Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/315749479?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Saturday, June 29, 2013
Monday, June 24, 2013
Video: Inside Dreamliner Operations Center
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Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/video/cnbc/52294375/
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Sunday, June 23, 2013
Brazil: Thousands protest anew, but crowds smaller
People march toward the Mineirao stadium during a protest in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Saturday, June 22, 2013. Demonstrators once again took to the streets in Brazil on Saturday, continuing a wave of protests that have shaken the nation and pushed the government to promise a crackdown on corruption and greater spending on social services. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
People march toward the Mineirao stadium during a protest in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Saturday, June 22, 2013. Demonstrators once again took to the streets in Brazil on Saturday, continuing a wave of protests that have shaken the nation and pushed the government to promise a crackdown on corruption and greater spending on social services. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
A man wearing a mask depicting Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, holds a banner criticizing her yesterday speech during a protest in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Saturday, June 22, 2013. Demonstrators once again took to the streets of Brazil on Saturday, continuing a wave of protests that have shaken the nation and pushed the government to promise a crackdown on corruption and greater spending on social services. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
People march toward the Mineirao stadium, before the start of the Confederations Cup soccer match between Japan and Mexico, during a protest in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Saturday, June 22, 2013. Demonstrators once again took to the streets of Brazil on Saturday, continuing a wave of protests that have shaken the nation and pushed the government to promise a crackdown on corruption and greater spending on social services. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
A riot police officer uses his front teeth to hold onto to a non-lethal grenade during an anti-government protest near the Cidade de Deus, or City of God slum, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, June 21, 2013. City centers around Brazil were still smoldering on Friday after 1 million protesters took to the streets amid growing calls on social media for a general strike next week. While most protesters were peaceful, some small groups clashed violently with police, who responded in some cases with tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
A message by Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff is broadcast live at the bus station in Brasilia, Brazil, Friday, June 21, 2013. The Brazilian ended her near-silence about more than a week of massive, violent protests, saying in a prime time TV broadcast Friday that peaceful demonstrations were part of a strong democracy but that violence could not be tolerated. She promised to make improvements to public services, but said it couldn't be done overnight. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
SAO PAULO (AP) ? Tens of thousands of anti-government demonstrators again took to streets in several Brazilian cities Saturday after the president broke a long silence to promise reforms, but the early protests were smaller and less violent than those of recent days.
Police estimated that about 60,000 demonstrators gathered in a central square in the city of Belo Horizonte, largely to denounce legislation that would limit the power of federal prosecutors to investigate crimes in a country where many are fed up with the high rate of robberies and killings. Many fear the law would also hinder attempts to jail corrupt politicians and other powerful figures.
In Belo Horizonte, police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters who tried to pass through a barrier and hurled rocks at a car dealership.
President Dilma Rousseff, a former leftist guerrilla who was tortured during Brazil's military dictatorship, made a televised 10-minute appearance on Friday night backing the right to peaceful protest but sharply condemning violence, vandalism and looting.
She promised to be tougher on corruption and said she would meet with peaceful protesters, governors and the mayors of big cities to create a national plan to improve urban transportation and use oil royalties for investments in education. Much of the anger behind the protests has been aimed at costly bus fares, high taxes and poor public services such as schools and health care.
Many Brazilians, shocked by a week of protests and violence, hoped that Rousseff's words would soothe tensions and help avoid more violence, but not all were convinced by her promises of action.
A rapidly growing crowd blocked Sao Paulo's main business street, Avenida Paulista, to press their demands.
Victoria Villela, a 21-year-old university who joined the crowd, said she was "frustrated and exhausted by the endless corruption of our government."
"It was good Dilma spoke, but this movement has moved too far, there was not much she could really say. All my friends were talking on Facebook about how she said nothing that satisfied them. I think the protests are going to continue for a long time and the crowds will still be huge."
Around her, fathers held young boys aloft on their shoulders, older women gathered in clusters with their faces bearing yellow and green stripes, the colors of Brazil's flag.
In the northeastern city of Salvador, where Brazil's national football team was set to play Italy in a match for the Confederations Cup, some 5,000 protesters gathered about 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the stadium, shouting demands for better schools and transportation and denouncing heavy spending on next year's World Cup.
About 1,000 demonstrators trying to reach the stadium were kept at bay by police firing rubber bullets and using pepper spray.
Rodrigo Costa, a 32-year-old civil engineer in the city, said that it was good just to see a popular movement force "a head of state to go on TV and talk about the problems of the country."
"She didn't touch on all the issues that the people want to see improved," Costa said. "But I think that just in general it was a good message."
Brazil's news media, which had blasted Rousseff in recent days for her lack of response to the protests, seemed largely unimpressed with her careful speech, but noted the difficult situation facing a government trying to understand a mass movement with no central leaders and a flood of demands.
With "no objective information about the nature of the organization of the protests," wrote Igor Gielow in a column for Brazil's biggest newspaper, Folha de S. Paulo, "Dilma resorted to an innocuous speech to cool down spirits."
At its height, some 1 million anti-government demonstrators took to the streets nationwide on Thursday night with grievances ranging from public services to the billions of dollars spent preparing for international sports events.
Outside the stadium in Belo Horizonte where Mexico and Japan met in a Confederations Cup game, Dadiana Gamaleliel, a 32-year-old physiotherapist, held up a banner that read: "Not against the games, in favor of the nation."
"I am protesting on behalf of the whole nation because this must be a nation where people have a voice ... we don't have a voice anymore," she said.
She said Rousseff's speech wouldn't "change anything."
"She spoke in a general way and didn't say what she would do," she said. "We will continue this until we are heard."
Social media and mass emails were buzzing with calls for a general strike next week. But Brazil's two largest unions, the Central Workers Union and the Union Force, said they knew nothing about such an action, though they do support the protests.
At the protest in Salvador, 32-year-old public worker Mariana Santos said that demonstrators want Rousseff and the rest of Brazil's government to be held accountable if they fail to keep their promises.
"Dilma said she was going to make a pact with unions, students, with everyone, to fix things," Santos said. "If they hold the World Cup and she has not done what she said she will do, the people may decide they don't want the Cup."
___
Associated press writers Tales Azzoni and Ricardo Zuniga in Salvador and Rob Harris in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, contributed to this report.
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Leprosy, an ancient scourge, largely unchanged in modern era
Leprosy has plagued humans for thousands of years, but a new genetic analysis of the pathogen that causes the disfiguring disease has come to the surprising conclusion that its DNA is essentially unchanged since medieval times.
The discovery, published this month in the journal Science, suggests that the disease's retreat in Europe during the 14th and 15th centuries was probably the result of human adaptation to the bacterium that causes leprosy rather than due to any change in its DNA.
Few diseases have ravaged mankind the way leprosy has. It tortured ancient Chinese, Indian and Egyptian civilizations, and descriptions of it have been found on Egyptian papyrus documents that date to about 1550 B.C., according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. For centuries, victims were quarantined in leper colonies and treated as pariahs.
FOR THE RECORD
Leprosy: A Science File story in Saturday's LatExtra section said that research about the DNA of the bacterium that causes leprosy appeared in the journals Science and Cell. It was only published in Science.
Triggered by an infection with the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae, the disease causes victims to develop painful skin lesions and sores, and lose feeling in their limbs.
Leprosy was a particular scourge in medieval times, affecting up to a quarter of all people living in Northern Europe before it began to wane, according to historians of the National Park Service, which administers a former leper colony in Hawaii.
The retreat baffled Johannes Krause, a paleogeneticist at the University of Tuebingen in Germany. Did the bacterium evolve into a less virulent strain, or had something else driven it off the continent?
To find out, Krause and his colleagues examined five skeletons in museum collections of leprosy victims in the 10th through 14th centuries. They checked for any remnants of M. leprae DNA.
It was a long shot, they realized: the amount of bacterial DNA in ancient skeletons is usually minuscule. In one case, only 0.005% of the DNA recovered from the skeleton of a bubonic plague victim was from the disease-causing pathogen, Krause said.
So imagine his surprise when his team realized that 40% of the DNA obtained from one of the skeletons ? teeth that belonged to a Danish person who died in the 14th century ? came from M. leprae. Samples taken from the other skeletons had M. leprae genes as well.
To recover so much DNA from such old skeletons "was incredible," Krause said.
The samples allowed Krause's team to sequence virtually the entire genomes of the medieval M. leprae strains. Then the scientists compared them to the genomes of 11 modern leprosy strains.
That analysis revealed another surprise: The pathogen had barely changed in 1,000 years. Out of the 3.3 million chemical letters in the bacterium's genome, only 20 were different, Krause said.
The results were unexpected because "bacteria normally evolve quickly," according to Dr. Maria Ochoa, director of the Hansen's Disease Clinic at Los Angeles County/USC Medical Center, which treats people with leprosy. Ochoa was not involved in the study.
To Krause, the discovery strongly implied that leprosy's retreat in the Middle Ages wasn't due to a mutation that made the bacterium less dangerous.
Instead, strict quarantine efforts and the emergence of other debilitating pathogens may have led to leprosy's decline in medieval Europe, the researchers wrote in the scientific journal Cell. For example, bubonic plague arrived in the 14th century and killed 30% to 50% of Europeans within five years, many of whom probably had leprosy.
Gene changes in humans also played a role. Mutations in an immune system gene called TLR2 make people resistant to leprosy, and some of these mutations are more common in Europeans, studies have shown.
Today, leprosy is extremely rare in the United States, with only 6,500 known cases, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Norwegian physician Gerhard Hansen identified M. leprae as the cause of leprosy in 1873, and a drug treatment was found in the 1950s. By the 1970s, multi-drug therapies that combined dapsone with other medications allowed patients to be cured.
Leprosy remains a problem in developing countries like India, Brazil and Angola, however. At the beginning of 2012, 181,941 people worldwide were known to be affected by leprosy, the World Health Organization says.
The analysis of M. leprae's genome also revealed that much of it is made up of pseudogenes ? formerly functional genes that essentially become inert. The large presence of pseudogenes is a sign that the organism is highly adapted to its environment and has little ability to evolve, said Richard Truman of the National Hansen's Disease Program at the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration.
"You kind of wonder how this thing is even functional," said Truman, who was not involved in the study.
Although the Science study suggests that humans have essentially outcompeted the pathogen, M. leprae is not completely vanquished. Two of the 11 modern strains have a mutation in the folP1 gene that makes them resistant to dapsone.
brad.balukjian@latimes.com
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Brazil leader breaks silence about protests
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) ? Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff ended her near-silence about days of massive, violent protests, saying in a prime time TV broadcast Friday that peaceful demonstrations were part of a strong democracy but that violence could not be tolerated. She promised to make improvements to public services and fight official corruption.
Rousseff said she would soon hold a meeting with leaders of the protest movement, governors and the mayors of major cities. But it remained unclear exactly who could represent the massive and decentralized groups of demonstrators taking to the streets, venting anger against woeful public services despite a high tax burden.
Though offering no details, Rousseff said that her government would create a national plan for public transportation in cities ? a hike in bus and subway fares in many cities was the original complaint of the protests. She also reiterated her backing for a plan before congress to invest all oil revenue royalties in education and a promise she made earlier to bring in foreign doctors to areas that lack physicians.
"I want institutions that are more transparent, more resistant to wrongdoing," Rousseff said in reference to perceptions of deep corruption in Brazilian politics, which is emerging as a focal point of the protests. "It's citizenship and not economic power that must be heard first."
The leader, a former Marxist rebel who fought against Brazil's 1964-1985 military regime and was imprisoned for three years and tortured by the junta, pointedly referred to earlier sacrifices made to free the nation from dictatorship.
"My generation fought a lot so that the voice of the streets could be heard," Rousseff said. "Many were persecuted, tortured and many died for this. The voice of the street must be heard and respected and it can't be confused with the noise and truculence of some troublemakers."
Edvaldo Chaves, a 61-year-old doorman in Rio's upscale Flamengo neighborhood, said he found the speech convincing.
"I thought she seemed calm and cool. Plus, because she was a guerrilla and was in exile, she talks about the issue of protests convincingly," Chaves said. "I think things are going to calm down. We'll probably keep seeing people in the streets but probably small numbers now."
But Bruna Romao, an 18-year-old store clerk in Sao Paulo, said Rousseff's words probably wouldn't have an impact.
"Brazilians are passionate," she said. "We boil over quickly but also cool down fast. But this time it's different, people are in full revolt. I don't see things calming down anytime soon."
Trying to decipher the president's reaction to the unrest had become a national guessing game, especially after some 1 million anti-government demonstrators took to the streets nationwide Thursday night to denounce everything from poor public services to the billions of dollars spent preparing for next year's World Cup soccer tournament and the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.
The protests continued Friday, as about 1,000 people marched in western Rio de Janeiro city, with some looting stores and invading an enormous $250 million arts center that remains empty after several years of construction. Police tried to disperse the crowd with tear gas as they were pelted with rocks. Police said some in the crowd were armed and firing at officers.
Local radio was also reporting that protesters were heading to the apartment of Rio state Gov. Sergio Cabral in the posh Rio neighborhood of Ipanema.
Other protests broke out in the country's biggest city, Sao Paulo, where traffic was paralyzed but no violence reported, and in Fortaleza in the country's northeast. Demonstrators were calling for more mobilizations in 10 cities on Saturday.
The National Conference of Brazilian Bishops came out in favor of the protests, saying that it maintains "solidarity and support for the demonstrations, as long as they remain peaceful."
"This is a phenomenon involving the Brazilian people and the awakening of a new consciousness," church leaders said in the statement. "The protests show all of us that we cannot live in a country with so much inequality."
Rousseff had never held elected office before she became president in 2011 and remains clearly uncomfortable in the spotlight.
She's the political protege of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a charismatic ex-union leader whose tremendous popularity helped usher his former chief of staff to the country's top office. A career technocrat and trained economist, Rousseff's tough managerial style under Silva earned her the moniker "the Iron Lady," a name she has said she detests.
While Rousseff stayed away from the public eye for most of the week, Roberto Jaguaribe, the nation's ambassador to Britain, told news channel CNN Friday the government was first trying to contain the protests.
He labeled as "very delicate" the myriad demands emanating from protesters in the streets.
"One of our ministers who's dealing with these issues of civil society said that it would be presumptuous on our part to think we know what's taking place," Jaguaribe said. "This is a very dynamic process. We're trying to figure out what's going on because who do we speak to, who are the leaders of the process?"
Marlise Matos, a political science professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, said before Rousseff spoke that answer wasn't good enough.
"The government has to respond, even if the agenda seems unclear and wide open," she said. "It should be the president herself who should come out and provide a response. But I think the government is still making strategic calculations to decide how to respond. What I'd like to see as a response is a call for a referendum on political reform. Let the people decide what kind of political and electoral system we have."
Brazil watchers outside the country were also puzzled by the government's long silence amid the biggest protests in decades, although Peter Hakim, president emeritus at the U.S.-based Inter-American Dialogue think-tank, said he appreciated the complicated political picture, especially with protests flaring in some areas where political opponents to Rousseff hold sway.
Hakim called said that for the government the protests were "a puzzle in the midst of a huge labyrinth maze and she can't figure out the best direction to take."
Carlos Cardozo, a 62-year-old financial consultant who joined Friday's protest in Rio, said he thought the unrest could cost Rousseff next year's elections. Even as recently as last week, Rousseff had enjoyed a 74 percent approval rating in a poll by the business group the National Transport Confederation.
"Her paying lip service by saying she's in favor of the protests is not helping her cause," Cardozo said. "People want to see real action, real decisions, and it's not this government that's capable of delivering."
Social media and mass emails were buzzing with calls for a general strike next week. However, Brazil's two largest nationwide unions, the Central Workers Union and the Union Force, said they knew nothing about such an action, though they do support the protests.
A Thursday night march in Sao Paulo was the first with a strong union presence, as a drum corps led members wearing matching shirts down the city's main avenue. Many protesters have called for a movement with no ties to political parties or unions, which are widely considered corrupt here.
In the absence of such groups, the protests have largely lacked organization or even concrete demands, making a coherent government response nearly impossible. Several cities have cancelled the transit fare hikes that had originally sparked the demonstrations a week ago, but the outrage has only grown more intense.
Demonstrations for Saturday have been called by a group opposing a federal bill that would limit the power of prosecutors to investigate crimes.
The one group behind the reversal of the fare hike, the Free Fare Movement, said it would not call any more protests. However, it wasn't clear what impact that might have on a movement that has moved far beyond its original complaint.
Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota hit back at protesters the morning after his modernist ministry building was attacked by an enraged crowd Thursday night. At one point, smoke had billowed from the building, while demonstrators shattered windows along its perimeter.
Standing before the ministry, Patriota told reporters he "was very angry" that protesters attacked a structure "that represents the search for understanding through dialogue." Patriota called for protesters "to convey their demands peacefully."
Most protesters have been peaceful, and crowds have taken to chanting "No violence! No violence!" when small groups have prepared to burn and smash. The more violent demonstrators have usually taken over once night has fallen.
At least one protester was killed in Sao Paulo state Thursday night when a driver apparently became enraged about being unable to travel along a street and rammed his car into demonstrators. News reports also said a 54-year-old cleaning woman had died Friday after inhaling tear gas the night before while taking cover in a restored trolley car.
The unrest is hitting the nation as it hosts the Confederations Cup soccer tournament, with tens of thousands of foreign visitors in attendance.
___
Barchfield reported from Rio de Janeiro and Brooks from Sao Paulo. Associated Press writers Stan Lehman in Sao Paulo and Jack Chang in Mexico City contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/brazil-leader-breaks-silence-protests-001503729.html
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Saturday, June 22, 2013
Floods kill 3, 75,000 forced from Calgary homes
A police car sits stuck in a parking lot of an apartment building after heavy rains have caused flooding, closed roads, and forced evacuation in Calgary, Alberta, Canada Friday, June 21, 2013. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jeff McIntosh)
A police car sits stuck in a parking lot of an apartment building after heavy rains have caused flooding, closed roads, and forced evacuation in Calgary, Alberta, Canada Friday, June 21, 2013. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jeff McIntosh)
The Bow River overflows in Calgary, Canada on Friday, June 21, 2013. Heavy rains have caused flooding, closed roads, and forced evacuations in Calgary. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jeff McIntosh)
A search and rescue boat carries rescued passengers from a flooded industrial site near highway 543 north of High River, Alberta, Canada on Friday, June 21, 2013. The rescued passengers spent the night moored on a structure they built in the water. Calgary's mayor said Friday the flooding situation in his city is as under control as it can be, for now. Officials estimated 75,000 people have been displaced in the western Canadian city. Mayor Naheed Nenshi said the Elbow River, one of two rivers that flow through the southern Alberta city, has peaked. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jordan Verlage)
Firefighters monitor flood waters that spilled over a highway 543 north of High River, Alberta, Canada on Friday, June 21, 2013. The rescued passengers spent the night moored on a structure they built in the water. Calgary's mayor said Friday the flooding situation in his city is as under control as it can be, for now. Officials estimated 75,000 people have been displaced in the western Canadian city. Mayor Naheed Nenshi said the Elbow River, one of two rivers that flow through the southern Alberta city, has peaked. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jordan Verlage)
A search and rescue boat carries rescued passengers from a flooded industrial site near highway 543 north of High River, Alberta, Canada on Friday, June 21, 2013. The rescued passengers spent the night moored on a structure they built in the water. Calgary's mayor said Friday the flooding situation in his city is as under control as it can be, for now. Officials estimated 75,000 people have been displaced in the western Canadian city. Mayor Naheed Nenshi said the Elbow River, one of two rivers that flow through the southern Alberta city, has peaked. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jordan Verlage)
CALGARY, Alberta (AP) ? At least three people were killed by floodwaters that devastated much of southern Alberta, leading authorities to evacuate the western Canadian city of Calgary's entire downtown. Inside the city's hockey arena, the waters reached as high as the 10th row.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Friday called the level of flooding "stunning" and said officials don't know yet if it will get worse, but said the water has peaked and stabilized and noted that the weather has gotten better.
Overflowing rivers washed out roads and bridges, soaked homes and turned streets into dirt-brown waterways around southern Alberta. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Patricia Neely told reporters three were dead and two bodies were recovered. The two bodies recovered are the two men who had been seen floating lifeless in the Highwood River near High River on Thursday, she said.
Harper, a Calgary resident, said he never imagined there would be a flood of this magnitude in this part of Canada.
"This is incredible. I've seen a little bit of flooding in Calgary before. I don't think any of us have seen anything like this before. The magnitude is just extraordinary," he said.
"We're all very concerned that if gets much more than this it could have real impact on infrastructure and other services longer term, so we're hoping things will subside a bit."
Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi said the water levels have reached a peak, but have not declined.
"We've sat at the same level for many, many hours now," Nenshi said. "There is one scenario that would it go even higher than this, so you'll either see the Bow river continue at this level for many hours or you will see it grow even higher and we're prepared for that eventuality."
Twenty-five neighborhoods in the city, with an estimated 75,000 people, have already been evacuated due to floodwaters in Calgary, a city of more than a million people that hosted the 1988 Winter Olympics and serves as the center of Canada's oil industry.
Alberta Premier Alison Redford said Medicine Hat, east of Calgary, was under a mandatory evacuation order affecting 10,000 residents. The premier warned that communities downstream of Calgary had not yet felt the full force of the floodwaters.
About 350,000 people work in downtown Calgary on a typical day. However, officials said very few people need to be moved out, since many heeded warnings and did not go to work Friday.
A spokesman for Canada's defense minister said 1,300 soldiers from a base in Edmonton were being deployed to the flood zone.
Police were asking residents who were forced to leave the nearby High River area to register at evacuation shelter. The Town of High River remained under a mandatory evacuation order.
In downtown Calgary, water was inundating homes and businesses in the shadow of skyscrapers. Water has swamped cars and train tracks.
The city said the home rink of the National Hockey League's Calgary Flames flooded and the water inside was 10 rows deep. That would mean the dressing rooms are likely submerged as well.
"I think that really paints a very clear picture of what kinds of volumes of water we are dealing with," said Trevor Daroux, the city's deputy police chief.
At the grounds for the world-famous Calgary Stampede fair, water reached up to the roofs of the chuck wagon barns. The popular rodeo and festival is the city's signature event. Mayor Nenshi said it will occur no matter what.
About 1,500 have gone to emergency shelters while the rest have found shelter with family or friends, Nenshi said.
The flood was forcing emergency plans at the Calgary Zoo, which is situated on an island near where the Elbow and Bow rivers meet. Lions and tigers were being prepared for transfer, if necessary, to prisoner holding cells at the courthouse.
Schools and court trials were canceled Friday and residents urged to avoid downtown. Transit service in the core was shut down.
Residents were left to wander and wade through streets waist-deep in water.
Newlyweds Scott and Marilyn Crowson were ordered out of their central Calgary condominium late Friday as rising waters filled their parking garage and ruptured a nearby gas line. "That's just one building but every building is like this," he said. "For the most part, people are taking it in stride."
Crowson, a kayaker, estimated the Bow River, usually about four feet deep, is running at a depth of 15 feet (4.57 meters).
"It's moving very, very fast," he said of the normally placid stream spanned by now-closed bridges. "I've never seen it so big and so high."
It had been a rainy week throughout much of Alberta, but on Thursday the Bow River Basin was battered with up to four inches (100 millimeters) of rain. Environment Canada's forecast called for more rain in the area, but in much smaller amounts.
Calgary was not alone in its weather-related woes. Flashpoints of chaos spread from towns in the Rockies south to Lethbridge.
___
Associated Press writer Rob Gillies contributed from Toronto and AP writer Jeremy Hainsworth contributed from Vancouver, British Columbia.
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Instagram (for iPhone)
Instagram has become part of the culture, the world mobile culture, that is. So reviewing it is almost academic?hundreds of millions will use it regardless of what I say. Since the last review, Instagram has expanded to include video clips, taking Vine head-on in the video sharing department. Though Instagram has never been much for features?the Snapseed app offers infinitely more control over the look of your photos?it goes the opposite direction with video, giving you more time, some of the editing options Vine left out, and (of course) filters. Like a stubborn weed, Vine will be hard to kill, but Instagram is taking their best shot with this well-thought-out free update for iOS.
If you hate the idea of videos in your filter-festooned Instagram feed, not to worry. There are plenty of clones out there, who are ready to take up the slack. EyeEm is an interesting one with an emphasis on tagging photos for public groups.? Another more recent photo app celeb, Repix, runs with the idea of selectively enhancing just parts of a photo with Instagram-style effects, though it doesn't have its own social network. The Flickr (Free, 4 stars) and Tumblr (Free, 3 stars) iPhone apps also let you take and upload photos to a public photo stream where other users can subscribe to your feed, and can comment on and like your pictures. CloudTalk (Free, 3.5 stars) goes beyond these adding voice messages. Instagram's focus on community is a plus, and the app really can get addictive once you start hopping around among users' uploads.
Signup and Setup
Signing up for Instagram is a lot simpler than it was the last time I reviewed the app: You can just tap the "Use Your Facebook" button to instantly populate all the required fields; alternatively, you can create an account using an email address. You then choose a user name and password. After this, a list of all your Facebook contacts appears, each with a button for following their photos, or you can just hit the "follow all" button. Next the app setup wizard asks to peruse your iPhone contacts to find more users to follow. For those with no contacts, you're shown some popular accounts complete with sample images for your following consideration.
In a Twitter-like setup you click a button to "follow" other users. After finding and choosing folks to follow, the app suggested celebrities and the like for me to add?Rosie O'Donnell, Foo Fighters, and NPR were presented for my consideration. Each of these showed four rotating image thumbnails, in a pleasant UI touch.
Shooting with Instagram
One of Instagram's coolest features was removed when the app was updated for the iPhone 5: You used to be able to show the enhancement filters while you were shooting, but now can only apply them after the fact. Perhaps the company got feedback that this feature wasn't used much or was confusing. An email sent to Instagram representatives on this still awaits an answer.
Unlike Camera+, the camera view in Instagram doesn't add much to the default iPhone camera app?in fact, you lose a couple of options, including HDR and panorama. You do still get to choose a focus-and-exposure point by tapping on a point on the screen image, and you can show a 3x3 grid, change the flash setting, and switch between back and front cameras. Once you've snapped the shutter, you'll see Instagram's trademark style and effect filter options along the bottom.
You also can rotate the image, add a frame (matched to the filter you choose), auto-adjust lighting (a feature called Lux, not available on Android), or choose a selective focus point. This last may be the coolest feature, since it lets your little phone cam simulate the bokeh effect so beloved among photo enthusiasts. A lighter circle follows your finger as you choose the focus point; you can also enlarge or shrink it with two-finger pinch gesture. A linear focus area appears when you tap the drop icon again, for that popular tilt-shift miniaturization effect, which is also nicely customizable with pinching and rotating gestures.
One missing capability when shooting from the app is that re-framing is not possible unless you go back and reload the image from your Camera roll. This is important, because Instagram still restricts you to the square image that fits on the phone, so viewers can't zoom in for a closer look.
There are 19 effect filters in all, ranging from simple B&W to retro film styles to techniques like cross processing. A great infographic about many of the filter's derivation can be seen at 1000memories.com. PCMag has also published another intriguing infographic called What Your Instagram Filters Say About You, which shows, surprisingly, that the most popular filter is no filter at all! I vacillate between finding the artistic/retro filters pretentious and appealing. There are definitely cases where a pedestrian image has been given interest with them.
Sharing Your "Art"
After you've tweaked the image to your taste, you decide how and where to share. You get a choice of enabling the iPhone's geotag, sharing to Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Tumblr, Foursquare. Posterous is no more a built-in option, with Twitter closing it down after purchasing the social network. You can still, as with every app that creates image, simply share your photographic creation to a friend's email. The recipient needn't have an Instagram account to view the photo, but when I tested this, I got a bard JPG link, with no liking or commenting capabilities.
Back in the iPhone app's feed of uploaded photos from your contacts, you can view popular images, or just news about who uploaded or commented. I still wish you could zoom into fuller size photos instead of being restricted to the partial screen squares. Profile pages now let you view a user's photos in "full size" squares as well as in a grid of small thumbnails, and each has a map for geo A Twitter-like profile page shows how many users are following you and vice versa. In all, the interface isn't especially slick: no one's going to confuse it for an Apple-created app. But it's clear enough, apparently going for a folksy, low-res look.
You can set your photo stream to private, so that only users you approve can see it, but there's no private messaging. Like Tumblr (which lets you post video, audio, texts, and links as well as photos) Instagram isn't about messaging, but rather a stream of socially connected images. Still, a private messaging option wouldn't hurt. Path, another mobile photo-sharing app, has the opposite problem: It doesn't let you view photos of anyone you haven't connected with.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/Jg3F5Z5wTgM/0,2817,2387146,00.asp
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Spring cleaning giveaway round 2 winners
My office is finally a bit more manageable, and I can see my desk. Thanks everyone for participating in the giveaways, it really does make us feel better to know that this stuff is going to people who will use and appreciate it instead of it just laying around.
We promised a list of the winners, and now that everyone has been contacted and responded, here it is!
- Winner of the Archos Gamepad -- Obi Wannabe
- Winner of the HTC Media Link HD -- canito
- Winner of the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 -- The Peanut Master
- Winner of the Nexus 4 -- spinnerfarm
- Winner of the Sony Google TV box -- gabbot
Congrats guys, I'll be sending your stuff out shortly. Hope you enjoy it all as much as I have.
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/FUTUdF5miZE/story01.htm
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Friday, June 21, 2013
Obama's cold calculation on global warming
Hundreds of existing coal-burning plants could be shut down under expected EPA rules aimed at curbing climate change. But such action must be accompanied by Obama appealing directly to people in coal-dependent states who would be making the big sacrifices.
Southern Company's Plant Bowen in Cartersville, Georgia is seen in this 2007 aerial photograph.
Reuters
EnlargeAs president, Barack Obama has never visited North Dakota. Does that matter? Yes, if he now acts to effectively shut down hundreds of coal-burning power plants, a regulatory move that officials say is only days away.
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In 2010, North Dakota generated 82 percent of its electricity from coal. Many other states, from Wyoming to Kentucky, rely heavily on coal for either energy or jobs. In 15 states, at least half of the power comes from coal. To be sure, they are among the worst contributors to global warming.
Yet people in these states would be forced to make the largest personal sacrifice in Mr. Obama?s plan to dethrone ?king coal? and help the United States be a leader in curbing climate change.
The president should now visit those places heavily dependent on coal and try better persuasion. This would be smart politics to avoid the blocking tactics of both Democratic and Republican leaders from those states. But it would also address on a personal level the fact that Americans in general remain resistant to the sacrifices needed for drastic reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions.
Five years ago, for example, 48 percent of Americans said their personal actions on energy use would significantly reduce their contribution to global warming; that figure has since dropped to 31 percent, according to the latest survey by Yale and George Mason universities.
Such trends show Obama has work to do. And those states most dependent on fossil fuels are most in need of being convinced of their common bond to the rest of humanity and to future generations. Environmental action relies more on individuals than government to see themselves in a wider, even global community and accept the discipline and sacrifice needed to protect the planet.
That may sound a bit corny, but the main tactic of climate-change activists ? stoking fear ? hasn?t worked very well over the past quarter century. And appeals that rely on scientific predictions of temperature increases and to economic self-interest have also shown their limits.
Obama blames Congress for not requiring the existing coal plants to end carbon emissions into the atmosphere ? a requirement that is unfeasible with current commercial technology. He has long threatened to take executive action. Indeed White House officials said this week the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will soon issue regulations on existing plants.
Such tough emission rules will probably face a long battle in the courts with suits filed by coal-dependent states ? whether their governors are Democratic or Republican. Kansas, Montana, and West Virginia have already advised the Supreme Court that the EPA is abusing its authority under the Clean Air Act.
Heather Zichal, the White House coordinator for energy and climate change, says Obama has made action on climate change a ?legacy issue? for his second term. If so, he needs to do more than give speeches on global warming in Washington or, as he did this week, in Berlin.
?Peace with justice means refusing to condemn our children to a harsher, less hospitable planet,? he told the Germans. Now he needs to look North Dakotans in the eye and convince them of the need for heart-felt responsibility ? and sacrifice ? for the rest of the world.
Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/4EdeeUjuWOA/Obama-s-cold-calculation-on-global-warming
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Zombies gained speed, may now get smart
Movies 
1 hour ago
In Brad Pitt's new movie, "World War Z," a soldier gives Pitt's character the lowdown on their undead opponent: Bullets to the body only slow them down, though head shots kill them. They sometimes ooze a kind of black tarry substance, and they love biting humans "like fat kids love Twix." And as filmgoers watch, they discover that these zombies can hear a Pepsi can drop a mile away, tackle like a Dallas Cowboy in the Super Bowl, are willing to fling themselves off skyscrapers and over giant walls, and are smart enough to use the bodies of their fellow undead as a ladder to clamber toward their human targets.
Uncredited / AP
Zombies generally don't work together, but in "World War Z," they use each other's undead bodies to form a ladder to get over a wall to eat humans.
These are not your grandfather's zombies.
Moviegoers have seen the undead evolve in a thousand gruesome rotting ways since the creatures of 1932's "White Zombie" were docile enough to work in a sugar plantation. George A. Romero took the creature -- which he called a "ghoul," not a "zombie" -- to a whole new level in 1968's classic "Night of the Living Dead," making them totter out of graves to munch on the living. And from then on, Hollywood was off, shambling down a rotting cinematic pathway littered with discarded body parts and ever-evolving zombie lore.
Zombies stayed about as fast as your walker-using Aunt Fannie until the 2002 release of "28 Days Later." Purists will tell you that the infected in that film weren't dead, so are not technically zombies. But no matter, they still introduced the public to the idea of fast movie zombies who no longer staggered after you like a drunk uncle, but match Pittsburgh Steeler Hines Ward (who played a zombie on AMC's "Walking Dead") for speediness.
"I do think that if you had to be bitten by slow movers to turn, you could avoid them and eventually defeat them," said Cal Miller, author of numerous zombie books and zombie comic strip TedDead. " It would be like fighting an army of senior citizens. The fast ones are just horrifying to me. They?ll run you down."
Jaap Buitendijk / AP
Brad Pitt gets knocked over by a swarm of fast-moving zombies in "World War Z."
The zombie diet has changed along with their speed. In the Romero film trilogy, zombies would munch on any part of a living human, from scalp to sole. But in 1985's "Return of the Living Dead" -- not a Romero film -- it's said that the zombies specifically consume the brains of the living because only that soothes the pain of being dead. That film explanation led to the popularization of the ever-popular "BRAAAAAINS!" quote so many associate with the living dead.
"Most people's knowledge of the zombie genre seems to be a bit limited," Miller said. "You say 'zombies' and they answer 'brainzzzzz,' But that was pretty much just in the 'Return of the Living Dead' movies/books. You try and explain that zombies eat the whole body and, well, unfamiliar people get either intrigued or grossed out."
Miller finds the brain-eating cliche a bit odd. "Human teeth can't bite through a skull," he said. "Zombies really go for the easy spots. Arms, legs, neck, belly."
Jaap Buitendijk / AP
In "World War Z," Brad Pitt arms himself with an axe because any sound, including gunshots, draws the attention of the undead.
Mac Montandon, author of "The Proper Care and Feeding of Zombies," thinks zombies are resourceful when it comes to dining. "In my book, I point out that the zombie diet is not that far off from the Inuits, indigenous peoples of the Arctic region," he said. "I think that, paradoxically, when it comes down to it, zombies have a really clever survival mechanism that kicks in -- meaning if they had to eat, say, someone's elbow to go on not living, they would."
Zombies were once human, and movies differ on whether their intelligence or humanity still exists once they're undead. In 2004, "Shaun of the Dead" played a zombie invasion for laughs, and in 2013's "Warm Bodies," a zombie actually falls in love with a human.
"Zombies are not funny," said Montandon. "But 'Shaun of the Dead' was. In terms of ('Warm Bodies') human-zombie romance, that seems like much less of a stretch than a human-Tom Cruise romance."
Even the way to kill a zombie isn't agreed on by all moviemakers. It's generally agreed that a head injury must be involved, specifically something that destroys the undead brain. Some require zombie bodies to be burned, but in "World War Z," the fingers of a zombie that's been burned almost to solid ash are still shown to wiggle.
"The head can live if cut off at the neck," said Miller. "A personal pet peeve of mine, however, is when a disembodied head groans. No diaphragm, no lungs, no airflow, no groan."
As long as zombie movies continue to make money, the creatures will doubtlessly continue to evolve on film.
"I think zombies are ready for their 'Coneheads' moment," said Montandon, referring to the "Saturday Night Live" aliens who claimed to be French. "That is, they already have so many human characteristics, it's not hard to see them passing as humans in a suburb of Chicago, for instance."
Miller's novel, "Het Madden: A Zombie Perspective," is written from the point of view of an intelligent zombie, and he believes smart zombies will be the next wave.
"I feel there have to be smart and dumb zombies, like smart and dumb people," Miller said. "The smart ones lurk and plan. They don't walk into machetes."
Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/entertainment/movie-zombies-have-staggered-slow-fast-smart-next-6C10370274
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Life of Joy - This article is brilliant. Success feels like joy.
From Karen, of course.
http://lissarankin.com/defining-success-o
This woman is singing to me.? Yes!? This is very close to what I want.? Here's an excerpt:
"Success looks like feeling how I want to feel.?
My core desired feelings (hat tip to Danielle?s LaPorte?s Firestarter Sessions) are to feel connected, influential, generous, and easeful. Every opportunity that comes my way ? even ones others might deem ?successful? ? gets screened through that filter. Will it make me feel connected to loved ones and Source? Will it lend me influence so others will hear my message, and if I shine a spotlight on other people doing great work in the world, will people listen? Will it allow me to take all my friends out to dinner and when the bill comes, say ?It?s on me?? And most importantly, will it feel graceful, effortless, eggy and playful?
Success looks like making the world a better place.
I dream of healing health care, opening hearts, training doctors to reclaim their true nature as healers, helping people tap into the truth of their Inner Pilot Lights, inspiring them to cleanse their bodies, minds, and souls, helping people find their callings, aiding visionaries who long to change the world, mentoring those who will help me make the world a better place in their own unique way, writing and speaking about what matters to me, and raising funds for charities I support.
Success looks like following a calling and fulfilling a mission.
After years of floundering around, I now know what I?m here on this earth to do, and I will devote myself to serving that calling ? but only on my terms. Success does not look like writing New York Times bestselling books, reaching millions of people with my message, influencing how people think and act, and fulfilling a dream, only to realize I?ve missed the whole point.
Success looks like prioritizing those I love above achievement.
Last year, I turned down the opportunity to appear on Good Morning America because I had been away from my daughter all week, promising I?d be all hers during her Spring Break. Then Good Morning America called the day before our ski trip and asked me to fly to New York. I said no. My daughter is more important.
Success looks like living from a place of trust, not fear.
I don?t want to say ?Yes? just because I?m afraid it?s my one and only shot.? I want to trust that if saying yes requires me to sacrifice my priorities, the opportunity will arise at some future point, God willing.? Good Morning America never did call me back (yet), but I don?t have a single regret.
Success looks like making room for self care in my life.
Almost every day, I hike or do yoga. I meditate for 20-30 minutes. I drink 4-5 green juices per day.? I treat myself to spa days and retreats at hot springs resorts. I devote whole days to being with friends in my inner circle. I prioritize quality time and physical intimacy with my husband.? I read with my daughter. I take long baths. I get pedicures. I won?t sacrifice these things for any amount of money, fame, or kudos. Period.
Success looks like allowing myself to be a vessel for Divine work in the world.
Success is not unbridled ambition. It?s allowing myself to be used, to be of service, to fully self-actualize, to lift up my gifts and talents so they may be utilized for Divine work in the world. When I first met Martha Beck, she said, with delight in her voice, ?You?re one of us ? a stealth agent for God!? If I am, that looks like success to me.
Success looks like spending a lot of time in nature.
I already live in a small coastal town in the San Francisco Bay area in West Marin County, where the mountains and the redwoods meet the ocean. Success does not look like being on airplanes too much or stuck in big cities or inside closed walls all the time, tied to a computer. Success looks like dancing under a full moon, skiing down a mountain slope, wading in the crystalline waters of a Bali beach, soaking in hot springs under the stars, and frolicking in fields of wildflowers.
Success looks like deep intimacy.
I?m not satisfied with lots of superficial relationships. I?d rather have a smaller number of super intimate ones. I value being brave enough to be vulnerable with the precious beings in my inner circle. I treasure the talks I have with my seven year old about how she used to be a fairy and why she decided to choose me as her Mama. I cherish the deep inner work I do with my mentoring clients and the doctors in the Whole Health Medicine Institute. When I get to witness the Inner Pilot Lights of others and have my Inner Pilot Light witnessed in return, I feel whole.
Success looks like staying in integrity with myself.
I recognize that integrity is very personal, and it?s never black and white.? I view it as a spectrum from 0% integrity to 100% integrity, with 0 being ?total sell out? and 100 being ?impeccable integrity.? Success looks like staying mostly over 80% aligned with my own unique definition of integrity and never, ever going below 50%.
Success looks like easeful, graceful, eggy financial abundance.
I spent too many years giving until I was depleted, failing to value myself enough or set clear enough boundaries to charge what my time was worth. Then I declared to fill myself first and everything shifted. Now, the comfortable income I generate allows me to be generous with others (back to one of my core desired feelings.) And it allows my husband and I freedom from anxiety about how the bills will get paid and how I?ll continue to fund the work I do at no cost in the world through the Daily Flame, my blog, and OwningPink.com.
But I?m no longer willing to ?sperm? my way to financial abundance. If it doesn?t flow in easily, it?s not meant to be mine. And I?m unwilling to push, strive or strong arm my way to ?make it happen? anymore. Nope. That?s not success on my terms. On my terms, money flows in generously and effortlessly, and the more I believe this, the more the Universe conspires to prove to me that it?s true.
Success looks like being sovereign.
Nobody owns me. I am never a victim of my circumstances. I have no right to bitch and moan about anything in my life ? ever ? because I always get to choose how I respond to my circumstances, even if my circumstances are beyond my control. I am responsible for and in charge of my life, even as I cede control to the Universe (my choice to let go of the reins and trust.) Success looks like owning my choices and claiming my life as my own. Success does not look like being a prima donna, but it does look like being brave enough to stand before those who might think they know what success looks like more than I do ? and to stay true to who I am and what I care about.
Success looks like beauty.
I love creating beautiful art, surrounding myself with beautiful design, wearing beautiful clothes, immersing myself in the beauty of nature, relishing the beauty of gourmet food arranged beautifully on a plate, and living in a beautiful home. Life is to be relished, savored, appreciated.
Success looks like being a student for life.
If I ever think I?ve learned all there is to learn, I?ve stopped being successful. I will be taking workshops, reading books, studying, and satisfying the kind of intense curiosity that led me to research and write Mind Over Medicine for the rest of my successful life. As I write this, I?m on an airplane, heading to New York City to speak at the Hay House I Can Do It Ignite conference with inspirational colleagues like Wayne Dyer, Louise Hay, Cheryl Richardson, Doreen Virtue, Kris Carr, Gabrielle Bernstein, and Anita Moorjani. These people are my teachers in this course called life. Success looks like surrounding myself with inspiring people.
Success looks like fully self-actualizing.
No longer will I wear masks, pretending to be something I?m not so I?ll appear perfect to others. Success looks like being unapologetically ME, even as I strive for continual self-improvement. Success look like fully expressing my gifts in the world, being authentic, and being brave enough to be completely vulnerable and imperfect with those I trust.
Success looks sexy.
Success doesn?t require that I sell out the sexy and feminine within me in order to appear ?professional.? In fact, success embraces all the fluid, curvy, hip-swaying, pole-dancing, bump-and-grinding, skinny-dipping, thigh-high boot-wearing parts of me.
Success looks like FUN.
My old story ? success looks like sacrifice. My new story ? success is FUN and playful. Success involves a great deal of pleasure, laughter, touch, good food, adventures, and checking things off my bucket list. Hot air ballooning, here I come!
Success looks like inner peace.
No matter how many generous acts I perform, no matter how much I make the world a better place, no matter how much money I earn or how much fame I achieve, no matter how many people I love, who love me in return, it doesn?t really matter if I?m plagued with turmoil.? Success looks like freedom, wisdom, and deep abiding joy."
Source: http://sabrinamari.livejournal.com/1065283.html
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Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Google announces Chromebooks are coming to more retailers around the world
Sure, you can already snag one of those Chromebooks from places such as Amazon, Best Buy and Google's own Play shop. But, starting today, the Mountain View-based company is making various Chrome OS-sporting laptops available at more retailers around the globe -- over 6,600, to be specific. Google says the likes of Walmart and Staples will now have a selection of Chromebooks up for grabs, while Office Depot, Office Max and Fry's are expected to do the same "in the coming months." For those across the pond, you can expect to find some of Google's laptops at Dixon retailers in the UK, as well as Mediamarket, FNAC and Elgiganten stores in the Netherlands, France and Sweden, respectively. All in all, this is definitely a good thing for Google's plan to get its Chromebook machines in as many locations as possible.
Source: Google
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/nK8-yaewrkQ/
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