Facebook is not working on an RSS product, we hear, but it still has a huge and truly social opportunity in news discovery. Facebook could turn what links we share with friends into an automatic Digg for the world.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/myvbA1AVhok/
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22 hours ago
Kim Kyung Hoon / Reuters file
A model in Tokyo poses in an LED dress designed by Swarovski and Hussein Chalayan. One day soon, electronic clothing like this will even be connected to the Internet.
Doors that magically unlock as you approach. Clothes that advise you when they're out of style, then tell your car how to get to the nearest sale. Cough medicine that tells you when it's time to go to the doctor. This magical, futuristic world now called the "Internet of Things" is coming straight from science fiction into your home. Like "the cloud," the "Internet of Things" is largely a marketing term designed to create buzz around a series of not-yet-ready-for-prime time technologies, and also like the cloud, you won't be able to avoid hearing about it soon.
But this time, the stakes are much higher. It?s a full-on cage match between George Jetson and George Orwell.
Maybe it's a miracle to think about high-tech insulin pumps that patients never need to touch, while doctors control them from thousands of miles away. But what happens when a hacker hijacks that insulin pump ? or simply threatens to hijack it, and messages the patient that he'd better pay a ransom to keep it functioning properly? Those runaway gadgets from "The Jetsons" cartoon might not be such a laughing matter in real life.
We already have an Internet of Things ? your PC, laptop, tablet, everything already connected to the Internet. What the "IoT" crowd means by "things" is "everything." They want to attach tiny computers and sensors to just about every object in the world, and make them all talk to each other.
"We have everyday objects we've been interacting with for years, and many of these objects are now gaining intelligence and connectivity," said Jason Johnson, leader of the IoT consortium. "We will create this fabric of connected devices."
The back story
The idea of putting little connected computers everywhere, even floating in the air around us, isn't new. You'll find popular references to "ubiquitous computing" nearly 20 years ago. Since then, there has been one failed effort after another to bring James Bond-like automation to our lives. Take the hobbyist X-10 technology, which let users turn off household lights via remote control ? X-10 gadgets had trouble competing with The Clapper, much less "The Jetsons."
Today, continually shrinking sensors and processors put us on the threshold of the Internet of Things. In fact, some of this futuristic wizardry already has a devoted following. Members of the burgeoning Quantified Self movement use iPhones and wearable sensors like Fitbit to measure their heart rate, blood pressure and sleep patterns, upload that data into spreadsheets, sometimes even share it automatically via Twitter and Facebook. They use the data to find the optimal temperature to go for a run, or the best humidity conditions in which to sleep.
Fitbit
The Fitbit system combines wireless trackers, a Wi-Fi smart scale, smartphone apps and cloud-based information management to help people keep in shape.
Advanced medicine also already employs many of these technologies. For instance, probes with cameras work their way through our circulatory systems into our hearts, sending back detailed pictures to doctors who can make repairs in minutes in situations that would previously proved fatal.
When that kind of technology inevitably gets cheap ? when our pens, cars, toilets and everything else can see and hear us ? many exciting notions become possible. You might never run out of toilet paper, for example. At the same time, you might share uncomfortably up-to-date health information with your doctor.
What could go wrong?
But anyone who's every suffered a dropped phone call, gotten bad directions from a GPS, or even had a printer jam will realize that technology lets us down as often as it lifts us up. So aren't we setting ourselves up for gadget failure hell?
No, says Johnson, for two reasons. First, stepping on the shoulders of other futuristic failures, Internet of Things entrepreneurs know they have to prioritize substance over glitz. And second, the gadgets they sell must have an old-fashioned backup system.
"You must solve a real problem for people," he said. "We have to make sure our products and services aren't just gizmos that will shortly outgrow the gee-whiz factor. We have to have a positive impact on people's lives, making them simpler and more relaxed."
One such gadget, Johnson hopes, is the August Smart Lock ? making it is his day job. The front door lock recognizes who is approaching your home and lets you open the door on command. No need to give the dog walker a spare key; Smart Lock users can grant access to certain people at certain times, even during emergencies.
"It lets you rethink what it means to give access to your home," he said.
Smart Lock has a second important feature: If the power goes out, the homeowner can use an old-fashioned key to get in. For the Internet of Things to work, there must be a plan B when it doesn't work, Johnson says. Anyone stuck in a car with a dead battery and electric windows can appreciate that.
August
The August Smart Lock, which installs over a standard deadbolt, lets you unlock your door over the Internet.
Big Brother
Potentially comical failures ? what if your toilet paper sensor battery goes dead? ? are not the biggest potential obstacle for the Internet of Things, however.
The NSA is.
If you are even the slightest bit worried about the federal government reading your email, how concerned will you be that it could create a database of every bowel movement? Far fetched? Imagine what the National Institute of Health could do with such data.
Every one of these computer things will collect data that could end up in the hands of law enforcement, marketing companies, or even hackers, and at the moment, there is little to stop that. This worries Kevin Mahaffey, who runs mobile security company Lookout Inc.
"There are two possible ways this works. A world where everything you do is surveilled, and everything is potentially hacked by someone,? Mahaffey said. "But the alternative way is a world where you as an individual can control this data. And that's a pretty exciting world, a world where you can have the benefit of the technology, but not some Orwellian dystopia, where even in your own home you aren?t safe from the Internet-connected pen."
One privacy nightmare ? the reselling of bathroom data to drug companies, an insulin pump hacker attack, or a law enforcement incident involving home automation or monitoring ? could derail the Internet of Things for years, Mahaffey warns.
Johnson acknowledges this, but he believes companies in his space can rise to the challenge of balancing convenience with privacy.
?All the Internet of Things companies, we're capturing a lot of data about users,? Johnson said. Government regulations and industry policies should restrict usage of the data, but communication with consumers will also be key. ?We need to be very cognizant of the sensitivity of that data and how we make users aware of how this data can be used ? It's important they understand what?s going on.?
Facebook or Twitter: Get notice of new Red Tape stories.
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By Jeff Mason
PRETORIA (Reuters) - The United States does not feel threatened by the growth of trade and investment in Africa by China and other emerging powers, U.S. President Barack Obama said on Saturday.
"I don't feel threatened by it. I feel it's a good thing," Obama told a news conference during a visit to South Africa.
He said the more countries invested in Africa the more the world's least developed continent could be integrated into the global economy.
"I want everybody playing in Africa. The more the merrier," Obama said.
Obama is embarked on an eight-day trip through Africa to promote trade and business ties between the United States and the continent.
However, he has had to defend his administration against charges it has lagged its predecessors in the level of engagement with Africa, leaving countries like China to reap the economic benefits of a more aggressive approach.
The president's aides have argued that Obama has had two wars and a deep economic crisis to deal with since he took office in 2009.
Obama has also said that U.S. interactions with Africa have included goals of social and political development, unlike those of China, which he said were more narrowly focused on commercial benefits.
"A lot of people are pleased that China is involved in Africa," he told reporters travelling with him on Friday.
"On the other hand, they recognise that China's primary interest is being able to obtain access for natural resources in Africa to feed the manufacturers in export-driven policies of the Chinese economy."
That relationship makes Africa an exporter of raw materials but does not create jobs in Africa and is not a sustainable model over the long-term, he added.
China surpassed the United States as Africa's largest trading partner in 2009, a U.S. government report released in February said. (Reporting by Jeff Mason and Mark Felsenthal; Writing by Pascal Fletcher and Mark Felsenthal; Editing by Pascal Fletcher)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/united-states-not-threatened-chinas-surge-africa-obama-103633039.html
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The grand jury investigations and city cash woes keep coming, but Lawrence Mayor William Lantigua keeps smiling ? maybe all the way to another re-election victory.
Lawrence political watchers say three years of scandals ? including a failed recall vote ? haven?t knocked the popular mayor out of the lead in an eight-way contest for the city?s top political post.
?You have a school department in receivership, three grand juries, the indictment of police officers and political allies who are still sitting on the payroll. If any one of these was happening, an incumbent wouldn?t have a shot at getting elected in any city in the world,? said Michael Sullivan, the former mayor of Lawrence.
?But here you have a guy who not only is running, but leading.?
Lantigua, 58, plays games with the press, avoiding them at every turn. Yesterday he smiled as a Herald reporter pitched questions. He refused to say a word and then walked into City Hall.
It?s five months before the election and in neighborhoods across the three-square-mile city tucked into the heart of the Merrimack Valley, political signs supporting Lantigua are already stuck into chain link fences, staked in yards, taped to windows and stapled to telephone poles.
Residents say Lantigua is not only likable, but he?s done a good job as mayor. For many, it comes down to one issue ? road repair.
?My street got paved,? said Kathy Serrano, who owns a home at the foot of Tower Hill. ?A lot of the little side streets have been paved, too.?
As for the scandals that swirl about the mayor?s cronies ? yet never seem to reach him ? she said they matter less to her than the garbage pickup.
?If it was as bad as they say it is, or as they make it out to be, I don?t think they?d let him sit in that seat,? Serrano said. ?I?m pretty sure Deval Patrick isn?t going to let a corrupt person go and run a city.?
Outside a Dunkin? Donuts, Samuel LeBron, 43, said he blames the mayor?s bad press on envious rivals. He said he did not vote for Lantigua in 2010, when he was first elected mayor.
?Honestly, I see a lot of stuff getting done that wasn?t getting done before,? LeBron said. ?Like the roads. People say it?s just government money, but we were getting the same government money before and the roads had potholes.?
Lantigua?s skill at controlling the message that gets to Spanish-speaking voters is the root of his power, city political watchers say.
But not everybody is happy.
Maria Melendez, 50, and her friend Sonia Gonzalez, 49, said they are fed up with Lantigua and his administration. They lashed out at the incumbent city boss while inside a local hair salon.
?They do the streets,? Melendez said. ?But they have to do what is right, for the right reasons. Every time someone talks about Lawrence from the outside, it is bad. They need to be there for people, for the elderly, for education. They?re only in it for themselves.?
Gonzalez added: ?I don?t see Lawrence going up. I see Lawrence going down.?
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Wednesday's Supreme Court rulings on same-sex marriage could have a big impact on one "Modern Family" in particular.
The co-creator of the ABC comedy, Christopher Lloyd, told Entertainment Weekly that we might soon see a wedding for one of TV's favorite couples, Cam Tucker (Eric Stonestreet) and Mitchell Pritchett (Jesse Tyler Ferguson).
"It's a real possibility," Lloyd said. ?It?s certainly something we are contemplating on the show in ways we wouldn?t have in prior seasons. ... As you can imagine in Cam and Mitchell?s life, they would be feeling that a door has opened that was closed to them. Wouldn?t it be pretty tempting to think about walking through it? ... From our standpoint, that?s something to explore.?
Many in Hollywood celebrated the rulings with announcements of their own impending wedding bells: Melissa Etheridge revealed that she plans to tie the knot with her partner, Linda Wallem, and Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard recommitted to marrying one another now that their gay friends can host weddings of their own.
Amid the good cheer, Lloyd admitted that it was hard not to rally around his fictional characters, too.
?It?s a funny thing, sitting around and celebrating for your characters," he said. "We were happy for Mitch and Cam."
The actors who portray the loving couple were gleeful about the rulings themselves.
"Remember the old days when #DOMA was around and gay people couldn't get married in California? Crazy right!?" Tyler Ferguson tweeted.
"Im happy for my gay & lesbian friends. Cheers to gorgeous, wonderful & beautiful weddings, long, happy & fruitful lives and then dying," Stonestreet added.
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The ROP arrested one of the residents on charges of violating the law, sources from Khasab told Times of Oman.
The local residents protested against the arrest, demanding the release of the accused at the Taybat police station.
After clashes with the personnel at the police station, the residents, mostly young persons, managed to forcibly release the accused, leading to a call for reinforcements from the Special Tasks Force to maintain security in the area.
Negotiations are still underway between the Royal Oman Police (ROP) and the residents of the wilayat of Khasab to hand over the lawbreakers living in the area to the Taybat police station.
The ROP has given the residents time until today to turn themselves in, so that legal procedures can be initiated, one of the sheikhs in Khasab told Times of Oman.
Sheikhs and elders of the community have been meeting with those involved in the clashes to defuse the situation.
Source: http://www.timesofoman.com/News/Article-18951.aspx
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June 28, 2013 ? A new study suggests that healthy adults with late bedtimes and chronic sleep restriction may be more susceptible to weight gain due to the increased consumption of calories during late-night hours.
In the largest, most diverse healthy sample studied to date under controlled laboratory conditions, results show that sleep-restricted subjects who spent only four hours in bed from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. for five consecutive nights gained more weight than control subjects who were in bed for 10 hours each night from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. The study found an overall increase in caloric intake during sleep restriction, which was due to an increase in the number of meals consumed during the late-night period of additional wakefulness. Furthermore, the proportion of calories consumed from fat was higher during late-night hours than at other times of day.
"Although previous epidemiological studies have suggested an association between short sleep duration and weight gain/obesity, we were surprised to observe significant weight gain during an in-laboratory study," said lead author Andrea Spaeth, a doctoral candidate in the psychology department at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pa.
The study, which appears in the July issue of the journal SLEEP, was conducted in the Sleep and Chronobiology Laboratory at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. The study group comprised 225 healthy, non-obese individuals, ranging in age from 22-50 years. Subjects were randomized to either the sleep restriction or control condition and spent up to 18 consecutive days in the laboratory.
Meals were served at scheduled times, and food was always available in the laboratory kitchen for participants who wanted to eat at other times of day. Subjects could move around but were not allowed to exercise. They were permitted to watch TV, read, play video games or perform other sedentary activities.
The study also found that during sleep restriction males gained more weight than females, and African Americans gained more weight than Caucasians.
"Among sleep-restricted subjects, there were also significant gender and race differences in weight gain," said Spaeth. "African Americans, who are at greater risk for obesity and more likely to be habitual short sleepers, may be more susceptible to weight gain in response to sleep restriction. Future studies should focus on identifying the behavioral and physiological mechanisms underlying this increased vulnerability."
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine reports that weight gain is a risk factor for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a common sleep illness that has a severe impact on health and quality of life. The risk of OSA increases as the degree of additional weight increases, with an extremely high prevalence of OSA in people with morbid obesity. Anyone who has experienced recent weight gain and has symptoms of OSA, such as loud and frequent snoring, should be evaluated by a board certified sleep medicine physician.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/0eXaMrJpt9w/130628160840.htm
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A group of cyclists rolled through the La Crosse area Saturday, but for a different cause.
The Livestrong Texas 4000 team stopped at Gundersen Health System in La Crosse today on its way to Alaska.
The group is made up of almost 70 college students who start in Texas and bike their way across the nation, stopping at cities along the way.
At each stop, they raise awareness and money for the fight against cancer.
This is the first time the group has stopped in La Crosse.
Organizers said they plan to come back every year.
They said biking more than 4,000 miles is all worth it to encourage those battling cancer.
"Our primary focus is on meeting folks who have been affected by cancer, sharing our stories on how we originally came to join the organization, and essentially just create a cancer-fighting community all across the United States and Canada," said Samantha Archer, Texas 4000 route organizer
So far, the team has raised $450,000 for cancer research.
It's goal is $800,000.
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Xbox Live Gold members might have yet another reason not to go outdoors this summer, as Microsoft has just detailed a new TWC TV app for launch in the next few months. Joining the console's existing HBO Go stream, Time Warner Cable subscribers will be able to watch AMC, BBC World News, Bravo, CNN, Comedy Central, Food Network and more through their Xbox 360, with Kinect controls to switch channels and more with a wave of your arms. The announcement also kindly reminds us that its incoming Xbox One will let users switch between live TV and gaming in an instant -- preorders are open now, folks!
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD, Microsoft
Source: Xbox
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/CM9tTn6L1JU/
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ReutersAs expected, the Patriots will not willingly pay another penny to Aaron Hernandez.
According to Ben Volin of the Boston Globe, whose article is unfortunately trapped behind a pay wall, the Patriots have ?voided? all remaining guaranteed money due and owing to Hernandez.
This includes $2.5 million in future guaranteed base salaries and the final $3.25 million installment of his already-earned $12.5 million signing bonus.? Per Volin, the Patriots also will refuse to pay $200,000 for workout and roster bonuses earned this year.
?It was guaranteed for skill and injury, but it wasn?t guaranteed for personal conduct that cast the club in a negative light, and that?s why we cut him,? an unnamed team source told Volin. ?We know the CBA. We are well within our rights.?
As to the $2.5 million in guaranteed base salaries, there will be no fight from Hernandez or the NFLPA.? Multiple sources on both sides of the issue have told PFT that salary guaranteed for injury, skill, and salary cap can be voided if a player is cut for conduct unbecoming to the team.
But the Hernandez camp will argue strenuously that the Patriots have no right to withhold the $3.25 million in deferred signing bonus money.? The money already has been earned.? Just like the $9.25 million Hernandez already has received, he technically should get the remaining $3.25 million.
?That is as clear in his favor as the base salary issues is for the team,? said a source with knowledge of Hernandez?s position.? ?If the team tries to fight it they will lose, 100 percent.?
Hernandez?s position appears to be the correct one, as to the $3.25 million.? It?s also likely that the $82,000 workout bonus must be paid, since Hernandez showed up and earned it.? Ditto for the $118,000 roster bonus.
That doesn?t mean the team has to voluntarily cut the check.? Even though the Patriots may lose, they are going to force Hernandez to fight for the money.
The team?s refusal to pay Hernandez another penny meshes with the organization?s decision to behave as if he never existed, dropping him from the team, scrubbing his stats from the official website, and launching a jersey exchange program allowing fans to trade a Hernandez jersey for a different one.
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All Critics (100) | Top Critics (35) | Fresh (91) | Rotten (9)
It's a tribute to Gerwig's performance, somehow both clumsy and elegant, that she wins us over despite ourselves, that we come to appreciate her aimlessness in a goal-oriented society ...
This is an odd film (creepier than it knows), and even if you feel the atmospheric company of Dunham-ism, with a little of Whit Stillman, Henry Jaglom, and Woody Allen, the core influence on Noah Baumbach's film is fifty years older or more.
Baumbach usually builds his films around difficult protagonists, but Frances is entirely endearing, at once silly and deep, hopeless and promising.
The dialogue and editing are zippy and generally charming, combining with the tart observations of 20-something culture to create a nice frisson.
A black-and-white salute to the French New Wave (the score is borrowed from Georges Delerue, composer of many a Truffaut and Godard film) that manages to be very much of this moment ...
The movie's a love letter to an actress and her character, but by the end you may feel like an intervention is more in order.
As long as you remember to laugh, Frances Ha is a tolerable experience. Forget the "ha ha" and Frances Ha is beyond unbearable. I found this an odd and often frustrating truth, but it's what makes Noah Baumbach's new movie a success.
Gerwig keeps you on side and rooting for Frances to get her act together in what becomes an affectionate salute to messy lives, an endearing underachiever and a New York state of mind.
Don't be fooled by Frances with all her feigned insecurity and branding of herself as "undateable" and predicting she'll be a lonely spinster. She's a psychopath.
Gerwig's deft screwball timing turns every disaster into a grace note. This may be a comedy of awkwardness, but rather than curl, your toes will tap.
A refreshing amount of buoyancy to dance and charm its way through Quarter-Life Crisis territory. One of the best performances of Greta Gerwig's career to date
Frances Ha is a sympathetic but not uncritical depiction of a girl's gradual evolution into a woman; one that never condescends by forcing her to abandon all her quirks and impish qualities in the final act... An absolute delight, this is.
Indie darling Gerwig has a great deal to do with the picture's success: she's disarmingly likable...
There's a level of audacity beneath the lightweight whimsy in this unassuming low-budget comedy.
"Frances Ha makes a star out of Gerwig, and she's the kind of star we need: a goofy one we can feel tender about but never underestimate."
'I can't account for my own bruises,' Frances says, as if she were a clumsy kid with an adult's vocabulary. Does the remark refer to more than the abrasions on her skin?
A celebration of cinema, New York City and the distinctive charms of actress Greta Gerwig, Frances Ha was co-written by Gerwig and its director, Noah Baumbach, and it's the best film either has made.
There's a thin line between comedy and tragedy, and Greta Gerwig walks it remarkably well.
There's depth and realism in the way Frances Ha shows aspiration versus reality.
Gerwig, beyond a doubt, is immeasurably appealing, and Frances Ha is tailor-made to showcase her gifts better than anything she's ever been in.
...if you hold your nose and simply wallow through the stench of self-aggrandizement, you'll be rewarded with an experience that will actually tug on your emotions.
Frances Ha provides a sharp, fleet, and very funny look at female friendship and the acceptance of adult responsibilities.
This is very minimalist storytelling much of which feels improvised in front of the camera. The film is more of a character situation than a character story.
No quotes approved yet for Frances Ha. Logged in users can submit quotes.
Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/frances_ha_2013/
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NO KIDDING: Twitter CEO Costolo, a former improvisational comedian, believes his company is obligated to ?reach everyone on the planet.? Image: Courtesy of Joi Ito, via WikiMedia Commons
Showcasing more than fifty of the most provocative, original, and significant online essays from 2011, The Best Science Writing Online 2012 will change the way...
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Twitter sees itself as the digital incarnation of the town square, eliminating time and distance as barriers to unfiltered communication among citizens. In this role as the world?s unofficial open idea exchange (in 140 characters or less, of course), the company is finding that governments, law enforcement agencies and even its own Twitterverse are increasingly holding it accountable for how people use its microblogging service.
The social network appears to be taking this newfound responsibility seriously. During a Webcast conversation on Wednesday with Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Jonathan Rauch, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo discussed how his company responds to this growing scrutiny. He also talked about Twitter?s attempts to help users filter the fire hose of information they face each day as well as the pros and cons of pseudonymous tweeters.
Although he declined to comment specifically on the U.S. National Security Agency?s PRISM digital surveillance program, Costolo articulated Twitter?s stance on cooperating with government and law enforcement requests. ?When we receive a valid, specific request in the countries [where] we operate, we will honor it,? he said. ?Those that are not legal and valid, we will push back on.? Twitter is conspicuously absent from the list of tech companies?including Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo?accused of complying with the NSA?s requests for user data.
Twitter?s computer servers?like those of many Web sites?automatically record information generated by users. This may include a user?s IP address, location, mobile carrier and the device used to access the Twitter account. The company says it deletes this data or removes any common account identifiers?such as username, full IP address or e-mail address?after 18 months.
In the past year Twitter has begun to publish a biannual transparency report highlighting trends in government requests it has received for user information and content removal. (Google publishes a similar report). ?We would like more companies to do this,? Costolo said. ?Our users have a right to know when their information has been requested so they can fight the request if they wish.?
The Twitter report also indicates how the company responded to those government requests, which have increased steadily in the past year. Twitter received 849 such requests during the first half of 2012 and 1,009 during the second half?the lion?s share coming from the U.S. government. The latest report will be published in a few weeks. ?When you don?t have any idea what information is being requested, you can only imagine what the government wants,? Costolo said. ?More organizations should participate in these transparency reports because they help people understand exactly what is going on. Then you can disagree or agree with the specifics rather than assumptions.?
Mobile devices offer people a means of ubiquitous online communication?they also give companies a way to track those people using the devices? geolocation capabilities. This raises questions about privacy that have been little more than an afterthought to this point, Costolo noted. Still, he pointed out that there?s no need to be fatalistic about the future of privacy, given that Twitter and many other social networking sites require users to opt in for features such as geolocation that broadcast a user?s whereabouts whenever they log on.
One of Twitter?s main goals, not surprisingly, is improving its ability to curate important events so the most relevant information is easy to find. ?Right now you get the reverse chronological order of the tweets, but it would be nice to see a graphic of spikes in the conversation,? Costolo said. ?It would be nice to be able to scroll back to [a] particular moment.? He likened this capability to a digital video recorder for social media that would help Twitter users more quickly get to the substance of a conversation.
Twitter has experimented with ways to filter out some of the background noise that obscures more relevant reporting and reactions to important events. ?We tried a couple of things during the [London 2012] Olympics, such as curating tweets from the more important sources [such as broadcasters and analysts], but it felt like you were in a very quiet studio,? he said. ?You lost that roar of the crowd that makes [Twitter] the public town square. We became more of an aggregator.?
Twitter is also looking at ways to preserve user anonymity without facilitating troll-like behavior where pseudonymous account-holders use their tweets to harass other users. Anonymity is especially important when Twitter is used as a tool for social change, with protests in Turkey being the latest example, said Costolo, who did not comment further on the situation in that country. The ability to use a pseudonym is crucial to enabling open political discourse, he added. ?You can use our platform to say what you believe.? Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has condemned Twitter as a way to spread lies about his government, which has asked Twitter to reveal the identities of users who posted ?messages deemed insulting to the government or prime minister or which flouted people's personal rights,? according to Reuters.
Anonymity does create headaches for Twitter beyond governments demanding user identities, Costolo acknowledged. Pseudonymous tweeters are a problem when they engage in cyber bullying and can be particularly vicious in what they say about celebrities and other public figures. He added, ?We have to do a better job of filtering out egregious and repeated harassment.?
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/~r/ScientificAmerican-News/~3/fxFVofqfZ1E/article.cfm
The UK looks set to become the first country to allow the creation of babies using DNA from three people, after the government backed the IVF technique.
It will produce draft regulations later this year and the procedure could be offered within two years.
Experts say three-person IVF could eliminate debilitating and potentially fatal mitochondrial diseases that are passed on from mother to child.
Opponents say it is unethical and could set the UK on a "slippery slope".
They also argue that affected couples could adopt or use egg donors instead.
Mitochondria are the tiny, biological "power stations" that give the body energy. They are passed from a mother, through the egg, to her child.
Defective mitochondria affect one in every 6,500 babies. This can leave them starved of energy, resulting in muscle weakness, blindness, heart failure and death in the most extreme cases.
Continue reading the main storyEvery time Sharon Bernardi became pregnant, she hoped for a healthy child.
But all seven of her children died from a rare genetic disease that affects the central nervous system - three of them just hours after birth.
When her fourth child, Edward, was born, doctors discovered the disease was caused by a defect in Sharon's mitochondria.
Edward was given drugs and blood transfusions to prevent the lactic acidosis (a kind of blood poisoning) that had killed his siblings.
Five weeks later Sharon and her husband, Neil, were allowed to take Edward to their home in Sunderland for Christmas - but his health slowly began to deteriorate.
Edward survived into adulthood, dying in 2011 at the age of 21.
Now Sharon is supporting medical research that would allow defective mitochondria to be replaced by DNA from another woman.
Research suggests that using mitochondria from a donor egg can prevent the diseases.
It is envisaged that up to 10 couples a year would benefit from the treatment.
However, it would result in babies having DNA from two parents and a tiny amount from a third donor as the mitochondria themselves have their own DNA.
'Clearly sensitive'Earlier this year, a public consultation by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) concluded there was "general support" for the idea and that there was no evidence that the advanced form of IVF was unsafe.
The chief medical officer for England, Prof Dame Sally Davies, said: "Scientists have developed ground-breaking new procedures which could stop these disease being passed on, bringing hope to many families seeking to prevent their future children inheriting them.
"It's only right that we look to introduce this life-saving treatment as soon as we can."
She said there were "clearly some sensitive issues here" but said she was "personally very comfortable" with altering mitochondria.
Scientists have devised two techniques that allow them to take the genetic information from the mother and place it into the egg of a donor with healthy mitochondria.
Continue reading the main storyThe result is a baby with genetic information from three people.
They would have more than 20,000 genes from their parents and 37 mitochondrial genes from a donor.
It is a change that would have ramifications through the generations as scientists would be altering human genetic inheritance.
Dr David King says the move crosses "a crucial ethical line"
Objections to the procedure have been raised ever since it was first mooted.
Dr David King, the director of Human Genetics Alert, said: "These techniques are unnecessary and unsafe and were in fact rejected by the majority of consultation responses.
'Designer baby'"It is a disaster that the decision to cross the line that will eventually lead to a eugenic designer baby market should be taken on the basis of an utterly biased and inadequate consultation."
One of the main concerns raised in the HFEA's public consultation was of a "slippery slope" which could lead to other forms of genetic modification.
Draft regulations will be produced this year with a final version expected to be debated and voted on in Parliament during 2014.
Newcastle University is pioneering one of the techniques that could be used for three-person IVF.
Prof Doug Turnbull, the director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Mitochondrial Research at the university, said he was "delighted".
He said: "This is excellent news for families with mitochondrial disease.
"This will give women who carry these diseased genes more reproductive choice and the opportunity to have children free of mitochondrial disease. I am very grateful to all those who have supported this work."
The fine details of the regulations are still uncertain, yet it is expected to be for only the most severe cases.
It is also likely that children would have no right to know who the egg donor was and that any children resulting from the procedure would be monitored closely for the rest of their lives.
Sir John Tooke, the president of the Academy of Medical Sciences, said: "Introducing regulations now will ensure that there is no avoidable delay in these treatments reaching affected families once there is sufficient evidence of safety and efficacy.
"It is also a positive step towards ensuring the UK remains at the forefront of cutting-edge research in this area."
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-23079276#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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Kickstarter just announced via its Twitter account that it will be opening up its crowdfunding platform for Canada-based projects as of "later this summer." Thus far, that's as specific as the company is getting, but anyone interested in finding out more can sign up at Kickstarter's Canada launch page with their email and project category of interest to get an alert when things go live.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/LL94SxO-QZk/
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NEW YORK (AP) ? The Brooklyn Nets will acquire Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett from the Boston Celtics in a deal that was still developing as the NBA draft ended, according to a person with knowledge of the details.
The trade can't be completed until July 10, after next season's salary cap is set, so pieces were still being discussed early Friday. But the person says the Nets will get the two perennial All-Stars, signaling the breakup of the Celtics' veteran core.
The person was granted anonymity because details of the trade were not being made public.
Nets general manager Billy King refused to comment on the deal during his press conference to discuss the drafting of Mason Plumlee.
Yahoo Sports, which first reported the talks, said the Nets would also get veteran Jason Terry from Boston and send Gerald Wallace, Kris Joseph, the expiring deal of Kris Humphries and three future first-round picks to Boston.
On the day they hosted the NBA draft, the Nets were making much bigger noise with the transaction that will send Pierce and Garnett to a new Atlantic Division home.
The Celtics already let Doc Rivers leave after acquiring a draft pick from the Los Angeles Clippers. Ray Allen departed last summer for Miami, and now the other two members of the Big Three that led the Celtics to an NBA title and within a victory of a second will soon be gone as well.
"Sort of sad," said Chicago coach Tom Thibodeau, an assistant to Rivers on the 2008 NBA champions.
"You hate to see it. I certainly hate to see them go to Brooklyn, Doc of course going to the Clippers. But that's the NBA. It's constant change, and you have to be ready to adapt. I think what Paul Pierce did for that franchise and Kevin ? I think's it's good for them. They have an opportunity to continue on. Good for the Celtics, where they can start their rebuilding, and it was good for Doc."
Garnett had to waive a no-trade clause, which he had been reluctant to do previously. But the Nets hoped he would consider this time with Pierce joining him and the Celtics' best days seemingly behind them.
The Celtics tumbled down the Eastern Conference standings this season, falling all the way to the No. 7 seed and getting eliminated by the New York Knicks in the first round. They have been considering moving one or both of the veterans, and this triggers the start of a true rebuilding process.
And it provides a huge boost to the Nets at two of their weakest positions. They struggled to settle on a starting power forward all last season, and Pierce would be immune to the lengthy offensive slumps that plagued Wallace, the starting small forward.
In Pierce and Garnett, rookie coach Jason Kidd gets veteran leadership from two longtime opponents as he makes the transition to the sideline after retiring as a player last month.
___
AP Sports Writer Andrew Seligman in Deerfield, Ill., contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-source-nets-acquire-pierce-garnett-044428576.html
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www.npr.org:
About 40 percent of marriages are rocked by affairs, according to a new book, but no one wants to admit it. Psychiatrist Dr. Scott Haltzman shares some hard truths and common misconceptions about infidelity in his new book The Secrets of Surviving Infidelity.
Read the whole story at www.npr.org
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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/26/can-infidelity-make-a-rel_n_3506170.html
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DUBLIN (AP) ? Ireland will pay several hundred former residents of Catholic-run Magdalene laundries at least 34.5 million euros ($45 million) to compensate them for their years of unpaid labor and public shame, the government announced Wednesday following a decade-long campaign by former residents of the workhouses.
Justice Minister Alan Shatter apologized to the women ? an estimated 770 survivors out of more than 10,000 who lived in the dozen facilities from 1922 to 1996 ? that it had taken so long for them to receive compensation. The move marked the latest step in a two-decade effort by Ireland to investigate and redress human rights abuses in its Catholic institutions.
Shatter's decision came four months after a government-commissioned probe found that women consigned to the laundries were broadly branded "fallen" women, a euphemism for prostitutes. The investigation found that few actually were, while most instead were victims of poverty, homelessness and dysfunctional families in a state lacking the facilities to care for them.
In remarks to former Magdalenes, some of them in the press-conference audience, Shatter said he hoped they would accept the compensation plans as "a sincere expression of the state's regret for failing you in the past, its recognition of your current needs, and its commitment to respecting your dignity and human rights as full, equal members of our nation."
And in a challenge to the four orders of nuns that ran the workhouses, Shatter called on them to help pay the bill.
The orders ? the Sisters of Mercy, the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of Refuge, the Sisters of Charity, and the Good Shepherd Sisters ? all issued statements welcoming the payments plan. None offered any pledge to contribute and insisted their staff had done the best they could at the time, given the state's own inability to care for the women.
The nuns noted that they still were providing homes to more than 100 former laundry workers who chose to remain in church care when the last of the laundries closed, while virtually none of the nuns involved in running the workhouses was still alive today.
"We wish we had provided a better and more comprehensive service and shown more empathy, but we were also part of a system that had little comprehension or understanding of how to truly care for these women," said the Good Shepherd Sisters, who ran four laundries in Cork, Limerick, Waterford and Wexford. "We always acted in good faith and many of our sisters dedicated their entire lives to this work."
Shatter said the total cost of payments could reach 58 million euros ($75.5 million) if the maximum number of eligible women worldwide applies. The tax-free payments would range from 11,500 euros ($15,000), for women who spent less than three months working in a laundry, to up to 100,000 euros ($130,000) for those who spent 10 years or more there.
As part of the plans, former Magdalenes also will receive state-funded retirement pensions and free medical care at state-funded facilities.
Activists representing the so-called "Maggies" had demanded justice and state compensation since 2002, when a previous government launched a compensation fund for people abused in Catholic-run orphanages and workhouses for children.
Former Magdalene residents were declared ineligible, as the government contended that the laundries were privately run institutions with negligible state involvement. Taxpayers since have paid more than 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) to more than 13,000 people who suffered sexual, physical and psychological abuse in the children's residences.
A government-commissioned investigation in February found that the state was legally responsible for overseeing the laundries, too. Prime Minister Enda Kenny offered an official apology for what he called "a cruel, pitiless Ireland" that had abused the women with " untrue and offensive stereotypes."
Investigators trawling through decades of the laundries' residency records found that more than a quarter of women were directly committed to the laundries by public officials, such as judges or truancy officers, and all residents spent their days in menial labor without access to education.
Most did laundry for hotels, hospitals and prisons, while others scrubbed floors or made rosary beads for the church's profit.
The report found that the average length of stay was just seven months, not the lifetime imprisonment commonly depicted in fictional works. It said 14 percent stayed more than five years, and 8 percent more than a decade.
Many hundreds checked into the facilities repeatedly for short periods, reflecting their poverty and the Irish state's inadequate facilities for homeless women. And until the 1970s, judges often ordered women guilty of crimes ranging from shoplifting to infanticide into the laundries rather than Ireland's male-dominated prison system.
The report did dispute depictions in popular culture of physical beatings in the institutions, noting that many Magdalene residents had transferred there as teenagers from Catholic-run industrial schools where such violence was common, and some survivors in their adult recollections failed to distinguish between the two. It found no evidence of such attacks in the nuns' care and, specifically, no complaints of sexual abuse by the nuns.
___
Online:
Ireland's compensation plans, http://bit.ly/19Ce2vt
Magdalene Laundries report, http://www.idcmagdalen.ie/
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ireland-pay-45m-catholic-laundry-workers-152940299.html
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When James Speed Hensinger was 22, he'd already spent nine months fighting in Vietnam, spending his nights in perpetual fear of snipers hiding in the mountains above. So come April of 1970, after fielding multiple nighttime attacks from a single sniper and his AK47, the 173rd Airborne Brigade?of which Hensinger was a part?decided to hit back with an arsenal of insane proportions.
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