to Ocean's publicist and Brown's lawyer and representative were not immediately returned. A man answering the phone at the recording studio declined to comment.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-01-28-People-Chris%20Brown/id-3ca464e692e248b3811dd7ec9aefce90

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Academies recommend new measures in antibiotic research

Academies recommend new measures in antibiotic research [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 28-Jan-2013
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Contact: Caroline Wichmann
presse@leopoldina.org
0049-034-547-239-800
Leopoldina

A growing number of infections worldwide are caused by bacteria resistant to antibiotics and ever fewer effective antibiotics are available. As a result, it is becoming increasingly difficult to treat infected patients successfully. In the statement, "Antibiotic Research: Problems and Perspectives", which was published today, the Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Hamburg and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina list eight recommendations that show ways to prevent the further spread of antibiotic resistance and to develop urgently needed antibiotics.

"This development is a cause for grave concern. Our statement focuses on the contribution by research and on the necessary parameters in society," said Prof. Ansgar W. Lohse, spokesperson for the Working Group on Infection Research and Society at the Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Hamburg. "We need genuine incentives for new and more intensive antibiotic research so we can develop medications more quickly," he added.

"This field is a task for society as a whole," said Prof. Jrg Hacker, President of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. "Society does not only need greater research efforts and a faster translation of the findings into applications, but also dialogue on how antibiotics can be used responsibly and on how resistance can be prevented. We are setting up a round table on this topic and will invite all the relevant partners to join it."

According to the WHO, the global occurrence of antibiotic resistance poses one of the greatest threats to human health. It is estimated that around 25,000 patients die each year in the EU alone from an infection with bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics.

###

The statement containing a summary and the recommendations can be downloaded at http://www.leopoldina.org/en/publications/detailview/?publication[publication]=475&cHash=1883f73140e3cc069425f3e234281083

The full text is freely accessible as an eBook at: http://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9783110306675

The statement is available in a booklet called "Antibiotika-Forschung: Probleme und Perspektiven" ("Antibiotic Research: Problems and Perspectives"). Statement by the Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Hamburg and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, Berlin (De Gruyter) 2013, (Papers by the Akademie der Wissenschaften in Hamburg 2), 77 pages, 29.95, ISBN 978-3-11-030667-5. Please note that the booklet is currently only available in German, but will shortly be translated into English.

Members of the working group will present the statement to the public at 7 p.m. this evening, 28 January 2013, in Hamburg. The panel members are Prof. Jrg Hacker, President of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina; Prof. Ansgar W. Lohse, spokesperson for the Working Group on Infection Research and Society, Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Hamburg; Prof. Stefan Schwarz, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut Neustadt-Mariensee; and Prof. Werner Solbach, Director of the Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene, University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein. The discussion will be chaired by Vera Cordes (NDR). Venue: Baseler Hof Sle, Esplanade 15, 20354 Hamburg.

For press enquiries, please contact:
Dr Elke Senne
Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Hamburg
Press and Public Relations
Tel: + 49 (0) 40 42 94 86 69 20, e-mail: elke.senne@awhamburg.de

Caroline Wichmann
German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
Head of Press and Public Relations
Tel: +49 (0) 345 472 39 800, e-mail: presse@leopoldina.org

Members of the Academy of Science and Humanities in Hamburg are scholars of all academic disciplines from northern Germany. As a working academy, it aims to intensify interdisciplinary research and collaboration between universities and other scientific institutions and to stimulate dialogue between scholars and the public. www.awhamburg.de

The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina brings together the expertise of some 1,500 distinguished scientists to bear on questions of social and political relevance, publishing unbiased and timely scientific opinions. The Leopoldina represents the German scientific community in international committees and pursues the advancement of science for the benefit of humankind and for a better future. www.leopoldina.org

Joint press release by the Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Hamburg and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina



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Academies recommend new measures in antibiotic research [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 28-Jan-2013
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Contact: Caroline Wichmann
presse@leopoldina.org
0049-034-547-239-800
Leopoldina

A growing number of infections worldwide are caused by bacteria resistant to antibiotics and ever fewer effective antibiotics are available. As a result, it is becoming increasingly difficult to treat infected patients successfully. In the statement, "Antibiotic Research: Problems and Perspectives", which was published today, the Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Hamburg and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina list eight recommendations that show ways to prevent the further spread of antibiotic resistance and to develop urgently needed antibiotics.

"This development is a cause for grave concern. Our statement focuses on the contribution by research and on the necessary parameters in society," said Prof. Ansgar W. Lohse, spokesperson for the Working Group on Infection Research and Society at the Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Hamburg. "We need genuine incentives for new and more intensive antibiotic research so we can develop medications more quickly," he added.

"This field is a task for society as a whole," said Prof. Jrg Hacker, President of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. "Society does not only need greater research efforts and a faster translation of the findings into applications, but also dialogue on how antibiotics can be used responsibly and on how resistance can be prevented. We are setting up a round table on this topic and will invite all the relevant partners to join it."

According to the WHO, the global occurrence of antibiotic resistance poses one of the greatest threats to human health. It is estimated that around 25,000 patients die each year in the EU alone from an infection with bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics.

###

The statement containing a summary and the recommendations can be downloaded at http://www.leopoldina.org/en/publications/detailview/?publication[publication]=475&cHash=1883f73140e3cc069425f3e234281083

The full text is freely accessible as an eBook at: http://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9783110306675

The statement is available in a booklet called "Antibiotika-Forschung: Probleme und Perspektiven" ("Antibiotic Research: Problems and Perspectives"). Statement by the Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Hamburg and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, Berlin (De Gruyter) 2013, (Papers by the Akademie der Wissenschaften in Hamburg 2), 77 pages, 29.95, ISBN 978-3-11-030667-5. Please note that the booklet is currently only available in German, but will shortly be translated into English.

Members of the working group will present the statement to the public at 7 p.m. this evening, 28 January 2013, in Hamburg. The panel members are Prof. Jrg Hacker, President of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina; Prof. Ansgar W. Lohse, spokesperson for the Working Group on Infection Research and Society, Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Hamburg; Prof. Stefan Schwarz, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut Neustadt-Mariensee; and Prof. Werner Solbach, Director of the Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene, University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein. The discussion will be chaired by Vera Cordes (NDR). Venue: Baseler Hof Sle, Esplanade 15, 20354 Hamburg.

For press enquiries, please contact:
Dr Elke Senne
Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Hamburg
Press and Public Relations
Tel: + 49 (0) 40 42 94 86 69 20, e-mail: elke.senne@awhamburg.de

Caroline Wichmann
German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
Head of Press and Public Relations
Tel: +49 (0) 345 472 39 800, e-mail: presse@leopoldina.org

Members of the Academy of Science and Humanities in Hamburg are scholars of all academic disciplines from northern Germany. As a working academy, it aims to intensify interdisciplinary research and collaboration between universities and other scientific institutions and to stimulate dialogue between scholars and the public. www.awhamburg.de

The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina brings together the expertise of some 1,500 distinguished scientists to bear on questions of social and political relevance, publishing unbiased and timely scientific opinions. The Leopoldina represents the German scientific community in international committees and pursues the advancement of science for the benefit of humankind and for a better future. www.leopoldina.org

Joint press release by the Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Hamburg and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina



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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-01/l-arn012813.php

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'Barrier of bodies' trapped Brazil fire victims

SANTA MARIA, Brazil (AP) ? A fast-moving fire roared through a crowded, windowless nightclub in southern Brazil early Sunday, filling the air in seconds with flames and a thick, toxic smoke that killed more than 230 panicked partygoers, many of whom were caught in a stampede to escape.

Inspectors believe the blaze began when a band's small pyrotechnics show ignited foam sound insulating material on the ceiling, releasing a putrid haze that caused scores of university students to choke to death. Most victims died from smoke inhalation rather than burns in what appeared to be the world's deadliest nightclub fire in more than a decade.

Survivors and the police inspector Marcelo Arigony said security guards briefly tried to block people from exiting the club. Brazilian bars routinely make patrons pay their entire tab at the end of the night before they are allowed to leave.

But Arigony said the guards didn't appear to block fleeing patrons for long. "It was chaotic and it doesn't seem to have been done in bad faith because several security guards also died," he told The Associated Press.

Later, firefighters responding to the blaze initially had trouble getting inside the Kiss nightclub because "there was a barrier of bodies blocking the entrance," Guido Pedroso Melo, commander of the city's fire department, told the O Globo newspaper.

Authorities said band members who were on the stage when the fire broke out later talked with police and confirmed they used pyrotechnics during their show.

Police inspector Sandro Meinerz, who coordinated the investigation at the nightclub, said one band member died after escaping because he returned inside the burning building to save his accordion. The other band members escaped alive because they were the first to notice the fire.

"It was terrible inside ? it was like one of those films of the Holocaust, bodies piled atop one another," said Meinerz. "We had to use trucks to remove them. It took about six hours to take the bodies away."

Television images from Santa Maria, a university city of about 260,000 people, showed black smoke billowing out of the Kiss nightclub as shirtless young men who attended the university party joined firefighters using axes and sledgehammers to pound at the hot-pink exterior walls, trying to reach those trapped inside.

Bodies of the dead and injured were strewn in the street and panicked screams filled the air as medics tried to help. There was little to be done; officials said most of those who died were suffocated by smoke within minutes.

Within hours a community gym was a horror scene, with body after body lined up on the floor, partially covered with black plastic as family members identified kin.

Outside the gym police held up personal objects ? a black purse, a blue high-heeled shoe ? as people seeking information on loved ones crowded around, hoping not to recognize anything being shown them.

Teenagers sprinted from the scene after the fire began, desperately seeking help. Others carried injured and burned friends away in their arms. Many of the victims were under 20 years old, including some minors. About half of those killed were men, about half women.

The party was organized by students from several academic departments from the Federal University of Santa Maria. Such organized university parties are common throughout Brazil.

"There was so much smoke and fire, it was complete panic, and it took a long time for people to get out, there were so many dead," survivor Luana Santos Silva told the Globo TV network.

The fire spread so fast inside the packed club that firefighters and ambulances could do little to stop it, Silva said.

Another survivor, Michele Pereira, told the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper that she was near the stage when members of the band lit some sort of flare that started the conflagration.

"The band that was onstage began to use flares and, suddenly, they stopped the show and pointed them upward," she said. "At that point, the ceiling caught fire. It was really weak, but in a matter of seconds it spread."

Guitarist Rodrigo Martins told Radio Gaucha that the band, Gurizada Fandangueira, started playing at 2:15 a.m. "and we had played around five songs when I looked up and noticed the roof was burning."

"It might have happened because of the Sputnik, the machine we use to create a luminous effect with sparks. It's harmless, we never had any trouble with it," he said. "When the fire started, a guard passed us a fire extinguisher, the singer tried to use it but it wasn't working."

He confirmed that accordion player Danilo Jacques, 28, died, while the five other members made it out safely.

Police Maj. Cleberson Braida Bastianello said by telephone that the toll had risen to 233 with the death of a hospitalized victim. He said earlier that the death toll was likely made worse because the nightclub appeared to have just one exit through which patrons could exit.

Officials earlier counted 232 bodies that had been brought for identification to a gymnasium in Santa Maria, which is located at the southern tip of Brazil, near the borders with Argentina and Uruguay.

Federal Health Minister Alexandre Padhilha told a news conference that most of the 117 people treated in hospitals had been poisoned by gases they breathed during the fire. Only a few suffered serious burns, he said.

Brazil President Dilma Rousseff arrived to visit the injured after cutting short her trip to a Latin American-European summit in Chile.

"It is a tragedy for all of us," Rousseff said.

Most of the dead apparently were asphyxiated, according to Dr. Paulo Afonso Beltrame, a professor at the medical school of the Federal University of Santa Maria who went to the city's Caridade Hospital to help victims.

Beltrame said he was told the club had been filled far beyond its capacity.

Survivors, police and firefighters gave the same account of a band member setting the ceiling's soundproofing ablaze, he said.

"Large amounts of toxic smoke quickly filled the room, and I would say that at least 90 percent of the victims died of asphyxiation," Beltrame told the AP.

"The toxic smoke made people lose their sense of direction so they were unable to find their way to the exit. At least 50 bodies were found inside a bathroom. Apparently they confused the bathroom door with the exit door."

In the hospital, the doctor "saw desperate friends and relatives walking and running down the corridors looking for information," he said, calling it "one of the saddest scenes I have ever witnessed."

Rodrigo Moura, identified by the newspaper Diario de Santa Maria as a security guard at the club, said it was at its maximum capacity of between 1,000 and 2,000, and partygoers were pushing and shoving to escape.

Santa Maria Mayor Cezar Schirmer declared a 30-day mourning period, and Tarso Genro, the governor of the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, said officials were investigating the cause of the disaster.

The blaze was the deadliest in Brazil since at least 1961, when a fire that swept through a circus killed 503 people in Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro.

Sunday's fire also appeared to be the worst at a nightclub since December 2000, when a welding accident reportedly set off a fire at a club in Luoyang, China, killing 309.

In 2004, at least 194 people died in a fire at an overcrowded nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Seven members of a band were sentenced to prison for starting the flames.

A blaze at the Lame Horse nightclub in Perm, Russia, killed 152 people in December 2009 after an indoor fireworks display ignited a plastic ceiling decorated with branches.

Similar circumstances led to a 2003 nightclub fire that killed 100 people in the United States. Pyrotechnics used as a stage prop by the 1980s rock band Great White set ablaze cheap soundproofing foam on the walls and ceiling of a Rhode Island music venue.

The band performing in Santa Maria, Gurizada Fandangueira, plays a driving mixture of local Brazilian country music styles. Guitarist Martin told Radio Gaucha the musicians are already seeing hostile messages.

"People on the social networks are saying we have to pay for what happened," he said. "I'm afraid there could be retaliation".

___

Sibaja reported from Brasilia. Associated Press writers Stan Lehman and Bradley Brooks contributed to this report from Sao Paulo.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/deadly-smoke-lone-blocked-exit-230-die-brazil-201703681.html

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রবিবার, ২৭ জানুয়ারী, ২০১৩

W.Pa. colleges find new ways to bring classes to life | TribLIVE


By Rachel Weaver

Published: Saturday, January 26, 2013, 9:00?p.m.
Updated 13 hours ago

Washington & Jefferson students travel to another dimension to learn philosophy. Robert Morris scholars use music to study mathematical concepts. Point Park students learn how to sell out venues.

Western Pennsylvania colleges are exploring ways to make learning engaging with classes beyond the scope of traditional education. The classes often fill up fastest and are the most popular with students, educators say.

?Why should colleges have these ivory towers between disciplines when there are so many shared ideas between them?? said Heather Pinson, Robert Morris University professor of communications and media arts.

Pinson teaches a class with math professor Monica VanDieren called Math, Music and Art in which students apply theories of each discipline to study four themes: symmetry, finite and infinity, improv, and searching for truth and self.

Pinson admits the concept is complex, but students appreciate the class, for which one of their required textbooks is a graphic novel ? a novel in which the story is told with artwork, typically comic book art.

?The idea of the classroom is changing,? said Joe Douglas, 21, a senior actuarial science major from Greenville, Mercer County. ?Ten years ago, it would be someone standing there telling you the information. Now, it?s much more interactive. All classes are transitioning to that.?

During a recent class, Pinson played piano and taught students the mathematics behind chords: Each note is separated by one half-step, totaling up to 12 for an entire scale. Each student was assigned a note and, while standing in a circle, they held a piece of string to make triangles depicting each chord.

This triangle could be rotated or flipped by applying recent mathematical discoveries to the treatment of the musical notes, Pinson said. Students can maneuver points of the triangle over the diameter of the circle to create a new chord.

?You have to be able to work with others and be innovative and be problem-solvers,? she said.

Andrew Rembert, a Washington & Jefferson philosophy professor, teaches The Twilight Zone, which requires students to watch episodes of the popular 1960s television show, then delve into its themes of time travel, what it means to be human, eternal life and fear of the unknown.

Many students take it as a way to fulfill one of three required humanities courses. No matter their majors, students flock to the class. Rembert has to set aside a few slots for freshmen so that upperclassmen can?t get first bid on all the spots.

?You think outside the box and learn more in-depth concepts,? said Turner Rintala, 18, a freshman from Philadelphia.

In a recent class, Rembert delivered a lesson on nuclear weapons and the fear of their use during the time of the Cold War and Cuban Missile Crisis. A viewing of a ?Twilight? episode titled ?Third From the Sun? followed.

?It?s about what constitutes a human being,? Rembert said. ?The series was very in tune with the kinds of issues that were on people?s minds.?

Fans of Johnny Depp and history alike flock to Molly Warsh?s Global History of Pirates class at the University of Pittsburgh. The class is so popular, it will be open to 80 students in the fall, double this semester.

?It?s been super fun,? said Warsh, a history professor. ?It?s an easy sell. They all grew up with ?Pirates of the Caribbean.? ?

Students learn about much more than Depp?s Capt. Jack Sparrow. They talk about the role pirates played in the building of empires, the later struggle of merchants and their allies to eradicate piracy and how the culture persists today.

?It?s always really fun when you hear the students say, ?Holy smokes! This still exists!?? Warsh said.

In an age of rising tuition, classes that cross disciplines help educators prepare students for careers that might not even exist yet, RMU?s VanDieren said.

?They have to be able to adapt and be creative,? she said.

The average in-state tuition and fees for a full-time undergraduate at a four-year public institution in Pennsylvania was $12,079 in 2011-12, up 6.6 percent from the year before.

At Point Park, students are analyzing the workings of ticketing systems used in the sports, arts and entertainment industries in a class simply called Ticketing. They?re learning from industry veterans Jason Varnish, box office manager of Consol Energy Center, and Anthony Dennis, director of sales at the Pittsburgh Playhouse.

The class is the brainchild of several Point Park alumni, who told their former teachers how valuable such a class would be. Students go to Consol Energy Center and learn about its operation and are required to work a Playhouse event.

?You can only learn so much in the classroom,? Varnish said.

Chris Vella, 22, a senior sports, arts and entertainment management major from Oakland, said he thinks the class will give him a one-up when applying for a job.

?You get the relevant knowledge of working in the field,? he said. ?It?s something you can write on your resume.?

Rachel Weaver is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at 412-320-7948 or rweaver@tribweb.com.

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Source: http://triblive.com/news/education/3233913-74/students-class-classes

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Aurora Health Care To Lay Off Employees Because Of Obamacare

It looks like Obamacare is having some negative effects on the industry it was intended to help.

Dr. Nick Turkal, CEO of Wisconsin-based non-profit health care provider Aurora Health Care, announced earlier this month that his employer would be cutting jobs due to Obamacare, The Journal Times reports. In a letter to employees he wrote that the company would be receiving $13 million less in government reimbursements forcing it to make ?position eliminations plus discontinuation of some positions in the coming weeks.?

The cuts will be small considering Aurora?s 30,000 current employees but things could get worse in the future. Already, staff has been instructed to cut costs by avoiding making color copies; physicians serving Medicare patients may receive a cut in payments.

?We don?t want people to be afraid, but things are different,? Aurora spokeswoman Myrle Croasdale told the Journal Times.

Aurora isn?t the only one in the health care industry to claim Obamacare is forcing layoffs. Orlando Health, a Florida network of community and specialty hospitals, said it would be laying off 400 employees due to new Obamacare costs, One News Now reports. Likewise, small medical device company ADM Tronics says Obamacare will mean the company will have to lay off employees for the first time in over a decade, according to Fox News.

Obamacare has had positive effects on the health care industry, as well, however. While these companies have reported increased costs, hospitals and insurance companies alike are expected to receive a large influx in payments due to the new health law, Forbes reports. As a result, investors are betting that the industry will see big profits, already driving stocks of various health care companies in the S&P 500 up 7.3 percent this year, The Washington Post reports.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/26/aurora-health-care-obamacare_n_2559120.html

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YC-Backed Segment.io Lets Developers Integrate With Multiple Analytics Providers In Hours, Not Weeks

segmentio-logoSegment.io, a Y Combinator-backed analytics startup for developers, offers an easier way for developers to integrate the APIs from multiple analytics providers into their own applications. The service currently supports 20 analytics providers, including those from Google, KISSmetrics, Mixpanel, Chartbeat and more, as well as enterprise providers like HubSpot and Salesforce. Currently, both client-side and server-side analytics are supported, and the company is planning to release a mobile solution in the future.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/OSY_j7oB4b8/

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শুক্রবার, ২৫ জানুয়ারী, ২০১৩

Can the Green Deal make energy efficiency the next big thing in ...

  • 24 Jan 2013, 15:00
  • Robin Webster

The government is due to launch its flagship energy efficiency scheme, the Green Deal, on Monday. At a press conference yesterday, climate change minister Greg Barker insisted that the programme will make energy efficiency measures the next big thing in home improvement. But others seem less than enthusiastic. We cast an appraising eye over the government's big green baby.?

The Green Deal is basically a loan scheme. It will allow householders to take out a loan from the government to fund measures to improve the energy efficiency of their home - these could include double glazing, an upgraded boiler, or cavity wall insulation. The works will be delivered by registered suppliers and the householder pays the loan off through a surcharge on their energy bill.

There appear to be some teething problems the media has picked up on in recent weeks, and here we take a look at them.

1. Consumer awareness?

Householders have been able to sign up for the scheme since last October, but takeup has been slow. This morning, the Telegraph claims just five households - or maybe two - have signed up to the deal so far. But that's a step up from in October when it reported none had done so.?

It appears that consumer awareness of the scheme is not high. According to a YouGov poll for consumer group uSwitch yesterday, four out of five people have never heard of it.?

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) argues it has yet to launch its ?3 million communications campaign for the scheme. At the press conference yesterday, ministers emphasised that they're expecting the Green Deal could take "decades" to reach its full potential - so it will be a long haul. But the media has been critical of such a low key launch, suggesting that the ambition of the scheme may have been watered down.?

The uSwitch poll does contains some good news for the government. According to its press release (unfortunately uSwitch declined to share a copy of its polling results), 67 per cent of respondents were interested in "making [their] home more energy efficient" and 61 per cent expressed an interest in the Green Deal once the scheme was briefly explained. These results were less widely reported, however.?

2. The financing: A ?10,000 debt??

The government has promised that a household's energy bill will not go up overall as a result of taking out a loan - the so-called golden rule. Installers must, in theory, ensure savings from installing the efficiency measures will equal or surpass the amount spent on them.

The Daily Mail reports householders "can take out a ?10,000 loan to make energy efficiency changes". But this is an upper limit, not a fixed amount. With a range of options on offer, presumably only the really keen will choose to borrow ?10,000.?

It adds that because the ?"?10,000 debt is tied to the home" - not the individual who takes it out - it could make a property harder to sell. This is an argument the Telegraph also makes. A DECC official said mortgage lenders have been supportive of the scheme, although how that affects homebuyers' views on it presumably remains to be seen.?

In today's Telegraph, shadow energy and climate change secretary, Luciana Berger claims that consumers may be put off the scheme by having to pay back the money loaned under the scheme at an interest rate of "around 6.9 per cent".?

A spokesperson from the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) told us that 6.9 per cent is the expected rate - not yet confirmed - at which the government will lend money to the new Green Deal Finance Company (TGDFC), which then makes some of the Green Deal loans to consumers.?

DECC argues that this doesn't necessarily mean that consumers will have to pay the money back to TGDFC at the same interest rate. It also claims consumers will also be able to "shop around to get the best deal", not necessarily borrowing from TGDFC. Make of that what you will. The most important part of the equation, DECC says, is the golden rule, which still should mean consumers pay no more on their bills than they did before they installed the measures.?

There's also a ?120 fee for an initial assessment by a Green Deal advisor on households' efficiency needs. The Telegraph says this could put households off - especially poorer ones.?

3. Intrusion and inspections?

It's fairly well known in the energy policy world that, whatever modelling says about the benefits of reducing energy consumption, there are social barriers. It means upheaval and can involve strangers tramping around the loft. In addition, as the Telegraph reports today, the Green Deal includes some assessment of a householder's income - which some might find intrusive. ?

The government says it's trying to address customer concerns, at least about how trustworthy the people invading the loft will be. DECC has created a special certification body, which assesses whether companies can be Green Deal advisors or installers, an ombudsman to resolve complaints about Green Deal suppliers, and a code of practice. Ministers also said there's an advice line for consumers. ?

It needs to work

Getting the Green Deal up and running is clearly an epic task. The complications around financing the scheme, and the challenge of upgrading the UK's leaky housing stock are intimidating.?

Ministers talk confidently of a programme that is going to run in the long-term, providing businesses with the certainty they need to spend money training staff. The media, meanwhile, appear to be on the lookout for holes in the scheme.

Any such faults could have a big impact on consumer energy bills. As DECC's website outlines, the department projects that its energy efficiency policies will bring down consumer bills relative to what they would have been if the measures weren't in place.

But that depends on the Green Deal being a success. For the government, the Green Deal is a crucial part of the argument that policies will protect consumers from energy bill price hikes. But no takeup would mean no limiting effect on energy bills. We'll wait and see.

Source: http://www.carbonbrief.org/blog/2013/01/appraising-the-green-deal

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From dark hearts comes the kindness of mankind

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

The kindness of mankind most likely developed from our more sinister and self-serving tendencies, according to Princeton University and University of Arizona research that suggests society's rules against selfishness are rooted in the very exploitation they condemn.

The report in the journal Evolution proposes that altruism ? society's protection of resources and the collective good by punishing "cheaters" ? did not develop as a reaction to avarice. Instead, communal disavowal of greed originated when competing selfish individuals sought to control and cancel out one another. Over time, the direct efforts of the dominant fat cats to contain a few competitors evolved into a community-wide desire to guard its own well-being.

The study authors propose that a system of greed dominating greed was simply easier for our human ancestors to manage. In this way, the work challenges dominant theories that selfish and altruistic social arrangements formed independently ? instead the two structures stand as evolutionary phases of group interaction, the researchers write.

Second author Andrew Gallup, a former Princeton postdoctoral researcher in ecology and evolutionary biology now a visiting assistant professor of psychology at Bard College, worked with first author Omar Eldakar, a former Arizona postdoctoral fellow now a visiting assistant professor of biology at Oberlin College, and William Driscoll, an ecology and evolutionary biology doctoral student at Arizona.

To test their hypothesis, the researchers constructed a simulation model that gauged how a community withstands a system built on altruistic punishment, or selfish-on-selfish punishment. The authors found that altruism demands a lot of initial expenditure for the group ? in terms of communal time, resources and risk of reprisal from the punished ? as well as advanced levels of cognition and cooperation.

On the other hand, a construct in which a few profligate players keep like-minded individuals in check involves only those members of the community ? everyone else can passively enjoy the benefits of fewer people taking more than their share. At the same time, the reigning individuals enjoy uncontested spoils and, in some cases, reverence.

Social orders maintained by those who bend the rules play out in nature and human history, the authors note: Tree wasps that police hives to make sure that no member other than the queen lays eggs will often lay illicit eggs themselves. Cancer cells will prevent other tumors from forming. Medieval knights would pillage the same civilians they readily defended from invaders, while neighborhoods ruled by the Italian Mafia traditionally had the lowest levels of crime.

What comes from these arrangements, the researchers conclude, is a sense of order and equality that the group eventually takes upon itself to enforce, thus giving rise to altruism.

###

Princeton University: http://www.princeton.edu

Thanks to Princeton University for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/126412/From_dark_hearts_comes_the_kindness_of_mankind

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Apple?s Record First Quarter Of 2013, In Charts

apple-q113-iosThere are plenty of nifty tidbits to sort through in Apple's most recent earnings release, so here's a little aid if you're more of a visual learner than a text skimmer. We (by which I mean our graphics guy Bryce) have crafted a handful of charts to help you more easily sift through Apple's quarterly accomplishments, and hey -- if you feel like learning a little more, clicking each of the charts will take you to a full post on the matter.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Dz47VbZ3OPE/

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বৃহস্পতিবার, ২৪ জানুয়ারী, ২০১৩

British dog breeds stage comeback

There has been a revival in the popularity of many British dog breeds, according to new figures.

Native breeds have been in decline, as owners turn to exotic types such as the Siberian husky and the chihuahua.

But statistics from the UK Kennel Club show that several native varieties appear to be staging a comeback.

The English Setter, which had been on the list of vulnerable breeds, saw puppy registrations climb by some 34% last year.

This once popular working dog, known for its intelligence and good temperament, appeared on the list for the first time last year, based on figures from 2011.

The number of new Setters recorded has now gone from 234 to 314, meaning it has now been moved from the "vulnerable" category to the Kennel Club's "At Watch" list, for breeds that have between 300 and 450 registrations.

Fran Grimsdell, who breeds the dogs, said: "The number of people enquiring about English Setters, who would never have previously considered the breed, has increased in the last year.

"English Setters need company and cannot be left alone for long periods but they are marvellous with children and make such wonderful family pets."

The Old English Sheepdog, famously used in adverts for Dulux paint, recently entered the At Watch list, but also saw a modest (7%) increase in popularity last year.

Caroline Kisko, the Kennel Club's Secretary, said: "Everybody is talking about the post Olympic baby boom but perhaps the celebration of our British heritage in 2012 has helped lead to a revival of some of our native breeds.

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"Fashion and profile have the most influential impact on dog choice and we are pleased to see there is still a place in people's hearts and homes for our British vulnerable breeds.

"Many are still at risk but there has been significant improvement in some breeds."

Other British breeds which increased popularity last year include the English toy terrier, which saw a 25% rise to 126 puppy registrations, and the Sussex spaniel, which increased by 29% to 74 registrations.

But the news wasn't so good for some endangered native breeds. The Otterhound and the Skye Terrier (the breed featured in the well-known children's story Greyfriars Bobby) each recorded fewer than 50 puppy registrations in 2012, with little change on the previous year. These breeds along with others are considered to be at risk of extinction.

The Smooth Fox Terrier's popularity fell by 46% to just 94 registrations and the Clumber Spaniel saw a drop of 56% to 151 puppies recorded.

The UK's most popular breed is the Labrador retriever, with 36,487 registrations last year, followed by the Cocker Spaniel and the English Springer Spaniel.

The Smooth Coat Chihuahua is the country's 17th most popular dog, but has seen extraordinary increases in registrations in recent years.

Paul.Rincon-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21163388#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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