Friday, May 31, 2013

Why animals compare the present with the past

May 30, 2013 ? Humans, like other animals, compare things. We care not only how well off we are, but whether we are better or worse off than others around us, or than we were last year. New research by scientists at the University of Bristol shows that such comparisons can give individuals an evolutionary advantage.

According to standard theory, the best response to current circumstances should be unaffected by what has happened in the past. But the Bristol study, published in the journal Science, shows that in a changing, unpredictable world it is important to be sensitive to past conditions.

The research team, led by Professor John McNamara in Bristol's School of Mathematics, built a mathematical model to understand how animals should behave when they are uncertain about the pattern of environmental change. They found that when animals are used to rich conditions but then conditions suddenly worsen, they should work less hard than animals exposed to poor conditions all along.

The predictions from the model closely match findings from classic laboratory experiments in the 1940s, in which rats were trained to run along a passage to gain food rewards. The rats ran more slowly for small amounts of food if they were used to getting large amounts of food, compared to control rats that were always rewarded with the smaller amount.

This so-called 'contrast effect' has also been reported in bees, starlings and a variety of mammals including newborn children, but until now it lacked a convincing explanation.

Dr Tim Fawcett, a research fellow in Bristol's School of Biological Sciences and a co-author on the study, said: "The effects in our model are driven by uncertainty. In changing environments, conditions experienced in the past can be a valuable indicator of how things will be in the future."

This, in turn, affects how animals should respond to their current situation. "An animal that is used to rich conditions thinks that the world is generally a good place," Dr Fawcett explained. "So when conditions suddenly turn bad, it interprets this as a temporary 'blip' and hunkers down, expecting that rich conditions will return soon. In contrast, an animal used to poor conditions expects those conditions to persist, and so cannot afford to rest."

The model also predicts the reverse effect, in which animals work harder for food when conditions suddenly improve, compared to animals experiencing rich conditions all along. This too has been found in laboratory experiments on a range of animals.

The Bristol study highlights unpredictable environmental fluctuations as an important evolutionary force. "Rapid changes favour individuals that are responsive and able to adjust their behaviour in the light of past experience," said Dr Fawcett. "The natural world is a dynamic and unpredictable place, but evolutionary models often neglect this. Our work suggests that models of more complex environments are important for understanding behaviour."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/aIWs62NcHWE/130530142003.htm

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Phone Booths Are Terrible Places to Be in Movies (And Real Life)

When was the last time you stepped inside a phone booth? Like an actual walled-up, door closing, clear porta-potty type booth to make telephone calls? Those fake stalls don't count! I really can't remember. Slacktory culled up various phone booth scenes in movies and reveals what we've always kind of known (and smelled) about phone booths: they are terrible places to be. You're almost guaranteed to get run over by a car. The only guy who needs a phone booth is Superman. [Slacktory]

Read more...

    


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/nY91zwmYk0w/phone-booths-are-terrible-places-to-be-in-movies-and-r-510577516

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AnandTech | Razer Announces Haswell-based Blade, Blade Pro ...

We?ve spent a fair amount of time with the first two generations of Razer Blade, and honestly really enjoyed most of it. The original Blade released as a highly ambitious 17? Sandy Bridge gaming notebook from a company that previously had no history in the PC space. While the design was very polished, it had issues with performance, thermals, driver stability, and above all, price. The second generation Blade released with Ivy Bridge and improved on all of its predecessor?s issues - far more compute and GPU horsepower, a refined cooling design, and it was a good bit cheaper, to boot. Now, with Haswell right around the corner, we have the third generation of Blade. And this time, there are two of them.?

The 17? is still around, now known as the Blade Pro, but the big news here is the new $1799 14? Razer Blade. It?s a 0.66? thick notebook with a quad-core i7 Haswell mobile processor and NVIDIA?s new GTX 765M graphics with 2GB of GDDR5 video memory, along with an mSATA SSD and 8GB of DDR3L-1600 memory. It?s a little bit smaller than the 15? retina MacBook Pro in all dimensions - 13.58 x 9.25 x 0.66? versus 14.13 x 9.73 x 0.71? - and takes a healthy amount of design inspiration from the latest Apple portable. Given the form factor and weight (4.1 pounds), the Blade 14? has a staggering amount of compute on board.?

The CPU is one with GT2 (HD4600) graphics, which makes sense given that there?s little incentive to ship a SKU with a better on-die GPU with the presence of a powerful dedicated graphics card. Dustin is covering the GTX 700M launch, but it?s worth going over GTX 765M quickly: it?s still 28nm Kepler, a cut-down version of GK106 with four SMXs active instead of five for a total of 768 CUDA cores, a 128-bit memory bus, and support for GPU boost. It?s basically the same as GTX 760M except with a higher base clock of 850 MHz instead of 657 MHz; both 760M and 765M have a 2 GHz memory clock. This would seem to bring back a level of differentiation between the GT and GTX designations in the GeForce lineup. GT 750M is also GK106-based, but with only two SMXs active, it definitely has a lot less horsepower than GTX 760M and 765M. (Some GT 750Ms will be based on GK107, but that?s a different story entirely.) GTX 660M (in the 2nd gen Blade) was really just an overclocked GT 650M GDDR5, and some, including your humble narrator, felt that the performance wasn?t elevated enough to merit the GTX name. There shouldn?t be any such issues this time around.?

Other specs include dual-band WiFi courtesy of Qualcomm, a 70Wh battery (claimed 6 hours of runtime), usual Razer goodies like a backlit, fully anti-ghosted Synapse 2.0-enabled keyboard, a Synaptics touchpad with real, physical mouse buttons, 3 x USB 3.0 ports, HD 720p webcam, and a 14.0? 1600x900 TN display. This is the only thing on paper that really stands out to me as an issue - no thin and light notebook shipping at this price point should come with a non-IPS, non-1080p display. I don?t think response time is enough of an issue to merit not shipping a wide-angle display. ASUS has been shipping 11? and 13? notebooks for $1000 or less with 1080p matte IPS displays, so has Vizio, amongst others. It?s a big miss. I?m not going to judge panel quality until I?ve seen it (assuming it will be as good as the TN panel of the 17? Blade/Pro), but I still don?t like the choice of display on paper.?

The other issue I have is that the base $1799 model ships with just 128GB of disk space - solid state drives are cheap enough at this point that it shouldn?t be an issue to ship a 256GB drive standard in a computer at this price point, especially when you consider the size of game installs these days. Razer charges $150 to go from 128GB to 256GB on the Edge Pro, so I?d expect something similar for the upgrade pricing here as well. A 512GB SKU will be available as well.?

If you?re counting, that?s a 47W CPU and a 50-60W GPU, so very quickly we see that the power envelope of the 14? Blade is a lot higher than what we?re used to seeing in this size class. The design challenges that come with a 100+ watt TDP in an ultrathin chassis will be interesting to see - we know that the bottom is pretty well vented, with an additional intake and exhausts hidden the hinge as well, but I don?t see the Blade running particularly cool in loaded situations without some thermal engineering fairy dust. What it does have, in spades: insanity. I?ve talked about this before in some of my reviews, but I think it?s something that the computer industry has lost a bit of recently. We just don?t see these ridiculously ambitious thermal envelopes anymore. Laptops like Alienware?s original mid-2007 M15X (C2D/C2X and Nvidia?s 8800M GTX in a 15.4? notebook) and the ASUS A8Js (C2D/GeForce Go 7700, 14?, 5.3lbs), amongst others - they don?t come around very often these days (exceptions: Clevo?s W110ER and the rMBP15). The era of performance thin and lights seems to have mostly ended at the hands of the ultrabook, and there aren?t too many performance ultrabooks out there. So, as to me at least, this Blade is an incredibly exciting system simply for the amount of power it harnesses in a system of this size.?

The 17? Blade Pro specsheet reads really similarly - the Haswell quad, GTX 765M, 8GB of DDR3L-1600, and 128/256/512GB SSD options are all here, this time with a 17.3? 1080p display and the now-familiar Switchblade UI. It retains the aluminum chassis from the second generation Blade, which was basically just an internally reworked version of the original Blade shell - the industrial design, which I very much enjoyed the last two times, is back for another go around. The display is likely to be the same AUO TN panel from last time as well; it was good enough in the previous Blades but I would still like to see some kind of wide-angle panel technology used.?

Price has dropped to $2299, though that?s for a model with just 128GB of storage. Oddly, the mSATA SSD is the only storage device mentioned in the press release, so I?m not sure what is located in the 2.5? bay (the 2nd generation Blade had 2.5? 7200RPM hard drive paired with a large 64GB mSATA cache, while the original shipped with a 2.5? 256GB SSD). Razer?s specsheet claims a slight weight reduction to 6.58 pounds, but otherwise it?s dimensionally identical to the Blade R2.?

Based on the marketing materials and videos provided, it seems like the intended market for the 17? Blade Pro has shifted towards creative professionals ? game designers, filmmakers and video producers, graphic artists, even musicians. The change makes sense, given the similarities the Blade Pro has to another favorite of creative professionals, the dearly departed 17? MacBook Pro. Razer has also added Switchblade apps for Photoshop, Premiere, Maya, GIMP, and other popular photo, video, and audio creation programs to leverage the unique abilities of the SBUI panel. In the Blade Pro introduction video, you can see members of the alt rock band Fall Out Boy, YouTube comedian Freddie Wong, and other professionals from the entertainment industry talking about the Blade Pro in compute-heavy working environments. It?s certainly interesting, and Razer is pushing it further by offering the Blade Pro at a discount to design students, game developers, and other professionals in the various digital arts fields through their creative professional pricing program.

Both Blades are slated to go on sale in Q2, so they?ll probably be available sometime in the next few weeks. We?ll be going hands on with both the new Blade and the Blade Pro shortly, and will update with impressions after that.?

Source: http://www.anandtech.com/show/6998/razer-announces-haswellbased-blade-blade-pro-gaming-notebooks

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New agent inhibits HCV replication in mouse models -- No resistance seen

New agent inhibits HCV replication in mouse models -- No resistance seen [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 30-May-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: James Sliwa
jsliwa@asmusa.org
202-942-9297
American Society for Microbiology

Treatments against hepatitis C virus have only been partially successful. A major problem is that antivirals generate drug resistance. Now Seong-Wook Lee of Dankook University, Yongin, Republic of Korea and his collaborators have developed agents that bind to the business end of a critical protein, disabling it so successfully that no resistance has arisen. The research is published in the June 2013 issue of the Journal of Virology.

The target protein for the new agents is the NS5B replicase protein, which is the central catalytic enzyme in HCV replication. The researchers developed "RNA aptamers" which bind tightly to the part of that protein that performs the catalysis, disabling the replicase. Aptamers are short nucleic acids or peptides that provide the same level of recognition and binding ability that is common to antibodies.

The aptamers inhibited HCV replication without generating escape mutants, says Lee. Moreover, the aptamers inhibited diverse genotypes of HCV, neither causing toxicity nor inducing innate immunity, he says. Lee notes that in the study, therapeutic quantities of ligand-conjugated aptamer penetrated the liver tissue in the mice, raising the likelihood that therapeutically effective quantities could ultimately be achieved in HCV patients.

Roughly 170 million people worldwide are infected with HCV, says Lee, and it is the major cause of chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. There is as yet "no efficient and specific single regimen against HCV," says Lee. Current treatments are associated with many side effects, partly because rapid generation of drug-resistant virus has forced clinicians to use combinations of several drugs, resulting in greater numbers of side effects in patients than if a single agent could be used. And even with the drug combinations only some patients can generate a sustained antiviral response.

###

A copy of the article can be found online at http://bit.ly/asmtip0513c.

(C.H. Lee, Y.J. Lee, S.-W. Lee et al. Inhibition of hepatitis C virus (HCV) replication by specific RNA aptamers against HCV NS5B RNA replicase. J. Virol. June 2013 87:7064-7074; published ahead of print 17 April 2013 ,doi:10.1128/JVI.00405-13)

The Journal of Virology is a publication of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM). The ASM is the largest single life science society, composed of over 39,000 scientists and health professionals. Its mission is to advance the microbiological sciences as a vehicle for understanding life processes and to apply and communicate this knowledge for the improvement of health and environmental and economic well-being worldwide.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


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


New agent inhibits HCV replication in mouse models -- No resistance seen [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 30-May-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: James Sliwa
jsliwa@asmusa.org
202-942-9297
American Society for Microbiology

Treatments against hepatitis C virus have only been partially successful. A major problem is that antivirals generate drug resistance. Now Seong-Wook Lee of Dankook University, Yongin, Republic of Korea and his collaborators have developed agents that bind to the business end of a critical protein, disabling it so successfully that no resistance has arisen. The research is published in the June 2013 issue of the Journal of Virology.

The target protein for the new agents is the NS5B replicase protein, which is the central catalytic enzyme in HCV replication. The researchers developed "RNA aptamers" which bind tightly to the part of that protein that performs the catalysis, disabling the replicase. Aptamers are short nucleic acids or peptides that provide the same level of recognition and binding ability that is common to antibodies.

The aptamers inhibited HCV replication without generating escape mutants, says Lee. Moreover, the aptamers inhibited diverse genotypes of HCV, neither causing toxicity nor inducing innate immunity, he says. Lee notes that in the study, therapeutic quantities of ligand-conjugated aptamer penetrated the liver tissue in the mice, raising the likelihood that therapeutically effective quantities could ultimately be achieved in HCV patients.

Roughly 170 million people worldwide are infected with HCV, says Lee, and it is the major cause of chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. There is as yet "no efficient and specific single regimen against HCV," says Lee. Current treatments are associated with many side effects, partly because rapid generation of drug-resistant virus has forced clinicians to use combinations of several drugs, resulting in greater numbers of side effects in patients than if a single agent could be used. And even with the drug combinations only some patients can generate a sustained antiviral response.

###

A copy of the article can be found online at http://bit.ly/asmtip0513c.

(C.H. Lee, Y.J. Lee, S.-W. Lee et al. Inhibition of hepatitis C virus (HCV) replication by specific RNA aptamers against HCV NS5B RNA replicase. J. Virol. June 2013 87:7064-7074; published ahead of print 17 April 2013 ,doi:10.1128/JVI.00405-13)

The Journal of Virology is a publication of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM). The ASM is the largest single life science society, composed of over 39,000 scientists and health professionals. Its mission is to advance the microbiological sciences as a vehicle for understanding life processes and to apply and communicate this knowledge for the improvement of health and environmental and economic well-being worldwide.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


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


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-05/asfm-nai053013.php

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Atheer?s Mobile 3-D Interface Is Augmented Reality on Steroids

Atheer’s Mobile 3-D Interface Is Augmented Reality on Steroids
A California company has answered a question few people have probably thought to ask: What would happen if you combined the wearability of Google Glass with the gesture-based control of Microsoft Kinect? The answer is a pretty cool wearable interface ...

Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/05/atheer-mobile-3d-interface/

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NVIDIA Shield drops by the FCC, gets ready to fill pre-orders

NVIDIA Shield drops by the FCC, gets ready to fill preorders

Eager to get your mitts on NVIDIA's first Tegra 4 device? Cast your jealous eyes upon the federal government -- they've already got one. NVIDIA's Shield gaming handheld dropped by the FCC to get its label approved, betraying its original code name, Project Thor, in the processes. Hardly a surprise to see the device passing federal muster, of course, as it's slated for release at the end of next month. Unfortunately, the filings don't reveal any hidden goodies (that is, no cellular radio), just a standard WiFi antenna. Still, if label location drawings and test reports are your thing, check out the FCC link below.

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Source: FCC

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/30/nvidia-shield-drops-by-the-fcc-gets-ready-to-fill-pre-orders/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Moto X and Galaxy S4 Mini discussion on the Android Central forums

GS4 MiniWe've got forums for the latest Android phones from Motorola and Samsung

It's been a busy 24 hours in the Android world, with two rumored devices graduating to official status. Last night brought the news that Motorola X Phone is indeed real, and will come to market as the Moto X later this year. Then this morning Samsung dropped the Galaxy S4 Mini on us -- a smaller 4.3-inch, mid-range version of its current flagship, due out this summer.

If you're thinking about picking up either phone, you'll want to head on over to the Android Central forum community, where we've got forums set up for both the Moto X and the GS4 Mini. The AC forums are the place for all your thoughts, opinions and speculation in the run up to launch!

Discussion: Moto X forumSamsun?g Galaxy S4 Mini forum

    


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/fQVp9F_SiHQ/story01.htm

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Struggling Korean builders tell employees to show loyalty: buy apartments

By Ju-min Park

GOYANG, South Korea (Reuters) - Five years after the global financial crisis, South Korean construction workers are feeling the pinch more than ever as they shoulder a mountain of debt from a real estate bust that has cast a long shadow on the country's growth prospects.

Facing the specter of bankruptcy, some construction firms persuaded their staff to take up loans to mop up unsold apartments.

"There was pressure. There's nowhere else in the world where there's a parallel to these practices," said a construction worker, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.

"Loyalty and hierarchy is still strong in South Korea and especially in the construction companies which are run like the armed forces," he said, adding that his employer Poonglim Industrial Co Ltd had asked him to buy two apartments, which meant he had to borrow 800 million won ($712,800).

A public relations official at Poonglim, which completed its court receivership in April, would only say employees had taken loans on behalf of the company and interest payments were being paid by Poonglim. "We are in discussions with debt creditors to resell all of these apartments with discounts to resolve the matter," he said.

Such loans represent just a small part of a big problem in Asia's fourth-largest economy, as outstanding household debt has climbed to almost $1 trillion.

South Korea's household debt has doubled over a decade to levels where debt-to-income ratios are in excess of those in the United States before the sub-prime crash in 2008.

Hit by debt and the prolonged property market slump, January-March private consumption fell for the first time in five quarters as Koreans kept a tight hold on their wallets.

Other data also indicates the economy once dubbed the "Miracle on the Han River" because of its rise from poverty to rich nation status in just one generation may be drying up.

Gross domestic product grew 2 percent in 2012 and the Bank of Korea has forecast expansion of 2.6 percent this year.

President Park Geun-hye, who took office in February, has implemented a household debt relief program. But the 800 billion won put into the scheme is far less than the 18 trillion won that she promised in her election campaign.

The original proposal for what Park dubbed the "National Happiness Fund" was to provide debt relief for 3.2 million people, but the smaller amount will see just 324,000 qualify.

Park, the daughter of Park Chung-hee, the autocratic ruler who oversaw South Korea's stellar industrialization in the 1960s and 1970s, pledged an "Era of People's Happiness" in her campaign.

Park Wong-gap, a property specialist at South Korea's Kookmin Bank, described the measures as "morphine" for a sick body, and would not solve fundamental problems of a weak domestic economy.

South Korea's construction industry makes up about 6 percent of the economy and employs more than a million people.

FORCED TO BUY

An office worker at Byucksan Engineering & Construction Co Ltd, Kim Keon-hoon said he was also pushed in 2008 to buy an unsold 800 million won two-bathroom, four-bedroom apartment in the Ilsan suburb outside Seoul as his employer teetered on the edge of bankruptcy.

Mortgages are commonly taken on by workers to provide cash-strapped companies with liquidity, and interest payments are usually shouldered by the firms.

The purchase has saddled the father of two with debts of 500 million won and monthly interest payments of 3 million won that he cannot repay. Kim and other employees say they were coerced to buy and have taken the company to court.

This was the second time Kim had been pushed by his company into buying an unsold apartment, the first was during the 1998 Asian financial crisis, still known as the International Monetary Fund crisis in South Korea.

"During the IMF crisis, many companies raised money by making their employees buy apartments ... so when the company proposed that we do it again, it wasn't the kind of atmosphere where anyone could object," Kim told Reuters in the dusty shell of an apartment in a high-rise block on the edge of Seoul. He took on a mortgage for fear his career would suffer.

When asked about workers' claims that they were forced to buy unsold properties, a Byucksan official said the company was sympathetic to the plight of its staff. "That was a practice in the past and it can now only be resolved by reselling them. There is nothing we can do to manage the problem as the company is still under receivership."

The Korean Federation of Construction Company Unions, an umbrella union grouping, estimated in February that members working for five firms placed in receivership had been told to buy a total of 1,047 unsold apartments from their employers worth a total of 454 billion won.

"We know our workers are in pain and we all hope these houses will be sold again soon so we can get rid of that pain," said the official at Byucksan, who requested anonymity as he is not authorized to speak to the media.

Due to oversupply and lack of affordability, apartment prices in the Seoul metropolitan area have fallen 14.7 percent to end-2012 from July 2008, according to Moody's Investors Service. The slump is killing off builders.

"There is a structural problem and another liquidity crisis could happen any time to construction companies unless the real estate market recovers," said Kookmin Bank's Park.

Kookmin's own data shows that house prices fell by their fastest annual level in four years in April with a 0.76 percent decline. The bank's data is considered an official indicator of South Korea's housing market conditions.

WIDESPREAD MALAISE

The woes of the construction sector aren't just confined to smaller firms.

Combined first-quarter operating losses at the top nine South Korean construction firms, including giants such as Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co Ltd and Samsung C&T Corp, were 480.9 billion won, a compilation by online financial news service FnGuide showed.

Among the top 100 builders in South Korea, 21 firms including Ssangyong Engineering & Construction Co Ltd and Kumho Industrial Co Ltd are under court receivership or debt-restructuring programs, according to the Construction Association of Korea.

Until the construction sector revives, some parts of the industry are likely to put pressure on employees to buy, banking on the same spirit of self-sacrifice that saw people sell their jewelry to help the government pay back a $57 billion loan from the IMF during the Asian crisis in the 1990s.

The 44-year-old Kim, still with Byucksan and living in a smaller apartment in the same town, is struggling to raise and educate a family under the weight of huge debts that have destroyed his lifetime savings.

"The loans are still outstanding and that is what has hurt our workers the most. I have never wanted to come and live in this apartment."

($1 = 1122.3250 Korean won)

(Additional reporting by Choonsik Yoo; Editing by David Chance and Jacqueline Wong)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/struggling-korean-builders-tell-employees-show-loyalty-buy-210909319.html

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Alexander Poised to Unveil His Maverick GOP Vision for Energy Future

A Republican senator from a deep-red state gives a high-profile speech Wednesday laying out a GOP vision for America's energy future?a blueprint that includes a direct acknowledgment of the problem of global warming caused by carbon pollution and which calls for more, not less, government spending on clean-energy research.

The senator is Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, a moderate with serious energy-policy chops: He is the top Republican on the Senate panel that funds the Energy Department and represents a state that's home to a major Energy Department research lab, Oak Ridge.

The speech, which he'll deliver at the Oak Ridge facility, is in keeping with views Alexander has long espoused. But it's in stark contrast to the energy and climate positions taken by his party's leaders since 2010. After the tea party helped fuel the Republican takeover of the House, denying the science of climate change went from a fringe to a mainstream Republican view, and the House even passed a bill declaring that climate change was a hoax. Super PACs such as Americans for Prosperity, which has ties to the oil conglomerate Koch Industries, targeted Republicans who acknowledged climate change and supported renewable energy. During the 2012 presidential campaign, every Republican candidate but one, Jon Huntsman, questioned or denied the science concluding that carbon pollution causes global warming.

Alexander's speech highlights the widening schism on energy and climate change between moderates like himself and party leaders like Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, often named as a likely 2016 presidential candidate. At a speech in March, Rubio said, "The people who are actually closed-minded in American politics are the people who love to preach about the certainty of science with regards to our climate but ignore the absolute fact that science has proven that life begins at conception." Alexander himself has acknowledged the divide?last year, he stepped down after five years as the chairman of the Republican conference, criticizing the party's increasing ideological partisanship.

Republican strategists say they'll be paying close attention.

"Lamar is a pretty interesting guy. Given his swingy nature, lots of people are going to pay attention to what he is saying," said Mike McKenna, an energy lobbyist and strategist who helped craft House Republicans' energy messaging.

Since 2010, many formerly moderate Republicans have shifted far to the right on energy and climate positions, in part to avoid attacks from groups such as Americans for Prosperity ahead of reelection campaigns. But although Alexander is up for reelection next year, he is not backing down from his long-held energy positions. The former Tennessee governor is not facing a primary challenger and is expected to maintain a comfortable lead over Democratic challenger Larry Crim.

Five years ago, Alexander gave a similar energy speech at Oak Ridge, laying out seven "grand challenges" on energy, including finding ways to promote plug-in electric vehicles, capture and use carbon emissions, help solar become cost-competitive, safely manage nuclear waste, make biofuels competitive with gasoline, make new buildings green buildings, and create energy from fusion. At the time, those goals were well in line with the views of the GOP's presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

Alexander's speech will provide a progress report on those goals?and propose a plan for a Republican energy future.

The speech will directly acknowledge climate change and the need to reduce carbon pollution. "While the United States has made more gains in reducing the use of carbon than any other industrial country, the National Academies of the U.S. and 12 other countries have warned that human activity has contributed significantly to climate change and global warming," Alexander will say, according to prepared remarks.

He'll then lay out "four grand principles" to "help the United States end an obsession with taxpayer subsidies and strategies for expensive energy and instead focus on doubling research and allowing marketplace solutions to create an abundance of clean, cheap, reliable energy."

His four principles are: cheaper, not more expensive energy; clean, not just renewable energy; research and development, not government mandates; and a free market, not government, picking winners and losers.

More specifically, he'll praise the U.S. boom in development of natural gas, a source of electricity that produces half the carbon pollution of coal. While he'll acknowledge the role renewable-energy sources such as solar play in the nation's energy mix, he'll also push for development of low-carbon electricity sources such as nuclear and hydropower. He'll praise the work done by the Energy Department lab ARPA-E, which researches high-risk, high-reward breakthrough clean-energy technologies?a move that comes on the heels of a GOP campaign railing against President Obama for the bankruptcy of the solar company Solyndra, which took $500 million in an Energy Department loan guarantee.

In addition, Alexander will call for an end to government subsidies on wind energy, a policy he's long opposed. The proposals hardly line up exactly with President Obama's green agenda, but with their clear focus on low-carbon energy, they are a far cry from the stance of many in the GOP.

"I've been fascinated with the progress we've made on the seven grand challenges I suggested five years ago," Alexander will say. "Perhaps by focusing on these four principles, we can capitalize on this progress toward cheap, clean, reliable energy."

Still, Republicans say that a voice like Alexander's will have serious heft as the GOP reckons with its energy and climate future.

"Lamar is a strong and credible voice for Republicans on energy issues," said Republican strategist Mark McKinnon. "He has standing to make the case."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/alexander-poised-unveil-maverick-gop-vision-energy-future-141519236.html

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Thursday, May 30, 2013

Confirmed: The New Corvette's Ridiculous Performance Specs

Since its unveiling last year, we've known that Chevrolet's newest small block V-8, the LT1, will flex some serious muslce when it makes its debut in the 2014 Corvette Stingray. While GM had offered only rough power estimates so far, yesterday the automaker confirmed the official, SAE-certified output figures of the LT1 in the new 'Vette: 455 hp and 460 lb-ft of torque, making it the automaker's most powerful base-level Corvette yet.

Although the horsepower bump is significant?up 35 horses over the previous-gen C6's LS3 V-8?what's more impressive is the Stingray's torque band. With 90 percent of the LT1's peak torque available at 3000 rpm and all the way up to 5500 rpm, the newest Corvette offers surprisingly similar performance to that of the current high-performance Z06. With the optional performance exhaust, the 6.2-liter LT1 V-8 will churn out as much as 460 hp and 465 lb-ft of torque?numbers approaching those of the Z06's 7.0-liter LS7 V-8, which throws down 503 hp and 470 lb-ft. All told, Chevy estimates the 2014 Stingray will deal with 0-60 in "less than four seconds."

While it nears Z06-level performance, the latest Corvette stands head and shoulders above past 'Vettes in fuel economy. Thanks to a bevy of engine refinements?including fuel injection, variable valve timing, and cylinder deactivation?Chevy estimates that the Stingray gets 26 mpg on the highway.

All of which has us salivating for what's next. If Chevy can put this much power into the base-level Corvette, what kind of monstrosities await with the more powerful C7 variants to come?

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/news/auto-blog/confirmed-the-new-corvettes-ridiculous-performance-specs-15532809?src=rss

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Secret Service: Letter to White House intercepted

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Secret Service said Thursday that a suspicious letter similar to the ones sent to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been intercepted by a White House mail screening facility.

The letter has been turned over to the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force for testing and investigation.

It was unclear how the letter intercepted by the White House facility was similar to the ricin-laced ones addressed to Bloomberg.

Two threatening letters postmarked in Louisiana and containing traces of the deadly poison ricin were sent to Bloomberg in New York and to his gun-control group in Washington, officials said.

The anonymous letters were opened in New York on Friday at the city's mail facility in Manhattan and in Washington on Sunday at an office used by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the nonprofit started by Bloomberg, police said Wednesday.

Police said preliminary testing indicated the presence of ricin in both letters involving Bloomberg, but that more testing would be done. Police said the threats contained references to the debate on gun laws and an oily pinkish-orange substance..

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-05-30-Obama-Suspicious%20Letter/id-c1762df653af4782b05dc133ed5bb2e1

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Twitter too complicated for newcomers, says CEO

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/128405/Twitter_too_complicated_for_newcomers__says_CEO

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Plan A Successful Home Electrical Improvement Project With One Of ...

Do-it-yourself can be a vast subject. It can entail employment as easy as replacing your bathrooms faucet or a project as vast as adding a complete wing with a house. Some homeowners still find it fun some consider it a required evil. Whatever the project, regardless of the home attitude, if renovations are manufactured prudently they?re able to raise the value of the property. Here are several valuable tips that can help you using your plans.

To brighten up a space, add new light fixtures. Varying your current light fixtures to upgraded fixtures supply you with more light compared to what you currently have. A mason can change your lights with a newer style for any relatively cheap price. It?s also possible to add pendant lights over your sinks.

Purchasing of calling a plumber or electrician for minor household repairs are long gone, as well as the outrageous costs. Today, numerous websites focus on sharing how-to tricks and tips, in a manner that is definitely understood by perhaps the most reluctant handyman. You will find step-by-step directions and many also, include video demonstrations.
http://www.electrician-pros-calabasas.info/calabasas-electrical-services.php

Consider getting a professional to accomplish the electrical work for your house improvement project. It may seem easy to change out a power outlet from two prongs to three, but in case you are new to electrical work, the safest move to make is to have electrician keep up with the rewiring for you.

If you aren?t a skilled electrician, don?t try and do the electrical work yourself. You may well be influenced to run a bunch of electrical cords, or change the volume of prongs on an outlet, nevertheless, you shouldn?t attempt it because it is usually dangerous should you it incorrectly. For safety, engage a professional electrician to accomplish every one of the electrical work.

Use bartering to perform your more-ambitious home improvement goals. If you?re not an electrical contractor, but would really like newer and more effective outlets wired in, check the internet for bartering opportunities locally and don?t be shy to generate your offers. You?d be amazed at the amount of highly trained tradespeople are going to exchange their skills for a lot of home-baked goods, a good car wash and wax job, or possibly some computer lessons or website work.

Make sure you have a contractor or electrician install a power outlet inside the cabinet above the place that the microwave should go. Should you not make this happen, you will end up desperate for a place to plug it in during or after the installation of the microwave and hood vent. www.electrician-pros-calabasas.info/calabasas-electrical-services.php

Most of the people don?t think of the circuit breakers until they lose power unexpectedly. Among the best actions you can take to enhance the protection and efficiency in your home would be to regularly test your breakers by switching them on and off at least yearly. This clears the breaker contacts associated with a built-up corrosion and permits them to work better and safely. If the breakers frequently trip, this might indicate potential issues of safety that require an electrical contractor.

These are generally just some of the methods home improvement projects could be kept under control and consequently beneficial to your dwelling monatary amount. Whether you learn an easy method to execute a project you have in mind or get an idea for the latest home improvement job, checking subject always settles.

Source: http://www.anelagerqvist.net/319-plan-a-successful-home-electrical-improvement-project-with-one-of-these-tips

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7 charged in $6B online money laundering case

NEW YORK (AP) ? Calling it perhaps the biggest money laundering scheme in U.S. history, federal prosecutors charged seven people Tuesday with running what amounted to an online, underworld bank that handled $6 billion for drug dealers, child pornographers, identity thieves and other criminals around the globe.

The case was aimed at Liberty Reserve, a currency transfer and payment processing company based in Costa Rica that authorities say allowed customers to move money anonymously from one account to another via the Internet with almost no questions asked.

U.S. officials said the enterprise was staggering in scope: Over roughly seven years, Liberty Reserve processed 55 million illicit transactions worldwide for 1 million users, including 200,000 in the U.S.

The network "became the bank of choice for the criminal underworld," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in announcing the unsealing of an indictment against the defendants, including Liberty Revenue founder Arthur Budovsky, an American who renounced his U.S. citizenship after deciding to set up in Costa Rica.

Liberty Reserve allowed users to open accounts using fictitious names, including "Russian Hacker" and "Hacker Account." An undercover investigator was able to register using the name "Joe Bogus" and the address "123 Fake Main Street" in "Completely Made Up City, New York," and then conduct transactions he recorded as "ATM skimming network" and "for the cocaine."

"The coin of the realm was anonymity," Bharara said. "It was the opposite of a know-your-customer policy."

The network charged a 1 percent fee on transactions through middlemen known as exchangers, who converted real currency into virtual funds and then back into cash.

In the indictment, prosecutors called the network "one of the principal means by which cyber criminals around the world distribute, store and launder proceeds of their illegal activity ... including credit card fraud, identity theft, investment fraud, computer hacking, child pornography and narcotics trafficking."

Bharara said it was possibly "the largest international money laundering case ever brought by the United States."

Budovsky and another defendant, identified as Azzeddine el Amine, were arrested Friday at a Madrid airport while trying to return to Costa Rica, according to a Spanish court official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because court policy forbids him from speaking on the record. They were ordered jailed while they await a hearing on extradition to the U.S.

Two other men, including Liberty Reserve co-founder Vladimir Kats, were arrested last week in New York City. There was no public record of their arraignments on Friday night, and there was no immediate response to phone messages left Tuesday with their attorneys.

Of the three remaining defendants, one was in custody in Costa Rica and the others were at large there.

A notice pasted across Liberty Reserve's website Tuesday morning said the domain "has been seized by the United States Global Illicit Financial Team." Attempts to reach Liberty Reserve by phone and email were unsuccessful.

Budovsky and Kats have previous convictions on state charges related to an unlicensed money transmitting business, according to court papers. After that case, they decided to move their operation to Costa Rica, the papers said.

In an online chat captured by law enforcement, Kats admitted Liberty Reserve was illegal and noted that authorities in the United States knew it was "a money-laundering operation that hackers use."

While authorities described Liberty Reserve as being rife with criminals, the site's ease of use, low fees and irreversible transactions that deterred fraud also attracted legitimate users.

Mitchell Rossetti, whose Houston-based ePayCards.com was one of several mainstream merchants that accepted Liberty Reserve's online-only currency, said his business still had about $28,000 tied up in Liberty Reserve accounts.

"The irony of this is I went to them because of the security," Rossetti said. "All sales were final."

He acknowledged that the currency was being used by scammers but said Liberty Reserve funds were just like any other currency: "The U.S. dollar can be donated to a church or it can pay a prostitute."

Liberty Reserve appears to have played an important role in laundering proceeds from the recent theft of some $45 million from two Middle Eastern banks, according to documents made public by U.S. authorities earlier this month. In that scheme, thieves stole debit card information and then used it to drain cash from thousands of ATMs around the world in a matter of hours.

As part of the Liberty Reserve investigation, authorities raided 14 places in Panama, Switzerland, the U.S., Sweden and Costa Rica. In Costa Rica, investigators recovered five luxury cars, including three Rolls-Royces. Bharara said authorities also seized Liberty's computer servers in Costa Rica and Switzerland.

The businesses that were raided in Costa Rica on Friday as part of the investigation into Liberty Reserve are dedicated to Web hosting services, website development and Internet business consulting.

In Costa Rica, all online businesses are legal and there aren't any laws regulating them, so the country has been attracting entrepreneurs setting up Internet-based companies that do everything from e-commerce to gambling banned in other countries.

___

Satter reported from London. Alan Clendenning and Jorge Sainz in Madrid and Javier Cordoba in San Jose, Costa Rica, contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/7-charged-6b-online-money-laundering-case-223715413.html

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GSK bets on chimp virus with $321 million vaccines buy

By Ben Hirschler

LONDON (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline is betting on a new vaccine technology based on chimpanzee viruses by acquiring Swiss-based Okairos for 250 million euros ($321 million) - the latest bolt-on biotech buy by a big drugmaker.

Britain's largest pharmaceuticals group said on Wednesday that the privately owned company's know-how was expected to play an important role in GSK's development of vaccines to both prevent and treat diseases.

Okairos was spun out from Merck & Co in 2007 and has laboratories in Rome and Naples, with headquarters in Basel.

It specializes in making vaccines that target the immune system's CD8 T-cells - an approach that could yield preventative vaccines against several intractable infectious diseases, including hepatitis C, and also help fight cancer.

It does this by delivering genetic material using deactivated chimpanzee-derived adenoviruses that produce a very strong response against target diseases.

Adenoviruses, which cause the common cold, have long been studied as a useful delivery vehicle for genetic material - but they are so common that many people already have antibodies against them.

Chimp viruses, which are not so easily detected by the body's immune system, have an advantage since they can operate for longer and therefore elicit a powerful T-cell response.

The Okairos technology has already been tested in clinical studies involving more than 700 subjects, including mid-stage Phase II programs in hepatitis C and malaria.

A hepatitis C shot could be particularly promising commercially, since there is currently no vaccine and treating the condition with drugs has become a multibillion-dollar business.

Okairos also has early stage products for diseases such as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), tuberculosis, ebola and HIV.

NEW GENERATION OF VACCINES

The real attraction lies less in individual products than in the company's technology platform, which GSK hopes to exploit within its own vaccine development programs.

As such, the deal represents a long-term investment in a promising new scientific area, rather than one that will yield immediate financial rewards.

Christophe Weber, GSK's head of vaccines, said the acquisition of Okairos was "expected to contribute to the development efforts for an exciting new generation of vaccines".

GSK's Chief Executive Andrew Witty said earlier this year he had a "very low appetite" for acquisitions but, like many rivals in the industry, his company is constantly looking for bolt-on transactions to boost its pharmaceuticals, vaccines and consumer healthcare operations.

Last November, for example, GSK agreed to spend $1 billion to raise the stakes it holds in Indian and Nigerian consumer healthcare subsidiaries.

Smaller British rival AstraZeneca has a more urgent need for acquisitions, given its thin pipeline of new medicines to replace those losing patent protection. It agreed on Tuesday to pay up to $443 million for Omthera Pharmaceuticals, a U.S.-based specialist in fish oil-derived medicine.

Okairos's venture capital investors include BioMedInvest, the Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, LSP, Novartis Venture Funds and Versant Ventures.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gsk-boosts-vaccines-250-million-euros-okairos-acquisition-101645445.html

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#sci4hels - What makes one a "killer" (science) journalist of the future?

It is only four weeks till the World Conference of Science Journalists commences in Helsinki, and our #sci4hels panel has been hard at work, for months now, at preparing for the event. We had discussions on Twitter (account, list, hashtag), set up the Google + and Facebook pages, and put together a website/blog. Over the past few months, we also engaged the community with our questions. The first question was about the need for specialization (also see), which also feeds into the question of a need for specialized skills, like coding (see this and this). The second question was "What does a new science journalist do to get noticed? How do you get people to read your work, give you assignments, follow you on Twitter, and generally just know who you are?" This provoked a lively discussion on Twitter. The third question, upon noticing that all the panelists are female (and many of the upcoming science writers are, too), was a discussion about breaking the glass ceiling in the media organizations. We all pitched in together for the Question #4: How Should Science Journalists Deal with Breaking News?. The final, fifth question was: "What is the obligation of a science journalist when it comes to education?" Obviously, we covered a very broad range of topics. But now we need to focus. We'll only have 90 minutes in Helsinki, and the attendees will come to hear and learn from "killer" science journalists of the future, hoping to get some advice on how to join their ranks and become one of those "killers", successful in the fast-shifting world of modern media. On Thursday we will publish our final post and open it up for discussion. Here, I want to make some quick, broad, Big Picture thoughts of my own. What are the characteristics of a "killer science journalist of the future"? Understanding that being in print, on radio, or on TV is sweet, still pays better, and still carries a cache with some audiences, but that this picture is changing fast. These 20th century types of one-way broadcast media are rapidly losing audiences, while new generations are essentially using only the Web for information, education and entertainment. Thus, it is smart to focus primarily on the online world, while still occasionally getting some money from the old media when possible. Understanding that the currency of reputation in the new ecosystem is trust. As the readers rely less and less on the banners on top of the page and more and more on the names in the bylines, it is essential to build one's own personal reputation and not to rely entirely on the institutional reputation of the media outlet for which one writes. Understanding that, for one to gain the currency of trust in an online world, one has to constantly use the currency of trust - the hyperlink. A killer science journalist of the future profusely peppers one's articles with links. Every place in the article that makes a statement should contain a link. Every such spot that does not have a link automatically is a red flag for the modern reader. What is the author trying to hide? Is the originator of information not credited properly? If information is gained from a document, the document should be linked. If it comes from an article or a blog post, it should be linked. If it comes from a scientific paper, that paper should be linked. If there is a two-sentence quote, presumably taken out of an hour-long interview, it is important to link to the complete interview - transcript or audio or video recording. Every link is a gain of trust. Every lacking link is a loss of trust. Digital natives understand this almost instinctively. Modern online journalism is in many way just like science, including the importance of proper citation and credit for the past ideas on top of which one builds one's new edifice. There is no expectation that most readers will actually click on the links. The links are there as a proxy, a sign to the readers that the author has done the due diligence of actually doing the necessary research and finding the relevant sources (what quotes used to do in the old media, but now have the opposite effect online), and generally understands the way the Web requires proper credit of all sources of information. In cases of controversial statements, a small proportion of readers may click on links (even if they are behind paywalls - some readers will have access) and tell the other readers in the comments if the links actually support the statements in the text. Understanding that the new media ecosystem is an open system. An open system is much stricter and faster in enforcing both the traditional journalistic ethics and the additional online ethics, and much harsher and faster at meting punishment on transgressors of such ethics than the old-style, closed ecosystem. Feedback is instantaneous, and often devastating. The best way to deal with criticism is complete transparency, humble admission of errors, and civil countering of incorrect information if such is presented in the feedback. A digital native does not take harsh feedback personally, is used to harshness of online comments, shrugs it off but does not ignore the feedback - understanding that it is always a learning experience that helps one get better at the job. It is also understood that responding to feedback and involving the readers in the learning process is one way of getting better, earning trust, and gaining good reputation. Understanding that self-promotion is not a dirty word the way it was in the 20th century. With a glut of information, and glut of overall online communication, it is necessary for the author to be seen and heard above the din. The only way to do this is to have the link circulate widely online, especially on social media. For the link to appear on social media in the first place, the author has to place it there first. If the piece is accurate, well documented, and well written, it will be spread around. For the link posted by the author to be seen, the author has to have sufficient number of people to send it to, particularly people who already trust and respect the author. Thus, building and nurturing one's own community of friends, colleagues and readers, and being a part of other people's similar circles, reciprocating the goodwill, is essential. This is the essence of the principle of horizontal loyalty (or "Friends In Low Places"). Understanding that all of the above is still not enough. Doing it all correctly, diligently discovering information, linking to all the sources, not stealing ideas from bloggers and then linking only to traditional sources, being humble, respectful and transparent, and generally making a coherent article day after day, week after week, is still not enough. One day soon, everyone will be doing it technically correctly. How does one get noticed in such an environment then? Yes, sometimes you'll have to write a dull article for money. Perhaps too often. But the pieces that will really take off - and the pieces that will bring the reputation and trust, not just traffic - are pieces that are written with passion. So, follow your own curiosity and find your passion. Find your own obsession and turn it into your beat. Become a Go-To expert on the topic of your obsession. Ditch the boring old inverted pyramid (it was invented due to space limits of paper, something that vanished online) and start writing in an exciting way. Or, if your passion is not any narrow topic, then your expertise - or your signature stuff, something for which people will keep coming back over and over again to check your work - may be something else: absolutely beautiful writing, or amazing visuals, or stunning art or photography, or video, or animation, or hand-coded interactive infographics, or whatever makes you excited. If you are excited, your readers will be excited, too. They will support you, tell their friends about you, and make you successful in the process. As long as the basic journalistic ethics and the additional online ethics are met, it is this added passion that will make the difference between successful writers and those who are...not so much... Follow Scientific American on Twitter @SciAm and @SciamBlogs. Visit ScientificAmerican.com for the latest in science, health and technology news.
? 2013 ScientificAmerican.com. All rights reserved.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sci4hels-makes-one-killer-science-journalist-future-145100139.html

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'World's oldest Torah' scroll found

The University of Bologna in Italy has found what it says may be the oldest complete scroll of Judaism's most important text, the Torah.

The scroll was in the university library but had been mislabelled, a professor at the university says.

It was previously thought the scroll was no more that a few hundred years old.

However, after carbon dating tests, the university has said the text may have been written more than 850 years ago.

The university's Professor of Hebrew Mauro Perani says this would make it the oldest complete text of the Torah known to exist, and an object of extraordinary worth.

The university says that in 1889 one of its librarians, Leonello Modona, had examined the scroll and dated it to the 17th Century.

However, when Prof Perani recently re-examined the scroll, he realised the script used was that of the oriental Babylonian tradition, meaning that the scroll must be extremely old.

Another reason for the dating is that the text has many features forbidden in later copies under rules laid down by the scholar Maimonides in the 12th Century, the university says.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22697098#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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Android App Video Review: Kingdom Rush

I know you're probably sick of tower defense games in general at this point, but whether you're a hardcore fan or completely tired of the genre, you should probably check this title out. Finally making its way to Android from iOS, Kingdom Rush is one of the best and most fleshed out tower defense games around, and is easily in my top three of the genre. If you haven't had a chance to try it before now, definitely don't pass it up.

Set in a typical fantasy world of orcs, paladins, wizards, giant spiders, and more, the world of Kingdom Rush is simple but rendered in an adorable and colorful art style that is very unique and iconic. It's the kind of tower defense with pre-set paths, and strategic tower building locations placed on the map ahead of time. You have four tower types available to you, plus two special powers to activate and a hero character to boss around.


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The four tower types are archers, infantry, wizard, and artillery. Infantry mainly keeps the enemy busy while the other three kinds of towers nuke everything. There is a lot of nuance, in that wizards ignore armor, and artillery is important for large hordes of small enemies. Every infantry member can only keep one enemy busy at a time, and there are three per tower. Each tower can be upgraded, eventually reaching a super form at level four, unlocking addition spells, like poisonous arrows on archers and free enemy disintegrations on the wizard. You can also call reinforcement militia as one of your cooldown powers, and you can and should do it often. Your other spell is a powerful meteor storm, and comes up much less often.

All your towers and spells can be upgraded permanently using stars that you earn in each level rating, increasing range or damage, giving better armor to infantry, adding slow to wizard shots, etc. You'll also earn gems, which you can use to buy special helpful items, like screen clearing bombs or a staff that freezes enemies. Gems and extra heroes can be purchased in app. Each level in the game has three difficulties, plus two challenge versions that you unlock by getting a three star rating on a level. This is seriously one of the best tower defense games there is. It's full of nuance and depth, but it's not overly complex or overwhelmingly difficult. For two dollars at the time of this review, it's a steal.

Source: http://www.androidapps.com/games/articles/13507-android-app-video-review-kingdom-rush

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Orlando Jones On Tyler Perry Prank And Art Of Reinvention ...

?

Actor Orlando Jones has made a lucrative career out of actin? the fool. Whether it was on ?MADtv? spoofing Andre 3000 and OJ Simpson, in commercials telling people to ?make 7Up yours? or getting aliens pulled out of his ass in ?Evolution? the Alabama native knows a thing or three about getting a laugh.

So it was surprising to him when an April Fool?s blog that he wrote for The Huffington Post became the talk of Hollywood. Dressed in white-face as an old woman, Jones wrote a ?story? that he would be replacing Tyler Perry as his popular character Madea in an up-coming film. Timed on April 1st in the Huffington Post Comedy section, it was a pretty obvious prank. However, a lot of people weren?t laughing. In fact, they were hopping mad.

RELATED:?Orlando Jones Prank Makes Tyler Perry Fans Commit Ritual Suicide

?We put up an old picture from this movie we were going to do like ten years ago with me as a white woman,? Jones tells TheUrbanDaily.com. ?I decided not to do the movie for a lot of different reasons. We sent it out and people don?t read. I was dressed as a white woman. I tagged it April Fool?s. But people was heated!?

Almost two weeks after it ran, even a statement from Mr. Perry declaring that the prank was ?not true and not funny? failed to quell the chatter.

Watch the video for his full reaction to the April Fool?s Joke drama:

If nothing else the controversy thrust Jones back into the public eye at the most opportune of times. Despite being quite active on television, Jones hasn?t been seen on the big screen in some time, leading some to ask where he?s been. However, he has recently launched a digital graphic novel ?Tainted Love? and it was just announced that he would be starring in a new Fox series, ?Sleepy Hollow.?

?The entertainment business has changed so much,? he says of his absence from movie screens. ?Distribution changed. What sort of movies they were pushing changed. It became about tent pole movies like ?Avatar,? ?Avengers? etc. And traditionally there have been very few African-Americans to occupy a space in those movies. Somebody who I have a tremendous amount of respect for like Jamie Foxx, up until ?Django Unchained? he hadn?t done a studio movie in five years?and he has an Oscar. That?s how much the business has shifted on so many levels. And if you care about the things you put out in the world as a Black man there?s certain things you?re not gonna do.?

After making his mark on ?MADtv? and in films like ?Drumline? Jones began to ponder his next move and what kind of legacy he was leaving behind.

?My daughter was 2 1/2 years old and I was like it?s time for me to grow up,? says Jones. ?Time for people to have a clearer sense of me and what I?m about. So I told my managers to pump the breaks for a minute. Where am I going? That was about four years ago.?

The result was ?Tainted Love,? a visually sharp, cutting edge story of Black Barry, an underpaid bag man and new father who is trying to survive this spinning ball of dirt with his lady love Jezebel Jackson (Deanna Russo).

?I?m a nerd. We may not look like you expect us to look. Might not look the way you expect us talk but there are lot of Black dudes that are nerds into graphic novels and comic books but we still checkin out dat ass,? Jones explains. ? So ?Tainted Love? came into my mind. I wanted to tell this story about people who other people have given up on. Like people in my family. They?ve done some crazy stuff but I love them. So I created the first digital graphic novel.?

In addition to an action film with Jean Claude Van Dam in the can, Jones will be flexing his dramatic chops as Detective Irving in the upcoming FOX series, ?Sleepy Hollow.?

?It?s massive. I like to think I?ve had a decent career. But I?ve never been involved with nothing like this before,? he says. ?It?s game changing. Nicole Beharie, who is in ?42,? is in it. When is the last time you saw two African-American leads in a network show, let alone a show of this size??

Action movies, graphic novels and headless horsemen? Where are the jokes? That?s kind of the point.

?It?s not what people are accustomed to seeing from me,? Orlando Jones says with a knowing glance. ?But neither is ?Tainted Love.? I?ve been super blessed but it?s time for me to reintroduce myself.?

Follow Orlando Jones on Twitter @TheOrlandoJones

Like TheUrbanDaily.com on Facebook to stay updated with the latest entertainment news and original interviews!

Source: http://theurbandaily.com/2370611/orlando-jones-tyler-perry-prank-exclusive-video/

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